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“Pure and Undefiled Religion”

Ethan Adams
12/22/24 - Sun PM

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Good evening.

I'll be reading from Matthew chapter 25.

Beginning in verse 31.

The ESV is on the screen, but I'll be reading from the New King James version.

In this passage, Jesus is on the mount of Olives.

He's speaking privately to his disciples.

Matthew 25 beginning in verse 53.

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

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in.

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 take you in or naked and clothe you, or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting 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 take me in naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

Then they also 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 them saying, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

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

Well, it's good to see everyone here tonight.

Uh, grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak before all of you, uh, while Alan is away and Grateful to be here with this congregation that you're always an encouragement to me, that it's good to know that there's people of like faith, folks who are striving together in the same direction.

Towards the same goal of serving God and being pleasing to him.

You're all uh regularly in my prayers, both for the thanks for the encouragement you give me and that, uh, God will continue to be strengthened and uh.

Continue on into the goal.

Since the holiday season, as Troy had a couple of weeks ago, there's a lot of classic Christmas films we could be looking at now.

But last year was one that had really caught my attention.

It was A Christmas Carol.

I'd finally gotten around to reading it.

I've seen so many different versions of it, and it's a popular story.

I've adapted almost immediately as soon as uh Charles Dickens had written it.

We've seen in many formats that he delivered it, you know, speaking, radio broadcasts.

It's been animated, made into stage plays, performed by Muppets.

And uh retold in many different ways, uh.

But the story is uh nearly timeless because it talks about a lot of themes uh that are good for us to remember today that Charles Dickens in his day, he was concerned about the treatment of the poor as they converted during the industrial revolution into an urban society in Britain and that at the time there was a lot of struggles during that shift.

There were people who were being left behind, people who weren't being cared for.

And through the lens of Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts visiting him on Christmas Eve, he tells that story about how uh They should open themselves up to charity, to caring for their fellow man, to watching out for them.

It's a story that We do good to remember today that uh Seeing as example that unfortunately we haven't yet done away with poverty, we haven't done away with want even in the modern age, and there's still folks that we need to be on the lookout for to be generous towards to watch out for and to care for and so that's the purpose for a lesson tonight because that's also at the heart of the gospel, the heart of God's nature that We need to care for who God calls the least of these.

It spoke about in Matthew chapter 25, and I thank David for the good song leading, for his excellent song choices, and Daniel for uh good reading of the The scripture reading for the lesson.

So here we have a couple of of objectives tonight but first want to summarize what God's view is of the least of these.

What he has to say about those uh who are in need, those who are suffering from want.

And to defend this view against some common objections, there's some things that people when they Here, you know, this benediction when they hear a call to help those in need, there's some pushback.

And so to answer some of those objections and to identify the ways that we can follow in God's example, because the point of this is to be able to apply it that I want to be able to take the things that we hear tonight, the things that we study, and to make sure that we're living them out in our day to day lives.

So before we talk about how God views the least of these, we have to talk at a broader picture and God's nature in general.

It's first that God loves us, and the God in fact describes himself as love.

We see in 1 John chapter 4 that he identifies himself as love.

And that again in the Old Testament, when God appears to Moses in the cleft of the rock, when he's describing his nature, showing as close a view as anyone on earth has ever come to seeing God.

He describes himself as the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the 3rd and 4th generation.

So God is a God of love, but that is his nature to love us, because of that love, God cares for us.

That we're told in Psalm 55, cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you.

He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

And Lord, in the sermon on the Mount.

Tells those assembled in Chapter 7, or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.

If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask of him?

So God compares himself to our, as our Father, and he says, our earthly fathers know how to take care of us, our earthly fathers.

Who are sinful and who are fallible, that they know how to do good for us, how to give us what we need, what we want, how to care for us.

Then how much more is God as our heavenly Father, able to do the same thing and so much more.

And finally, that God delivers justice that along with his mercy, he is also a just God.

And that he identifies himself in one of his names see in several of these passages as the Lord of hosts.

God is quick to watch out for injustice and to deliver justice to his people.

Isaiah 30:18 we're told, therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exaltself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

And then in a commandment to us in Micah chapter 153, he says, he has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and loved kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

And then again, as God describing his own nature in Romans chapter 12, uh, through the writings of the apostle Paul, he says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord.

