What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
11 sermons cite this verse
… it's strengthening verses for us like this. Mark chapter 8, verse 36. Jesus says, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Think about that for a moment. Acquired wealth, acquired power, however, by whatever means, by inheritance or by rolling up your sleeves and making it happen, does nothing to the spiritual economy that you will someday enter into you can go from the bank here rich and into eternity completely broken and bankrupt and you don't want to do that so what will it profit you if you gain the entire world and yet lose your own soul verse 37 or what will a man give in exchange for his soul that question in the greek language demands an answer nothing there's nothing that you can give in this world's economy that can secure your soul in eternity. Wouldn't that be a simple, beautiful truth if we just nailed that down once and for all? Because listen, that means forever this would be gone from our minds. If I just do better, God will love me more. False. If I just give money, I'll secure my entrance into eternity. False. If I pray longer and harder, God will treat me better. …
… loses his life for my sake will find it. Then he says this massive line. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life. Jesus is making it so clear that we can lose, but no one ever gets beaten out of their soul. They simply forfeit. And we do it in a bunch of different ways. We make little trades, right? We make little compromises. We make little exchanges. We forfeit. Or we violate the rules and we forfeit. Or sometimes we concede. Sometimes we just simply stop playing and we forfeit. And the question we hear is Jesus saying, what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his life? Another way to say it here at the beginning of school year is the reality is this. The reality is you can come, you can get everything you came to college to get and end up becoming someone you never wanted to become. You can do everything you came to college to do and end up becoming someone you never wanted to become. …
… to bless me. He's going to our church. He's all this other stuff. But what is all of this? What does it profit a man to gain the entire world, but lose his own soul? Thank God for 10,000 followers. But then I messed up because I love that more than I love my wife and my children. and what he's called me to? No. But that means we're going to have to change our mindset from all of these things that we feel like are so grand. And God's telling us maybe, just maybe, less is more. Verse 10, for the love of money is the root of all evil. Some people are eager for money. They've wandered from the faith and look at this and they've pierced themselves. You can't blame the devil for this. The devil didn't do this when you started putting something above God. You put that relationship above God. You put wanting people to like you above God. You put your looks above God. …
… will pass away, but I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his soul? And so we see Noah as a hero in God's eyes because he gave his children a purpose and they found it in the kingdom of God. It's no coincidence. I didn't tell him what I was preaching. But when I saw little Jet over here strumming his guitar at seven years of age, and I saw Etienne standing up here, his father, playing and worshiping God, that's what I'm talking about. You see, he's getting his kids involved in the work of God. My children, and many people's children, this is how you do it. Come on now. I heard that song go off when I said it. This is how you do it. You got to get it. Some work is required. Some, some effort is required. You don't just show up and dump them at church and say, God, touch them. …
… What good is it? What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? but look at all the stuff I accomplished with my work how's your soul did you forfeit your soul did you forfeit your relationships did you forfeit loving God did you forfeit loving your neighbors yourself what does it profit a man if you're on the cover of Time magazine and you lose your soul I love getting letters from you emails from you and you know I talked about stress and worry last week. Here's a note I got. Pastor Rick, as I listened last weekend, it was like holding up a mirror to my face. I'd been filling my life with activities and even ministries to keep myself so busy that I wouldn't have the time to think about or face some issues that I really need to deal with. I know I'm not alone in realizing this, and I think you hit the nail on the head when you spoke about worry and stress and hurry. …
… And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Because what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? because what can a man give in exchange for his life? Because everyone who's ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, I'm going to be ashamed of him when I come in the glory of my father and the holy angels. so if you want to follow Jesus then you deny yourself and you take up your cross and you get behind him because because because because I'm going to linger here at the surface level of grammar and words for just a moment to make two points. first. If any graduates can read Mark 8, 34 to 38, and not see the four layers of argumentation that Jesus gives for following him, then in your case, we have failed. because that's what we do here. we have linked arms to learn how to see us what we do. …
Mark 8 would say it like this. What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul? That word lose is from a Greek word called zamios. I went through these Greek words and I wanted to make sure that you all could see them on the screen so that you could see. In the original translation of the manuscript that is Mark 8, that word lose isn't lose like I lost my keys. That word lose is injure. So when we look at the text, what it's saying is, what does it profit a man to gain the world and to injure or damage his soul? Which means that I can be gaining in one area. I can get the respect. I can get the achievement. I can make the changes in the industry. But it may come at the expense of damaging my soul. what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose some gains are worth the loss you know there are some gains now don't get me wrong not everything you gain means that you're going to end up with a detrimental loss but it is impossible to gain without losing something you you gain the new job but you you lost the free time but that's okay because you're feeling fulfilled and you're finally aligned. …
… That's really not up for debate or discussion. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, Jesus said. But in the process, lose his soul. The soul of a human is the most valuable, valuable thing on the planet. And I want to thank you. I want to thank you for the life you have decided to live. There was a part of your life that you didn't choose. And then there came a point where you decided that your journey would lead you into this work. And, you know, I'm not trying to be crass or crude, but you don't do this because you have to. you don't do this to pay the bills. You do this because of passion and purpose. And it means a lot to me and my family. It means a lot to, I know your daughters are watching. I want to cry again, like get it together, Judah. But your beautiful baby girls are watching their mom already be a force. And, you know, I just admire you. And I really, really do hope that there are thousands of people watching, you know, that are going, yo, I can enact change, you know, in every small step in valuing and protecting and providing for humans is so significant. So I'm going to try to conclude this interview with a ridiculous little exercise that we're doing because I guess that's the only way I'm going to get myself together here. So sorry for making you cry. Your skin …
… of what actually adds value to your soul, right? So Jesus says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but in the process lose his own soul? So evidently there are things you can gain that add no value to your soul. They don't make your, the soul is more than this, but the simplest definition, which is probably insulting to people out there with deep research and study, but mind, will, and emotions, right? So in other words, there are some things that we can gain, garner, do, attract, earn in terms of resource and money through work that add no value to the soul. And I think by the time you're on your last leg of life, you can't take any of the toys with you. You can't take any of the stuff with you. You can't take any of the things with you. You can take your memories with you. You can take your memories. As you have preached and our friend sang about. …
… life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul so he just says hey if anyone wants to follow me Jesus everyone's following me he's gonna have to deny himself okay it can't be about you you got deny yourself you're not here to please yourself anymore if you're gonna follow me he's gonna have to pick up your cross and follow me that means die to yourself then he makes a promise He goes, if anyone tries to save his life, I promise you, you'll lose it. That's a promise. Okay, let's admit it. Most of us want to save our lives to some degree, right? I kind of like this. I kind of like this. I kind of like this. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose this. Let's just be honest. There's nothing wrong with that. But he says, but if you do try to save all these things, I promise you, you'll lose it. …
… save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for 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 for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. That's heavy. This isn't me. This is Jesus Christ, the son of God, the one who's coming back with his holy angels and flaming fire. He says, look, whoever wants to save his life, whoever would save his life, this is a promise. This is a promise from Jesus. And understand, he's saying this because he loves you. Okay? These are words. Jesus, Jesus loves you so much. He's the one that died for you. No one else has died for you and suffered for you. …