Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning.
[00:00:06] Hey, good morning. If I have not had the chance to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church, and I wanna invite you. Would you open your Bibles to the book of Matthew? We're gonna be in chapter 16. And so this is week eight in our summer series called the Questions of Jesus. And I'm gonna give the same introduction every single week. Jesus was the master at getting to the deepest parts of the heart through perfectly designed questions. So this morning, Jesus asks a large crowd of people In Matthew, chapter 16, verse 26, this question.
[00:00:40] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? I want to start off our message by asking you a not so simple question.
[00:00:55] What is your price?
[00:00:58] All right, let's start with a number. $10,000.
[00:01:01] What would you do for $10,000? For some of you, that's an unbelievable amount of money. For some of you, that actually would change your life today. Okay. Would you give up your phone for three whole months? Nothing. Can't touch it at all. How dare you? That's my idol. I know. Okay.
[00:01:20] Would you let your parents choose your outfit every day for an entire year? By the way, that doesn't just apply to people who live with their parents right now. Like, if you're older, that's like your mom, your dad, right? Like, one year, would you wear a Green Bay packers jersey to church every single Sunday for an entire year? How dare you. And if you're a Packers fan, a Bears jersey be so good. All right, let's raise the price. Okay.
[00:01:46] What would you do for $1 million? But you wouldn't do it for $10,000. Ladies, for a million dollars, would you shave your head for three years?
[00:01:58] Three years. No wigs, no nothing. You're bald. Three years and you're like, maybe one, right?
[00:02:04] I want you to think about your nemesis, the person you like the least in all of life. For a million dollars, would you get their face tattooed right on your forearm?
[00:02:16] What's your price? All right, let's make this even more ridiculous. This is where kind of the game does start to change. It's hard to imagine if this happened, but what would you do for $1 billion?
[00:02:28] The government can't touch it. It's yours. That you would not do for a million. Would you cut off a limb?
[00:02:36] Would you destroy the reputation for a billion dollars of someone you love, would you abandon your family? Don't say anything about that one. Would you kill someone?
[00:02:49] All right, here's one. I want you to think about this. Would you go to jail for 15 years knowing that when you got out, you'd have a billion dollars cash in your bank account? What's your price?
[00:03:02] Would you, for a billion dollars, like, right in front of you, would you deny being a follower of Jesus?
[00:03:10] Which brings us to the richest man on planet Earth. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Elon Musk's current NET worth is $867 billion. Ish. And we have to say ish because day by day, it fluctuates pretty much an astronomical amount of money. The number, it's so large that it actually just doesn't mean anything. So I want to kind of put this number into perspective. So the median American family has a net worth of roughly 193.
[00:03:37] What that means is if you take everything you own and sell it and then pay off all of your debts, this is your house, your valuables, your 401ks, all the stuff, you take all of it, you sell it, and then you pay off all your debts, the average American family in America would be left with $193,000. Okay, so if Elon Musk spent $1 million, that would be equivalent to you and I, or the average American spending 22 cents.
[00:04:09] And if he spent $1 billion, that would be like the typical American family spending $223.
[00:04:19] That's like a kitchen appliance.
[00:04:22] Imagine being so wealthy that losing a billion dollars would affect your net worth proportionally to that of a kitchen appliance.
[00:04:30] What would you do to have all of his net worth transferred into your account? What is the craziest thing you would do?
[00:04:41] What's your price?
[00:04:43] This setup, you will see this come full circle, but Matthew chapter 16. Jesus is talking to three specific groups of people, and he's talking to them about gaining the world and losing your soul. And the first group, we're just gonna call the crowd. This is a large group of genuinely curious people.
[00:04:59] Most people in the crowd, they're not worried about their soul or their salvation. They have problems in their life. They want Jesus to fix it. But if you were, ask them, like, where's your soul gonna go? Like, die? Like, when you die, they're gonna be like, yeah, I'm fine. It's all good. They're not probably too worried about it. So Jesus is gonna take this opportunity, and he's gonna teach them the true value of a soul. The second group, we're gonna call the fakers. This would be Judas and those like him. And fakers like Judas almost always.
