For all of the years that I've been pastor, my anniversary is coming up soon, and as I look back and I reflect on the great gift and Dr. Scott's understanding of not only how corrupt the church can be, but how corrupt the world can be and how cruel the world can be towards the church. His making a clear distinction between ministry, that is what people tend to say, “I'm a part of a ministry,” and they make their checks payable to a ministry, versus a teaching ministry that has a God-given, God-gifted teacher as Paul describes in Ephesians that God gave some of these and the gift ministries that He's given, they all pertain to the word of God, they're not apart from the word of God. They all have their root somewhere in the word of God. And so I'm grateful that I don't have to stand week in and week out and get some “creative revelation” of how I should approach giving. Giving is spelt out very clearly in the biblical way and Paul sums it up very succinctly when he says, “You are to pay the one,” I'm giving you one of those really colloquial English translations, “pay the one who teaches you.” That way there's never any confusion. Now I heard somebody, and I'm not really quite sure where the story came from, earlier this week, somebody was telling me about how perhaps politically some of the religious regulation, if you will, will be lifted off of the churches so that pastors can basically urge their parishioners to maybe vote a certain way or think a certain way. I want to tell you something. If this is true, and I don't even know that that report is true, but if it's true, it obviously tells you that there are people out there who have absolutely no clue as to why the church of Jesus Christ exists. It is not to stand here and politicize you. Christ did say when it came to money, “Render unto Caesar what's Caesar's.” I tell you to pay your taxes, be law-abiding, live by the laws of the land as they have been established here as a law-abiding citizen. But over and above that, you are your own individual with responsibilities. My responsibility when you come into this building; any pastor standing the pulpit has a responsibility to open up the word of God and to stick to the book and to, if there's supplemental things that add color to the book, fine, but I, I just am so tired of people bringing their thoughts of the church, like this, perhaps it's true and perhaps it's not of how, how it was told to me is that perhaps the churches would not be in peril of risking their 501(c)(3) if and blah, blah, blah. And I thought, wait a minute, that's a tax status, which, by the way, is not limited to churches. It's limited to charities, and churches and charities are not one and the same, and limited to, or actually not limited to all not-for-profit businesses, those regulations being governed specifically in other states, but in the state of California as the tax code. But nobody's going to politically or on any other level is going to tell me, because most people don't have a clue of what the pastor's supposed to do. The pastor's supposed to stand and preach the gospel and teach the gospel and teach the Bible and show people this word of God, which should be sufficient for all. And I don't need somebody else's mindset of what I should be doing. If you aren't savvy enough to make your own political ideas and do your duty as a citizen, a proud citizen of this country, that's your problem. I've told you it's time for us to start acting like Americans. That's my commentary. I've actually tried to keep my mouth shut on the things going on because I see too many people that I've said entertainers should be entertaining; don't talk to me about politics. While I'm here to preach and to teach I don't want to tell you what you ought to be doing, just be American about it and be a proud American, not somebody who says they're an American and they're ashamed and they're sorry that they were born here. But if you're━yeah. But if you're wanting to know my position once you come into this building, in the pulpit, I'm going to tell you about what's coming out this book. You take the information and you do exactly what Paul says, you work out your salvation with, English says “fear and trembling,” phobias and traumas from the Greek. And that also includes, by the way, sticking around long enough for me to teach you what the Bible actually says, whether you hear it here or you listen to 168 hours during the week. Choose a few to listen to the network where there's plenty of teaching on giving that tells you that God was never about trying to get you to invest somehow like a quid pro quo. God has never been about luring people or trapping people or tempting people into what they think they might get. You'll hear me say this in my message today. Part of Christ's call is to deny self, and that does not mean that you should live the life of poverty, nor does it mean that you should be embellishing and lavishing on the self. It means there's a delicate balance to everything, but following Him you will find exactly what that means. So when I talk about the offering, lest you think I forgot for a minute, because what I just said was kind of serious, the offering should be treated the same way. You are not doing God a favor when you put money into the offering that comes by. You're doing something that expresses an understanding of who and what you are. You work all week, most of you work all week, the expression of the ability to say, “God,” just as the one in the Bible