Matthew 25:31-46 Working From the Heart

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan Pastor Don Filsack is preaching through a sermon series called the rest of the week loving

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God from Monday to Saturday Let's listen in I'm Don Filsack I'm the lead pastor here and just want to say thank you for coming out on this

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Sunday on this Sunday morning to worship Our great God glad that you're here You received a worship folder when you walked in you can check that out

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That's got different activities and events that are going on different information that's there So take advantage of that and at the same time that's not the primary way that you get connected to information here

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That's just a kind of a sampling of different things that are going on But if you'd be willing to fill out

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The connection card that you received and the primary thing that we're looking for on that connection card is your email address

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So if you're willing to share your email address with us, we do send out a weekly Email called the ecast and the point behind that is that's got all the links all the connecting points for the church showing kind of What's going on and all of the the budget information is on there?

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What's going on with the the youth ministries and all that? and so That's the primary way that we want you to get connected fill out that connection card turn it in in the black box out on the table out here and That's how you're going to get connected there and then remember that any offerings you would choose to give this morning

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Also go in that same black box that's out there on the table in the entryway So any offerings there's an envelope provided if you're not going to use that envelope this morning

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We just ask that you please recycle that we can reuse those envelopes We don't want them to end up on the floorboards of your car

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Or you know in the garbage on the way out if you if you're not going to use that envelope just there's a place to Recycle that right on that same table out there

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But glad that you're here with us here at recast Church We're committed to trying to keep things simple as a matter of fact our our name is acronym for our core values replicating community authenticity simplicity and truth the s in recast standing for Simplicity and we believe that everybody under that under that under that umbrella of simplicity is that we believe that everybody needs three primary things

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And it's our desire that in our vision statement everybody can communicate this that's been attending here for a while And that is that under simplicity we believe that everybody needs to be growing in three areas

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Growing in the sphere of faith that is taking in God's Word believing

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It's true and then living according to that. That's what faith is So growing in that understanding of God's Word and then going out and living according to that then growing in community is just simply action

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Actually recognizing that we need others in our spiritual walk and others need us it's a very significant component of what we believe is essential for the

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Christian life and We don't grow in isolation It's very easy to think of church is something that we come in on Sunday morning

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Take in a show and leave and we need more than that if you're honest with yourself

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You recognize that you need accountability relationships You need people to invest in people investing in you and then the last thing is growing in service and that's that component that you have been gifted you have been given a specific form of gifting to serve one another and so growing in service growing in that opportunity to Expand out in your your ministry to others and so others need you as well and this morning

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We're going to be considering really that third component growing in service as we're talking about working from the heart we're in the third the third part of a five -part series called the rest of the week and you see that there and the idea behind this series is

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Trying to connect what you do Monday through Saturday with Sunday morning because I think we have not done a great job of That in the church in America We have this notion that we worship

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God on Sunday morning And then we go do whatever we do all week and then we come back on Sunday and we worship

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God again aside from maybe a smattering of maybe you read a Bible verse every morning or you pray before you eat or something and God has very little to do with your

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Monday through Saturday, but then Sunday comes around and then you worship him and we I Don't believe that I don't believe that that's an accurate portrayal of what

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God desires for us All week long and that that is that what we do can be moved to worshiping him whether that's our employment or our lack of employment but then volunteering or the service that we render to our families the work that we do all of those things and so That's kind of a notion behind this series two weeks ago

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We saw in Scripture that God created humanity for work and work is therefore a good thing

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Even though it is broken by to some degree by sin How many of you experience some dose of the results of sin in your work this past week?

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like you you're gonna look back and you can say something didn't quite function right something didn't go a Relationship wasn't quite the way that it was meant to be and I recognize that that's part of sin

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But this is a working relationship that needs to happen. I see people laughing. I see people kind of ribbing each other I see that yes

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I think that's reality all of us have experienced that to some degree in our work in our home and the

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Relationships that we cherish in the places that God has us to serve others. We recognize that there is fallenness there

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But last week we saw through the example of a guy in the Old Testament named Basil L that each one of us has a specific shape or form to the usefulness that God has for us

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We all have a vocation. We all have a calling and that calling kind of amounts to a skill set

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Experiences all kinds of things rolled up in us And also I would suggest you that part of your calling is your if you are employed your current employment

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But that is a portion of that a section of that that you need to take seriously so some of us might be questioning our calling questioning our

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Employment right now and yet what I would encourage you to do is contemplate and consider the way that God has called you to where you

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Are at right now and serve Whoever you are serving whoever you are working for whoever you are being useful for for the glory of God And that's what we're going to get to this morning

