What Would You Give for Your Soul?

Well, this is one of those days, as we have had before, when I wish we could have Sunday service in the kitchen or around a campfire, because we need that kind of communication together.

This week has really run the spectrum for me.

It began last weekend, at the start of a seven- or eight-day stretch, with news about a man I have grown up going to church with all my life. He, his wife, his daughter, and his son have visited with us a time or two, though their home church is in Bethabara.

I believe it was this past Monday when they were standing on the porch—he, his wife, and his daughter—talking together. He had a sudden cardiac event and collapsed.

His wife and daughter began CPR. When the rescue squad arrived, they shocked him five times and got him to the emergency room.

I went the next morning. They had spent a long night in the ER trying to bring him back. When I walked into his intensive-care room, he was lying there, seemingly lifeless, connected to all kinds of tubes, monitors, and machines. It looked as though they were simply preserving his body, perhaps even for organ donation.

Then, Friday evening, Michelle texted me with the news about 13-year-old Cayden.

Two different people at two very different stages of life—one nearly 70 and one 13. Yet there were similar kinds of events, with very different outcomes.

The morning I walked into the hospital room, they were preparing to test Rabi for brain-wave activity to determine whether they should keep him connected to the machines. His family had been through a long night and had gone home. The nursing staff had a full team of people there. I simply stepped into the doorway, prayed, and left.

By that evening, they had removed the breathing tube. He had opened his eyes. Two days later—and even now—he is in a regular room awaiting further testing.

Then there is the 13-year-old.

How valuable every moment of life is. Yet we take every minute for granted.

You have heard me say this before, and it is what I try to live by: I am thankful for the breath I have been given for this day. I try not to look past this day if I can help it. I try to live in this moment.

But I am also extremely grateful for the promise of tomorrow that I have in Jesus Christ because of His death on the cross for me.

In the midst of all this, the Lord laid this passage from Matthew on my heart. We need to hear it. The world needs to hear it. Whether we are secure in a relationship with Jesus or do not yet have a relationship with Him, we need to hear it again.

If you will turn back to Matthew—and once again, I hope you have a Bible. I always tell those who are with us, especially our visitors, that if you do not own a copy of Scripture, we have brand-new copies right back there. We want you to have one.

If you remember the last couple of Sundays, Peter has been the focus of the Scripture. We have identified this principle: We live by faith, not by sight. We have seen Peter stepping in and out of living by faith and living by sight.

Peter made that great proclamation: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said, in effect, “Upon that faith, Peter, I will build My church.”

Then Jesus began teaching him that these were the things that would happen—that this was the Father’s plan. He had come to be persecuted, beaten, arrested, and killed on the cross for us.

But Peter began living by sight again rather than by faith. He said, “Oh no, Lord. We will not let that happen to You. There is no way. We are going to keep You safe. You are not going to do that.”

And Jesus said, “Get behind Me,” because Peter did not understand the things of God. Why? Because he was seeing through the perspective of the world rather than living by faith in God.

Then Jesus gives us this wonderful teaching in Matthew 16:24–28:

“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

I think sometimes we do not pause long enough over that small but powerful passage.

When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, what is He calling us to deny? He is calling us to deny the things of the world within us—all that the world offers and all of our own ways. He calls us instead to look to His ways, His teaching, and His call.

What kind of life does He call us to?

He does not simply call us and say, “All right, you are good.” He calls us, gives us salvation, and then beckons us to draw closer and closer to Him. He calls us to live in His way, to become more like Him, and to be pleasing in the sight of the Father.

He says, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Me.”

If we try to preserve the old life—if we try to hold on to all the things of the world that we desire—we actually lose the life Jesus is bringing to us.

Remember last week, when we talked about the abundant life? Jesus came to bring life and to give it to us abundantly. But if we keep holding on to the things of the world, we cannot fully experience that abundant life, which is so rich and so good.

He calls us to that life. If we lose the old life, we receive and gain the life that He died to give us.

Now, when we look at the Old Testament, we see that God has laid it out for us so we can see how God and humanity have related over time, and so we can see truth.

There was a man named Solomon. You remember Solomon. He held two distinctions that get people’s attention: he was the richest man who had lived at that time, and he was also considered the wisest man who had lived to that point.

He turned out to be a pretty good king for Israel, especially compared with some of the other kings they had. They had some truly terrible ones. If you do not believe me, read First and Second Kings. Your eyes may pop out at some of the things those men did.

But Solomon wrote a book called Ecclesiastes. In his wisdom, he wanted to discover what really mattered in life. What really worked? What was the real purpose of living?

He examined and tested everything a person could pursue in life. At the end of it all, he summarized what he had found.