says, “God gave me the ability to have and to receive wealth and riches.” And that is not necessarily everybody's a millionaire, but whatever your wealth or riches are, the little or the lot, God gave that ability, the expression of which, in putting God first and the expression of worship, which we practice here when we take up an offering. There's never going to be a time when I stand here, I told you, if I have to start raising money by coercion or by emotive strings that say, “If you don't, then this and that and the other thing,” I'd just as soon close the church down, because the idea of what is in store for the one who is listening and trying to abide by the principles and apply them in their life is explained by Christ really clearly in Matthew 6, regarding those things that only the Father can reward those who are listening to Him. And that doesn't mean that you perform something in performance perfectly. God looks on the heart, sees what you do with His words, whether or not they're applied and taken to heart or whether they're tossed aside for your own ideas. And that's where I come back to saying the pulpit is designed for one thing and if people are coming into this church today for the first time or you're listening for the first time, please leave your ideas about what the church is somewhere else. The Bible's abundantly clear. God gave gift ministers to the church to bring the church to a knowledge, not of how you should vote or how you should figure out what side of the protest line you're going to be on, but to bring the whole church to the unity of the faith, to knowledge of the perfect man, to understand and know more about this One we call our Savior, Jesus Christ. So if you came here for God's word and to hear what God might have to say to your heart today, then you're in the right place. I'm actually going to do a little bit of Scripture reading from the Old Testament, some Scripture reading from the New Testament to treat my text from the New Testament, but I'll read from the Old. It's kind of a traditional set up if you've ever been in traditional church where they do Scripture reading first. But at the backdrop I want to drop some secular ideas for you that tie right into the message. How many of you, I'm sure many of you did see the movie, it was movie released in the year 2000, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Did you see that movie? Yeah, so for those who didn't, don't worry. Don't go out, don't rush out and watch the movie. But there's something in that movie that struck a chord here in the theme of things. It's, you know, three guys that are working on a chain gang in the prison and they break free in pursuit of a hidden treasure and along the way they get picked up by a blind men who's on a railcar and he kind of gives them a prophecy about themselves. They're going to find treasure, but it won't be the treasure they're looking for. Anyway, they encounter a man who's at the crossroads and of this man it says that he sold his soul in order to play guitar. That's the focus right there, the man who sold his soul to play guitar, which in, it's kind of funny because if you don't know where that might have, the inspiration might have come from is a 1971 biography on a musician who, ironically, had the same name as the character in the movie, wow! And it was the brother of the musician who contributed this story by saying his brother sold his soul for the sake of music. But there were many stories, many chronicles, poems, works that give that same vein of thought, that convey the same idea. In my hand I have here Harvard Classics from Goethe, Faust, if you're familiar, where we tend to, for those people who have heard the name tossed around Mephistopheles, and they say, “Oh, of course!” Well, obviously from the writings, somewhat interesting that the main protagonist in this writing is a scholar, not a musician, who is bored and depressed and begins talking to the devil, makes a deal with him and the devil sends his, his rep, you know, in the form of this Mephistopheles and this whole dialog between the two makes up the bulk of the work. And it's kind of interesting because there's something in this exchange that I thought will fit perfectly into the Scripture I'm going to read from the Old Testament in a minute and my text out of the New. So if you're not familiar with the work, it's, if you like poetry and prose it might interest you if you have never read it, but I've given you the backdrop and all I want to say here is that Faust is going to ask how he will repay for the services that are being rendered. You see, the services being rendered will by power to be able to essentially to do just about anything, which includes, by the way, a woman that he desires and then he impregnates her and there's a whole tragedy of things that happen. So he's given this power and he asks the main protagonist, Faust asks, “How must I thy services repay?” And of course, the devil's representative says, “Thereto thou lengthen'd respite hast!” “No! No! The devil is an egoist I know: and, for Heaven's sake, 'tis not his way kindness to any one to show. Let the condition plainly be exprest! Such a domestic is a dangerous guest.” Now here's the devil's representative again, “I'll pledge myself to be thy servant here, still at thy back alert and” be prompt, “and prompt to be; but when together yonder we appear, then shalt thou do the same for me.” In other words, “I'll serve you here, but when we get over there you will