Christmas Trees & Virgins

You know, I agreed to do this topic before I knew what the topic was.

It's a scary thing to do.

Justin called me about a little over a week ago and asked me if I'd cover the message this Sunday, and I went, well, sure.

But I was surprised he didn't get back with me and say, This is what the topic is.

Then, yeah, like the rest of you, I saw an email last week that said we were going to be doing spoiler alerts, Matthew 24 and 25.

Interesting.

He took 24, just about n times.

He gives me chapter 25 about final judgment.

Uh oh, thank you, dear friend.

My dear pastor.

So if anything here upsets you today, uh let me give you his cell phone number so you can call him right away.

No, I uh it's really a privilege and an honor to be here with you and to share something that comes out of let's do the context.

Justin was absolutely right.

As he gave that introduction last week, we need to always understand the context.

The context is that our Lord Savior, Jesus, loves you.

He loves you so much he stretched forth his arm on the cross and died for you and forgave all your sins through that act of shedding his innocent blood.

He rose again and grants us his Holy Spirit that we might live as new creations, not afraid of the world, not uh sucking in every value the world teaches us, but instead living by a new set, a new standard, by his love and grace.

So, what we're gonna be talking about today is final judgment.

He does not want us surprised, he wants us to understand.

Okay?

So, yes, in Matthew 24, what's the context?

He's they're walking by the temple, his disciples are with Jesus, and they say, What about these beautiful buildings?

And yes, he weaves together the end of the temple, the end of Jerusalem, at least their lives and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Yes, the his return and the end of this world.

Yes, it will all end.

It will.

Then Matthew 25 comes along and he continues teaching his disciples.

And he teaches them through the use of three parables.

I call them the big three.

And the reason I use that term is because throughout, if you put all the gospels together, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there are approximately 40 parables.

I say 40 because some of them are so closely related, it seems like it's the same parable.

But if you count it up all the parables, there are 40 of them.

These are the final three.

Final words to his disciples.

Now, what's very interesting is uh he taught frequently with parables.

Uh, parables Jesus didn't invent.

There's also some parables in the prophets in the Old Testament, but Jesus was obviously a master at teaching parables, a story that has another meaning.

But obviously, most of the parables he taught, you really had to wrestle with.

In fact, uh the disciples actually came and asked Jesus, and I'm quoting out of Matthew chapter 13, the disciples came and said to Jesus, Why do you speak in parables?

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

What's he saying there?

He's saying parables are given that we will wrestle and go deeper with our faith, that we'll figure out what he's saying and understand just how important it is to learn from those parables.

And most of the world doesn't want to bother.

And so, what did he do with the disciples?

He explained them.

He tried to make it simple so they would understand.

When we make a decision to follow Jesus and live for him, he begins teaching us through his spirit and through his word and through the fellowship we have with other believers.

And we grow more and more in understanding what the truth is all about.

So, isn't it interesting?

At the end times, he teaches three parables just to the disciples.

He wants us to understand not only that our life is going to end, as our pastor Justin has taught us, we all die, we just need to remember that, and stop pretending we won't.

This life is filled with suffering and struggle.

Yes, it is.

We all struggle with that.

This is a hard life.

But it does end.

All of it will end.

Not just on Tuesday with the elections, but beyond that.

They really will end.

In fact, I appreciate all the prayers and concerns you've been offering for me all week.

I had somebody text me, a good friend here in the church, and said, So Justin didn't.

Will you be revealing end times and tell who you're voting for?

No.

I suspect you can figure it out.

Um but but it is interesting that he wants us to understand.

He wants us to know that and not to live life clueless or to be shifted, as James tells us in the Bible, by every wind of doctrine that comes along.

He doesn't want us to live that way.

Let me give you a simple example from yesterday.

My wife Jill and I decided uh long ago that we were going to treat each of our grandkids when they have a birthday not to a gift, but to an event.

So we took our youngest uh grandchildren, Riker who's eight, Evelyn, who's six, and we took them yesterday to Callaway Gardens.

It's a great treat.

