What is Jesus worth to you?

In Matthew 26, two people encounter the same Jesus and respond in completely different ways.

One woman pours out expensive perfume worth nearly a year's wages in an extravagant act of devotion. Judas chooses 30 pieces of silver to betray Him.

What made the difference?

How we view Jesus determines how we respond to Jesus.

In He's Worth It, we explore the contrast between devotion and betrayal, why Judas called Jesus "Rabbi" while the disciples called Him "Lord," and the difference between simply being around Jesus and actually being close to Him.

The question isn't only what Judas thought Jesus was worth.

What is Jesus worth to you?

We'd love to hear from you: What helps you keep Jesus at the center of your life?

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OC Church of Christ

My name is Marcel Hall, and I have the honor and privilege

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of being able to speak today.

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So grateful for the

opportunity, humbled by that.

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We wanna thank all those who have

helped lead our worship service,

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from the AV, the ushers- … the,

welcome table, the singers.

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Thank you so much.

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We appreciate that.

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And, I just wanna share something.

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You know, the other day it hit me in a

profound way just how grateful, well,

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it led to me being grateful, but how

blessed we are for our church family.

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Yeah.

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We are truly blessed.

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Amen.

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You can go ahead

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We are blessed and highly favored.

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We don't realize how good

it is that we have it.

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We have, and those of us who've been

around for a while, even if you've been

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around for just a little while, the

opportunities that we have to have not

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just a church community, but to have

a church family in which we are known

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by people, and we know people, and we

strengthen one another, we encourage

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one another, we support one another,

we help one another, and when needed,

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we challenge one another to grow.

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That is very unique.

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That's not happening all over the place.

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And as I got home the other

night, as I had a, a time with

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the winds and the barbers, I just

thought, "Man, I am so grateful."

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I wouldn't be the husband that I am,

I wouldn't be the father nor have the

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family that I have if it wasn't for God

blessing me with this church family.

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Amen.

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I wouldn't have the character

that I have if it weren't for the

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relationships that I've been able

to have for the last 25 years.

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And so you, I just wanna

encourage you, you are a treasure.

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You are a blessing, and you are blessed

and highly favored by God Almighty.

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So look personally to your right and to

your left and tell them, "You're blessed."

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And then tell them thank you

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Because we are so blessed.

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And I just wanna encourage you,

church, we've been a part of this

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now church family, we were part

of our church family in LA, and

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I am just so in awe of how God…

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And yes, we've had highs, and we've had

some lows, and we've had some challenging

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times, but what we have is special.

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Amen.

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And may we never forget what we

have in Christ in the church.

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Amen.

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And so I wanna encourage

you, you are awesome.

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Sometimes we can hear

how much we need to grow.

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Yes, you might need to

grow, but you're awesome.

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Yeah.

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And keep being awesome.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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You know, speaking of family, I just,

uh, we just had a family vacation where

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we had a family reunion on my mom's

side, and it was out in New Orleans.

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Whoo.

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And we drove to New Orleans.

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Whoo.

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Yeah, exactly.

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What were we thinking?

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But my mom, my mom came, and

we had a California contingent.

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We came in a couple different cars, but

my mom convinced me somehow, and she

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has this way where I say no, and then

all of a sudden I'm doing what she says.

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And she says, "Let's go on a road trip."

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Whoo.

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So we went on a road trip.

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That's about, I don't know how, I, I

checked, it's supposed to be 27 hours.

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Uh, we drove about 30 hours.

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I don't know what we were doing,

but we did stop in New Mexico, and

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we stopped in Houston, had a blast.

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And then we got a chance to see family.

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It was about 70 or so members of the fam-

at least 70 members of our family that

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showed up from all across the country.

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Such a rich time.

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I had such a joy and such an

experience that I just feel like,

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wow, I am, I, I, I'm just blessed.

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I got a chance to meet family

members I had never met before, some

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I haven't seen in 13 or 30 years.

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That's right, your boy is that old.

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And we just had a blast, and I

thought, man, and then I got home,

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and I started getting the receipts.

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I'm doing my finances, and I

thought, "This was a costly trip."

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I started looking like,

"Karina, how much did we spend?

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I didn't think we were

spending that much."

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You know what I'm saying?

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And I started wondering, I said, "Man,

we had a good time, but was it worth it?"

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You know what I'm saying?

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And then I realized it was worth it.

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And we ask that question, is it

worth it, a whole lot, don't we?

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We ask it at least a couple times a day.

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Is that outfit worth that price?

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Is that vacation worth saving up for?

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Is it worth my time to

stop at the Starbucks?

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Yes, I'm late.

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Yeah, of course, it's always worth it.

