Time Of Betrayal - Can You Pass The Judas Test?

• I recently came through a terrible years long betrayal

• I don’t want to talk about that betrayal today, I am done talking about it. I am praying every single day for the person involved because I care about her and want her to go on and do better and be in a closer walk with the Lord. I don’t think she is a bad person, she is just a person with unresolved issues. I pray the Lord heals her and helps her move forward.

• I will tell you I can confirm there are enemy assignments of jealousy, offense and division as well as betrayal against God’s people now, and especially the ministers. All the ministers I know including myself are fighting attacks of pain, sickness, betrayal, relationship issues and finances. My own pastor was out of church for a month with both pain AND sickness and is still trying to get all the way well, and his wife is also now ill. 2 or 3 of us have been hit in the finances and in relationships. Its just hard right now, yall, and its tough sometimes to keep your courage up and keep going, especially knowing its going to get worse, but I believe with all my heart the Lord our God is going to strengthen us as we move forward. He will empower us to finish this race, so let’s all just hold on tight to our faith in Him.

• So a number of people I know are fighting apathy and there are MANY attacks of discouragement. It can be hard when you’re already fighting constantly and you know more is coming. But no one promised us an easy life, did they?

• And BY THE WAY, if you want to follow along with this show, I’m taking most of it from my book The Judas Test which is about betrayal.

• What does Betrayal Feel Like. It feels like your heart is being ripped out. Because it is always committed by someone you cared about. Usually a lot.

a. As I walked thru the pain and anguish of this betrayal I was reminded that as the time of the end approaches, evil will continually increase, betrayals will continually increase. This will not stop until time ends.

• So - what should you do when you are betrayed?

• Is there any way to prepare for all that betrayal coming at us? We can as far as understanding it. Understanding it will come through people we love. And setting our hearts for a proper response.

• Betrayal is a test. It’s the Judas Test. And you get tested again and again until you pass, so it’s well worth it to know how to pass it.

• We are out of time, yall, we gotta pass these tests!

• Few people walk through life without suffering betrayal at least once, and many people will experience it over and over.

• The bible relates numerous stories of betrayal.

• As Christians, we are familiar with the story of ultimate betrayal, the story of how Judas Iscariot, one of the original 12 disciples, betrayed Jesus. You can find this story in Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 18.

• I want yall to think about something here.

• WHY did Judas sell out his friend Jesus so cheaply? For 30 pieces of silver? 30 pieces of silver would be like getting 30 twenty-dollar bills. It wasn’t much money!

• So WHY then did Judas sell Jesus out to be killed for so tiny a sum?

• I think Judas may have cared less about the money than about the favor he was going to need with the chief priests when Jesus’ ministry collapsed, which was what he believed was going to happen.

• What was to stop them from rounding up all Jesus followers and imprisoning or killing them once they got Jesus out of the way? What would happen to Judas??

• It is also possible that by betraying Jesus, Judas was trying to force his hand to show his power as Messiah, and thereby establish his kingdom on earth.

• Keep in mind, ESPECIALLY NOW IN THIS TIME, that Satan will ALWAYS attempt to land his most devastating blows on you by using the weakest link in your circle of loved ones and acquaintances. And by weakest, I mean the one with the weakest relationship with our King and Savior.

• Or it COULD be that Judas had seen Jesus give the slip to the authorities so many times that he actually thought he would just slip away again uncaught.

• So there they were at the Passover meal when Jesus told all his disciples, including Judas, that he had been betrayed into the hands of men. To this Judas shook his head in disbelief, ACTING as innocent as all the others actually WERE.