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But before we jump into our text, I want to remind everybody what our definition of work is It's important that we kind of come back to this each week as we're talking about this significantly over these five weeks and Work defined by one of the books that I'm reading through right now is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others

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Again, there's no exchange of money that occurs in that definition The my definition of work does not is is not synonymous with the employment

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Concept that the state issues to us. So you might be sitting here and saying I don't work. I don't have employment

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I don't make a paycheck. I'm not employed by someone. Do you work? Are you useful to others and the answer for all of us is yes

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Yes We are useful to others and whether the state calls you unemployed or whether they say you're gainfully employed either way

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We work and there's a form in which you are useful to others now remember

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It's very important for us to keep that concept in our minds that employment is not work is not synonymous with employment

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But this morning we're gonna we're gonna look at the quality of work that God desires of his people

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So we know that God wants us to work. He wants us to be useful to others but what about the quality that God desires of you and your

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Employment and your vocation and your calling to be at home with the kids Whatever it might be if you genuine genuinely believe with me

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If we're genuinely taking by faith what we looked at a couple of weeks ago that God made us to work

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That that's a part and parcel of who we were before Sin entered the picture who we are now that sin is in the picture and who we will be after sin is no longer in The picture we are still going to be workers

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And if you believe that and you believe that he has given you a shape or a form of usefulness to others in your current roles

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Then we must also conclude that God has an interest in the way we perform our work day in and day out

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He has a a desire for the way that you work the way that you perform your vocation the way that you do

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Monday through Saturday God has an interest in the way that we do those things But I mentioned before That I'm not convinced that we've done a great job connecting our work to our service.

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I Believe that that a Christian in America could be a lousy employee Could be a lousy employer and come to church and never really make the connection that the way we work throughout the week matters

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We could have a really poor attitude about our employment and still think that we're doing okay in worshiping

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God And I would say that's false. I Would say that is not true that in our minds.

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It's very essential that we link together Monday through Saturday with Sunday morning with the

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Word of God with our Connection with the Spirit walking with us throughout the day the way that we work does matter

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Some of us if we're honest you think about this maybe you haven't thought about this that deeply and maybe it's a latent issue in Some of us but we were raised with what

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I would call a lifeboat mentality or what some have called recently evacuation theology

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Maybe to you growing up. It wasn't called that But if you were raised in a church similar to mine

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Then you would have caught that notion of lifeboat mentality or evacuation theology

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Latently like it was never taught those words were never used But it's something that probably is in you to some degree if you were raised like me in a church here in West, Michigan The only thing that lifeboat mentality is like this.

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The only thing in life that matters is the Bible and souls And he ever ever heard that the only thing that's really gonna last for eternity is

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God Scripture and the souls of mankind and so if that's true

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Then the world is like a sinking ship and our goal is to get as many people in the lifeboat as possible

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That's the only reason you're here. Some pastors will say it's the only reason you exist is what many will tell you

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And I believe that's false. I believe that is detrimental to your work. That is detrimental to your vocation that will get in the way of Your understanding of what it is that you are called to do now does do souls matter?

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Absolutely Should we be out proclaiming and evangelizing and telling the truth of what

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God has done for us and being ready to give an answer For the hope that's in us. Absolutely, but through avenues that God is providing for us

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So if you have this mindset that the world is like a sinking ship Then what does that imply for our nine -to -five employment?

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What does that imply for our vocations where we aren't necessarily in that context?

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Strictly there for the purpose of winning souls Some have actually gone so far as to declare that what you do nine -to -five if you're employed in secular employment

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You're not working for the church. You're not working for a parachurch. You're not a missionary Then what you're doing nine -to -five is I'm sorry.

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You're just arranging deck chairs on the Titanic and it's already hit the iceberg How do you think that that might be a waste of time?

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Are you getting what I'm saying? If that's your mindset if that's your mentality Then why are you doing what you do nine -to -five if that's what you really believe?

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How many of you think that that might be a downer? If that's what you think if you think that all that you do nine -to -five is arranged deck chairs, but the boat is going down Whoa, that's gonna have a dramatic impact on the way.

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What's your motivation? How why are you working? Why are you doing what you do? And this this stuff is significant.

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So is a waitress at a restaurant wasting her time is Plumbing of any significance in a world that we're that's considered destined for destruction

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Is there any value to designing instruments for surgeons to use? Surgeons in the room might think yeah

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What about performing surgeries on those who are going to eventually die? Huh, I hope you understand that my answer to all these questions that there is dignity beauty and Crazy awesome potential to honor

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God in our work That goes far beyond the paycheck that you receive at the end of the week or at the end of the month

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It's far beyond that In our text this morning We're gonna see that Jesus Christ grants us the ultimate motivation for the way we ought to perform our vocations

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So let's open our Bibles here To Matthew 25 31 through 46.

