CH01 MAIN 20261031 224831 920: I'm very excited we are in the last part of Matthew twenty five today. So we have covered quite a bit of ground. I don't know if you know this, but there's only three more chapters in Matthew. Twenty six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, and then we're done. And I think it's been a a beautiful journey. So today we are talking about the last parable of Matthew twenty five. We will be in Matthew twenty five, starting in verse thirty-one through forty six, if you want to follow along in your Bible. Before we begin, I'm gonna have a word of prayer. Lord God, we ask that you would speak this morning. Lord, that you would hide me behind the cross. Open our eyes, open our ears, that we may see Jesus and be drawn closer to you in fellowship. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So I want you to keep in mind what we've talked about in the previous sections of Matthew twenty five as we talk about this section, because they do tie into each other. They go together well. In the first parable we talked about the ten virgins, and it was a parable about spiritual preparedness, having oil in our lamps. And we talked about the ten I mean sorry, the the three don't know what you'd call them. Servants, three servants, the talents. And whether or not we were faithful or not with our talents. And then we turn to the last parable, and it's the parable of the sheep and the goats. And this parable is frequently mentioned and referred to. I think this one has a lot of practical lessons. I was studying there's some things that I'd never never thought of before. So I'm excited to share and I hope it's a blessing for each of us. But first, I want you to think with me, how many people on a normal day do you think that you pass by? Just calculate, you know, in your head. I don't know what you do what you do for your job. Some people it might not be very many, some people it might be a lot. But on any random normal day, how many people do you think you pass by? I was thinking about this, and I think on a normal day, I probably see between 15 to 30 people. people that I don't know, you know. If you count people that I do know, probably forty, fifty each day. And I think sometimes we look at those as Inconveniences or maybe not even an inconvenience, but just kind of nothing. You know, just it's just an occurrence of of daily life. But I think this parable should challenge us to change our perspective. I've thought about this occasionally when I'm driving, you know, you look at especially when there's traffic. There's not a lot of traffic in Greenville. You might not know what that is. But where I'm from, man, you hit five PM, good luck. You're gonna be in the car for at least an hour. Even though it would have only taken you fifteen minutes before the clock hit five. And you think about it, while you're sitting in that sea of cars, each person, each car is has at least one person in it. Sometimes more. And each of those people is a soul who's got a life and things going on, and they might know Jesus, but they might not. And do they have anyone in their life that's pointing them closer to God? And then and I think about that sometimes is like all these souls Going somewhere. And yet here I am just driving by. And I mean, it's not like I can get out of the car and go knock on their window and be like, Hi, have you have you heard about Jesus? But it's like it's heavy to think about sometimes. And this parable challenges us. Let's read it and then we're gonna break it down. It says, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hands on his right hand, but the goats on his left, and he shall say, Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous shall answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you, or when did we see you sick or in prison, and come to you? And the king shall answer. And say to them, Verily I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me. And then he shall say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in. Naked and you didn't clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. And they shall answer to him also, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not minister unto you? And he shall answer them, saying, Truly I tell you, as much as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. But the righteous into life eternal. It's a heavy, heavy parable. I wanted to break down each of the the things that stood out to me. And I think it it starts to create some characteristics in this contrast. I mean the contrast is very clear. It's pretty pretty straightforward when you read this parable, right? It's a pretty clear message, but I think there's some some deeper lessons we can learn. Number one, he calls them sheep and he calls them goats. And these are these are common symbols in the biblical time. I don't want to dig too much into symbolism, what might not be there. But on a surface level, sheep are naturally much more likely to follow. They have a herd mentality, they're very dependent upon a shepherd. Whereas goats are much more independent. You might even say stubborn. And they like to follow their own will, their own way, more often. And so in comparing the sheep and the goats, I think there is some merit to saying that the sheep, the ones who who are called blessed. Are called sheep because maybe they follow the shepherd. Maybe because they they are more dependent upon him and they recognize him. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I know them. And yet goats are are a little more stubborn, and so maybe those are the people who did not necessarily heed God's voice, who maybe were a little stubborn and tried to get out of the fence over and over again. My dad used to have goats when I was young. Hundred goats. Over a hundred goats. And it was like a daily endeavor to try to keep them in the goat pen. They were always getting out. There was you you saw it you had all of all of the fence short up, and then you you found out you didn't because there's a goat got out and the neighbor calls. And so Goats are stubborn. I think it would have been a lot easier if we had sheep. Maybe his business would have lasted longer. But we gave up on those goats after a couple years. And so Jesus says these these there's a distinction. There's some sheep and there's some goats. Beyond that, I think Ezekiel chapter 34, if you want to turn with me, has an interesting little I don't know if you'd call it a parable or an object lesson, but God is talking about his sheep. And I think it it has some relation to this parable in Matthew twenty-five. We're going to start in verse ten of chapter thirty-four of Ezekiel. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more, for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. For thus says the Lord my the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out, as a shepherd seeks out his flock, in the day that he is among his sheep. So will I seek out my sheep, and I will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day, and I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel, and I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There they shall lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains. I will feed my flock. And I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong, I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, behold I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the goats. Does it seem to you a small thing that That you have eaten up the good pasture, but that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures, to have drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet. And as for my flock, they eat that which you have trodden down, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet. Therefore I will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle, because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, you have pushed away all the diseased with your horns Till you have scattered them abroad. Therefore I will save my flock, and they will no more be a prey, and I will judge between the cattle and the cattle, and I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them. Even my servant David, he shall feed them and shall be their shepherd. I think this is really interesting. It's there's a lot of, you know, Old Testament poetry and language, but I think that this is kind of a parallel to Matthew twenty five here. God is saying to the flock, I'm gonna judge between you. Does it seem a small thing that you ate all the good pasture and then you left the bad pa the rest of it for for them? And you trod it under your feet, you made it dirty. And then you drank all the deep waters, and then you you walked in it and made it dirty with your feet? And then my flock has to eat the leftovers. Therefore I'm gonna judge between you, because you've pushed away the diseased and scattered them abroad. I don't want the diseased sheep around me. Therefore, I will save my flock, and I will judge between you. I think it's a similar story. And it shows the heart of God. If you look again at verse 16, this is the heart of God, and this is what he's judging in Matthew 25. I will seek the lost, I will bring again that which was driven away, I will bind up that which was broken, I will strengthen that which is sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. So I think the Bible is very clear throughout Scripture of the heart of God towards the vulnerable, towards the weak, towards the sick. Not only is God a God who cares for those who are vulnerable, but He's a God who will judge those who do not care for the vulnerable. So I think there was intentionality in Jesus calling them sheep and calling them goats. The second thing that stands out to me In verse 34, he says, Come, ye blessed of my father. And then in verse forty-one, he says, Depart from me, ye cursed. There's this language of blessing and cursing here in Matthew 25. And it makes me think of Deuteronomy. I don't know if you guys have read Deuteronomy chapter eleven, when Moses is On his way out, at the end of his days, he sets before the people two paths. In verse twenty six of Deuteronomy chapter eleven, he says, Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God. But turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known. So it's pretty simple, right? Moses says there's a there's a two paths a path of blessing if you obey the commandments, and a path of cursing if you disobey. And what are the commandments if we had to sum them up in two? Jesus did pretty good at this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so if those are the two commandments, and the blessing is for those who keep those commandments, the cursing is for those who don't. Then you could say, Come, ye blessed of my Father. The blessing is for those who love their neighbor as themselves. And that's exactly what we see in Matthew 25. These people are the ones who loved their neighbor when they were hungry, when they were thirsty, when they were sick. And this is exactly what we see Jesus say in the parable of the Good Samaritan. When someone comes to him and says, Teacher, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Keep the commandments, basically. Is what is what is what does the law say? How do you read it? Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, Yep, you're right. Do that. And then the it says he was seeking to justify himself, and so he said, Who's my neighbor? If I'm supposed to love my neighbor, who's my neighbor? And so Jesus tells them the parable. There was a man, he's walking down the road and he gets beat up by some robbers. Left for dead, and a priest comes by, sees him on the side of the road, and walks right on. And a Levite comes by, sees him on the side of the road, and walks right on. But then a Samaritan a Samaritan comes and sees this man and he has compassion on him. And he picks him up, puts him on his own donkey, cleans his wounds, takes him to an inn, pays for it with his own money And so Jesus asked him, which one of them was a neighbor to the person in need? And the guy said the one who had compassion. And so Jesus said, Go and do likewise. So I think these stories are all connected. The blessings and the cursings of Deuteronomy reach their final fulfillment in this final judgment, when the king says, Come, ye blessed, you who kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, who loved your neighbor as yourself, and loved the Lord your God with all your heart. When you saw your neighbor hungry, you gave them food. You gave them drink, you took them in, you clothed them, you visited them. So I think the blessings and the cursings are worth looking into. Because they're the same blessings from the Old Testament. And they show two different destinies. The third thing that I wanted to look at that I think is really interesting is the characteristics within what we did or did not do themselves. There's six actions, you could say, that are covered here. And I call this section nurture versus neglect. If you wanna I like alliteration. So there's those who nurtured and there's those who neglected. But there's six things. We're gonna look at each one of those, and I think each one even has a spiritual connotation. I think it would be wrong to interpret it primarily spiritual, only spiritual. And you'll see what I'm saying in a second. But I think we would be amiss to completely neglect their spiritual application. For example, I was hungry and you gave me meat, or you gave me food. Do you think that Jesus wants us to actually feed those who are physically hungry? I think so. I think that's Pretty clear, I think it would be wrong of me to say that that is not what Jesus means. But I also think that there is room to say that Jesus also wants us to feed those who are spiritually hungry. Would you agree? You think there's room for that? I think so. And I think that each one of these has both a physical and a spiritual application. And I want to look at those. So hungry, like I just said, I think physically God wants us to care for people who don't have food. To take care of people who are struggling with the ability to buy food for themselves. We have a wonderful CSC that does that. And I praise God for that. But also, in Amos, the Bible talks about there being a famine for God's word. In Matthew 4, Jesus says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And in John 6, Jesus himself Declares himself to be the bread of life. And so I think that Jesus not only wants us, those who love their neighbors as themselves, to feed people physically, but I think he wants us to care for people spiritually, that make sure that they are fed to the best of our ability. To spend time with them, to notice not only the hungry stomachs but the hungry hearts, the people that are hungry and thirsting after righteousness. That when we have been given the truths of God's word, when we enter into covenant with God, we are under obligation to share those blessings with those who are in need. And I think it's similar with those who are thirsty. God wants us to give spiritual drink. Physical drink, of course. The Bible says that in Matthew ten, that the one who gives a little child a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus will by no means lose his reward. But also I think that when we think of of the spiritual water, don't we hear time and time again in the Bible that Those who come to Jesus, those who who dwell in him, will have in their hearts a fountain of living water. And those who are thirsty, like the woman at the well They're longing for that spiritual water. And God asks us not only to give them physical water, but to point them to the fountain of waters, so that they can thirst no more. A stranger and you took me in. I think physically, in real, this is an important principle as well. You know, there's something to be said for hospitality. We have indications that Lot might not have been saved from Sodom and Gomorrah if he wasn't hospitable. Imagine these angels came to the city and he didn't take them in. He didn't say, come into my place. You think they still would have saved? Maybe, I don't know, but maybe not. I think Lot learned his hospitality from Abraham. Abraham was always hospitable. When the angels were passing by, he said, Come, come into my place, let me feed you, let me give you something to drink, let me take care of you. I think in our day hospitality is a How do I say this tactfully? We have to be careful with hospitality because there are some crazy people out there. But also, I think sometimes we go a little too far on the other extreme. We're not hospitable until I've known you for four months. Right? I think we need to be hospitable. And I think there is room for tact. We need to be prayerful, I think is the best word, about who we let into our homes. How we interact with people, we should not be naive or foolish. But I think we should also not allow ourselves to fall to the other extreme of neglecting to show hospitality because it's inconvenient, because we d we aren't necessarily the most clean at home, maybe. We don't have a a five star meal. I think that all of those things can be overlooked if we show a heart of love. and compassion in bringing people