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Is it worth that exper- is the experience

worth the time and the convenience?

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The question that me and Karina

and the kids have to go back and

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forth with, is the AC worth it?

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Kids are getting excited.

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They want to have the AC on 24/7

because they don't pay for it.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And I'm like, "Look, I want to

be cool, but I don't know if I

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want to spend that extra $2.37

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on that AC."

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Come on.

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Because it's get, it gets costly.

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And so we constantly ask

ourselves, "Is it worth it?"

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And when we think it is, what will we do?

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We'll spend.

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We'll spend the money, we'll spend the

gas, we'll spend the time, we'll spend

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the energy, we'll spend the attention,

the comfort, and the opportunity.

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We'll sacrifice.

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Why?

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Because we deem it to be what?

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Valuable.

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We deem it to be what?

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Worth it.

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And so now let's think about our faith.

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Let's think about Jesus.

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Is Jesus worth it?

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The title of the sermon

today is He Is Worth It.

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He's worth it.

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Let's go to the Father in prayer.

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Father in heaven, thank you so much

for already the chance to, be able

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to have communion, the chance to give

to you, the chance to sing to you.

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And Father, just as we sang a couple

of minutes ago, you are worthy,

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and God, we're grateful that you

are a God who is worthy of our

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time, our energy, our everything.

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And Father, I'm excited

about your Word here today.

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I pray that you will touch every soul,

meet every soul where they are, allow

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them to see you for who you are, and

be able to respond to who you are.

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We pray this in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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All right, let's go on

over to Matthew chapter 26.

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Brothers and sisters, are

you with me this morning?

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Yeah.

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Matthew chapter 26, we're gonna read here.

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We're gonna see, uh, a couple of examples.

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We're gonna walk through Matthew

26, and we're gonna walk through,

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uh, some scenarios, some characters,

and we're gonna see their view

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of Jesus and see whether they

think Jesus is worth it or not.

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And so we're coming up on the last week of

Jesus's life here before his crucifixion,

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and we come here in Matthew chapter 26.

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The Book of Matthew, or what we call the

Book of Matthew, is a letter written by

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the Apostle Matthew, who was a follower

of Jesus, and he's really giving a

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breakdown of Jesus's life and ministry.

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And so we take it up in verse six.

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It says, "While Jesus was in Bethany

in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman

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came to him with an alabaster jar of very

expensive perfume, which she poured on

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his head as he was reclining at the table.

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When the disciples saw

this, they were indignant.

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'Why this waste?'

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they asked.

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'This perfume could have been

sold at a high price and the

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money given to the poor.'"

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Verse 10, "Aware of this, Jesus said to

them, 'Why are you bothering this woman?

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She has done a beautiful thing to me.

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The poor you will always have with

you, but you will not always have me.

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When she poured this perfume on my body,

she did it to prepare me for burial.

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Truly I tell you, wherever this

gospel is preached throughout

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the world, what she has done will

also be told, in memory of her.'"

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Let's stop right there for a second.

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And so here's the scenario.

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Jesus is about to have the

Last Supper with his disciples.

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This woman is there, and the Gospel

of John gives us an indicator

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that this woman is actually,

uh, Mary, the sister of Martha.

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And so she comes in, and she pours this

expensive jar of perfume on his head.

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And so what we learn from the other

Gospels that, that this jar, what

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she had spent or what the amount

and value was, was at least a year's

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wages that she just poured on Jesus.

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Now, think about this for a second.

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Here you are for your whole

year, your salary, your wages.

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You put that in a jar, and

you pour that whole thing out.

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Would you do that?

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Some of y'all, "If I did it,

I wouldn't pay my light bill."

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I understand.

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And so we see here what she was

doing was this extravagant offering.

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She goes and she says, "I don't care.

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I'm going to do what I

think He is worthy of."

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Now, we continue in the

story right after this.

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Oh, let's go back here.

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Here we go.

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Matthew 26:14, it says, "Then one

of the 12, the one called Judas

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Iscariot, went to the chief priest

and asked, 'What are you willing to

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give me if I deliver Him over to you?'

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So they counted out for

him 30 pieces of silver.

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From then on, Judas watched for

an opportunity to hand Him over."

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Compare and contrast.

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Do you see a difference there?

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Yeah.

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Did you catch the difference

between this woman and Judas?

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Judas now is one of the apostles.

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He's one of the chosen 12 by Jesus

to learn from Jesus, to be taught

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by Jesus, to walk with Jesus, to be

sent out by Jesus, and he betrays

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Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

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What can we learn from this?

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I believe the main thing here that

we want to talk about today and that

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we can see is how you view Jesus will

determine how you respond to Jesus.

