Jesus is the pearl of the greatest prize. He’s the treasure you will sell everything to get.

See through this episode just how to find your treasure, Jesus. See what it looks like to live with Him in the driver seat of your life. He’s the God where we find our supreme happiness.

welcome to treasures and the storms. Today my name is Cindy schmidler and today we’re gonna be
talking about something so foundational to our faith. So I want you to grab your coffee and your bible,
get a pen. So because you’re gonna want to take some notes and we’re gonna get started. I’m gonna
pray for us. I’m going to share a few scriptures and some practical of what this looks like in our life. So
let me begin by praying for us. Dear heavenly father Lord, I thank you God that you are in charge of our
lives. I thank you that you care about all the details of our lives that you love to have relationships that
you created us for this relationship with you Lord, I’m so grateful for that and my audience to Lord May.
You draw us into, you may you bring us close to you as we look at the scriptures and we study together
to get to know more about who you are and how much you love us. I pray that in jesus name. So today,
like I said, we’re gonna be talking about a great foundation, We’re gonna build something that’s going to
be so strong for our faith for the long term and we’re trusting God is gonna give it to us today. I think of
a friend of mine who years ago came to me one day she did not know jesus. She had been studying all
over the world, different gods that you know, trying to find what would bring, what is gonna be the best
God, the one that’s going to bring her the most happiness. And she traveled and traveled and then she
came to me one day and she said Cindy, I want to know about your God jesus. And I was so thrilled to
tell her honestly I was without words because jesus is so magnificent. He’s so worth it. That it’s hard to
even think about how to express who he is. I did tell her, I said look I said this road that you’re on of
getting to know jesus, it is gonna be everything, it is going to mean everything to you. There’s a scripture
in the bible are love letter from God. This is our love letter from God it’s in Matthew Matthew chapter
13 read with me versus 44 Listen to this, this is what it’s like to get to know jesus, okay, it says the
Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again. And then in
his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field. It is so worth it to get to know Jesus that
when you do you want to sell everything and buy that field by that Jesus because it means everything to
you. There’s another thing in verse 45 it says and again the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking
for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had to buy that
pearl, that’s what it’s like. It’s such, that gem of jesus is so precious and that’s why you want to spend all
of your life getting to know him. The best way to get to know him is to get in his word, his love letter
that he gave to us because it reveals who he is yesterday, today and tomorrow. And it also so many
people in the scriptures we get to know and we know how jesus interacted with them, which is how he
interacts with us. So I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for this gal who is so interested in knowing and
trying to find out who jesus is. You know, the bible says that when you draw near to him he’s gonna
draw near to you and I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful that it’s not too hard and that he desires, you
know, he created every cell in your body, every cell in my body. And do you know that those cells in our
body. This is so interesting. Science tells us in the center of a cell is something called laminate, It’s the
glue of the cell, it’s in the mitochondria of the cell. This is all science. And do you know that the structure
of that glue, that lamin in is an actual cross. So jesus in every detail of all of our lives is working. Oh it’s
just amazing and a good picture of knowing who he is is looking at David, we’re gonna look at psalm
three. So, if you go there with me to some three, we’re gonna look at David’s life Now in this psalm,
when he wrote this song, his his son, Absalon was trying to kill him. So imagine how he was feeling his
own son was out to take his life. And we see a picture of what it’s like, his relationship with God in the
midst of all of this and we want to take that because we want to apply that to the storms of our life. And
so look at some three with me, it says, and this is David who wrote this Lord, how many are my foes?