into our home. But also spiritually There are people who are strangers to Christian community and fellowship, to the body of Christ, and I think God wants us to make a spiritual community where no one is a stranger, where we see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Helping people to experience the loving fellowship of a Christian community. And helping to exemplify by our example what the body of Christ ought to be. I think there's room for that there as well. Number four, naked and you clothed me. Pretty straightforward as well. Physically, we're coming into winter and it's a serious issue, right? People who don't have adequate clothing can suffer real problems, hypothermia. And we should do what we can to help clothe those who are struggling. But also I think there's room for a spiritual application here. We look in the book of Revelation at the Church of Laodicea, and one of the judgments against them is that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And in that context, we know what that means, right? It means that they don't have on the righteousness of Christ. They haven't clothed themselves in the Lord, our righteousness. And in the same way, there's many people, millions, could even say billions of people in this world who might not have the clothing of Christ's righteousness, who might not be in a saving relationship with Jesus, and we know that time is short, probation is closing, and I think God would want us to do what we can to help clothe the spiritually naked, to help point them to Jesus. as the one who can give them the imperishable, unblemished garments of his righteousness. I was sick and you visited me. Absolutely physically. Straightforward. There's nothing like a warm, friendly face when you're sick and in bed, right? Nothing like someone to come brighten your day, do some of the things that you struggle to do. There's there's that I I guess you'd call it a is it a cliche or a a stereotype that men are the strong ones until they're sick. And then men are babies. And women are, you know, usually the you know meek and until they're sick and they still do everything. So this could even be in your home, you know? When your spouse is sick, take care of some things for them. Or kids, if your parents are sick, Take care of some things. When our church members are sick, we should visit them. When our neighbors in the community are sick, or we don't see them, we should see what we can do to lighten their load. If we can go to the grocery store for them, or help take care of some of their errands, or just be with them. But also spiritually, each of us is a little sin sick or a lot sin sick. And I think that we would do well to help visit each other in our sin sickness. We see a little bit of this in Matthew 18. When there's someone who's at fault, what does the Bible say? It says to take one or two people with you, or first go by yourself, to try to restore them. We could call that a spiritual sickness, right? They are in a a state of spiritual unwellness. They're transgressing God's law. And there is a place for someone to come visit them and seek to restore them to Christ. And if that doesn't work, then you bring a couple more people to visit them and seek to restore them to wellness. And I think each of us is expected and we should seek to be visiting those who are spiritually sick in the church and outside of the church and to do what we can to help restore them to wellness. And then I was in prison and you came to me. Physically, of course, prison ministries are a huge ministry. We have lots of people in prison, and it's one of the best opportunities to bring people to Jesus. When they hit rock bottom and they realize there's nowhere else to go but up, and that rock that they fell on is Jesus. But also spiritually, many people are in prison to slave slaves to to habits of sin. In bondage. And I think that would if you look at addiction, one of the biggest ways to help people break addiction is community. Addictions thrive in isolation. And it says, I was in prison and you came to me. The person who's in addiction has to take responsibility for their addiction. A person who is in as a prisoner needs to take responsibility for their slavery, so for their bondage. But that does not mean that we cannot take any initiative to help bring them out of isolation. And that addiction could be to anything. We have a lot of addictions. You can pick your poison nowadays. Some people are addicted to lust, porn, some people are addicted to gambling, money, entertainment, their phones, food, you name it. Some people are addicted to work, cars. You could say you could anything. People can be prisoners. To many things. And I think as Christians we should seek to support each other through those, through fellowship and community, when we see someone who might be imprisoned to come to them, in not in a spirit of judgment, but in a spirit of love and meekness and say, Brother, sister, how can I come alongside you? I think there's room for each physical and spiritual interpretations in these things, and I think this is what Jesus is talking about when he says that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. And then we see the the opposite side, those who are goats. And I want to point out, I think you guys have probably thought this before, but I want to point out. Observe what Jesus does not say about the goats. He doesn't say, I was hungry and you stole my food and you poisoned it. He doesn't say, I was thirsty and you brought me to a desert. He doesn't say, I was a stranger, and you made me even more of a stranger. There's not intentional malice that Jesus points out. It's just neglect. Indifference. There's that old saying, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. And