[00:05:28] They almost always know that they're faking it. Like, you don't really believe in your heart. You don't really want to be here. Fakers have two lives. There's their spiritual life that they kind, and then there's the real version of them when all the spiritual people kind of aren't around.
[00:05:44] You may not be aware of this, but Judas absolutely knew he was a faker. Judas had been stealing from Jesus during their earthly ministry money. So by the time he actually sold his, we'll say, soul for 30 pieces of silver, this wasn't a new thing. He'd already been robbing Jesus blind for a long time.
[00:06:01] If you are a faker like Judas, you're probably aware of it.
[00:06:06] There's a third group of people. We'll call them the committed. These are the 11 disciples and others like them. And they are the ones who, though imperfectly, are committed to following Jesus. What's interesting, actually, is the night before Jesus was crucified, he was in the upper room with all 12. And he acknowledges that there is a faker in their midst that's going to betray him. And the 11, they're all like, is it me? Is it me? Is it me? Judas didn't say a word because he knew it was him. And what's interesting is if you're sitting here concerned, like, oh, no, am I the faker? You're probably not, because the fakers know exactly who they are.
[00:06:39] So with this context in mind, we get to Matthew chapter 16. We're gonna look at verse 24. In the presence of the crowd, in the presence of Judas, in the presence of the eleven, Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, I want you to consider the imagery for a moment that Jesus is using here.
[00:07:01] Jesus has not yet died on a cross, so we're spoiled. We know what happens next, don't we? We know that there's a cross. We know that there is a resurrection. We know all of this. They are hearing this language before Jesus is put onto a cross. And so Roman crucifixion was deliberately public, degrading and agonizing. And it was reserved for the worst of the worst. It was not reserved for people like Jesus. It was reserved for slaves, for enemies of the slave state, for people who are just culturally dishonorable for criminals. And so most of the people who are crucified and you see this in Jesus account They would take the cross, they would take this beam, they would carry it over their shoulder and they would take their own device of torment and execution by themselves. And then they would have to die with it there. And so this is considered to be one of the most excruciating and humiliating deaths.
[00:08:02] It's obvious to everybody around Jesus that the Jewish leaders don't like him. But, like, this is kind of confusing. Okay, the Jews don't like you, but the Romes are the one who crucified. So how are they going to get the Jews to get Rome to kill Jesus? And I want to give you maybe an analogy of what this might be like. This is sort of like me showing up today and saying, hey, by the way, in the next couple days the federal government is going to unjustly arrest me. They're going to make up stories about me, and then they're going to give me death penalty by electric chair and it'll be over in about three days.
[00:08:30] And at that point you're thinking to yourself, how do I even begin to make sense of this? Because usually that kind of like death sentence is for evil people who've been justly tried, not some kind of like shenanigan law thing that, like, where people are unjustly murdered. Like, so the disciples are hearing Jesus and they're probably thinking to themselves, like, he's gotta be speaking almost like metaphorically, like, take up your cross, because again, he hasn't died yet.
[00:08:55] And so what they don't realize is that he's being very literal.
[00:08:59] Verse 25, we're going to read this, and I want you to know this. If it feels like Jesus is making a threat in verse 25, it's because he is.
[00:09:06] Verse 25, Jesus says, For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. One of the challenging things about teaching verses like this is you've heard it a thousand times. I want to show you something here that I think will surprise most people.
[00:09:26] We need to look at the word life.
[00:09:28] This is the Greek word psuche.
[00:09:31] And when we read the word life, we almost automatically go to our physical bodies being alive or being dead. Like that's the natural reading in English, how we would take this. But even though being alive and dead is an aspect of this, it is definitely not. The main oomph of this word is used to describe the eternal and indestructible part of you, your very being.
[00:10:01] It's used to describe the very essence of who you are. And I don't mean your scent, I mean the core of your being.
[00:10:09] It's bigger than just the physical. Because if Michael Fueling dies, Michael Fueling himself, his psuke continues to exist. So let me just give you an example, what Jesus is trying to say here.
[00:10:23] Who is Michael feeling? Now, this is a rhetorical question, so please don't answer it, okay?
