What Will You Do With Jesus

[00:00:00] Greetings in Jesus' name. First of all, before we start with the message, and I forget, there is some sheet that I prepared for the children. Is there anyone that would like to have one? Would you raise your hand? [00:00:31] I myself, when I go to church, It seems like there's different kind of feelings or different kind of moods I go through. [00:01:07] Sometimes it's just a regular day, sometimes it's a special day, sometimes everything seems to be different, next time everything is just normal. I don't know if you have the same experience or if you have every day something special. I often wish that I would be more like that, that I would be every day something special, that I would feel that. But I do imagine we probably don't all have that, that when we come, when we see a new day, when we get a new day in the morning, [00:01:46] I think we probably all struggle at times with it. It's just one regular day. I'm just so glad that we have a special day today, that God has made this day, and like scripture tells us in Psalms, let's rejoice for what he has done for us. I felt he was wanting me to talk about the subject that I wanted to talk about, what I entitled, What Will You Do With Jesus? [00:02:36] So often we have been probably asked, and I have seen t-shirts with it, saying, What Would Jesus Do? But I, this morning, I would like to think about what will we do with Jesus instead of asking what would Jesus do. Let's ask ourselves this question. What will you do or what will I do with Jesus? I don't know what you think about when you think about what will you do with Jesus. [00:03:12] My first thought was, well, of course, accepting Him as my Savior. Isn't that what he came for? Isn't that what he did? He came here to this world to die on the cross for my sin, for the sin of the whole world. And of course I want to accept him as my personal savior, which is a very good thing and everyone has to do that. But then at the same time, probably most of us have already done that. [00:03:47] And we probably, most of us probably already have some experience, if not quite a bit of experience, probably already matured quite a ways in God's ways. We probably already understand quite a bit of scripture and are trying to live a Christian life that Jesus would be honored through our life. But even if we have matured already quite a bit, I think we still need to encourage each other and to be reminded of, do we really treat Jesus the way we should treat him? [00:04:33] Or do we really look at Jesus for who He is? Do we really praise Him? Glorify Him for what He has done? I have to remind myself so often, thinking, well, when I think I'm more or less a decent person, I do things the way I think they should be done, And it seems like I can so easily come to a place where I feel like I'm more or less good. [00:05:10] I live a Christian life. Yeah, of course, I pray daily, I talk to Jesus daily, but it's just a common thing. Like I said, when we come to church, it's just another day, well, we're going to meet the church again. It's so easy to treat Jesus like that too. Just, it's just, just one of them things again. Yeah, I know, Jesus is good. And we don't really appreciate what he has done for us and what he's doing today. [00:05:47] A couple of verses I would like to read to start off with. In Matthew 27, verse 22, that's where I'm not going to read the whole verse here. Just kind of quote what it says there. It says that when Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate was asking this question, what shall I do then with Jesus? They wanted, the crowd wanted him to condemn Jesus and let this other fellow loose. [00:06:22] And he asked the people, well, what shall I do with Jesus then? He was persuaded what he should do. He knew that Jesus was, he should let Jesus go. But the people called on him and told him, crucify him. They didn't want to have Jesus living anymore. They wanted Jesus dead. Well, I'm so glad that that's probably not the case for us here. [00:06:53] But it is in a lot of places like that. There's still today a lot of people that would like to see Jesus rather dead than alive. So, how do I respond when the question comes to me, What shall I do with Jesus? Maybe in some specific places where we get to. Maybe people that we would say people that are not so pleasant to be with. [00:07:28] Maybe even somebody that is kind of blaming me for something that I thought was right and I did it because of my conviction. And here they find out I'm a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus and they start to test me, see how I will respond. Then what is my answer? What is my reaction? What will I do with Jesus? [00:08:02] Will I stand up for him, say I am a follower of Jesus? Or will I just turn my back and walk off and act like if I'm not his follower and then as soon as I'm out of the situation I will get close to him again Like Peter did when Jesus was going to be judged and he said, well, he didn't know him. [00:08:39] Well, maybe we don't go that far and say, well, I don't know him. Maybe we just turn our back and say, well, I'll witness next time. Things that I have to think about, well, how do I know how I am treating Jesus? What do I do? Or how do I show it if I treat