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That's gonna be our big chunk of text I am gonna read just briefly Colossians 323 those of you that are kind of nimble in your

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Bibles You can feel free to run over to Colossians 323 short verse. You don't have to go there Matthew 25 31

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Through 46 is the bulk of our text. You can just listen in as I read Colossians 323 real quick If you need a

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Bible though, you don't have a Bible on your lap or a device to navigate there Just raise your hand for me and one guy will bring you a

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Bible here And we want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God In your lap and if you if you have a device and you're looking for a good a good app to go to I recommend

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ESV ESV Bible is the title of it and you can go to either one of the app stores or any of the app stores and It's in there.

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It's really easy to navigate and I really appreciate that one But Colossians 323 says this and it sets the stage for our

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Matthew passage Paul writes to us Whatever you do work heartily

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As for the Lord and not for men and Then Jesus says

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Matthew 25 31 through 46 God's very word to us this morning recast what he desires for us to hear and take on Jesus says when the

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

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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

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He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left Then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father

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Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and you gave me food.

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I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you welcomed me in I was naked and you clothed me

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I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me and the righteous will answer him saying

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Lord When did we see you hungry and feed you and thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you in or naked and clothed you?

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And when did when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you and the king will answer them

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Truly I say to you as you did it to One of the least of these my brothers you did it to me

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Then he will say to those on his left Depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels

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For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty But you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and Imprisoned and you did not visit me and then they will answer saying

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Lord 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?

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Then he will answer them saying Truly I say to you as you did not do it to one of the least of these

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You did not do it to me and these will go away into eternal punishment

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But the righteous into eternal life

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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning father.

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I thank you for Your calling on our lives your interest in our days father the the power that you have by your spirit to transform our hearts and to change us and To people of compassion and to people of love and to people who serve others

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And father I pray that you would open our eyes to see that service to others goes so much more beyond just Serving at the gospel mission or what we do here volunteering on a

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Sunday or on a weekend But father we have an opportunity to serve Every single day of our lives in the vocations.

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You have called us to in our families in our work In our volunteering in all aspects

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We have an opportunity to take our lives and turn it over into worship of you by serving others

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So father, I pray that you would move in us as we have an opportunity to sing praises to you I I pray even now that you father would move in our hearts to recognize the salvation that is provided through Jesus Christ and let

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Our hearts exalt and rejoice that at the end of the day. It is not strictly what we have done as this judgment

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Seems to indicate but father in the end it is because of our relationship with our

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we have a king that we hunger and thirst for service to And I pray that you would even now accept our worship and our praise and these songs as worship to you in Jesus name as Pete takes a seat.

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I want to say a couple words about him so you can go ahead and sit down but Reason I'm talking about Pete is this is probably his last

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Sunday with us. They're they're taking off It definitely is last Sunday up front leading in worship And just a couple of things that some of you who have been attending here for a while might not know

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Pete was the very first person when we started recast We were five couples coming from another church to get started here in Matawan He was the first guy here in this community to give his life to Christ through the ministry of recast

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Church So we celebrate that and at the same time recognize that he's on his way to South Korea following his vocation and so if you have been blessed by his ministry, it's been cool to see him kind of come full circle to When we moved in next door to him

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He was not a worshiper of Jesus and he's had the opportunity over the course of time to actually get up front and lead us

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In worship of the one who he did not know when we came into this community So we rejoice in that and I'd encourage you to go up and just wish them

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Well Pete and Carissa and I'm just continue to pray for them as they embark on this next phase of their lives

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Going before their employer is taking them to South Korea at this time So and just remember to be praying for them and just thank them for the ministry that they've had here so Take advantage of that one other quick announcement is

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I just got a text that those of you who know Jonathan and Tara meet Emma They just had their baby. So we can rejoice in that as well and just thank

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God for that as a matter of fact, let's just take a moment to pray before we jump into the The sermon here father we rejoice and we thank you for the way that you've worked in our body here

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We thank you for decisions to follow you. We thank you for the way that you've led and Pete and Carissa's life father

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Thank you for their faithful service and ministry to us here father for the way that you're calling them now I pray that you would go before them give them guidance and direction

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Lead them to a good church where they can use their skills and their abilities to serve Others there in that foreign country help them to adjust

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Well, thank you for Jonathan and Tara and father for the birth of their little one I pray that you would continue to keep them safe and growing and for everything to continue to work out

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Well, I ask this in Jesus name Amen, by the way, those of you who are like hungering for details.

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You can talk to my wife about that I don't I don't even know the name yet. So At what is it?

