2819 Church - WISDOM AND WONDER | Return and Exchange | Matthew 16:24-28 | Kenneth McFarland

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

In the Season 5 finale of “WISDOM & WONDER,” Pastor Kenneth McFarland breaks down the powerful words of Jesus found in Matthew 16:24-28. Welcome to the official Youtube channel for 2819 Church. This channel features powerful and life-impacting messages from Philip Anthony Mitchell and guest communicators. As you listen to these sound biblical messages you can expect to be challenged, stirred, matured and inspired in your faith and walk with God. For more information about us visit 2819Church.org.

Digital Disciples, we love you, we honor you, we welcome you. If you're in the building, let us know that you're here. And for everyone that's watching, you're not alone wherever you are. Hey, can we do one big solid for me, please? The shepherd of this house. Let's be realistic. We wouldn't be where we are spiritually if it were not for him, his leadership, his guidance,

and everything that he does. So can we honor him and Miss Lena? We love you. I don't know if you're watching this. I know you be checking in when you're not supposed to. You're supposed to be vacationing and taking time. But we love you guys. We honor you.

Can we give it up for Elder Eric last week? Elder, my elder. If I be honest, I loved last week so much, but now I'm like, I feel some type of way because I got to come behind it. Just being honest. We are in season five, episode five, the finale of episode five, of season five. I'm just going to say a quick prayer and then we're going to hop into it. I'm letting y'all know now. Some of this is going to be really offensive. Y'all hear me? So if you don't, no, no, no, no.

If you do not, if you do not have your big boy, big girl pants on, I would suggest you do whatever you need to to strap them up right now. Amen. Father, I thank you for every living soul that is here and is watching, Father, overflow or wherever. Lord, that you, you, not me, Father, you be the one that touches your children's soul. May we receive your words today in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank y'all.

All right. Anybody remember what we talked about last week, what Elder Eric taught last week? So three of y'all. Okay. All right. Okay. So last week, Elder Eric taught one of the hardest scriptures that me and my family be looking at when Jesus looks at Peter and he says, get behind me, Satan. Yep. Yep. Feel some type of way. because I'm like, man, call me Satan?

I'm the only one that feel that way? Like you just gave me a new name and you call me Satan so after he calls him Satan symbolizing that he's being used by Satan we're gonna hop into this next series of words that he gives okay y'all ready all right look at the screen oh wait a minute. I understand I look just like Pastor Phillip. We're about the same size. I'm not him. Right? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? I've been doing a little workout. You know what I'm one of the pastors here, not the lead pastor, but one of the pastors here, and we're going to hop right into it, okay? All right, everybody look at the screen. This is a picture of a scale. This is not your thing that Lady Justice, that idyllic imagery holds in her hand. Because that's what it is.

It's an image of a false god created by the Greeks that we try to hold in light of someone that's supposed to judge people. The sign of justice. It is not that. This is a scale. Something that God created to give us a sense of what justice is by measurable defense. Does y'all get that? So I'm going to explain to you how this is used, right? In ancient times, they used this to weigh the difference between what something is that they assume is valuable versus the weight of it. Okay. Went over some heads. Cool. I assume that was going to happen. If we were in downtown Atlanta and you had a million dollars and I had a jug of water, which one is more valuable? The million dollars. Let's be realistic, right?

The million dollars. So on the scales, the million dollars would weigh more because it's presumed to be more valuable. If we were in the desert and stuck and you had a million dollars and I had a jug of water, which one is more important now? The water. Do we understand that I need you to understand that because the weight of exchange is primarily set by the person who holds the most valuable object the weight of exchange is primarily set by the person who holds the most valuable object. Now, this is weird to me, right? Because back in the day, this was a long, long time ago, I was on Terra Boulevard. I was in the hood. Don't judge me. I was on Terra Boulevard. I used to live out there. I was on Terra Boulevard