Um we we had an absolute ball with them, a lot of effort.

Yes, we got the tickets ahead of time online, yes, we downloaded the app, we figured out where we want to go, and and yes, we got down there in the middle of the afternoon so we could see the birds of prey show.

We could let them be with the butterflies in that amazing aviary.

But then we drove to the other side, it got to be about four o'clock.

We drove to the other side of Callaway Gardens, and it was the last day of their pumpkin festival.

And we arrived, and the first thing we did is we reparked.

Uh we went right up to the one of the one of the guides there and said, We've never been here before.

We want to do it all with our small grandchildren.

How do we do this and where do we go?

I said, We've never been here before.

And she grinned to think someone was actually asking her, since that was probably her job.

And she said, I want to suggest it's still daylight.

Get on this tram right here, it'll leave as soon as you get in the cars.

Go over to the other side, they'll take you to the other side where the the corn maze is, enjoy that with the kids.

They'll that's great to do in the daytime.

Look at the big, big pumpkins, then come back.

Uh, grab a little time in the tent, have your dinner, and then you're really gonna enjoy it when it gets dark.

And I said, Thank you so much.

That's exactly what we did.

We didn't miss a things.

Uh our Evelyn told us this morning it was the funnest day of her life.

We're gonna quote that to her parents often.

Grandparents won, parents.

My point is, we didn't know.

We needed we needed somebody who is gonna show us the way.

Jesus loves us so much, he tells us ahead of time, this is what is gonna happen.

The world is gonna end.

It is.

Everything that we know of is gonna be gone.

Yes, the United States, yes, our home, yes, everything, because he's preparing us for our new life with him in eternity.

So he tells us the big three.

Now, to give another example, let me shift focus a little bit because I know, at least for many of you in this room, it's already becoming important because we're into November.

Let me talk a little bit about Christmas just for a moment to set the stage again further.

Jill and I were both raised in western Massachusetts.

If you haven't been there, it's a place where there's a lot of trees, like Vermont.

There's a lot of maples, there's a lot of birches, and yeah, there's a whole lot of pines.

So if you wanted a Christmas tree, you went out and cut one.

Or, in my day, back in the 50s and 60s, you came to our church because we have the church farm.

And you'd come into our parking lot and you'd pick out your live tree, and even as a little boy, I was here trying to stay warm by the little fire as the snow is falling and my dad is trying to sell the trees.

Okay, Christmas.

We were, I was raised in a one-level little brick house, but we had a picture window, and we always had the Christmas tree right there.

That was Christmas.

So everything was fine until that my oldest sister, an employee of what was actually called Five and Dime in those days, a department store in our downtown called JJ Newberry's, she got the employee discount and came home with an artificial tree.

It was the ugliest tree.

Even an uncle described it as the ugliest tree he had ever seen.

He described it as sticks wrapped with aluminum foil.

It was only five foot.

So we even had to, my dad and I had to raise it up on a block so it could be seen out the window, but worse than that, it came with a spotlight that you plugged in.

And in front of the spotlight, I see a few heads nodding that you're my age.

Okay.

It had a revolving wheel in front of it, so it could be red, yellow, green, and blue.

It was horrible.

How could we possibly, possibly celebrate Christmas with an artificial Christmas tree?

It was the trauma of that year.

I don't remember anything else.

I figured my dad buried it somewhere in the ground after that.

Uh I found out from my other sister uh just this week that, oh no, she still has it up in the attic.

That was given to her, she'd never used it.

So, Jill and I get married, we have live trees.

Uh we even moved to Georgia.

We treat find the Christmas tree farm right here in Cherokee, up in Ballground.

There's Christmas tree farms.

Fantastic.

But you know, your families grow, you eventually have grandkids, and you need a bigger tree.

Much bigger tree.

She finally convinced me to go to Lowe's or Home Depot to get our tree.

Well, okay.

And here's an example of one of our trees.

It's a nice tree.

I mean, you know, that was a couple years ago, and we it's about, you know, it's a shy 10 feet.

