Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Baby Monsters | 4
This week, we turn the spotlight on one of the most infamous figures in Scripture—Judas Iscariot. His story reminds us that sin rarely starts big. It begins in the shadows: with impropriety, jealousy, and indignation that go unchecked. In this episode, Pastor Angela unpacks the slow drift of Judas’s heart, showing how sin grows silently when ignored—and how even those closest to Jesus aren't immune to betrayal.
From a hidden hand in the money bag to a public kiss of betrayal, this message explores how inward compromise becomes outward collapse. Using key scriptures from Matthew 26–27, John 12–13, and Acts 1, we’re warned: "Sin never wants to stay small."
🔎 You’ll walk away challenged to check your heart, guard your integrity, and bring even the smallest compromises into the light before they take root.
Thank you for listening to the Relate Community Church podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If today’s message spoke to you, share it with a friend or leave us a review to help spread the word. To learn more about Relate Community Church, visit us at www.relatecommunity.com. You are always welcome here, and remember—you are loved
All right. Hey everybody, it's time for church. Are y'all ready? That's good, good, good First service. I love that. The first service is growing a little bit. I get to see more and more of you a little bit. Here comes my mic. Sometimes it's a little too early and I feel like we're a little asleep, but y'all better get ready, because this message is one that we need to take and put in our hearts. How many of y'all are taking notes this morning? Where's the note taker? We are a note taking church, so pull out your notes. If you haven't pulled them out already, you can get them on the app as well. Some of you guys many of you use the app.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to be here today. I always love being with you and I love being able to connect with not just the people in the room, but also those of you who are watching online. So I'll look right at the camera for just a moment and say welcome. We're glad that you're joining us, clicking in and choosing whether it's on demand or streaming right here on Sunday morning. Can we do something in the building, guys? Can we let everybody online just know that we love them? Put your hands together and let them know how much it means Listen. I know how easy it is to get disconnected. I know how easy it is to feel like you're separate and you're kind of isolated. And if you're alone at home or maybe you're watching with husband, wife, family members there, you're a part of us, even if it's just for a short time, even if you don't know us. But we would love to get to know you better. And speaking of, I am so looking forward to next weekend.
Speaker 1:Pastor Angela mentioned that the small groups are going to start in two weeks, but the directory actually opens next weekend. So those of you who like to get ahead of it I know we have just had more and more and more people joining small groups every single session every season, and I know that summertime is different. It's the shortest session of the year, it's not like the fall and spring sessions, it's half the time, and so I would say it's way more potent because you get some of the sessions for summer. Small groups are only like three weeks long, so you got to get in them while you can. But there will be a lot of people engaged in small groups and to me it's one of our first steps in being able to engage in the community and the relationships of the church, if you feel like you're disconnected or isolated, or like if you feel like you're disconnected or isolated, or like if you feel like you're.
Speaker 1:I always think of it this way that if you take a campfire or a fireplace, you can have all the coals in the middle and they're all glowing hot. But the moment you take one of those coals and put it outside of the rest of the fire, it'll start to die down. It'll lose its fire. All you have to do to bring it back to life is just put it back with the others and then it just starts glowing again. And I love to see when you guys, even if somebody's distant and feeling like man, I feel like I'm far away from God. I feel like I'm far away from God's people. I feel like I don't have that energy, that passion that Just get back in the mix. Just put yourself back into the flow of the activity that's happening, because when you're listen Jesus talks about, there is a road that leads, that is wide and there's a lot of people on that road and it's going the wrong direction.
Speaker 1:And the road to heaven, the road that we're supposed to be on is much more narrow. It's hard to follow, but it's a lot easier to follow when you're not on that road by yourself. So get on the road. Get on the road with some people.
Speaker 1:Today we're jumping right into Baby Monsters week number four. So we're going to dive into it and this whole series is about catching baby monsters before they become full grown. Whole series is about catching baby monsters before they become full grown, before they're. It's a lot harder to deal with a big problem than it is to deal with a very small problem before it gets bigger. And usually problems don't deal with themselves. It's the nature of sin, it's the nature of problems, that's the nature of distraction and obstacles that they get more complicated the longer you let them go, and so small problems grow into very big problems. And if we can recognize that's the hard part, right? The hard part is recognizing them when they're small and not just thinking, oh, it's no big deal Because we don't want to address a problem. But some part of you needs to say, hey, it's my duty to figure out the things that need to be addressed and address them and work on them. So this week I wanted to share a quick story with you as we begin, because it just hit me Like all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:We had something in our lives that happened like this when our kids were little I'd say they were like four or five years old we decided we don't need a dog or a cat, we're going to have a different kind of pet, because we're different. We're going to have a pig and we were sold on this idea. Somebody told us that, hey, we can get you a mini pig. And I didn't realize. I thought mini pig, okay, mini pig. But there's actually a big difference between your idea. There are such things as mini pigs, teacup pigs, all those kinds of things, but the difference I'll show you. So here's a picture of.