So we're seeing God's nature that He is a God of love, a God of justice, and through both of those attributes he seeks to care for us, to give us what we need to provide for us.

And he expects that of his people that uh he tells us through the apostle Paul, he said, to be imitators of me as I am of Christ, that those who are following God should imitate him, they should seek to follow in his example.

And so we love because God loves us.

In 1 John chapter 4, verse 11, we're told, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

And then the golden rule, yes if we teach our children from a young age, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

And as I preached about earlier this year, the greatest command, one of them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the great in first commandment.

And the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

And then that we're to demonstrate that love through good works that it's not enough to just have a generally a warm feeling, you know, warm and fuzzy to say, oh, you know, I love my fellow man.

It's not enough to just say that, that we love them, that we need to demonstrate it through our actions.

That Paul speaking or speaking to the Galatians in chapter 6, verse 10 says, so then, as we have opportunity, let's do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

And again, the author of Hebrews in chapter 13 says, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

And then again summarize uh from the reading that Daniel did for us, uh, for the lesson.

God tells us that as we did it to the least of our brothers, so we did it to him, that all those things, all the good we do to others is reflected back to God and speaks well of us.

And again, what a striking thing it is that of the few times that God or Jesus in his earthly ministry speaks about the final judgment, that one of the ways he speaks about it is and how we do good to others or how we fail to do good to others.

And the importance of our actions, the importance of demonstrating our love through good works.

And that love is best exemplified by God and how we love the least of these.

Again, and God describing his nature in the Psalms, God speaks regularly of his nature through the psalmist, describing himself as a God of love and God who shows his love by caring for those who can't care for themselves, by caring for those that the world tends to neglect, that the world tends to look down on.

In Psalm 68, God describes Himself as Father of the fatherless and protector of widows as God in His holy habitation.

God sets the solitary in a home.

He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

And again in Psalm 146, God describes Himself as who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoner free.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.

The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the sojourners.

He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked, he brings to ruin.

And then in the prophets when speaking of the coming Messiah, speaking of Jesus and His nature, That we see that he is similarly described and Isaiah chapter 93 verse 4 says, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

And again in Isaiah chapter 61.

This is even a verse that Jesus reads to begin his earthly ministry when he returns to his home town of Nazareth, says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Again, that's not just a physical, that there the Lord is speaking much more of the spiritual.

Again, to look at how God is describing Himself, the terms that he uses to convey to us His nature, to help us understand Him.

By his care for the least of these.

And that continues as we read in the New Testament about Jesus's earthly ministry.

That one of the popular passages, especially for our, you know, younger children as we teach them in Bible class.

Luke chapter 9 says an argument rose among them as to which of them was the greatest and the apostles arguing amongst themselves about who's the greatest.

But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.

But again there's a lot that Jesus is speaking about there and comparing the kingdom of God to a child.

The innocence and the trusting nature of a child, but also that Children aren't exactly the ones in charge.

We don't make children leaders of nations.

We don't make children the head of businesses.

Children don't get to make a lot of decisions for themselves.

You know, a child doesn't have a lot of power.

A child has to look to their parent to take care of them, to provide for their needs, to train them up in the way that they should go.

So as much as he's speaking about, you know, the innocence and the purity, the trusting nature of a child, he's also speaking about the nature of the child is the least of these, and that we need to set in the same mindset to not be looking to make ourselves great, but to be looking to imitate God's nature and the child's nature.

And humbling ourselves.

Then in 1 Corinthians, that uh Paul highlights that as a difficulty that people have Jews and Greeks alike in believing the gospel.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 starting in verse 26, he says, For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to the worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord.

That earlier in the chapter, Paul was highlighting the difficulties of non-believers of the world to understand the gospel, because what person in the world would have made up the gospel?

would have said that a poor man from an unknown region of a small nation.

Of, you know, little training, little pedigree.

Little uh prestige in this world who was nothing to look at, would become the most important person to have ever lived.

And that he would emphasize his importance not by making himself a king, not by making himself, you know, the leader of some big company, the leader of some powerful movement conquering nations.

But by coming as a servant.

By dying a cruel and ignominious death on the cross.

And what movement would you imagine that someone would make of that?

That would it attract?

The powerful, would it attract the rich?

Would it attract the leaders of the world?

No, that it's something that they've struggle to understand, struggle to reconcile themselves to and so rejected.

