Amen, thank you. Well, I appreciate that, appreciate. You can tell we got a veteran missionary and a military guy. They followed orders very well, right? And the, it's amazing, again, I say this, sometimes you'll be in a meeting and they'll tell guys, you know, hey, you got 10 minutes to preach and guy get up and tell you why he can't preach. A message in 10 minutes, he'll spend 10 minutes telling you that. I'm thinking, man, if you just Say what you got to say, you can do it. And, uh, a lot can be said, but I sure appreciate them. Appreciate them being with us. Thank you all for being here tonight. Once you turn to Matthew 16, Matthew 16. And, uh, I too, thank you for loving this country. I'll say it again. Uh, people look and say, well, that's not the greatest country. It sure is. And, uh, I'll also say this. Uh, you don't see people breaking in, trying to get into other places. Amen. And, uh, we, we got some problems by the way. We're not perfect. We got some problems. And I, I believe this we're celebrating veterans day to day. I think that, uh, the, the military should be the ones getting paid, not the jack legs in Washington that can't figure out how to get the government open. That'd probably be that, that, that fix a lot of the problems. If you just say, you know what, you shut it down. We're not paying you. Amen. Yeah. Yeah, that is pretty good preaching, isn't it? So I, I mean, you know, you start paying away people's money, they'll, they'll, they'll figure out solutions. And I'll say this, I was telling, uh, uh, brother Howard, this, I said, here's the thing they're, they're fighting over the subsidies to Obamacare. Yeah. Okay. Here, here's the thing you gave us the junk. Go ahead and give us the subsidies and fix the problem. right. You gave us the Affordable Care Act way back in what 2010 whenever it was and it wasn't affordable then and so basically what they did was to give you the money so you would be dependent on the government to pay you the subsidies and okay well that's fine go ahead and give me the subsidies and now go fix the problem or cut something else. There you go. That makes too much sense doesn't it? Let me get to Matthew chapter 16 before I get in the flush tonight. Amen. Matthew 16 verse number 24. You ever thought about this? Jesus said this and it, it, uh, first of all, let me say this. God's timing timing is impeccable. And again, having this message on the calendar for some time and then preaching a funeral today. that will remind me and hopefully remind you that all of us are one step closer to eternity today than we were yesterday. And we come to this scripture in Matthew 16, verse number 24, and Jesus asked an unusual question in this. He wants to know what a soul is worth. Automatically we know we'll say, well, you, you know, it's, uh, you, there's not enough money in the world, but think about how many people have exchanged eternity in heaven for something here. And I want you to pay attention to what he said, because in chapter 16, he deals with several things and, uh, he deals with the Pharisees and Sadducees and, and, uh, he also comes down and you remember this portion of scripture. When Jesus asked his disciples, he said, who do men say that I am? And they said many things, but Simon Peter, our friend, who oftentimes said the wrong thing, said the right thing. He said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, this is, uh, this, uh, he said, I say unto thee in verse 18, that thou art Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So understand two things. Number one, Jesus wasn't pointing at Peter and saying, you're the rock. that I'm building my church on. He's pointing to himself and saying, I'm the rock. He's the rock that the church will be built upon. And he said, we look, and he goes on and goes on, and he lays out for them the plan of salvation. And guess what? Peter did well in the first part, but then all of a sudden, in verse number 22, the Bible said, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him. You say, well, Peter's lost his mind, he's rebuking the Lord. I'd be careful. I bet there's been some times you have rebuked the Lord. God, why are you doing this? Why are you allowing this? What did I do to deserve this? I don't understand what the plan is here. May I say this, God has to run this by, does not have to run anything by you or me. And so Peter, began to rebuke him and so he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Now here's the same guy in just a few verses before. He said, listen, you didn't get this knowing that thou art the Christ. This is not something intellectually you figured out. It's something God gave to you. Now he's rebuking Peter for rebuking him and he's calling him Satan. He said, listen, you gotta get behind me because you're trying to hinder the plan of God. So now we come to this scripture in verse 24, the Bible said, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. That's pretty simple, isn't it? I mean, or at least very clear that if you're gonna be a