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Asher Asher little Asher, so All right well get your Bibles open to Matthew 25 31 through 46 if you want to you here if you kind of know your way around your

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Bible you can start at Colossians 3 23 We're gonna be in there for just a minute just kind of setting the stage But the first question

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I want to ask you during Colossians 3 and then Matthew 25 is is the question simply? Why do you work?

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Why do you put yourself out there in a position of usefulness to others and I think if we're all honest

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There's a variety of reasons. So I'm good some bad that we are a mix by the way of we are sinful human beings

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And so there's all kinds of difficulties in sussing out our own Motivations if any of them notice that where it's hard to figure out whether you have pure motives for anything in life

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And so the question why do you work kind of can bring up a whole bunch of different things to our minds?

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but if you tell me you're employed and You're actually working for an employer and you're getting a paycheck and you tell me that your compensation has nothing to do with your work

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I would consider and believe that at first blush you might be lying to me if You're telling me you're employed and you work for somebody else and you're being useful to them

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And that's the sole reason you know that compensation is is irrelevant I'm not sure if that's true for many of us our compensation is not the primary reason we work

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But I think we have to be honest and say it factors in there somewhere, right? And I wanted to spell a myth at the beginning of this

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That I personally think can be a big hang -up for us in a discussion of motivation for our work

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Because Paul and then Jesus are going to lay out Corresponding connecting motivations in our text this morning that can often get muddied when combined with your salary

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So I know I mentioned that not all of us make compensation for our work. Some of us are volunteers some of us are our stay at home

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Moms and and are there and that's our vocation at this time But I think

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I personally have been guilty of thinking in my mind that getting paid to do something Decreases the possibility that my purpose in doing it is pure Do you hear what

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I'm saying? Like I kind of question does that sully my motivation does that get in the way and I think it can but stop for a moment and consider if you can both get paid for something and Simultaneously do it for the

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Lord And I think you will come to the same conclusion as me that it takes more of a concerted effort

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To not just work for the paycheck But it can be done we can actually both simultaneously make an income from our activity and Serve the

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Lord in that usefulness to others as well But I think through this we have to ask ourselves some questions when think about this when things get tough at your work

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Would this thought ever run through your mind At least

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I'm getting paid for it That thought run through your mind at least I'm getting paid for it.

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So I mean that's bedrock, right? You're getting down to like motivation. You're getting down to the reason that you're doing this task

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Well, at least the paychecks coming in right and consider how that sounds different and looks different First of all, how does that portray your primary motivation for doing what you do?

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Because think there's something else you could say in that context that going gets tough Well, how about this statement?

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At least this is where God has placed me for now At least this is God where this is where God has me right now

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Is that a possible motivation? During the difficult times to keep chugging ahead to keep forging ahead or how about at least what

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I'm doing right now is Received as worship to God At least even in this difficult

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Circumstance at work where things have broken down in the the boss is breathing down my neck or whatever The people that are under me are just not getting their tasks done or my peers are

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Pressing in and shooting for my job or whatever. It might be at least

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What I'm doing I'm doing out of a desire to honor God and it is worship to him Well all that kind of you know set up and talk about compensation

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But let's talk about work that may or not may or may not involve compensation because in Colossians 3 23

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Paul tells us Whatever we do How many of you know that that phrase think about it, whatever we do

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Does that sound like it encompasses a whole lot of human activity? Whatever you do

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Whatever you do That's a lot But in context

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Colossians 3 of Colossians 3 Paul is speaking specifically to bond servants and and a bond servant is possibly the closest that we come to the employer employee relationship in the

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New Testament a bond servant has voluntarily entered into a contract

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With a master to serve them and the details the duration and the work are laid out in advance and agreed upon by two parties

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So that's the nature of bond servant now you have the you have different words in Greek And this is a specific type of servant in the

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Roman Empire It's a recognized position where the person's time and term as a servant is done.

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They are no longer a slave They've been set free and instead they go back to their master and they say working you were working for you was pretty good

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How about we make up an arrangement and an arrangement is actually made so did that sound like employment to you?

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Sounds a lot like it's employment. It's I will do this for you if you'll do this for Me, so Paul follows this up by saying whatever that work looks like Whatever you do in the in terms of being a bond servant

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Work heartily as for the Lord The phrase work heartily is a compound word in Greek that means out literally out of soul

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Xuke Xuke soul act out of Xuke out of your soul heartily

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Be engaged in your work Do your work with your heart in it?

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Engaged give something of yourself to your work

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Don't just put your back into it but put some of your your soul into it

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And why should we do that? What does the text say? Why should we do that because your employer is really nice They're a good person so put your soul and your heart into it and in You know in proportion to the kindness and compassion and niceness of your boss.

