Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers

In this talk, join Levi Lusko as he unpacks the enormous truth found in one of the shortest parables Jesus ever told. He helps us see that the hidden treasure is never-ending and we will never come to the end of God beckoning us to go all in.

In 323 BC, Alexander the Great wept at the age of 32 at the height of his success. At this point, he had swept across the known world, conquering everything in his path. He called himself the King of Kings and the Son of God. On one of his conquests to take over Tyre, he spared the people because as he was entering, a priest met him with the book of Daniel, in which, 300 years before, Alexander had been prophesied about in chapters 2, 8, and 11. He read about himself having great dominion. However, these prophesies only served to feed and fuel his massive ego. He had always considered himself to be someone special. He lived a lavish life of royalty, yet the more successful he became, the more insatiable his appetite grew. He became increasingly reckless and demanded worship of his subjects. Shortly before his abrupt young death, he wept because he knew there were infinite worlds, and he only got to be lord over one. He had also murdered a faithful friend and wept tears of remorse and regret over that act. How had he come to that point?

All of us will have a moment when we feel more life behind us than in front of us. This anxiety and apathy don’t just happen during midlife; it can happen as a later-life or quarter-life crisis. Transitions are uncomfortable. You can feel like you’ve lost your purpose, like you’re falling behind or lost.

Jesus has the answer to this sense of disorientation.

In Matthew 13:44, Jesus tells a parable about a man who was digging in a field and was filled with joy when he found a hidden treasure. He hid it, left to sell everything, and then came back to buy the field so he could have the treasure. Jesus is proving how it is “on earth as it is in Heaven.” Jesus said in Matthew 10:39 that He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for His sake will find it. Therefore, finders weepers, losers keepers.

Finding yourself is to be the byproduct of seeking God. To seek yourself will turn you into a monster, just as it did Alexander. Yet, if you deny yourself and pick up your cross, you will find your true life, and what you find you will keep forever.

This parable shows us a whole-hearted response to what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like. When Jesus lived, there weren’t really banks, so you would have to bury your wealth. The way the law worked was when you owned the land, you owned everything in the land as well. So when the man in the parable, working someone else’s land, discovered the treasure, he hid it again and then sold everything so he could buy the land that had the treasure in it. How many times had he walked by that land? How many times had it been right under his feet? That’s the Kingdom of Heaven; it’s Heaven hidden in the earth. It never looks like what you think. The things of this earth bring death. The simplicity of Jesus brings life.

The man probably liked his life before this moment, but when compared to the true treasure, he realized everything he had was a barrier to what he actually didn’t know he needed. So, he sold everything to gain what could not be lost. It’s never a one-time transaction, it will be a lifetime of continually digging and finding new treasure. God will give you new things. You have to be aware that the blessing of God in your life can begin to take the place of God in your life. These blessings need to be “sold” again so you can go all in again. There’s always more treasure in the gospel.

How can you continue to dig up the treasure of God?

Understand the season you are in and the one you are heading into. Life is made up of three phases. The first is the container, the second is filling the container, and the third is preparing to give the container and the contents away.

Connect the dots. There are going to be things from your childhood that are going to set up patterns in your life that are going to affect your future. Connect the dots on your behavior because only Jesus can heal your wounds. You can’t heal what’s not been revealed.

Recalibrate your scoreboard. In the first half of life, we think in terms of “bigness.” In the second half, we are less focused on what we get to do and more focused on what doors we can open for others and help them grow.

Be kind; you’ve never been here before. Don’t put pressure on yourself that God never did. Interpret your struggle accurately. You’ll get your feet under you. Keep going back to the field; the treasure will cone. You can turn a defeat into a strength.

Anchor your identity in what can’t be taken away. What makes you, you? If what makes you you can be taken away from you, it’s vulnerable. If how you see you comes from something you do, be careful. Life crisis, no matter what the stage, stems from our failure to grasp that our citizenship is in Heaven and our identity is in Jesus. When Paul was older, he didn’t panic; he said he was being renewed inwardly. He kept digging.

Alexander should have kept reading the end of the prophecy because Daniel 11 foretold his kingdom crumbling. Everything he had was stolen and cut down by those closest to him. Ironically, they learned how to do this from him.

2000 years ago, a man in his 30’s wept. This man is the true King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the ruler of infinite worlds who came to this one to save us from ourselves. Jesus came to crush the kingdoms of man. He offers true freedom and treasure through surrender. He invites us to return to the treasure and keep digging. You’re never going to get to the end of it. The true treasure is Him.