But guys, you know, it's a lot of work, isn't it, to have a live tree.

You've got to trim it, you've got to cut it.

Sometimes you need to get off the chainsaw to cut off the extra two or three inches.

And then, of course, you've got to water it.

And then, of course, once it dies, or whatever, Christmas finally ends, you know.

But that's Christmas, right?

That's because then you get you got the tree, then you've got to get the 30 boxes.

Well, we're down about to 20 boxes now out of the attic, and and the lights go up and Christmas, right?

Yeah, I've been in ministry for 40 years, but I have to remind myself that's not Christmas.

That's not really Christmas.

I have to remind myself of that every year.

As we're told in the Gospel of Luke, the angel said to the shepherds, Fear not.

I have good news of a great joy, which will come to all peoples.

For born this day in the city of David is a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

You know, most of the world doesn't celebrate Christmas as crazy as we Americans do.

And a lot of my friends around the world.

Not Christmas trees, not lights, not presents, except to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

Even in the holiday, we're we're already getting excited about.

You go into any store now, they're excited about it because they want you to buy something, and that's fine, okay.

That's how we Americans celebrate Christmas.

But let's not forget there's another truth.

Now, I'll tell you that story before we even turn to these parables, because these are serious parables that Jesus tells us.

And they aren't based on the values of this world at all.

And let me just caution you.

We can get so preconceived notions about what's important that we think the most important thing is our kids' grades, or our kids' success in sports, or if we're going to get the bonus at the end of the year, or do we need to get a bigger TV or a different car, or all the other things that define American life.

And if we're not careful, we think that has ultimate importance.

And let's be honest enough today to at least admit to ourselves that isn't what's important at all.

Jesus loves us so much, he tells us there's other priorities.

So, yes, we're finally ready to get to Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And there's three parables, and yes, they're all about final judgment.

Jesus briefly meant uh Jesus Justin mentioned last week.

Um, the first one about the virgins, the bridesmaids.

Yeah, uh let me read that one.

They're long parables, but they're important for us.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet their the bridegroom.

Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them.

But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

But at midnight there was a cry, Here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

Then all the virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

The foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

While they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

Afterwards the other virgins came out, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered, Truly, I say to you, I don't know you.

Watch therefore, for you now know neither the day nor the hour.

In that culture, that would have been a so common understanding, they would have understood it immediately, because these virgins or bridesmaids, yes, it's the same reality.

They were given oil lamps, and what's a bridesmaid's responsibility?

Attend to the bride.

You know, I used to think years ago as I tried to figure out how to this must have deeper meaning that the oil must mean the Holy Spirit.

And I I I probably taught some very out there kind of messages years ago.

But I came to realize he's teaching his disciples.

He doesn't want them to be confused.

He wants us to get the secrets of the kingdom.

He wants us to understand.

This is how you need to be prepared, because you won't know the day or the time that I come.

And what was interesting in that day, the man would propose to the woman and say, Would you drink from my cup?

If she drank from his cup, like the disciples did with Jesus and took a sip from it, she was accepting the marriage proposal.

He would then say to her, I go to prepare a place for you.

And he would leave.

And she would pick her bridesmaids, and they would have oil lamps ready, because he was building a home for his future wife, and he would come back, and once he got back into town, the party would start.

And as guys often would do, they would come in the middle of the night.

And they better be ready.

Because it was up to the bridesmaids to make sure the bride was ready.

And their job was to have oil ready for the lamps so the party could begin, the wedding could proceed, the celebration.

What's the responsibility of a bridegroom?

I say uh a bridesmaid, sorry.

A bridesmaid is to attend to the bride.

What does that mean for us?

We attend to the church.

I'm convinced there's no more deeper meaning than that.

Our job is to attend to the church.

And whether that church happens to be for us his hands, or the church in Guatemala, or the church in India, or the church in Africa, or anywhere else in the world, that's our job.

We attend to the body of Christ.

Many, many references in Scripture are the marriage supper.

Even in Revelation, the marriage supper, the bride is the church.

That's our job.

But also with a story, and we're always waiting upon the groom.

