What do you value?

I was asked a few weeks ago to take an epilogue (short talk) at the kids clubs I help on how Judas misunderstood Jesus. The passage I was given was from Matthew 26:14-16 and went as follows...


Then one of the Twelve - the one called Judas Iscariot - went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

To begin with I had no idea where to start, but I was thinking about why was Judas willing to hand him over? And the answer I came to was that Jesus wasn't important enough. Money was much more important to him than Jesus himself.

I went on in the epilogue to ask what is the thing that is most valuable to you? What makes you tick? What's the thing that you think of first when you wake up in a morning? I've been really challenged recently to make Jesus the most important thing in my life. I'm reading Counterfeit God's by Tim Keller in my 1-2-1 which is a really good read, and very challenging (thoroughly recommend it!) and then with this epilogue remembering that everytime we make something else more important than Jesus, we are notifying the Pharisees and sending Jesus to the cross.


The thing is, it is so easy to make things more important than they should be. Money, friends, family, possessions, school work, image, abilities. Its so easy to tell yourself, or allow others to tell you that these are the things in life that are worth having, and the things that will satisfy you. But it couldn't be more untrue. We live in a society where we are never satisfied with what we have. We always want more, and when we get more we are still ungrateful and unfulfilled.

Jesus gave up so much for us.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
What he has done for us is so incredible and it shocks me everytime I stop and realise how sinful we are. How much we reject him all the time, and how many things we make more important than Jesus. Jesus just deseves so much better from us.

...thank God for GRACE!