But as we see so often that it's the poor of this world, those who have so little.

In this world That are interested in this message who understand what Christ has done for them, who understand the great gift that God has given to us, and that is at the heart of the gospel.

That God has called the weak and the small and the neglected of this world, and that through him that we can have hope, we can Trust in the message of the gospel.

What an amazing thing that is for us.

So we see a few people who are called out specifically in the Bible as the least of these that are kind of used.

Uh, as you know, one example for the whole, there's a lot more young people that we could say fall into these categories.

But of many verses that we see when God's talking about the least of these, he's talking about the fatherless or orphans.

He's talking about widows.

He's talking about strangers or sojourners, so people who aren't native to the country they live in, people who have traveled to a new land.

Speaks of the poor and the needy speaks of the afflicted and the oppressed.

That's by various means, whether that's by disease or by the treatment of others.

That they've become afflicted or oppressed.

And we see throughout the Bible how God talks about these people, what God has to say about the least of these.

Some of the earliest verses are God telling his people when he sets them out of Egypt, when he gives them a law, how they are to treat the least of these, what they're to do to one another in this new nation.

The Exodus chapter 22.

He highlights several of these groups.

He says, You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

If you lend money to any of my people with.

You that is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body.

And what else shall he sleep?

And if he cries to me, I will hear it, for I am compassionate.

But here this encapsulates several of the key points to understand about how God views the least of these.

That he speaks of these groups and he tells us to care for them.

And again, because of his own nature, because he is compassionate, because he is just, because he is loving.

And he highlights also that we're to treat one another this way because we can understand, because we've been in a similar position.

That just like the Israelites had been sojourners, they've been strangers in the land of Egypt.

They should care for the sojourners, the people who are going to come into their land and live with them when they inhabited the land of Israel.

That just like they've known how it is to suffer want, that they should care for those who are suffering want.

And again, that God highlights that he will be quick to act that those who don't listen, that he will punish them.

And also the idea of punishing them by the reversal of roles that those who would oppress the widow, those who would oppress the fatherless.

That they are family, that they'll become widows, they'll become fatherless, that they'll be put in the same position of those that they've oppressed.

This idea of, you know, an equal punishment by reversing of the roles, it's highlighted again and again throughout the scriptures.

That we see these laws that God has laid out for His people, that he had set out these specific laws that what he expected of a nation, what he expected of his people, and not just his people, but in their leadership and their government, of how they should treat one another through these laws, says you shall do no injustice in court.

You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.

They should be impartial, not give.

Justice, just because someone has the most money, but they can buy off the courts.

You know, we witnessed that so many times it seems like today that justice goes to the person who has the most money, the money to hire the best lawyers.

But God says that that's not how it should be, that rich or poor should be judged alike, that they should be judged by the same impartial standard.

But again in the law, we see how provisions were made for those who can't provide for themselves.

That Deuteronomy 14 we're told about how the tithes are to be set aside not just for the Levites as we so often talk about, but for those who were fatherless, for the widows and for the sojourner, says at the end of every 73 years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you.

And the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns shall come and eat and be filled that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Again, as we've talked about God being You know, just to punish that God is also just to bless those who follow them and he highlights here that if you do obey His commands, that will be a blessing to you.

That will be a blessing to the nation.

But again, another way that he set aside to provide for those the least of these, he says, when you reap your harvest in your fields and forget a sheath in the field, you shall not go back to get it, and it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

But the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again.

It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterwards.

It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, I command you to do this.

That we see in the wisdom literature, especially in the Proverbs, how God delivers the these commands about what His nature is, what he expects of us, and what godly wisdom calls on us to do when we're interacting with the least of these.

He says in Proverbs 14:21, whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

Again in verse 31, whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

In Proverbs 2280 and 2500 says, Do not rob the poor because he is poor or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

Then a similar passage in verse chapter 21 verses 25, do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is strong.

He will plead their cause against you.

So there the idea as it happens less nowadays, but if these boundary stones are making a landmark that would mark the edge of your property.

And you know, they didn't have, you know, fancy satellites or, you know, GIS capabilities back then to go and mark out, you know, where your property line is.

So they had these stones that, you know, it would be a simple enough thing.

To know that, oh well that, you know, person they're an orphan.

Their dad ain't here to look out for them.

