Your Moment
Matthew 25:31-46
July 5, 2020
Last week we were talking about grabbing hold of those moments in life which are transformative. That’s a tall order! I know that! That’s kind of what makes messages like this filled with so much fun and anxiety. It’s being alert to when God is calling you to do something. Sometimes we know when it’s our moment. It’s obvious.
To use sports analogies . . . it’s coming up to bat in a baseball game with 2 outs in the last inning with the bases loaded and your team is losing by 2 runs.
It’s having the basketball in your hands in the final seconds, losing by 1 point.
It’s being the quarterback and trying to lead your team to the game winning touchdown in the final seconds.
Those are obvious moments - - - aren’t they? You know it, you can sense it. You can sense those moments. You know it has the potential to be special.
But life is NOT filled with those obvious moments. Moments when God is calling us to do something which makes a difference in our life and in the lives of others. As much as I love watching them, it’s more than fun and games in sporting events.
Sometimes it’s hard to find those moments - and we can’t manufacture them, so it’s more about being open to those moments. So, when they occur, we’re primed and to pounce on them. The worst thing we can do . . . is look back at life, which we tend to do, and have our regrets about what we didn’t do.
Sometimes, it’s not easy to know what it means to be open to God moments. In it’s simplest form, it’s developing an attitude, a character, a spirit which leads us to look for God sized opportunities. And remember from last week . . . God sized opportunities are NOT necessarily those mountain top experiences we all want. We don’t get daily mountain top experiences, we get daily hill top moments.
Moments when we can experience the power and presence of God, moments when we can serve God in ways which don’t seem to dramatically change the world. Yet, they might simply change someone’s life without our knowing it, they may help someone have an extra smile, or for another to see that there’s still good in the world.
There were a few passages I wanted to look at this morning. And to be honest, I wrestled with them this week as I tried to determine which direction God was leading me. I want to read a passage from the book of James. James is a super practical book, it’s an application book, which really steps on our toes over and over and over. James does it in a really powerful way. In chapter 2, James wrote –
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. - James 2:14-17, 26
As we read this passage from James, it may seem like he’s contradicting Paul’s statements that we are saved by faith. He seems to infer that we are saved by doing good works, but that’s not what James is going after.
What James wants us to understand is if we say we have this great faith, but we have nothing to show for it in terms of what we do for the kingdom, then James is really asking . . . SO DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE in JESUS?
That seems pretty harsh . . . but it’s really not. James wants us to put our faith and works together. It’s what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 2:8-10 - when he told us we are saved by faith through grace, not by works . . . yet, his next comment is that we are God’s workmanship, created to do good works.
You see, our faith should compel us to do good works. We should be looking to do good. That should be part of our daily prayer. It’s not so much a prayer of “gee Lord, who can I give my money to today.” That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s sometimes seeing the obvious, and the not so obvious and then taking action.
Why take action? That’s where your faith comes in. True faith will manifest itself in actions. It’s a natural outgrowth of who you are in Christ. If you really believe in Jesus, then there should be actions. Remember, James even tells us that the demons believe, but they obviously don’t have actions.
So, James is our starting point. That’s kind of the appetizer, now we’re getting to the meat. And our meat is a really powerful statement by Jesus. I literally went back and forth regarding this passage and one from Luke 10, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In fact, I started to prepare for that scripture, then felt, NOPE, this is what God wants for today.
The passage from Matthew 25 seems so harsh. Jesus is coming to the end of His life and He’s talking to the people and He’s sharing some very important final lessons. Watch this video and listen to verses 31-46 of Matthew 25.
SCRIPTURE VIDEO - www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0AUXzG-nfo
So, let’s set the scene because to he honest this seems really like a stinging and scathing statement from Jesus. He wanted us to get the point of what it means to be His follower. It’s not simply believe in Jesus, then wait to die and get our reward. We are to participate and work in the kingdom.
Now picture Jesus coming in His glory to sit on His throne. That’s a pretty awesome picture. We usually picture the human Jesus, but this is Jesus coming in all of His glory - - - and get this . . . listen to what He said . . .
WITH ALL OF HIS ANGELS WITH HIM. WOE! Not just some of His angels, but ALL of them. According to Revelation 5, Jesus will have a myriad of thousands of angels. A myriad in Greek is = to 10,000 angels. So, 10,000 X 10,000 angels are with Him. That’s 100 million angels. Picture the scene! I don’t think I can! It’s too powerful and awesome!
Now, Jesus gathers all the people. The rich, the famous, the superstars, the poor, the unknown, the sickly. Every person gathered by Jesus and all of the angels! Talk about intense! And Jesus says some of you are sheep and some are goats. Some go to the right and some go to the left. Can you imagine this?
You see, you don’t know why you’re being separated. Maybe you’re going to be having a cosmic game of tug of war . . . or it’s a massive kickball game. You don’t know what’s coming next. Just some of you go to the right and some to the left.
Now to those on the right Jesus says “GO! Here is your inheritance in the kingdom, prepared for you before the foundation of the world.”
WOW!! It’s happening! You’re receiving entrance into the kingdom. Then Jesus tells you why . . .
