The Sheep and the Goats

Jesus is coming, right, Does that make you happy or do you come

on to raise your hands? Said, that'd be a good thing. That's

how I feel. And Jesus is coming, and the whole world's going to

fall apart. We're gonna be put together and carried through to the end.

God is more concerned with faithfulness than he is a show and the Lord will

come for those who are faithful. And I don't know about you, I

want to be faithful. How many of you looked in the mirror late when

you found out you were a sinner, that you've failed God in your life?

Anybody here in that group, do you realize this the pleasure of the

Father to give us the kingdom? Little flock, Jesus said, it's the

good pleasure of the Father to give you the kingdom. We're gonna be talking

about the shepherd and the sheep today and some goats too. But I want

to be a sheep. Let's pray. Father. I'm just so grateful.

Retha's here today, approaching one hundred years of age, and she's right here

in church. Her family brought her. This precious woman of God calls me

almost every day and prays for me. Lord, may you keep her alive

for another hundred years till the coming of the Lord at least, because Lord,

these things matter. Thank you for others here. I think of Barbara

Anotsky and other prayer warriors here who use their seasoned years to pray for the

Church. Father, may you raise up a generation of young people who are

true to the Bible as the needle to the pole, who will love the

message of this Church, that is God's message for the last days, who

will win the world for you. And Father, help us who are getting

a little older in life to realize it's our calling to mentor by faithfulness and

obedience and by loyalty. And Lord, just love us. Today of our

people are gone for different places to thanksgiving. We are here to give you

grace and thanks and worship in Jesus' name. Amen. If you want to

know Jesus' take on the Book of Daniel, all you got to do is

go to Matthew twenty four. In Matthew twenty four, Christ has an exposition

of Daniel seven and Danie eleven. It's called the All of It Discourse.

He moves through the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, through the Middle ages

to the time of the waning of the love of the Christian Church down to

our time, the time of the end, and he says, the one

who endures to the end will be saved. Lots of Christians today they struggle,

say, well, how can I know if I'm saved? How can

I know if I'm really saved? Of course, John tells us if we

love others, if we keep God's commandments, we have faith. In that

way we can know we're saved. But an interesting statement is made, the

one who endures to the end will be saved. No quitter is going to

be saved at the second coming. Did you hear me? Anyone who quits

Christ will be lost. But everyone who hangs in there be it a weak

their character, struggling here or there. That person who latches onto Jesus will

be saved. And he says, this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached

in all the world as a witness to all nations. Then the end will

come. And as soon as Jesus says that, he says, you'd better

know the Book of Daniel in verse fifteen of Matthew twenty four. We live

in a time when many Christians today believe that we do not need to study

the prophecies, and yet we live just before the coming of the Lord.

Let me say this to you, I, for one, would not be

a Seventh day Aventist if it were not for the prophetic teachings of the Book

of Daniel revelation. I am a Seventh day Aventist because it lines up with

the Bible tack on and that the message of the Three Angels is what has

motivated me over the years. But we're living in a post biblical generation where

many people today do not interact with the Bible. They go by feelings,

group dynamics, and friends. If we're going to make it through the end,

we must own the Bible with Christ in our hearts or we will be

lost. But if we do, we will be saved. So there's certainty

in this mix now in the all of it discourse. When Jesus is going

through the Books of Daniel, really he moves into a series of parables which

are meant to help God's people at the time of the end to be ready

for his coming. And my subject today is the sheep and the Goats.

It's one of those. In fact, it's the last part of the all

of it discourse, when Jesus then moves into the narrative that will bring him

down, where the goats that are the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the

false priests and the Caiaphas will have him crucified in jesus Kingdom discourse. In

Matthew twenty five, Christ compares true and false believers to two kinds of virgins

that number ten. They are virgins because they profess a true faith. They

are meant. They they bother to put oil. In other words, they

weren't into their bibles. They weren't interacting in prayer. They didn't have that

connect with God. Their lamps were empty of oil. They were burning a

little bit because they heard the preacher preach, but they weren't engaging themselves in

a relationship with God. That's what this represents. And when the call went

out, they didn't have enough oil, and they asked for oil from the

others, and then they scrambled about and they didn't make it to the marriage

feast. Jesus said, watch Therefore, because you do not know the day

or hour when the bridegroom comes, we are to be vigilant in our Bibles,

sharing God's word, actively, praying, and growing, or we will

not be ready for the come of the Lord. But if we do these

things on the positive side, we will be ready for the come of the

Lord. How many of you want to be wise virgins, not foolish virgins?