Jesus the right way or not? If I respond the right way? We have in Matthew 25, verse 40 and 45, we have the positive and the negative there, [00:09:14] Whatever it says, whatever you have done to one of these little ones, you have done it unto me. That's what Jesus says. However we have treated our brother or our fellow man, whoever it is, I would like to put it this way. Whoever we are kind of feeling is less than me. We probably don't like that term saying that somebody is less than me or less important than me. but it seems like we as human beings we always have people that we kind of think well they're not quite as educated as I am [00:09:49] they're not quite as knowledgeable, they're a little lower class or maybe even they're just not quite as mature as I am and it's easy for us whenever we have that type of an attitude towards someone it's easy for us to neglect them So often we probably meet somebody on the road that we even don't know. And then we notice some behavior that we think, well, that's not very Christian. [00:10:22] And we right away kind of feel, well, I'm more Christian than he is. Then we have some kind of behavior, maybe not saying anything, maybe not showing anything, maybe just in our mind. And Jesus says, whatever we have done to one of these that we consider little under us, we have done that to him. So whenever we do something to, well, if we say something that we shouldn't say to someone, we're saying that to Jesus. [00:11:08] Then it also says, the other side, whatever we haven't done to one of these little ones. The little ones are the, I think it says, it talks in different places about it. We haven't done it to Jesus. When we feel that we should help out someone, and I say, no, I'm not going to do it. I don't have time. We do that to Jesus. We have told Jesus, too, well, I don't have time today for you. [00:11:44] Especially, I have to think, when I think about that, I think about children. Taking time for our children, especially younger children, but also older. When I think about, well, I wish I would have taken more time with my children. And I say, well, I don't have time. Just using that illustration as I don't have time to spend time with him. We're saying that same thing to Jesus. I don't have time. [00:12:20] I'm not saying that we always, how should I say, that we always spend all the time with our children and that when we tell somebody I don't have time or maybe next time, that Jesus always would be dishonored by doing that. But at the same time, I think we should ask ourselves, how do we treat Him? How do we spend our time? With what do we spend our time with? [00:12:54] Would we feel good about it if we actually put it that way? Whatever I do or not do to little children or to people that probably I don't see that often or people that I'm not so, I don't put them in a class like me, maybe a little lower than myself. I was looking at a couple of stories in scripture what people did with Jesus in the Bible time [00:13:29] and the first story that came to my mind was the three wise men in Matthew chapter 2 verse 9 to 11 I'm going to read that story here it says when they had heard the king They departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. [00:14:00] And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense, and myrrh. Thinking about this story here, there was three wise men, not knowing exactly who these three wise men were. When I grew up, I was taught there were three kings. [00:14:34] I'm not sure if it really says in scripture. But there were three wise men from the east. And I didn't take time today either or this week to figure out how many miles away they were. But there was some distance from the place where they were from and where Jesus was at. And they saw this star. I don't know what they thought when they first saw this star. [00:15:08] Or if they were just led by the Spirit that they were supposed to go towards Bethlehem. But what they were doing, we know that they did go. If they really believed in God or if they really believed that there was going to be a Jesus, Jesus, who was going to be born of Jesus as Savior, they might have, but I sometimes wonder, they were probably more just led by the Spirit, that the Spirit told them, I want you to go to this certain place, and they probably didn't even know exactly where they went to. [00:15:52] Thinking of, if they have, probably were more watching the stars than they were watching scripture. I don't know, imagination to what I have. But whenever they came to this area, they came to Herod and asking, well, what is the place? I'm sure they were studied people they wanted to know [00:16:24] where is this king that was to be born and somehow they connected things together that the star had to do something with Jesus although they didn't use the name Jesus and well I see in this whole story Well, what did Herod do with Jesus? Of course, he was very negative about it. He was not going to worship him or do any good to him. [00:16:59] But these three wise men, they decided, well, they're going to go after that star, where that star was leading them to. And we see that they were very diligently looking and searching. The reason why I'm saying I'm not sure how much they knew about, how much they knew about God or