Summary: If I can't "buy" my way into heaven, why would Jesus ask "What shall a man give in return for his soul?"

(This sermon is part of series is loosely based on a book by Randy Alcorn – “The Treasure Principle”)

OPEN: King Tutankhamen (King Tut) was only 17 years old when he died. Thousands of years later, in 1922, his tomb was discovered and became one of the most famous and wealthy burial places in history. According to one source, the contents of his Tomb have been insured for one BILLION dollars. And that makes sense, because when he was buried with a lot of stuff. His tomb was filled with solid gold chariots and 1000s of golden artifacts.

His body was buried in a stone sarcophagus which contained three coffins nested -- one within another. And the final coffin (which held his body) was made of solid gold and weighed 238 lbs. That final golden casket preserved the body of this king for more than 3,000 years. He was buried with a billion dollars-worth of riches, and yet his life was tragic because, in spite of all he had, he couldn’t take it with him.

“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

I don’t want to forfeit my soul… I want to go to heaven. And the Bible goes to great lengths to describe how exciting Heaven will be. One scholar said heaven would be “a place of rest and a relief from the burdens of sin and suffering. But it will also be a place of great learning, activity, artistic expression, exploration, discovery, friendship and service. (Randy Alcorn, “The Treasure Principle” p. 38)

Whatever you can imagine heaven being like (pause) it’s that and more. I have my bags packed and I’m ready to go, and I want to make sure I get there. But now… there are a couple of questions here:

1st - Can I buy my way into heaven? Can I be wealthy enough to insure I get in? I mean, Jesus did ask “what shall a man GIVE in return for his soul?” How much does it cost to get into heaven?

There were people – in the days of Jesus – who thought only the rich were assured of heaven. I mean it made sense that if you were rich God was blessing you. And if He was blessing you with riches that must meant you were special to God… that God loved you. And you were a shoe-in for heaven!

But Jesus said: “That’s NOT TRUE!” Jesus said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25) You could be the wealthiest person on earth and STILL, you would never be able buy your way in, because salvation is free.

So then, the next question… is puzzling. What does Jesus mean by saying “what shall a man give in return for his soul?” I mean, if I can’t buy my way into heaven why ask if a man can give ANYTHING for his soul?

The answer to that question… lies at the very heart of matter. Notice what Jesus says next: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

DENY YOURSELF; TAKE UP YOUR CROSS; FOLLOW Jesus. Now, what’s that all about?

Well you see - Salvation IS free, and you could NEVER do anything to BUY God’s love because He’s always loved you. But FOLLOWING Jesus takes everything we’ve got. Aldous Huxley, the great English novelist, put it this way, “It doesn't take much of a man to be a Christian. It just takes ALL of him.”

That’s what Jesus meant when He said “Take up your cross.” People died on crosses… the cross was an instrument of death. And Jesus was calling us to die to ourselves. To die to our personal control of our own lives. And now Jesus expects us to FOLLOW Him - to give Him total control of… ME! When I became a Christian, I surrendered everything to Jesus. I died to controlling my life and was buried with Christ in waters of baptism. And now I want to live for Him.

There’s an old Gospel hymn that says “Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” Jesus bought me at a price, He died to save me. And now (well) He owns me, and I owe Him more than I could ever repay. As the hymn says: “ALL TO HIM I OWE!”

I owe Jesus my TIME, my TALENT and my TREASURE. In fact: That’s what it means to say Jesus is LORD! It means Jesus OWNS me and I BELONG TO HIM!

Now, what’s interesting is that the Bible says God pays attention when we take this idea of belonging to Him seriously. For example, I Corinthians 3:11-15 says: “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

GOD PAYS ATTENTION.

I can BUILD ON the foundation of Jesus with good stuff… or bad stuff. And at the Day of Judgment my deeds will be tested by fire. The good stuff will survive, the bad stuff will be burned up. So, if ALL I DO is build on Jesus with 2nd rate material I’ll still be saved. But – IF I love Jesus – why on earth would I want to build with 2nd rate materials?

Malachi 3:16 says something similar: “The LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.” (NIV 1984)

GOD PAYS ATTENTION

Do you remember when Jesus and His disciples were in the Temple? It said Jesus “sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." Matthew 12:41-44

JESUS PAID ATTENTION

My point? IF I belong to God - and IF I LOVE HIM - then I’m going to know He pays attention to what I DO for Him! And it’s gonna matter to me.

ILLUS: It’s just like my grandson Benjamin. He’ll do something that HE thinks is impressive and then he’ll ask me: “Are you proud of me?” That’s how we should come to God. “Are you proud of me?” “Have I pleased you?” “Have I done something that makes you smile?”

Now, does Benjamin ALWAYS make me proud? (No) Does (what he does) ALWAYS please me? (No) Does (what he does) ALWAYS make me smile? (No) He’s a 4-year-old... he’s going to annoy me now and again. But knowing he loves me and wants to please me makes me feel good

It’s called a child-like faith. And when we display a childlike faith with God… that’s GOOD!!!!