Speaker 1:You might think, well, oh, this could be a. That's not my pig. That was not. We actually got a pig and that's not his name was Kevin. This is not Kevin, but I do have an actual picture of Kevin. And there he is. It's not a great picture. You think he's cute, but he's not cute, I'm telling you. That's the point. The point is that he started very small and while we were promised a mini pig, I learned that mini pig doesn't mean that they stay little. Mini pig just means that they don't get 500 pounds. They only get to about 150 pounds. So we quickly realized that this dude is not your cute little house in the house pig, although we were sold that. Oh, it's a pet. They're smart as people. They're way smarter than dogs. And listen, the first thing we figured out about this dude, kevin Bacon, was his name. The first thing we figured out about Kevin is that Kevin was mean. Kevin was very mean and he had a tendency to squeal and scream so loud that our neighbors thought we were like killing each other inside the house. And after we had him for probably six weeks or so, we realized that his teeth he was already at, just you know, six months old. He started having teeth and so we really started. We should have done the research before, but we started researching and realizing that this dude's going to have tusks and he's going to be 200 pounds and our kids this is not a pet. And he's going to be 200 pounds and our kids, this is not a pet. So we decided we have to see if someone else will adopt him from us and one day, looking for someone to adopt him, someone snatched him up and said he's our new family member and we said thank you, he's your new family member. He's not our family member anymore.
Speaker 1:I hate to say that it was a frustrating moment in our lives to be able to have to make that decision. But let me tell you something there are moments in life when you have to cut something out of your life, even though you have hope for it, even though you've made it a part of you. There are times where you have to say, look, this is cute now, but it's not going to be cute in five years. This is going to be damaging and troubling. This is not what we thought it was, and sometimes we would rather stick with what we. We'd rather stay with our decision than admit we were wrong. We'd rather double down and say no, I didn't make a mistake, we're going to make this work and we keep charging into something that is bad for us and that's going to harm us and that could potentially be damaging even to our kids. So it just reminded me that there are some real life baby monsters that we need to cut out of our lives.
Speaker 1:But mostly, what we're looking at are things that are in our character, in our faith, in our minds, in our thought processes, and today I want us to dive into one of the worst in the whole Bible, one of the worst moments. This is somebody who, in the history of the world, most people will agree that this is the worst guy. One of the worst guys Like you could probably name him, you probably have a list in your head, but in the Bible, the guy who did the worst thing, we're going to look at him and this is the guy who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. You guys know his name and it's Judas. If I were to ask you, we can demonize and make him the devil and think that, oh, he ruined everything, he betrayed Jesus, he turned his back, he backstabbed Jesus, and so we think that this is the most terrible, horrible thing.
Speaker 1:But, like all the other people that we've looked at over the last few weeks, we see that it's actually a progression in its character, steps and decisions that are made over time, rather than just. It wasn't like he was perfect and then, all of a sudden, he made one bad decision and it ruined his life and ruined all the plans. Like god can use anything, but I think we have to see that sin and these baby monsters are. It's a progression. It's a process. It's not just like, oh, I was doing so good until I just messed up. It's usually not you were perfect until you mess up. A lot of times we like to imagine that we were doing so good until I just, you know, I messed up. We like to. It's almost like we romance, we romanticize the situation and our lives in a way that we think it was so good until it wasn't. But that's not. It's usually not true. When you dig into it, you usually start to see that there was a progression of decisions that led to that fall.
Speaker 1:Okay, here we're going to read a bunch of scriptures right here Matthew, chapter 26,. And we don't know a lot about Judas. But I want us to unpack what we do know. It says while he was still speaking, this is getting to the last supper and Jesus is telling the disciples that someone's going to betray him. While he was still speaking, judas 1 of the 12 arrived and with him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now, the betrayer had arranged a signal with them. They're after the last supper in the garden, and this is the moment where Judas actually betrays Jesus. It says that the one I kiss is the man. Arrest him, going at once to Jesus, judas said greetings, rabbi. And kissed him. Jesus replied do what you came for friend. Everybody say friend. Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. Now this is one of the darkest, the beginning of the darkest moments in history.