We're always waiting upon the King Jesus.

That's why we attend to the church.

Because we're just waiting for him to come back and claim his own.

And we want to be part of it, don't we?

Boy, that was only one yes.

Folks, this is end time stuff.

You want to be ready.

So we attend to the church.

All around the world, we just attend to the church.

And we await, the groom, for him to return.

And if you're ready, we've got yet another parable.

It's the parable of the talents.

For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

To one he gave five talatons, to another two, to another one, and each according to his ability.

Then he went away.

He who had received the five talatons went at once and traded with them, and he made five talatons more.

So also he who had the two made two talatons more.

But he who had received the one talaton went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now after a long time the master of the servants came and settled accounts with them.

And he who had received the five talent talatons came forward and said, Here I have made five talents more.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over little, I'll set you over much.

Enter in the joy of your master.

And he also had two talatons, came and forward and said, Master, you delivered to me two talatons.

Here I have made two talatons more.

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful over a little, I'll set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master.

He who had also received the one talaton came forward and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

So I was afraid.

I went and hid your talaton in the ground.

Here you can have what's yours.

But his master answered, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I haven't scattered no seed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.

So take the Talaton from him and give it to the one who has the ten Talatons.

For to every one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Judgment over the Talatons.

I use the Greek term because it's slightly different from the word talent, at least in our English language.

Let me first explain, because there really are two meanings with this parable.

The word talaton describes a large sum of wealth.

It was either a large amount of silver or a large sum of gold.

This is not a denarius.

That term is used to describe a day's wage.

This is mega money.

This is a lot of wealth.

The master, which it is all his, but he entrusts to his servants.

Now, before I go further with this illustration, let me mention, has anybody here arrived today in a car or a truck or a bike?

You're a five-taleton person.

And if you're going back home, whether you own it or rent it, and you have running water that you can drink, and you have a flushing toilet, and you have the ability to have air conditioning or heat at your disposal, you're a five-taleton kind of person.

The breakthrough for me came when I realized 200 years ago there were very few kings on the planet that had flushing toilets.

My first mission trip to Central Africa.

I got home and started weeping when I counted how many places I could get running water in our home.

Folks, we live in a vastly different standard as Americans.

Yeah, most every American does.

That's why so many places we uh are involved in ministry around the world are so shocked at the resources we end up providing.

Because we have them.

And we should never take that for granted.

And never should we decide that that provides us value.

It doesn't.

Because as the story tells us, one day the master's gonna come back and he'll say, What have you done with the wealth I've entrusted you?

What's he want us to do?

Well, we know throughout many places in scripture, he wants us to to invest the bills in ways that build the kingdom.

It's not about just ourselves, it's about blessing others.

That goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, when God said to Abraham, I will bless you to be a blessing to others.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Why are we able to live in this country?

Because God has put us here.

Why do we earn the resources we are able to earn?

Because we work hard, we save, we invest, we get opportunities.

We do what we can.

Yes, most Americans say we don't have enough.

Yes, sir.

Once we get rid of that absurdity, yes, we do.

And we have enough to give away.

Because God always gives us more than we need.

He does.

Even if you don't feel like it and you don't understand it, he does.

Even if he needs you to work through your debt, he wants you to so you can be free of that, so you can give even more.

That's what this story is about.

And one day the master is going to come back and said, How have you done with your resources?

And we don't say to him, Well, you didn't give me as much as you did across the street.

And I didn't have as big a house as I see being built in Cherokee now.

And he won't have to say, Well, you live in live in a county now that people who work here can't afford to live, but you're living in.

This is where we get the English word talents.

It's they are that which is gifted to us from another.

How do we get our talents?

Our abilities, our gifts.

Well, we get it through the Holy Spirit.

We get it through the family of origin.

We get it through the education we have, the opportunities we've had, our struggles and our work and all the rest.

We have a whole lot of talents.

We all do.

What's the point of this?

We're supposed to use our talents for the blessing of others.

That's how it works.

Paul, writing to Corinthians, wrote in chapter 12, verse 7, he said, the gifts are given for the common good.

