Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you here this morning. Let me give you a little update before we go on. You can talk to me after the service and we'll see what we can do, okay? Thank you. I want to thank you for, and I would really appreciate if you would wait until after the service or talk with one of the elders now. Yeah, well you're not going to be given that privilege, so I invite you to please talk to one of the elders. Thank you. Yeah. So, I want to thank you for praying for my wife Carol. This has been a real challenge. She has been making progress, but yesterday we had a bit of a setback. She was dealing with very severe headaches. and was dealing with blurry vision, and we decided it was time to go to the ER. So she was in consultations with the doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, and also at Enlo and Chico, and the CAT scan revealed that the issue is not one of bleeding, which was a great relief to us, but there is fluid that has been forming, a pool of fluid on the brain, And what they have determined is that it's going to be okay. When they looked at the other vitals, when they looked at the CAT scan and looked at the results of the healing, she just needs to rest a little more. And those of you that know my wife, you know that's very hard for her to do. And this past week she didn't do enough of it. And our daughter was here with us during the week, which was a great blessing. But she treated it a little bit too much like a family vacation and not enough like a medical rest. And so she now knows that this next week she needs to be resting. But we are grateful for the Lord watching over her. We are thankful for your prayers and how God has been providing and we'll continue to just keep on trusting the Lord. And the Lord is good no matter what happens. The Lord is in control no matter what happens. The Lord is wise no matter what happens. And the Lord is worthy to be praised no matter what happens. And so we just want to thank you for praying with us and we'll keep you posted. But she'll be having a quiet week coming up. For those of you that are interested, we will be having the pastor's class at 11 a.m. We took the month of July off, but it's time for us to get back together and reading and feeding the Word of God together. And so we look forward to that time if you're able to stay for the 11 a.m. hour. Well, we want to continue in our series with the M&Ms of the Christian life. And I want to get into it, but I want to just address a little bit what just happened. You know, God is a God of order and not a God of disorder. And when people want to speak in the church, they need to first bring it to the leaders of the church and not just expect to show up. And so I apologize for that. I didn't know it was going to happen, but everything's okay. God is in control. We're just going to continue to study. But I want to pray for the brother before we get into the message this morning that the Lord would help him. So Father, we're not sure exactly what's going on here, but we want to pray for Mr. Erickson that you would speak to him this morning and calm his heart and allow him to feel your comforting grace this morning in the Spirit. And Father, help us as pastors and as elders to be able to minister to him in a way that brings you honor. And so we commit this situation into your hands and pray that it would be done in a way that is glorifying to our Lord Jesus Christ, as we commend it to you now, in your name. Amen. Well, Francis Schaeffer was a man of unusual ability and insight. He was a gifted evangelist, teacher, defender of the faith, and apologist who boldly engaged with the culture of his day of those seeking purpose and meaning in life. And he and his wife started a ministry in Switzerland called Labrie, French word for shelter, where they helped thousands of people navigate the difficult questions of life, overcoming confusion about the truth, about the gospel, and confusion that comes with living in a sinful world. And Dr. Schaeffer left a very long legacy, especially in the area of helping believers develop a biblical and Christian worldview and how to live biblically in an age that is growing increasingly hostile to biblical values. Well, he was a man, in a sense, of his time, but a man ahead of his time. He wrote a number of books, one of them was The Church at the End of the 20th Century. He wrote in the early 1980s, and he was warning the church in America of getting too cozy with the thinking of the culture and adopting and even embracing cultural thinking and its teachings and its lifestyles and its practices. It's too bad that the church did not really heed his call. and the clarion vision that he gave at that time, because as we move to the end of the 20th century and into the 21st century, we see a church that is struggling to find its survival and identity across the land. Back then, Dr. Schaeffer said that the primary operating ethos and attitude of American culture was the pursuit of personal peace and affluence. He declared that Americans valued their personal peace and their personal safety and comfort over every other idea, conviction, or truth. Well, the trend lines have not improved over these past 40 years. In fact, the pursuit of personal peace and affluence is the driving force for most Americans, both those inside and outside of the Church of Jesus Christ. In fact, it has become such a common way of thinking that many are even hard-pressed to think in any other way. Many are hard-pressed to even see what is the problem with thinking about personal peace and