In Ecclesiastes 12, the final chapter, beginning in verse 9, he says:

“Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.
My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

What was Solomon talking about? He was talking about the Word God has given us—this precious Word. He was saying, “Be careful about going beyond it.”

We keep trying to find other things, other reasons, and other ways to make life work. But God has given us what we need right here.

Then Solomon sums up all his study, all he had experienced and tested in life to discover what mattered. In verse 13 he says:

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Here is the wisest man in the world. He had lived life fully. He had all the money, all the power, and all the wisdom anyone could want. And what did he conclude?

God has given us His knowledge. Hold to that knowledge and live in it. Nothing else ultimately matters.

Jesus asks, “What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and forfeited his soul?” Then He ends with that famous question: “What would you give in exchange for your soul?”

What would you give? What would make the exchange worth it?

You all know I have been abstaining from sugar and many other good things. I love sweets. I dearly love sweets. It pains me to walk past the dessert counter at a restaurant and see a new coconut cake sitting there.

But is it worth the trade-off?

Is it worth stepping back into diabetes for a piece of cake?

That is what Jesus is asking. Is it worth facing the consequences on the other side of life just to satisfy the cravings you have on this side?

As I have thought about all of that, about what I have seen this week, and about the preciousness of life, the Lord brought me to my favorite passage to teach: Luke 15.

I am going to paraphrase it for the sake of time, but I invite you today to open your Bible at home and read the 15th chapter of Luke.

Life is precious. How we live, what we hold onto, and what we let go of all have consequences. Let us be reminded through this passage of God’s great mercy toward us.

The passage begins in verse 11:

“There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.
Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Life is about choices, and your choices have consequences.

This young man chose to take his inheritance and live the kind of life his natural-self craved. He went and did it. But that choice led him to a place where he had nothing left.

What was the consequence of that choice?

Here was a young man who had once had everything. He had lived the high life, but now he had to find work. The only job he could get was feeding pigs, and he found himself looking at their food with hunger.

How many of you have ever slopped hogs? Have you seen what they eat?

My great-uncle Clifton used to gather leftovers after big family meals into a slop bucket, throw in some meal, and take it out to the hogs. It was nasty-looking stuff. Yet this young man was saying, “I want to eat that.”

Then he came to his senses. He thought, “Back home, my father’s servants have it so much better than I do. If I could only go home and be a servant, at least I would have decent food and a decent place to stay. My father takes good care of his servants.”

He was no longer asking to be treated as a son or as part of the family. He just wanted to be counted among the servants.

So he chose to go back to his father’s house.

Life is about choices. He made the choice to return to the father because the choices he had made before had not led to life.

Here is the part that I especially love, and I think it is sometimes overlooked. The son began his journey home, and Scripture tells us that while he was still a long way off, the father saw him.

While he was still a long way off, the father was watching.

I believe the father never stopped watching from the gate from the moment his son left, knowing in his wisdom that what the son experienced might drive him back home.

While he was still far away, the father saw him and said, “Quick! Get the calf. We are going to have a celebration. Get the robe. Get the ring. My son is coming home.”

And he was welcomed.

The son came back saying, “Father, forgive me. Let me be one of your hired servants. I am not worthy to be part of the family. I have sinned against you and against God.”

But the father said, “My son.” He put the robe on him, welcomed him back into the family, and they had a feast.

Our choices matter.

And the question Jesus gives us today is this: What would we give in exchange for our soul?

Will we sell our soul bit by bit for the glitter and glamour of what life in this world has to offer—the simple pleasures, whatever it is that catches our attention?

Or will we be willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus?

It is so important because the lesson I have learned this week is that, young and old, none of us can take even one second of life for granted.

When the Bible says life is like a vapor—here today and gone tomorrow—that is true.

And what happens after that tomorrow matters.

It matters, and it is connected to the choices we make.

Will we trust and follow Jesus and live for Him? Or will we live trusting ourselves?

Where are we?

Closing Prayer

Father, today we are thankful.

We are thankful for Your Word, for the wisdom it gives us, and for the truth it gives us.

Father, I pray today, in this place and for anyone who watches this broadcast, that You would speak to our hearts. May Your Holy Spirit work within us.

If there are places where we have tried to hold on to the pleasures of this world and have forsaken You, work in those places in our hearts. Give us what we need to cut loose from whatever holds us back, distracts us, or keeps us from experiencing the fullness of Your abundant life.

Father, we also pray for those around us in this community and throughout this world who have not yet come to know what You offer or who You are.

May Your Holy Spirit and Your church carry Your good news, Your love, and Your truth to them, so that they may discover who You are, enter into relationship with You, and experience abundant life through You.

Father, let Your Word work in our hearts and minds. Draw us even closer to You.

For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.