The reason he's blessed us with any ability we have is that whatever that ability is, we just bless others.

Let me give you an example.

Last Saturday, um, the board of our Indian mission, his branches, decided to have a do we had planned a donor appreciation day.

One of the guys on our board, uh, Austin, has a good friend who has a very large home and very large yard, and he said, I'll host it at no cost.

And we went, that's one, we'll take that.

Another board member, Anthony, designed, well, actually, I happen to have the shirt on today.

He designed the shirts.

We gave all of the donors a thank you shirt with our logo on it.

Another guy, Sean, he's a business executive here at the church.

Uh, he he is active here with his family, but um he had already coordinated events needing a tent and chairs, and he said, I'll take care of that.

Well, that's pretty cool.

Kelly, who wasn't even going to be able to be there, but she knew she had a friend in the charcuterie business, and she said, I can arrange all the cheese and veggies and fruits.

Well, that's good.

Mike, who is uh uh a really uh really great engineer, he um said, I'll take all the pictures we've gotten from Andrew over the over this last year and I'll I'll put the PowerPoint presentation together.

And I shouted, hallelujah.

You know, wow, that's great.

Uh Austin, who was another business executive, said, I'll I'll do all the techno stuff and get into projection stuff with the projector and the outdoor screen and all the rest.

And I kind of was sitting there going, gee, what's left?

They said, Well, Fred, you can just speak.

I said, Oh, thank you.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

Why do we possibly elevate someone in any place in the human experience?

Well, they're just doing our work.

We need everybody.

And what were we doing that last Saturday?

We were thanking everybody who's given that we can do these orphanages and the pastor training and all the rest.

We just want to say thank you, because without them we'd have nothing.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

That's how God wants us to live.

That we're all in this together.

It's not about getting ahead anymore.

It might have been for some of us in this room or on the broadcast, but it's not about getting ahead, getting advanced, getting another promotion.

It's about living life together, sharing together.

Another example right here at his hands.

Um Scott assists in teaching with me in our class we're doing on moving forward, and we're doing the grief class, just about to end this cycle of it.

I arrived half an hour before the start of the class, and much to my great pleasure, the doors of the student center were already wide open.

The lights were already on.

Ken was already here to greet me.

As I walked in, the water bottles were all set up, the snack tray was already set up, the lights were all on, the music was already playing in our room with the lights on, and our material was already set for us to use.

It takes a whole team if you're doing the kingdom work.

Have you considered today how many people have made it possible for us to sit in this beautiful room that's been cleaned, all the chairs arranged and the way they are, the lights, the sound, the coffee, the greetings, the love.

We're sharing our talents.

Oh, yeah, a couple of us have gotten used to speaking.

We can't do much else.

But we do what we do, because everybody else does what they do so well.

Whether it's our worship team, our projection people, our security, or everything else.

That's how he wants us to live.

And on the final day, he's gonna say, Okay, I gave you these gifts, abilities, talents.

What have you done with them?

I hope none of us here are gonna say, Oh, I didn't, I didn't, I was just, I don't know, I didn't know what to do, so I never shared my life with anybody.

I was too afraid.

Are we gonna recognize that despite the brokenness and the pains that we well struggle with, that that's not an excuse before Jesus?

That He has gifted us with abilities that are unlike anyone else.

No one else is like you.

And you have abilities and gifts to bless others.

Back to India, I had no idea when we retired.

I didn't know a single person in India.

I had no idea we'd be planting churches and building orphanages.

I just happened to meet the guy who did, and I had some experience in kind of pulling that system together.

And all the people I asked to help so far have said yes.

Are you with me?

Do you understand, church?

That that is not just, oh, it's nice to hear, oh yeah, I feel good because I have some gifts.

No, it's to say, one day I'm gonna be for the be go before the king of the universe, and this is what he wants us to know.

He's not interested in what awards we have on the wall.

He doesn't, he's not going to be interested in any of that.

Have we helped people to understand that life is all about living for Jesus, caring for the church, and sharing our gifts with others in the world?