Raise your hand. That's the group I want to be in now.

Christ immediately follows with the parable of the talents, in which a man the

man's servants were entrusted with his property in the form of talents. One was

given five talents, another two and one a single talent. The faithful servants

with five and two used their talent gifts to make a difference by investing their

talents and earning more, and thus they showed that they had faith to believe

that the Master could multiply the means that he had given them. They served

their master with an eye for the future, with optimism, hope, faith.

The master's talent grew as they used it to make it be a blessing

for his house. Now, the two who invested wisely were commended by their

master as good and faithful servants because they invested their talents in his cause and

they were optimistic about it. The unfaithful servant was stingy, pessimistic, afraid

to make a difference by investing his talent. We live in a world today

where people said, well, it's a bad idea to invest, shouldn't invest?

Do you realize that God is an entrepreneur? Did you hear me?

God sent Jesus here to raise up the Kingdom of God on earth as the

entrepreneur of heaven, to take the seed of God's word and through the riches

of his grace, to create a rich harvest for eternity. We are in

the sharing business as Christians. So the Master commended his faithful servants. He

said, well done, good and faithful servants. But the faithless servant,

what did he do? He took his talent. He dug a hole in

the ground where you bury the dead, and he put his talent there,

and he just waited for his master return. Of course, when the Master

came back, look what he said, Matthew twenty five twenty nine. For

to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance.

But from him who has not even what he has, what does it say,

will be taken away? Verse thirty and cast that worthless servant into the

Algar darkness. Their men will weep and gnash their teeth. Now, I

don't want to be a worthless servant. Are you in the club with me

today? I want to be a good and faithful servant. There have been

time in my life when I have been challenged to go deeper, when my

experience was shallow with God. Have you ever had a time like that where

it wasn't right? You were shallow, you weren't sinking in. God allows

things to happen where you dig in deeper. Friends, we need to dig

in deeper because we're living before the return of Jesus. These two parables provide

the immediate context of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. They represent

a deliberate kingdom progression, with the parable the sheep and goats as the final

punch in Jesus. All of the discourse before the narrative in the Gospel of

Matthew shifts suddenly to the conspiracy of the priests under Caiaphas, when the goats,

who are the religious leaders, will have him crucified. So he's talking

about the sheep and the goats, and friends, I want to be a

sheep, not a goat, because the point is there will only be two

classes at the end, no middle ground. And these are the these those

first two parables we just went through Jesus. They focus on Christians who are

both faithful and unfaithful. And so it must be assumed at least to a

degree that in the parable the sheep and the goats, we're looking at faithful

and unfaithful Christians. Take your bibles. Look at verse thirty one, Matthew

twenty five, and let's work down together. Christ says, when the Son

of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him. Now

what is he talking about here? If you go back to the book of

Daniel Dane seven, verse thirteen fourteen, we find that after the Middle Ages,

a little harm. During the Middle Ages, a little harm power arises

a religio political system. This power gains control of the Christian Church in the

Middle Ages, and from the vantage point of the city of Rome, it

dominates. It changes God's law, It attacks the saints of the most high.

Fifty to two hundred million people will die during this time. It has

a counterfeit ministry to Christ, which is at time times and dividing of times,

a prophetic three and a half years instead of the three and a half

years when Christ built up his church. And in this three and a half

prophetic years, it tears down the church. And it looks like the little

Horn is winning. The little Horn looks like a man. He has eyes

and a mouth like a man. But he's not the Son of Man.

He's not the Messiah. He's the antichrist Messiah. And suddenly, in the

night visions at the end of the Middle Ages, Daniels directed to heaven.

