The Greatest Enemy Of The "Best" Is Not The "Bad" But The "Good"

The greatest enemy of “best” is not “bad”, it’s the “good”

Matthew 16:26 – 27

Pastor John Bloch, pastorbloch@hotmail.com

Cross Community Church, crosscommunitychurch.net

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Matt 16:26-27 (KJV)

Thank you everyone for joining us tonight, I’ve got a prize for each and every one of you for making it to service. I am going to give each one of you $2,400.00 each and every day of your life from now on but the deal is this…everything you don’t spend at the end of each day has to be returned to me your only allow to spend the money on items that are of equal or greater value. How would you spend your money in order to get equal or greater value? The word I’m looking for is “invest”. You have to invest your $2,400.00 each day in order to earn more value and worth.

God has given you 24 hours a day that you are spending down, their just went a second that you’re never going to get back. Their just went a minute that you’re never going to have the chance to spend again. How did you spend it? Did you waste it away by day dreaming how nice it would be if I really did give you $2,400.00 each day? Or did you let that minute burn away because something happened this past week that you can’t let go of, it’s still on your mind and it’s keeping you from true worship? Or are you investing that minute by listening carefully so that you might find a better understanding?

The greatest enemy of the “best” things that God has for your life are not always the “bad” things, they usually are the “good” things that you want in your life.

the “best” things God has for your life come from God and living your life for His Son Jesus Christ but sometimes we think we know what is best for our lives and get things all mixed up. Family time is good however, when we let it get in the way of God its bad. I love hunting and fishing, it calms me, revives me and gives me time to be by myself and relax but when I put those things first in my life, when I put those things before the things God has for me they become bad things that can mess up my priorities.

Let’s look at verse 26 ” For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” what do you think the word “soul” means in this application? What’s the difference between “soul” and “immortal soul”? would God have to make this separation of “soul” and “immortal soul” if they mean exactly the same thing? No, the use and application of the word “soul” in verse 26 is your life here and now. Looking at verse 26 in this way it would ask us 2 very important questions. 1. What can you really profit by gaining all you want to gain in this world if it costs you your life? 2. What are you willing to exchange for your life?

This is so very important to understand before you can get a grasp on what Christ tells us in verse 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

“then he shall reward every man according to his works”, we are saved by grace and not by works however, this verse very plainly tells us that we will have to give an account of our time here on this earth and we will be rewarded according to how we invested our lives.

Jesus wants us to prioritize our time so that we can understand what is best for us and so that we can invest our very lives into His service. How many times have we taken away from Gods time so that we can spend that time making something better just to have more struggles come into our lives that put even more of a demand on our time? How many times have we taken away from God by doing what he tells us not to do, “forsake the gathering of the brethren”? we try to put the good things in our lives by spending our time the way we feel so that our lives can be better but by doing what we feel is good for our lives we often replace Gods best.