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Right.

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How you view Jesus will determine

how you respond to Jesus.

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That's good.

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You see, the woman recognized

Jesus's worth, however

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Judas reduced Jesus's worth.

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The woman saw Jesus as the true

treasure, however Ju- Judas saw

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Jesus as a means to a treasure.

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The woman asked, "What can I give

because of how valuable Jesus is?"

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Judas asked, "What can I

get in exchange for Jesus?"

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Right.

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You see, how you view Jesus will

determine how you respond to Jesus.

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Right.

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And so now the question for me and you

is this: What is Jesus worth to you?

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Wow.

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What is Jesus worth to you?

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How do you view Jesus?

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Is He worth everything?

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Is He worth your offering and your

devotion, or is He negotiable?

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Is he something that you can easily

exchange if you find something you

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deem to be better, more entertaining,

more fulfilling, more to your liking?

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Or is he priceless, worthy of devotion?

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You see, all of this comes

back to how we see Jesus.

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Yeah.

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How we view him.

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Who is he and what's

his relationship to me?

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This would answer the question of

what Jesus is worth to you and I.

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Brothers and sisters, are you

still with me this morning?

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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So now let's continue, and

let's look a little bit more.

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Again, we're gonna keep Judas in this

story, and we're gonna also have some

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other characters come involved now.

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And we're gonna see some more

about how our view of Jesus will

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determine how we respond to Jesus.

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Matthew chapter 26, we're gonna jump

on down now, uh, to verse, uh, 20 here.

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Uh, here we go.

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Here we go.

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Uh, sorry about that.

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Very, there we go.

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All right, it says Matthew

chapter sc- 26 verse 20.

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They've had the Last Supper, and so

Jesus here with his guys, and now we

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get to the end of the, uh, uh, uh,

um, we, we, we get here to the, to the

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Last Supper, and a discussion happens.

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It says, "When evening came, Jesus was

reclining at the table with the 12.

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And while they were eating,

he said, 'Truly I tell you,

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one of you will betray me.'

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They were very sad and began to

say to him one after the other,

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'Surely you don't mean me, Lord?'"

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We're gonna jump on down to verse 25.

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"Then Judas, one of the 12

who would betray him, said,

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'Surely you don't mean me?'

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'Rabbi,' Jesus answered,

'you have said so.'"

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Did you notice something there?

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Let's go on over to verse 47.

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Church, are you still with me here?

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So now we go to the garden,

and so now Jesus, uh, they've

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already finished the Last Supper.

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Judas has already agreed to betray him.

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He's already given the indication

of where he's gonna be, and so now

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we're gonna have Judas and his crew

come where Jesus is to arrest him.

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And let's read.

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It says, "While he was still speaking,

Judas, one of the 12, arrived.

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With him was a large crowd armed with

swords and clubs, sent from the chief

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priests and the elders of the people.

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Now the betrayer had

arranged a signal with them.

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'The one I kiss is the man.

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Arrest him.'

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Going at once to Jesus, Judas

said, 'Greetings, Rabbi.'

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And kissed him.

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Jesus replied, 'Do what

you came for, friend.'

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Then the men stepped forward,

seized Jesus and arrested him."

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Did you see the difference?

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Did you catch the difference between

how Judas and the others viewed Jesus?

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You see, we'll go ahead and we'll

go back here, and we'll see it.

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The apostles go and say,

"Hey, it's not gonna be me,

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Lord, who betrays you, right?"

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And what did Judas say?

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"Hey, it's not me, Rabbi."

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Did you catch that?

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And even when Judas come to betray,

he says, "Greetings, Rabbi."

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There's a difference between

what the apostles were saying

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and what Judas was saying.

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Right.

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You see, Rabbi means teacher.

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That's a good thing.

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Jesus was a rabbi.

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There's nothing incorrect

in that statement.

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However, it's interesting to note the

one who betrayed him said Rabbi, while

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the ones who stayed faithful said Lord.

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Yeah.

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Is there a difference

between Lord and Rabbi?

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Yes, there is.

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Yeah.

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You see, a rabbi is a teacher.

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However, a lo- the Lord meant master.

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It meant status.

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It, it, it showed to his

authority and to his divinity.

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Yeah.

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You see, I view my teachers

different than I view my mom.

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Don't you?

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Yeah.

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I hope you do.

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I don't view my teachers the

same way I view Karina, my wife.

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There's a different understanding.

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I view them differently.

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What they say, that's cool, but what my

wife and my mom say, as you can tell, will

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lead me on a 30-hour trip to New Orleans.

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We didn't fly back though.

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We drove in and we flew back, so

we got the best of both worlds.