In verse thirteen, he sees one like the Son of Man coming to the

ancient of days and was presented for God Almighty in the most holy place on

his chariot throne. That the Bible says of the ark of the Covenant in

First Chronicles twenty eight eighteen. And as the Son of Man is carried into

the most Holy place in Daniel seven, it says to him was given a

kingdom and glory, that all nations and kindreds, tribes and tongues should serve

him. Now, what is happening here is the great event that immediately precedes

the second coming to Christ. And Luke nineteen eleven and twelve, the Disciples

asked Jesus, will you at this time restore the kingdom that was in the

day the Roman Empire. And Christ said no. He said, a nobleman

went into a far off country to receive his kingdom and then return. Christ

was here speaking of the investigative judgment, the preadvent kingdom judgment pictured and down

but seven, when the books are opened, the son of Man comes before

the ancient days. He receives his kingdom in the most holy place from God

Almighty, his father, and then he returns. And so this parable here

is set in the context of that. He says, when the son of

Man comes in his glory in Heaven, in that judgment, he receives a

kingdom. And then he comes in the glory of his Father in the Kingdom

of Heaven, and all the angels with him. Then he will sit on

his glorious throne Verse thirty two. Before him will be gathered all the nations.

And here's the serious part. He will separate them one from another,

as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the

sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left hand. Before we

go any further, I would like to share twelve points. In my personal

research on the difference between sheep and goats, I got online and researched this.

I went through the internet looking for sheep and goats everything I could find

on their characteristics. I even called my son who raises sheep and goats down

in Tennessee, and got a few pointers from him and made some corrections.

He said, Dad, the research is an altogether accurate I have learned AB

and C and so this is an integrated list of characteristics. Point number one,

I have twelve of them. Goats look like sheep from a distance.

Did you know that? You didn't know that if you're looking on the hillside,

they're all looking the same. You got to have binoculars that get real

close to really tell the difference. That's what shepherds say. They tell us

that they kind of mix together and herd. You can't tell until you get

close up. Then you can discern the difference between sheep and a goat.

From a distance, it's hard to tell the difference, but nonetheless there is

a difference. They flock together often. Sometimes shepherds even heard them together.

But when you get close you can know. Point number two, goats have

short hair that's rarely desired for clothing. But sheep grow warm, cly,

curly wool that's inviting, and they can you can clothe people with it.

And you can also make these nice skins and lay on it. Does anyone

have a sheep wool skin car seat? Here? You do? There's nothing

like it. It's the best. You can go out and buy them.

You'll make the industry go north. But it's great. But there's something about

the wool of a sheep that you can make clothing, and we have sheep

stuff on us right now. Millions of people around the world have been clothed

by this gift of a humble sheep. A humble sheep has helped the clothe

the naked in the world. Point number three Goats have tails. Do they

stick up or down anybody? They stick up proudly up in the air,

while sheep have tails that modestly what fow down. So there's an arrogance to

a goat that's not in the sheep. Point number four Goats are proud in

sheep or nots If you just watch their demeanor you can kind of figure that

out. In fact, goats are actually smarter than sheep. But that smartness

gets them into trouble because there's also an arrogance that goes with it. Goats

are a destructive landscaper's nightmares. They stand up proudly. In fact, in

Earth of the Caldies, there's this famous archaeological find of a goat standing up

eating on a bush, knocking it down. It's a goat demon. In

fact, in the ancient world, it's even in the Book of the Bible

it says you shall not sacrifice to the goat demons. Goats were a symbol

of demonic powers. They'd stand up kind of arrogantly, arrogantly chewing on the

trees. Goats are destructive landscaper's nightmares. They stand up and they mow trees

and shrubs down. They don't care that much for grass. They'll eat it,

but they won't take everything out. Point number five. Goats willfully wonder

and are independent and self willed, while sheep tend to stick to the group

and stay together behind the shepherd. Point number six, Goats tend to ignore

their shepherd's direction, while sheep naturally follow their shepherd close behind. My brother

not my brother, my son, John Michael confirmed that that is the case

point number seven. Goats have horns that point up, while sheep have none

or some. But if they do, they roll back. They don't point

in poke. They're more like powerful horns. Point number eight. Goats smell

awfully bad. If you're a smell to goat, yack, they smell bad,

but sheep smell a little bad. The sheep aren't perfect, but they're

better than goats. Thus it's easier to live around sheep than goats, even

if sheep aren't perfect, So if you want to smell good, you better

be a sheep, not a goat. Point number nine. Goats have sixty

chromosomes. Any biologists here sixty chromosomes, kind of like the middle part of

sixty sixty six. Sheep have only fifty four chromosomes. Point number ten.