and I was near a pawn shop because I wanted to get a new laptop. Now, this was before me and Erica got married. So that's like over 10 years ago and I was still an adult. for my for my young Lexi Lexi only like 2021 so she she was a kid I was still an adult back then laptops cost around three hundred dollars for a good one hey don't wow me wait a minute laptops now cost like two grand I get that but I just told you this was over 10 years ago. Okay. At that time, I didn't have $300 to just give away for a laptop, even though it was something that I needed. Okay. So there was a dude in the parking lot who had a wrapped up case he had a whole bunch of them and he was like i can sell you one for a hundred

now if anybody's from the hood y'all already know we already like bro what's the catch you trying to sell me some fake stuff whatever he whips out he takes one of the laptops out of the box and he's showing me that it works I said okay okay what's wrong with it he said I ain't gonna lie stole these out the back of a truck. Before y'all judge me, I said, cool. All right. I didn't have it. I didn't have 300, but I had a hundred. I wasn't, I wasn't too, too saved.

So I gave him the a hundred dollars. He gave me like, I just saw him take one out the pack. It was perfectly sealed, all plastic. I'm hype. I go, um, now mind you, even though me and Erica weren't married, me, Rhonda, and Erica chilled all the time. So I went back to Rhonda's house. Me, Rhonda, and Erica are in the house. I'm hype. Just got me a new laptop. They're like, okay, where'd you get that from?

Dude stole it. I bought it. We all in there happy. I take the plastic off. Anybody that knows when the plastic is on, it's a sign that it's brand new, right? I take the plastic off. I start unraveling and I open the box. Rhonda said, what's wrong? Erica started laughing I flipped the box upside down to realize it was a box of bricks

I got got y'all see how y'all feel right now? I went back up there. I tried to find her. Immediately. I took Rhonda with me because I know if I was going to lose, she was going to come behind me. Y'all see how y'all feel? That you got duped because you didn't, like you saw that, man, like it sounds stupid to devalue or undervalue something that to me at the time was important.

And now we find ourselves in the scriptures. Matthew chapter 16, verse 21. Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Stop. Deny himself. Deny himself. Deny himself. This is where, for me, I instantly get hit with, for every person that I see on Instagram or TikTok, for some of the older individuals, Facebook. If you go back in the day, MySpace. Black Planet. Hey, hey, hey. I don't like the way I'm judged up here. I look back at all of these social media sites, and every time that I'm confronted with an individual

who lets me know, oh, well, I can do whatever I want to do and still call myself a Christian. Deny himself. How can you tell me I can't love who I want to love and still love God. Deny himself. And let's not get it twisted. When I say or when the scriptures say deny, it's not talking behavior modification. Because that's what church became for a while right we don't care about your

heart we just want you to stop doing stuff right that's that's not what this is saying this is saying that i want you to get closer to me die to your ways because you don't know what your sin will cost. Okay. Now, for anyone who wants a more in-depth, because I have to go past this, if anyone wants a more in-depth understanding of this, Pastor Philip taught on this in conflict, called in conflict in the kingdom calling series when he went over Matthew chapter 10 verse 34 through 39. But that just blew my mind because that means this is the second time Jesus has said this. This is the second time Jesus has to tell his disciples, you need to deny yourself. Letting me know that it's extremely important. And I know some people are probably like, well, you're saying disciples. No. So when Elder Eric left off, we understood that Peter had pulled

Jesus to the side, right? Right? Now, if you look at Mark chapter 8, verse 34, after Peter pulled Jesus aside, this scripture let us know that when Jesus turned, he said, and he called the who to him? The who? No, everybody. Who did he call? The crowd and his disciples. And he says, if anyone, it's his disclaimer. If anyone wants to follow me, come after me, seek me, want me, even my gifts, my healing, my blessing. You want my word. You want to know what you should do. You coming to talk to me if you are coming after me even if you don't claim to be a christian a follower of mine what should you do everybody got that because this is going to be the next set of questions that come up, right? This is the question I get a lot of the time.