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Amen?

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You see, when someone's lord of your

life, that's a big difference from

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someone being the teacher in your life

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You see, the apostles at this point,

and they didn't even understand

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fully, but what they did get was that

Jesus is special and he's unique.

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And they said, "Lord."

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At this time, Judas no longer sees

Jesus as Lord, he sees him as Rabbi.

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Judas quits on Jesus, but the

disciples remain faithful.

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Now, they're a hot mess.

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We all know that.

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It only takes a couple more

sentences and we see the type of

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mess they get themselves into.

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But what do they do?

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They return to Jesus.

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Why?

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Because he was their Lord

and not just their Rabbi

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How you view Jesus will determine

how you respond to Jesus

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This helps us to see that we must

be in close relationship with Jesus.

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Close relationship, and what I mean

here is intimacy, not proximity.

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What I mean is in, i- i- i- uh,

uh, um, uh, um, excuse me, uh, a

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relational intim- int- relational

intimacy and not physical proximity.

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Yeah.

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We've all had that.

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You've been around somebody, but that

doesn't mean you are close to that person

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Now you can be away from your best friend

for years but still feel what to them?

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A deep connection.

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Why?

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Because it wasn't about the

physical proximity, it was

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about the relational intimacy.

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And what we see here is that we need to

ensure, we need to make sure that you and

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I have relational intimacy with Jesus and

not just physical proximity toward Jesus.

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Not just being at a church gathering,

not just being at a small group

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gathering, but I am walking with

the Lord- Amen … daily in my life.

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You see, Judas, here's the

thing, Judas was one of the 12.

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Did you catch that?

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12.

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He was there.

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He was chosen.

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He was there from the beginning.

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He saw the miracles, he saw the teaching.

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Jesus not only had him witness

it, he had him participate in it.

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The gospel teaches and tell us that

the apostles went out, preached

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themselves, and casted out demons.

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So Judas was a part of the mission.

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However, at this point in time, Jesus

was no longer Lord, he was just rabbi.

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The relational intimacy had faded.

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Now he was physically there, but he wasn't

really there with Christ in relationship.

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Do you understand what I'm

saying, brothers and sisters?

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And so this means that a relationship

with Jesus, we can have a relationship

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with Jesus, but it doesn't mean that

we have a good relationship with Jesus.

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Yeah.

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You see, Jesus had a relationship,

if you saw from the outside, if

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you were somebody else, you'd be

like, "Oh yeah, he's one of the 12.

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He's with them.

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Oh yeah, he's good to go."

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Yeah.

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However, he wasn't.

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And so that should be a warning.

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That should humble us.

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I can't just be there,

I need to be with Jesus.

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I need to be lock in step with

Jesus, and Jesus can't be my

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rabbi, he needs to be my Lord.

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It's a different relationship.

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I know before I became a true

Christian, Jesus, he was my rabbi.

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I went to church.

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I, I, you know, at first I used to

sleep in the back of the church,

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but then I started paying attention.

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And I would go to church and,

and I would, I would even…

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I even got religious at one point,

and I decided I'm gonna stop doing

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all the certain bad things that I

was doing even though I was still,

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uh, I wasn't maybe knee-deep in

sin, but I was calf-deep in sin.

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And I was…

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Jesus was a good idea, Jesus was a

good influencer in my life, but when

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it came to submission, he was not Lord.

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Yeah.

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I was lord.

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When there was a tug of war, there

was a wrestle, or there was a conflict

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in views, guess who was reduced?

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Jesus.

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That's who I was.

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That's my relationship in the

past with Jesus before people

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studied the Bible with me and God

showed me, "I can't be your rabbi.

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I need to be more than that.

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I need to be your Lord."

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And I praise God for that

happening 25 years ago.

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But I have to be careful now

not to reduce Jesus to a job.

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You see, I'm in a full-time ministry,

so everything I do is, quote unquote,

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"spiritual," at least in theory.

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And so what Jesus can become is

my boss, my employer, my routine.

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He can be part of my

tradition or my culture.

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Do you get what I'm saying?

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Yeah.

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And so I have to be careful of this.

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What do you need to be careful of as well?

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Can Jesus be reduced to

a rabbi in your life?

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As I studied this out, I was like, man,

I, I, I, I can't let Jesus be reduced

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even though this temptation is there.

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But Jesus must remain my life.

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Jesus must remain my hero.

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Jesus must remain my best friend.

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Jesus must remain my

inspiration and my destination.

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Jesus must be my everything.

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Jesus must be my Lord

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He can't be a mere rabbi,

'cause that's not who He is.

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That means I have a

incorrect view of Jesus.

