Follower Or Consumer? - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What you end up doing is you're always figuring a way that I can force the hand of God into a situation or I can take His will and I can thwart His will. That's what we end up doing and it shows up so often in our prayer. You see, it shows up that way. Yes, we can pray for our humanity.

That's not the problem. We can pray what we feel. The real question comes down to how do you react when God doesn't give you what you want? You see what so many of us do?

We just push Him aside. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Chapter 12, verse one, Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, that's that Saturday, he came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised in the dead. And so they made him a supper there. And Martha was serving. So we know Simon the leper and Lazarus and that family are close. Martha was serving, but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. And Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume, a pure nard, and anointed his feet, the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples who was intending to betray him, said this. Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

Wow. Now we know who started this. Judas said, why not? Now, remember, he's the right guy because he was the guy they most trusted with money. Could imagine when they had to have a treasure because people gave them money from time to time and kept all 12 of these guys out on the road for three and a half years. They say, look, one of the guys is going to have to be the guy who handles the money. We need a treasure.

Now, I don't know what the discussion was like. Someone probably said, well, not Matthew. He's not going to be the treasure. Who's the most trustworthy guy? They said, Judas. He's the guy. By the way, when Jesus even said in the upper room someone's going to betray him, no one said Judas.

In fact, most of the guys realizing just how shallow they were said, is it me? You see, it's a different kind of thing. But Judas is the one that says this. Now, notice what John writes. Now, he said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief and he had the money box and he used to pilfer what was put into it. Therefore, Jesus said, let her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. He said, for the poor, you'll always have, but you not always have me. Now, I'm going to go back to the Matthew passage. Matthew again, back where we were. Matthew 26. This is astounding.

Judas' personal agenda, his idea as a consumer to use Jesus, was so strong that he could be with Jesus 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three and a half years and still use Jesus to pursue his personal agenda. Look, I got some money I can make here. She's willing to give this to us.

I can make a lot of money off of this. So, back here in verse 10 now, Jesus speaks again, a little different but similar. He says, Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. For when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel was preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be spoken in memory of her. That's amazing what I just read that last verse. You know why?

I just spoke it. Now remember, Jesus is the son of a carpenter. He's from Nazareth. He is nobody and he's kind of from nowhere. He's never been more than 50 miles from the epicenter of where he was born. It's kind of who he is. He doesn't have a passport, all the countries he's visited.

No one's ever heard of him. Jesus said, oh, by the way, in the future when they tell this story, and where are they going to tell the story? Jesus said, oh, they're going to tell the story in the whole world. Everyone in the whole world is going to hear this story.

You just heard it today in Louisiana. You see, that's the way it works. Jesus knows exactly what's going on. He knows exactly where it's going to go and he talks about how great it is what this woman did. You know, when I think about that, I thought how costly this was for her.

But what was she really doing? Not just preparing him for burial. Maybe I look at it this way. When we always talk about giving, often what we end up doing is we'll say to people like you, oh, here's a need. Would you like to give to meet the need? And then you'll say, well, yeah, okay, I'll give to meet the need. We do that and there's nothing wrong with that.

But that's not what this is. She gave as an act of worship. She gave to worship him.

She didn't think about the cost. Pure worship here. One year's wages. All this perfume.

And she gave it that way. To the consumers, especially to Judas, who is a consumer of Christ. This is what he can't stand anymore. This is when he says, I'm done.

I am completely done with this. So this is what happens. Then one of the 12 named Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and he said, what are you willing to give me to betray him to you? Literally, it says, what are you willing to give me to hand him over to you? The NIV is right there.

The idea, what are you willing to give me and I'll hand him over to you. See, the problem they had was we can't get near him. He says, yeah, but I'm one of the inner sanctum. I'm one of the 12.

I know when there'll be no one else around them, no crowds. And I know right where he'll be. He said, now, you're going to have to really be prepared for this. You're probably going to have to have the temple guard and swords and torches. But I can lead you to him.

I can get him. That's what he is saying. He said, what are you willing to give me to hand him over to you? Do you realize how absurd that is?

But that shows you when you have a consuming mentality, you're only consumed by the way with yourself. That's how you see your faith. Judas says, I can hand him over to you.

No, really? Judas can hand him over? Let's see, how many times in all the gospels was it said that they ran to seize Jesus to grab him, to arrest him? And it says, and he disappeared out of their midst. Often. Now, by the way, and this is Jesus.

I mean, think of this. Jesus is a guy. He spoke to the weather.

