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Welcoming my pastor, Reverend Bishop Merle Meese. Hey, what's going on? Good to see you. Now I understand that this is the best 11 o'clock service anywhere. Okay. Now the church that I pastored for a while had folks that would help me while I preached. Is there anybody gonna help me while I preach? That means you talk back to me. Okay, very good. You're gonna listen. I know you'll listen. That's a good thing. Uh would you join me in welcoming my wife, Karen, of 46 years? She was 11, I was 12 when we got married. You can do that in Texas. So hey, I'm from Texas. Let me just say this about Texas. You can always tell a Texan, you just can't tell us much. All right? My wife and I are from San Angelo, Texas. Anybody ever been to San Angelo? That was not that was not anything that was impressive whatsoever. Evidently, that's the reason you don't go to San Angelo because it is not impressive. I told Clayton, never invite me to come in June, July, or August because I won't come. Because of the humidity. Is that right? This is like beautiful weather. Yesterday, Kansas City was hotter than Houston. That's crazy. We came because we love Courtney and Clayton and because we've been hungering for some Mexican food since 1985 when we moved to Kansas City. There is no good Mexican food up there. Now there's good barbecue. Not as good as Texas barbecue. When I'm can in Kansas City, I say the same thing about Kansas City barbecue. It's the best barbecue. So I'm really glad to uh really glad to be here. Uh we considered honor. We love Courtney and Clayton. It's been a joy for us to watch them. We have a heart for church planters because my wife and I did church planting back in the day. Uh we know what it's like to do building programs. Our first uh gathering place was in a farm bureau building. It was their meeting room. It seated about 60 people. We sat on metal chairs. The children's ministry was behind an accordion door. You could just pull this door, and then the children's ministry back there. When our children cried, everybody knew whose children it was because it was that small, and then we were able to eventually get our own building in the days ahead. So we honor you for the work that you do. You got a good pastor and wife here, amen. They're good folks. They are really good people. One of the things that has been a joy for me over the years in meeting with Clayton is in this mentoring relationship. Uh Clayton, I learned as much from you as you ever say that you learned from me because that's what you should do when you get older in life. You should always do this mentoring where other people are mentoring you, younger people are doing that. And so we have these conversations. One of the things I love about Clayton is that he always comes with astute questions. He asks really good questions. And most of our conversations are about the questions that he has. And on occasion he talks about how crazy you are, and I go, I get that. Isn't that right, Clayton?

unknown 3:57

I lost all my hair.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

That's right, that's right. That's right. I remember Clayton when he didn't have a beard and he had hair on the top of his head. And so but he asked great questions. The sign of a good leader is this leaders are learners, and one of the ways that you learn is by asking questions because it proves that you're not the you're not the smartest person in the room. And so uh there are all different kinds of questions to ask, right? You can ask, like, you can ask a rhetorical question. Like, who wouldn't want to be successful? That's a rhetorical question. You can ask an open-ended question, like, well, how was your first day at work? You can ask trick questions, like, a cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and then rode out on Friday. How? You know the answer to that? Horse was named, was Friday. I could ask this in Kansas City and nobody would get it because they don't have any horses up there. But here you do. Or have you ever heard somebody say there's no such thing as a dumb question? I beg to differ. There are dumb questions. Here's one of the dumbest questions I've ever heard. So, uh, how long have you two guys been twins? Now, some of you are gonna get that at lunch. You'll be like, oh, I get that. Well, the Bible is peppered with all kinds of questions. And the truth is this the right question at the right time can expose your heart. It can bring about conviction, it can open your mind to a destiny and a future that you never imagined. It's just the right questions at the right time, has all kinds of powerful potential. And there are all kinds of questions throughout the Bible. As a matter of fact, if you're ever looking for a great Bible study, just look at the questions in the Bible. I believe that they are questions that will help you to examine the depth of your heart, help you know your values in that. If you know anything about the Bible, in the first question that was ever asked was asked by God to Adam and Eve after they had blown it, after they had sinned. And so the habit of God was to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evening, and they were walking in the garden. God was walking in the garden, and Adam and Eve were hiding themselves, and so the first question that was ever asked is, Adam, where are you? And it wasn't because God couldn't figure out where Adam was. It wasn't like Adam was really good at playing hide and seek. The question that was raised was one to help expose Adam's heart. It was actually a question to engage him so that he could experience what God was giving him, was willing to give him in return for his blowing up God's perfect plan for his life. He then asked Eve, who told you that you were, you were Adam, who told you that you were naked? Then he asked Eve, what have you done? Questions are powerful means of spiritual formation. And Jesus was the master question raiser. If you do a study, you'll find that somewhere between 100 and 140 unique questions were asked by Jesus to his disciples and to the crowds. And the one that we're going to look at today is, I think, the most probing question. It's the one that has caused me the most trouble over the course of my following of Jesus. And it's a question that's found in Mark chapter 8, verses 35 through 36. And so one of the things I love to do at the church that I pastored is I love for the church to read the question or read the scripture with me. So I want you to read it out loud, and I want you to read it with your best southern drawl, okay? I haven't got to hear this for 35 years, and so I want to hear, I want to hear you guys whoop it out there, alright? Here we go. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? And what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? So let's make it really personal for just a minute, okay? Let's change it for what good is it for someone to me? And then anyone. What good is it for me to gain the whole world forfeit my soul? What can I give in exchange for my soul? This is a probing question. Not one that you want to just rush by. It's one that you want to allow to make its way down deep inside of you as you contemplate it. This particular question from Jesus does this. It will help you determine your priorities. It's going to help you understand what is it that you are pursuing. And here's a question I have for you. Is what you are pursuing right now worth the person that you are becoming? The way to answer this question is going to determine your priorities, your pursuits, it's going to determine your destiny, your eternity. And so, really, in essence, what Jesus is saying is, what's the price that you've put on your soul? Every one of us are good at determining the value of things. Have you looked at your own life and said, this is how much it's worth? So, the question that we're going to answer today, my way of summarizing, and the title for the message is this What is your soul worth? What's your soul worth? Just let that sink in. There are other people who have told you what your soul is worth. And some of them have told you what your soul is worth by the labels they've given you. Some of you think that your soul isn't worth much because of your history. And the enemy has been using that, and you are like a whipping boy for the enemy because of your past. Some of you have words that were said to you by important people in your life that the enemy has used to suck the very marrow of your soul out of you. And God wants to give you a different word today. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at the words of Jesus, and I'm gonna give us three ways to think about the question, what is your soul worth? And the first one is this you need to recognize the worth of your soul. You came today, what is your soul worth? Well, the only way to know it is you have to recognize its worth based from God's point of view. So, in order to get there, so I'm a real simple preacher. I I like to just make sure that you understand things and we'll we'll talk about things, piece it together. So before you can determine what your soul is worth, let's answer the question: what is a soul? Now, if I were to ask you and it weren't church, and we were just talking and you weren't gonna give me a Jesus answer, and I was gonna say, what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think a soul? Some of you might think, well, the bottom of my shoe. The soul, I'm thinking of the bottom of my shoe, all right? Some of you are going like me, when I hear the word soul, one of the first things I think about when I'm not thinking about biblical things is soul music because I love soul music. I grew up on soul music. It speaks to my heart. For some of you, it's soul food, whatever it might be. Some of you, when I when you hear the word soul, you think of a ghost. When a person dies, it's what's this wispy thing that floats up out of them because somewhere along the way you were told that's what your soul is. I'm gonna give you a biblical answer. Are you ready for it? How about the rest of you? Are you ready for it? Okay. The biblical answer for your soul is found in Psalm 103, verse 1. Psalm 103, verse 1 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. So let me give you a lesson in biblical interpretation. Psalms are Hebrew poetry. And when Hebrew poetry is written, oftentimes the writer uses what's called a parallelism. And what it simply means is he'll use one word and then he'll use a phrase that is a parallel phrase to tell you the meaning of the word. So what's the parallel? He says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. So therefore, what is the soul? The soul is all that is within me. That's your soul. And here's the deal: you don't have a soul, you are a soul. What are you worth? Your soul is like the operating system of your life. It includes your mind, your will, your emotions, your spirit, includes all of that. And so Jesus is asking us, what are you willing to exchange your whole being for? And is it worth it? Is it worth making that kind of exchange? Here's the deal of what I know in my own life. I have had a healthy soul and I have had a sick soul. I have had a rested soul, I've had an exhausted soul, I've had an integrated soul, I've had a fragmented soul, I've had a soul that was alive to God, I've had a soul that is numb to God. And I've had to raise the question for me. How is it that you can have a full life and a full schedule and yet have an empty soul? How is it that you can be successful in public, but in private feel like somebody has let the air out of your being? How can that be so? I've sat with leaders who have everything that you can imagine that is the American dream. Things it looks like in their life are up and to the right all of the time. They have influence, they have they have money, they have a platform, they have