[00:10:28] And I am definitely more than my body, although it is a part of me. And so we have this phrase here. I'll put it on the screen, Michael is, and then fill in the blank.
[00:10:37] What you put in the blank matters to me. If it was your name, does it matter to you what people fill in the blank with? It does, right?
[00:10:45] And so, like, I want you to think truthful things about me. Even if it's not truthful, I want you to think positive things about me. Right? So, like, here's what I would love. I would love, like, for people to say, Michael is a man of integrity, Michael is lighthearted, Michael is a good friend. Michael is committed to Jesus more than anything else.
[00:11:07] And here's what Jesus wants you and me to ask.
[00:11:09] Am I willing to lose not just my body and my stuff, but my good name, my reputation, my status, my life, my suke for Jesus?
[00:11:23] If following Jesus makes people say Michael is evil because he believes all of those things that Jesus teaches.
[00:11:33] If.
[00:11:35] If people say Michael is a criminal because it is illegal to say the kinds of things that Jesus taught, let alone to do it publicly, am I willing to be labeled as an evil criminal if that's the cost of following Jesus?
[00:11:53] And so too many people want to save their quote life, their psuke. But what you exchange it for if you reject or deny Jesus, is you get your life here, but you lose your life, your soul, your identity, your person forever.
[00:12:13] Look at verse 25 again. For whoever would save his life, his suke will lose it. But whoever loses his suke, his name, his good name, his standing, his reputation, not just his body, for my sake, will find it. Now to verse 26, and it's our question of the morning. And this is where it's going to get even a little more surprising.
[00:12:32] Jesus asks, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and he forfeits his soul?
[00:12:41] This surprised me, and I think it might surprise you. The word Soul in verse 26, do you know what it is in Greek?
[00:12:51] The exact same word in verse 25, translated as life.
[00:12:55] And in modern language, I think soul is a wonderful word to use to describe it.
[00:13:02] So when Jesus talks about this invisible Part, the eternal, indestructible part, the very core and essence of who we are. When he talks about our soul, often he will speak about the soul in very economic terms. And we're seeing this here in verse 26.
[00:13:20] And the economy of this is that there is the opportunity for an exchange.
[00:13:26] In the hypothetical opportunity, this man is going to get the whole world in exchange for what?
[00:13:34] His soul.
[00:13:35] I'm come back to Elon Musk for a moment. So his personal fortune is mind numbing. I just gave you a tip of the iceberg. Okay, so his personal fortune is approaching the equivalent of just less than 0.7%. Just less than 1% of, of everything the entire world purchases in a year.
[00:13:58] Just process that.
[00:13:59] Can we just agree that that is unimaginably wealthy? 1% of everything purchased in a year, globally, that is his net worth. So I want to think about what Jesus just said.
[00:14:12] You get Elon Musk $867 billion.
[00:14:15] How about a trillion? Not enough. Give him Apple, Microsoft, Amazon. Every company, every skyscraper, every mansion, every private jet, every yacht, every diamond, every work of art, every acre of land, every island, every oil field, every dollar. You give one man, the whole world. Jesus is imagining a man so unbelievably wealthy that he makes Elon Musk look like he's impoverished. I mean, this is crazy. So if you take the total private wealth of the whole world, homes, land, businesses, et cetera, subtract debts, it is roughly estimated to be $500 trillion of value. And then when you add on all of the land and resources of governments, we'll just say the estimate of the world's entire balance sheet of assets is roughly $1.8 quadrillion.
[00:15:13] So for the sake of illustration, the man who has the whole world $1.8 quadrillion, if he were to spend $10,000, that would hit his net worth. Like Elon Musk buying a $5 cup of coffee.
[00:15:25] Or if he bought a million dollar car, that would hit net worth, similar to a $500 used car for Elon Musk. If he bought a billion dollar mansion, that would be an equivalent to Elon Musk buying a $500,000 average home in the suburbs of Chicago.
[00:15:42] This man could lose $2 trillion. And proportionally it would be like Elon Musk losing just a billion. By the way, there are a lot of billions in a trillion, if you haven't figured that out.
