Christ Church Sermon, Questions Jesus Asked: What Good Is It? April 12 2026

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Thank you for listening.

Scripture

is from Matthew 16 verse 26.

Matthew 16:26

What good will it be for someone to gain

the whole world yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for

their soul?

Hear what the spirit is saying to the

church.

Mom, what's a soul?

That innocent question came from our

oldest son, Micah, when he was about 7

years old. We were driving somewhere and

he was strapped into his car seat in the

backseat of my car when he posed this

big question.

And you have to understand that to that

point, every single question that that

child had asked me was about airplanes

or garbage trucks or Montreals or

anything related to transportation,

which was and always will be his first

love. He's training to be a pilot right

now. And sadly, I am not an expert in

the category of transportation. And so,

looking back, I am certain that I made

up most of the answers that I gave him

to those questions. But then he started

to expand his um category. the subjects

of the questions he asked. Sadly, he

expanded that into Star Wars. And it

turns out I know less about Star Wars

than I do about transportation. And so,

I gave my husband all of those

questions. But now, I got really excited

because he asked this spiritual

religious question. This is right up my

alley. This is my first baby's first big

question, his foray into all things

related to the issues of life. And I was

so excited. This was my maternal and to

some degree my spiritual time to shine.

So I mentally blew the dust off of my

seminary degree, which by the way I got

while I was pregnant with him. So I was

certain this religious curiosity came

from me. And I launched into this

beautiful saliloquy about what a soul

was.

And because you probably know me well

enough to know by now that I I love all

the big words, we didn't talk baby talk

to our kids a lot. We talked to them

kind of like they were little adults.

And as I look back on this moment, I am

certain I used every single big word I

know in the religious dictionary to

explain and weave together what was in

my mind this beautiful picture of what a

soul was. And at one point I looked in

the rearview mirror and I made eye

contact with Micah and he was staring at

me in that really intense childlike way

kind of like Henry just did with Pastor

Chris when he was looking up at him

after the baptism. It's that moment or

that way those little kids look at you

that makes you think they're really

pondering and they're really in, you

know, taking in and processing what you

are saying. And then that started to

really freak me out, right? Cuz now I'm

sure he's going to be a pastor. And I

felt like my work in raising him was

pretty much done. And I could almost

hear the angels singing and the voice of

God whispering in my ear, "Well done,

good and faithful servant. at the tender

age of seven, you have trained up your

child in the way he should go. So, I'm

feeling pretty good about myself and I

wrap up my explanation of what a soul

is. And I look again in the rearview

mirror and I make eye contact with Micah

and I'm waiting for him to come out with

like applause or something. And he

pauses for a second and he says, "Mom, I

was talking about shoes."

It was a humbling moment.

Turns out I also know nothing about

shoes.

And I think maybe our next sermon series

should be questions Micah asked instead

of questions Jesus asked because he

asked a lot of them I can't answer. No

matter how you spell it, whether it is

the soul on your shoe or the soul in

your body, those are complicated things.

It is the soul that is in your body that

is the subject of the question uh that

Peggy just read for you today. This

second question in our uh sermon series,

questions Jesus asked. Hear that

question again. What good will it be for

someone to gain the whole world and yet

forfeit their soul? In the New Testament

where we find this question, the Greek

word used for soul in this particular

verse is seehi. It's pronounced or it's

spelled rather like psyche. It's

pronounced. And according to the Greek

lexicon, it means your innermost being

in life.

that piece of you that never dies.

So, now that we have that definition,

let me pose the question for today

again, but let me pose it in a different

way.

What good will it be for someone to have

all of the pleasures and treasures that

this world tells us are important for

happiness, but pay for those things with

our lives, both in this world and the

next?

On the surface, I think it seems like a

pretty easy question. Anyone who is in a

relationship with Jesus or on the way to

having a relationship with Jesus would

say that nothing in this world is worth

the cost of losing that relationship

both in the here and now and in our

forever home in heaven. And I I think

we'd mean it. I know we would mean it.

But the follow-up question we have to

ask ourselves is this. Are we really

living like we believe that? Have we

made and are we willing to make

sacrifices

personally, professionally, relationally

so that our number one priority is

always Jesus.

The crux of this question is that we

have a choice. We can choose the world

or we can choose our souls. We can go in

on all in on the world and all it has to

offer or we can go allin on our souls

and Jesus and that relationship. That's

what it boils down to.

Today I want to share with you three

stories of people who were faced with

that choice.