So, going back to the question: What can a man give for his soul? the answer is: we can GIVE a child-like heart that wants to please God. A heart that wants to give Him FIRST-rate material. A heart that cares what God thinks of what we offer Him.

So, what can we offer Him? Well, we can offer Him our time. Just coming to worship on Sunday’s is giving time to God. Granted - it’s only an hour or so a week - but that’s time given to God.

ILLUS: I read about a young man in WV. Who said he was thinking about tithing. It seemed to him that he should not only tithe his income, but that he should also tithe his time. The way he figured it, there were 168 hours in a week, and the tenth of that would be 16.8 hours. Apparently, he spent a great deal of time each week serving the church. So after calculating it out, he found that he still had 1 hour and 20 minutes each day left. So, he divided that up into two 40 minute periods: 40 minutes for Bible study and 40 minutes for prayer. (March 25, 1973, John Brand in “The Flame.”)

Now, bear in mind… that’s not commanded anywhere in Scripture. You don’t have to tithe your time, and you don’t have to put in 16.8 hours a week! That was just what HE was convicted to do. But the question today is: How much time are YOU convicted to give to Jesus? It doesn’t have to be 16.8 hours a week. But does the time you offer really say how much you love God?

Now you could give another hour or 2 in helping one of ministries here at church – Volunteering to help with JAM or to work with the older youth; Or helping out with the Free Lunches, the food Pantry and the Clothing ministry. Or create your own kind of ministry for Christ.

And I know there are a number of people here who ALREADY give large amounts of time to serve Jesus. I’d say there’s about 60% of the people here do 90% of the work. I’m just as proud as I can be of this congregation and I brag about you all the time.

But the question for you this morning is this: are YOU one of that 60% who gives their time? If not, perhaps you need to give that some thought.

Another way to give is pretty obvious. We can give our treasure. In 2007, “The Barna Group” found that 24% of people who said they took their faith seriously tithed (i.e., made donations of at least 10 percent of their income to the church or other charities).

There’s a bumper sticker that says: “Tithe if you love Jesus. Anyone can Honk.”

Barna pointed out that a lot of the folks who said they took their faith seriously never tithed. By contrast, Only 24% of these folks put their money where their mouth was.

Now – I want to be clear here… Christians are NOT COMMANDED to tithe. But – as we discussed a couple weeks ago – God has always LIKED the tithe. God liked it under the Law of Moses. And He ALSO liked it when Abraham gave a tithe (before Moses was born) to a priest named Melchizedek – who the Bible says was a type of Christ. And Jesus Himself liked the tithe. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their self-righteousness, but He commended them for being faithful in their tithe.

So, we’re not commanded to tithe. But we know God appreciates the tithe.

When you give your offerings on Sunday, those offerings ARE GIFTS to God. Granted, when you put your offering in the plate, it goes into the Bank Account for the Church of Christ at Logansport, but none of that money belongs to this congregation… it’s God’s money. You gave it to us to use for God - and we take that seriously. IT’S YOUR GIFT TO GOD… not to us.

Now, as I said a couple weeks ago – if I’m going to give a gift to someone I love (in this case: God) I want to make sure I give them something I know they’ll appreciate. And God clearly likes the tithe … it has always pleased Him. So, if YOU haven’t tithed before… I’m challenging you to do it now. And I’m not challenging you to do something I’ve not done myself. Ever since I took my faith seriously, I have committed to faithfully tithing my income to God.

Now, ordinarily, I’m not quite this blunt, but a couple of our Elders have pointed out that our funds are a little tight. COVID took its toll on our giving, and this past month we’ve given out about $5000 to help some of our members. That’s put a strain on things.

One of our Elders told me that (because of this) he’s committed to upping his tithe another 10%. In other words – if he was giving $100, he’d now give $110. And I’ve tried to follow his example – over the past 3 weeks, I’ve upped my giving by an additional $10 every week. If a number of people in church just did that… we could not only ease our budget crunch, but increase our missionary support, and we could help more people who are in need.

ILLUS: Years ago, we had a dream of building this sanctuary and we had a sizable amount of money set aside for the down payment. But then a recession hit, and the leadership decided they needed to keep the money in savings rather than build. Why? Because people might need the help. But they needed to alert the congregation to that decision. So, when Larry announced that we weren’t going to build immediately because they wanted the money available to help the needy - the congregation APPLAUDED! That’s the kind of church I’ve learned that you are.

CLOSE: A little boy was given ten - ONE DOLLAR bills by his grandfather. And his MOTHER listened as he counted out the money. She heard him say he was going to give the first dollar to God and then he gave the last of the 10 dollars to God. “Oh honey,” she said, “our tithe to God would only be $1 out of the ten.” “I know,” he replied, “I gave God the first dollar because I felt I had to. But the last dollar I gave him I gave because I wanted to.”

So - you can’t buy your way into heaven. But when you realize how much Jesus gave for your salvation it changes how you give your time and your treasure to Him. How much could a person give in exchange for their soul? That person could give their lives to Him. They could give God a child-like faith that wants to give God the best that they have.

INVITATION