So if I just nudge that stone, you know, maybe a few, uh, you know, cubits that way, who's gonna be the wiser and that makes my, you know, feels a little bigger, but God says that he'll know and that he will plead their cause.

And we see in the prophets how God reacted when the people of Israel failed to do this, when they failed to live up to the commands that he had set for them, failed to care for the least of these.

It's so often when we're looking at the prophets and, you know, Israel before they're taken into captivity, we talk about their idolatry as a problem.

We talk about.

You know, the other ways that they've said, but just as much throughout the prophets, God talks about how their failure to care for the fatherless, for the widow, for the stranger, their oppressing of those who are weak and needy.

They're afflicting of their fellow Israelites, that that was also what would led them into captivity.

That's also how they broke the covenant with the Lord.

And one of the verses that really summarizes all that for us is here in Ezekiel chapter 215, verses 29 through 15.

It's a bit of a lengthy reading, but uh I think this summarizes how what so many of the prophets had to say about the matter.

Said the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, say to her, you are a land that is not cleansed or reed upon in the day of indignation.

The conspiracy of her profits in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey.

They have devoured human lives.

They have taken treasure and precious things.

They have made many widows in her midst.

Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things.

They have made no distinction between the holy and the common.

Neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbath so that I am profaned among them.

Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain, and her profits have smeared whitewash for them.

Seeing false visions and divining lives for them.

Saying the thus says the Lord, when the Lord has not spoken.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.

They have repressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the sojourner without justice, and I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them.

I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath.

I have returned their way upon their head, declares the Lord God.

So we see this again that the Lord is just as upset about them not caring for the widow, not caring for the fatherless, for oppressing and extorting the poor as he is about their idolatry as there is about the not following the Sabbath.

They're not, uh, following the pattern that he had set for them in the old law.

That's just as much a reason why they were taken off into captivity.

But then we see uh the hope that's offered to us in the New Testament, the hope that God has and his care for the least of these expressed in the Another sermon on the mount.

In Luke chapter 225, Jesus said, and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For so their fathers did to the prophets.

And Jesus teaching to the people again, he says, uh, in Luke chapter 26, he also said to the man who had invited him, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And we see throughout the ministry of Jesus in his time on earth, he's constantly caring for the least of these that he spends his time with the people that the Pharisees and the rulers of Israel have ignored, that they put down that they look down on.

That he's willing to do things that no other teacher in his time is willing to do to speak to Samaritans, to speak to tax collectors, to speak to prostitutes.

And again, not condoning their actions, not uh Papering over their sin, but to speak to them and convict them of their sin, to turn them from it and to teach them a better way, to transform them to be like his father.

Then when we see uh the gospel described its beginning in Acts chapter 24 on the day of Pentecost, the days following, it says, and they, that is those early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceedings to all as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

With these new Christians, they were following the pattern that God had set for them, the pattern that God had always expected of his people and caring for one another, for looking out for those that are so often neglected by the world.

Not just in their spiritual needs, as you know, of most importance, but also in their physical needs.

They're providing for one another.

You can imagine how radical this was to the people around them, how unlike the world this was when the Christians started behaving this way.

They again emphasized in Hebrews chapter 13, told, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

And that as I took you for the name of this lesson, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Those two things together that we can't just be one or the other as uh you know Greg was hinting at in his talk this morning that we can't, you know, just paper over righteousness, that we can't forget that, you know, just say, oh well, God, you know, just says, you know, generally to love one another, that God, you know, wants us to, you know, just have this general warm fuzzy feeling for one another.

He wants righteousness, but along with that righteousness, he does want that love for our fellow man.

He does want us to care for one another.

And do that as an example of his love.

And so we get into some common objections and you know, as much as I'm preaching to anyone out there, I'm preaching to myself, these are things that I've struggled with as I think about our giving as our generosity.

You say I'm not in a position to give.

I can't really find, you know, the money in my budget, you know, times are tight, you know, inflation's high, you know, the economy is in a rough shape.

I don't know if I can really find the money to give to somebody else.

As we see in the scriptures, you have some uh some answers to that.

That Paul said, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.

There he's kind of setting the standard for us and is that the way that we view, you know, contentment, is that the way we view enough to say, hey, I've got food, I've got clothes, I've got enough, and that, you know, makes me content, than anything else, you know, I can give away anything else is extra.