so we can say, well, I'm not I'm not mean, right? I'm not I'm not actively causing harm, so I'm a good person. But what Jesus points out here is not actively causing harm, but neglecting to do good. And so in the judgment those who are goats are those who've neglected to do good when there was opportunity, who were indifferent to the needs of the neighbour. And I think that's so important because especially in our society today, we can get so busy that it's easy to just be indifferent, to neglect it, to be preoccupied. I've been guilty of it. I don't know about you guys. Maybe I'm just as Paul would say, the chief of sinners. But I think that there's a lot of times where especially think about the the the person on the side of the road, right? I'm sure each of you have driven by someone on the side of the road. And it's difficult, I know, there's situation you have to be mindful. Some people take take those opportunities for exploiting people's kindness. And they're not always as in need as they may say to be. But what if they were? How often do we drive by them thinking they'll be alright, someone else will take care of it, I'm busy, I gotta get to work, I gotta get to wherever. And we just drive right by them. But I think we need to be very careful about doing that. Very prayerful. I'm speaking to myself as much as you guys. Because what Jesus says is not malice that is being judged, it's indifference. Going back to the Good Samaritan, it's not like when the priest walked by the injured man, he kicked him another three times to make sure he was good and down. He just walked by. Who knows what was going on in his mind? Maybe he was thinking, Man, I gotta go, I gotta get to to the temple because you know we're about to do the evening sacrifice, and if I touch this man, I'm gonna be unclean, and I don't have to go out till evening, and I don't have time for that. Someone else will take care of him. He could have had good intentions, but he didn't take care of the man. And then, you know, have the priest, and then you had the Levite as well. Gums walks by, same thing. He sees the problem, he doesn't fix it. You don't know why. We don't know why. We can't judge. But it's not like he actually s sought to hurt the man more. He just didn't do anything. And so we need to be very careful. w how we treat the person we pass by or that we're considering passing by. Another thing that I think we need to see from this parable is that both groups were surprised. When Jesus said, I was hungry and you gave me food, da da da da, they're gonna answer with surprise. Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Both groups say that. And so I want you to think about that. Both groups were surprised. The one group was surprised. That they did it to Jesus. I'm sure they remembered feeding people who were hungry and welcoming people into their homes and showing hospitality, but they never did it with in mind, I'm doing this to Jesus. this is I'm only doing this because this is the Lord, right? They say, When did we see you? We were just going about our life. And so for both of these people, this was not an intentional, I guess you'd say, works-merited thing. It's not like they're trying to get attention from Jesus. It's not like they're doing it just because it's Jesus. They're saying, when did we see you? We were just living our lives. This was something that had become natural to them. This was a habit, a way of life, you could say a character. One had naturally developed a character. Of kindness and compassion towards those in need. And one had developed a character of indifference and neglect. And then the shocking answer of Jesus, we all have heard, and and it's very profound. In as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. I think we need to take that very seriously as well. That Jesus so closely identifies with humanity. Especially those who are vulnerable or in need, that he takes it personally, as if it was done or not done to himself. We see this in Acts chapter 9. When Paul, soon to be, still Saul at this point, was persecuting the Christians on the road to Damascus. What did Jesus say? Saul, Saul, why do you persecuting my people? He said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus identifies himself with his people. And our neglect towards them is neglect to him. Our kindness towards them is kindness to him. And how much different would we treat people if we thought of that every single time? That this was an opportunity to minister to Jesus or to neglect Jesus. I was reading a book for my classes, one of many that I've had to read recently. is called dissident discipleship. It's not Adventist, it's from the Anabaptist faith. But they had a really profound principle in the book, and I think it's it's based on just the a principle in Anabaptist religion in general. But the idea that one cannot fully be a Christian and one cannot fully worship God while neglecting Him in His people. To put it another way, it's impossible to be only an inward and upward Christian without being an outward Christian. And they said that in this in this faith it's the idea that without concrete service and love and fellowship outwardly, there is no other true, genuine way to connect with God in the person of his people. And that you're missing an entire aspect of God's character. I'm not sure I agree with the extent they take it, but I think it's an important principle that is illustrated in Matthew twenty five. And that I think especially in the West we often neglect. We're very individualistic as a society. It's about me and my relationship with Jesus. But in the context that we're reading this in, in in Jewish culture, they were very communal based. And we should keep that in mind. That it's