serve me there.” So there's a whole exchange back and forth regarding essentially the selling of one's soul. Now in the Old Testament, although it's not labeled as such, Psalm 49 gives some bullet points to this very idea, it gives birth to it, put the concept that I've just outlined both through an idea presented in a movie and through a literary work, a secular work. Psalm 49, “Hear this, all ye people; and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: both high and low, rich and poor, together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in their wealth, and boast in themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” That's the underlying method right here I'm trying to reach at today, this concept. If you really believe this, this soul, your soul and my soul, has value. It's bewildering to me; I'm not done reading, but it's bewildering to me how people can go through life, and I've met a few, and they do not consider their soul. I know you've all met people like this. You talk to them, you might even work beside them or live beside them; they're as uninterested in discussing the matter of their soul. The divine origin, by the way, could be a great controversy, “How dare you suggest that the soul has a divine origin?” Oh, I'm not, by the way, I'm not suggesting it; the Bible declares it as God when He created Adam breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and it says, “And Adam became a living soul.” So let's not be confused and confusion comes, by the way, when people are ignorant of this book. Dr. Scott was right: everybody's born an expert in religion and politics. And Lord help you if you can even spew off a few of the constitutional blurbs and maybe one or two proverbs; you are a dangerous wrecking machine. None of them can by any means,” verse 7, “redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: (for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) that he should still live forever and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.” Think about that. “Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,” if you have a Bible like mine, it says “from the hand of the grave” or from the power of hell, for he shall receive me. Selah.” Think of that. “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish”" So the psalmist here essentially is not, we're not talking about a deal with the devil, but we are talking about essentially the attractive selling of oneself for the world. Now don't think I've gone off the deep end here. I'm just noticing a pattern from the Old Testament into the New, and the pattern is that all too often it's easy for us to put aside the thoughts of something and to really deal with them until either we are given a bad report of our health. Now I remember, again, Dr. Scott saying as long as Mom and Pop were alive, he never really had to consider his own mortality. And I guess it was different for him than it is for me in a different sense, but sometimes it takes that marker in life to consider, to begin considering the soul. Now I'm asking for your attention, your undivided attention because what I have to say is almost like, it's a little bit of stirring the soul today. It's really easy to get into, we're teaching and I'm in a series and we're continuing on. We're on a steam path to somewhere, but every once in a while, the Lord will urge me to take out the spiritual prod and give it to you because there's the detection sometimes people can just get somewhat complacent. I've just read the Old Testament to you, now let's turn to the New, Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 16, specifically verses 25-28, with emphasis on verse 25 and 26. “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, if he shall gain the whole world, 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,” this is always read right over, “and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Do not think that this means of the doings of the good deeds and of the things that people say, “What works do you do?” But rather, exactly what is defined here regarding the application of the entire text, which I will elaborate on in a minute. “Verily I say unto 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 put these two together to do, the Old and the New, to do something, to show you how things do not change. It is an age-old and eternal battle. Because we live in the world, we're here, the temptations are ever-present. And I'm not saying that I'm telling you how to live your life. I'm telling you the temptations are real. I also, by this text, see Christ's value on the human soul. And when I started off by saying “divine origin,” I ask you right now to not listen to my voice today, although it's kind of hard, because I'm talking. But I ask you to hear the words I just read, specifically from the New Testament as though the Lord is standing here speaking them to you, otherwise this will never have an impact. The tendency, we tend to do this, we tend to read things and not isolate them. It's a wonderful principle to isolate Scripture at times and to just sit and imagine the Lord is speaking to me. Now there'll be some nut who will take what I just said out of context and you know, what you do, do quickly. And they'll say, “The Lord spoke to me and said that.” Never mind. But what I'm trying to say is if we really make the words on this page roll off of the Lord's lips as the living Lord, and which He is alive and ever-present and He's in our midst; and speak to our