[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: It's pretty incredible that the show, the Amazing Race, has now gone on for 39 seasons. It's pretty incredible. And part of the reason, no doubt and nada, the reason it's gone on for so long is people are watching it. And I think part of the reason why people are drawn to the Amazing Race and why they like the whole plot of it is because it's a real depiction of life, right? Like, every single one of us have a picture of what we would like to achieve.
We all have a picture in our minds of what we would like to accomplish, what we would all like to win. But we also understand what happens in life whenever it is that we're going after that thing that we really want, that one thing we want to achieve. Obstacles pop up.
And if you've never watched the show before, and I haven't watched a ton of it, but basically how it goes is this. The show is divided up into teams. You've got like a husband and wife team, two brothers, two cousins, two best friends, and they're trying to win the Amazing Race.
And so as they're trying to get that ultimate prize and that ultimate goal, what basically happens is there's all these different obstacles. And if you've ever watched the show, you can basically tell by episode two who's not going to win the Amazing Race. And the ones that are definitely not gonna win are the ones that are distracted by what I call the shiny thing, which is, hey, they're on their way to do something. Oh, that looks pretty awesome.
And they keep getting distracted.
The other ones that you can tell that are not going to win is like that husband and wife team. And by the way, if you really think about that's a true test of marriage. Honey, let's go on the Amazing Race together.
It's kind of like Lorianne and I, one of our first dates was to go, kayaking on a tandem kayak. And that really tested our relationship as well.
But what happens is with these couples is they'll spend the entire time or these best friends, they'll spend their entire time fighting with one another.
They don't win the Amazing Race either.
And so like for me, as I watch this show, I couldn't not help but think about what we've been talking about over the past few months, which is being a kingdom minded person, that the goal of this series really is this, that God wants his kingdom, his reign, his rule to be supreme in our life.
And what happens at times is that there's different things that are distracting us from making him reign supreme.
Maybe is the shiny thing in the form of a job, an activity, our kids activities or whatever it is. Maybe for some of us it's kind of like that couple or that best friend that tends to fight with the other best friend the whole time.
I guess what I'm saying is that we have this ultimate goal that Christ wants us to be after and here's why, because he loves us.
But what happens is we get distracted, but we don't have time to be distracted and we don't have time to fight with each other as we try to get that end goal.
You know, as I was getting ready for this lesson and reading through this text, I want to go ahead and give you a heads up from the very beginning. It's heavy.
And it's not heavy because of what I'm sharing.
Going to let Jesus today speak for himself.
It's heavy because of what is on the line.
See, Matthew 25 is in the category of what is called eschatological language.
It's a picture of the end times Judgment Day.
Now I don't know if you guys are at all like me that when it comes to like the topic of Judgment Day, like, I know it's reality, but I also try to sometimes kind of like disassociate myself from that idea of the reality of Judgment Day. And the reason is is because if I think about it and if I dwell on it, that means something is going to be required of Andrew.
Something's going to have to maybe change in my life when it comes to my resources or my time.
And that is no doubt what is happening here in this text.
And it's a picture of what we're all going to experience one day because there's a lot of differences in this room. But one thing that every single one of us have in common, you, your kids and your grandkids, Is this. Every single person in this room has this in common. We're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And I'll tell you, this whole text has made me rethink some things because I used to like picture. All right, what is my goal for my family? And me and I had this picture of, like, what we call happily ever after. Looks like, you know, a nice house, a picket fence around it, and a privacy fence in the backyard. I can enjoy my neighbors, but from at a distance, you know, like, that's kind of the picture to me of what happily ever after is like. But this text presents a whole different picture.
But the more I've thought about it, happily ever after actually looks like that one day I'll be standing in heaven and I pray to see my kids walk up. And when they walk up to me, I can just say, guys, wasn't it worth it?
Like, the choices that we made, like, the priorities that we placed, or maybe the hard decisions you made or daddy made and the things that daddy said that maybe didn't make sense to you at that time, Guys, wasn't it worth it?
I mean, isn't that what happily ever after, like, really, really looks like is that.
And I love this illustration. This speaker talked about how life is kind of like a balance beam routine at the Olympics.
And if you've ever watched this before, what usually happens, you know, they're at this big arena, the crowd is cheering, and that guy or girl gets on that balance beam and they get ready.
And imagine for just a second, as all these people pay tickets to watch this, they get on that balance beam, they stand up, step back, and then they hug the thing and they hug that balance beam and they don't let go.
They hold tight.