Speaker 1:Not only is Jesus about to be arrested and put on trial and crucified and we know that story very well but it all begins with a betrayal of someone who's a close friend, someone who's been brought into Jesus' inner circle. If we jump to the next chapter, the beginning of Matthew, chapter 27, it says when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse, returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. I have sinned, he said, for I have betrayed innocent blood. They said what is that to us? That's your responsibility. So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself, falling headfirst there. His body split open, spilling out all his intestines. The news of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem and they gave the place the Aramaic name Akoldama, which means field of blood.
Speaker 1:Now this is kind of the conclusion of his story where we see one. If we look at the start of the story, we see a man who's following Jesus. He's one of the 12. The world is being changed, the ministry of Jesus Christ is being launched, and this changes history. The ministry of Jesus Christ is being launched, and this changes history and it ends. His story ends in a worst-case scenario and from that moment forward, most of history looks at him as one of the biggest villains to ever live.
Speaker 1:In fact, in the historic writing Dante Inferno, he said that Judas should be placed at the deepest place of hell, and not just be put in the deepest place at hell, but his reserved place should be that he should be put head first into the mouth of Lucifer, reserved never to digest but to continually be chewed for eternity. Like this is the mindset of most people that Judas is so bad, he made such a bad decision and such a bad impact on history that he should take the worst place of all. But where did it start? He started in a good place. For years he walked with Jesus, he was well thought of, but how did he get there?
Speaker 1:So I want us to unpack that a little bit today, but you have to know that that's not an unusual story. It's not just this shining example of how bad things can get. This is just another example of what happens when sin is unchecked, whenever bad decisions are unchecked and they're let to continue on in their own direction. It happens in you, it happens in me. It's not just a one-time thing. All of us could say, oh, I've had some Judas moments. Surely I haven't betrayed Jesus. But honestly, if I'm honest with myself, there are some moments where I tell the Lord something that I'm going to do with my life and then I go back on it. I decide to do something. There are moments where betrayal exists in all of us.
Speaker 1:Not too long ago so let's not look 2,000 years ago, let's just look a few years ago there was a man who now we would call him a serial killer, ted Bundy. In the 1970s Killed a bunch of people. In fact, he's recorded to be responsible for at least 30 murders. In fact, when he's on death row, he did a lot of interviews, several interviews, in which he says that he could recall 30 of them, but there was probably many more. And this guy not only murdered people, but raped them, mutilated them. I'm telling you this story in particular, and the story of Judas and the mouth of Lucifer, because I think there should be some kind of there should be some part of us that says, ooh, I don't want to hear that, but we have to hear it. There should be some part of us that says, pastor Sean, why are you preaching about serial killers? There has to be part of us that pays attention to the things that we don't want to pay attention to, because there's parts, the things that we don't want to pay attention to because there's parts of us that we don't want to pay attention to. So, through several states, ted Bundy goes on a killing spree.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing about Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy was not an ugly guy. Ted Bundy was not a ooh, get away from me. Killer clown like Freddy or Jason, or like he wasn't the axe me killer clown like Freddy or Jason. He wasn't the axe murderer where you're like, oh my gosh, here comes the killer clown. No, he was a guy that most people who knew him or met him said that he was very charismatic, he was attractive and he made you want to be around him. In fact, that was the reason that he was able to lure in so many women with his good looks. In fact, when they made a movie about him not too long ago, they cast Zac Efron, who is not an ugly guy right, he's a charismatic, good-looking Hollywood stud.
Speaker 1:But what do we think of when we think of killers and and we think of vicious maniacs and we think of all the worst parts of our lives? We think, oh well, there's good, and then there's all the ugly parts of life. Wait a second. Some of the worst parts of life and some of the worst parts of faith are things that aren't ugly. They're things that are attractive, they're things that we want to be around, they're things that we trust, and some part of us has to say wait a second, let me take an inventory here, let me take an analysis of my life and let me look through and let the Holy Spirit give me a check if there's something I should be looking at.
Speaker 1:One of the things that Ted Bundy said in interview. They asked him how did it get to this? Like, how did we get from being just a good-looking guy who's got a lot going for him to a guy who wants to rape and murder and mutilate people? How did you get there. His response was it started with pornography, and most serial killers in fact that is one of the factors that is present in almost all of the serial killers they say that they started with pornography.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not saying that everybody who uses pornography is going towards murder. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying that in almost all cases, sin doesn't just stop when you cross the line. Sin is taking you somewhere and if you don't stop it, it will take you all the way to where you don't want to be, where God doesn't want you to be. And there are scientific links from pornography to infidelity, from pornography to sexual violence, from pornography to rape, from pornography to sexual violence, from pornography to rape. And while we can use that singular example, there are lots of other examples where you take a step into a direction that you think this is no big deal, it doesn't hurt anybody, but it's taking you somewhere that you don't want to go, because sin never wants to stay small. Sin never wants to stay small. So I need you to hear me. The devil wants to take you somewhere and he has a plan for your life, and if you don't stop him, there has to be an aggressive part of you that says no, I'm not going where you want me to go. I'm not going where any of you want me to go. I'm not going where the devil wants me to go. I'm going where God wants me to go. My family is going where God wants it to go, because if you don't get in the way and put your foot down and say no, I will not do the things that God doesn't want me to do. Then you'll just drift into the wrong direction.
