The Great Exchange Series

The Great Exchange

Mark 8:31-38

Mark 8:31-38

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law,and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels."

(NIV)

DRIPPING SPRINGS -- Carrie Crain’s soul is for sale on eBay and the starting bid is $1,000.

"Whoever bids on my soul, they need to take it seriously," she said. "I hope I transfer all my good, positive energy to them, and they will do great things. That’s what I hope … transfer my creativity to them," she said.

That creativity is what got 33-year-old Crain to this point. She’s working on a screenplay about a woman who sells her soul on eBay, too.

"I decided to really get into the heroine’s mind. I had to do it," Crain said.

Crain calls it research, but her husband, Garry, calls it a little nuts.

"I don’t know if she wrote a murder we’d get the gun out and shoot somebody, which of course would never happen," he said.

Garry is used to his wife’s originality and he’ll help her with the technical stuff.

"Transferring title may be difficult," he said.

Crain has that and plenty of other difficult questions to answer, like will she get a new soul? Is there a warranty? And what’s her return policy? Those inquiries sit in her e-mail box.

Despite the talk, no one has yet put down a bid.

"Maybe they’re waiting until the last minute," Crain said.

The truth is, you can sell just about anything on eBay, but you can’t sell your own soul — at least not anymore. A while back, one man’s soul was up for sale and a woman from Iowa had bid $400 before eBay realized what was going on and stopped the auction. While you can no longer sell your soul on eBay — it’s in violation of their policy and you can’t sell body parts either — you can use the Internet to sell your soul to someone willing to buy it. A 24 year old sold his for $3,800 to a New Zealand pizza place appropriately named after the place of torment.

If you Google “sell your soul”, that search will yield nearly 12 million internet sites which address how to sell your soul.

Ever since God breathed into the first man the breath of life and man became a living soul, man’s soul has been up for bids.

While you may say that you would never sell your soul, every person has abundant opportunity to do so, even if you cannot sell it on ebay!

How do we sell our souls?

Souls are not sold intact. Souls are sold piecemeal.

Little by little our souls are given away to the lowest bidder.

Eternity is sold by the moment.

A moment spent gazing at a scene not meant for eyes purchased by precious blood. A moment spent in relishing the thought not mean for the sanctified mind. A moment spent in compromise and something in the soul dies.

Every split second we choose to deny the Lord instead of ourselves, we exchange our soul for the candy-coated sin.

Mark 8:34-35

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

(NIV)

How to remove the

“For Sale”

sign from your soul:

1) Deny Yourself

The word “deny” means to forget one’s self, to lose sight of yourself and your interests in favor of something better. Like a mother choosing her baby’s needs over her own.