Motives

[0:00] Go ahead and take your Bibles from Mark chapter 14 as we start out with the first Sunday of the new year, 2025. You know, what another year the Lord has given to us.

[0:13] And just as we transition to a new year, we're transitioning to a new chapter here in the book of Mark. And as we come here to this transition in the gospel here, this narrative, we're going to look this morning at some motives that are revealed.

[0:29] Because, you know, as we understand, we all judge motives. We look at motives. We try to assess motives that people have. And here this morning we're going to look at some motives about people and their service and how they look at the Lord and the things with that.

[0:47] And so sometimes we can't always understand somebody's motive, but we do and can assess the actions and the choices that they make.

[0:58] And it may seem one way by observation. You know, we can observe somebody and try to make some assessments about their motive. But you know what? There's only two people who know your true motive.

[1:10] That's yourself and God. And the sad part is sometimes we don't even understand our motive. Yeah, I believe sometimes we don't even understand why we do something sometimes until later on.

[1:22] But I want you to know God understands all that's going on within us. You know, and so we're going to see here as Mark 14 brings to light the heart of individuals here within the chapter.

[1:34] But before we begin reading, we need to just give a little context here because this chapter kind of marks a transition in a unique way because it kind of gives a flashback or moves back in time.

[1:47] Here, if we're going to look this morning, it moves back a few days and catches us up with what was happening, you might say, parallel to what Jesus was doing.

[1:58] The things that were happening in the background here, and we're going to talk about that here this morning, but as he looks and unpacks those things about individuals' motives.

[2:09] And Jesus speaks specifically about one person's motive in the narrative and gives us insight into it. And so we see here as Jesus arrives a few days early, if you remember when he came towards Jerusalem for the Passover, it was there in Bethany where he began and came in on that Friday evening before the Passover as we had looked weeks ago, and we find these things are going to start playing out already that set the stage for what's happening in the week that follows.

[2:43] And so if you found Mark chapter 14, let's stand together this morning for the reading of the Word of God here today as we honor the Lord. And let's look here in verse 1. It says, And after two days was the feast of the Passover, and the unleavened bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death.

[3:04] But they said, No, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, he sat at meat, and there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she broke the box and poured it on his head.

[3:22] And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, Why is this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and had been given to the poor, and they murmured against her.

[3:37] And Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She thwart a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good.

[3:52] But me ye have not always. And she hath done what she could. She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

[4:12] And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priest to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money, and he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

[4:27] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning, Lord, we just thank you and praise you for the day that you've given to us, the opportunity to meet together. Lord, as we just take time to look at the motives of these individuals here this morning, that Lord, help us to assess our own motives of what and the why if we do things, and especially for your service.

[4:49] Lord, help us to keep the right motives in our lives towards you. Lord, help us to do it in light of what you've done for us. Lord, help us to examine our motives even here today, that it might be found that it was something that was done well for you.

[5:06] And Lord, we pray just have your hand upon each one today, and we give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. May we be seated. You know, as we find here, Mark takes us back to the Friday as Jesus arrives.

[5:18] And we'll talk just a little bit about that here, because it says it was two days before the feast of the Passover. And so one thing I want you to understand, John's Gospel tells us that this feast happened on that Friday night before the Sabbath, there when Jesus arrived.

[5:37] John chapter 12, we'll look at that a little bit this morning. But I want you to understand, sometimes we get caught up and miss things in language, because here it's talking about the feast of the Passover was two days.

[5:48] Now, the feast is talking about the festival, in other words, the course of the time frame of Passover. In order to understand that, we have to look back into Exodus. If you remember in Exodus when God originally gave the Passover, the Passover wasn't so much an event, but was a time period that was involved, because it started on the tenth day of the month.

[6:12] On the tenth day of Nisan, they picked the lamb, and they began, from that point, when they picked the lamb, they would look at the lamb, they would scrutinize the lamb, they made sure the lamb was proper to be sacrificed, and then on the fourteenth day was actually the day of Passover, and they would actually kill the lamb on that day.

[6:32] Also on that day, when they killed the lamb, the next day began the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And so when it talks about the feast, or the festival, the word here is festival.

[6:43] In other words, it's talking about that time frame involved, because sometimes we get, as we read our Bible, we get to reading through, and we need to understand, how has this happened?

