The Danger of Ignoring God's Guidance

And I was sort of thinking, you know, what am I going to do next? And I thought, well, I'd started through the book of Matthew and didn't get all the way through that. And I just automatically thought, well, I'll just go back and pick up in Matthew where I was and start there and finish that book. And I didn't think about it until yesterday when I was working on this, that I never really stopped to say to God, what is it you want me to do? Usually I do that a long time before the end comes, but the end of Romans kind of slipped up and I was gone two weeks. And so I haven't really found for sure that that's what I ought to do. So I'd like to ask you to pray with me about this this week and see what God's direction is. We have this business meeting next week, so we'll have another week before we get to the end of this. But I want to bring what God has for all of us. And I'm not really confident tonight that that's the direction I need to go. But I'm going to start at Matthew chapter 27. If you'd like to find that. Well, yeah, I'm working this. You're going to have to come two weeks. Yeah, I'm working this. I'm working this. Yeah. Matthew chapter 27. I'm going to move down to be a little more centered. Not that I'm afraid of any of you. I don't like it. I'm not in the middle. Everybody has to shift around a little. Sorry to disturb you old people. So you're getting settled in your ways. Matthew 27, beginning with verse 1 in this passage. In this story, we find a great revelation about how dangerous it is for us to listen to our own thoughts and direction and ignore what God is saying to us. Sometimes you make wonderful decisions whenever you're listening to God and you see how they worked out. Talking about knowing what you need and GAs and how you're looking for these things. God knows what we think and he's always at work with us. But we look at the circumstances and it almost always is that we think that God's answer is negligent. It's just not as timely as it ought to be. I think every person I'm around knows that that's the way it is. You know that God is going to help you and you know he's going to take care of you. But it just doesn't happen in the way that we think it should. So the temptation, the powerful temptation for us is to try to focus on making sure that we get this done ourselves. Making sure that we have our plans fulfilled. In this story, it's the story of Judas. An unusual man. He was called of God to be a part of the Twelve. We don't know what there was about him that made God say, this is what I want you to do. We don't know why Jesus was attracted to him or why he was even attracted to Jesus. And his story is sort of not very much mentioned to him about his following Christ. But this is the end of the ministry of Jesus. And here we see a man who's tortured by choices that he has to make. For some reason, he came to this last time in his life and he decided that he was not going to continue following Christ. Now, he would have been called of Christ and he'd walked with all the disciples. He'd heard all the stories. He saw all the miracles. He saw the water still. He saw all these things take place. But he came to the very end of Jesus' ministry and he decides that Jesus is not who he wants to follow. It would be interesting to hear his reasoning and his logic about why he did this. We don't know. The Bible doesn't reveal it. All kinds of speculation are given as to why this happened to him. All the way from people who see him as a man who's controlled by Satan to people who say that he was really trying to get Jesus to step up and become the king that he ought to be. We don't know why he did what he did. We just have the story of what took place. Now, it's my experience with everybody that I don't know of anyone who consciously makes decisions about what they're going to do in their life that ruins their life. Now, I know a lot of us make decisions that are terrible. And we look back on them and we say, what was I thinking? I don't know why I did that. Why did I make that decision? But at the time we made it, it looked good and appropriate to us. The danger here in this story is that when people start planning their life and ignore what God wants for them and they don't take his consultation in what they're trying to do, disaster always looms. It can be small things or it can be huge things. For this man, Judas, it was a huge thing. We don't know what happened in his mind that caused him to say, I'm through with this following Christ. I want to do something else. But it's obvious from the story that he anticipated that his choice would be better than it turned out to be. Isn't that kind of what happens to us when we make our choices based on our own wisdom and our own judgment and the advice maybe even of humans around us? We always make decisions that we think are going to be good. But when they turn out to be disastrous, we understand that we haven't taken into account what God wants for us in the situation and circumstance that we're in. Verse 1 of chapter 27, Matthew. Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. I have sinned, he said, for I have betrayed innocent blood. What's that to us, they replied? That's your responsibility. So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said it's against the law to put this into the treasury since it's blood money. So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field for a burial place for foreigners. That's why it's been called a field of blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. They took thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field as the Lord commanded me. Now Judas finds himself in a difficult spot. Notice what happens whenever Jesus is arrested and now is taken to be crucified. Here he's taken to Pilate to be tried. Now Judas' reaction to this is to be shocked. We don't know what he really thought was going to happen, but he's shocked at the result of what took place. Whatever his plan was, he didn't expect that Jesus would die as a result of what he did. His own thinking was, I'm going to do this, I'm going to get the money, and things are going to work out fine for everybody. But what happens is that he finds out that what he's done is leading Jesus to be brought before Pilate and is going to lead to his death. And all of a sudden his future that he'd planned now becomes