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Is that what the text says? Do it because there you work for somebody who's nice Or do it because you know put your soul and your heart into it because your employer compensates you really well

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Taking care of you so put your heart into it. How about do it because your job is fun

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And put your heart and soul in that because I mean how many of you have parts of your regular vocation whether you're stay at home whether you're uh volunteering whether you've retired and you're on to a second career or uh, you know onto that uh,

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That retirement that is enabling you to allow a vocation of volunteering or whether you're currently employed

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What What's motivating you? Is it fun?

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How many of you have aspects of it? That are fun raise your hand if there are aspects of your job that you consider fun

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Now keep your hand up if there's aspects that are the opposite of fun I think all of us have the same the same hands raised for both of those right?

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Aspects that aspects that are joyful and delightful and then how many of you know that both are your calling both of your both?

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Are your vocation whether it's the like people like me who the paperwork is the pain, right? I don't like the paperwork and some of you are like paperwork bring it on and i'm like I don't get it

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I don't understand you uh trying but Some people love that, uh, you know, just filling out forms all day.

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I I don't like that But there's aspects to the way that god has created us that makes some parts of our job delightful

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But is that so is that is that standard? Is that is that measure gonna sustain you in the long haul?

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If you do with your heart, what's fun? Is that going to keep you going?

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Month after month week after week hour after hour serving in the service with your heart engaged

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I'd guess that some of us in this room have been employed by the same employer for years What is sustaining you?

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Is your heart still in it and I would say there's probably some of us if we're honest in the room That our heart is slowly

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Become withdrawn from our work From a variety of reasons and we slowly pull back and we're not quite engaged and paul here is saying work heartily

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Get your soul into it. Get your heart engaged Whatever you do whatever your work looks like whatever occupies your time and usefulness to others from monday to saturday work from your soul

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And here's the motivation Here's the sustaining thing that's going to carry us forward as if you were serving who?

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The lord As if you are serving jesus christ as if your work

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Is for the honor and glory of jesus christ himself Not as if you are working

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For humanity not as if you are working for men Now, let me ask those of you who are currently employed

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Who are you employed by? Did you get a name in your mind? A company an organization an individual you get somebody in your mind.

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Who are you employed by? That should be a pretty quick answer for all of us I hope you know who you're employed by right?

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But now let me ask everyone in the room a subtly different question. This is not just strictly for those that are

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Employed in the eyes of the government, but who are you employed? For Who are you employed for And everyone in this room whether employed according to the state or not should be able to say i'm employed for the lord jesus christ

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I'm employed for Him by somebody else for him Some of you are employed for the lord as volunteers

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Some of you are employed for the lord as stay -at -home mothers. Some of you are employed for the lord at an actual business

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But notice how paul wants us to be thoroughly motivated by serving god in our work We are to work as for the lord and not for men

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If our employment is for let's say there's all different kinds of Motivations all different kinds of people we could be serving i'd say probably the number one problem is that we would serve an individual

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And that would be ourselves in our employment, right? And so if our employment is for ourselves if our employment is for our business if our employment is for our boss

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We will have a very shaky and inconsistent foundation for our work And our temptation will be to run down for serving ourselves the road of greed down the road of fame or down the road of power or down the road of advancement

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We work for men. We will open ourselves to all kinds of disillusionment and discouragement in our work

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All sorts of weak and unsustainable motivations will be ours if we are serving men

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That's the end of it. Now. Should we by the way, should you be serving? I mean you kind of hear me go. Well, jesus didn't tell me to fill out this report

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So i'm not filling out this report. No, don't get carried away with this, right? I mean you serve

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Christ by by serving your employer. Well You hear me It's important but the but at the end of the day

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Trying to please this boss trying to make this work trying to please yourself is not going to not going to be sustainable

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Paul commands us to do our work from a heart and soul as if we were serving jesus

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And jesus in matthew 25 31 through 46 Tells us that this idea that we can serve him

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Through our daily activities is not just some kind of Trick motivation well, you're serving your boss

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But psych you're really serving jesus like you're trying to trying to trick your mind into thinking like you gotta

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Okay, when you walk into your boss's office You need to kind of picture jesus standing there with sandals on and then you've got it

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Right. It's not some that's some kind of mind trick that you're doing to yourself here. There's more to it than that but it's actually one of the central

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Motivations for our entire lives according to matthew 25 and it will indeed be the basis of judgment in the end

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It's a pretty significant thing that we're looking at here in matthew 25 jesus was extensively teaching about his kingdom throughout this section from 23 to 25 and and judgment

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Kingdom and judgment and he concludes his teaching in the book of matthew by an explanation of the final judgment

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This is the last teaching that we see of jesus recorded for us in the book of matthew Jesus says i'm going to return

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I'm going to come back and i'm going to come back with my angels and i'm going to come back in all of my glory

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And I will sit on a throne Now either this guy was an egomaniac or he was right

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He says i'm coming back i'm going to be the one i'm the king i'm the one who's coming back to judge and i'm going to separate people according to sheep and goats

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Interestingly It's important for us to notice this I think The division happens before he utters a word

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Did you notice that in the text? The first thing he does when he comes back is he says sheep goats and we're already divided.

