Sold Out or a Sell Out?
Pastor Glenn Newton March 28, 2004
A Little Quiz for you this morning…
Listen to these Characteristics, and then you will be able to answer my question.
1. This person believed in Jesus
2. This person worshiped with Jesus
3. This person followed Jesus
4. This person was involved in ministry/ active in the church
All these things are good things aren’t they? All of those things probably describe 75-80 percent of us here this morning…. Do you know who this person is that I just described? Read Matt. 26:37-50
Judas… He believed in Jesus
Judas…. He worshiped w/Jesus
Judas… followed Jesus for 3 ½ years
Judas… was the treasurer for the disciples, he was in the inner circle of trust, he also did other ministry during his travels with Jesus
So what went wrong with this believer? Doesn’t the story of Judas distrurb you just a little? Christians…. Doesn’t is get under your skin just a little that Judas looked so much like you and me on the outside…. Doing all the right things…. Doing all the Christian things….. serving in the church….. believing and knowing that Christ was the Son of God…. But yet, something went wrong…. Something went terribly wrong.
Some observations that I want to point out to you…. These would be things we need to look closely for in our own lives… just as the doctor’s examine our bodies during a check up, we need to examine our hearts and our motives as Chrisitans and make sure we are not leaving room for Satan to come in and cause life threatening diseases to take over.
1. Being a follower for what God can do for me….. for selfish reasons…. I will believe so that God can give me everything I want type of approach.
The bible is clear about what kind of attitude and what kind of understanding that we need to have as His disciples…. Pick up your cross and follow me” , If you want to find your life, you must lose it, If you love God you will obey all His commands…, not just the ones that fit your lifestyle and comfort level.
Make no mistake about it, I’m thrilled that everyone of you is here this morning…. I can’t hardly hold in my excitement as we are watching God work in the lives of our people, and new people coming in to see what New Hope is all about….. absolutely awesome, and it’s going to continue to grow every week I believe, because what we are doing here is Biblical, it’s being built with genuine love and that’s what it’s all about
And because I love everyone of you very much, with all the love God can put in me, I have to, I must tell you the Truth. I couldn’t live with myself If I ever decided to water down the message just so you wouldn’t be offended…. True Love tells the truth, true love is honest.
The truth is this morning that if you are doing something that you know is wrong, if you are involved in something that you know the Bible teaches against, if you are willingly participating in something that God says is wrong…. Friend, your living in sin… your living in disobedience to the highest authority.
Quote: Sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you’re willing to pay, require more than you are able to give. Sin will cause you to do things you didn’t think you were capable of.
The devil didn’t make him do it, and neither did God. He was chosen yet he chose. God chose him to betray, and he willingly accepted.
Verse: Psalm 55:12 says the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend.
Zech. 11:12 said it’d be for 30 coins that would purchase a potter’s field.
Scripture says Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, yet Judas was in no way coerced – he acted freely and w/out external compulsion.
God’s plan and Judas’ actions concurred perfectly in the fullness of time. Judas did what he did b/c his heart was evil and his motives were selfish.
Quote: If I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained, that is true; and if I find , in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true ; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two line that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, from where all truth springs forth. Spurgeon.
I think Judus meant well at first. I think Judas had good intentions… In fact, I think Judas wanted to do the right thing…. But at some point, Judas decided that despite what Jesus had taught him, he was going to live how he wanted… he was going to fly under the radar… kind of a secret motivation, a secret agenda, really a secret love… his love was with himself… He served himself above anyone else. When you decide to live in sin when you know it’s wrong… your serving yourself… and your rejecting your Savior…..
Today you can make a choice… you can ask God to forgive you of all your sins today… and the great news is that He will… He will forgive you if you repent….. To repent means to turn away from… to walk the other direction… to choose to give up….. so whatever that sin is that is eating away at you….. You need to decide that Serving God is more important than Keeping that sin in your life…. For you that may mean that you will have to make some drastic changes… Let me tell you…. You can… and God will enable you to do what ever it is you will need to do… and your church family is here for you to help you In any way you might need us.
Cigarettes…..gossip… slander… envy….lust… greed…. Self-righteous…(thinking your better than everyone else) pride, Friend…. Anything that is between you and God… it’s an issue and you know it…… Choose to repent and ask for God’s forgiveness. And don’t you know he will give you the grace to live as He has called you….. Don’t sell Him short…. He’s all you need.
2. Judas was not seeking God’s will for his life… Judas wanted God to follow His plan.
Are you following God’s plan for your life, or are you on your own little adventure hoping that God will bless you do your own thing?
Judas wanted Jesus to take his place through power and with force. I believe that Judas knew Christ could have called 12 legions of angles to overthrow all of creation at anytime… Judas didn’t lack faith… He lacked surrender….. Have you surrendered your grand plan for your life? Will you trust God to map out His plan for you? He has one for you, but as long as you continue to seek your own way… he’s not going to entrust you with His plan until He knows He can trust you with it, until you have surrendered to his will.
That’s what discipline is. When you child disobeys you…. What are you trying to accomplish when you discipline them? Do you know? After Easter I am going to be preaching as series of sermons on the family, and training our children will be one of my sermons….
When you decide they need discipline, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you just trying to inflict physical pain? I hope not. The object of discipline is to get your child to obey what they know is right, and to surrender their will to that authority that God has placed over them, that’s you, the parent. If you don’t train your child to surrender their will to you, their parent, how will they ever surrender their will to God?
Maybe that is part of the problem…If you weren’t disciplined properly you will have a hard time surrendering your will to anyone, especially God who is the great authoritarian. But the truth is this morning, because God loves us, he disciplines us, and that discipline requires us to surrender to His will….. have you done that? By definition, A Christian is someone who has surrendered, who has decided to live by God’s rules…….. If your not living by God’s rules… and you know your not… please don’t call yourself a Christian… because it’s not true and you are deceiving yourself.
I told you when I started this morning that this story of Judas really has bothered me… the reason is that Satan likes to use the same old tricks… and this morning I feel a great amount of responsibility to warn you… and to call you to the truth… We don’t need to be deceived, we have the Truth, We know the Truth, The truth can set us free… Amen?
What will you do this morning?
Judas followed Christ to see what he could get out of it… for selfish reasons…. And we know this led him to betray Christ and ultimately to a eternity in Hell.
Judas also had his own plan, he choose not to surrender to God’s plan…. And this was also apart of his downfall.
This morning, one of the reasons that I’m so excited about what God is doing in our church is because I believe we have a group of folks who are really committed to serving Christ, and serving other people. Only one thing can keep us from reaching the potential that God has for us… unconfessed sin… an unwillingness to repent and turn away from those things that God has made clear to us are wrong. Where do you stand?
Will you pick up your cross and follow Him? Chances are this morning, you may have to put something down, lay it down, for good, before you can pick up your cross and follow Christ. By picking up this cross, what you are saying is that I’m willing to die… I’m willing to lose everything for His Sake… I’m His 100%.... I’m sold out for Him. Judas wasn’t sold out for Jesus, he was a sell out… he betrayed the one He loved, why? Unconfessed sin that he wouldn’t lay down.
I love you too much to not preach this message today…. Let those who have ears hear this morning.