Speaker 1:Watch this James, chapter 1, verse 14, says no man's temptation is due to the pull of his own inward desire. No, no, excuse me, A man's temptation is due to the pull of his own inward desire. There's part of you that wants to go Like, in other words, sin is attractive, right, it feels good. Even if it's just that little white lie or that little inconspicuous doesn't hurt anybody. Problem If we keep reading. It says his own desire takes hold of him. Now, it's like a trap.
Speaker 1:I think that's a recurring theme through this series, that sin is a trap and it's trying to get you. You think that is over-exaggerated. You think, oh, pastor, you're just being exaggerated. No, I'm telling you that sin is like a crouching lion that's waiting and watching to destroy you. The Bible says that the devil wants to kill, steal and destroy you, and if you don't pay attention to it, he'll do it. And you'll look at your life and you'll say my God, how did I get here? I had everything together and then all of a sudden, I wasn't paying attention, and here I am now. It goes on, his own desire takes hold of him and that produces sin, and sin in the long run means death. The wages of sin is death. Some of y'all are getting it. I feel like people in the first four rows are getting it. I feel like people in the first four rows are getting it. So Judas' story ends with death, but it starts actually a lot simpler than that. It starts with betrayal. I mean, it ends with betrayal and evil.
Speaker 1:But I want you to imagine the 12 disciples with Jesus. They went and Jesus did miracle, signs, wonders. He's preaching, doing the Sermon on the Mount, and I think we could imagine that, oh, the disciples are there and oh, here's Peter, andrew, james, john Bartholomew All these guys are here. Philip is doing his thing, but over in the corner in the back is Judas and he's got his guy liner on and he's got his hood down and he's like this dark, shadowy figure.
Speaker 1:Probably not Judas was right up in the mix of all the disciples. I don't think you could tell the difference between them. I don't think you could look around and say, okay, of the 12 disciples, who's the problematic one? You wouldn't have guessed Judas. In fact, you probably would have guessed Peter. Peter's the guy that if you get too close to him he'll bite your finger off. If you get too close to him, he's going to go crazy. Don't make him mad, he'll flip out on you.
Speaker 1:He voted most likely to be a serial killer. Maybe Peter was the guy, but not Judas. Most voted most likely to be a serial killer. Maybe Peter was the guy, but not Judas. Judas wasn't seen that way. In fact, judas' job in the group was to take care of money, right, he was the treasure of the disciples. What does that mean? That means that he was trusted, probably voted most likely to be responsible, most likely to have his act together, most likely to do the right thing. He's trustworthy.
Speaker 1:Herbert Lockyer, theologist and historian, said as treasurer for the 12, because of his commercial instinct and business acumen, he was a guy that people looked up to. He wasn't the guy that you were saying watch out for this dude, he's got a screw loose. That was maybe the sons of thunder or Peter. There was a couple of others that we knew were known to be a little bit over the edge. In fact, john, chapter 13, verse 29, we're going to jump around a little bit. From Matthew and John, all four of the gospels give us this round picture, like a dynamic picture, of what Judas's life was and what he was known for. So if we go to John, chapter 13, verse 29, it says since Judas was their treasurer, this is when Judas is leaving the Last Supper. Jesus has said that one of you will betray me at one point in the conversation. And so Judas leaves.
Speaker 1:We know at one point Judas leaves to go, betray him, but none of the disciples suspect a thing because they think watch this. Some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. In other words like, oh, judas must be leaving because he's got things to do. Judas must be leaving because Jesus told him to go do something. He's got important stuff to do. That's what he does. He does important things. So none of them thought anything bad about him. They thought the best about him. He's one of us. They never even considered. No one saw it coming. In fact, I would be willing to say that Judas never saw it coming.
Speaker 1:I think most of us probably relate to that fact that we don't see ourselves in a bad light. We don't see ourselves as a betrayer. In fact, judas didn't see himself as a betrayer until after he had already betrayed Jesus. Jesus was betrayed, arrested and being beaten and crucified. And then Judas comes back and says I've made a poor decision here, I've really messed up. Why is it that we can't see ourselves in the middle of the problem?