Wow.

That's simple and that hard.

To quiet the world so we can listen to him.

But there's yet one more judgment parable.

It's the one we normally don't like to read in church, because it's the bottom line.

It's the parable of the sheep and the goats.

It's long, but I'm going to read the whole thing.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by 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 welcomed me.

I was naked and 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, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

The king will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these of the least, my brothers, you did it to me.

Then he said to those on his left, 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 and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Then they all will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger, or naked or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?

Then he will answer, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of these least of these, you did it not to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Hmm.

So that final judgment is not about whether we've been baptized or not, or whether we go to church or not, or have said a prayer recently or not, or opened up our Bibles or not.

It's how have we loved others, especially those in need, like Jesus ministers to us.

And what's interesting is in this story, neither the righteous nor the not righteous, neither the sheep nor the goats understood that when we just do those simple little acts of helping others, Jesus sees it as ministering to us.

Or not ministering to him.

I find it interesting that the most significant event after the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of his spirit is Paul in his experience on the road to Damascus.

Most would say that's probably the next most significant events in biblical history.

He was, of course, Saul in that day, a persecutor of the church.

He would, on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians, he was reduced to the ground, blinded, and the Lord spoke to him.

And this is what the Lord said.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Now in the early days, I wondered, well, why didn't he say my disciples?

Why did he say me?

I would have thought if Saul wanted to be argumentative, he might have said, Well, I'm not persecuting you, Jesus.

I'm I'm persecuting your followers.

No, Jesus said, Why are you persecuting me?

Do you understand if you have a problem with your spouse, you've got a problem with Jesus.

If you can't forgive someone for what they've done to you in the past, you've got a problem with Jesus.

And if you're putting yourself down because you don't think you're good enough, you have a problem with Jesus.

Because he's died to set us free, to give us a vastly different perspective than the selfishness that we used to live by.

And one day we're going to stand before the Lord.

And you notice in this story, both the righteous and the unrighteous, both the sheep and the goats, call him Lord.

Oh yes, every knee will bow, every tongue confess.

Given.

Stake in the ground, no question.

We're going to be before the Lord sometime.

Either when he calls us before this world ends, or calls us at the end of our days, or he comes and makes it all one.

We're going to be before him.

And the way he's going to look at us is have you lived as a sheep or goat?

And we'll probably say to him, Lord, when did we ever do that for you?

He'll say, When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.

And there will be those who are judged and cast out.

It's true.

You know, I wish I didn't have to say that today, but Justin has challenged me to speak the truth.

There will be those who are not welcomed, who have every excuse in the book why they don't minister to others.

So Jesus tells us ahead of time, so we're not confused, so we're not paying attention to the shouting of this world and its values.

No, it's not about money.

It's not about success.

It's not about status, and it's not about what football team wins.

It's not.

That may be entertaining, and some of those things might actually help us to shape what God is calling us to.

Just like the Christmas tree is not about the meaning of the Christmas.

And now let me finish the story.

Jill and I have had those big beautiful trees for most of our life.

A year ago, she in the middle of the summer, she said, Han, the uh Hobby Lobby is having a sale on artificial trees.

Um I would like you to drive me over there so we can pick up one there on sale.

And I I felt inside a bit of a panic.

My first thought was, can we do that?

No.

That's right.

And then, of course, my mind immediately went back to the trauma of the aluminum tree of my childhood.

She eventually convinced me, yes, we could.

Got in the cart.

I was glad we went over first thing in the morning.

I was hoping no one would see me.

I couldn't believe how long it took to get the tree out from the back, but got it in the car and sped away, and I don't think anybody recognized us, and I was so happy.

It finally got to be well, probably December 1 when she said, okay, let's put up the tree.

I dragged this huge box in there and go, This is a tree.

Get out the stand, get out the next big part, the base, and I plug it in and it lights.

I grab the center section, get down on it, clicks in place, and it lights.

I grab the top, put it on, it lights.

Hmm, that's done.

There's no watering.