about that Jesus was going to be born, they probably heard of it, is because it talks about they were searching. [00:17:37] And I don't think they were necessarily just searching for Jesus. They were searching for evidence. What is this all about? What is this what I'm hearing? The feeling they had, this wanting to find out. What is this all? I mean, they had a lot of questions. And I think that same thing happens to us. [00:18:08] Often the Holy Spirit leads us to something and we don't quite understand. We don't quite know what is this all about. This is not quite the way I thought it was going to be. And we say, well, I better just forget it. What did these three wise men do? They decided they're going to look for whatever this means, whatever this star is. And it seemed like they got to this conclusion that it must have to do something with a king. [00:18:46] Why did they say king? Why didn't they right away talk about a savior? It was a step by step that God took him. They drove a long way to follow this star. But then when they got there to where they found Jesus with his mother, like it says here, it says they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. [00:19:20] And I would like to say they finally understood. They didn't understand in the beginning what this is all about. But they finally understood that there is actually a little baby born. Referring to the king, they thought, well, and we know Jesus is a king. And they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. [00:19:54] Well, how do we respond when we are in situations like that? Well, I know we never went to look for Jesus in a stable. We never followed a star like that. But when the Holy Spirit is leading us to something and we don't quite understand, what do we do? Do we turn our back or do we put effort into it? Let's find out. Let's go and talk to other people. These wise men, they went and talked to the king. [00:20:31] Well, we probably would know better than that. We probably wouldn't go to the president if we wanted to know something about Jesus. But we would go to some other Christian brother or sister. Say, hey, I have this feeling the Lord is talking to me, but I don't quite understand what he's telling me. How will we respond? Will we do it the way these wise men did? Search diligently? [00:21:02] See, the Bible tells us when we're going to look for something wholeheartedly, we're going to find it. And I think it's still the same way. It works that way for us. When the Holy Spirit tells us to do something, when Jesus tells us to do something, He will probably sometimes not say right away all the details, but if we will search for Him and go according to what He has told us, what He is telling us, [00:21:39] because it's going to come out the way he wants us to do it and we're going to be blessed and we will rejoice exceedingly with that great joy that Jesus gives us to being his obedient children. Another thing that I noticed what these three wise men did, as soon as they understood that here is Jesus So here's this little baby, this little king, whatever they called him. [00:22:14] They right away worshipped him. How long does it take me to worship Jesus when I find out this was Jesus who led me? This is actually something true. This is actually something that the Lord has been talking to me. When I started out, when I was starting to hear this little voice, and I had these questions, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. [00:22:49] But after talking to one brother, another brother, and then I started to pray about it, and probably I prayed first about it, and here finally things kind of got together. Do I come to Jesus and say, it's all you, it's not me? Another story that I read and was studying on in Matthew chapter 4 where Jesus had the Sermon on the Mount. [00:23:27] There was a couple of things that I noticed there, what these, the multitude, talking about the multitude, what they did. I would like to read that to you here in Matthew 4 verse 23 to Matthew 5 verse 1. It says, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torment, [00:24:05] and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan and seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain and when he was set his disciples came unto him [00:24:36] and that's where he started to preach the Sermon on the Mount thinking about here are these people they had received something from Jesus they heard of that he was healing people It seems like before this he had been healing already some people and people heard that. They right away believed and thought, well, I have a brother, I have a sister, I have a friend that's sick, I have somebody that could be healed. [00:25:12] and they gathered a lot of sick people and not just sick people but also demon possessed people and they brought them to Jesus. I just had to think again. I hope we wouldn't just fall on some person here but at the same time we have Jesus here and people started to believe Well, if this Jesus, if he can do these miracles, he definitely could do the miracle on my friend too. [00:25:50] Well, we know now who Jesus is. Do we have that same faith? I have been healed through Jesus. Do I really believe that he can heal my friend too? Do I really make that effort that I'm going to