Speaker 1:As we continue to have blinders on, we continue to ignore the fact that there's something very wrong in us. That's what the series is about. It's about wake up. I'm not just talking to you, I'm talking to me. If there's something in me, god David said, show me.
Speaker 1:So where did it start? I believe it started right here. I'll give you a few steps. I believe it didn't start with betrayal and backstabbing and, the worst of all, breaking trust. I believe it started with number one, impropriety. This is where a lot of us start. In fact, you might be here now where, yeah, you know, there's not just black and white, there's a bunch of gray area out there and you know, rules schmools, just what like rules were made to be broken. It doesn't. I was a little bit I still a little bit like that on a lot of things when our kids were little and our kids were just running around doing whatever. As long as they were obedient to us, I didn't care if they broke rules. Jake liked to climb on things. I'd let him climb and people would tell us, oh, they're not supposed to be climbing on that. And I said, well, you know he's climbing it, I don't.
Speaker 1:In John, chapter 12, verse 6, we back up just a little bit. Watch this. Talking about Judas. It says, as keeper of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Now, he's not a betrayer, he's not stabbing anybody in the back, he's just using what's there. Oh, you know, it's not a big deal, just open it up. The money's there, it's there to be used.
Speaker 1:He probably justified in his own head. He probably made himself feel like I'm just doing what I'm supposed to be doing, supposed to be doing. Maybe it's a little lie on your tax returns, or just a little bit of fudging the numbers on. You know, it doesn't really, it's not hurting anybody, it's a little white lie. Judas probably told himself it's for the needy. I'm needy, you know, but he used to take what was there because he needed it. Or we tell ourselves sometimes, you know, god wants me to be blessed too. Uh-oh. Or maybe he told himself if people see that I'm blessed, then they'll follow Jesus too. We're willing to justify our own improprieties. We're way more willing to give ourselves grace and not hold ourselves to any type of standard, not hold ourselves to a level of responsibility. And it doesn't become about what would God want me to do, what would Jesus want me to do. It becomes more about well, it's not a big deal. It went from impropriety to we also see very much so. Number two, and that's we see jealousy starting to flare up in him. Number two, and that's we see jealousy starting to flare up in him Especially Jesus is at a feast at one point and there's a bunch of disciples there and a lady comes in and gives the single biggest gift of Jesus' ministry and all of the gifts that had been given monetary and all the value.
Speaker 1:One lady comes in and brings one gift. It says that she breaks a bottle of oil at his feet, washes his feet and all of a sudden, of course, we know the value. The Bible tells us that the value of this one gift was an entire year wages. And Judas because he's the keeper of the money, I believe, because he's the one who usually receives the donations he starts getting a little bit jealous and starts saying wait a second. I think he was offended because the gift skipped him. In John 12, 5, it says why was this perfume? Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? Wait a second. I thought this was about Jesus. All of a sudden, he starts making excuses. Because why? Because he probably wanted to take out some of the value of it and go spend it on something he had lined up. It was worth a year's wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. Now, all of a sudden, this is starting to look a lot different. Right? He's not just skimming off the top, he's not just taking a little here, it's not just a little white lie. Now he's getting upset and now he's challenging what this is all about?
Speaker 1:You ever notice that there are a lot of people around the work of God, a lot of people around donations or even charities that want to complain about how the money is being spent? I'm not saying that there shouldn't be accountability there absolutely should be accountability but I think one of the problems is that most of the complaints come from the people who are contributing the least. There are a lot of people standing around the edges pointing fingers and 100%. I believe that it's because there's this element of jealousy and like why should they be doing this? Why should they have this? Why should they have that? There are people who complain about. If we spend any amount of money on anything, there's probably gonna be a group of people in the church that love it and a group of people in the church that love it and a group of people in the church that are like well, I don't know why they did that. Some of the loudest boos come from the cheapest seats. That's probably. That's probably true in your family and in your life your employees, the people that you work with, co-workers there's a lot of complaints that come from people who should have no bearing on, like.
Speaker 1:I'm a firm believer in accountability. Things should go in the right way, but when it comes to this moment, when you literally have the Messiah you've got the Son of God sitting here and a gift is being given to him All of a sudden Judas injects himself and says wait a second, I have an opinion on this. Can I tell you that there's some places in your life that you just need to hold your opinion to yourself and you need to say God, what do you want my opinion to be? How should I feel about this? God? Not just take your feelings and say, hey, that's how I feel. I'm just telling you how I feel.