How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him, but you Lord are a
shield around me. So he knows he knows he has this relationship with God and he knows that he will
protect him in the midst of these horrible circumstances, coming at him and that’s what we want that
for our lives to my glory. The one who lifts up my head, that’s who jesus is I call out to the Lord and he
answers me from his holy mountain, I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the Lord sustains me, I
will not fear though, tens of thousands assail me on every side. I don’t know about you, but there are
days that I feel like tens of thousands are assailing me from every side, but like David, we’re getting to
know the Lord God and we’re getting to know how he holds us with his fatherly hands, How he can’t
wait to come and deliver us in the midst of our storms. But what happens with us, just like me in our
circumstances, we get overwhelmed, we get there like a tsunami coming over us and that overtakes
everything. Every thought in our mind and what we, what we need is to get back into what is God saying
to me because he wants to speak to us. And one of the main ways he speaks to us is in this word, this
active, living, breathing word that he’s given to us. And it goes on to say in verse seven a rise. Lord
deliver me. My God, strike all my enemies on the job, Break the teeth of the wicked. So strong language
there, I don’t know that I would use that language, but in the midst of what’s going on with him, you can
only imagine So verse eight from the Lord comes deliverance, may your blessings beyond your people.
So he understands he understands that the Lord God will bless him in the midst of what he’s going
through right now, in the midst of this trial, in the midst of this, we’ll call it hell on earth, that he is
running from God is going to show up and this is the God that he knows Romans 8 28 says. And we know
that in all things what things? Every single thing that God works it out for the good of those who love
him. That’s a great um promise to put on when you’re struggling when uh everything assails you from
every end, whatever is going on in your life today, you can grab hold of that. That’s how intimate God
wants to be with us. That’s how real he wants to be. He wants us to experience him. He is the God of
this book. He wrote this book as a love letter to us and he is the God of this book. So think about that. So
we want to be about opening our bibles because we want to know him. We want to know him like
David, don’t we? I know I do. And everything in our lives flows from knowing how much he loves us and
cares for us. The best thing that we can do in our lives is um find out how much he loves us. Some
people talk about sin and it’s so important. We want to clean ourselves from our sin, but everything
flows when we know how much he loves us. We want to be pure. We want to be clean, don’t we? And
do you know that all of your days and all of my days are already written in God’s book. Imagine that all
of our days are already in his book, wow before one of them came to be so before you and I were born,
God knew us and he has plans and purposes for us. And if you need him to show up in your struggle, he
is a call away. All you have to do is call out to him and he can’t wait to come and meet you. I remember
my wonderful husband john and I, I had been leading bible study, I’ve been leading bible studies for
years for many years and I was in one of my bible studies and a beautiful woman came into study and
she ended up having liver cancer and a really serious liver cancer and she was such a trooper and she
was grabbing hold of God with everything in her. And as she was doing that, you could see her faith
grow and her trust and belief in the midst of this life threatening disease. And if you’ve had or know
somebody who has had cancer, a life threatening cancer. It is very scary, isn’t it? We hear that word
cancer and it’s very scary. And I remember hearing that she had been in the hospital and I said to john, I
said honey, we got to go see her, Let’s go see her. You just want to be there. You just want to help
people when they’re struggling like that And I want you to know today, my audience that I pray for you, I

want you to know that you are prayed for today, just take that and put that in your mind and remind
yourself that somebody out there cares about you, if you’re feeling alone today, somebody cares about
you and so her name is Susan, this gal and so we went up to see Susan and really not knowing what we
were going to say, but as the bible says, don’t worry about what you’re gonna say for God’s gonna be
speaking if jesus is in you, if you’ve put him in the driver’s seat of your life, you know you’ve said no to
yourself, being in that driver’s seat and you’ve put him in the driver’s seat and you say God I want you
and the driver’s seat of my life then that holy spirit lives in you and the bible says that’s actually better
than when jesus was walking on the earth, think about that, that’s pretty incredible isn’t it? And so not
knowing what we were going to say to her knowing that she was really struggling, that this might be the
end for her, we went in because that’s what God calls us to, he says, just go, I’ll take care of it, your job is
to just go and so we went to her hospital room and she was so frail laying in that hospital, never forget
it, it’s sitting in the forefront of my mind and she’s all curled up totally in her right mind. And we came in
and she smiled when she saw me. We became very close. I was her spiritual mentor at that time. Having
had been through cancer myself. I think there was a connection there that she felt. Oh, by the way, God
takes care of all that too. So don’t ever feel like you’re alone. God has his angels and his people all
around taking care of you. And so we go in John and I go in and God put on John’s heart to open the
psalm 34 and I just want to take us there. Can you go with me to some 34 in your bible? Look for some
34 And let’s look at this together. These are some of the words that the ward through john gave to
Susan as she was laying in the hospital, literally on her deathbed And it says it’s starting. I’m going to
start at 1st 4. Ready. I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all of my fears. How
many of her fears? All of her fears! Those who looked at that to him are radiant. Their faces are never
covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him and he saved him out of all of his
troubles. How many of his troubles! All of his troubles! The Angel of the Lord in camps around those
who fear him and he delivers them taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the one who takes
refuge in him? I just have to go on one more verse. Fear the Lord. You holy people, for those who fear
him lack nothing. And as as john read that to her and I watched her laying in that hospital room, I could
see her um countenance change from fearfulness to a peace that passes all understanding. And that’s
what God does. He does it through his people. He does it through his word. He’ll do it through a
message that you might hear at church. So keep that in your mind as you’re thinking and you may be
struggling today. Keep that in your mind. Maybe get your bible open. I want to take you to another of
my favorite passage. This is a lifelong passage. This is psalm 1 39. Let’s go there together. Hang on, grab
hold, put your seatbelt on. We’re going someone 39. And this I shared with you, it says 16. Your eyes
saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them
came to be so your day today, my friend, My date today is already written in God’s book. And so I want
you to remember that. I want you to think about that. I want you to remember who’s holding you with
their fatherly capable hands. There’s nobody. What if you knew that somebody could take care of you
better than anybody else in the world? They were so able to take care of you. And what if you knew that
they loved you more than anybody on this earth loves you? Think of the person who you know loves you
so much. They love you more than that. What if you knew that for sure? Would that not bring you such
a calmness and a confidence and a piece like Susan Lane in that hospital bed received that communist?
But Lord brings that he will bring it to you. We just need to put it on, don’t we? And after we were done,
we prayed over her and we left that day. And you know, not only did she feel so much better, We felt