bring my friend that is sick, maybe my friend that has, like it says here, is possessed with Satan, does satanic things, [00:26:23] is involved in witchcraft and whatever. Do they really believe that if I could bring him to Jesus, that he would also be healed? What I noticed here, these people, they were following Jesus because he had healed some people before. [00:26:54] That word went out that Jesus did miracles, healing people. And it says a great multitude followed him, and because of this great multitude followed him, he could preach. He taught this Sermon on the Mount. I don't know how many people there was. I don't think it tells us exactly how many there were at the Sermon on the Mount. But I believe there was many, many people there. and after he had preached them, taught them this whole sermon there [00:27:27] then in chapter 8 verse 1 it says when he was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him they still followed him even after he had told them how to live in other words to say he witnessed to them he told them what to do He told them all kind of things about the law that was totally new to them. They had never heard this. They thought, well, they had the law, and now Jesus was, could we say, changing on it? [00:28:05] Making different applications to it, saying, hey, now it's not like this anymore. Now it's like this. It's not anymore that thou shalt not steal or thou shalt not kill, but it says if we hate someone, we are already killing. I think that was totally new for them. And it sounds like they accepted it because even after he had told them them hard things, [00:28:39] Jesus made it harder for them. They were still willing to follow him. They were still willing to follow him even after he dismissed them and told, well, basically he could go home already, but they didn't want to. They still followed him. What was, what did they experience? Why was it like that? I think because they were touched by Jesus and they were willing to do something for Him. [00:29:10] They wanted to listen. They had an open ear to listen. They were hungry after Jesus. They didn't get tired. I don't know how long that Sermon on the Mount was. I was kind of wondering on that when I was studying this. Was that just a couple of hours? Was it a whole day or did they even sleep there? I don't think it tells us. It doesn't talk anything about sleeping or anything. But I imagine it probably was a long day. And it seemed like they did not get tired. [00:29:50] They did not get tired of listening to him. How is it with us? We have been here in church now already what for a little bit over two hours. We're about tired, right? Whatever is going to be said from here the next 15 minutes, we won't get it because I'm too tired. Is that the way we are? I have to admit I am too often like that. And we could go on with stories like that in scripture, what people did with Jesus. [00:30:32] I would just like to encourage each one of us that we would live a life that Jesus could receive the honor and that we wouldn't live for ourselves. One thing that I was thinking about when I was studying this message was we need to walk with Jesus all the time. [00:31:05] Not just when we feel good, not just when everything runs smooth. And the first thing that I was thinking about, what is my communication? How do I communicate with Him? Do I pray every day? Or do I pray maybe even two or three times a day? Maybe pray in the morning when I get up and pray in the evening when I lay down? [00:31:39] And maybe even at mealtime say a little prayer? Is that what I do? Or my question is, is that enough if I just do that? I would like to encourage each one of us to spend time with Jesus so that everybody, that everybody that we will meet will see that I have been with Jesus and I'll stick up for Him. Whatever He tells me to do, I will do that. [00:32:13] And that's not just praying three, four, or five times a day, but that's praying 24-7, all the time, walk with Him. We do have our special time where we specially praise Him, where we specially ask Him for things, but let's walk with Him all the time. Whenever we go somewhere, whenever we do something, or work, or material work that we do, [00:32:49] let's take Jesus with us. Have Him as our partner. Tell Him what I'm doing. Tell Him my praises and my hurts that I have. I know it takes some effort to do that, but I have been so often been so blessed by being able to just talk with him. Wherever I am, and sometimes people might say I'm not quite normal because I will talk to myself. [00:33:26] Well, I'm talking to Jesus, and I'm not saying that I do that enough. I myself, I want to do that more. But let's live a way that Jesus can be honored and that he can do his work that he would like to do in us. So we've got to stand up and have a prayer. Our Father, we just thank you so much for who you are. [00:34:00] Lord, we thank you for Jesus that you sent him here to this world. First of all to die for our sins, to be our savior. Lord, but we also thank you for Jesus being our Lord. Lord, would you just help us that we would be willing to follow him, that we would be willing to give our whole life to him because he has given his life for us. Lord, would you just bless us with a special blessing. In Jesus name, Amen.