Who does that? He said, be still. And a storm becomes completely calm. This is Jesus. This is Jesus. A man is dead for four days and says, Lazarus, come forth. He had seen that.

He saw a dead man come forward. This is Jesus. You see, this is Jesus who said, oh, you're blind.

Oh, I can help you. Give me some mud and I'll pack it on your eye. And he could see. This is Jesus where the lame walked. You see, this is Jesus who fed five thousand. This is Jesus who walked on water. And he says, I can hand him over to you.

I could do that. The arrogance of a consuming mentality. That's what he says. Then we see this. He says, and they weighed out 30 pieces of silver to him. And he says, from then on, he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

He's got his 30 pieces of silver. Now, let's go to Chapter 27 and verse one. Of Matthew.

Now, when morning came. All the chief priests and the elders and the people conferred together against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and they led him away and they delivered him to Pilate, the governor. Judas never expected this. That's not what Judas was in for.

Judas thought, look, the religious leaders need to get control of him. He's not been very favorable to them at all. But they can't do too much harm to him. The Jews have no authority to execute anybody.

They really can't execute anybody. He didn't expect that. And by the way, he knew all the leaders of the temple hated the Romans.

So they'd never work in some kind of a conspiracy with the Romans. But it turns out that's exactly what happened. Now, notice verse three. Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned. He felt remorse.

And he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. This is not what I bargained for. The Romans can crucify him. Then he said this. I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. This is not worthy of a Roman crucifixion. But they, the leaders of the temple, said to him, what is that to us?

See to that yourself. And so he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed. And he went away and he hanged himself.

Wow. What a terrible, horrible ending to this. He hanged himself. He felt remorse.

You know what? There are some decisions that can never be unmade. You just have to face the consequences of what you decided to do. What's interesting to me is that he didn't even want the money anymore.

You thought maybe you saw that's just terrible, but he would have pocketed the money. He is filled with remorse. You see, he learned the lesson.

A very hard way that you and I can learn without doing this. He learned this lesson and it's the lesson of the morning for us. God's hand cannot be forced. And God's will cannot be thwarted. God's hand cannot be forced and his will cannot be thwarted. When you have a consuming mentality about Jesus in your life, that's what you're always trying to do. What you end up doing is you're always figuring a way that I can force the hand of God into a situation. Or I can take his will and I can thwart his will. That's what we end up doing and it shows up so often in our prayer. You see, it shows up that way. Yes, we can pray for our humanity.

That's not the problem. We can pray what we feel. The real question comes down to how do you react when God doesn't give you what you want? You see what so many of us do.

We just push him aside. You see, we say, well, what's the point? You ever do that? What's the point? What's the point of me praying? What's the point? I mean, if God isn't going to deliver on my agenda, what's the point of all this?

He'll never deliver on your agenda. If it ever turns out that way, it's a coincidence. God's hand cannot be forced and his will cannot be thwarted. Now, you've got to love religion in verse 6. The chief priest took the pieces of silver and they said this, it's not lawful to put them into the temple treasury since it's the price of blood. And they conferred together and with the money bought a potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Those are people who came into Jerusalem from all over the world for the festivals and died in Jerusalem.

We have a place now to bury them. It says, for this reason, that field has been called the field of blood to this day, Matthew writes. Now, here's what I say. You've got to love religion. First of all, there's nothing in the Old Testament that says you can't do that. So it's not a biblical law. It's a law they made up. It's a tiny little law that's attached to another tiny little law they made up. And they said, look, we want to be right with a law. So I don't think we can take the money now because that blood money has been in the sanctuary. So we have to keep it away from the temple. Now, these are the same people that arrested Jesus by night, illegal. Put Jesus through one trial after another, all the trials illegal.

And then they went and paid witnesses to give false testimony, to lie, which is illegal and immoral. But they say, you know, we've got to keep the law. We've got to be careful with this money. We don't want the money that touch. Isn't that religion? You see, religion misses the beam in its own eye.

Look for the net. I mean, it's amazing when you think about how they said we want to stay right with the law. I love what Matthew writes. He says, for this reason, that field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Hey, it's 25 years later. If you come, I'll show you the field. You'll see the actual field where this really happened. He said, by the way, if you're interested, I could show you an empty tomb.

And that would be a little important in the field to see. Then verse nine, then that which was spoken of through Jeremiah, the prophet was fulfilled as they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel. And they gave them, he says, for the potter's field as the Lord, he says, directed me. That's an allusion, by the way, to Jeremiah. He is considered the lead prophet by the Jews, not Isaiah. And the quote actually comes more out of Zachariah. So he says, oh, by the way, and it was 500 years before Christ.