[6:55] Two days, it says, and the other one says six days before in John. How does that correlate? Well, John speaks specifically about six days before the Passover event itself, and this one says, two days, was two days before the festival began, which would have been on that Sunday.

[7:12] And so, in other words, we'll find that if we understand the context, we understand there, everything flows perfectly on the timeline. And everything flows through, there's no conflict here of these events.

[7:25] This is when this event took place, was in the house of one Simon, the leper. And so, this feast refers to that entire time of the Passover.

[7:35] And that helps us understand the context of the passage. Why was it placed here? It's because he's given us a motive about what's happening behind the scenes, because there's going to be one of Jesus' disciples, Judas, that's going to turn Jesus in.

[7:50] What were some things preceding that that led forth, and that motive behind it is revealed? Because, take a look over quick, go to John chapter 12 for a moment here this morning as we look here in this, and you'll see what I'm speaking of here.

[8:07] Because we see here, we can understand this context, John chapter 12 and verse 1 says, In other words, we see that this event is the same one, and John gives us more details about who was present.

[8:34] We have some very important people present here. We have one, as it mentioned, he says that Mary and Martha were there, we find that Lazarus, and if we consider Lazarus was a unique gift, our guest that day, because just a few days earlier from that, Lazarus had been laying in a grave, and Jesus told him to come forth.

[8:56] You know, here's one that had risen from the dead sitting at the meal. Now, wouldn't that make your festivities a little different? You know, as you consider that Lazarus is here sitting here after Jesus has called him forth from the grave, and while Jesus and his disciples arrived there, this gathering here has some other things happening, because notice what it tells us here in our text, because something's happening at the same time that Jesus is coming into Bethany to prepare to present himself in Jerusalem.

[9:28] On that Sunday, we find that triumphal entry that we talk about, and notice here in verse 1, it says, and after two days was the feast of the Passover of unleavened bread.

[9:39] Now, notice here, the chief priests and the scribes took him by craft and put him to death, but they said, not on the feast day lest there be an uproar of the people.

[9:53] So, we see here something's taking place. Matthew tells us in his gospel in Matthew 26 that they actually met at the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest. In other words, they were there meeting in a place of a private home, and this is one of those things that we're actually doing something that sometimes happens today.

[10:12] You know, people don't want to meet in the official space when they're making plans to do things they ought not to do. You know? Have you ever noticed that? They usually don't do that on the official space.

[10:23] They go someplace else to do it. Because what were they doing? They had a plot here. They said, how can we get rid of Jesus? Now, we understand that this was before Jesus even got to Jerusalem.

[10:36] Why were they plotting? Well, one, they knew Jesus was going to be there because he'd been there every other time. You know, the Bible says that it was his custom to go to Jerusalem at the feast.

[10:49] In other words, Jesus, his whole life from the time he was a young child, had been every time to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.

[10:59] Passover. So in other words, they knew that he was going to show up. But they didn't like him. There were some things that they wanted to deal with with Jesus because he was getting in the way. We're going to look at his motives here a little bit because as we're going to look here this morning as they meet behind closed doors, we find that they wanted to get rid of Jesus because he was causing a disruption among the people.

[11:24] And one of those disruptions he caused was Lazarus walking around. Now, I don't know about you, but that would definitely cause a disruption in the society around. You know, here's Lazarus when everybody knew was dead, got up and walked out.

[11:39] Now, he's talking to people and others are talking. You know, the Bible says that some of them that saw Lazarus rise from the dead caused them to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

[11:55] that Jesus is the one they had to point their direction to. But there was others, the Bible tells us, that went and told the chief priests and those things, others, that what had happened and how the people were beginning to follow Jesus.

[12:11] And as they met behind those doors and discussing those things and the disruption that it was causing, and those gatherers were establishing a plan to put Jesus to death.

[12:23] So let's look at the motives here this morning of these that we're meeting. The motives of the leaders. Because this is important to see here, the motive that was there. Turn back over to the Gospel of John for a moment because John gives us some insight into this meeting and what was going on.

[12:39] It gives us insight and I think we can all connect with this this morning in the context of society as a whole and as people because we understand there's nothing new under the sun.

[12:50] You know, if we haven't learned anything that you ought to learn that people do what people do. You can look back in history and the motives of why people do something is the same motive of why people do it today.

[13:03] You know, it boils down to the very simple thing. Look here in John chapter 11. Look in verse 48. The Word of God says this. It says, If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come away, come and take away both our place and nation.