something he never thought would take place. It wasn't a mild disappointment that he faced. He was so wretched by this that he couldn't take it. He even killed himself because of it. I don't know what was going on, but Judas apparently thought that his plan would work well. Now there's a great model for us, a great example of what happens to us. We can make great plans about what we're going to do, but until we consult God and allow his guidance for us, we're always open to the same thing that took place for him. When we're planning our Sunday school classes, when we're planning the programs we're going to do at the church, when we're planning the building project we're going to do, all the things that go on, we can do those without consultation to God. But the warning in Scripture is, unless you listen to me and follow what I'm asking you to do, you will never find the fulfillment and the completion that you ought to have. Somehow or other, when we look forward from where we're at and we begin to plan, our own minds cannot conceive of all the possibilities of what can take place, and we don't see the danger in the choices that we make. Judas here felt that the choice he made to bring the people to find Jesus was going to be trouble and it would be a problem, but he didn't think it would turn out the way it did. The warning here for us is to take the things that we're doing with our life and the planning we do and lay them before God. Lay them before God to get approval from him for the steps that we're going to take. Because when we look at the future, we see things differently than God sees things. We only know what we're thinking. God knows what I'm thinking, and he knows what all of you are thinking, and he knows what everybody you're dealing with is thinking tomorrow, and he can help you. We are so limited in our focus. But the fact is we're so confident that we can make these decisions that time and time again we push aside God's offer to help us and make the choices about our life, our lifestyle, our direction, and make those on our own. And then we see the danger when it's too late to change it. You're going to be around people all your life who are caught in the same trap that Judas was in. I know I can figure this out. But then when the facts begin to unfold, they discover that they had no idea. They had no idea of all the complicated things that were going to take place, and only God could give them that insight. What we want to do for ourselves and what we want the practice of people around us is begin to teach us to trust God. They were reading in the Stewardship Committee meeting this afternoon a survey taken in church about people who believe what their ideas of debt and giving are. And they summarized the giving part and said most of the people put that they thought tithing was a good thing to do, but they didn't think it was possible. Now think about this a minute. If God says we should do something, and then we say, okay, I see what God wants me to do, but I don't think what he's asking me to do is possible. What's my alternative? I have a better plan than God. And this is a small thing for people, but it's characteristic I find with so many people around me. They know what the Bible says, but somehow or other in human logic it just doesn't make sense to them. And so they define their own method of solving the problems that come face to face to them. It could be financial. It could be relationships. It could be all kinds of things. I see what's happening in front of me. I know what God says I should do, but I don't see any way in the world that that's going to work. What we don't account for is the fact that God knows much more than we do and that God has the power to change things that we never ever could change. What Judas could have done if he was saying I don't think Jesus is doing this right, he could have gone and said I want Jesus to talk to him about it. Why aren't you standing up and declaring yourself to be the Messiah? It looks like this thing is not going to end well. What are your plans? What do you believe God is going to do to help you through this? He never did. He just sat there, thought it through, and made his own choice. Now, he didn't make this choice by himself. He went to the people in authority and he said I will lead you to Jesus and help you find him. And you know what they said? This is a great idea. Yeah, that would be fine. We'll help you succeed in your project. And so they brought the soldiers out there. Judas led them up to Jesus. They took Jesus and put him on trial. And everything was working great. Judas and the Jewish officials were hand in hand, working together. Now, Judas comes to see the disaster that results from his decision. He goes back to his friends and he says I need help. This didn't turn out the way I wanted. They said that's your problem, not ours. You cannot depend on people who even help you make choices to be able to be there to rescue you. But you can always depend on God to be able to step in no matter how many mistakes you make or how far down the line you are once you realize your mistake and you're ready to stop and say God, I've really made a mess of this. It doesn't matter who it is. When you stop and acknowledge your failure, acknowledge what you've done and you ask God to step in and help you and you're willing to do what he's asked you to do your whole future changes. In this story, it says Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned. He was seized with remorse and returned the 30 silver coins. Now this phrase, seized with remorse, if you have a King James Version of the Bible and even the Revised Standard Version of the Bible it says he repented. Now that sounds very much like he was stopping dead in his tracks saying I have done this wrong and I acknowledge I've done this wrong and I'm now ready to change my mind and do something different. But the word that's translated repentance here is not the same word that's normally used in the Greek language for repentance. They're two different words. This word that's used here is exactly like this translation says it is. He was seized with remorse. He was sorry he did what he did. You know, people who are sorry for the choices they make are often times sorry that the choices they make didn't turn out the way they want them to be. They're not sorry that they made them without God. And so when