By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville
Baptist Church
This is youth night in our church. Community Ministry:
not just there to help your little group, but you are there to work
to help others in the area. Youth
will perform the play called the judgment, which based of Mat. 25:31-46.
The youth will be involved and be judged as they enter the sanctuary
during the play. Have you truly
followed the Lord? If you were
brought before the judge having been accused of being a Christian would there
be enough evidence to convict you.
What is the Judge looking for? He
is looking for evidence that shows that you are a Christian.
He is looking for evidence that shows that you are with the Lord in
this life. How do you know that
Jesus is at work in the life of an individual?
You can see what the Lord is doing in their lives.
You will see what they are doing, saying, and going.
Judgment must begin with us here tonight in the church.
Scripture Text:
Mat. 25:31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And
before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: 33 And he
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 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: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye
gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed
me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked,
and clothed [thee]? 39 Or when
saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done
[it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For
I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no
drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me
not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye
did [it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [it] not to me. 46 And
these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life
eternal. also:
1Peter 4:17
For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if
it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the
gospel of God? 18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" 19 So then, those who
suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful
Creator and continue to do good.
Tonight
is the judgment. What
is the judge looking for tonight? He
is looking for a three things.
- He
is looking for you. There
is an appointment that you cannot cancel or postpone.
There will be a judgment. Hebrews
9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment:
- He
is looking for your name to be written in the Lamb’s book of life.
God has made a place for everyone to be entered into this book,
but if you have not followed him and overcome then your name will be
blotted out. Revelation 3:5 He that
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name
before my Father, and before his angels.
- He
is looking for evidence of the presence.
God sent Jesus to seek
and to save the lost. Salvation
is not earned by works for the needy, but it is a gift from God.
The judge at this time is looking for evidence of the presence
of God in a individual’s life.
He is looking for the love of God in your life.
Mat. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy
name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I
never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
What
stops us from ministering to the community?
Outsider syndrome: fear of what outsiders will do to our church…
we don’t want to mess things up.
We have got everything just the way we want it so it would be crazy to
change now. Afraid to take
someone in to feed them or help them. We
like things the way they are now. Don’t
want to be bothered. Don’t want
them here to make a mess of things, because we like the way things are now. But, we if don’t minister to the physical needs of those in
need, how can we minister the spiritual?
Sugar free syndrome:
We have become sugar free or free of care of others.
It doesn’t matter to us if others are helped or not.
We don’t care if others are saved or not.
They have made their bed let them lay in it.
We have no real love for God and thus we have no real love of others.
Apathy and unconcern is the rule of the day.
No love, no compassion, no caring, and no sugar on top is the lifestyle
of the day.
Bargain Basement Christianity.
Christianity and salvation is free so why should we have to pay for
others. We don’t have enough,
as it is to support ourselves so how can we help someone else?
We want to get the best bargain we can find, so when we find something
that is free we assume that it comes without cost.
Why should we spend our time, talents, and treasures for that which is
already paid for? Salvation is free to all, but to become a Christian we want
to join with the Lord. We will be
going where he is going and doing what he is doing.
We will love others and spend our lives trying to help them in the name
of the Lord. If you want to get
by with the least we can and still go to heaven, are your sure you are
going? Can you get by with the
least you can do and still make it? Many won’t.
Missed The Boat Beliefs: We may have gotten the idea that we don’t need to
help others. We aren’t supposed
to help others. If we do as Jesus
did, wouldn’t we have to say that he did help others in spiritual and
physical ways? Some may say what
is the use it isn’t going to do any good.
Those people will never change. God
doesn’t want us to feed, clothe, or visit the less fortunate.
We may feel people will be saved with or without our help.
We thought that those verses were talking about some future millennial
kingdom and that didn’t apply to us. We
are only supposed to be involved in the spiritual life of the person and not
worry about the physical. Problem
is> There will be no excuses acceptable when the judgment comes.
Left Jesus behind: His parents left behind Jesus when he was 12 years old.
The problem was that no one knew that he had been left behind.
Why not? No one was paying
attention. Is anyone paying
attention today? How do you know
that you haven’t left him behind? Is
he with you and are you with him? What
did Jesus do? What would he be
doing today? What would he have
us to do?
Kissed the Doors: Judas kissed the door of heaven, but never went in.
This is someone who is in the Christian life to get what he or she can
get. I will get my 30 pieces of silver then run.
These are those who have never known the Lord as their Savior.
Just here to enjoy this life while it lasts.
Forgotten about the calling of God.
What’s Up God:
What are you doing, God? Living
the life. Enjoying my bud and my
life, but I am not really interesting in getting involved.
I may drop in to church every now and then, but in reality I am not
going to get involved in ministering to others or their problems.
I have enough of my own to deal with and I am not having much success
solving them. So, I am too busy
doing my own thing to allow you or anything that you want for me to do to
interfere.
Foot and Mouth Disease: We won’t go and we won’t say. Our feet won’t go and our mouth won’t say who He is to
us. This is a fatal to
disease to the church. Without
people who will go and who will say then the church and the Christian way of
living will die.
In
an article on China in Eternity Magazine, the writer records a story of
Christian love and kindness. "A
Chinese cook was put into prison one night.
It was bitterly cold. About
26 degrees below zero. He had on his padded clothes and a big fur coat. But
a heathen man who was later thrown in with him had no wraps at all.
The Christian man began to pray that God would get him out of prison.
While he was praying, it seemed God spoke to him.
'I won't hear your prayer until you've taken off your fur coat and
given it to this man who had none.' 'But if I do that, I'll be frozen to death
by morning,' the man thought. 'Well,
if you don't,' he seemed to hear God's reply, 'this man will be dead before
morning.' So he took off his fur
coat and gave it to the man and his life was saved.
Later on at a Christian gathering in Communist China, the heathen man
who had received the coat got up and gave his testimony.
"I am here today because a man shared his coat with me in
prison." People are in need.
People are suffering. The
winning of souls to Christ could well depend on how willing we are to share
our coat.