souls today, there's a really good chance that even for those people who say, “But I haven't sold my soul or tried to gain or to profit anything.” So maybe a little bit of a stirring that brings about what we'll call “spiritual inventory.” Only you can do it for you. I can't do it for you. And even though we're sitting a room where there's plenty of people and there's people who are gathered in different places and you're surrounded by other people, I want you to imagine, as difficult as this is, that there's only one other person sitting with you today. And that's the Lord. When you start to listen that way, you're going to care less about the way I say something, and more about the spirit of what's being said and hopefully make an application. And if, if there's even a small application made today, then I have been successful in what the Lord placed on my heart. The psalmist in Psalm 91 talks about “dwelling in the secret place of the most High,” and I believe that's an abode for every person who runs to the voice of the Sayer, but there is a secret place that exists within each and every one of us. The trouble is at times, and depending on who you are and where you are, being real with the secret and hidden things of the heart is the most difficult; the facing of one's self. As I said, you can only do this for you. I can't do it for you, just as I, I've got to do these things for me. Now in this text that I just read, the emphasis here “whosoever shall save his&” And remember, the King James translators, everything is done in the masculine, but this should have a general application, so I'm using “his” and I'm going to stay with using terms as “men” and “man” and “mankind,” but it is applied to both genders, including the middle gender; whatever that one is for you, okay. “Whosoever will save,” emphasis: “his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” And again, “For what is man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Emphasis, of course, on the “his” and the “him,” and “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” So you can see there is some something being conveyed. Now it's quite ludicrous, if you really look at this text aright and you couple it with the Scripture I read out of the Psalms, it's kind of ludicrous and we almost have to see beyond the words in the text to a deeper suggestion, a deeper inquiry, and that is this. Has anyone in history ever gained the whole world? Think of all the people, all the conquerors, all the richest people; have they ever gained the whole world? This is why I said it really needs careful reading because essentially what Christ is saying is something that is impossible in the scope of things. Man may deceive himself. Alexander the Great, the great conqueror, sat down, history records he sat down and wept because he believed that there was nothing for him to conquer. He believed that he had conquered the whole world, but in fact, if you look at the territory, he only conquered a sliver of the face of the earth, but he sat down and wept. It's a slightly conceited, slightly sad, slightly warped━no man or woman has ever gained the whole world. It's a ludicrous proposition or inquiry to ask. And so it's kind of interesting. By sections here, I want to look at what's being said. Back to verse 25 for a minute, “whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.” In the process of this, I want you to think of what the psalmist was talking about. When people begin to be interested, if they are even interested━if━in God, there begins a whole wrestling match for the individual, which is “Why should I even be concerned?” In other words, the attitude many times is “It's sufficient for somebody to come into the church and do the minimal things or the minimal thought, the minimal study, the minimal application that I must do, because I'm gracing God by my being.” I'm sorry to say that, but that's a whole mentality that permeates the church world. The question is saving one's life, or the attempt to save one's life, even that is a ludicrous statement if you think about it. Ultimately in the end, no matter, we could say we, we eat good, we exercise, we do this, but ultimately in the end, we don't decide the days of our lifespan. We don't decide how long and how much: when it's time, it's time. Somebody said, “How can you be that glib about that?” I'm not. I'm a realist. You know, if you're not sure, go across the street at the close of the service and try and ask any of those people across the street that are under the ground if they chose the time. Maybe a small percentage of them did, very small. I'm talking about people who took their own life, but by and large, most don't chose. So when we think of this, it's somewhat interesting. The psalmist was talking about the building up for one's self, the building up of a home or wealth, which is not inherently wrong, but the idea being again, the heaping up for the self. There's no, there is no cognizance of God or the possessions of God or that you indeed are a possession of God, purchased of God. We sing a song that talks about that. And then in verse 26, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,” and I ask you again, has any man ever gained the whole world? “and lose his own soul?” Perhaps we should define what the losing of the soul is first. That might help up open up the idea of gaining the whole world. And it seems this is very simple, but it's actually very deep, because you know what happens? You can