Christian, if you're gonna be a disciple, if you're gonna be a follower of Jesus, it's gonna cost you something. You've got to deny yourself and you've gotta take up a cross and then you have to follow Christ. You don't have to follow the Baptist or Methodist and you don't have to follow any denomination, you better follow Christ. You don't have to follow some leader, you need to follow Christ. Is that in there? Amen. So then he goes on and says this, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited? Watch this. Now notice this, if he shall gain the what? Whole world. Not a sliver of it, not a portion of it. Not a percentage of it. He said if you could gain the whole world, all of it, everything this world had to offer, every bit of money, every bit of fame, every bit of popularity, whatever you put in this category, whatever in your life that you would say is the most important thing. He said if you could gain the whole world, right? What's he say? And lose his own soul. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. That's in your Bible, by the way. You say, we're not saved by works. You're right, but there is a reward attached to your works. Oh, I'm a grace believer. Me too, but I believe grace will get you doing something, don't you? Amen. He said, Verily I say to you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So I want to ask you again, what's the worth of your soul? In other words, what would you give in exchange for your soul? That's what he's asking. That's what he's asking his closest disciples. He's not asking the folks that just followed him when he fed them. He's not asking the people that as long as he was healing the sick, said, hey, you know, as long as you're doing something for me, Jesus, I'm good. He's got this inner group and he's asking the disciples, he's saying, listen, what would you give for your soul? What's it worth? The price of anything, may I say this, is not the value the owner thinks it is, it's the value that will be paid for it. You can think you've got a gun or a pocketbook or a fishing rod or a house or a car and you say, man, that thing's worth $200,000. But if somebody won't give you but 10, that's what it's worth. The market determines the price, not you, right? We value everything too much, right? I mean, I got a white Chevrolet truck out there, and I think, man, it's the most beautiful truck you've ever seen in your whole life, and it's worth $100,000. But nobody's gonna pay that. The only thing it's really worth is what somebody will pay for it, right? And so you say, well, preacher, what are you trying to say? I'm saying someone thought enough of you to come to earth, die on the cross in your place so that you don't have to go to hell. That's what the Lord thinks your soul is worth. However, you have to determine that Jesus is worth more to you than this world or you'll lose it. You cannot have the best of both worlds, you can't do it. You gotta give something up. And so in this passage, Jesus is trying to make his disciples understand the cost of following him. You know what, Brother Shane, listen, most Christians do not wanna be Jesus followers. They don't want to go to hell. They want a fire escape. They want, hey, they want to draw their last breath and say, you know, I believe once saved, always saved. Hallelujah. And so when I was five years old, I said a prayer. And so therefore I can't die and go to hell. I'll say it again. I've said a thousand times. I'll say it till they put me in the ground. If there's no change in your life, you don't know Jesus Christ. Amen. That's the facts of it, friend. And if you're not willing to give something up for the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't understand the sacrifice that's been made. Being a follower of Christ is going to cost you something. Hey, listen, these families right here, you know what? They're giving up something to follow Christ. You know what they're doing? Giving up something to follow Christ. What they're doing? Giving up something to follow Christ. You know what, even my family, you say, you're just from 30 minutes away. We gave up something to follow Christ. And you're giving up something to follow Christ. But if he's not the biggest thing in your life, I promise you, when the cost gets too much, you'll quit. There's a lot of people used to be sitting in pews just like this, and the cost got too much. So he contrasted it to the price of a soul. Is it worth giving up a little to gain everything? Or is it worth gaining a little here to lose your soul for eternity? Either you're gonna give up a little bit here and gain everything in eternity or you're gonna gain a little bit here and you'll lose everything in eternity. This way it has to be. So the question is still relevant today. What is your soul really worth? Why don't I give you three things this evening Number one, the prophet of possessions. So Jesus said unto his disciples in verse four, if a man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. You know what? If you'll look