And after holding tight and holding onto that balance beam, at the end, they're like, ta da.
Like, what's the crowd supposed to do?
What is the judge on the card supposed to write down about that kind of routine?
Yet at times, it's a picture of us.
We might start well get on that balance beam, but then we just hug it.
And what we do is we're going to talk about today is we get very risk adverse.
And so we hug that balance beam. We take no risks.
We don't change priorities in our time, and we don't change things around with our resources. We don't leverage the moments that we have. We just play it safe.
And so then at the end, we stand up and we're like, ta da. And what is God, the righteous judge Supposed to write down on the card when all we've done is hug the balance beam.
See our text today, kind of, I guess a culmination of pointing in one direction that listen, Jesus is saying, you've heard the Sermon on the Mount, you saw me welcome children, you saw me teach and heard me teach these hard truths about forgiveness.
You heard what Brandon shared from God's Word about marriage.
And we've talked about what it looks like to be salt and light.
We've completely changed the way we should see people. Like, we've learned a lot of things, but what does it really mean? If I'm a kingdom minded person, the real question is, are the things that I'm learning like on the hard drive of my mind or are they in the hard drive of my heart?
Because this chapter really asks us two questions. Number one, what are you going to do with all these things we just learned? And number two, are the teachings of Jesus just things that are meant to as the way you maybe view it, to inform you or to transform you?
I'm serious, how we read scripture is so important.
It's not, hey, this is what I know, this is what I do. Because we're going to talk about today, that there's a way to know what you and I really believe.
It's what our mouth says and what our life says. And one of those tells the truth and the other one doesn't.
And so as we approach this text, I want to give you a little bit of context as to why Jesus ends with this. Because from Matthew's standpoint, this is Jesus's last main teaching.
And here's where the context comes from. If you look in Matthew 24, right before Matthew 25, you'll notice that the heading is this. No one knows the day or the hour when Jesus Christ will return.
Like, we don't know when it's going to be.
In fact, Barry Smith came up to me after the lesson. He said, andrew, do you think, like it would change the way we viewed the urgency of what Jesus is about to say next? If like we read on December, I don't even know what today is, 14th or 15th, I don't know, whatever today is at 3 o' clock, Jesus is coming back. Like, if we knew that, like that would change a little bit of my urgency as to what I hear next. He's saying, listen, we don't know when, we don't know when, but we do know what to do in the meantime.
And so that's what leads into this text that we're going to look at today. And that's Matthew 25. See, you have three different parables.
But it's so important to know that these parables are not meant to be understood separately.
These parables are meant to be understood together because they all point in one direction.
In Matthew 25, you first have the parable, the 10 virgins, which ask us all this question right now. How would you say that you are leveraging your time for God's kingdom?
Question number two.
How right now would you say you are leveraging your resources for God's kingdom?
And how you answer both of those questions will determine the third answer to the third question, which is, are you a sheep or are you a goat?
And I told Brandon and Joseph this as they were getting together, the worship outline. I was like, guys, I'll go ahead and tell you, I'm struggling with this.
And I'm not struggling because of what it says is not true. I'm struggling because of what it says is so true.
And I don't know if y' all are like me in this, but there's like, sometimes you go through scripture and you're like, oh, yeah, that's in there.
This is one of those moments.
And so let's get to the first parable that points in that direction. To answer the question, are you a sheep or a goat? It starts with this question right now. How would you say you are leveraging your time for the kingdom of God?
This is what it says in verse one. Then the kingdom will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. I gotta give you a little context.
In their culture, this meant a lot of sense.
So I'll give you a little bit of context.
During this day, weddings would oftentimes last, like, two weeks long.
Dads of girls, could you imagine paying for that wedding?
I mean, that'd be crazy. I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday. Wonderful. But. But I think by day, like 11, they'd be like, okay, let's, you know, I have no more money, right? So weddings lasted a long time. But kind of similar to today, though, one thing that they would do is, like, they would know a year out, usually as to when this is happening, because it was such a big deal, such a big party, it took a lot of planning. So people knew in advance. And here's the other thing that would happen.
If you'll read in this next few verses, it gives us another clue as to what would happen in their culture.
But there was some that chose the right decision Some that didn't. It says, five of the virgins were foolish. Five were wise.
For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flask of oil with their lamps. Here's what they're referring to.
As they prepared for that big wedding day, in that big wedding feast, like the bridesmaids, the 10 virgins, what they would do is that they would bring a lamp to that wedding.
