It’s easy for us to give – to some people. But what about those who are need because of their own faulty choices or shady characters? In this sermon we listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 and realize that it’s not just about taking care of the needy – it’s about changing our hearts.

<p>It’s easy for us to give – to some people. But what about those who are need because of their own faulty choices or shady characters? In this sermon we listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 and realize that it’s not just about taking care of the needy – it’s about changing our hearts.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

The Least of These

You know 1 of my favorite Christmas stories.

It's the story of the man who was doing last minute Christmas shopping in the city.

He was a wealthy man and when he came out to see his, to, out of the store to take his car, it was a brand new fancy car, and he saw there a little street urchin, a little homeless boy or poor boy, admiringly looking at his car.

And the man noticed him there and he said something to them.

The boy said with big starry eyes, Oh my, do I like the car.

In fact, my brother gave it to me for Christmas.

And as the little boy, a look of shock and amazement spread over his face, And he said, your brother gave that to you?

And The businessman knew what he was about to say, right?

He was about to say, I wish I had a brother like that.

But the little street boy, he said, boy, I wish I could be a brother like that.

And something in that response touched this man's heart, and he said, well, would you like to go for a ride?

They went down the streets of the city, and they saw the Christmas lights and the window decorations and little boy said, would you mind going by my house?

The man thought, well surely this must be, he wants to show off to all his neighbors and his friends, you know, that he's riding in this big new car.

And when they pulled up to the house, the little boy said, stop just a minute.

And he went inside and after a while he returned a little slower carrying his little brother with polio stricken legs.

And sitting on the front steps of his house, he told his brother, see that car?

1 day when we grow up, I'm going to get you a car too.

And then you can go and see all those Christmas lights, and see all those window decorations I've been telling you about.

You know, as I think of that story, and I'm reminded of it every year this time of year, when I begin thinking about the season, when I begin thinking about Christmas.

Too often, our season of Christmas is largely about us.

It's largely about our convenience and our comfort and our family and our holidays.

And this little boy teaches us an important lesson.

A lesson that it's not, oh, I wish I had a brother like that.

We ought to be saying, oh, I wish I was a brother, a sister like that.

We're going to be talking about Jesus' words.

And as much as you have done it to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.

Some of you have seen this picture this week.

It became a viral internet sensation after, oh, I don't know, earlier in the week, it was uploaded to the New York Police Department website.

There was a tourist from Arizona that noticed this homeless man sitting on the street near Times Square, just about half a block from Times Square.

She saw him sitting there, and she was just about to go over and give him some change to try to help him.

An officer walked up to this man with a pair of boots and began putting the boots on his feet, socks and boots.

The officer, it turns out, was Officer Larry DiPrimo.

And as he was doing his anti-terrorism beat there near Times Square earlier in this week, he saw this man sitting there.

It was so cold that he was cold with his multiple layers, with his issued jacket, with his nice shoes or boots.

It was cold, it was 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

And officer said he was cold, and as he saw this man sitting on the street, he said even from 10 or 15 feet away, he could see the blisters on this man's feet.

He described them as being blisters about the size of his palm.

This man was in pain and if officer was cold dressed as he was and moving around you can imagine, he could imagine, how cold this man was.

And so he saw that since he had no shoes or socks, he went over and asked him, don't you have anything to put on your feet?

And the man said, no, I don't have anything.

He went to a nearby shoe store right around the corner there, and he said, I need some shoes.

Well, he had forgotten 1 important detail.

He had to go back and ask the man the size.

And he went back into this shoe store, and the man on duty, the salesman on duty, realized what was going on, gave him his employee discount, but still the man spent $75 of his own money to buy a pair of all-weather warm boots and a pair of socks.

And then he went back out onto the sidewalk and knelt down and helped that man warm up his feet by putting on those socks and those boots.

He didn't realize the picture was being taken for several days.

But more than 500, 000 people have liked this picture on Facebook, and more than 250, 000 have shared it on their own Facebook site.

It touches our heart, It goes viral, because frankly it's a little uncommon these days, isn't it?

And not that we don't expect some people to have concern for others.

They should be caring for the needy to protect and serve.

Maybe we should expect, you know, the clergy or those who are in some sort of a service industry or ministry occupation.

But We realize that when someone goes beyond their call of duty, when someone goes the extra mile to do something without hope of reward, to do something without the expectation of recognition, to do something without the praise or the applause of men, we realize that's an extraordinary person.

I believe, friends, that's just the type of people Jesus is looking for in these last days.

You see, Jesus describes himself as coming in the Second Coming.

Look with me again at our Scripture, Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew chapter 25, we read the story of the Second Coming and Jesus Himself is describing what's going to happen on that day.

There's many ways to describe what happens at the end of the world, but Jesus here is not trying to necessarily give us a detailed understanding of eschatology, of what's going to be the final events.

We read about that earlier in this same sermon, Matthew chapter 24, don't we?

He gets very specific about some of those things, but right now his main focus, his main focus of what he shares with us in verses 31 and onward, his main focus is to try to get into our psyche, to try to help share with our conscious minds the idea that it's not just what we say, it's not just what we believe, it's also how we treat people, how we love people, that will distinguish, that will cause a distinguishing characteristics between those who are saved in the end and those who are lost.

And this is what he says, when the Son of Man, verse 31, Matthew chapter 25, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels, 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 1 from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats." You understand that sheep and goats in ancient times were cared for by the same shepherd.

But often sheep would have a more positive connotation while goats a more pejorative connotation.

And when he talks about separating the sheep and the goats, notice he puts the sheep on his right hand, which is the hand of favor, the hand of blessing, and his left hand, which is conversely the hand of disfavor, you might say.

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

Are you looking forward to hearing those words, friends?

And the word blessed there, we can say happy, because that's going to be a happy day, right?

Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Now, who is it that he's going to say that to?

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The Least of These

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