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We're already there But wait, he hasn't he hasn't said anything. He hasn't indicted us. He hasn't said anything about us, but I think that this is significant

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We arrive on that great day as either a sheep or a goat We will arrive there and it will have been decided by us through our lives in our recognition of the king

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Which side are we on? We don't become a sheep We don't become a goat in the judgment as he tells us the nice things that we've done or the bad things that we've done

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We're already there But like a good shepherd who knows his flock he knows who are his and he knows who are not

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And consistently in scripture, by the way, the way that we live is an indication for what we are

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The way you live is an indication of your being your essence who you really are Jesus said that you can't you can tell an olive tree because it grows olives

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You could tell a tomato plant because it grows tomatoes You can tell a follower of christ because of their

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Love because of their love their compassion for others a dandelion

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Can call itself a tomato plant? But it will not in the end have tomatoes

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And jesus places the sheep on his right hand the right hand of favor the right hand of power the right hand of his grace

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But the goats he places on the left hand of shame in the left hand of judgment And those on his right he calls blessed by his father

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The title for those sheep those righteous ones the ones who are on his right Just pause for a moment and consider the glory of that title blessed by the father

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Made happy a direct translation a literal phraseology made happy by the almighty

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Made happy by the almighty one the powerful one the creator of all things the father of all things

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Made happy by him How many of you like the sound of that? I love the sound of that.

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I love the sound of that being the judgment for me I want that and long for that to be the judgment for you

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That you will stand before god and he will he will say that great king of all jesus christ himself

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Will look at you as you stand at his right hand And he says you

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Are blessed by my father made happy by him

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Oh, I look forward to that day And he grants to them what? an inheritance an inheritance of the kingdom

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Not wages an inheritance Not what they purchase for themselves but an inheritance

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He earned an inheritance He don't earn an inheritance

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An inheritance is a gift You don't you don't earn it You're thinking maybe maybe you could lose it, right?

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You could offend your parents enough that they write you out of their will or something. I don't know That's that's that's a that kind of muddies the waters a little bit in the illustration because this is an inheritance from our good father but not wages

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Not what we have bought for ourselves, but an inheritance granted and this kingdom has been a long time coming says jesus

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It's been prepared for the sheep and he further calls them the righteous ones There is none righteous no not one

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But you can be made righteous through jesus christ These are not those who have their have possession of their own righteousness

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They have a righteousness that has been given to them through jesus christ and the righteous ones There is a kingdom that's been prepared for them from before the foundation of the world

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And why are these welcomed into this glorious kingdom of the king? Because of the evidence of love for god shown in their love for others

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Love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. I think it's interesting because Jesus was asked this question.

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What is the singular greatest commandment and he answered with two And I don't think that he just couldn't do math very well or something.

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I think he is basically saying You got to have one to show the other How do you love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength for centuries and for ages?

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particularly in the middle ages People thought the way best to love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength was to get alone

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Go out in the desert live an ascetic life Purge yourself of all feelings all connections with all else and just commune with god until he eventually takes you into heaven

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That's Not what jesus said He said love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and I think he actually implies by loving your neighbor as Yourself How are they going to know us?

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They're going to know us by a love for each other By the way, we are kind and compassionate and loving towards others.

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That's going to be central to This judgment that he's talking about here they evidenced

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Jesus goes on to declare openly how they evidenced love for god

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He says I was hungry and you fed me he was thirsty and they gave him drink

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Jesus was a stranger and they welcomed him in Jesus was poorly clothed and they gave him something to wear and no i'm not particularly afraid of the word naked

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It's just a different word in here. I mean in greek and it does not imply it means that he It is kind of funny.

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It means he's uh, he's in his underwear But he's poorly clothed and they gave him something to wear

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Jesus says he was sick And they visited him And lastly he was in prison

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And they came to him And the sheep are are all caught up in the moment They're they're i'm sure that they're pretty excited to be receiving this

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From their master and lord just even be in his presence. How many of you are looking forward to that day? It's a it'd be a joyful thing to be standing there hearing him commending us.

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That would be glorious and beautiful But they ask him a little bit confused When were you hungry and we gave you food?