[00:15:52] And when you run the numbers on the deal and you put everything that you could gain, the whole world, on one side of the ledger.
[00:16:01] And then you put your soul on the other side of the ledger.
[00:16:06] $1.8 quadrillion or your soul. Jesus looks at this hypothetical deal by this man, and here's what he would say. The man who exchanged his soul for $1.8 quadrillion.
[00:16:21] This man made the worst deal in all of human history.
[00:16:26] He gained everything for a moment, the blink of an eye, and lost his soul for an eternity.
[00:16:35] This man made the worst transaction of his life because he traded away one possession that was worth more than all of it, his soul, himself.
[00:16:48] By the way, you may not know this, but Jesus did not pull this question out of thin air.
[00:16:53] In fact, it's eerily similar, almost identical to the question that Satan asked Jesus in the wilderness. Let me read this for you. In Matthew, chapter 4, verse 8, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain.
[00:17:09] He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. And by the way, when we talk about the kingdoms and their glory, that's not just their fame and name and reputation, but what he's referring to is all of their wealth and their assets and their military and everything. And so Jesus. Satan effectively looks at Jesus and says, all of this I will give to you. All you have to do is sin and bow down and worship me. Your soul for the whole world.
[00:17:40] Back to Jesus question in verse 26.
[00:17:43] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
[00:17:51] Here's one of the reasons why Jesus question, it's just kind of perfect and it's so piercing, is because short of, I don't know, inflation skyrocketing, nobody's ever gonna offer you a billion dollars or $1.8 quadrillion or $867 billion and be like, yeah, I'll give you this, if you just deny Jesus and forfeit your soul.
[00:18:10] No, our offers are much smaller.
[00:18:15] We trade ourselves for approval.
[00:18:20] And honestly, we trade ourselves for the approval of people that we don't like very much and definitely don't love us.
[00:18:27] We trade ourselves for pleasure, for comfort, for success, for a relationship, for someone's attention, for another promotion, for reputation, for something we desperately want better said no, something we need right now.
[00:18:43] And kind of. As I sat on this question for some time, the most piercing part of it came to me. And I just put on the screen, this is what I landed with. If the man who traded his soul for the world was a fool what does that make those who sell our soul for much less?
[00:19:03] So Jesus follows this question with a second question equally as piercing as the first.
[00:19:10] In verse 26, he goes on, he says, or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
[00:19:17] Okay, so you sold your soul. And now you've come to realize you have made a very grave error. Oh, and now you want it back. What do you have to offer of value that you could use to purchase your soul back? And do you know what the answer is?
[00:19:31] Nothing.
[00:19:33] Nothing without divine help.
[00:19:35] Your soul, it's gone forever. It's not yours.
[00:19:39] Which brings us to two. So what's. Here's the first.
[00:19:43] Your soul is the most valuable thing you have. Care for it wisely. I'm gonna give you three reasons why your soul is so valuable. And here's Number one. Stuff is created and temporary, but the human soul is created and eternal. Your stuff will burn, but your life, you, your suke, your it's eternal.
[00:20:05] Number two.
[00:20:06] Though living beings have their own kinds of souls, only the human soul is made in God's image and likeness. That the human soul is unique in all of creation. You were made to be God's family, made in his image and likeness in a way that no other aspect of creation is not. Even angels, in all of their glory, are. Are made in the image of God. Their value does not compare to that of the value of a human soul. Number three things. Angels and animals are good, but can never be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Demons have sinned, they've rebelled against God, and not one single demon is going to be offered another chance because they believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. The blood of Christ was never shed and is not applicable to anybody but humans. Made in God's image and likeness.
[00:21:05] There's nothing like the human soul in all of creation. And there's nothing that comes even close to the value of a human soul. I think there are so many of us that we sometimes just take it for granted.
[00:21:18] And you and I have each been gifted one singular soul for which we are individually and eternally responsible to steward. And it is so valuable that if you give it away, even if you had all of the resources in the entire world at your disposal, you would not have the necessary resources to buy it back. Care for your soul.
[00:21:44] And start by answering the second question, which is our second. So what.