Though we see again the commended example of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed and a wealth of generosity on their part.

They gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.

But there there's uh a famine in Jerusalem.

There's Christians who are suffering need, and the Macedonians, they could have easily said, you know, I'm not in a position to give, but these are poor folks.

That again, they're not, you know, giving out of their excess.

They're not giving from, you know, stuff they could set aside that they could afford to give away.

They gave, even despite that poverty and gave even beyond what they could really afford to give, Paul says.

And if that's a commended example, they're held up as An example of Christian generosity.

That's not saying that all of us have to give beyond what we're able, but that is a standard, that is an example.

It has been said that we should be willing to give.

Not just as reable, but to even go beyond, even give to our herd if necessary.

And then to remember the parable, the talents, and this is something.

Again, when I'm, you know, looking at myself and I'm examining myself to remember this, we've been richly blessed.

We live in a very prosperous nation.

We live in a very prosperous part of this nation.

But God has given us a lot in the parables the talents talks about those servants who have been given much, you know, talent is A good chunk of money, but you know, that's an appreciable uh amount of gold that was given to these men, even a single talent.

And what they were expected to do with it, that they were to go out and to use that and to multiply it to, you know, to maximize what they were given.

And to ask ourselves, you know, to examine ourselves and say we've been given a lot, are we making the most of everything we've been given?

Are we fully maximizing our potential?

And our generosity and what we're able to give and caring for others and using the many blessings that God has given to us and being a good steward of them.

You might also say, you know, I don't want to appear institutional, and I think that can be a concern if a lot of us were to start getting together, it can be a confusing thing, especially, you know, in the community around us that we have lots of institutional brethren, we have uh Other denominations in the area who, uh, you know, regularly pool funds together through their congregations to give.

Churches that are running orphanages or other charitable things or food pantries.

If we were to start doing that, we don't want to lead people astray.

We don't want to teach them.

The wrong message and that can be a concern.

We're getting together to do these good things.

I think we do also have to look that we are commanded to give still they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

And so if we're commanded to give, we do need to find a way to give and also to give in a way that communicates the truth.

I think, you know, that as we're giving, that we can also take that opportunity.

Sometimes I think, you know, it's easy for us to just say, I'm gonna, you know, make that donation, write that check, you know.

Give to this can drive and I'm not really doing anything beyond that.

I'm not going to communicate the why behind what I'm doing that and I found myself doing that so many times to say I gave that, but I didn't really tell them.

I didn't take that opportunity to clearly convey the why behind I was giving.

You know, to teach or take that opportunity to teach the gospel.

I think that's a clear way we can delineate ourselves, that we can separate and explain why we're giving and how we're giving that uh You know, we're not giving on behalf of a church, not gathering, you know, from several churches.

And uh you know, giving our means that way that we're not, you know, organizing, you know, food pantries here through the church, you know, sponsoring, uh, you know, some other, uh, benevolent effort that we can take that opportunity to explain to them and to explain to Uh, you know, to show them the proper pattern, that's the thing that would stick out to people around here that so many benevolent institutions around here are sponsored by churches who aren't following in that pattern, so it would stick out to them to say, hey, you know, I see a lot of y'all from KSR, you know, giving to, uh, you know, this food pantry, this food bank.

I see a lot of y'all, you know, uh giving to uh these children in need, you know, why don't y'all just pull this together and that gives us an opening.

To explain to them, you know, the proper means of, you know, the proper use of the church's funds.

And the way that we are supposed to give and through that, you know, give an opening to correct that error.

And then again that we can only do.

You know what we can do that we can only do our good deeds, you know, try to make it clear why we're doing them, to spread the gospel, and that people are going to take that, how they're going to take that, like it says in the parable of the sower.

They may get the wrong impression in spite of our best efforts, but ultimately, uh, you know, that's up to them that we can only water and plant and God is the one who gives the increase.

And even then that uh yeah, even if someone thinks you're giving the wrong way, that Paul talked about that a little bit in Philippians says more in terms of evangelism, but I think this applies in general to our following of the gospel that he says, what then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

That if it leads people to give God the glory.

That, you know, That's a good thing ultimately in the end.

Even if they don't, you know, come to understand, you know, the truth of the gospel, even if we aren't able to correct that error.

And we'd say, aren't we supposed to give in secret?

