Amen. Hey, what's going on? Alex here. Welcome to some random spot on the side of the road that I found.

I want to talk to you about seeking God and truly living. Matthew 13, verse 45 says,

A merchant in search of fine pearls. Now this is a little piece of a whole parable that Jesus is

talking to us about when it comes to what is the kingdom of God and how do people get into the

kingdom of God. But when Jesus uses an example of a merchant, he's telling us something about

identity. We went to the park earlier this week and my kids were kind of bored and there was

another kid there that was by himself. His parents were there, but he had no other siblings

there playing with him and so he was kind of wandering around the park and I noticed that

his parents were just trying to like have some alone time and just talk and figure out their

flight and stuff like that. And I said, hey, you know, you want to play with my boys? They're

looking for someone to play with. And so I was like, why don't you guys put hide and seek? And

they just did, like right away. They didn't have to think about it. The kid introduced

himself. My kids introduced themselves back. And an hour and a half half later they were still playing and they were still having a blast with each other.

And I thought about how kids are made with this innate desire to want to play hide and seek. Like it's one of the earliest games in childhood and it's because all of us know that we're looking for something. All of us are

seeking something. And we know that we have to seek in order to find what is hidden. Now, what's so

important about seeking is that it reveals who we are. And in this video, I want to tell you

three things. Number one, our need to seek, our problem with seeking,

and then lastly, the solution to seeking the right things. In Matthew 1345, when Jesus says,

a merchant is searching for fine pearls, finds the pearl of great worth, sells all his pearls,

and buys that one pearl, he's likening it to a person

in search of the kingdom of heaven. And after they've looked all over the place, all over the world,

at different religions, different professions, they find it in God. Now, why does he say a merchant?

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