Souls that are Precious (Mark 8:34-37)
Papaw Lee kept a coin collection. His collection was worth almost nothing, but he loved to show it to me. And it wasn’t long before I got into coin collecting, and I had a large collection when Tammy and I married.
One day, when I was young, Papaw was showing me his collection, and he promised me that when he died his collection would be mine. Papaw died many years later, and about a week after he died, I swung by Nannie’s house, and she had Papaw’s coins all ready to give me. Even today, Papaw’s coins aren’t worth much more than their face value, but they are stored in a safe place because they were his.
Each of you treasures something. Maybe dishes or jewelry which belonged to your mother. Or tools from your father or maybe a part of his military uniform. Maybe you’ve inherited an heirloom or a collection.
Papaw’s coins are precious, but they’re worth so little. Each of you owns something precious. However, your soul is far more precious: “A soul is worth more than all the world.”
Scripture (Mark 8:34-37)
verse 34:
Whoever follows Jesus must “deny himself and take up his cross and follow” him. Following Jesus, in other words, means giving up yourself, your desires, your thoughts, and your actions.
Whoever wishes to follow Jesus must take up his cross. The cross was a symbol of torture and death; today, Jesus would ask you to take up your electric chair. Carrying your cross not only means death, but it also means public ridicule. Whenever someone carried his cross, people gathered to jeer him and laugh at him.
verse 35:
Whoever saves his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus and the gospel will save it. Only by giving up yourself can you have that which is truly life.
verses 36-37:
One’s soul is the most precious thing in the world. Nothing someone achieves or accumulates will matter if he loses his soul, and nothing one has will pay for his soul.
Application
“A soul is worth more than all the world.” Nothing you could ever own is worth more than your soul. Nothing you own is worth more than the souls of your loved ones or your friends or anyone you ever meet.
What should you do since “A soul is worth more than all the world?”
One: Deny
Deny yourself: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.” Nothing you hope or think or do is up to you; you have given your life to Jesus. “We were buried . . . with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2-3).
Is your life hidden with Christ in God? Have you abandoned your favorite sin because you died to self? Do you spend time in Scripture being transformed into his image? Do you ask God to change you into the image of his Son? How much do you Deny yourself?
Two: Dear
Understand your soul is Dear: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?”
Souls are Dear, for God created the soul: “The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccl 12:7). Souls are Dear for Jesus died for every soul: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).
How Dear do you value your soul? Do you live like Jesus died for your Dear soul? Have you abandoned sin because your soul is Dear? Have you added plenteous Christian graces because of your Dear soul? Do you obey God because you possess a Dear soul?
Three: Display
Whoever took up his cross did so in front of a large crowd; he was on Display. Take Jesus, for example: “There followed him [on the way to Golgotha] a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him” (Lk 23:27). No privacy. No hiding. On Display for all to see.
If you take up your cross, be on Display. Paul was on Display: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). The Thessalonians were on Display: “Not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything” (1 Thess 1:8). Timothy was to be on Display: he was to be “an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12).
Is your life on Display? Does your family see Jesus living in you? Do your friends see Jesus living in you? Do your neighbors see Jesus living in you? Do the people you encounter on the street, at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office, or wherever else you are see Jesus living in you?
Do you need to come to Jesus this morning and allow him to begin living in you?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.