I know this is one that's always tied me up and knots say when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

You know, how do I keep my giving anonymous and secret?

I don't want to be doing this for me.

I don't want to do this.

You know, to make people think it's, you know, about elevating myself, I want this to be elevating God.

And so, so often we give in secret, and I know that's something that You know it's really commendable about this congregation that as we've seen recently, there was someone who came in and had a need.

And that it was a race to be able to even, you know, give to, to that need that so many people had volunteered, so many people.

Had you know, offered to help fulfill that need, you know, not, uh, you're trying to bring any attention to themselves, you know, not saying that they wanted to be acknowledged, but they wanted to care for this this person and their need, you know, if there was so much, there was more offered than was even needed, you know, to.

To satisfy this need for the person who was asking.

At the same time, we also have to balance that, you know, while we're not giving to be, you know, to highlight ourselves, to elevate ourselves, you know, to Be looked at well by men that were also supposed to be lights in the world.

We're told the city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Again told that keep our conduct honorable among the Gentiles so that when they speak against you as evil doers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Just as much as you know, we should.

Be concerned about, you know, not uh elevating ourselves by doing the deeds.

I want to make sure that we're setting a good example for others that we're showing them the example of Christ.

I think similar to that way if you're not getting things misconstrued when we're giving.

Uh, by those, you know, who might have, uh, it may be the wrong understanding about how we give, but the way that we can alleviate that is by explaining the why behind why we're giving.

To say that we're giving because of how richly God has blessed us, that we're giving.

Because of the love that God has shown to us and how we want to show that to others.

That by highlighting that why we're giving God the glory, you know, even if uh We're worried about, you know, having our name attached to it, even if we're worried about being seen by others and how they might think, but we're explaining the reason behind it and through that, you know.

We're letting our light shine.

You know, sometimes we'd say, I don't see anyone in need.

It was a story that uh hit the news last year and then discussing uh You know some of the aid that uh the state of Michigan gives to children who are food insecure.

One of the senators when they were debating said, you know, that hunger is relative and I don't think I've seen a hungry kid in Michigan.

You know, despite, uh, again, the facts that were presented to him of the many hungry that were in his state, the many children who depended on that program that uh He didn't want funds to go to support.

And I think that sometimes that's just That is a downside, you know, to the privilege, to the many blessings that we've been given, that we don't have want, that we have our needs provided for that, you know, even far beyond our needs, so, so much more.

And that in that position and when so many others around us are in that position.

It's easy to not go looking for those who are in, you know, who aren't in that same position.

For those who have needs, for those who lack, for those, uh, Who may be poor, who may be hungry, may be fatherless or widows.

And so to just highlight some of that need here.

That just looking in the state of Alabama, 1 in 6 Alabamians are experiencing hunger, their food insecure.

They don't know where their next meal is going to come from.

That there's around 7 or 63,000 Alabamians.

who live below the poverty line that they can't.

You know, provide for their families that uh.

They can't meet those needs.

There are around 6000 Alabama children in foster care, about 220 of those children who are waiting for adoption who don't have any parents.

Uh there are around 280,500 widows in Alabama.

So again, just in our state, there's plenty of need.

And we may not see them in our day to day lives and you know that.

is sometimes the ways that our blessings can blind us that uh we're in a position of privilege, you know, to not see those who were, you know, struggling, those who are in need.

But that we need to go out and look for those opportunities.

I think that's something highlighted in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 15.

So see that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good for one another and to everyone.

The idea of seeking to do good.

That's not just, you know, oh, I stumbled upon an opportunity, you know.

Somebody walked right up to me and they said, you know, I'm a poor orphaned widow and uh, you know, please help me.

That we need to be seeking to do good, that the good isn't, you know, those opportunities aren't always going to come to us, that we need to be making the time and putting in the energy to find those opportunities.

And then one that we can hear, you know, especially in discussions of this amongst people of the world, and they say, you know, what if they're not really in need.

You know, what if they don't really deserve my help?

You know, you can see someone, especially in those situations where you see someone out panhandling on the side of the road.

They're asking for money.

And And you hear the assumptions that people make about, you know, any money you give them, they're, you know, just gonna shoot it up into their arm, you know, they're gonna take it to the liquor store.

They don't really need that money, you know, it's not really to provide for their needs and uh.

You know that they've got problems.