say, “Well, of course. I'm in the church and I love the Lord and I read this,” but the reality is this can creep in to every single heart and mind. In fact, I believe it does daily. And I think if people say it doesn't, I think they deceive what I've called that “hidden secret place of the soul.” It's the battle, it's the age-old battle. Now some deliberately and willfully, as I mentioned, Faust, who deliberately sold himself out to obtain, or the one I mentioned, fictitious movie character, poor unfortunate guy who actually was the real Mr. Johnson, or whatever his name was. But the idea here is I don't necessarily know that we start out to “barter” for the soul. I think we all start out, for the most part, I'm talking about those who have responded to the call of God, not those who don't know and don't understand, but those who've responded start off with the proposition, with the idea the Lord will make a way. That simple faith, just like the children that Jesus pointed to, and then things get a little tough and it's much easier to start looking back at the world. It's, you see, this is why I said to you the Bible is so incredible. If you stay in it long enough, you begin to see patterns. This is the children of Israel delivered out of Egypt's bondage, and yet, I think I referenced this last week, looking back and saying, “Did you bring us out here to kill us, because we're craving the food of Egypt? How much better did we, were our bellies satisfied with that good, tasty leeks and garlic?” Wow, you know, if that's what floats your boat, yeah. “We'd rather have that than the what-cha-ma-call-it bread that God is raining down for us, because we can't stand that bread! My point is that within these words of Christ, there's something that is opening up. And this is what I'd like to get to the point of really understanding. When He says, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,” we might basically say, “What does a man really get?” What does an individual really get if he sells his soul for the world? What is really obtained? Is it possible to obtain something that will be more valuable than what you're selling? And perhaps the second part of this question would be “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul” is once the soul is sold, can a man buy it back? That might be a better translation. Forgive me for doing that that way. Can a man buy it back? Well, how can you? If you sold it, you have nothing to buy it with. And I think the reason why this is, it seems clear to me why I was toiling with this is I think it's very easy to get caught up in. I succumb to it periodically; I'm honest enough to tell you, and I'm sure that most of you do too because we live, even though we've been called out of the world, we're still living in the world. It's easy to get caught up in the things that belong to the world and get latched onto that and lose the center and circumference of the spiritual grasp of things, which is, I've said this before, it's possible, unlike the other people who preach and tell you when you come to God you're going to have, you're pockets will be so loaded with cash and you'll have this and you'll have that; it's possible I'll die a bag lady and I'll have nothing to my name, except the riches that Christ has bestowed into my soul that I will take with me into His presence. That's what I'll have. Now I don't think that's a popular message, do you? I don't think that's very popular. You'd rather hear about how God's going line, you know, make all the lining inside, you know, it's all going to have that currency that's spendable down here, right. So let's talk about this. What does a person really get? As I said, no one has ever, the ludicrous part of this is no one has ever obtained. And I think if you go back a little bit in the text, and that's why I said I'd, I'd start at the bottom and go back a little bit, is something that Peter says. And I don't know if Christ was simply talking to Peter at this point in the verses I've quoted or if He's talking to someone else in the crowd or it's a general statement. I'd prefer to make it a general statement, even though I believe He was talking to Peter, because if you remember earlier Peter makes the declaration, “Thou art the Christ,” and then slightly after that Peter begins to rebuke Jesus because Jesus begins to speak of His death, how He must needs go to Jerusalem and die and Christ turns to Peter and says, “Get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offence unto to me, for thou savourest━you don't understand the things that be of God, but those that be of men. You have, you have no understanding of what I'm about by what you just said.” And this is not the first time that Christ heard this type of speak. Don't you remember back there in Matthew 4, when the devil came to tempt Him? And he said, “Cast yourself down, I'll give you everything you see,” like really, did Christ need the devil to say, “I'll give you everything, I'll give you all the world; I'll give you everything”? That's kind of another ludicrous statement for the One who spoke it all into being. So Christ had already encountered this mindset and what Peter, listen, there'll be people who don't know the Bible would say, “Well, what's wrong with the disciple getting a little bit testy and saying, 'No! It's not━You can't do that! I love You too'”━do you know what he was saying? “I love You too much for You to go and die. I want You here with me!” Anybody out there would say, “Oh, what a good