Goats are in the hierarchy more than sheep, so they're into who's the big

billy goat. They want to look portant and prominent. Point number eleven.

Goats, especially male goats, will charge you from behind when you aren't looking.

Sheep can do the same, but sheep for the most part, tend

to mind their own businesses. They just look at you. Point number twelve.

Here's the big one. It's the most obvious of the twelve points,

perhaps the major difference that Jesus has drawn attention to, the major difference between

the sheep and the goats. Simply stated, goats are mean and sheep are

not as mean. That's the difference. There's an old saying that goes turn

Never turn your back on a goat. Have you ever turned your back on

a goat and a goat pasture? Yeah, it doesn't even go man,

It just hits you and then he goes. Yeah, you know. Garyfansblatt

and goatworld dot com wrote an article entitled my petgoat became a monster. Here's

an excerpt. Since starting goat World, I've had a number of people write

or call asking me about their goats suddenly turning on them. And what defines

turning on them? Simply means that they had turned their back and their goat

had butted them unexpectedly. So one of the key features of a goat is

you turn your back, goat hits you. Now, this supports the main

difference between sheep and goats. Goats are what mean and sheep are not.

In theory, Hayden Hafner wrote a theological article with the title the Real Difference

between Sheep and Goats. It's found on the Gospel Coalition dot org website.

If you want to look at the article, it's worth reading. He writes

this assessment of Jesus parable which I liked it. Someone to cheer it with

you. He asked the question why does Christianity? Why does Christian hypocrisy bother

us so much? Why do loveless sins of professing Christians cost such a sense

of disorientation, dissonance, and if we are not careful disillusionment. Most importantly,

why does the shepherd hate loveless hypocrisy? It seems clear from Matthew twenty

five that sacrificial love is supremely fitting for the Christian. It is the basis

on which the good shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. And then he

adds this statement in larger letters. There is nothing quite as disheartening, he

writes, There's nothing quite as disheartening, dishonest, and disorienting as a professing

Christian who does not love others. You hear that he got it nailed it.

My son raises sheep, and I have learned that sheep fundamentally rely on

the shepherd to defend them. They are not self reliant. They are shepherd

reliant. They don't fight back at wolves or goats, and they don't defend

themselves when attacked. They let the shepherd do that. That's the shepherd's job.

Goats are mean and sheep are not. And this is what Jesus is

saying is the main point in the parable. The sheep, you'll know them

by how they behave their character. You'll know the goats the same way.

On this difference, Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats and the judge

of the day. And let me bring it to my heart. I don't

want to be a goat. I want to be a sheep, and I

want to follow the shepherd. I don't want to follow goat or anybody else

or a wolf. I want to follow the shepherd. When a person truly

loves other human beings, I'm not talking about acting like we love people.

We all have different temperaments. I have an introverted temperament. For you're to

give me a psychology temperament test, I would come out perfect introvert. You

say, oh no, pastor Mike, how could you be a perfect introvert.

I am. I'm a deep introvert, and for me, it's it

was never easy to get to know people. I remember at college, walking

across the lawn of Southern Adventist University, it was Southern College back then.

I noticed a nice extrovert. She had black, dark flowing hair, and

she had been all over the world as a missionary's kid. And I end

up marrying her. Name's Diana. But I wouldn't make it without my extrovert

in life. I'd be sunk quick in a hurry. We all have different

temperaments, and sometimes people think introverts aren't friendly. How many introverts here?

Raise your hand, It's hard raise them high. Come on in the introvert

club now Myers and Briggs. I'm an i INTJ. Any students at Myers

and Briggs around here we have is fj's I INTPs the inch the eye is

for intro and introverts. They just get more signals than most people do.