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When were you thirsty? When were you a stranger? When when were you poorly clothed? When were you sick? When were you in prison?

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And jesus says to them Stop being so literal He doesn't quite say that but You know, yeah, it wasn't it wasn't me.

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It wasn't me with my my beard and you know Uh, it wasn't me blonde hair blue eyed jesus or whatever, you know

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Whatever your picture is of him, you know and you're like well I served a guy one time at the gospel mission that looked like jesus.

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Is that you? jesus says to them Whatever you did for those in need

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You did it for me You did it for me Now at this point our minds

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Turn automatically to those in poverty, right? We think of them as the least of these

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And I do believe that jesus had in his mind here the needy The needy Let me suggest to you that neediness goes pretty deep into the human heart

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We're needy We are indeed needy I don't think for a moment here that jesus merely meant for us to serve only

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Those that by our cultural standards are in poverty But the fact of the matter is

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I do think that jesus wanted to identify our tendency To give when we have something to gain from it

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You know what i'm talking about You give so that you get a little bit more clout you give so that you can feel better about yourself

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Or you give for all different kinds of again mixed motivations And that tendency is in our human heart to give where we serve to benefit from it even if it's just tax deduction

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I think consider why do nonprofits do really well in December Well, we did the math and we figured well if I could just give a little bit more

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I could just get Out of that bracket or whatever, right? But let me suggest that the least of these

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Could be a difficult employee The least of these Could be a homeless beggar that you see

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At one of the exits of 94 or 131 The least of these could be an annoying customer

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Who just keeps coming back and badgering you time and time again The least of these could be an antagonistic co -worker

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Who knows your faith and keeps on you and is riding you and won't let it go? The least of these

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Could maybe even be an angry boss Who's hostile and makes a makes a very unhealthy and uh and frustrating work environment for you i'm going to be honest

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That scholars struggle to identify what jesus meant when he said the least of these It's it's a struggle people are all over the map and all across the board about what who what specific group of people

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He was trying to identify and I think that's just like our human heart. We want to refine this

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To a the most narrow portion of our lives so that maybe we feel less guilty about it

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If we could are you getting what i'm saying? If we could if we could dissect this and narrow this down to such a small chunk of people that we encounter

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Then we feel less guilty about being mean to our or talking poorly about our hostile boss for example

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Because guess what? Well, he's not the least of these i'm not getting any credit in heaven for that. So But I firmly believe that jesus intended for us to apply this understanding think about the comprehensive nature of this

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Judgment that he's talking about. Does it sound pretty comprehensive when I read it? Does it sound kind of sobering when

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I read it? Does it sound like he's talking about the scope and reach of our lives when I read it I think it does and I believe that jesus intended us to apply this type of giving this type of service to others throughout our entire lives

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Looking for needs and filling them looking for people who we can love and show compassion to If we believe that the only opportunities we have to by the way to fulfill these commands are through our volunteering at the gospel mission

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Then I'd suggest to you that a lot of us are in deep trouble, right? i'm pretty deep trouble if the only way you can match this and the only way you're going to get some kind of Commendation at the end is through serving down at the gospel mission

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Wow, we better go quit our jobs and i'll get into relief work pretty quick, right?

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But have you ever considered that your employment your work Even your volunteering even your work and your family ties into opportunities to serve jesus

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Whatever you have done for the least of these When you have served a hurting and broken customer because of the love of jesus when you have wiped the snotty nose of a child because it is your god -given role at this time and stage of life when

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You have given a deal to someone in your business because they were in difficult circumstances and you realized how much god has given to you

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Or when you have forgiven an upset boss because you have been forgiven of so much

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You are serving jesus You're serving him

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But what is the difference between the sheep and the goats? How many of you think it'd be good to know the answer to that question? What's the difference?

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The righteous sheep Had rendered loving and kind service to jesus christ himself.

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The text tells us The goats, however, lacked a loving service to jesus. They squandered their time.

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They squandered their energy They squandered their resources on themselves they did not love the lord by loving and serving others, but instead they love themselves

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And you might be a bit confused as you look back at the sheep and say But the sheep were surprised that they had been serving jesus, right?

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So how could that have been their intention? How could that have been their motivation? But i'm convinced that their service to others flowed out of a place of a genuine love planted in their heart by a relationship with their king

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Jesus modeled for his people love compassion and service to those with needs

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But let me say that there is only one doorway into the kingdom of god And the bible is clear that the way a person becomes a sheep is not through trying to do good things

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Now service though is a sign That you are indeed a sheep

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But serving others and being kind doesn't make a person a sheep The only way to become a part of the kingdom

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Is by coming in through humility To the king himself

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And asking him for pardon and for forgiveness Ask jesus to forgive you of your sins acknowledge him as your rightful ruler and ask him to give you a heart of service to others

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I'm convinced that god desires his children to work in our vocations from the heart and soul As if we're serving the lord and not merely for the service of ourselves or others

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I'm convinced that god desires his children to work in our vocations From the from the heart and soul martin luther king jr.