disciple. What a nice━Peter is a nice guy, right? He really loved the Lord. Look how he was looking out. Jesus couldn't possibly know that talking about dying is stupid-talk!” People out there in the world would look at this and say, “What a good disciple! What a good man.” I'd say what an idiot! Because the whole time Jesus was walking around saying, “I've got to go die. I've got to do something to fix the rest of the world because it's broken. And if I don't go and die, things will not get fixed.” It's like, you know, that happens in a marriage, “Will you fix the lawnmower?” “Will you fix the lawnmower?” “Well, you can't, if you don't fix the lawnmower you can't cut the grass.” “Oh, the lawnmower is broken.” I don't know, that's a very bad analogy, but it's like Peter's saying, “Don't, don't, don't do this! I love You too much! You can't do this because I want You here for me! But forget about the rest of the world. They don't, they don't have any problems.” You understand the grass is growing situation; never mind. If you don't, if you're not married, that won't make sense to you and if you don't have a lawn, it will make even less sense to you. But the problem of the possibility, the door opening, let's get back to reality here, of━and I'm not talking about the drama of the barter of the soul, but I am talking about the idea somehow, because it's, it has come into the church, not this church, but it's come into the church. When I read articles, when I hear about how people approach things, it seems very apparent to me that there's more talk about the tangible than the unseen. There's more talk about getting the treasures now than laying up treasures in heaven, all the things that Christ spoke about. This is an important part of the problem, which is what will a man get? Hypothetically, if it was possible and I ask again a third time, has anyone ever gained the whole world? And the answer is, no. It's ludicrous. Now perhaps Christ's value of the soul is at a completely different level than our understanding. We talk about the soul and we say, “Does a man,” and I'm using this generically now, “Is a man lost when he dies?” But the answer is a man is lost before he even encounters death. A man is lost, the soul of a man, humankind is lost because, I've said many times, about what happened in the garden, and man has been sinning man ever since. And yes, there are diverse ideas within even Christendom of, you know, our, is it, does it start, does a baby commit sin or does, you know, when does that start? Well, you're born with it. It's just like the veins that are inside your body, they are there; the evil is there. You know, don't say that a child learns how to be evil in the home, because that may be true, but the evil starts within the tabernacle itself. That's the imprint of Adam. So when Christ puts this premium on the soul, I'd go back to say, divine in origin, astonishing in its properties if you think about it. Ezekiel, I've referenced this before, “All souls are mine,” that means the ones that are created for honor, the ones that are created for dishonor all belongs to Him. Too bad, I mean, I live in a world where people will completely dismiss what I'm saying. To them what I'm talking to you about today is just nothing but rhetoric and nonsense and it has no application, it has no value, it has no impact because they don't think about the soul as immortal, eternal and long after this tabernacle is laid down, existing. That should, you know, if there was ever a reality to strike home, that one should strike home real quick. Now somebody asked me, “Well, you're saying this, but how, how do you suppose this all works?” and I said, “Suppose it's like this, suppose it's exactly what Christ said: you must be born from above.” And Paul talks about the deposit of Christ, the Spirit abiding in that person for a simple act of faith. Nothing else is asked of you, just faithing in Him, trusting Him, and from that time forward, this is going to be a really weird analogy, so forgive me; from that time forward the experiences of your life as you walk in the faith, as you walk in great faith and in little faith and maybe at times disconnected, all begin to be, we'll call it “magnicized,” there is a magnetic connection between that which has been deposited and the acts and the living of the life of that individual until the time that you are no longer here. And all of that, all of that, not just a part of it, is what will be with the Lord. Otherwise you'd, you'd be only a piece of something that never had an individual part of you to begin with. Does that make sense? Because the individual, him or herself will stand and that requires the individuality of that person, that spirit person being able to stand, not just the spirit apart from the individual. If that makes any sense to you, then what I'm saying is it should concern you! This is not a call for you to go out and try and act holy. This is not a call for you to stop living your life. This is a call to do some spiritual inventory: how much of my thoughts are consumed and applied to God? Is God a backburner thought? Oh, I have a friend of mine who many years ago I gave a Bible to and I'm sure the Bible's still sitting in the same place as when I visited the last time, “Oh, oh, thank you. Thank you so much. You know, this thing won't shake anymore, right? The word of God, a sure foundation.” And there's other people that will ask you questions. You won't see them here, but they'll ask you