Maybe they are dealing with, you know.

Drug problems or alcoholism.

Maybe they are living in a sinful lifestyle.

And we can ask, do they really deserve my help?

Should I really go out of my way to help them?

But then we need to examine ourselves on that.

We'd say, look at the attitude of Jesus, and Matthew chapter 9.

That when Jesus was being criticized by the Pharisees for eating with tax collectors and sinners, when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous but sinners.

That God came To a sinful world, there's not a single person.

Who hasn't sinned and fallen short of the glory of God just because The sins that we struggle with, and maybe, you know, less visible, maybe aren't the kind of sins that uh people in that situation struggle with, doesn't mean that we're any less sinful, that we're any less in need of a savior.

And if we've been given that mercy, that we should be willing to extend that mercy to others.

It's not up here, but again, Jesus in the sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter 7 tells us that by the standard we judge, it will be measured back to us.

That if we're looking for mercy, we need to be merciful.

I know I need mercy.

I know there's a lot of things that I need God to be merciful to me for.

So I want to apply that same standard to others and again to remember the parable of the unforgiving servant that emphasizes that idea.

We've been forgiven a great debt in our sins, a debt that we could never repay on our own.

And that after being forgiven of that debt, are we gonna go and be unforgiving to others?

Are we gonna hold them to account for, you know, much smaller debts than the ones that we had before God?

And that recognizing that debt and the fact that we can't pay it, don't we want to be able to lead other people towards God?

How many doors have been opened by people, you know, reaching out that helping hand to those in need.

By being generous to the least of these, how that's led them to know God, to see them through that example.

And that they become curious and they You want to learn more, they'd say, why would somebody do this?

Why would somebody act this way that's so unlike the world.

And that through this generosity, through this mercy, they see God in us and hopefully it will draw them closer to God.

So again, as we're following in God's examples, we want to be like God, as we want to show this love for the least of these.

What are some ways that we can do it?

So look for opportunities to do good.

One of the most important things my uh economics teacher, you know, taught me way back in college, you know, back in the dinosaur days now, and probably the only thing I can really remember from that class as he said, you know, if you take one thing away from this class.

Remember that you need to recognize when there's a choice.

Recognize when there's a decision point, because he said so many people don't do that.

That applies to so many things in life, not just economics, and we need to recognize when there's a decision point, when there is that opportunity to do good, we need to seek to do good.

That uh the people in need aren't always gonna walk into the church lobby here.

And you know, make that need known to us.

The people around us in our day to day lives aren't always going to make their needs known to us.

And so we need to be seeking, we need to be attentive to others and to their needs and to seek those opportunities to do good.

So I encourage you as an application, when you go home tonight, find a way that you can do good for the least of these.

We've highlighted the needs just in our state.

And that if you have questions, you know, there's organizations I could point you to, there's a place I could point you to where you could give, you know, of your funds, where you could sign up to volunteer, to give some of your time, to give some of your energy to do good for the fatherless, for the widow.

For the poor, for the needy, for the afflicted.

And what an amazing thing that would be.

For KSRF, you know, suddenly one of these organizations like the foster closet, you know, down the street who provides for the needs of foster kids, who may leave a rough situation, not even have, you know, clo or more than you know the clothes on their back when they're entering into a new foster home.

They keep an Amazon list of, uh, you know, things that they need to provide for these kids, you know, clothing, you know, toothbrushes, you know, diapers for babies, you know, strollers, car seats.

They keep that list up, you know, on their, their site.

What if they were to come in tomorrow morning and suddenly see, you know, Man, a lot of the things on that Amazon list just got bought.

A lot of that wish list has just been cleared, maybe the entire wish list cleared.

I'd say it's all from these people that, uh, you know, this Church of Christ at Kelly Spring Road.

You know, what led all these people to do that?

If the food bank here, the food bank of North Alabama, you know, the workers, volunteers get in tomorrow and they suddenly say, man, I'm seeing a lot of donations from this people at this Church of Christ at Kelly Spring Road.

You know what led them to do this?

What has led to this generosity, to the spirit of giving.

And the good that that could do.

The ways that that could glorify Christ and leading people to be curious about, you know, what would lead someone to that level of generosity, what would lead people to be so caring for others.

And to make a habit of generosity, not just make this a one-time thing.