The first is the parable of the man the

Bible calls a rich fool. At one point in

his ministry, Jesus was preaching to a

crowd that was gathered around him and

someone in the crowd asked him a

question. asked him this, "Teacher, tell

my brother to divide the inheritance

with me." So, not so much a question,

almost like a command, but it seems like

a reasonable one to make. Clearly,

someone these two men knew had passed

away, and there is a question about the

inheritance to be received from that

person. And it seems only fair that one

brother should have to share with the

other. But surprisingly, Jesus had some

quick and some stern words in response.

And Jesus said to them, to the crowd,

"Watch out. Be on your guard against all

kinds of greed. Life does not consist in

abundance of possessions."

And Jesus told them this parable. The

ground of a certain rich man yielded an

abundant harvest. He thought to himself,

"What shall I do? I have no place to

store my crops." Then the rich man said,

"This is what I'll do. I will tear down

my barns. I will build bigger ones. And

there I will store my surplus grain. And

I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of

grain laid up for many years. Take life

easy. Eat, drink, and be merry."

But God said to him, "You fool. This

very night your life will be demanded

from you. Then who will get what you

have prepared for yourself?

This is how it will be with whoever

stores up things for themselves but is

not rich towards God.

This story makes it clear that what

Jesus thought about choosing

possessions, choosing the world,

choosing to accumulate wealth just to be

able to eat, drink, and remarry.

In the parable, God responded to that

choice by telling the man that that same

night his life would be over. And at

that point all of the treasures that he

had accumulated on earth won't matter at

all. What would matter what mattered

more on earth and in heaven was his soul

which he neglected while he was storing

up his abundance and his wealth in his

grain.

One biblical commentary summed it up

this way. That night the man dies. His

riches go to another and his soul is

left without a relationship with God.

This is the fate of someone who gathers

earthly riches but does not spread the

kingdom of God.

The second story of someone who was

forced to choose between the world and

Jesus is the story of the rich young

ruler. This might be a little bit more

familiar to some of you than the first

story was. Matthew 19:16-22

Matthew 19:16–22

says, "And behold, a man came up to him,

came up to Jesus, saying, Teacher, what

good deed must I do to have eternal

life? And Jesus said to him, why do you

ask me about what is good? There is only

one who is good. If you would enter

life, keep the commandments."

And the man said to Jesus, "Which ones?"

And Jesus said, "You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery. You shall

not steal. You shall not bear false

witness. Honor your father and mother,

and you shall love your neighbor as

yourself.

The young man said to him, "All these I

have kept. What do I still lack?"

Jesus said to him, "If you would be

perfect, go sell what you possess and

give to the poor, and you will have

treasure in heaven, and come follow me."

When the young man heard this, he went

away sorrowful. for he had great

possessions.

This story plays out so vividly in my

mind every time I hear it. Searching for

the key to eternal life, the rich young

ruler listened as Jesus listed off the

commandments that he needed to live by

in order to live forever. And I could

practically visualize that rich young

ruler's chest expanding with arrogance.

And I could almost hear the pride in his

voice as he replied to Jesus, "All these

I have kept. Those aren't anything. This

is a man who thought that he had already

won the reward of eternal life.

Maybe because he couldn't quite keep his

ego in check, or maybe because he wanted

everyone else around him to know just

how well he had done in completing

Jesus's list, he asked one more

question. What do I still lack?

And I think that he probably expected

the answer from Jesus to be nothing.

Instead, Jesus told him to sell his

possessions and give them to the poor

and to follow Jesus. And then the man

would know treasure in heaven.

And with that, the rich young ruler

turned around and left.

Jesus knew the weakness of the rich

young ruler knew the one thing he had

that would be almost impossible for him

to give up. And Jesus called his bluff.

You see, the rich young ruler thought he

saw his future. But in reality, he was

blind to what he needed to do to get

there. He thought he had done everything

he needed to achieve eternal life. But

in reality, he had neglected to do the

most important thing. And when he was

told that the pursuit of God was that

most important thing, was more important

than the pursuit of wealth, he gave up

instead of giving what he had to God.

The third story about choosing the world

or choosing Jesus

is your story.

Now, I obviously don't know every single

one of your stories and I don't have

time to tell them even if I did, nor

would I share them in front of a large

crowd of people. You're welcome.

But I do know this.

Each of us, myself included, if we are

honest with ourselves, has something we

are holding on to tighter than we are

holding on to Jesus.

The rich fool held on to the good life.

The rich young ruler held on to his

possessions.

What are you holding on to?

We hear the question, "What good will it

be for someone to gain the whole world

and yet forfeit their soul?" And I think

that we have made a mistake in trying to

understand that question. I think the

mistake we make is not taking Jesus

seriously enough.