questions. You know people like that. They, there's something about asking, talking to you. You seem to have great knowledge, but, but they never want to make any further attempt. And then there are those people that God blesses you with, a few of them sitting in front of me, who come with a hungry heart, and they want to know and they want to take in. So I go back to my text and I ask the question if we can know the impossibility of gaining the whole world and we know that losing the soul or the lost soul is not lost upon death, but it's lost in life. Therein begins my message of what on earth are we doing here? In other words, if somebody can't make sense of this and say I, I sort out the idea, the premium that Christ put on the soul which is far beyond anything that the earth can give or that can be reaped or taken from, then suddenly, I have to go back and read, because He says, “If any man will come after me,” the answer is pretty much here, “let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Think of, in the word “deny,” think of the essence of “to prefer” because when people read this, they think, “Well, what does, what does this mean for my being?” It means that I prefer, I prefer the things of Christ, I prefer to know about Him, I prefer above these other things. There is the call, by the way, in the first, what I just read, verse 24; there's the call: “If any will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Now watch the three 'for's that follow, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,” not being able to respond to the call or not preferring to respond to the call. Know the difference between those of us who have responded to the call and who have failed along the way━I raise both hands━but still get up and say, “Lord, I'm still going to follow You, even though I've messed up,” right, versus those who refuse to. “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,” what are you going to get if you get the whole world, “and lose his own soul?” and what; how will a man buy it back? There is no amount that you━you've already sold, “Well, I'll give my body.” Well, the body isn't worth anything apart from the soul. I mean, it might be worth something here on earth, but in eternity it has no value. Again, I digress: go across the street and ask any body over there, right? They probably won't say too much to you. Now I think about the man in the Bible who sold his Lord, preferring, by the way, if you want to call it that he was possessed by the devil when he did it or demons, but thirty pieces of silver Judas sold Jesus. That's what the world was to him at that moment. It doesn't have to be all the money in the world; thirty pieces to Judas might have been just that. This isn't a message against what are you selling yourself for, but at the same time, I'm asking you: are you selling yourself short of the thing that God intended you to be in His economy, which is far beyond anything the world can give you or that you can take of it. When you find that, you will have found the center and circumference of your life in Christ. I'm reminded of, there's a story of I think it was a woman that somebody broke into her house and they said to the woman, “Your money or your life!” And she said, “You can't have my money; I'm broke. And my life belongs to Christ.” Now I'm being ludicrous to say that in every single passage here there's great irony because he starts off by saying something regarding Peter, not understanding the things of God and then digresses down and we see this, what I'd call a progression to say the things of the world, we're always going to encounter them. I'm not asking you to put on strange clothes. There's people that are of a different ilk, they wear a different type of clothing, they don't use, you know, electric anything is taboo. I'm not telling you to do that, okay, please don't do that! I don't, I don't want to interfere in what━if you want to dress up in funny clothes and not use electric devices, that's your problem. But, but what I am saying probably the most important thing here is taking these words to yourself today. And as I said, we can talk, we could sit one on one and have a discussion and this is how we are. We can put on the brave mask or we can put on the mask of great faith, we can put on the mask of great declarations and proclamations, but you cannot put on the mask before God and that's why I said I urge you to let this hit the hidden, secret place of your heart, not because I desire to dig and to probe and to “Hey, let's all, let's all put our dirty laundry out there, and you know, have a dirty laundry yard sale!” I'm not talking about that, but I'm saying the only way that God can enter in to help is you being completely honest with Him. He knows already. He already knows. He's desiring for you in your prayer time to be able to speak to Him about this because that's, as I said, it's the disease of humanity. As long as we're here the battle for what we think we ought to have, what we desire to, what we truly need; this is why Christ said don't be anxious. You know, consider the birds and the flowers; don't be anxious. And if there is anxiousness, if there is that, cast your cares upon Him. I can't say this enough. When I started out in my early teens, my early years, I really thought life was about amassing. And I'll tell you it was just about the time I met Dr. Scott that that started kind of, as I started to listen and get into the word of God that I realized it doesn't make