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If He's a religious figure,

then my view is totally off.

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If He's just a good

teacher, then I'm incorrect.

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If He's just a, a person that's only

a landline, then I have failed the

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tests, because Jesus is more than that.

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He is Lord of all.

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Yeah.

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Amen.

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You see, the disciples, they gained and

they maintained the right view of Jesus.

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That's why, why we even have the Gospels.

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That's why we have the New Testament.

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It's because they were able, by God's

grace, to see Jesus clearly, and

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then respond to Jesus accordingly.

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And I believe that's the same

response me and you should have from

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this reality, is this: To see Jesus

clearly and respond accordingly.

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See Jesus for who He is, and

then respond to Him as Lord.

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And so whether you're young or, or maybe

you're coming now and you're, you're,

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you're studying the Bible, you're,

you're seeking this whole religion

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thing, this Christianity thing here,

I wanna encourage you to continue

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to discover who Jesus is, but then

also what that means for your life.

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Yeah.

431

For those of us who have been around, the

call for us is to have and to hold on to

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this truth of Jesus and who He is, to grow

in our relationship and appreciation, but

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to continually, daily respond accordingly.

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Because again, I will respond differently

if Jesus is Lord than if He is my rabbi.

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And how?

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We build up to intimacy with Jesus

through the scriptures, understanding who

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He is, what He's like, through prayer,

praying to Him, connecting with Him.

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And not just, "Jesus,

can you help me today?"

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There's a song I like: I need

just a little bit more Jesus.

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I like that song, but I'm like, "I

don't need just a little bit more Jesus.

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I need a whole lot more Jesus."

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I wanna know you.

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I wanna be close to you, and

most, I wanna be like you in

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my character and in my nature.

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You see, we also need

other disciples of Jesus.

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We need each other.

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I don't know how much I've grown,

I've shared a little bit earlier,

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because of others' relationship

with Jesus that helped me,

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shaped me, mold me, and teach me.

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So this is why we need to gather

as often as we can, share all that

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we can, and spiritually strengthen

and encourage one another.

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Yeah.

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Model for one another what it looks like.

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Support one another when we get down.

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You see, this is how we're gonna build

this intimacy and respond accordingly.

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And as a church, we're gonna start,

I believe we're starting next week,

457

we're gonna start a sermon series out

of the Gospel of John called Come and

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See, where we can all collectively be

reminded and have a fresh view or renewed

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view of who Jesus is, but also how to

respond to the Jesus that you and I see.

460

Amen.

461

You know, Jesus lifted up the woman.

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Did you see that?

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Wherever the gospel is preached,

so for thousands of years all

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across the globe, Jesus honors

this woman because she honored him

465

And what does she have?

466

She builds an everlasting

connection to the Son of God.

467

Brothers and sisters, that is

available for you and me today.

468

We too can be like that woman,

honoring Jesus, and Jesus going,

469

"I'm gonna honor you for eternity.

470

You're gonna build with me,

or you're gonna stay connected

471

with me for all of eternity."

472

And so this week, I want you to answer

that question: What is Jesus worth to you?

473

What is the Jesus that you are seeing and

building, what does He deserve from you?

474

And others, is Jesus still

Lord, or has He become a rabbi?

475

And whatever the answer is, answer

honestly, because God can work with that.

476

God's not mad, because God's calling

you back into deep fellowship with Him.

477

And so now we have an opportunity

to grow and grow and grow in Christ,

478

where He's not just a mere rabbi, He

is the Lord God Almighty in the flesh

479

How we view Jesus will determine

how we respond to Jesus.

480

Jesus is more than a rabbi.

481

Jesus is the Son of God- Amen … the

exact representation of God the Father.

482

He's the Word of God in the flesh.

483

He is the author and

perfecter of our faith.

484

He is the word of life.

485

He is Lord, and he is Savior,

and he's all that and then some.

486

Yeah.

487

That's who Jesus is.

488

Jesus is not negotiable.

489

He is the treasure, priceless

and worthy of our devotion.

490

Amen.

491

Let's close out in Matthew 26.

492

Brothers and sisters, are you

still with me this morning?

493

Yeah.

494

Yeah.

495

We go back to Matthew 26.

496

In verse 13, Jesus says, "Truly I tell

you, wherever this gospel is preached

497

throughout the world, what she has done

will also be told in memory of her."

498

Judas exchanged Jesus for 30 pieces

of silver while she gave extravagantly

499

because she saw Jesus as priceless,

worthy of devotion, and Jesus honored her.

500

May we see Jesus as she did,

and may our lives reflect

501

that Jesus is worth it to us.

502

Brothers and sisters, amen.