better. Why? Because we were on the Lord’s work that day and we knew it. And God used us. We have
no ability in our own strength. God used us to make that so um helpful and hopeful he used us to
strengthen her. I I think of you know when my own life and you’ll hear in other shows that I do when my
life was really being held in my hand and when God revealed himself, there’s nothing greater than that.
Nothing. Some 37 says take delight in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. See, we
have to get ourselves in him and we have to get following him and as we do he he can’t wait to bless us.
He can’t wait to give us the desires of our heart. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want him? Who is most
able to give you the desires of your heart. I remember uh John and I were in cambodia and um in some
very poor areas of cambodia and I remember john was sharing with one of the Cambodian people
through an interpreter that he wanted to tell them about, jesus why? Because when you have jesus,
when you know, jesus, you can’t wait for others to know. You want everyone to know him like you do. If
they could just know him like you do. Uh My goal in life is that you would know, jesus, like I know Jesus
just get that far and it’s not that far. I have a long way to go. But if you could just get there, you could,
you could feel that piece that passes all understanding when you’re storm of life comes and then you’re
standing full. So this woman in cambodia, john was talking to her about jesus and she said, oh I’ve heard
about him, I’ve heard about that God. And you know what? He’s the god of donuts, he’s you you can’t
do this and you can’t do that. Mhm. Everything is a no. And we’re like, we were horrified to hear that.
That’s what she thought when it’s the exact opposite. He’s the god of dues. He’s the God, That’s going to
give you everything that you ever wanted. Honestly. The things he’s not gonna give you. Uh although he
might, he’s not going to give you tons of money and luxury and all of that. But he’ll give you something
greater. He will give you peace and happiness and joy. It’s all found in him. So today, what I’d like to do
is pray for us together and be reminded of when you’re struggling. I want you to be reminded to open
up his word and ask him to speak to you. Ask him to bring you his ministering angels when you’re
struggling. And so let me pray for us. Let me close by praying for us today. Dear heavenly father. We
thank you for this word that’s active and living sharper than any double edged sword. Your bible says
thank you God that you want to give us the desires of our heart that are in you. You came for us to have
abundant life to have life to the full Lord. And many of my audience are struggling today. And I’m asking
you God that you would just through this message, Lord speak to them. Lord help them to grab hold of
you. Help them give them pictures even in their dreams tonight of your fatherly hands holding them
God as only you can Lord. Please, will you do that for them. There’s no greater joy. Lord, I know you’ve
given it to me. I want my audience to have that. God, will you give it to them today? And we’re gonna
trust you. Trust you. Trust you for it in jesus name. Amen. Thank you audience for joining me today. May
you be blessed by this message from the Lord. Hello, my name is Cindy Schmirler and I have something
very special that I want to share with you today. This is a book that I’ve written called tragedy turned
upside down. This is a book full of hope and help if you need some strength today, I call it God vitamins
if you need some real uh inoculation of the Lord and faith and belief in your life. This book is for you. My
readers have said they devour it. They sit in one sitting to finish it. They have laughed, they have cried.
Most of them have taken notes on it because there’s so many good foundational truths in it that you will
want to write down and keep for the storms of your life. Mostly you’re going to take this book and you’ll
want to share it with others that are struggling to. So at your earliest convenience, I’d say pick it up, read
it, you will be blessed, blessed, blessed when you read this and share it with those that are struggling
right now. Maybe even if they’re not struggling. Somebody who needs to know, maybe they don’t have

faith and you want them to have faith. You want them to know who jesus is. This book is for you those
words that you you just can’t bring to say to a friend or relative. This book is full of all the things that you
had hoped to say to them, so pick it up at your earliest convenience.