you're trying to help people and Rusty knows this when you're trying to help people who are in trouble and you sit down with them and you talk to them about how they solved their financial problems they may be sorry that they're in financial difficulty but they're not interested in changing the way they manage their finances. I often talk to people who have relationship problems in their marriage or in their friendships or whatever it is and when you can see from the outside what it is that they do that creates the problems that they have with other people they're sorry that they're in this situation where there's so much conflict and so much trouble but when you say to them you know, if you would change the way you deal with people then these circumstances would work out. They just get angry. They don't want to change anything on themselves they want other people to change. They want the rest of the world to be different. What this passage says is Judas was in a situation that a lot of people are in they're really sorry that what's happened to them has happened to them. It's not uncommon for somebody to come and see me and tell me the terrible things their life is in the terrible circumstances they're in and I say to them, you know, Christ can help you. He can change your circumstance. If you're willing to say to him, take my life I'm willing to do from now on the rest of my life what you want me to do and live the way you tell me to live He will change your future. In the moment of their great pain they say, that's what I want. And so I said, okay, well, kneel here in my office and you can tell God I'm sorry for the way I've been living the things I've been doing the choices I've made from now on I'm going to do what you want me to do. And they say that prayer and they feel good. They feel good now because they've admitted what's wrong to God and they've admitted what's wrong to me and it relieves the burden from them. And then they get up and sit down on the sofa and I say, well, now what you need to do is you need to take the Bible and start reading and I'll get them a Bible and show them where to start and you need to be here Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night to learn what God wants you to do. Some of them will come one time many of them never return. And then a little bit later I see them and the same problems have occurred again. That's remorse. It's not repentance. Repentance means you've said to God I have made decisions that put me in a terrible situation. I don't have any way to get out of this. I recognize that I've been doing things that are wrong. And if you will show me what to do from here on out the rest of my life I will do exactly what you want me to do. The word repentance means to change directions. Change what you're doing. Change the pattern of your life. Change the thoughts that you make. In the book of Romans chapter 13 where Paul says to them that they are to change their way of thinking not be conformed to the way the world lives but be transformed by the renewing of their mind. Think differently about the world and act differently about the world around you and then the transformation comes. Judas was struck with remorse. I don't know how powerful that was but it was so powerful he wanted to kill himself. Now that's depression, discouragement and defeat. No. He didn't ever repent. He never said I'm prepared to change the direction of my life. He was just sad and sorry that things turned out the way they did. The difference between repentance where you say I admit to you God that I've done the things that are wrong and I realize the mistakes that I've made and now I want my future to be different and so I'm going to quit doing the things I've been doing and I'm going to start doing the things you tell me I should do. That's repentance. A change of mind and heart. What he had here was remorse, regret and sorrow but he didn't have any plan to live his life differently. And so all he could see was the blackness and the darkness of the future. I don't know what it takes for people to want to change. I remember a fellow came to see me one time and he said I came home from work today. I'd never met him before. My trailer house is cleaned out. My wife took everything and she's left me. She took even the dishes, the pots and pans and all I have is an empty trailer house. So I told him that God would help him if he would give his life to God and say from this moment on I'm willing to change whatever in my life there is. I'm willing to live in obedience to you. I'm willing to take whatever direction you give me. And he sat there for a few moments and he lost his wife, his kids, all the stuff in his trailer and it was empty and he was going back to nothing. And he paused for a little while and he said I can't do that. I said why? And he said I just can't give up my life. That was my question. I said what do you have left to give up? He said I just can't do that. And he left in his grief and sorrow. This is a picture of what happened to Judas. He knew that the decisions he made had led him to a terrible place. But he was not prepared to say I'm ready to start living the way Jesus told me to live. What a tragedy it is you know when we plan and make the best plans and we think things are going to go well for us and disaster comes. But in every circumstance God is always prepared and ready. When the trouble comes and remorse and regret set in there is one little step that needs to be taken after that and that is repentance. I am prepared to turn my life around. To go in a different direction and live in a different way. Judas made his plans. He had people who helped him make his plans. All of them thought that this was going to work well. But Judas discovered it was the worst thing that ever happened in his life. You're going to meet people around I hope it's not you but you're going to meet people around who are doing this who are making the best plans they know how only to discover that everything in their life just falls apart. They will be sorry. They will be in remorse. But you can't help them until they're prepared to repent. Now in the moment that you talk to them they'll be prepared to get rid of their grief and sorrow. But the repentance means that when they're through they're prepared to start doing something differently than they did before. They give a Bible. Say you read it. And you start