Speaker 1:What if your feelings are totally off base and you've just been chasing your feelings? And we can apply that principle to every area of our lives. What if the thing that you are standing on and railing on and get up on your soapbox? What if you're completely in the and you're not going to listen to your soapbox? What if you're completely in the and you're not going to listen to anybody, tell you, hey, you're way off here. What if we could let the Holy Spirit tell us hey, you're way off here. Okay, let me get off my soapbox?
Speaker 1:What if Judas could have taken that moment, and Judas, actually, jesus responds to Judas in that moment I'll give you my paraphrase responds to Judas. In that moment, I'll give you my paraphrase. Jesus just says hush. That's what I would tell my kids. I don't have to get mad at them, I don't have to, like, come down on them, you better shut your mouth. No, I just say hush. When they were little and they're just complaining about my. I won't tell you who did what, but I'll just tell you what. But I'll just tell you the amount of times that I've heard dad so-and-so is doing something. Hush, I don't want to hear it. Go figure it out. Because it was usually a jealousy thing. It's usually like I didn't want them to have this, I wanted it. But we also see how that jealousy leads to what we'll call indignation.
Speaker 1:Number three. Indignation like this inner right to be right, like how dare you? How dare you belittle me? How dare you tell me to be quiet when I'm telling you the principle that we should be helping the poor, that when I'm telling you this principle that we all should be living by, I'm taking the moral high ground, and you just tell me to be quiet? How dare you? I'm the reasonable one, I'm the one who makes good plans, I'm the one that's responsible that you've trusted me with the money and now you're cutting me out. How dare you? We've all felt indignant. We've all felt that moment. And it could have just been a post, somebody's comment on Facebook could have made you indignant. How dare they say that to me? You don't know me. I'll prove you wrong. I'm going to embarrass you.
Speaker 1:Some part of us rises up and claps back right, and so I think, in this moment, judas is caught up in this indignation. We'll call it a righteous indignation, a moral high ground, but in this moment he's so off base. But in his own head he thinks he's right, and we read that he takes this moment in that moment when Jesus tells him hey, be quiet, for she's doing something important. Watch what it says in Mark, chapter 14, 10. It says Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve at that moment, went to the chief priest to betray Jesus to them. Jesus tells him to be quiet. He goes to betray Jesus. They're not even in the garden yet he takes that moment. It must have already been brewing a little bit. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money, so he watched for an opportunity to hand him over and we know that just a couple of hours later, jesus is in the garden. And then that moment comes. We've all been betrayed, we've all had that moment.
Speaker 1:But what happens when sin starts to progress, from just crossing the line, to just making a bad decision, to just a little white lie, and then it becomes more and we don't recognize it. It's growing. It's like the frog that's boiling in the pot. Right, we don't know that the the frog doesn't know that the pot is getting hot, until it's too late. We're in the midst, in the middle of sin that started as an insignificant little well, I just made a bad decision, okay. And then it turned into jealousy, indignation, and now it's turning to much more than that's internalized and he's making decisions, becoming a filter that he sees and responds to everything through. It's become part of his identity. And how dare you do that to me? You don't know who I am. You put me, you made me responsible for this and, all of a sudden, his personal right to be somebody. You don't talk to me that way, I'll show you. He goes off to tell.
Speaker 1:And now we get to number four. Now he's operating from a hard heart. He doesn't see Jesus as just, he's not living yielded to Jesus. Jesus is not this Messiah, this Savior, the Son of God that they're all recognizing. He steps back and makes it more impersonal and brings the guards to the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus is praying with the other few disciples and betrays him with a kiss, turns this worst moment in history into stabbed in the back with a kiss and, if you notice, he calls him rabbi, calls him teacher. He doesn't just call him Lord, like usually. It's very uncommon, in fact, most of the time when the disciples, any of the disciples, refer to Jesus, they don't refer to him as rabbi. That's other people who are kind of distanced. They don't have the relationship. The 12 usually call him Lord, lord, lord, show us, tell us how do we pray, how do we live, how do we make this decision, what should we do? Lord, teach us.
Speaker 1:But in this moment Judas steps forward to betray Jesus and he's not stepping in with the relationship of Lord. He's stepping in with. He says Rabbi. It's almost like hey, we're not that close. It's almost like whenever evangelize and I, sometimes we get to a disagreement and all of a sudden I'll say something like well, babe, I don't, she don't call me babe, we're not. We're not there yet.