at mankind, the greatest thing that we have are the greatest, I don't know if Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I don't know. is this, self-preservation. We'll do just about anything to make sure nothing bad happens to us. Right? Now you'll see acts of heroism where someone will sacrifice, but the norm is not, you don't believe it? You know what people will do? They'll see somebody getting beat up in the street instead of helping, they'll film it. Right? Here's the honest truth about it. We're out in the woods, a bear's chasing us, I'm pushing you down. I'm not fighting a bear for you. I'm going to try to push you down and outrun you because I won't take care of me. I'm kidding. I'll push someone else down. We can both get away. How about that? Right. I'll find you don't want to upset me. You want to stay on my good side because the one that I don't like, I was saying I can calculate stuff quick and be like, you know what? They have offended me so much and then This brother Bart has not. Let's push them down and brother Bart and I'll get away. Right? But think about what he's saying here. Whosoever will save his life. I mean that, to me, life, we said it this morning, we ought to be grateful for life. It's valuable. God gives us life. He gifts us life. It's important. It's valuable. But here's what he's saying. He said you gotta give up your life for my sake. He said, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world? And again, I want you to pay attention to what he's saying. He's saying the whole world. Not a bigger paycheck, not more salary, not more investments. Did you hear this? Did you hear that Elon Musk The board of directors is telling him, I don't know how many units, I think I heard 20 million, 30 million units of Tesla. If he could sell that many, they were going to give him a trillion dollars. You didn't hear that. Trillion. Make him the first trillionaire. You say, I sure would like to have a trillion dollars. Hey, I wouldn't mind you getting it because I know one thing, the ties would better go up around here real big. We're going to send the deacons out to your house. But do you realize $1 trillion is a drop in the bucket? First of all, to what America owes. And secondly, the amount of money in this world, $1 trillion is a drop in the bucket to all the wealth in this world. So even Elon Musk would say, man, that's a lot of money. That's the whole world. No, it's not. It's not even a drop in the bucket. And Jesus is saying here, if you could gain everything, all the trillions of dollars, all the gold, all the silver, all the jewels, all the health, all the prosperity, if you could put all of that into a bucket, into some type of container and give it to you. He said, all of that is not more valuable than your soul. The prophet of possessions, he deals with the pleasure of this world. See, all that he sees in this world, he said, listen, all that you see in this world, he focuses only on this life and what will satisfy the flesh. Remember that rich young ruler and he said, what must I do? Jesus said this, he said, keep all the commandments. He said, did all that from the youth. He was feeling pretty good like we are. He said, sell everything you got, give to the poor. You say, well, you're saying if I sell everything I got, that's good. No, because what did he say next? And follow me. See, there was an idol in his life, it was his possessions. It wasn't that God was saying, listen, if you sign the check over, then you're going to heaven. He wasn't writing a check to heaven. God knew that he'd never give that up because he had great earthly possessions. What's yours? You say, I know I'm saved preacher. Yeah, but did you read this? In verse 27, the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with the angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works. See what I'm saying? So all of the things of this life are pleasurable for a short season. You won't find it in the Bible. The Bible said that the things of this world are not pleasurable, right? I mean, believe it or not, alcohol's pleasurable. Sure is if, I mean, people wouldn't do it. It gives them an altered state of mind. I mean, if you've ever had alcohol, it's not like you drink it and go, well, that really tastes good. There's not any of it that tastes good. It's horrible. People drink it because it alters their mind. It gives them some type of buzz or pleasure that they look and they go, you know what? It's worth that little bit of pleasure to wake up the next day and feel terrible. Right? I mean, you talk to a drug addict, they understand that, you know, hey, you won't talk to me, drug addict, and say, listen, you know there's a fentanyl crisis, that stuff you're buying may be laced with. They know that, but they're going, you know what, I gotta take my chance because that little bit of pleasure is gonna be worth the cost of that. When the AIDS epidemic came out, you know what, everybody knew what caused it. but it's like, well, that's more important to me than not