There's no cutting it up and burning it in the yard and then cleaning up the mess.

There's no chainsaw, there's no trimming of the tree.

We can do this.

Honey, why didn't we do this 30 years ago?

So, yeah, we've entered the world of artificial trees.

Because really, the tree doesn't matter.

It's all about Jesus.

So, what do I do?

What do we do with grandkids?

After the food, the appetizers are out, and the whole family gathers in our in our house.

And even our oldest granddaughter, who's in her mid-twenties, comes up from Florida, and Nana says, It's time.

And the grandkids gather at my feet.

It gets real quiet.

And I read them.

I bring you great news.

Great news.

The joy we have a savior.

That's why we're doing all of this.

We do have to, church, keep reminding ourselves to pay attention to what's important.

We love our grandkids.

We keep reminding them that we live them because Jesus does.

Jesus loves us.

He came to this earth to die for us that we might be set free.

He wants us to live with him for eternity.

So he does not want us to be surprised.

There will be an end of days in each of our lives.

There will be.

No one escapes that reality.

What's it like?

Well, have we been attending to the church?

Have we been waiting for Jesus, for his final return, ready to go whenever he calls?

Yes?

Or no?

Have we been really paying attention to the talents he has given us?

Yes, our financial resources, but deeper than that, all the gifts, abilities that we have.

Have we used that to bless others?

Yes?

Or no?

And are we in that final day, in the eyes of Jesus, going to be his sheep?

Ready to enter into glory, even if we don't understand all those details, because we've sought to serve him as we serve others.

Or have we really been goats more preoccupied with ourselves?

I pray so for all of us.

I have prayed that today for all of us.

My dear brothers and sisters, if Justin said, preach whatever you want, I wouldn't have preached this.

But I trust him.

And it's important for us to be reminded.

And yes, this is from the Word of God.

We do not have the ability to say, we don't like these verses, we're going to live this way, but we'll like the other verses.

This comes as the package of the love of God and the truth of God.

And he wants us to be ready.

He doesn't want us surprised.

He wants us to understand his heart for us and what he values in life.

It's not Christmas trees.

It's honoring his coming.

It's not doing whatever we want.

It's trying to listen to him each day and growing up and learning what that means.

It's using our talents to bless others.

It's trying to minister to anyone and everyone.

Even if we don't understand why we are, we just feel we're motivated we're supposed to.

Or maybe deeper than our feelings, we do it because God calls us to.

Whether it's in Guatemala or India or Timpuck 2 or down the street in Woodstock, or the only members of our family who are struggling.

And we just come alongside, not pointing judgment, just saying, I'm here for you.

It matters not just to them.

It matters to Jesus.

In his name, may we hear his word.

Amen.

It's time.

It's time.

Hopefully the next time Justin asked me if it comes up, he'll say, Fred, would you just cover the The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want?

And I said, Okay, I'm there.

Of course, he'll tell me ahead of time what that top topic will be, but here we go.

I could not begin to describe the historical or the current realities of why this is so important.

In many ways, in the words of Genesis, Exodus, the prophets, the Psalms, words of Jesus, writings of Paul.

This means far more than we will ever understand.

It is the symbol, the sacrament, the sign that we say yes to the Lord.

That we want what he wants for us.

And he uses a simple thing like a meal, bread, and drink to help us to understand He's the bread of life.

He is the living waters.

He sheds his blood that we might be forgiven.

It's all about him.

And are we willing to accept and believe that?

So let's ask the Lord's blessing on the bread.

Father, we thank you that you have sent your Son Jesus to be the bread of life for us.

And as we receive this bread, may we too know that we are included in that gift.

That we are part of this holy body that is growing across the planet.

Lord, we say yes.

We belong to you.

Receive the bread.

And now the cup.

Lord, we will never understand the depth of your love for us.

That you knew before the foundation of the world that we would be messed up, broken, and hurting people.

And yet you came anyways and died for us.

And may we receive that forgiveness and grace.

That we might again begin our new life with you through your spirit.

In Jesus' name.

Drink the cup.

Amen.