Well, if God is a good God, why wouldn't he want me to be happy? But let's be honest. Is that really the question that we have? Let's be honest. The real question that we have is, if God is a good God, why won't he allow me to be happy in my sin? Why do I have to deny myself?

Why can't I love who I want to love? Why can't I do what I want to do? Why do I have to listen to these? When we look at the scriptures, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were created. In the beginning, God told them, do not eat of this tree. In the beginning, God set a rule and a boundary. In the beginning, they saw after being confused how good it was. In the beginning, They wanted to eat in the beginning. They ate because they assumed all we were gonna do is get wisdom and knowledge and we would be like God.

Elder, did they know, did they know? Did they know that they were going to curse every soul that came after them? Did they know? And here it is, God set a boundary. Because he knew. They didn't know, but he knew. They didn't know, but he knew.

And it's very easy for us, the people who don't know, to want to do anyway when God is like, but you don't understand that there are consequences that come behind your actions. So question, when you don't listen to God, what consequences come behind you? No, no, no, no, no, because we have a really good time of asking God questions and trying to check God.

Well, why can't I? But do you really care about the consequences that are going to come after? Some of us, let's be realistic. Some of us as a kid, we were taught don't have sex outside of marriage. It like you need to you need to not have sex outside of marriage because what if you get a disease? Did that stop us? No. Elder said this. he taught this but i don't think we catch it matthew 16 verse 23 the latter part it says for you are not setting your mind on the things of god but on the things of man because it's always what I want over what God wants it's always what I want over what God wants and my question is what what what type of time are you

really on we always talking about this standing on these new age terms standing on business we we always talking about like all this like are we actually like let's be real for a second are we really standing on business when it comes to god my heart is broken and and i sometimes i don't know what to do because of simple stuff. I got a van and I got my wife and I usually have my son and my nephew. It's a family of a lot of us. I feel like Elder, he got seven kids and he got a lot of kids. So we ride in HOV lane a lot of the time. We ride in HOV lane. For those of you who don't know, it's a lane set aside on the left-hand side because some people not from here. It's a lane set aside. We drive on the right-hand side. It's a lane set aside on the

left-hand side if you have more than two individuals inside of your car, it's called the HOV lane so that you can drive because you're most likely riding with multiple passengers. It's to make it faster because, you know, you're trying to save on the air and pollution and all this other stuff because you're riding with multiple people. And in that lane, there's like two sets of lines to set apart that lane right it's like two white lines and then a whole bunch of dotted lines do y'all know what that means what is what are the dotted lines mean you can go in and out right what are the two white lines mean don't cross over and and I

found myself I found myself um I found myself I found myself um it was two it was lines it wasn't dots it wasn't dot it was it was and I crossed over and um my son jacked up my shoulder, and he said, Daddy, you're going to jail. And that sounds like it's funny, but he's watching me. And how does it look to an impressionable 14-year-old boy to see his father breaking the law? And now he's wondering, can I do it too? And now what I'm doing is I'm setting the stage for him that passed just the law, when God says something and he's like, okay, this needs

not to be crossed. Now he feels like he can, he can swerve just a little bit and go in and out the lane whenever he wants to because he saw his daddy do it. Because it's what I want over what God, who set the law of the land? Not men, God. So because I want to break God's law, now I'm setting it so that my son is learning from my behavior. Who's learning from your behavior? What sin are you setting to make it okay for others to follow? No, ask yourself, what sin are you setting? What you doing it's okay I can just do what I know they said don't but it don't matter we don't know the cost. We don't know the cost that it's really going to take.

We assume we do, but we don't. Even if you're super Christian, you know what I'm saying? Like those super saved individuals. Oh, well, Jesus paid the price. What does that really mean? Matthew 16, 25, he said, whoever would save his life will lose it. That means the thing that you want to do, if you're so headstrong on, I want to do it anyway, you're trying to save your life.

But whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The title of this message is called Return in Exchange. Return in Exchange. Because in a sense, this is a return and an exchange. If I lose my life, I'll gain life. But if I don't lose my life, I lose it all. So I have this thing called a receipt. I have this thing called a receipt

that allows me to return my life and exchange it for the life that God wants me to have. Why is this so important? Can sin get into heaven? Can sin get into heaven? But you have a sinful soul.

And here God says, well, if you deny yourself and lose your life, what am I going to give you? A new life so that when it's time, if you deny yourself. If you deny yourself. Because there's a penalty for sin. Y'all know what a penalty is? Penalty is a punishment imposed for breaking a law. It's a punishment imposed for breaking a law. Who here has broken a law? If you ain't raised your hand, you a liar. Why you lying? Why you always lying? Anybody ever told a little white lie?

What's the penalty for a little white lie? Death. Anybody ever stole something before what's the penalty for stealing death let's let's take it for something simple right has anybody uh ever hated someone what's the penalty for hating someone? Death. Can you pay that price? Verse 26 says, for what will the profit of man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul? Because let's be honest, right?

We give away our life for all kinds of things. Elder said something last week that, it was like one of the truest things ever. It's like, man, Jesus trying to wake you up two, three in the morning, but you just lay in the bed and try and brush him off but if somebody texts you because they want you to come over

the amount of quickness that we do to get up shower get ready get dressed and all these other things the amount of quickness that we do to get up, shower, get ready, get dressed, and all these other things, right? How quickly it is that we want everything that the world wants to give us. But here it says that you can gain all of that and what does it wind up doing?

It forfeits your soul. Now, that's not even the crazy part to me. The crazy part to me is what says after, or what shall a man give in return for his soul? This means that the text is presupposing something right here, right? There's a cost for your soul. Your soul costs something. This is it. Remember the scale?

The person who has the most valuable thing. Do you think you own your soul? Some of you do. Some of us think that we really do own our soul. Some of us don't even care. What is your soul worth? What is your soul worth? This blows my mind because it reminds me of, there's another set of scriptures in the Bible, Genesis 25, starting in verse 19. There's these two brothers that are born. One's name is Esau, another's name is Jacob. And Esau came out of the womb first. As Esau came out of the womb first, when he was born, it was told that back in those days, whoever, whatever male came out of the womb first, he got something called a birthright. It was a gift that was given to him because he was born first. He was the first born male out of the womb. Now, these were twins. So the scripture said that

as Esau was coming out first and he had like orange hair and he was hairy all over, there was another child holding on to his heel who came out at the same time and they named him Jacob. Now, as they were growing up, Esau, burly man, big dude, hunter. He's going out into the woods because he's trying to kill animals to bring back home. And while he's out there, he gets tired. So he comes back home. And as he comes back home, he sees Jacob over there. Jacob, not big and burly, cooking soup. I'm the bigger brother.

Hey, fam, what is that you're cooking? It smell good. Jacob says, soup. He say, hey, let me get some of that. Now, Jacob says, no. I'm the bigger brother. I said, give me some soup. Now, this is when it turns for the worse because Jacob says, I'll give you some soup if you let me have your birthright. But for a person who doesn't understand or doesn't really care, you'll gamble that thing away.