Because one of the traditions was, was that the groom would go after his bride and go find his bride. And so what they would do is they would bring these lamps that were filled with oil and a light to go with him to go find her.
So again, they knew this from a long time ago. They knew this plenty and in advance.
But look what it says.
Took the bridegroom a little while to get there.
They all got a little drowsy and they started to go to sleep. But at midnight there was a cry, here is the bridegroom. Let's get out to meet him. Then all the virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise, hey, could you give us some of your oil?
Our lamps are going out.
But the wise said, well, there's not going to be enough for us and for you, so go to the dealer and go buy you some.
And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came to those who were ready, and he was, welcomed them into the marriage feast.
And it says this, then the door was shut.
Then those foolish virgins finally showed up.
They started knocking on that door, Lord, open the door for us. Let us in.
But he answered, truly, I say to you, I do not know you watch.
And when it says watch, what that means in the Greek, it actually means an active waiting.
It's not just sitting there.
It's what you see similar in the book of Habakkuk, watch for, you know, neither the day nor the hour.
These ladies had been given fairer warning.
Sound familiar?
These people knew ahead of time what was coming.
Sound familiar?
They had the ability to do something about it. Sound familiar?
But they waited until the last minute.
You get to Matthew 25 and there's three different men.
One guy was given five talents, the next guy was given two, and the next guy was given one.
And when we read that, sometimes it's kind of like, well, that was not very nice of Jesus, you know, to give this guy 5 and give this guy 2 and 1. Jesus is not doing this because he's trying to rank them. He's actually giving us an illustration of how every single person has different resources, abilities, talent, different things.
And the question is not me versus them. Like, they have this. But I only get this because at the end of the day, on judgment Day, we're not going to be compared to other people. What we, it's. It's. What's going to happen is we're not comparing ourselves to ourselves.
He's comparing ourselves to the standard, hey, what did you do by. With what I gave you?
I gave you these resources. What are you doing right now with those things that I've given to you? And so what happened is, if you go, I think it's down to verse 20.
The guy with five talents, you know what he did?
He put them to use.
He put them to use for the Lord's kingdom. And what happened was he did so good with those.
His master said, hey, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little, and I'm going to set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master, into the guy that had two talents. He said, master, you delivered to me. You gave me those two talents, I made two more talents.
Master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
But then you get to verse 24. The guy that received one, I don't know if he thought, you know what? I only got one.
I don't have as much as like them.
So because I don't have as much as them, I guess what I'm going to do is just keep on, you know, keeping it to myself.
And so it says this, master, I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed.
So I was afraid.
Do you think fear sometimes stands in the way of your generosity?
I think sometimes we have to ask ourselves a hard question, which is, how much am I willing to be maybe inconvenienced? How much am I willing? An offering to the Lord. See, look what happens if you keep reading.
It says, he was afraid and so he hid it.
Here you have what is yours. I don't know if the guy was like, here you go.
Almost like you like this.
Well, look what it says. The master said, you wicked and you slothful servant.
You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have scattered no seed.
You ought to have invested the money with the bankers and at my coming, I should have received what was my own.
You see what both of these are having in common? Like sometimes I'll say, well, that doesn't fit my schedule.
It's not My schedule, it's God's.
That's a kingdom minded mentality. What am I gonna do with my money? It's not my money, it's his.
That's a kingdom mind.
So to everyone who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast this worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I read in a book last week, it was really kind of talking about the family, but it mentioned safety.
One of the goals of like Americans is safety.
Now I'm not saying we go out and just make a bunch of unneeded or unwise risks, but what they mentioned in the book was a very interesting thing is that the people that are oftentimes the safest are oftentimes the most opportune to have risks.
But the people that take more risks actually experience less risks.
It's interesting, but think about it like with anything in life, like basketball for example. If you have a lead in basketball, it's easy for me to be alright guys, here's what we're going to do.
We got a five point lead and there's three minutes left. We're going to run the weave for 20 minutes passing the ball back and forth. If we have the mindset to not lose, then guess what we're going to do?
We're going to lose. It's like with football, have you all noticed how, and I love that they do this at the end of the game, like when it's tight and the other team has the lead and it's fourth and three, they have a choice to punt the ball or to go for it. Have you noticed how they have the little analytics thing that pops up?
Analytics says to what to go for it.
There's less safety in being safe.
There's more opportunity there with risk.
There is risk in being a risk adverse person.
And so then he gets to this next one. He just asked the question, all right, how are you leveraging your time?