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Said it this way If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper

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Sweep the streets. I love this sweep the streets like michelangelo painted pictures

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Like shakespeare wrote poetry like beethoven composed music

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Sweep the street so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say here lived a great street sweeper

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Who swept his job well? Now far be it from me to correct martin luther king jr

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But there it goes I think he missed just a skosh of the primary motivation that will sustain you as a street sweeper

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Sweep the streets heartily With soul

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With passion for your vocation with passion for the place that god has planted you now as for the lord

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Not for men, whatever you do Work heartily as for the lord and not for men

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Jesus is the king He is the only motivation of our work that really will have the power to keep us consistently serving with our hearts engaged

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And as the band comes to play another song We have an opportunity to take communion this morning And before communion this morning,

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I would like each one of us to take a moment And deeply consider this teaching of jesus about the sheep and the goats

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The sheep enter into the kingdom The goats enter into eternal

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Punishment And jesus identifies that the primary difference is who they served

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One group served jesus and the other group didn't serve jesus And so the big question lingering over the table this morning here in the four tables in this room

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That I believe everyone must answer Who are you serving who are you serving this is not a church question

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I'm not asking you about who you're serving this morning It matters it does matter Who are you going to serve tomorrow morning?

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Who are you going to serve tuesday after your lunch break? Who are you serving?

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As friday draws to a close and you're looking forward to the weekend And you got those last few things that you've got to do at work and you just as soon just blow them off and head for the weekend

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Who are you serving? If you come to the conclusion that you are not serving god

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I'd encourage you To skip communion and come and talk with me after the service Your eternal destiny is in the answer to that question.

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Who do you serve? Think about that in a general sense. Who is your life for? And if you can't say my life is for jesus

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This might be the day for you to bow the knee in humility and say I I'm, not all of it

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I keep trying to serve myself and it's and it's a it's a poor motivation and I keep coming up against Keep keep coming up against the end of my ability to stay motivated

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That's because we're limited. We're finite. There's only one eternal motivation And it's the glory of god

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If you're here and you're serving the lord, jesus christ, you love him you find love in your heart towards those in need

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That doesn't mean that every single time you see somebody holding up a sign Says need food that you roll down the window and give them 20 or something.

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It doesn't mean that I understand There's all different kinds of issues going on with that But if you love him

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You see him as worthy of your service your desire is to honor him Then come to the table

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This morning and take the cracker that reminds us of the body of jesus broken for us Come to one of the tables and take the cup of juice that reminds us that his blood was shed for us

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And remember this There's nobody in this room that's perfect Nobody's nailing this 100 of the time

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If the standard for coming to communion was perfection None of us would I mean,

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I wouldn't even put it out if that was the standard wouldn't want you to Pollute yourself with it or pollute it

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It's not perfection and it's not even perfection that drives towards that ultimate end of judgment

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It's the righteousness of christ given to us freely by his grace and mercy the standard

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As we come to the table is to consider A relationship with the king through his sacrifice for you and me

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Let's pray Father I thank you so much for um just the reality and even for me just the wake -up call about serving and working and The way that our motivation flows out of this desire to serve you first and foremost father

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I pray that you would allow that to be a reality allow us even as we depart from this place to mull over our own

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Motivations and our the what is it that we're really working for? Father I pray that this might

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Even this message might have an impact on on many employers who Would recognize a change in a difference as we seek to serve with more of our heart engaged

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Because we recognize that our motivation is ultimately to serve you first and foremost And father as we come to communion father

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If there's anybody here who does not know you who really hasn't served you because they haven't come to understand what you've done for them

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Yet father, would you as they abstain from taking the the cracker and the juice? Would you give them the boldness to come and talk with me?

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If i'm standing at the door out here father would you give them just the The guts to step up and say listen,

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I don't know where my eternal destiny is But when you talk about this judgment, I don't know which side i'm on.

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I don't know if i'm a sheep I don't know if i'm a goat Father for those of us that already recognize that our righteousness isn't in ourselves

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It's not because we're super cool. We've done it, right? But we recognize how wrong we've done it and we've come and thrown ourselves your

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Cross at your feet for grace and mercy and we recognize that we've been declared righteous in christ

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And we are sheep We look forward to that day When you will tell us good well done good and faithful service

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And when we will stand on that side and be mystified that we find that all along we were serving you in these simple mundane activities of everyday life