Speaker 1:There's some part of us that we get into a dynamic where, all of a sudden, my heart has like I do the same thing, like I'm not ready, don't touch my hand. We need to get past this thing. First, we need to resolve what you've done to me. And so Judas says not Lord, because Lord implies this. Lord implies that I'm yielded and submitted and surrendered to your will for my life. And he doesn't do that. Rabbi is more like hey, rabbi, you're a teacher, that's your title. I'm going to come in, I'll give you your title, but then I'll kiss you on the cheek and betray you.
Speaker 1:And so his heart was no longer surrendered and submitted and humble before God. And that's a great identifier, but a very hard one for us to recognize in our own selves. Am I surrendered and submitted? Am I living in humility? Are my knees bended, is my neck bent? Or am I standing up straight with my chest out saying how dare you? You know, god, how'd you let this happen to me? God, I thought you had better for me. I thought you wanted me to be blessed. Blessed in the city, blessed in the country, blessed coming in, blessed going out, I thought you know, blessed for my children and their children and their children. And what happened to all that God? All of a sudden, I'm not living in this mindset of Lord, I'm living just, teacher. What happened, I thought you said?
Speaker 1:1 Timothy 4.2 describes it this way their sense of what is right and wrong had been burned, as if with a hot iron. When you ignore what's right for long enough, whenever you lean into the wrong decisions and the impropriety and the jealousy and you allow that sin to be unchecked, what happens is it starts to take over and your conscience becomes seared and you can no longer recognize the things that are hurting you. And I'm telling you, church, there are some things that are hurting us. There are some things that are destroying us from the inside, just like Judas, and if we don't recognize it and stop it, it might be painful to stop it right now, it might hurt our pride to stop it right now, it might hurt our feelings to stop it right now, because we have to apologize and put ourselves into a position of submission. But how much better would it be for us than to go all the way down the road of sin to death?
Speaker 1:God wants us to be so in tune with him that we feel the nudges of his spirit when he says hey, go this way. Hey, don't do that. Hey, this one's going to be a no. I know you really want this, but it's a no. This one's a yes. Hey, you need to step out here.
Speaker 1:There's part of the inward, there's part of your heart that you can't hear if your heart's not clean. David said give me a clean heart. If your heart is hard and your heart is full of jealousy and all of these other things, all these stones that have been stacked in your heart, then you're not hearing what God wants you to hear. You're not receptive to the Spirit of God speaking to you in that still small voice. And if he would have had a clear and clean heart, I think that Judas would have been able to recognize that God was continuing, that Jesus was continuing to give him number five and that is opportunity At every turn.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to end with the story of him hanging himself and falling in the field and his guts falling out, because that's not where God leaves us. God leaves all of us in this place where, at every turn, he continues to give us opportunity. He says, hey, imagine this. Jesus knows that Judas will betray him, and yet he comes in and washes all the disciples, including Judas's feet. Can you imagine Judas sitting there with all these thoughts going on in his head and Jesus is washing his feet? It's almost as if Jesus is saying hey, you don't have to do this, there's opportunity. You could step right out of this. We have a different plan. In fact, in the garden, when Judas steps up to Jesus and says Rabbi, and keeps him at a distance, how does Jesus respond to Judas? He calls him friend. It's almost like he already knows what's going to happen, and yet he continues to reach out this olive branch and this hand of friendship and he's washing his feet. He's continuing to try and open the door for him to step into humility, but he doesn't do it. Open the door for him to step into humility, but he doesn't do it. So I want to close and take two more minutes and I want to share just two closing ideas, and that is you can write this down just two simple ideas to wrap up this series. It kind of encapsulates the whole thing, and that is number one.
Speaker 1:It's easier to squash a seed than it is to remove a tree. Easier to squash a seed than it is to remove a tree. Once we let it grow, it's really hard to get out. The last few years we've taken a couple of trips to California and I love to be in Yosemite and see the sequoia trees and the redwood trees. How many of you guys know that the tallest tree on the planet is about 279 feet tall? The largest tree by volume is the General Sherman redwood tree. The tallest tree is called Hyperion. You can't visit it because they don't want anybody to chop it down and try to take it out, although it's really difficult to take it out.
Speaker 1:This week I saw on Amazon that you could buy seeds for a coast redwood tree. This is General Sherman Hyperion. This is the seeds right here and it says that this, this seed, is a hundred percent guaranteed germination. So if you see a 200 foot tree in spring, it's mine. When I got this package I thought, wow, it's going to be a big seed because it's the largest tree in the world. But when I got it, here's the seed, right here, this little weed baggie. It's the tiniest, tiniest seeds. There's about six of them in there, six, six little seeds. So I can grow six of the tallest trees in Texas probably they're very, very small. If this even sprouted, imagine how quickly I could take this tree out Like it would take a lot of protection just to keep it growing a few feet. But the bigger it grows, the harder it will be to destroy If this tree got to 100 feet. In fact that's one of the reasons that the redwood forest is as big and old.