Their autonomic nervous system can pick up this and that easier. Because of that,

they get tired and they want to go home and recover from being around

people. So sometimes introverts can look like they aren't friendly, but when they

really are in their introverted kind of skin. Now there are all kinds of

sheep. They are extroverted sheep, introverted sheep, intuitive sheep, not so

intuitive sheep, practical sheep, impractical sheep. God's kingdom fault is made up

of all kinds of sheep. Isn't that neat that the church is not a

boring place that we have all kinds of good people in the church. But

the point is, when a person truly loves other people, he'll care about

the sheep. She will care about the sheep, and she'll care about he

or she will carry about falling the shepherd. So when a person truly loves

other human beings, he or she will be in the personal business of reaching

out to love people, to care for others in need, precious others who

would never make it to the King of God were it not for the love

of a Christian sheep. That's right, God's sheep will bring these precious people

into relationship with the shepherd. And the sheep and the desire of ages pays

three six thirty seven. My favorite Bible commentator wrote this about Jesus parable the

sheep and the goats when the Son of Man shall come in his glory,

and all the angels with him. Then he shall sit upon the throne of

his glory, and before him should be gathered all the nations, he shall

separate them one from another. Thus Christ on the Mount of Olive's pictured to

his disciples the scene of the great judgment day, and he represented its decision

as turning upon one point. When the nations are gathered before him, there

will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what

they have done or have neglected to do for him in the person of the

poor and the suffering. And that day Christ does not present before men the

great work he has done for them in giving his life for their redemption.

He presents the faithful work they have done for him. Many years ago,

when I was thinking about becoming a Christian, I was fifteen years of age.

My life was a wreck. My mother grew up, I mean,

raised us in a horrible kind of situation. I don't talk a lot about

it here at Reaching Hearts. Maybe I've done it more so in later years.

But if I were to go back and look at my life before I

became a Christian, at the age of fifteen. It was horrible. I

didn't think I would live to be sixteen seventeen, and I just by acting

out on a simple faith that maybe there's a God up there, i'd ask

that question. I signed up to go to an academy, Fletcher Academy,

seventh dy Aventis School, and I met some of the best people I've ever

met in my life there at that godly school that was raised up by Ellen

White. She had a dream about that place, and she said there'd be

many workers who had come from that school, and they go around the world.

But when I went there, I didn't know much about the Bible.

I got my hands on the Spirit of Prophecy, the Great Controversy. I

read it through, and then I got a copy of Desire of Ages.

I read as much through. I'd met my dad. My dad died within

two months of me arriving there, miraculously brought into the family system. But

then they were all gone that year, and I felt very much alone.

The family had moved on and I was there by myself, and I remember

wondering what can I do with my time? And really, what's my future

about? And I would go off campus to work in people's yards to buy

books like the Christ's object Lessons, Steps to Christ, Thoughts from the amount

of blessings, And I landed in one person's home. Her name was Ali

Halleck and her husband was Norman Hallick, and they had worked at Broadview Academy.

And as they'd worked at Broadview Academy, they'd never had kids their entire

life. Now they are in their seventies that had retired in the Fletcher area.

And you know what they did with their time in retirement. They sought

out people like me who were a mess so they could bring them over their

house. They could help them, they could teach them stuff, they could

give them some money when they worked for it. And I remember as she

reached out to me, she saw I didn't have a coat. She put

a coat on me. She said, we want you to make it this

year. So what we're going to do is invest in you. You'll become

one of our boys. And I chose to be one of her boys.

She'd raised a lot of boys that weren't hers, who'd become call porters or

pastors or this or that. Because she lived to make a difference in the

lives of others who couldn't make it. Now. She knew I just lost

my dad. She knew that I was barely struggling to survive. I had

no way to pay my bill, and I remember when my senior year came

thousands of dollars at a crude How on earth am I going to get through

there? She called me one day to meet with her best friend who was

a doctor's wife. The doctor had died, the wife was still there,

and she said, we have made a decision to pay off your bill because

we're going to drive you to Southern Avenue University so you can be a minister.

I said, really, because she knew I wanted to be a minister.

And I've never seen such love like that in my life. They drove

me there. Norman Halleck could barely see. In fact, there's a couple

of tunnels on Interstate forty as you're moving through the Appalachians to get there.

And he had glycoma. So he says, I figured out these tunnels.

I know the rhythm of how to move the wheel. He would just turn.

I go, oh my goodness, we're going to hit the wall.