any difference. And then you know it really doesn't make any difference, I've told you this before, when you watch your loved one die. Even though I say, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord,” all the money, right? All the money can't bring the individual back. And you could have it all and it wouldn't make a difference. So I ask you and I ask you in sincerity and I ask you to do a little soul searching because it happens by degrees most of the time. It doesn't happen in big amounts. I go back to say look at Judas, thirty pieces. What are you selling yourself for today? What are you selling your soul for in exchange? What has taken the place of, the preference, the thing that you used to quest after, the fire that burned in your belly, the thing you desired the most above everything, which seems to have ebbed away. And I say to you, if that is you today, it is never too late. Doing spiritual inventory once in a while does something quite wonderful if, as I said, if you're going to be honest between you and God━you don't tell anybody else. This is between you and Him, “Lord, I haven't talked to You as much. I haven't prayed as much. I haven't read as much. I haven't been a lot of things as much, but I really need Your help to start today. You gave Your life for me.” That's the only thing when we talk about “It's too late. I've already sold it all, I've sold it and given it all away.” The Lord says, “Wait a minute. This is exactly what I said I was here for! I came to seek and to save the lost.” And the “lost” by the way, includes the precious parable of the prodigal son who had it all and threw it away, for what? It may not have any meaning to you today. It has plenty of meaning to me as I go through life and battle it out and I go through life recognizing that the people and the things that are in this book represent a heavy choice for every single individual, “Can I buy back what I've sold away?” And the answer is, no, but Christ already did! The beauty of the faith that I preach, God is looking for the treasure inside the vessel, not inside the pockets of the vessel, not inside the bank account of the vessel. God is looking for the treasure. We'll talk about the treasure in the field, hidden, buried, sometimes not even to the world━to the world invisible, cannot be seen. To Him, He says, “That's where, exactly where it is. And the remnant that is there, not just the remnant, but the whole lost sum total is Mine.” I don't know how better else to say it, because Christ makes it abundantly clear. But there are plenty of lost people in this book. I'm sure they thought they were okay from pharisaical types, the rich young ruler who couldn't because he wouldn't; couldn't follow Christ because he wouldn't give up his riches. There is you have a man tethered to the world. And then step out of the Bible and step out of the book and walk into the pages of your life and see how the buffeting of the world comes back at you the minute your eyes from this book go immediately to your life and you'll recognize that the danger and the peril of this is everywhere. So remember the words of Christ, remember the purpose for which He came and I'm asking, I'm really not asking new people, I'm not asking people who have great experience and who have━I'm asking the whole body to listen to me. I said “lost” is usually defined for most people as death. The believer says, “Death has lost its sting,” with the understanding that only this flesh is put down. This, the thing I spoke about of divine origin, which is the soul, the very thing that God placed in me, that life is with Him, never dying, never ending, never ceasing. So if somebody says to me, “Well, what's the hope? What should I do today?” The question I'm going to ask you, goes back to the text with one simple exclamation, which is man will get nothing to gain the whole world, because man has never gained the whole world. And the loosing of the soul is the way we start out and God is less concerned with what, with where we start out than where we finish. Crossing the finish line means getting back up today no matter how far you think you've fallen away or how much you've sold off to recognize Jesus paid it all. His shed blood at Calvary covers it all. Let nobody try and convince you that somehow your fall has been too great or the sale of your soul estate is gone, for even the most miserable, hopeless sinner condemned to death could look to Christ and Christ's words to him, “This day you'll be with Me in Paradise.” I can't think of anything greater, any greater inventory that one could do today than to ask yourself the questions I've asked to meditate, to let these words be directly, not from my mouth, not from the sound of my voice, but from Christ's lips to your heart. And if it bring you to some fresh, closer walk, some fresh reality that maybe you're a little bit more distant or maybe you've, you've sold away something, I'd say, “Be not like that profane person, Esau,” when all of his tears couldn't buy back what he sold away, here we have a greater One who says, “I know exactly where you are.” And like the prodigal, He says, “There's bread enough to spare, come on home.” God is still saying that today to you and to me, “There's bread enough to spare, come on home.” Jesus has paid it all for you and for me and I pray that you take this and you start today with a fresh look to Him who has your soul and cares for it more than you know. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