getting it. And we're no different. You may not do those things, but what in your life is, it may be a football game. It may be a racetrack. It may be hunting, fishing, shopping. I don't know what it is, but what in your life is separating you from God's best? Oh, I, hey, listen, I'm all for, Bus ministry preacher. I'm all for missions. Thank God for these missionaries Yeah, but see you're you're worried about having the iPhone 18 19 20, whatever they're on now You know Chris Christmas is coming up preaching if my kids don't get you know, the the newest Xbox or whatever then then they're going to end up being an axe murderer and I can't have that We talked to the lady yesterday on our bus route, and she was talking about her grandson, and she was like, you just need to pray for him. He's depressed. I'm like, why is he depressed? Well, because his grades are not good, and we've had to take his gaming system away. I said, man, look how beautiful it is out here. Yeah, but he don't like it outside. Give him a rake, and hey, there's a game called rake up the leaves and jump in it. Right? I mean, I don't care. Do video games, that doesn't bother me. But I'm just saying, what is getting in the way of the work of God? It's the pleasure of this work. You know why a lot of folks won't get saved? They're scared they're gonna have to give something up. I'm guessing people in Germany the same way. I mean, people pretty much all across the world saying that they don't wanna get saved. If they don't get saved, they're looking at the cost of dying and going to hell is not as big as the cost of losing something in this world. Right? So then there's the pursuit of this world. So it's not just the pleasure, it's the pursuit. Some people are not in it for the pleasure, they're in it for the pursuit. It is the pursuit of the flesh. One will never gain but a small portion of the world. That's what he said. He said, if you could gain it all, it would not be comparable to your soul. But may I say this, Brother Sean, we can only gain a sliver of it. I mean, maybe a trillionth of it. 10 trillion, I don't know. Whatever it is, he's saying, listen, no more than you'll even be able to obtain, you're willing to give up eternity and you're saying that your soul is worth less than that. Folks, it's not worth it. And I want to say this, time out. All right? I don't think there's anything wrong with having money. You can't look at your Bible and find that. What you can find is people that love money The Bible said the love of money is root all evil. There's nothing wrong with money. It doesn't do anything. It's just stuff. And you know what? I thank God. We support 140 some missionaries. You know what it takes to support them? Money. We have buses out there. You know what it takes? Money. You know what it takes to have lights on? Money. There's nothing wrong with having money. It's when money has you. That's the problem, see? The pursuit of it, the pursuit. It's important. You know what happens when something is valuable to you? You pursue it. And we ought to go after God with the same pursuit or greater pursuit than we go after stuff in this world. This dear man, listen, 82 years old, he had land. I love him. He's a good man. He's a good neighbor. But if you look and say, well, man, that's success. Success is when you draw your last breath where you'll spend eternity. Some of the kindest people I've ever met have stuff. Some of the greediest, meanest people I've ever met are poor. Some of the meanest people I've ever met's rich. Has nothing to do with it. It only makes you more of who you are. It's the pursuit. And so number one's the profit of possessions. In the pursuit of the little bit, that he can gain, he neglects looking at eternity. You're only going to be here a few years. I mean, listen, you, when you figure out that your life is a vapor, you better be pursuing things that are eternal, not temporal. The number one is the profit of possession. Number two, the price of peace. So what this whole thing of the soul, whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. And so he's dealing with this idea of the soul. And so I know that according to scripture that if I focus more on this world than I do the next, what happens is I don't put enough emphasis on eternity. But there has to be something because this world is searching, brother Bart, is searching for peace. That's what all this comes down to. Oh preacher, if I could just go to the beach every weekend, If I could just put my feet in the sand every weekend, I mean, work Monday through Friday and then leave Friday. If I had a house down at the beach, I'd be there every single weekend. You ever thought maybe that's why God didn't give you one? Huh? He didn't want to make you more of a robber? Right? I don't think there's anything wrong. I notice people's got some stuff, campers, houses, They don't let it get in the way of serving God. But see, it's just stuff. You say, if I just had, if I just had, could retire, I'd have peace. You know what I