about it's not about just us. And our relationship with Jesus, while it cannot be transferred to others, can only truly thrive in the context of community. And I think I preached about that before. So to encounter a person in need is an encounter with Jesus in the person of humanity. And so what would change if we treated each encounter like that as an opportunity to show love and service to our Lord. And now finally as we wind down, I wanna hit this on the head really hard because I think this is so important and we are prone to to lean this way. This all that I've said leads to a crucial question. If Jesus is judging us in the final judgment based on what we have done, are those acts what save us? That's basically what it says, right? I was hungry and you gave me food. X and you did this. Blank, you did, you did, you did this, you did this. Therefore, come into heaven, you blessed, right? Or you didn't do this, you didn't do this, you didn't do this, you didn't do this, depart into fire, right? That's what it says. So, Pastor, are you telling me that I have to do these things to be saved? Yes and no. These things will not save you. Period. You can go take from this sermon a checklist of these six things and run around town, start feeding the hungry, giving water to everybody, taking some people, giving them clothes, and you're not does not does not mean you're gonna be in heaven. But if you are not doing these things, it's a sign of a deeper heart issue. Both of these, I think it's this is why they're at the end of Matthew twenty five. It builds. Jesus is not saying do this and you'll be saved, or don't do this and you'll be lost. But he's saying in the judgment, I can just look at how you live and tell who reigns in your heart. I can tell if Jesus is in your heart because you live like Jesus. Jesus was the one, I'll remind you, who went around feeding the hungry and giving water to those who were thirsty, and clothing the naked and healing those who were sick. And so if we have that saving relationship with Jesus, then in the judgment, Jesus will be able to tell by our fruits. But the the the the fruits do not make the tree. It's the roots. And so I want to encourage you guys, yes, let's be more intentional. Let's be mindful about these things. Let's cooperate with Jesus in being a blessing to humanity. But also don't hyperfixate on these things and beat yourself up over these things. Because these things will come naturally when Jesus is in the heart. And the neglect will come naturally when Jesus is not in the heart. And so let's focus on keeping Jesus in the heart. And let the rest take care of itself. You see, Ellen White has a statement. In Object Christ Object Lessons, page three eighty-four. She talks about sanctification as the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity, which is what I basically just told you with some fancy words. And then she says this the completeness, or you could say the perfection, of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within. That's the entire point. That what God is looking at here in the judgment is a character. And that character the character of Christ is this impulse to help and bless others, to love God supremely, and to love others as ourselves. And that the completeness of Christian character is when that comes up all the time. When when our natural desire and impulse, like it should have been if we had never fallen. is to be a blessing to everyone all the time. And so I want to encourage you guys. What comes to my mind as I read this parable, I just want to be a sheep. Ba, bah, bad, bad. I want to be a sheep. And so two things I want to encourage you to do. Number one, seek the good shepherd. If you want to be a sheep, you need the good shepherd. There's nothing that we can do towards saving ourselves except to heed the invitation of Jesus to come. Ye who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. And then to heed the second part: take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart. We come to Jesus just as we are. We choose to surrender our will to him each day, to take on that yoke of of surrender, submission, obedience to God's word, and he takes care of the rest. We cooperate with him. So focus on your relationship with Jesus. And second appeal, I want you to intentionally look at people you can bless. Whether you take some of these things that I talked about physically or spiritually, in order to meet people and their needs, you have to see people and their needs. And in order to see people and their needs, you have to look. I'm guilty of it. Sometimes I'm so busy on the phone, I can't look at anybody. If I'm looking at this thing. Or I can't look at anybody if I'm so busy looking where I'm going to work. Or the next thing I have to do, the next homework assignment. I'm behind. But when we look, we'll find somebody who needs help. We have that promise in the Bible, Miss White talks about it. That if we look for an opportunity to do good, we will find one. We look for an opportunity to bless someone, and we will find it. And the more we do that, the stronger that muscle's gonna get. And the more naturally it'll come. And before we know it, we'll be sheep. And we'll I think pretty soon there'll be that day when we see the Son of Man come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, and we'll see him on his throne, and we'll hopefully all be there, as he sets all of us on the right side, and he says, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Lord, I pray that this prayer would be the prayer of each of our hearts. Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne. Take my love, my Lord I pour at thy feet its treasure store, and take myself, and I will be ever only and all for thee. Amen.