Because it's not something that's tangible. I can't touch it. What value do I really have for it? Because it's not like I can, a birthright? Okay, cool, you can have that if I can have some soup. So they exchange something that's intangible for something that's tangible. Because it's something I want right now in a moment. And because I want it right now in a moment, I'll give it over as if it has no value. Who here can touch they soul? Because again, here is something that has so much value and we don't see it because it's something that we can't touch. And we can all sit here and be like, man, Esau's

stupid. But how many times have we given in or given over to sex or given over to pornography or given over to like, let's be real. How many times have we given over to tarot cards and rocks and crystals and signs and astrology? How many times have we given over to, I just want to please me, be the idol of me? I don't want to get up and pray. We're giving over to our own idolization of our own time. We sell our soul for something just as less. Here it is. He gave over something that was so precious for a bowl of soup and here it is in the same moments we give away our soul something precious for something so less and so little

and he didn't care about it until it was time for him to get it his birthright did not matter until it was time for it to be taken so when it was time for him to receive his birthright. He had already given it away. So now here it is. He wants it and he can't get it. And a lot of us, a lot of us, not Americans, humans, a lot of us have gotten to a point in life where we want our soul back after we pass away. Did not the scripture say that the man who went to hell, father, Abraham, what, what? Abraham. What? Jesus. First, he even asked just for a drip of water to be placed on his tongue. After that, he said, can you at least send someone to my brothers? They don't know that there's a value.

They don't see the value there's a value god there's a value for your soul and the only person who can who can exchange anything for your soul is the person who pays the price for what a soul costs. So what is the price of it? A blameless, spot free, sacrifice of blood. Something that will last for eternity. And no one here and no one ever would be able to give it, but God himself had to wrap himself in flesh, send himself down to earth

to become a blameless, spot free, no stain, no wrinkle, no sin, even though being tempted by all things, gave himself over so that he can be the sacrifice. And then in verse 27 he says even though I became all eyes on me no all eyes on me even though God became the sacrifice and he's explaining to his disciples and everyone following him that he has to die because we keep going over these scriptures and nobody's looking at the fact that he's telling you he has to die so that he can raise again. He's explaining the resurrection to them and nobody wants to pay attention. Nobody wants to listen. Nobody wants to hear this.

Because it's too many rules or it's too many ways that I don't want to. His resurrection is the only way. He's explained this over and over again, and here it is, him calling the disciples and everyone that's in a crowd, letting them know, hey, it's important for you to listen to me that I'm going to die because this is the reason why. Verse 27, for the son of man is going to come back with his angels in the glory of his father. And then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Now let's stop here for a second because I'm so sick and tired of everybody talking about Jesus didn't say he was God. Who's angels? Who can control an angel? Only the almighty God. Who claimed to be the son of man?

The son of man will come with his angels. I am that I am. It's coming back with my angels with my glory but don't forget that scale because truth of the matter is that scale is tilted

this is your side that scale is tilted. This is your side. This is his side. You could put everything that you have in this side and it will never budge this side. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no no no no you could put everything that you have on this side and it will never budge this side but because of his love for you when you place everything that you have on this side, he says, it's enough for me to let you in. There's nothing that can tip the scale. And he says, I will tip it for you.

There's nothing that you can give. There's nothing you can say that's going to you can give. There's nothing you can say that's going to tip the scale. What I have is more valuable than what you have. When pastor talked about the treasure that was in the field and the person went

and sold everything that he had, it still wasn't worth the treasure that was in the field and the person went and sold everything that he had and still wasn't worth the treasure. But because we have a loving father. My son, my son. My son, my son, my son, my son, he's 14. He's 14. He has $16 in his cash app. He has $16 in his cash app.

And he's going to school come August. And he needed new shoes and he said dad here's here's what I have it doesn't even scratch the surface of what's needed but because I want to be a loving father. I got him two pair of shoes. You're clapping for a man but we give this elementary two pints and a penny to the Lord of what we have that's not worth the billion of dollars worth of gold

and resources and everything else that he's trying to give us in salvation. And he says it's enough. Not when we give this fake, I'm just going to give what I want to give crap. Not when we give this fake, I'm going to give what I want to give crap. Because we have to go back. Matthew 16, 24.

The primary word here, the primary word, if if if anyone would come after me, have you even made a decision to really come after him? There's going to be two deaths, regardless.