We don't take that question at face

value. Instead, we try to tone it down

to make it less black and white, less

harsh, less it has to be this way or

this way.

We think to ourselves that Jesus could

not possibly have meant that we actually

have to choose between the world and our

souls, our lives, our very connection to

him.

Except he did.

Or we think that Jesus could not

possibly have meant that if we love

something in this world more than him,

then we are turning our backs on him,

giving up our souls.

Except he did.

I think the mistake we make is that

instead of sitting with the gravity of

this question, we go back to the stories

we know of the grace and mercy that

Jesus showed to those whom he ministered

and we focus on that Jesus. And then we

tell ourselves that that Jesus will give

us grace and mercy no matter what we

choose.

What we are missing,

what we are failing to realize is that

the grace and mercy Jesus promised that

he already showed to all those other

people is found in these stories

already. It's already in our story.

Grace and mercy are found in the fact

that Jesus gave us the choice between

the world and him in the first place.

God did not have to send Jesus to die

for us to pave the way for eternal life.

God chose to send his only son to die on

the cross so that we would get this

choice, the world or our souls.

Both the Bible stories that we just went

through were of people who valued things

over God. people who were faced with

choosing between the things of this

world or life now and eternally with

Jesus.

The thing about material possessions is

that they all have a finite value. And

that value is ultimate ultimately

determined by what someone else is

willing to pay for them. And so, for

instance, you cannot sell your 1998

Toyota Camry for $50,000 because nobody

is going to pay $50,000 for a 28-y old

car.

The rich fool's grain, the rich young

ruler's possessions.

Those are material things that had a set

value.

These two men were rich in different

ways. And when push came to shove, each

of them chose their worldly wealth over

Jesus. In the end, they felt the value

of what they had was greater than the

value of eternal life.

But let's get back to our souls.

What about their value?

While the world may not place a very

high value on your soul, Jesus thought

that it was so important that he paid

for it with his life.

Matthew 7:21 says,"Not everyone who says

Matthew 7:21

to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the

kingdom of heaven, but only the one who

does the will of my father who is in

heaven." In other words, don't bother

calling God Lord if you can't do what he

asks, which is to follow him at all

costs.

Jesus paid the price for our eternity,

and now he is asking us to pay the price

of following him now.

Make no mistake about it, this is a very

difficult choice. It's really hard. In

fact, I told my husband what verse I was

preaching on this weekend and he said,

"That's a really hard choice." And I

said, "Tim, you were a pastor. If anyone

should be okay with this and get this,

it's you." To which he was probably

thinking, but to his credit did not say

out loud was, um, you're also a pastor.

Are you always perfect in choosing Jesus

over the world?

I am most definitely not perfect. I make

the wrong choice often.

The world is a really tempting place.

When I do make the wrong choice, I pray

for forgiveness. I pray that my faith

will get stronger and that the next time

I have a choice, I will make the right

one. That I will choose my soul over

some hyped up, short-lived joy that the

world is offering. that I will work

harder at listening to Jesus and

following his word and remembering to

treasure my soul more than I treasure my

stuff.

The good news is that the more you

choose your soul over the world, the

easier it becomes over time to continue

making that choice.

But what I don't want us to miss is the

urgency of this question. We cannot

trick ourselves like the rich fool did

and think that we can choose the world

now that there will always be time for

faith later.

If we learn one thing from the rich fool

if not from life itself it's that we are

not guaranteed tomorrow and sometimes

there is no time to pursue faith later.

We need to choose our souls, our life

now.

Not later, not after we have all the

stuff that we think will make us happy,

but now.

What good will it be for someone to gain

the whole world and yet forfeit their

soul?

Let me make it abundantly and absolutely

crystal clear.

In this question, there is a choice

between only two things.

The world or your soul.

There is no third choice. There's no

middle ground. There is no room for

conditions or exceptions or excuses.

It is the world or Jesus. It is as

incredibly challenging

and yet as surprisingly simple as that.

Let's pray.

God, it is indeed a very difficult

choice to choose between the world and

all of the trappings and stuff it has to

offer and our souls. And so we pray

today for the courage to make that

choice, to choose you, to choose life,

to choose our souls every single time we

are faced with making that decision. We

pray for courage. We pray for strength.

We pray for discernment. We pray for

vision to know that even when we

sacrifice the things of this world, it's

not really a sacrifice because what it

means is that we are growing deeper in

our relationship with you.

We pray that you may guide our steps and

help us to be wise and help us to make

the right choice.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.