[00:21:49] What is the current state of your soul's eternity? Okay, so some of you are here, and you would describe yourself as the crowd. Curious for sure, but Your soul is not in Jesus hands. Probably for most of you, your soul is in your own hands. You're like, I got it. I'll take care of myself.
[00:22:07] And you're very well aware you've never come to Jesus and given him yourself. Your soul, your life, your. Your eternity.
[00:22:15] Some of you are Judases, and you know it, and you are faking it. And you would rather die and go to hell than be exposed as a fake Christian. But deep down inside, you know that you and Jesus are not okay. You're using him to maybe create peace or to get clout or to keep a relationship intact or to get a girl or to get a guy or whatever it is.
[00:22:37] You know who you are.
[00:22:39] Some of you are the Disciples, perfect as they were. And I just want to encourage you. You know who you are, and here's how I know that you know who you are because you have personally trusted in Christ. You have come to him on your own, and you have acknowledged and confessed that you are a sinner. You have come to him. You have asked him to forgive you. You have told him that you believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You're not like Satan, who acknowledges that Jesus is God but doesn't love him. You. You both acknowledge him as your God, and you love him. You're not perfect. This is why Jesus had to die on the cross. For your sins. But you know who you are. You have personally trusted in Christ. And I just want to encourage you for a moment. Once Jesus has your soul, no one can snatch your soul out of his hand.
[00:23:24] Not a single angel, not a demon, not you, not anyone else. When you give your soul to Jesus, it's his. It. It is permanently and forever protected, even. And especially if and when you are struggling in your deepest moments with sin. When you give your soul to Jesus, it is secure. Amen. And praise God.
[00:23:46] Now, I want you to look at Matthew, chapter 16, verse 27. This is the very next verse.
[00:23:51] And Jesus turns up the heat on his question.
[00:23:54] He says, for the Son of Man, that's how he refers to himself, is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay according to what he has done. Let's call this the justice coin. And there are two sides to God's justice coin. And I'm gonna be honest with you. The first side of this coin is terrifying.
[00:24:16] If you did not give your soul back to its creator, Jesus, if you have rejected Jesus in exchange for any ease of life or anything, Jesus will give you justice. And you will pay the just price of every single sin you have ever committed against your soul, against other souls, and against your Creator. And you might get to the Day of Judgment and say, I want to buy back my soul. I know I gave it away. I know exchanged it for the ease of life and everything else. And Jesus will look at you in that moment and say, it is too late. You had everything you needed. You chose the ease of life. You chose your, quote, life here as opposed to your life in eternity.
[00:25:02] And so this is a very real aspect of it. On the Day of Judgment, you are not gonna be able to buy this back. And I want you to listen to what Jesus says to every person who chooses this world over him. Luke, chapter 12.
[00:25:18] Fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
[00:25:29] So is the one who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God when it comes to eternal matters. We say this quite a bit here, but like, nothing short of direct bluntness is appropriate because of what is on the line with these.
[00:25:46] And I want you to notice here, the first word that God says to this person, I mean, it cuts right to the heart of the issue. He calls them fool.
[00:25:55] The fool chooses easy today, despite the pain that they know it will cause tomorrow. The fool is short sighted. The fool is arrogant.
[00:26:05] The fool believes he's above the rules. Fools actually can have really high IQs. In fact, the Old Testament teaches this really fabulous verse says this. The fool says in his heart there is no God.
[00:26:17] A fool ignores Jesus and punts the problem until it's too late.
[00:26:23] The second side of the justice coin. Let's just be straight. It's way more fun to talk about, so let's spend our last time there.
[00:26:29] Matthew, chapter 20, verse 28. You know this, but I need you to see this in light of this message. The son of man, Jesus, he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life. Can you guys guess what this word is? Oh, Suke. Oh, it's the same word he gave himself, his whole being, not just his body.
[00:26:48] If you've paid attention to my preaching a little bit, have you ever heard me say Jesus bore our sins on his body, soul and emotions? You hear me say that over and over again? Because what I'm trying to show you is that what Jesus did is he didn't just suffer physically, but his whole being was put onto the cross. His body, his soul, his emotion. All of this suffered and died in exchange for you suffering in hell and this is, I just think, really wonderful news.