But he got through and they got back and they signed me up. Now,

I didn't deserve a lick of the love they gave me. When I

came to Fletcher, I had holy pants. I'm not talking about sacred here,

talking about pants with holes in them. I brought my dog Fang to

school because he was my best friend. I'd grown up in Appalachia. I

was bonded to Fang. I got him at a at a dump you know,

we call it a dump place where they dump garbage. And we got

Fang and Rex are two dogs there. And I go there because I would

look for treasure in the junkyard. Because when you have nothing in a leischa,

you learn to find treasure. And somehow I still have that knack.

I go treasure hunting. I like going to thrift stores to find treasure.

I'll look for this and that. I liked finding a two thousand dollars watch

for thirty dollars. It's fun. They'll be a treasure hunting. But I

just remember bringing my dog Fang to Fletcher and the Dean where there was saying

who are you. I says, well, my name is Mike Davis.

That was my name before I got my dad's name back. I said,

well, who are you too? I said well, this is my best

friend, Fang. We are going to school. We signed up now.

They don't allow dogs in the academy and a boy's dorm. Where do you

put them? But that man of God, that Dean said you can both

stay. He sized me up as this young person who needed love, and

he gave it. I look back, and if it weren't for Law,

I wouldn't be a Christian today. I wouldn't be in the church. I've

studied theology. There was times in my life where some thought I would teach

at the seminary, but that's not what it's about. You know what I

am. I'm a pastor because I care for people like me. The church

was made for the disinherited of the world, and it was made because love

must settle here so that those out there learn of it. It wasn't made

so we can look good we can have big horns like goats. It was

made so we could love the precious sheep that belonged to God and invest our

lives in them, because that's exactly what God in Christ has done for us.

Jesus. Sheep will love the world like Jesus love the world. But

goats are mean and sheep are not so, dear heart, Let's be sheep.

William Blake wrote this famous poem called the Lamb, Little Lamb, who

made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life and bid

thee feed by the stream? And or the me gave thee clothing of delight,

softest clothing. Willie Bright gave thee such a tender voice, making all

the veils rejoice. Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who

made thee? Little Lamb, I'll tell THEE, little Lamb, I'll tell

THEE. He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a lamb.

He is meek, he is mild, He became a little child,

Ay a child, and thou a lamb. We are called by his name,

Little Lamb. God bless thee, Little Lamb, God bless THEE.

Is a paradox that the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of

the world, the humble Lamb is our s shepherd. He knows what it's

like to be a sheep. When will we fully get this into our heads

and our hearts? That mean people will not inherit? The King of God

friends, the Church was made for love. There have been times people have

come to the church and some well meaning saint will come up to me and

say, Pastor Mike, you know that person has this history. And you

know what my answer is, I don't care. And you know my other

answer is I'm glad they're here. Look, we all have a history,

and if we admit it, it's not good enough for the Judgment day.

But you know what, we have a savior, and the Church was made

for sinners. It was made for sinners to become saints by the blood of

Christ that cleanses us from all sin. But we are held by faith as

we grow and we come to know the shepherd, following the shepherd. If

you don't up following the shepherd, you make it home to glory, Loving,

forgiving, compassionate, selfless, kind people will be saved and committing the

Judgment day backbiting goat like mean, honorary Christians will not make it into the

King of God. Why because kind and loving people in the church are the

ones who really believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. Christ

told Simon is the one who loves most is forgiven most. They're not better

than anybody else. They're the least of these, my brethren. They have

a small view of themselves because they're the sinners and need of grace, and

because they got grace in their lives. They love because they've been loved.

Paul says, it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, and

because of that fact, their hearts have been strangely warmed by the Shepherd's love

to live for others, to lose themselves in service for others to count.

Every soul is precious in the eyes of God. The greatest argument for Christianity

is a loving, kind and selfless believer who lives for others, who lives

to make a difference in the world so that those others can be saved.

That's the greatest argument for Christianity. For this purpose, Jesus created the Church,

and for this end he died to make it a loving flock. The

person that Christ will command in the judgment day may have known little of theology,

but he or she will most definitely know the Shepherd, and he or

she will know how to love. Here's the test of love. I ask

you the question. Now write this down. Maybe I ask it slowly?