found? The older you get, more stuff hurts. Amen. The older you get, you say, man, if I didn't have to pay for my mortgage payment, You know what it's replaced by? Healthcare cost. I'm starting to figure some of that out, man. I never went to the doctor. Now it's like every time I turn around, I look on my MyChart. I'm going to tell you when you know you're getting old. Listen, I'm going to help you. You go on your MyChart when you're young, you have a doctor on that side. When you get old, you have a health care team. That right? Your pastor's got a health care team. And then you got to go to the specialist. Then they sit you down and say, OK, we're not going to do anything this time. Six months. Go to the specialist. Sit down. What are we going to do? Well, we're just doing an evaluation. So I waited six months for the evaluation for what? The test, when's that gonna be? Next year sometime. I thought when I was 57 years old, man, I'd have it easy. I thought when the church got to a certain level, I thought, brother Inslee, things would be a whole lot easier. I thought when I had enough staff, Man, I just cruise on. My wife would tell ya, I can't even figure out my own calendar half the time. Right? You better understand that the price of peace is a price you can't pay. The price of peace is the cross. You want true peace, man has to die because of sin and so Jesus died in my place So therefore, if my pursuit becomes this world, I'll pay for my own sin. If my pursuit is Christ, if my pursuit is Christ and I've gotten saved, the debt will never, if I am searching after myself, what happens is the debt never gets paid. If I'm searching after Christ, what happens is I accept him as my savior, except the payment that was made on Calvary. and then I understand that my soul is worth more than this world will ever be able to pay and more than I can ever pay. It costs Jesus his blood and so therefore the peace I have is tied to the cross of Jesus Christ and also it's tied to the Christ. Amen. You don't have to have money to have peace. You don't have to have stuff to have peace. You don't have to have pleasure to have peace. What you've got to have is the Christ and Jesus gave up everything and became man. And he became lowly so I could gain everything. This world says, Jesus said, if you gain the whole world, well, I can't do that. I can gain a sliver of the world. And he said, if you gain all that, lose your own soul. Well, guess what? If I gain a little bit, lose my own soul, I'm miserable. But if I gain Christ, I gain it all. Well, you say, well, yeah, but you're giving up too much of this world. All right, hang with me a minute. If you'll notice the Bible said in verse 27, the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels. Now what's that talking about? Where's he coming to? Right? So what you're saying is you'd rather give up eternity with Christ to get what the devil will offer in this time frame of the world, right? But Jesus is saying he's coming back and he's going to destroy everything that we see here with fire. He's going to rebuild it and what he rebuilds it with is going to be way better than what we got here. Right? So Christ is the price for my peace. There's no other way. And I don't understand, Brother Jerry, I don't understand why we as believers think that we can figure out some end around, right? Some hack to this thing of Christianity. Well, I know that's what the Bible says. How many times you men heard this? I know that's what the Bible said, but. When you throw that in there, you don't care. You've invalidated what the Bible says, but. You're the exception to what you're saying. God wrote that book for everybody But me, I'm pretty sure that you're included in that. Whosoever, there's a, there's whosoever's all through that book, right? Is, is, can I ask you this? Is the casting all your care upon him for he cares, does that include you? See what I'm saying? We, we, we had the exception. Jesus paid it all and the price of peace is Jesus. And then finally, number three, the priceless promises he gives us. He gives us this in verse 27, the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father. So he tells us this, first of all, there's a promise of the return of Christ. I don't know about you, I'm very grateful for that. Because what he's gonna do is set all things in order. I understand this world is not fair. I understand that you and I are getting the short end of the stick. But friend, may I say this, if you'll just hold on a little bit, Big brother's coming. Amen. Big brother's coming to town. He's going to set it all in order. Dad's going to fix it for us. If we'll hang on just a little bit. It's not for you to fix. It's for you to be faithful in the things of God. and Jesus promises that he's coming and he will prove serving him is more valuable than pursuing this world. A new heaven, new earth is gonna be great. It's gonna be much better than what this world has to offer. We're not gonna see all the garbage, all the stuff going on. When Jesus