[13:21] That does some description of their motive, isn't it? What are they concerned about? They're not concerned about is Jesus the Messiah? Is he the one sent by God?

[13:32] They're more worried about their place and their position of who they are and where they hold authority. I think we can understand that still happens today, doesn't it?

[13:43] People get so caught up they do what's counter to what's best for maintaining their power and their authority and their place. The attempt was about themselves.

[13:57] You know, we see here, look back in our text this morning in Mark chapter 14 because notice here what it says and it says at the end of that chapter, it says, or at the end of that verse, it says, The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death.

[14:14] That word craft means deception. In other words, how can we, by trick or deception, get Jesus to a place that we can have him killed?

[14:29] They're plotting murder. Here's the religious leaders, those that were supposed to uphold the commands of God, the very simple commands because, I mean, it's probably one of the most famous of the commands of God that people can quote if you get them, thou shalt not kill.

[14:46] I mean, it's pretty simple. It's not complex. It's not drawn out. You know, it's one of those commands that God gives that I don't think people have trouble understanding it or argue about interpretation of what it applies to.

[15:01] I mean, when you take a life of an individual, it's pretty clear. When we understand the plot and the plan that they were doing with this, they wanted to put Jesus to death by craft.

[15:13] In other words, they wanted to say, how can we get this, make this happen? How can we manipulate the system to get it where we want? You know? Now, like I said, like when I was reading through this and studying, I'm like, man, did they read the newspaper?

[15:29] Are the articles online? I mean, this is some of the same stuff going on today, isn't it? That people manipulate and try to do. We see their motive being laid out here, but we find like good politicians, they didn't want to do it in a manner or time to detract from their standing with the people.

[15:47] Because look at verse 2, what it says, but they said, not on the feast day lest there be an uproar of the people. You know, they're like, we want to get rid of them, but we've got to be unique and deceptive about this a little bit.

[16:01] So everybody thinks we're doing the right thing. You know, everybody's going to do the right thing and the right elements involved here and their intent was to take Jesus after the feast of the Passover because everybody was going to be departing, people weren't going to be paying attention and they said, well, take him at the end and put him to death.

[16:22] That was their plan. That was the scheme that they had come up with at that point. Now we know that God was involved in this also.

[16:32] God knew what was going to happen because in that meeting, turn back over to John chapter 11 for a moment because we're going to learn here something about their motive because their motive here, notice here as they're going through in John chapter 11 in verse 49 says this, and one of them named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year said unto them, ye know nothing at all nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people that the whole nation perish not.

[17:02] You know, now I can imagine Caiaphas standing up in the midst of this group and saying, hey, it's expedient for one to die for the nation. Now this is also unique in the fact the next verse gives us some more information because notice in verse, the next verse there it says in verse 51, and this spake he not of himself but being the high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation and that not for that nation only but for also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

[17:38] In other words, God spoke through an evil leader because of the position he held God still spoke truth and he spoke, Caiaphas spoke a reality that Jesus would die for the nation of Israel but also die for everybody else.

[17:57] it was a prophecy that was set forth that this was going to take place we see there clearly their motive was contrary to everything they said they held high.

[18:08] You got to remember this is a group that said well we're the religious people you know we got everything right we're all whitewashed and look good and I want you to understand that you can have people who look good on the outside but their motive on the inside isn't even where he's close because motives matter.

[18:23] We're going to look at that here in just a moment because we're going to start here quick and look at the next person whose motives are judged and looked at that's the motives of Mary you know look here at verse 3 it says in being in Bethany at the house of Simon the letter he sat at meat and came a woman having a alabaster box of ointment of spikard very precious and he broke the box and poured it on his head now we find here that doesn't tell us this is Mary here Mark doesn't reveal that but John does in John chapter 12 in verse 3 he says that it was Mary who took a pound of ointment of spikard and very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair you know and we see here that Mary we're going to see here the motives of Mary as she comes at this dinner and she breaks open this bottle of perfume now this is basically here the spikenard is a very expensive substance the actual stuff even today is pretty expensive you know this would have been something that was not easily we find later it was worth 300 pennies worth now today that's not really something we think about but let me put it this way 300 pennies worth was about a year's wages for the average worker now it makes a little difference imagine you're taking your whole year's wages or what would mean even the wages of a working person you know let's put it today okay let's take a minimum wage person's wage and say they took everything they had that year and that's what this cost that's pretty great value even if you have substance that's a lot of value that's something that had value to it and we see here she brings this costly container of perfume which is interestingly enough is kind of an amberish red color and she breaks it open and she pours it out on Jesus' head and it runs down over him and we're going to find here