There's something there when you think about it. Judas was so unhappy because Jesus wouldn't meet his agenda, that Jesus wouldn't be part of his plan of how he saw his life turning out. So Judas ends up betraying Christ, and he really feels terrible for him.

He commits suicide. But isn't it kind of interesting that all Judas became was an instrument in God's hands? 500 years before it happened, God said that there'd be someone who betrayed him, and it would be the 30 pieces of silver, and it would be used to buy a potter's field. You see, that's the point. God's hand cannot be forced, and his will cannot be thwarted. As long as you're a consumer trying to get the Lord to help you with your agenda, you'll never be a follower of Christ. You see, that's what it comes down to. Because when he doesn't do what you want him to do, you'll betray him by doing two things, pushing him away, or what most of you do, pressing on with your own agenda.

Examples. You'll marry the unbeliever. You will. Now, you know what the Lord's will was.

Yeah, I know, but they might convert later. You see, and I know there are a lot of believers out there, but none of them quite as cute as this girl. And you'll marry her.

Why? Because this is my agenda. Then you'll pray every day that God makes sure this person gets saved. And if that person doesn't, and your life goes in ruin, then you'll blame the Lord.

That's what consumers do. You'll close that deal that you know is unethical, but it'll be for the good of the company and supporting your family. You'll make an investment in something that you know Christ would never approve of, but it's business. You'll refuse to move. The Lord will give you an opportunity, but you'll refuse to move. You won't go to another city. You won't go to another state.

You won't go anywhere. I was wondering, by the way, if you want to know if you were a consumer or a follower, if you were actually thinking about the words you were singing when we were singing the song, I will follow. Wherever you lead me, all over the world, I will follow.

What were you really thinking? That you would follow? Or you'd say, no, I'm not really going to follow.

That's right. That's what a consumer would say. I'm not really going to follow. You see, if your leading is leading me somewhere else, I'm not really going to follow. I have my agenda. Jesus said, I'm baffled by it.

Why do you call me Lord then, not do the things that I ask? But whenever you stop being a consumer and start being a follower of Christ, I can tell you something. It'll be the defining moment of your life. It'll be more than anything. What does that mean? Well, that would mean this, Lord, anything, anytime, anywhere, at any cost. That'd be your mantra, anything.

You just ask me what you want, I'll be there. You see, it sounds sort of like this. When you are a follower of Christ, you say, I want what you want more than what I want. That's what a follower does. I want what you want more than what I want.

And the consequences of this are astounding. When you are a follower of Christ, you could be a young doctor with a promising career, a graduate of Tulane Medical, and you might find yourself in the Congo for your life. Because that's what followers do.

No agenda. If not, I need Jesus in my life like a lucky rabbit's foot to pursue my own agenda. Marriages that are heading for divorce might actually be healed. Forgiveness may be offered because it's the will of the Lord. Career paths may change. Ministries to the needy may be pursued because you've been exposed to it.

Lord, I'll use my resources the best I can. Even your giving will become a joyful experience rather than a sacrificial exercise of your will. You see, one thing I want you to remember is this. Jesus didn't stop Judas from doing what he wanted to do. And he won't stop you either. Jesus didn't stop Judas.

By the way, something you have to know though. Judas didn't stop Jesus from doing what he intended to do either. Because you never will. God's hand cannot be forced. His will cannot be thwarted. Try to wake up every morning and say, Lord, today I want what you want more than what I want. And by the way, if you're kind of an in-betweener, which many of you probably are, consumer follower, you're an in-betweener, how about this prayer then? Lord, I want to want what you want more than what I want.

Because at least that's a beginning. The consumer will never pray that prayer. Only the follower. But you know, if Judas Iscariot had prayed that prayer, we might be naming our little boys Judas.

Let's pray. Father, I think the most difficult thing about being a consumer of Christ rather than a follower of Christ is we just don't see it. It's obvious to Christ and sometimes it's obvious even to others, but to ourselves we are so bound on our own agenda that we want you so much to fulfill all of the dreams and aspirations that we have. And then we ask your blessing on everything that we do, whether it's your will or not your will. Father, I would pray that we would, as the disciples eventually did, stop being consumers and they became followers.

Those 11 men changed the world because they gave up their agenda and they simply followed yours. Father, that's my prayer for each and every one of us. We say so often here that we want to help people become fully functioning followers of Christ, but that requires them to follow and not to consume. Father, we pray that this day, for some of them, it would become the defining moment of their life. In Jesus' name, for your glory and for our good.

Amen. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.