Are You Missing God's Best For Your Life? Series

Are You Missing God's Best for Your Life?

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 16:24-28

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared September 10, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 16. This chapter began with Christ-rejecting Pharisees and Sadducees trying to trap Jesus by asking Him for a sign from heaven. The Lord had already given them countless miraculous signs that proved He was the promised Messiah. But no sign would have been enough for those ungodly religious elites.

*By this time, Jesus was in the 3rd year of His ministry. J. Vernon McGee estimated the Lord was only six months away from the cross, and the Lord was viciously opposed by four evil groups: Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. Normally, the scribes and Pharisees hated the Sadducees and Herodians, and the feeling was mutual. But these Christ rejecters had come together in their murderous hatred of Jesus. They were obsessed with His destruction, and had been plotting His death for months.

*William Barclay explained that "the cross was coming closer, and Jesus needed some time alone with his disciples, so He withdrew to the region of Caesarea Philippi. It was 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee. The people there were mainly non-Jewish, like the soldiers of the Roman Empire. Locals worshiped in temples dedicated to the demonic gods of the Syrians and Greeks. Caesarea Philippi also had a giant, white marble temple that was built to worship the Roman Emperor as God.

*John Phillips explained that there on the edge of the Gentile world, the Lord tarried with His disciples for about a week. There Jesus began to speak plainly about His cross. And for the first time, He spoke about His Church. That's why Phillips called this chapter "the great divide" of Matthew’s Gospel. (1)

*As Jesus focused on His Church and His cross here, He was speaking to His 12 disciples. But we must understand that the word "disciple" simply means "student," "learner," "follower," imitator." And in that sense, Christians, we are also called to be the Lord's disciples.

*Thank God, we are citizens of Heaven, children of God, friends of God, and much, much more. But we are all called to be followers of Jesus Christ. And God wants us to be the best followers we can possibly be. God wants us to have the best lives we can possibly have. Please think about these truths as we read Matthew 16:24-28.

MESSAGE:

*Have you ever been watching something on TV? -- Maybe it was a movie or a show you really wanted to see. Maybe it was the big game, and at just the crucial moment the power went out on you. Or maybe some storm clouds got too thick, and blocked the satellite signal. I know that's happened to most of us, and we don’t like missing out on something we wanted.

*But we might be missing out on something infinitely more important. We might be missing out on God's best for our lives, and not even know it. Let me ask you 5 questions that can help us find God's best for our lives.

1. THE FIRST QUESTION IS: HAVE I MEASURED THE TREASURE OF MY LIFE?

*In vs. 24-26, Jesus wants us to know how valuable our lives truly are:

24. Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

25. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

26. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

*Your life, your soul is worth more than all the riches of the world. Your soul is worth more than every diamond and every drop of oil in the world. Your soul is priceless. There is nothing worth more.

*Please think of the incredible value that God has put on your life. Nobody in their right mind would trade a finger for a thousand dollars. Would you trade your arm for 100,000 dollars? Would you trade your tongue for a million? Of course not. But the real you who lives inside your body is worth infinitely more. Jesus tells us that we are priceless. And we are priceless, because we are God's creation.

*Zig Ziglar put it in perspective when he asked us to think about the priceless masterpieces painted by DaVinci or Michelangelo. And Zig said, "I am roughly familiar with the price of the canvass and the paints. In and of themselves, they are not worth much at all. No -- The value of the painting comes from the touch of the Master's Hand." (2)