Do you forgive others as God in Christ forgave you. Do you hear me,

do you forgive others as God in Christ forgive you? Do you hold

grudges? Or do you hold the banner of selfless love in your hand for

the person you would naturally like the least. My mother had schizophrenia for my

entire childhood. She owed it to her husband, who was my dad,

who wrecked her. And I remember when I came to Fletcher Academy my dad

was dying. My dad had a religious conversion. He came to see himself

as a sinner broken and in that brokenness he came to see the love of

God, that God that Jesus died for him, and he no sooner he

discovered that he was sharing it with me. He gave me the book Steps

to Christ. I read that book and that book was transformative. It helped

me become a Christian. My dad had stroked about a month and a half

into my stay at Fletcher, and he called to my mother through my brother

up in Gaylax, Virginia, to come down as quick as possible and meet

with him. My father had left my mother. My father had left us

to thin for ourselves as we were growing up, So why would he be

calling my mother down. I wasn't in the room, but I know it

happened. It was told me. My older brother was there, his new

wife was there, my mother was there, and there he was recovered from

a stroke. He didn't have long to live a few a month or so.

And he turned to my mother and he says, I'm so sorry for

what I've done to you. I'm so sorry for hurting you, for sinning

against you. No one made him do it. You know, some people

would laugh at my mother. In fact, I remember just that week a

very an elder in a church was laughing at my mother because of her awkward

way. But she said, I'm so He said, I'm so sorry for

what I've done to you. Now, that was beautiful in and of itself.

It's what my mother said that I've never forgotten. She turned to him

and she said, I forgive you, with no explanations, with no butts,

with no ANNs, with nothing inserted there. And then she turned and

she said to my second mother, you will need to be my my you

will need to be my sister and the King of God. My mother was

never healed of her disease till later in life when it dissipated. Schizophrenia runs

its course and she the hallucinating stuff stopped. But in the midst of her

storm, she learned the most important lesson that a sheep can learn. That

sheep are loving people, that forgiving people, good people. My mother knows

nothing about knew nothing about theology. She would she had a photographic mind,

but she couldn't integrate it. But she knew the love of God. Somehow,

in the midst of her storm, the love of God penetrated her experience,

and she showed it by how she responded. If my mom hadn't done

that, I don't think I had to be here today. I don't think

our family would be together. If my dad had not reached out to her

to make things right, I don't think any of us would have been together.

Our family is defined by forgiveness. If you ever go to the Oxen

Tanco family reunion, you're going to see a lot of people with this problem

and that and whatever, and this background issue and that. But everybody just

seems to forgive everybody, so we all stay together as a family. Isn't

it how the church works isn't it how much to work on the church?

So I asked you, do you go to church to look import and like

a goat standing on its feet to whack down trees and shrubs? Are do

you grays on the word of God so you can grow good Christian wool to

clothe the poor and the suffering? Are you and me myself and I kind

of goat? Or Jesus loves me this? I know kind of sheep that

loves others who are sheep and goats too. You see, good sheep care

about goats. That's why goats can hang around in sheep folds. In the

judgment, it will become very clear if you are a sheep with warm wool

that makes a difference, or just a mean, arrogant goat showing off in

the church. It is wise to remember that fundamentally goats are mean and sheep

are not. Matthew twenty five thirty four. Let's read together. Jesus will

finish the sermon here. Then the King will say to those at his right

hand, come, oh, 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 welcome me. I was naked, you clothed me. I

was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to

me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see

thee hungry and feed thee? And thirsty and give thee drink? In other

words, they don't have a clue that they're good people. They don't think

they're good people. They see the flaws in their life. They ask you,

how could we have made a difference? And then look at verse thirty

eight, And when did we see a stranger and welcome thee, or naked

and clothe thee? And when did we see the sicker in prison and visit

thee? Verse forty And the King will answer them. Truly, I say

to you, as you did it to one of the least of these,

my brethren, you did it to me. Then he will say to those

at his left hand, depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire,

prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you

gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger. You did not welcome me naked, and you

did not clothe me, sicken in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also answered, Lord, when did we see the hungry or

thirsty, or stranger, naked or sicker in prison, and did not minister

to thee Verse forty five. Then he will answer them, I say to

you, as you did it not to one of the least of these.