coming to church and hearing what God has in store for your life. And you begin to do that today. You go home tonight and read that. You read it tomorrow. The next day. And you show up Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Let your life be filled with the instructions of God. And if they're not willing to do that you cannot help them. I remember one time a man came to make that commitment to Christ. And I thought, well, I'm really going to help him out. I'm going to personally be a mentor to him. A disciple maker with him. So I gave him what we were using then, the survival kit. And, okay, here's your first week of things to do. And I'll meet with you at McDonald's next Thursday or when it was. So I go there and he's filled out about three days out of the week. And he hadn't any more. Come the next week and he hadn't filled out anything. And I thought, you know, I'm just going to tell him what's in these pages. He doesn't have to read it and fill it out. I'm going to tell him. Then he'll have this information. And he'll be able to put it in his life. So I was telling him all this. Then the next week we met. And he hadn't done it again. And I started in and he was looking at his watch all the time. I was talking and he said, I got an appointment today. And he left. And I realized there's not anything you can do to force God into the life of a person who's not open. No matter how much they have grief, remorse, and sorrow, they have to believe that God has the answer. Unless they're prepared to say, I cannot fix this myself. So many times when people get into trouble, it helps them to tell people what their problems are. And for that moment they feel a little better. And they'll be satisfied with that as opposed to a cure from God. So when you meet people who are in the position that Judas is in, and you're talking to them about what needs to be done, don't be satisfied for them to kneel and pray with you. The commitment of their life. Ask them to live differently. To incorporate into their life the spiritual issues of talking to God, listening to God, learning from God, and putting into practice the things that they've learned. For if they've really repented, they will want that. And they will do it. Judas couldn't repent. He could just be sad and sorrowful. And whenever you're sad and you don't have any future for yourself, you have no future. So he took his own life. Now you'll notice in here that it talks about in this section that he hung himself. In the book of Acts it says that he fell and his body was burst open. Sometimes those seem like to people opposite things, but if he hung himself on a tree limb and it broke and he fell off, he could have hit the ground and busted open. There's no problem with those kind of things. The Bible tells us not scientific descriptions, but just the things that we need to know. Judas' life was over. All because he had Christ right there with him in person. And he never stopped to say, What should I do? The Bible gives us examples of people who live the life that's absolutely contrary to what God wants. And the destruction that it brings to their life. And the remedy that God has. We have to take that for ourselves. I don't know that there's anybody I've ever known who levels with me, who doesn't have the same problem. Sometimes we're willing to trust our own judgment over seeking the will and purpose of God. And even see things in the Scripture that say this is what we ought to do. And because we think when God asks us to do that, that we see negative consequences come from it. And so we back off and we don't. It can be a child, you know, who has stolen something. He comes to Sunday school and he hears the teaching that he should not steal. And God says to him, you need to go to your mother and tell her you've stolen this. And then he thinks of the trouble he's going to get in. He thinks of the consequences it's going to bring. And he decides, no, that's the wrong way out of this. I'll just keep it and never tell anybody. And when we get older, it doesn't change. We know that things that we're doing are wrong. We know that they're not what God says is right. In our own mind, we justify what we do. This is a terrible, tragic story to tell us how dangerous it is to trust our judgment in opposition to what God says is the right thing to do and the right way to live. Being a follower of Christ really is one fundamental decision. Do I trust myself over God? Do I trust my own judgment and wisdom over the judgment and wisdom of God? That's the fundamental issue. Whenever you trust the wisdom and judgment of God, it demands changes from us. When you trust your own judgment, you can avoid those difficult changes that you don't want to make. But disaster always looms behind the safe decisions that we make. Jesus said to his disciples, if you want to come after me, you must deny yourself. Deny thinking that you have the answer. You must take up your cross. You must do what is hard for you. And you must live as I have lived. Then you will find life in all of its fullness. Judas had grief and he had sorrow, but he killed himself. He was at the very point where he could have repented, but he chose to die. The message we have for people and for ourselves is, listen to God, not to people, and you will find life. Would you pray with me? What I want to ask you to pray about is to search your own mind. What in your own life do you know that God wants to be different about you? I think all of us know something that God wants to change about us. The great danger is we think it's not that serious. But disobedience to God is very, very serious. When you see a man who has lost everything, his trailer house is empty, you say, what do you have left to give? Nothing. But when God talks to us, we think we have a lot to give up if we obey him. It's a deception. Father, you talk to each of us because in our conscience we know you tell us that's not the right thing to do. That's not the right attitude to have. That's not the way to treat people. We hear those things. And we brush them off because we think there won't be any serious consequence to our rebellion against you. Help us to learn from the story of Judas how disastrous trusting human wisdom is over trusting you. That we might find the fullness of life you want for us. In the name of Christ we ask this. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.