Speaker 1:They're the oldest trees on the planet. Why? Because they're very hard to kill once they grow. In fact, usually fire doesn't even kill them. It'll destroy some of the bark. But a big defense against fire is that some of these trees carry the average of full-grown. One carries about 34,000 pounds of water in the trunk. It's not easy to kill them. The wind doesn't blow them over and they only have about six foot deep roots. The strength comes that their root system is only about six foot deep roots. The strength comes that their root system is only about six feet deep but it goes about a hundred feet wide and ties into all the other trees around them. If that's not a recipe and if that doesn't tell you that you need to be in a small group, connect it to some people that can help you stand.
Speaker 1:But my point is this these seeds are very easy to take out, and I think the question we should all ask ourselves is what little seeds are growing in your heart right now? You've ignored, you've taken steps, you've sinned, you're impropriety, jealousy, hard-hearted. There's some part of you that have just been not a big deal. I'm challenging every one of us today. There's some little seeds in your heart that you just need to start cleaning your garden. You need to start walking through your heart and letting the Holy Spirit point and show you okay, I know you don't want to address this, I know you don't want to talk about this, you don't want to look at it, you don't want to feel it, you don't want to, but we have to Listen to. The Holy Spirit is nudging you.
Speaker 1:If maybe you've had your conscience seared, there's a fresh start that you can take and say God, let my heart be clean. Show me the seeds that are growing in my life that if I don't take care of them, they will kill me, they will kill my family, they will kill my marriage, they will kill my relationship with my kids, my faith, my ministry, my future, my finances, my health. There's some things in us that if you don't address it, it's going to hurt you. The last thing that I want to share with you is this and then we're going to pray and that is that being associated with Jesus is no guarantee that you're a follower of Jesus Just because you walk next to Jesus and you have a Christian-themed life and just because you have a tattoo that has a scripture. Now, if you have a tattoo with a scripture right here, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about all of us. Just because you have a necklace that has a cross on it, just because you have some things in your life, you have a bumper sticker that says you go to a certain church, or a t-shirt that says that you love Jesus or that Jesus loves you, that does not mean that you're a Jesus follower.
Speaker 1:Judas and walked with jesus for three years and he still missed it. He was still losing it. The question is do you know god? Are you following jesus? Are you trimming your garden? Are you making decisions? Would you stand up on your feet? We're going to close with worship and then I'm going to come back and pray, but I want you to just look at your heart and ask the holy spirit to help you have a soft heart where you can hear His voice and where you can start beginning to make the decisions that will help you become who he made you to be.
Speaker 2:Let's go Break down the walls pour my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better. Shake up the ground pour my tradition. Break down the walls pour my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better. Shake up the ground All my traditions. Break down the walls Of all my religions. Your way is better. Shake up the ground All my traditions. Break out the walls, all I believe in. No, it's better. No, it's better. Now it's true for you To do whatever you want to, To do whatever you want to. I will be home for you To do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.
Speaker 1:I want us to close by examining ourselves and taking a moment where we can soften our hearts before God. For some of us, that might be making a decision to go this way or go this way, or to stop or to go, or to choose a relationship to put down or pick up. God has so many things for us. His future for us is so much better than our future for us, but it means that we have to yield and surrender and submit to his will. For us, and so I would, I would challenge you in this moment to make that decision, and for others in the room, it might be the decision simply to follow jesus. You may never have surrendered your life for that first beginning relationship with jesus, and it's as simple as making a confession with your mouth, believing in your heart, calling on the name of Jesus, and you will be saved. So we're going to say a prayer. I'm going to invite everyone in the room to pray with me, and if you've never said that prayer, would you join us and repeat after me? Would you say this Dear Heavenly Father, today I choose to give you my life. I invite you to not only be my Savior, but to also be my Lord. So today I submit to you, I surrender to you and from this moment forward, I will follow you. I will follow you with all of my heart. So forgive me of my sin and where I've come from, and lead me into the future that you have for me. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Would you put your hands together? Everybody who said that prayer. I'm proud of you. I love you. I'm glad that you joined us this morning.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for all the things that are coming this summer. I'm excited about small groups. I'm excited about this evening where we'll. If you want to join the dream team, tonight is your night, six o'clock with dinner. It's so many great things going on and I look forward to getting to know you a little bit better. God bless you guys. The, the prayer team will be up here at the front if you want to pray with somebody. Otherwise you are dismissed. In jesus name.