But to find a way to make it a habit, that, you know, is making it a regular occurrence.

It doesn't have to be, you know, some big, uh, you know, display it can be, you know, that you set aside money in your paycheck, that every time you give, you're gonna give to uh Yeah, someone who uh helps the, the orphans, who helps uh the foster children in our community.

That you give to those who are in need, to those who are hungry, do something like uh the food bank or some of the food pantries around here.

And that's just a regular thing that as you do that, it becomes easier and easier as it's a habit because you don't have to think about it, that it's not, you know, seeking that opportunity, that just becomes something that you do regularly, week after week, day after day.

That you have built up this habit of generosity of doing good, of looking for those opportunities.

Again, that it's more than just us as individuals that we need to support leaders when they care for the least of these, but we saw that again throughout those verses in the Old Testament that when God was making laws for a nation, how concerned he was for the orphan, for the widow, and the stranger, for the poor and the afflicted.

So that beyond just, you know, our personal lives, the things that we can do as an individual, that when someone else is, you know, taking those opportunities to care for the orphan, to care for the widow, to care for the stranger, for the immigrant.

For the poor, for the needy, that we should support them in that.

And that may lead to some changes.

I know that.

That's not uh The common bent, you know, in politics around here for people, that's not the common cultural understanding in Alabama.

It's often it's an individual thing, but it can see from the scriptures that it's about more than just individuals.

And then to excel still more to seek opportunities to do good.

Again, as I've highlighted, there's so many generous people here.

There's so many people who find opportunities to give, who do things that uh You know, take care of these needs without anyone ever knowing that they're not uh parading it around.

And this sermon has not been You know, say that we aren't doing these things, that people haven't been doing good, but there's always the opportunity to do more, and again, it's, you know, pointing fingers at myself as much as anyone.

That I'd heard you some lessons recently at a study I went to talking about the spirit of generosity and really questioning myself of, you know, how much am I doing to be generous.

If I look at those, you know, things that Jesus commended in Matthew chapter 25, how many of them have I done?

How many times have I fed the hungry?

Have I clothed the naked?

If I visited those in prison?

Have I helped those in need.

And that it makes me question myself to say, you know, am I doing enough?

am I really Utilizing my talents, not being a good steward of the many gifts that God has blessed me with.

So to say excel still more, that even as we're doing these things, there's always more we can find to do.

There's always more opportunities.

That the fields are white for the harvest.

There's so much good that we can go out and do in our community and in our nation and in the world at large.

So to excel still more and reaching out to do good to the least of these.

No, this lesson hasn't exactly been pointed towards an invitation.

But as we had read earlier, uh, in the sermon on the Mount, that Jesus talked about giving good gifts, and he said, if you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask Him?

He was talking about physical things.

He's also talking about so much more than that.

Of spiritual things we've talked about providing for people who are hungry and thirsty.

But Jesus went beyond those physical needs in his earthly ministry that he came to deliver the bread of life.

But we see in John chapter 6, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

And Jesus, when he was speaking to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, speaking of that water of life.

Says, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life that much more than our physical needs, God met our spiritual needs.

But all of us at some point have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That all of us have separated ourselves by that sin.

It's the thing, you know, problem we couldn't fix ourselves that the sentence of that sin is death.

But God being generous, God knowing how to give good gifts to his children, gave to us the bread and water of life.

That we could be saved from spiritual death, that we could be saved from our life of sin and be reborn, to be transformed, to become like Him, to be renewed in a relationship with him.

And that gift is available to all of us today.

That perhaps you haven't taken advantage of that gift.

Perhaps, you know, as we studied tonight, you're realizing that there's some things in your life that you need to make right, that sin has separated you from God, that we'd be happy to study with you.

Speak more on that, or if you're so convicted that we have water right here, and tonight you can be baptized through omission of that sin.

You can eat of the bread of life.

You can drink of the water of life and begin a new life with God.

if you realize, uh, as a Christian that you've gotten off track, you've left the walk, you've gone back into the world and into uh.

The past life of sin, that there's an opportunity for repentance that God has told us to.

We can pray to be forgiven of our sins.

We can confess our sins, that he will forgive us, that we can be restored and brought back into relationship with Him.

We can meet that need, that we can pray with you, we can hear your confession, that we can help you to get back on the right track.

And so that opportunity is available to all of us that come forward as we stand and sing.