results, but quietly they would say something like this. I feel like what is on the inside is like the air has been let out of the tires. There's cynicism, there's bitterness, there's hopelessness. What they're talking about is their soul. And for many of them, they have exchanged what is the most important thing about their life for that which they cannot ever, ever satisfy. And here's what I know for my own life. A soul isn't something that you lose in one day. It happens gradually. It's like erosion. You know, being two degrees off in a building in one area might not be a big deal, but if you multiply and add up two degrees over the course of an entire building, it's not gonna stand. It's not gonna be square, it's not gonna be plumb, none of that is gonna happen. And the same is true for our own lives. So, what is it that gives your soul worth? Okay, we said the soul is all that is within me. Where does your soul get its worth? And the Bible would say this: your soul has worth because God created it. Genesis 2.7 says, when God created man, he breathed in him the breath of life and he became a living soul. Genesis 1.27 says this we were created in the very image of God. Do you need dignity? Do you need some dignity in your knife? Do you need to know how God views you? God views you as saying, You are made in my image. I breathe in you the breath of life. You have value in that alone, and that should be enough to sustain you all of your life. And not only that, though, your soul is worthy and has great worth because it's made for eternity. These bodies right here, as beautiful as they are, when I first started ministry, I was six, five, had black hair. Look what you did to Clayton. What the church has done to me. Our souls have worth because they're lived forever. Your soul is not worthy because of your salary, your success, your reputation, your looks, or your potential. Your soul is of great worth because God's the one that created it. You are precious in the very sight of God. There is nothing that compares to you. And God don't make no junk. Hello. He don't make any junk at all. So recognize the worth of your soul. Number two, if you're gonna deal with this, what is my soul worth? You have to refuse to trade your soul for temporary gain. Refuse to trade your soul for temporary gain. What can a person exchange their soul for? Just about anything, and we do it all the time. We do it all the time. When Jesus says, when Jesus says, what good is it for you to gain the whole world and forfeit your soul? The word forfeit means to willingly surrender it, to willingly give it away. It's not somebody who's taking it from you. What good is it to gain and amass to your life the whole world, yet at the same time you surrender the essence of who you are? Now let's talk about what is the world that Jesus is talking about. John chapter, 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17 is the best description of the world. And the world is not the creation. He's talking about a system that is saying, I'm really anti-God, I don't need God at all in my life. And look at what John says. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in them, for everything in the world. And this is John's summary. Everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. So, what is the world? The world consists of an overdesire. An over-desire. The word lust simply means over-desire. Now we all have desires, not all desires are bad. We are created to be desiring individuals. Lust is when your desire becomes an idol and it becomes an obsession. And to lust after the world, the flesh, and the pride of life means this: it's an over-desire to have your own way, to have everything for yourself, and to be seen as most important. How many of us have exchanged who we are to have our own way? And to have everything that we can see, and to be the most important person in the room. What worth calculator do we use? Now the world will tell you this. You are what you achieve, you are what people think about you, and you are what you accumulate. So let's just be honest. Here we are. Let me ask some really tough questions that we have to answer. Where are you most tempted to measure your worth? Where are you most tempted? Is it your looks? Is it your job? Is it where you live? Is it what you have? Is it your portfolio? Is it the land that you have? Is it your drug? Is it the approval of other people? Where are you measuring your worth? And what are you most afraid of to lose? When we first started. There was a lady who I was looking for a particular need to be met in the life of the church, and I was talking with her, and she knew more people than I did in this new church work that were friends. And I said to her, Hey, do you know of anybody that we could get to serve in this position? Well, little did I know that she was actually trying to get this position for herself, and she became offended that I didn't pick up on what it was she was laying down. And so, as a consequence of that, she began to spread among the new church that I was an evil person. I don't know if you've ever been described as evil before, but when I think of evil, I think of, I think of Adolf Hitler. I think of Jeffrey Dahmer. Remember the serial killer weird dude? Jeffrey Epstein? Evil. She considered me evil simply because I didn't allow her to assume a position that I didn't even know she was wanting. And this affected my reputation because she was telling everybody in the life of the church, never would happen at church like this, but she was telling everybody in the life of the church what a bad guy and how evil I was. And so this upset me. I had three conversations with her, nothing was resolved. I went to a friend of mine and I said to him, he was in the life of the church, a leader. I said, She is, she's ruining my reputation. I can't sleep. I'm I'm upset about this all the time. And I remember him looking at me and he's saying, Well, Merlin, uh, maybe you're just