You did it not to me. And they will go away into eternal punishment,

but the righteous into eternal life. Now, friend, Jesus is talking

about real religion here, isn't he. He's not talking about fake religion where

you get smart and you know all the twenty eight fundamental beliefs. Listen,

God will have people in the King of God who knew nothing of the twenty

eight fundamental beliefs. But the Holy Spirit, the spirit of kindness, was

moving on them, and He used those dear kind people to help the missionary

who came to share the gospel. People in the great world religions will be

saved who never heard a word of the Bible, but who are kind,

loving people, because the Holy Spirit has reached them. And so Jesus would

say in John tied sixteen, I have other sheep and other folds outside of

Judaism. Christian Church hadn't been farmed. I must go and gather them.

There be one shepherd, one fold John one nine. The true light that

enlightens every man was coming to the world where ever the spirit of kindness is

found, That is the spirit of Christ. Whoever's led by the spirit of

God. Paulses in Romans, these are the children of God. I would

rather have kindness in my life. And I say that because I have to

struggle like anybody else here than to be known for how much I know and

how correct my theology is. I'd rather have the spirit of kindness Christ in

me the hope of glory. I don't have really anything more to say this

morning than what Jesus just said. He's real clear here. Goats are mean

and sheep are not. By this well, all men know that you are

My disciples. How if you have love one for another, so why not

let Jesus make you a kind, loving, merciful, compassionate, full of

His Holy Spirit oil believer as you use your God given talents to help others

in this world, especially the or the suffering, the miserable, and yes,

they come to church too. Why is this important in the parable?

Because Jesus says, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least

of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. And inasmuch as

you have ignored one of the least of these, my brethren, you have

ignored me. People are people. I mean, it hurts to have someone

walk away from you and ignore you, doesn't it. Have you ever had

that happen, treat you like dirt? Has that ever happened to anybody here?

But we've done it to others. We've done it to people walk away

from and try to make a point. A person is precious, the Bible

says, more precious than the gold of over Every person matters to God.

Do you want Jesus in your life? How many of you're in that club?

You want Jesus in your life? Raise it high? Then start living

for all those sheep do not like in life, the people who need your

love, and a few goats too. Try to help the goats. The

people who need your love the most, that special person in God's eyes that

you have come to despise inside because they hurt you. You know it's easy.

When you become a victim, you become a goat. You hear me,

When you become a victim, you become a goat. God hasn't called

us to become victims. He's called us to be sheep. And so that

person's hurt you is a love object for your life, someone for you to

pour the grace of God into someone, to pray for that person. Love

that person, calls of kindness to you, win that person. Pour the

love of Jesus Christ on the pitiful person, the person you feel that has

hurt you the worst in life, and love that person for Jesus' sake,

and don't look back, because that person that Jesus died for just like you,

that person that Jesus died for that you cannot stand for this reason or

that that precious person is really Jesus looking back at you, waiting for your

answer to this question. Are you a sheep or a goat? How will

the whole world knowing that day who you really are? It's pretty simple.

Really, goats are mean and sheep are not. Take the oil, the

Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness, joy brings the fruits of the spirit

love, kindness, along suffering. And choose this day whom you will serve

to be a sheep in Jesus' name for those that need you the most,

definitely not a goat. And invest your lives not in the people that will

give you a narcissistic supply and make you feel good about yourself. Invest yourself

in the lives of people who can maybe never say thank you, but who

need you. And when you stand on God's holy ground and glory, you

discover that those sheep got there because God used you to get them there.

And you will know in that day that these are the least of these,

my brethren. For that end God raised up this church, our world church,

and for that end he raised up this church. We are to be

God's hands in our community and the around the world. It's not about us,

It's about the shepherd. Father, God, Thank you for the good

Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And thank you

for the good shepherd who is the lamb and a lion when he needs to

be. And I pray Father that you would be with us. We're by

nature unconverted people. The head is not the heart, and the heart is

that which turns to God. So break our hearts, help us to have

the first condition in the Serm of the Mount. Blessed are the poor and

spirit. Break our hearts to mend them and make them whole. And Father,

put a place in our heart for every single person that you bring into

our lives, that we can love them, We can minister, we can

pray, we can serve, and it's no longer about us. In Jesus'

name, Amen,