weekly sermon11-23-08 Totally In Love This is the last part of our three part series on being ashamed or approved. In the first part we talked about being ashamed or approved. In the second part we talked about being faithful. In this last part we are going to talk about being in love. I am not talking about being in love. I am talking about being totally in love. There are a few folks that make fun of radical Christians. I want to talk about radical love. What is it that I am talking about when I say being radical? I am talking about being a total fanatic about something. If you are radical then you have complete passion about what it is that you are radical about. I have a complete passion about what I am trying to express to all here and that is the love of a Supreme Being that will never let you down. People will tell you that there is no other love than your mother or your dad. No matter what you do right or wrong, mom and dad will still love you and pick you back up when you fall. This is an unconditional love. Being radical about something is the same thing as being unconditional. When you finally commit to an unconditional anything then you submit all your being to that thing. If you have an unconditional love for Christ then you will love Him totally and give it all to Him. Once you do this you will find a complete different relationship than you have ever experienced.
Let us turn to the final part of the chapter of Matthew that we have been studying. Turn with me to Matthew 25:31-46, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: (32)And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: (33)And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. (34)Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (35)For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: (36)Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (37)Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? (38)When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? (39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? (40)And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me. (41)Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (42)For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: (43)I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. (44)Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? (45)Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [it] not to me. (46)And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
This is a very simple passage of scripture to understand. This particular passage leaves no room for a grey area, it is completely black and white. What I mean by this is, it leaves no room for error here. If you just read the exact words spoken you can totally understand what is being said here. In case there are any questions, we are still going to go through it so that there is no doubt in any mind what is being said.
Jesus Christ comes back here with a host of angels following Him. Once He comes back He separates all the folks on this planet into two groups. One group here is referred to as His sheep and the other group is referred to as goats. The sheep He tells to join Him in everlasting life. The goats are called cursed and sent away into everlasting punishment of fire with the devil. Why is this separation? The folks referred to as sheep had a total love. If you look at what is being said here you will see that no matter what the problem, they were there to assist in helping the one with the problem out of the hole and up to the same level as the one helping. The goats just helped themselves and did nothing to aide the other that was in trouble.
The one thing that we need to notice here is that Jesus did not judge because they were sheep or goats. He judged those on their actions, NOT on who or what they were. The one group came to Him when He was hungry, when He was thirsty, when He was alone as a stranger, when He naked, when He was sick, or when He was in prison. Even with all the problems this represented Him as having, they were there to help in any way they could. The other group in turn did nothing to help in any way. They never came to the aide of the one needing the help.
I was asked once about the homeless. They asked me how I knew who to give money to when we saw a homeless person. I told them that it really did not matter. They looked at me very perplexed. They could not understand how I could feel the way I felt. They said, 'but most of them only want the money to go buy alcohol or drugs'. I told them this; once you give the money to someone, it is theirs to do with as they wish. What I mean is, it is no longer your money. If you give it to them and they actually go buy food with it, then you got to see a miracle in motion. If they did go buy alcohol with it, then that was their choice. No I do not know who to give money to, or who not to give to, but I do know that God will sort out that in the end.
Most of us do not understand one thing. We do not understand God's plan. No matter what we think or how we want to judge, God is still the one in control and will take care of all the things we do not understand when the time comes. Yes I have been made fun of for giving to those guys on the street corner, but I would never stop giving. The only thing you can do is give until God makes you feel good again. What I mean is that even though you may think that the person you are giving to is just going out to buy alcohol or drugs, it does not matter, God will take care of them in the end. I have given to many a homeless person that I was very sure would be going to pay for their habits, but I was led to give to them anyway. All we are to do is plant the seed. God will take care of the seed once it is planted.
There is an old story about a man that worked on a draw bridge. His son loved to go to work with him. One night the bridge was in the down position when a ship came toward the bridge. The captain of the ship knew that the bridge would be lifted to allow him to go through. If the bridge did not lift then the folks in the ship would die because of the accident. The bridge operator of course knew his job and would lift the bridge to allow passage of the ship. At the very moment that the bridge was supposed to be lifted the bridge operator noticed that his son had crawled down into the gear section of the bridge. If the operator lifted the bridge he would crush his little boy. The man looked at his little boy as he pushed the switch to allow the bridge to go into the open position to allow the ship to pass. He had made a decision that it was either his little boy that would be crushed or the all the passengers on the ship that would have to die. The man made the decision to save the passengers. It was better for one life to be lost than all those lives to be lost. The little boy could see in his father's eyes what decision had to be made, and the passengers of the ship had no clue that anything was happening out of the ordinary. The boy allowed his death to save the passengers of the ship. The passengers of the ship never knew that anyone had to die so they could live.
This is the same with Jesus Christ. He gave His life so that we could live. None of us were even aware that He was about to die so that we could be saved. His Father gave Him to die for us, He knew what had to be done, and no one knew He was dying for the salvation of the people. Here we sit and never fully understand what had to be done just so we could live. Think about the total love that had to be given just so we may live. Christ gave all the glory that He had above, came to earth as a servant, then died just to save our souls. How do we repay Him? We act as nothing ever happened.
We need to find a total love. A love that can not be measured. If you look at the passage we just read, you can see that the things described can be accounted for. If you feed someone you can mark it down, if you give someone drink, you can mark it down, if you clothe someone, visit a sick one, or even visit someone in prison, you can mark it all down. This is a measured type of love. This is all that Christ is asking of us. Now see what it means to do these same things without ever thinking what it will do to help you or marking it down just so you have proof that you did these things. Once you get to the point that you will help someone and never think about how it will help you, either here or in Heaven, then you will truly understand total love.
Can you go out and do something for someone even if you do not know who they are? Can you give all you have to someone even if you have no clue who they are or what they will do with what you given them? Most people can not give anything period, much less everything they have. That is a very hard thing to do, but if you look at it, Christ gave everything He had for folks that were not even born yet. Christ died for us long before we ever came along. How is that possible? It is possible through total love. Christ has a love for us, that He will do anything and everything to give us the ability to live with Him forever.
Do you have the ability to accept this total love? Do you have the ability to give this type of love? Until we have the ability to love as God loves, then we can not enter into a house built by God out of His total love. Jesus said He would go to prepare a place for those of us that would follow Him unconditionally. This means in our love as well as our faith. Do you have this much love? Do you know of this type of love? If you can not say yes to these questions then you need to find Jesus. The only way to find Jesus is through a simple prayer of salvation.
Say this simple prayer with me, Dear Lord, I want you to be the Lord over my life, forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk. With Love in Christ, Pastor Stone
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