[20:19] Jesus says she's actually doing something that's a picture of what's to come I don't think Mary understood what she was doing in that context until Jesus explained it I think Mary had a motive here that was one she wanted to honor the Lord because by doing this she was honoring him as the guest there at the table because as she pours it out she begins to wipe his feet with her hair and what statement did she make you know I think when we look at Mary's statement we're going to see here she made a statement because some people got upset have you ever noticed in life sometimes you can make a statement by what you do the choices you make the things behind it and people begin to assess it and we're going to see here in just a moment here those that assessed it but let's look at Mary here and her motives here for a little bit because she was making a statement about her commitment to Jesus when she poured it out there was no going back you know it was unconditional and complete commitment

[21:24] I mean when she poured the bottle out there was no going back you don't put oil back in the bottle you know it doesn't work that way she was all in in this commitment of what she was to do there was no going back it was unconditional it was complete and she understood the cost she understood the cost that was there she was making a statement I believe about Jesus' value to her you know often times what we do makes a statement about the value we hold to God or that we God has to us because the choices we make the priorities we place the value we put into something says something about how you hold it in esteem how do you honor how do you why is it important in your life you know why are these things there and when she poured it out it revealed that her Savior was more valuable than the things in her life you know I think we could learn we could spend some time this morning just talking about her motives because it's motives that we ought to have as believers when you consider what could we give

[22:33] Jesus more than what he's already given us what has he provided for us her actions spoke and at that moment she did not care what anybody else thought now I want you to understand that by her wiping not just pouring the oil but wiping his feet with her hair made a statement that she was humble enough to act as a servant it was the reality of other people were not going to be happy with what she did because she was outside the norm you know she was outside what was expected by her doing this because if she was proper she should have had her hair up and kept it up that was just one of the things of the day it was a cultural dynamic but she didn't care what somebody else thought her focus was on the Lord her focus is how am I honoring Jesus how am I honoring him for what he's given honoring the Savior her focus was strictly upon Jesus not what everybody else thought she washed his feet you know that job of wiping his feet was the job of a household slave yet she humbled herself before the Lord to serve she gave no one the cost you know because I want you to understand that the Bible makes it very clear you cannot offer to God something that does not cost you something you know oftentimes people want to serve God by convenience well if I have time or if I'm available

[24:02] I might show up or I might do something but the reality is is that a sacrifice by a very element of sacrifice means there's a price that it costs something you know consider David go back to 2 Samuel chapter 24 for a moment 2 Samuel chapter 24 in verse 24 we find here that David is about to make a sacrifice unto the Lord and he's a very needful to buy this piece of land as the place Uriah's threshing floor it's the same place where the temple mount is today but we're going to see here that there's a lot of things in this story but I want you to notice David's statement because Uriah says unto the king you know hey you can just have it if you're going to use it for the Lord he said King David if you need this for the Lord I'm willing to give it to you now I believe that guy had a good heart about what was going on he had a good there was nothing wrong with his intention he said man if you're going to use it for the Lord use it but this particular case dealt very specifically man I don't know what's up with that word lately specifically with David what it says in the middle of that verse there's neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God which of that which doth cost me nothing you cannot offer unto God something that doesn't have value you know often times people don't want to offer things unto God but you know really by offering what we think has value in this life unto the Lord makes a statement it makes a statement about our motive it makes a statement about our priority it makes a statement about what we deem important look over to

[25:49] Philippians chapter 3 for a moment Philippians chapter 3 in verse 7 here we have the apostle Paul you know sometimes I don't think we really grasp all the things as I study out Paul's life I mean Paul had it made he was a Roman citizen he was a man of influence he had resources he had all the things that most people on the outside would look and say here's a guy who has it all together he had the best education he came from a notable family I mean he had all the right connections in the right places he had resources and look at what Paul who gave up all that life to serve the Lord notice what he says here in verse 7 he says but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I might win