making too much about your reputation. Maybe your reputation has become an idol for you. And it was like, What the what? What? I thought, I thought he was gonna be there and support me. He's like, Yeah, you know, whatever. And it was like, oh. I had really at that season in my life as a new young church planter, my reputation was everything to me. And it isn't that your reputation is not an important thing, but I had made it an idol. It was everything about my life. What are you tempted? What are you tempted to measure your worth by, and what are you most afraid of losing? And would it impact your worth? Here's another thing. What do you check first thing in the morning and last thing at night? Because whatever it is, it's probably shaping your soul. You're giving it the first word, you're giving it the last word. Worldliness these days is building a platform, growing in influence, staying relevant, being effective, but the the temptation is the same that it has always been. These were the very temptations that the enemy brought to Jesus whenever he was just beginning his ministry. Same stuff. Trade the immediate, the eternal for the immediate. Go for the temporary gain. Go for the quick fix. Go for the dopamine drip. Do whatever you can for right now and give up what is most important. Lose sight of it. When Jesus was in the wilderness, the enemy, the Satan came to him and tempted him and said, Hey, if you'll turn these stones into bread, you'll get some food. Then he was tempting him to be relevant. When he said, Hey, listen, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple and God's gonna catch you. The temptation was, be spectacular. If you're spectacular, everybody's gonna love you. The temptation was, if you will bow down and worship me, the kingdoms are yours. The temptation was to be powerful. And the truth is this we face the same temptation. Satan doesn't have a new method of operation. It's old school stuff. It's always been that way, it's always gonna be that way. It's just repackaged in a new and different kind of form. The danger is not that you're gonna lose your soul someday. It's that right now, some of you, peace by peace, are trading your souls for something that's not worth it. The only way to really keep your soul is to give it to the right one. To make the right exchange. And that is to relinquish your life to Jesus. The context of this verse went something like this. In Mark chapter 8, there's this transition. Jesus has been talking about who he is, that he is the Messiah. But now in Mark chapter 8, in this passage, he's talking about not just who he is, but what it's gonna cost him to fulfill God's calling on his life, and that is he's gonna suffer and he's gonna give his life away. Peter confronts him and says, Listen, you can't do that. That's not what we're accepting about a Messiah. And Jesus says, Listen, you don't have the mind of God. Here's the deal. I must suffer in order for healing to come. I must give my life away in order for life to be given to others. And then he says, if this is true about me, it's certainly true for those of you who follow after me. And so he starts talking about what is the cost of following him. And he says this in Mark 8, 34 through 35 Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it. The world says this your worth is based upon what you hold on to. And Jesus is saying, no, your world, I mean your worth is based upon what you're willing to let go. Some of you right now are white knuckling your way through life. You are holding on to your significance right now, your security right now, your reputation, your control, your plans, the approval of others. You are white knuckling it because you think if the grip is getting loosed at all, everything in your life's gonna fall apart. It's all gonna fall apart. So you keep striving, you keep pushing, you are exhausted, and deep down you know it doesn't matter how tight you grip, you can't hold it all together. Have you ever tried to get a fist full of water and hold it? That's what some of us are doing. The tighter we squeeze on what it is that we are holding on to other than Jesus, that we think gives us worth, the faster it slips away through our fingers. Jesus says, if you want to save your life, lose it. Let go of the grip that you have, come to me with open hands, relinquish your life to me, and you will discover the ultimate worth of your soul. Because here's the deal the value of your soul is seen most clearly at the cross. That was the great exchange. Jesus exchanged his privileges and his prerogatives as the Son of God so that you wouldn't have to forfeit your soul. He was willing to exchange his life for yours and mine so that we could know life with God. And so I simply invite you to do this. Why not make the great exchange? Rather than exchanging your soul for things that never can fill the hole in your life, rather than exchanging your soul for what the world has to offer, why not exchange your sin for Jesus' forgiveness? Why not exchange your shame for freedom? Why not why not exchange your despair for his hope? When I came to faith in Jesus at the age of 18, I exchanged the darkness of my world for the light of Jesus Christ, and it changed everything about my life and my trajectory. Some of you are needing to exchange your guilt and shame for the freedom that Jesus offers. And I can't think of a better day to do that than today. Some of you may not even know why you came today. I talked with one man after the first service. He said, he told his wife, I need God to, I need God to speak this morning. And he came and he told me afterwards, never met him before. He said God had a specific word for him that he believed changed his life and changed his marriage. Because he realized what he was pursuing was not gonna add value ultimately to his life. And maybe that's true for you. You are on God's calendar this morning. What business do you need to do with him? Let's pray. So, Father.