He said, I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, in prison . . .
And you took care of me. You saw me and came to my aid. You gave of yourself. Your faith was put into action and you cared for my needs.
And these folks who are receiving their inheritance are miffed. They’re dumbfounded by Jesus. You know, when you receive a great inheritance you don’t ask why . . . you just give a big smile and take it. That’s not what these folks do.
They say, Jesus, when did we see you in need. We never saw that. So, Jesus gives us the key . . . He said,
40 ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Do you believe that? Notice that Jesus didn’t say because you cared for them, but because you cared for ME! When you looked at another person, you were really looking at me. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that so powerful!?
Whatever you do for another - you’re doing for Jesus. We don’t talk about it enough . . . we have a ministry I started a number of years ago, that has this theme to it. It’s called M25 Ministries. It’s about helping one another. It’s about letting one another know what your need is. It’s saying “hey, I can’t change my light bulbs, can you help?” Or “I have a plumbing or electrical issue, can you check it out?” Maybe it’s a need to get medicine. It could be a number of things. And then we have those who have stated, YES, I can help.
We try to care for one another, but also for the community as well. That’s part of the ministry of the church. It’s why we do the Back to School Rally. It’s why I want to put school supplies in every student’s hands every year. We see each child, each parent or grandparent as Jesus.
We don’t do it for a reward, we do it because doing it is part of our faith. In a sense, we couldn’t sleep at night if we didn’t do it.
You see, when we look around the world right now and we see all of this craziness and chaos. And I’m not calling what’s happening crazy. That’s the call of the church . . . we are called to love our neighbors, we are called to look at one another and see Jesus in them.
It doesn’t matter if they’re white, black, yellow, brown or purple people eaters. It doesn’t matter if they are straight, gay, transgendered or whatever they are. You may not like what someone else stands for, you may not like their stance on politics, you may not like their sexuality, you may not like them . . . But the point of what Jesus is saying - - - do you see Jesus in them? You might not like that, but that’s who Jesus is.
Nobody liked the leper, the sick, the lame, the demon possessed, the blind, the dead - but that never stopped Jesus from talking and touching and healing those who were in need of the great physician.
Now, the scene and mood shifts . . .
41 “Then Jesus will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
In verse 42-43, Jesus said, I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, in prison . . . and you did nothing for me. You didn’t care for me.
And they will answer Jesus and say, “Lord when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or in need?”
And Jesus will respond with the opposite of verse 40, He will say -
45 ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did NOT do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Now, I can picture the scene where these folks are arguing with Jesus. “Lord, we never saw you hungry, we never saw you thirsty, we never saw you in need . . . If we did, we certainly would have given to you.”
But Jesus responds, “get away, you didn’t do it for the least of these. If you didn’t do it for the person in need, so you didn’t do it for me. You have no place in my kingdom. Depart from me.”
MAN! That’s crazy! Is that not in your face? It is for me. Jesus is right there calling me and you out.
He’s telling us get over your pride and arrogance. Practice humility. Remember, Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity when He came here so that He could serve us. So Jesus could experience life and help us to identify with Him because He’s experienced what it’s like to be in pain and suffer. He’s been there. He knows it.
So, He tells us to do the same, practice humility . . . so that when those moments in life come . . . and we know they do, seize those moments. They’re divine. It’s helping another person, it’s being open to it.
It’s putting away all of the criticism. It’s not saying hey ‘we should do this and that’ when you’re not willing to do this and that. You know what I mean. It’s being willing to get our hands a little dirty as we help others.
It’s picking up the phone and calling your brother or sister in Christ and checking on them. It’s knowing that someone has a need and finding a way to help them.
Now, I understand we cannot be on the go 24/7 . . . we need to refresh and especially take care of ourselves and our families. Yet, I believe we see too many people in need and we simply walk by and don’t give them a second thought.
So, on the one hand, it’s letting go of our arrogance and pride, because as I said, I don’t want to look back and have regrets. I want to continue to be a servant for God. I want to take a passage like this and others, and hold onto this passage and not look like I don’t care to God. I don’t want to appear lazy to God. I see a need and I skip over it. Whether it’s in the community or in the church.
How often do we walk by people in need or let’s get really simple. How often do we think, “well, that’s someone else’s job. They can take care of this. I’m not. I’m not picking up that trash. I’m not cleaning this. I’m not picking this up. I’m not helping that person. . .”
We can go on and on.
So, on this communion Sunday - where we’ve taken the bread and the cup. We’ve said yes to Jesus in our hearts, spirits and minds, and with our bodies. We now need to go into the world and show the world who Jesus is.
Can you imagine if the church was more concerned with helping others and less concerned with pointing fingers? Can you imagine what would happen if we tried to demonstrate the love of Jesus to a world which is so deeply hurting - - to a world so desperately in need of Jesus.
When those moments come, and they will . . . those are divine opportunities to serve another person, but more than that, those are moments from God where we have the chance to serve the One who came to redeem us
What will you do this week? How will you serve Christ? What divine moments will you grab onto and make a difference in your corner of the world? It all starts with one person. Will you be that 1 person?