comes back, the new heaven and the new earth is gonna be worth the sacrifice you made on this earth. And then finally, there's the reward of Christ. We'll be rewarded for our works. Now let me say this, you don't do anything, you don't get rewarded. Right? Yeah, but our church. But you see, here's the issue, right? Brother, if I'm wrong, tell me. The Great Commission says, go ye. Ye is singular. That's pointing to me, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you. And so what we've done is we'll say, well, the responsibility of the church is to reach the world with the gospel. Well, when Jesus gave that, the church was not there. It was individuals. So it's up to the individual to go ye. It's up to the church to be a place for the go ye's, but the Bible said this, that the church is to be the ground and pillar of truth. People ought to be able to come to the church to hear the gospel preached and to hear the Bible preached, and we're supposed to be the ones out there winning them to Christ. So here's what happens. If we're not careful, if all of our desire is to see people saved in the church, if we're not careful, we'll remove doctrine, we'll remove important biblical principles from the the word of God and we'll say, well, we just want to see people saved. Well, I want to see a lot of people say, but I believe the biblical principle is for you and I to win them to Christ and then bring them to church. Right. Study your Bible. Well, I don't think, well, they didn't, they didn't ask you or me when they wrote that. The Holy Ghost didn't call up and say, hey, you think that's all right for 2025? No. He just put it in there and says, listen, you need to obey it. So again, my point being this is we need to work for the Lord while we can. And so what's the worth of your soul? Well, according to Jesus, if you could gain the whole world, everything in it, your soul is worth more than that. And here's the thing, Jesus loved you enough that he paid your sin debt so you could go to heaven. Your soul is worth whatever will be paid for it. And it cost heaven the very best it had. So now we ought to live like it. If you're born again, you know what you ought to do? You ought to live like you're valuable. We're royalty. According to the word of God, we're children of the king. Well, up until maybe the recent monarchy, man, those folks you're talking about, they lived a certain way. There was a responsibility not to defile the crown. I don't know about you, but I stand before the Lord. I want to hear well done, good and faithful, not you embarrass me. Not you didn't take serious enough. Not you mocked my grace. Not you didn't appreciate all I've done for you. The worth of your soul is more than this world has to offer. It's Jesus. It's the blood. It's the cross. It's Calvary. So you and I should walk around with our head held high, not in pride and arrogance, but the fact that Jesus loves you and me enough. that he'd come to earth and die for you. May I say this in closing? That makes you mighty special. So don't seek this world for affirmation when the Lord says you're enough. You're valuable. You're valuable to the cause of Christ. We ought to live like it. Amen. Let's stand together all over the auditorium. Thank you again for your attention. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. Brother Dennis has come to the piano. Don't let the devil tell you that serving God is not worth it. Don't let the devil tell you that what you'll gain in this world is more valuable than what you'll gain in serving Christ. Young people, I'll tell you what, this world's gonna tell you, do whatever makes you happy. Do whatever to thyself be true. What they don't show you is the scars. They don't show you all the stuff that comes along with it. One day you'll look back, you'll see You'll see what mom and dad told you was right. You say, are you saying God won't forgive me? I'm not saying that, folks. Listen. But why do we have to go all the way to enjoy God's forgiveness? Why do we have to have scars? Why do we have to have injury? Why do we have to defile the name of Christ, just enjoy the grace of God. You don't have to do that. Just enjoy the things of God now. I promise you, if you never taste alcohol, young person, you'll figure out you ain't missing anything. If you never do drugs, you'll figure out you didn't miss anything. Hey, if you've never been to a rave or some nightclub, you'll realize one day you didn't miss not one thing. Parents, we ought to talk about how good God is. You ought to tell your kids once in a while all that God's done for you, right? Sometimes we talk more about our company than we do the goodness of God. Amen. Father, I sure love you. I thank you for all you've given to us. May we be grateful. May we be reminded often of how good you are that we'd not turn to the world. I thank you for every person here tonight. Touch them and use them, Father, I pray. For what you accomplish, we'll thank you and give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we ask it.