[26:50] Christ I want you to see that Paul understood to serve the Lord was going to come with a price the sacrifice unto the Lord had a price attached to it a price isn't necessarily just resources sometimes the highest price we pay is time you know you get resources back the only thing you have in life you cannot redeem and get more of is time your life the direction the things that you do because look at Jesus response to her look here in verse 6 it says and Jesus said let her alone why trouble ye her she hath wrought a good work on me but ye have the poor with you always and whensoever ye will ye may do them good but me ye have not always and she hath done what she could and she hath aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing verily I say unto you wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her you know that's quite a lot right there

[27:51] I mean Jesus here looks at Judas because we're going to find here Judas was the one raising the stink and he also caused other people to get upset about it but I want you to hear Jesus looks at him and says leave her alone she's done that which is right you know I want you to understand sometimes you can do what's right and other people aren't going to recognize it as that because of their motives they're going to judge those things she wrought a good work she had given the right priority to the Lord as Jesus says the poor will be with you in other words Jesus said hey she did the right thing by honoring me because she can honor the poor anytime they're not going anyplace Jesus said in a few days I'm going to go to the cross I'm going to die for the sins of the world he said that the poor will be with you always now I want you to notice here there's a couple things there one the reality is you're going to have people who struggle in life in all generation and we can do good to them at any time but how we honor the Lord is important and honoring the Lord ought to have a priority over that he declares that she had anointed his body for the bearing you know it'd be less than a week from this point that he would be in a grave because I want you to see here also something very important because her motive and her actions made a difference in eternity

[29:16] Jesus notice he said wherever the gospel's preached what she did is going to be spoken of now we already learned here a few weeks ago God's word doesn't pass away in other words this event is memorialized in God's word for eternity but it also gives us a picture to consider the reality of what we do has an internal impact the choices we make you know consider 1 Corinthians chapter 3 when it talks about the things that we do if any man's work abide which he built thereon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so by fire I want you to understand God judges the motive of your work if you study this passage it talks about wood, hay, and stubble we can do a lot of wood, hay, and stubble instead of gold, silver and precious stones that endure and the difference if you read that passage you'll find out has attached very greatly the motive behind why you're doing something are you doing it for the Lord or are you doing it for somebody else what's the motive behind what you do because you can do the right thing for the wrong reasons still be wrong other people might look at it as right but if your motive behind it isn't right there's still a problem there's an issue there you know

[30:36] Mary's motive was manifest in her love for the Lord outweighing everything else because she was living out the greatest commandment where it tells us that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind and with all thy strength this is the first commandment I think we can look at this and say Mary said God you're first I'm loving you with all that I have and I don't care what somebody else thinks about it Mary made a statement about his worthiness to be worshipped and served and her commitment was clear we know that her motive was the right motive her motive was because she loved the Lord she said I don't care what somebody else thinks about it my motive is because I'm going to serve the Lord so we have the motive of the leaders and we have the motives of Mary but we're going to look also because this passage ties in the motive of a man called Judas now Judas is a unique character to scripture in a few senses because he's spoken of in the Old Testament not by name but as one that was going to betray the Lord these things are foretold what's going to happen he's fulfilling his life is fulfilling prophecy in a bad sense now Mark doesn't mention who declared the act was wasteful

[31:59] John does because let's look first here in verse 4 of Mark chapter 14 it says and there were some that had indignation within themselves and said why was this waste of the ointment made now John 12 tells us that one of the disciples Judas Iscariot Simon's son which should betray him why was this ointment sold for three not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor he said this not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein John gives us the motive behind his indignation John reveals the motive you know it's interesting here because Judas is acting very self-righteously he's like guys that was horrible that she wasted a year's salary it could have been sold and given to the poor sounds good well look at his motive he's just looking out for others that's what it looked like on the outside but what was his motive if motive was I need to manipulate this because of what I want of what

[33:16] I desire he was acting self-righteous like he was looking out for the needs of others the poor could have used that but you know as I was thinking through this I thought about many charities today are kind of like Judas's you know I'll just give you we'll take a side note here for a moment and tell you be careful who you give money to because they might sound good there's a lot of Judas's who sound good but all they're looking for is not the benefit of others they're looking for how deep they can grab in the bag let me tell you there's a lot of charities today if you do your research you'll find out they're not very good there's a lot of Judas charities out there you know when they spend 90 to 95% on administration and 5% doing what they're doing I'd call that a Judas ministry amen they're looking at how far they can dip in the bag side note but something to be attentive to because just because something sounds good doesn't mean it is we need to be careful because