[00:27:16] You don't have the resident resources to get your soul back, but Jesus does.
[00:27:23] And his soul is of such value that it can be murdered, it can be killed, his life can be ransomed. And it has such value because he's God, because he's. Because he's perfect, that it is enough value to ransom back every soul of every person who's ever lived who comes to believe that Jesus truly is God.
[00:27:47] And so if you've given your soul back to its creator, Jesus, that God's promise is life.
[00:27:54] And whatever you had to lose here will be repaid back more than you can possibly imagine in eternity.
[00:28:04] And Jesus is offering my life for your life, my perfect, sinless life for your eternal life.
[00:28:15] The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. So let me ask you again. What is the current state of your soul's eternity? It's interesting that when Jesus speaks about the soul, he speaks about it as something that we can give away. It's an interesting kind of way he speaks about this.
[00:28:36] We have the option to give our soul to Jesus.
[00:28:39] We have the option to keep it for ourselves, and we also have the option to give it to the devil. And here's what he's essentially saying. If you give your soul to the devil or you keep it for yourself and you forsake Jesus, you get everything now that you wanted, but you get nothing forever and ever and ever.
[00:28:56] Ever heard of the long game?
[00:28:58] The long game is I say no to the things I want now so I can say yes to the greater things later. I say no to good things now so I can say yes to great things later. You guys ever heard of a guy named Dave Ramsey? Yes. Most of you have. He has a great one liner. And by the way, it's his one liner. But it comes straight from Jesus principles. If you live like no one else now, you can live like no one else later.
[00:29:20] And so as believers, here's what we do. When I become a Christian, I shift from playing the short game, which is what the world plays. I need to get what I want, when I want, how I want accrue right now, don't think about the future to I play the long game, I'm playing the eternity game.
[00:29:34] I'm gonna say no to bad and good things now so that I can have life later. And this is what we commit to. We commit to doing some really hard things. And you know, what, if it means that I have to have a bad name or bad reputation, to be, to be faithful to Jesus. If that's the cost, is losing my, quote, life here so that I can gain eternal life with Jesus. Have my life, have my physical life, have my reputational life, have my, have it all. If that's the temporary loss for getting everything in eternity, I don't want it. I'll play the long game any day. And it's the fool who says, I'll take the short game and then I'll give up the eternal game. You don't need to be a fool.
[00:30:11] You actually can come to Christ because his hand is extended and he is offering to pay the price for your sins. By the way, he already has the resources. He already died on the cross for your sins, and he is willing to allocate it to your account.
[00:30:24] That's really good news. And so if you're here and you have never, ever come to Jesus and said, forgive me, you have all the resources, I want to give my soul to you. I want you to be my God. I believe you died for my sins. I. Forgive me. God's answer is yes. Amen. Let's go. And when your soul is in Jesus hands, oh man, that is the absolute best place it can be because it is protected permanently, forever. And that is great news.
[00:30:52] I want to close and I want to read to you just one verse, one Peter, chapter four, verse 19.
[00:30:58] Peter says, therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator. Let's pray together.
[00:31:10] Father, I want to thank you for first of all, your word and the questions that Jesus asks. Literally hundreds of questions. And as we kind of cherry pick some that are really relevant for, I think our church, Lord, we are just. I just say we're blown away at how direct you are, how piercing your questions are. They're almost just genius. They do. They get to the deepest parts of our heart. And so, Lord, if there's anyone in this room, anybody listening, that has never given their soul back to you, their good, kind creator, I pray you would move them to trust in Christ that they would be willing to apologize for withholding their soul from you and take you at your word that you can and you will forgive those who ask and believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:31:57] Lord, for those of us in this room who are believers, we just are so filled with gratitude. Our soul is in your hands. And yet at the same time, we need to care for our soul.
[00:32:06] Lord, that's a whole nother sermon for a whole nother day. But God, would you teach us to value our soul to the degree that you value it. You died for us. You love us. And we want our soul to be poured into and we want to become more and more like Jesus. We love you and we thank you. Amenville Church. Amen.