I'm about to end. There's going to be two deaths regardless. It explains it. It's right there in scripture. Keep that scripture up. If anyone will follow me, deny himself and take up his cross. Go to the next verse. no, go back to Matthew 25, Matthew 16, 25. For whoever would save his life will lose it. We're going to die physically regardless. So he's not talking about dying physically here.

He's talking about your soul will be forfeit after. Or you can choose to die spiritually now to the sinful way of life, to the sinful things that we've been doing, To the sinful things that we've been doing.

To the sinful thoughts that we've been having. And then die physically. And have life after. But you choose. You choose whether you're going to die now or later. You choose. It's your choice. Are you going to die now or later?

And I'm not talking about physically. I'm not talking about physically. We just said that there is something that you have that is intangible. And what you've been doing with it is not right. You're not alone. I'm in the same boat. I have a soul and I corrupted my soul with everything that I could think of

because I didn't want to face my problems, my past, my fears. I drowned it with alcohol, weed, and everything else, sex, everything that I could think of. I tried to drown myself with even so much so it overwhelmed me to the point of wanting to take my own life. And it wasn't until I found him that I realized

it's a lot more valuable, my life, a lot more valuable than what I took it for. So you have the choice. It's your choice. Are you going to die now or die later? God is here and he just wants to exchange

your sin for his salvation. Your sin for his salvation. It's an exchange of position for punishment. He wants to give you a position because he took your punishment. In verse 28, it says, truly I say to you, there are some standing here

who will not taste death until they see the man of God and his kingdom coming. Not in a sense that his kingdom came then. But he saved a lot of you from the deaths that you were supposed to receive.

Thank you Lord. We can give those, and I'm not trying to downgrade it, but we can give those little patty cakes if we want to. I remember driving off the cliff. I remember the bullets, like, hitting me. I remember all the stupid stuff that could have taken my life. I remember the bomb dropping where I was sleeping. I remember all the stuff that was supposed to take my life and the Lord could have allowed any of those moments to happen at any point in time. I remember, I remember the times and he allowed me to live just so that I can experience him so that he can exchange. So this return in exchange is not even yours.

He talked about his returning. He talked about his exchange. Will you take it though? That's all I got. We just gonna pray. If you feel that call or you feel that urge in your heart where you know that you haven't given God your all, there gonna be people down here to pray for you. If you feel or you understand, man, I never really gave my life over to him for real. There'll be people down here you can pray with. We're not going to make a spectacle out

of this at all. I'm going to ask that everyone please stand still. We're going to exchange what we want to do, which is leave for the moment that God is trying to have. God is trying to have a moment with someone. And how disruptive and dishonorable it is. We don't know the effect that it has when we get up and walk out. When somebody besides you might want, there are going to be people down here. If you feel, man, I haven't done right, I haven't exchanged everything, because I give my time or I don't give my time, so I'm going to give my time.

I give my talent or I don't give my talent, so I'm going to serve now. I give my time or I don't give my time, so I'm going to start sowing now. Whatever way that is or whatever thing that you're going to do, we just thank and praise God that you heard his words so that you can exchange what you wanted to save for what he's trying to give. Amen. So father, we thank you. We thank you for your love, your grace. Jesus, we thank you for your grace because you didn't even have to wait on us. You didn't have to save us, but you chose to anyway. And we honor you, Father.

We honor you by not just sitting to the side anymore, Father. We honor you by giving you all of us. Father, I pray now for the individual, Lord, whether it be in the room or online, who feels that unction, Lord, that they will not just walk out, but they would come and talk to someone, Father, so that they would not be alone anymore.

We pray this in your mighty, matchless, and majestic name, in Jesus' name, amen. There are three ways to give. If you want to give, it's on the screen. We're not going to belittle you, berate you, and all these other things. It's your choice whether you do it or not. What is the exchange worth to you? That's all I'm going to say. Amen? I love you. Y'all mad at me? Some of y'all look mad. If y'all mad, come see me outside. I have some armor bears waiting.

I love you.