affluence. But when Schaeffer used the term personal peace, he was referring not just to living at peace with everyone while faithfully living out one's convictions. He was stating that people would be so willing and so desiring to live free of controversy, to live free of struggle, to live free of inconvenience, to live free of confrontation, that they will actually compromise their core values. In short, they will disengage themselves from the culture and from others because of their desire to cloister themselves in a cocoon of safety, living in fear of what is to come. It rings really eerily common today, doesn't it, where fear sells, and many people live in fear. of those people out there, of those forces out there, of the unknown, of the future, of what might happen to the point where they dare not live out and express their own convictions. Well, the advertising community has picked up on this, of this desire for personal peace and affluence, of the desire to pamper oneself. In fact, in 2018 alone, they spent over $205 billion to advertise, to entice us to separate ourselves from some of our money. for those things that supposedly will give us satisfaction. If we put actual numbers to it, in any given year, the average American woman will spend over $3,700 a year on personal beauty and appearance products of all types. That adds up to over a quarter of a million dollars over the course of a lifetime. Men, we don't get off so easily, because men will spend on average of over $2,900 a year on similar products, or $175,000 over the course of a lifetime. That's a lot of money to spend on things that do not last very long. While all this spending and this consumerism is going up and this pampering of ourselves and buying things for ourselves, in 2018, charitable giving actually dropped by 3%. Now, what's wrong? The economy is doing better? Unemployment rate is low? Wages have increased? Why is giving to charity down? Well, it has to do with the tax laws. It's no longer as attractive to give to charitable donations because the personal deductions are higher. And so people have stopped giving at the levels that they were giving before, even though they have more money to give than before. And so it seems that as a culture, Americans are concentrating on lifting themselves up while devaluating other things and other people. It gets even worse. In the background of the culture going on over the past 40 or 50 years or so, there has been a new religious ethos, a new religious conviction. Now, the academic title is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. All right, that's what it means in simple terms. It means a religion of self-help, self-fulfillment, self-actualization. It is simply the effort to be nice, to be happy, and to be good. and that God is there when you need him, but he makes no demands of you. It's all about personal happiness and personal comfort of the individual. It's even changed our vocabulary and how we speak on a daily basis. We have expressions now like personal space, self-care, personal Sabbath, solo vocations. Take care of yourself. They were not part of the vernacular a half a century ago, but they are now a regular part of our vocabulary to the point that maybe we're not even capable of reflecting, is this actually a biblical way of thinking? Because for a lot of people, the gospel has become synonymous with the American dream. Now, it is true that each person is created in the image of God. Therefore, each person has great value And that there is a standard for justice and truth and ultimate meeting, but it does not rest with the individual. The value and importance that we have is derived because we are created in the image of God. It comes because of the imprint of God that is on each one of us. And that's where true value, where true meaning, where true fulfillment, satisfaction in life comes from. So how would life and culture look differently? How would the church look differently if there was an increased awareness that the purpose of life is found not in the pursuit of personal peace and affluence, but in the passionate pursuit of the Prince of Peace and the One who created us in His image? Well, as we continue in our series of the M&Ms of the Christian life, we come today to the challenging topic of me. And I don't mean me as in me standing in front of you. I mean in me is how we see ourselves as individuals and the importance that we place upon that. Because as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, how are we to think about ourselves? Where are we to find our value? How are we to analyze ourselves in light of the truth of God's word? Where do we find our true identity? And so in our message today, we're going to hear the clarion call from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to how to truly live, how to live even eternally. But it requires, first of all, that we die to all that seems normal. natural to us in order that we might gain that which is first importance. Well, with that challenge that is ringing in our ears, I invite you to stand as we read our passage for this morning from Matthew chapter 16. And the Word of God says, Then Jesus told his disciples, 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. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give and return for his soul? Father, as we are under the authority of your Word this morning, would you speak to us and guide us as your Spirit gives power, in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated, and as you follow along in your sermon outline that you have in your bulletin, we come to our first major point, which is the strong call, die that you might live. Now in the lead-up to this passage, Jesus has just announced that He's going to Jerusalem. He's going to suffer. He's going to be mocked. He's going to be killed at the hands of the religious leaders and the political leaders. This is completely incomprehensible to the disciples, whose idea of the kingdom of God is that they will soon reign and rule over everything, and that God was going to come and crush their enemies at that time. So Peter, because he knows better, pulls Jesus aside and says two words together that should never be together, no, Lord. How often are we like that? How often do we think, you know, Lord, if you had just consulted me on that matter, we might have avoided this problem. We're not that much different than Peter. But Jesus recognizes the true source of this attempt to sidetrack him. He knows that this temptation comes from Satan. And the point of it is to convince Jesus that personal preservation is more important than anything else. But Jesus knows that He would go the way of the Father, and so He rebukes Peter, and He challenges them, Him, and those with Him, and as a result challenges us today to gain the mind of God over the mind of men. He's telling Peter, don't resort to human methods. But think of the ways of God." And so in this passage, in our first point, he issues a threefold challenge to the disciples in light of God's divine plan and in light of His purpose for him and his followers. So first he says, it just falls right out of the text, give up your life. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. This is a strong word. The word deny here means to renounce oneself. It means to disown oneself. So this denial includes one's manner of living, one's purpose of life, the pride of one's status in society, the nature of one's family, his personal title. In fact, as one commentator points out, it is the breaking of every link which ties a man to himself. It is this desire then and aspire to go after Jesus more than anything. But here's the challenge. This command, which it is, it's a command, does not go out just to these super saints. It's not just for those who desire to go a little deeper in their walk with Christ. It's not just for the professionals who get paid to preach this message. No, the original language makes it clear that it is all who claim the name of Christ or an allegiance to Christ. It's not even an option at this point, it is a command because we know that every believer is called to follow the Lord's example, His choice, His self-denial, His cross bearing, His following after the Father. Jesus is not giving a call to some, it is a call to all. This is what makes someone a Christian. who runs after Christ, who follows in his steps and turns away from his own. This is a call to deny ourselves. This self-denial is a summons to submit to the authority of God as Father and of Jesus as Lord, and to declare lifelong war on one's instinctive egoism. This hits us right where we live. Because Jesus, as the Lord of life, the agent through whom all things were made, wants to let us know what true life is. And true life is only found in Him who is the life, our Lord Jesus. He is the one who has commanded all to repent, to believe, to come to Him. We do not have a Jesus who is wimpy. who just kind of hangs around on the outside and throws out a little promise and throws out a little option and just hopes that somebody might dare cast some attention upon him and believe in him. This is the rigorous Lord of the universe who commands all people to repent and follow him. Because he's the Lord. and we are not. He is the Savior and we are not. He is the Creator and we are not. I know these things are obvious, but we need to hear them again and again and again so that we will understand what is the purpose of our life in light of the One who is the Giver of life. You know, there was a mother who was preparing a pancake breakfast for her two little boys. Kevin was aged five and Ryan was aged three. And the boys began to argue among themselves over who would get the first pancake. I know this never happened in your home, but I can picture it in mine. And their mother was a wise woman who wanted to raise her sons in the fear of the Lord, and so she was always looking for an opportunity to impart wisdom and truth. So she said, you know, if Jesus were sitting here, he would say, let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait. So Kevin, the older, turns to Brian, the younger, and says, Ryan, you be Jesus. You know, we laugh at the story because we see ourselves in the story. The natural thing for us to do is to serve ourselves, to seek our own interest, to seek our own glory. We do not need to be trained to love ourselves, or to pamper ourselves, or to seek our own interest. That's what we do naturally, normally. That just seems like the way things should be. That's what makes this call so strong, when Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, to renounce ourselves. And in this serious business, it is a renouncing of one's right to rule and reign over his own life. We probably know the words, but do we really know the words? Do we live them out? Do our actions reveal that this is true in our own lives? Because our actions reveal what is really in our hearts. And if what is really in our hearts and what really determines our actions is not Jesus, then we have set up idols in our hearts, no matter what cover words we put on them. You know, our series in Hosea reminded us that God has a particular loathing for idols and what they do to his people. And so as Jesus begins his challenge to us today, he says, if you want to go my way, then this is what you must do, deny yourself. To deny yourself means you are to depend solely and wholly upon Jesus Christ for salvation and life. Paul captures it well when he writes to the church in Galatia and says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the first Cause is give up your life, and secondly, take up your cross. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. So he tells us what to get rid of, namely our old way of living. But now he tells us what we are to take up, our cross. And this is no minimal thing. You know, in popular lore, we like to say, oh, we all have our cross to bear. And usually when we give that list, we talk about a grumpy spouse, or a nosy in-law, or a bad neighbor, or a difficult job, or some type of physical challenge. But that's not what Jesus is saying here. He's not saying you'll have some inconveniences in life. You'll have some difficulties in life. That's just your cross to bear. No, what he is saying is this is the very death to selfishness and to all forms of self-seeking. I mean, think about the cross. We decorate our living rooms with crosses. We have them on our Bibles. We might wear them around our neck. We've turned them into some type of jewelry. But the cross was a tool of execution. It put to death a life. Today we might translate it as take up the hangman's noose, take up the electric chair, take up the firing squad. The cross is a path of death. It means we die to our old way of living. For me, it means then that Greg died with Christ. That the goals and desires and pathways of my old way of living by myself, for myself, for my own glory, for my own pleasures, has to die. because taking up the cross means I now must accept Christ's goals for my life, His passions over my life, His desires, what He wants me to focus on. Now, this does not mean that we have to quit our jobs and go run away to a monastery. It does not mean that we have to run away to seminary to become a preacher or a theologian. No, it means that whatever God has appointed you to be, A teacher, a doctor, an electrician, a carpenter, a housewife, to take up your cross means that now your profession, now your calling, your career, your planning, your family, your family's activities, your ambitions, all are now to be done with the glory of Christ in mind and at the forefront of all you do, and that simply now all that you have been given by Christ is to be a vehicle by which God can display His glory, the gospel can be proclaimed, and the truth of God can be seen. Jesus lays us open and just comes straight in and says, give up your life, take up your cross, and then keep up with Jesus. If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." The first two verbs in this passage, what we call the aorist, it's something that happened, it's done, but the third one is present continuous. Follow is something that we keep on doing day after day, moment by moment. It is a daily, ongoing commitment. And if we had time, we would turn to Luke chapter nine, we would see the parallel passage, and Jesus says exactly that. Take up your cross daily and follow me. Because each day is an opportunity for us to use it for God's glory, it's an opportunity for us to use it for vain glory for ourselves, and so each day we must die to our own ambitions so that the ambitions of Christ can flow through our lives. And so when we wake up in the morning, should the Lord give us breath and life and our eyes pop open, we should be saying, what would He have me do today? Where would He have me go today? That was His passion while Jesus Christ walked among us His 30 plus years. He wanted to see the plan of the Father fulfilled and accomplished. That has not changed now that He has gone back and sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for His own. He still wants to see the glory of God and the plan of the Father fulfilled on earth and in all of creation. So that means then, as the Lord gives us each day and our eyes pop open and we have that next breath, we should be spending time with Him in His Word. We should have this hunger for the Word. We eat breakfast in the morning. Do we feed our soul in the morning? Spend time singing and praising His name throughout the day. Let the words of Christ flow off your lips as an aroma, as a sacrifice of praise to Him, as a pleasing aroma that will draw people all around you to Christ. And spend some time telling others about who He is and what He has done. This is what we do with our spouses. This is what we do with our children, our grandchildren. We talk about them to other people. We share the experiences and the joys that we have. How much more than the Lord, the giver of life, who has not only given us life, but given us our children, our spouses, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our jobs, whatever it is that we enjoy having. That's what makes life truly worth living. Give up, take up, keep up. The Christian life is a life of action. We show by how we live where our heart really is and how our heart is really leading us. So after this strong call, we now see this strange challenge. Lose that you might find. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever who loses his life for my sake will find it." These are very odd words. They seem to be using the words saving and losing and giving up and finding a little differently than maybe we use in our daily interaction with one another. You see, the economy of God is different in how He views things. We hear it all the time. It becomes part of our normal vocabulary. Look out for number one. But Jesus tells us this morning, I am number one. The world tells us to be your own man, be your own person, stand on your own two feet, accomplish your own plans. And Jesus says, no, be my kind of man, my kind of woman. Society says, get all the gusto you can have. Society, Jesus says, no, I'm the ultimate meaning. I'm the ultimate purpose and joy and satisfaction of life. There's a strange challenge here. Lose that you might find, but what does that mean? Well, firstly, it means don't keep it to yourself. As we saw in the introduction from Dr. Schaeffer, many people just seek to do whatever they can to save their own necks. to just not have any pain, not have any harm, not have anything bad, quote-unquote, happen to them. And TV commercials and magazines on the internet, they play into that. So we need to get the right home protection. We need to have the right survival strategies. We need to have the right weapons. We need to have the right retirement strategies. We need to look after ourselves first and foremost. And so we plunge ourselves into our hobbies, we plunge ourselves into our different activities, running after the pleasures and treasures of the world. But if we haven't stopped to figure out why those pleasures and treasures are given in the first place, we ultimately won't gain from them. But if we're in Christ, and Christ is our life, then the blessings that He gives, we are in a much better position to, in fact, enjoy them, appreciate them, use them for His glory. Sometimes in this pursuit of personal affluence, personal peace, we're told, don't take any risks. And so when our children come to us and they talk about what their career paths might be, we kind of have them shy away from perhaps even pursuing Christ and going to those other places in the world as missionaries. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I grew up in a home that went to church, but I didn't know Christ until I was 15, and got into a Bible-believing church when I was 18, and by the time I was 20, I knew God had a call in my life, and I knew that I wanted to go to Africa, and I can't tell you the number of people who told me, you're wasting your life. But I didn't waste my life. I've had an amazing life, because I've done exactly what God has called me to do. So maybe you're not called to go to the mission field, but maybe your children are. Are you ready to let them go? But maybe, maybe you're just called to be a faithful witness to Jesus Christ here in the United States. Great. We need people like that. But then we might say things like this. Oh, you know, you better watch out going to those big cities. Boy, there's a lot of dangers there. There's a lot of bad people. It could get really bad for you. You know what people in the big cities say? Don't waste your life by going to some small town where you have no opportunities and no career advancement. But who are we to tell God how He can direct us and how He can direct our children and our grandchildren? The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. And He has the right to direct our lives however He wants, even if it means I gotta pick up and move there. Because at the end of the day, I only live for 70 or 80 years, but I'm with Christ for eternity. So that 70 or 80 years or 90, if the Lord is really gracious, doesn't compare to eternity. The call to the Christian life is a life of selflessness, not selfishness. When all we focus on is personal peace and affluence, it causes our soul to contract. We withdraw, we pull into ourselves, we're afraid of engaging with people, and it's a prison of our own making. And yet, when we have experienced the love of God through the gospel, perfect love drives out fear. And so let the love of Christ then flow through you, express through you, to expand your heart, to love those around you, to reach out to those around you, to give freely and openly and joyfully of your life. We are not promised no suffering here on earth. In fact, life may become even more difficult in following Jesus. We can't sell a cheap gospel that says, come to Jesus and all your problems will be solved. It might be the opposite. Yes, you'll be forgiven. Yes, you'll be given eternal life. And life might really start to get hard. Because now you have to live for that which is eternal, for that which is true, and not compromise, and walk in the light as the world walks in the darkness. But think about the alternative. If we only focus on what we can get out of this life, we lose the meaning of the very things that God wants to give to bless us. And so the question, as we wake up in the morning, as we commit our agenda of the day to Him that day, the question we need to ask ourselves is, do we trust Jesus? Do you really believe that the way of Jesus is the best one? Or do you kind of skirt the issue and say, I'd really like to do my own thing, but I'll just take Jesus so I can get a little forgiveness of sin and a little peace with God, but I want to live the rest for myself. That's not the bargain. He purchases us with his blood. He owns it all. So we might ask it a different way. What do you want to do at the end of your life? What do you want your life to have stood for? To stand before God with your treasures of the world? your collections of art and your collections of mugs and your collection of this, that, and the other thing, but you hung on to your life so tightly that you lived in fear of something happening to you? If you live in constant fear that something might happen to you, one, you're showing you really don't trust Jesus, and two, you're really not living. because he is the life, and he gives us life that we might have the fullness of life. He promises us to be with us, and if he is with us, is he not enough? Don't fall for the trap of only thinking about self-interest. We're called not to keep it for ourselves, but what we are called to do is to lose it all for Jesus. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. This ongoing, day by day, sacrifice of my ambitions, my self-centeredness, so that the glory of Christ can shine through me. Now what I'm not talking about here is some type of irrational, suicidal mission. Losing one's life for Christ is not a call to suicide or some type of self-harm. Losing one's life for Jesus is not intentionally going out to get hurt, but it is a recognition that we are not our own. It is a humble confession that we have been bought by Christ and that He owns us and He wants us to live for His glory, for His sake, and not for our own. But sometimes We are tempted to not only live for Jesus, not only not live for Jesus, sometimes we're tempted to even be embarrassed to live for Jesus. We're free from what people might say about us. Oh, you know, I have a little religion in moderation. You know, just a little bit of prayer, a little bit of church going, a little bit of discipleship, but boy, don't be a fanatic. I think you hear Jesus saying, that's not my call. My call on your life is, I want you all of you, come after me with a passion. And when you do that, you'll find a true life worth living. I don't want to live a life where at the end of my life, I say, I'm sorry God, I was embarrassed about you. I want to live my life under his power, by his spirit, so that his fragrance will overflow in my life, that I look forward to being in his presence, And I look forward to presenting Him the works of my life, not because of me, but because of what He did through me for His glory and His eternal purposes. There is a cost of living for a cause greater than yourself. Every student of physics knows the story of Isaac Newton and his famed encounter with the falling apple. Newton discovered did not create, discovered and introduced the laws of gravity in the 1600s. It completely changed the studies of astronomy. But few know that if it weren't for Edmund Halley, the world might never have learned from Newton. You see, it was Haley who challenged Newton to rethink his original notions of motion and physics. It was Haley who corrected Newton's mathematical errors and prepared geometrical figures to support his discoveries. It was Haley who coaxed Newton to write his great book, mathematical principles of natural philosophy. It was Haley who actually edited and supervised its publication and financed its printing, even though Newton had far more money than Haley. And as historians of science look at this example, they refer to the example of Haley as one of the most selfless examples in the history of science. Now for his part, Isaac Newton almost immediately began to reap the results of his prominence. But Haley received little credit. Oh, he did use his newfound principles to predict the orbit of a comet that would later bear his name, Haley's Comet. But Haley's Comet only comes around every 76 years, and so Edmund Haley doesn't get a lot of press. But Isaac Newton does. And in fact, Edmund Haley really didn't get any recognition until after he died. On a smaller scale, Edmund Haley lost his life for a greater cause, but one that has benefited everyone. And so he serves as a faint image of what it looks like to lose your life for a greater cause, the cause of Christ. We see examples in the scriptures of this. We see John the Baptist who says he, Jesus, must become greater, I must become less. We see Barnabas, whose name means the son of encouragement, is the one that brought Saul of Tarsus to the disciples and said, this is now one of us. And then Paul became front and center. We see it in the numerous Christians who have prayed quietly over the centuries for Christian leaders, for their churches, for Christian causes. It is this type of selflessness. that advances God's Word. This is the type of sacrifice that Jesus is referring to here. Lose it all for the greater cause of Christ. And we can do that because losing is a wonderful thing. Have you ever heard the expression, you're so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good? I've heard it. I've had it said to me. Here in Oroville, It's not true. Statistics and studies show that it is those who are the most focused on God and on His kingdom are the ones who accomplish the most earthly good. And we know that because Jesus promised as much when He said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. It's almost as if Jesus knew what would work, right? Think of the great movements throughout history and you will find in many cases a committed Christian behind it, driving it for God's glory. C.S. Lewis in his book, The Joyful Christian, summarizes this thought well. He said, aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither. So we've seen this morning the strong call, we've seen the strange challenge, and we conclude with the sure conclusion, nothing is more valuable. Because the first thing we see is that this is an unfair exchange. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? You know, there's a clear warning here about the vanity of living for the here and now. and not living according to the guidance and wisdom of Christ. You can run after the things of the world. You can accumulate a lot of the things of the world, but no matter how successful you become, you will never gain it all. And even if you could, it is not worth the value of your eternal soul. That's why we have expressions like, he sold his soul, and then we talk about what is it to which he sold his soul? The things of this earth, we know they rot, they rust, they can be stolen, they can be destroyed. In any case, we have to leave them all behind. But our soul, created in the image of God, lives forever. And so if you spend your time running after money, you'll find that there's never nearly enough. If you run after success, or popularity, or pleasure, or security, you will find that it will not be enough. To make it even worse, in running after these things and not nurturing your soul, you will find that you've accumulated a lot and caused your very soul to rot away. Think of this. Is this not how Jesus himself was tempted? The enemy appeared to him and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He said, I can give you all of this if you would but worship me. And Jesus saw through the lie. Because he knew, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He knew, do not put the Lord your God to the test. He knew, worship the Lord alone with heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so he saw through the lie. He resisted that temptation. In fact, he resisted every temptation that came either from the world or from the devil. And because he resisted, a number of really great things happened. One is that he remained the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Because of his completely righteous life, he was qualified to be the sin sacrifice for your sin and mine, because it was only the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that could pay the payment for sinners. But in addition to that, because Jesus resisted every temptation He comes to us and helps us in our moment of temptation. And so we can lean upon His righteousness, lean upon who He is, lean upon what He has done, and resist temptation because He did it first and we follow in His path. So not only is there an unfair exchange to give your soul for the things of the world, it's actually an impossible cost. An impossible cost. What can a man give in return for his soul? It's really a rhetorical question because to ask it is to answer it. Nothing can be given in return for the soul. And so the question becomes then, why try? If we are in Christ, God gives all things to us for our enjoyment, and we can enjoy them in their proper proportion because we keep God first and God the focus. But if you think this life is all there is, you're going to exhaust yourself and at the end have nothing to show for it. The psalmist, as he reflects on this truth, says, truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice that he should live on forever and never see the pit. And that's true in every case but one. And that's the good news of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is the exception of that rule, and therefore Jesus paid it all. He is the one who is able to pay the price to purchase the soul. He is the one who is able to satisfy the commands and demands of God. And He could give these commands in Matthew 16 because He knew that He would fulfill them and in fact did fulfill them first. Because Jesus came and He denied Himself, saying again and again and again, O Father, I want to do Your will, not my will. Jesus came and He took up His cross and went to the death that He needed to die to do things the Father's way. He is the one that followed willingly the path that the Father had laid out for Him and He joyfully fulfilled it. And so that is the only thing that we can properly exchange our soul for, is that wonderful salvation purchased for us in Christ. His death led to my life. Do you know that to be true for you? As you sit here this morning, are you trusting solely in what Jesus has done for your own salvation? Or are you trying to make something of your life in your own efforts? Jesus said, whoever loses his life for the sake of Jesus will find it. Have you lost your life for Jesus so that you can find true life, even eternal life, in Him? In the moments that we've spent this morning, we've seen the strong call, die that you might live, the strange challenge, lose that you might find. and the sure conclusion nothing is more valuable. Jesus went to the cross, he suffered, he died, but as a result he was glorified, he was exalted, he was crowned as victorious, he was glorified through his suffering, and so he calls us today to go to the Son, to follow after him according to the Father's plan, to die to our own way of living, and living for His way, which is the way unto everlasting life. May it be so for each one of us gathered here this morning. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we are mindful this morning that you are awesome. So awesome, Father, that we can't fully understand who You are, but we do understand enough to know what You demand of us and then what You provide for us in Christ. And so, Father, this morning we hear the call of Jesus. to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow Him because we esteem Christ above everything else and know that nothing has a value in comparison to our eternal souls. So Father, we turn to you this morning. We ask for your cleansing and forgiveness and we ask for your strengthening that we might live this out, that people would see a redeemed people and recognize that it is Jesus who is the Redeemer. God may it be, as we pray now in Jesus' name, Amen.