[34:17] Judas I want you to realize Judas fooled everybody but Jesus you ever thought about that Judas fooled everybody but Jesus when Jesus said one at the table is going to betray me not everybody looked you know they didn't look down the table what did they do they looked at even themselves is it I you know what that tells us that Judas had everybody fooled matter of fact it might have been one of them as they were looking around the table they were going well maybe it's Bartholome maybe it's Judas no I'm probably not Judas but we find out that even though he looked good on the outside his motives were wrong on the inside and his influence was such that nobody thought that his motives were not right matter of fact he caused others to get upset with him you know this sometimes happens people get upset about things because somebody else well I think they got the right motive you better check and see if it is right because Judas his motive here was nothing but about himself he had a motive that looked good on the outside but a motive that was twisted and wicked on the inside others joined with him his influence was such over them and you know it ought to stand as a warning to us this morning that the only one that can identify the motive is ourselves and that's only sometimes because I want you to understand the Bible tells us and makes it very clear that there's some betrayal even within ourselves because we see Judas do something here after this the Bible tells us look at what Judas did look at verse 10 and Judas

[35:53] Iscariot one of the twelve went unto the chief priest to betray him unto them now have you ever wondered why did Judas go to the chief priest go back to John chapter 11 for a moment John chapter 11 and verse 57 gives us the answer why did Judas know he could go to the chief priest and the scribes verse 57 says and now both the chief priest and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were he could show it and they might take him in other words that chief priest and the scribes had put out a memo a big poster or whatever it was and said hey if anybody's willing to betray Jesus so that we might take him by craft or trickery that's not what the sign said but that's what their intent was Judas apparently heard about it because we know what did Judas do he went and made a deal he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver something that matched up with his motive he was upset he couldn't dip into the 300 pennies worth of selling it to give to the poor and we see he was looking for himself perhaps his feelings were hurt when

[37:04] Jesus rebuked him you know think about that when Jesus turned and looked who did Jesus look at and say leave her alone who was he speaking to Judas you know one way I found over the course of time that when you rebuke somebody even if you're right in what you're doing in the rebuke sometimes people get upset sometimes we get upset we get rebuked but when you get rebuked you know what the Bible says you better assess it to see what the substance is behind it is it accurate assessment you know we need to take those things in the right context but we see here that you know maybe that was what he got upset had his little feelings hurt maybe just plain greed you know we don't know exactly what his motive was but we can definitely make out some pretty accurate things from what happened I imagine like anything in life the motives behind Judas and the choices he made were probably pretty complex just like choices and things we make very rarely is a choice made isolated it's made in context of a lot of other things in life that motivate us in our desires of something but the reality is we can guarantee the accuracy of the word of God because look over to

[38:09] Jeremiah chapter 17 Jeremiah 17 and verse 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it you know what sometimes we don't even understand our own motives God's word understands your motives God understands your motives he tells us to assess those things you know we've looked at some motives of individuals this morning you know there's a motive motives there is that you find some that have a motive of giving and others a motive of taking you have some that have a motive of loving and others a motivation of hating this morning is your motivation for even serving the Lord being here the things is it to be devoted or is there some deceit I want you to understand that Jesus knows those that love him more than themselves he knows those who love him more than their agendas Jesus knows those that love him more than their possessions Jesus knows their motivation of those who even prioritize their own comfort you know this morning is your motivation because you love him even if you get nothing else in return are you committed to

[39:22] Jesus you know this year it's a good time to consider as we enter into a new year where's your motive for how you're going to serve the Lord this year because you need to assess what's your motive in your life for the Lord because the Bible makes it clear there's a lot of different motives but today I trust you'll look and say I want to serve him because I love him because he first loved!

[39:46] his heads are bowed and eyes are closed this morning what about you today you know this message isn't about the motive of somebody else this message this morning is about our motives about my motives and your motives it's a great opportunity to assess between you and the Lord what is the motive is a motive that says Lord I love you with everything or is it a motive contrary to the things of God heavenly fathers we take a moment here this morning to consider these things Lord I pray just have your hand upon each heart each life here this morning as we take a look at our own motives help our motives to have your hand upon each one Lord that we might look and consider those things before you even here today Lord we ask it all in your precious name Amen as piano players