So how are we leveraging our time? How are we leveraging the resources that are God's?
And how we answer those two questions determines this answer to the third question. Are you a sheep or are you a goat?
And I'll go ahead and tell you, I used to kind of almost make light of this and there's a little kid song and I thought about giving this to Joseph or Brandon, but I don't think it's in the paperless hymnal. I don't want to be a goat. Note.
You know, we kind of say that like tongue in cheek.
But, y', all, this is heavy because up until now, we've seen Jesus. Welcome, kids. And it's the same Jesus.
And we've seen Jesus, like, feed a crowd of people, and it's the same Jesus.
And now we're about to see a little bit of a different picture of Jesus. It's the same Jesus, but it's a picture of Jesus on his throne, and he's separating people on the right and the left.
It says in verse 31, the son of man is going to be coming in glory.
He's gonna have angels with him.
He's gonna be sitting on his glorious throne, and before him are gonna be all the nations. And he's gonna separate people like a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. He's gonna place the sheep on the right, and he's gonna place the goats on the left.
Then the king is gonna say to those on his right, this is the sheep. This is what he says to them.
Come, you are blessed. Inherit the kingdom that has been prepared from the foundation of the world.
See, because when I was hungry, you gave me food.
When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. And when I was a stranger, you welcomed me, I was naked, you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. The righteous will answer him, saying, lord, like, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and when did we see you naked and.
And when do we see you sick and in prison and visit you? And the king will say, truly, I tell you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Then he's going to say to those on the left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared by the devil and his angels.
Well, who's going to be on that side?
Well, when I was hungry, you gave me no food and I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.
Then they will answer him, saying, lord, like, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
Answer him, saying, he will answer them, saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me. And these will go away into the eternal punishment, but the righteous and eternal life.
You know, it's kind of interesting, you know, when we define righteousness and we define what would be, in our terms, in our viewpoint, the difference between a sheep and a goat, we might think, well, because of what I know, or I'm doing better than the people down the street, or we know more than the people down the street.
That is not the line of delineation.
He's not comparing ourselves by ourselves and he's not comparing ourselves to other people.
The line of delineation was this the way you cared for those that were in need. And notice what he says here. Like, there is no middle ground.
Like, you are either a committed Christian or you're not. You're either committed to the mission or you're not.
And I'll tell you, I think Satan wants to create a middle ground because the middle ground is the easiest place to be.
That's what he wants.
Because here's what I can do. If I can get them to think, well, I'm not as bad as those guys, then man, that's a good place to get them, and let's just kind of ride that out, you know, until death.
But the other part that kind of stuck out to me is that both the sheep and the goats were surprised. Like, I forgot this in the text. Like, I used to think, yeah, the goats were like, what?
Like, when was that you?
And it made me think, like, with your kids, when you take the time to pull over to help that person on the side of the road, or you see that person in need, you see that person hungry.
Like, they wonder, like, why did daddy or mommy change their priorities? And why did that person move things around to do something like that?
It was Jesus back there. They don't look like Jesus. Oh, that was Jesus.
But notice also in the text that the sheep are like, wait, what? When I did that, I was doing that for Jesus.
I think sheep and goats both forget sometimes that when we do things for the least of these, those that are hungry and need something to eat, those are needing clothing, that we're doing it for the Lord.
So how do you know if you are a sheep or a goat?
Well, here's what Jesus said. These are his red letters, that you gave food to the hungry, you gave drink to the thirsty.
You welcomed the stranger, you clothed the naked, you took care of the sick and took care of those that were in prison.
You know, this text answers some pretty important questions.
One of those is this, well, who's going to Heaven.
Now don't mistake what Jesus is saying here because we can't that by doing all of those things you're earning your way into heaven.
That's not what he's saying here. He's saying because you have been saved, that you re see everything as a kingdom minded person.
Like, you don't think from the standpoint of fairness. You know why?
Cause you got grace. Grace isn't fair. Praise God.
Like you think. You know what? I know I may not get anything back, but I'm gonna give it anyway because that's the way a kingdom minded person thinks.
And so I say all that to say that the mindset behind this, that is not, I'm gonna do this in order to be saved. He's saying because I have been saved, I want to do this.
I want that guy down the street to have what Jesus Christ gave me.
I receive grace. I want them to receive grace.
I have so many blessings, I want them to have blessings too.
And I mentioned this earlier, that there's two ways to tell what we really believe. Like it's one thing to read this, it's a whole nother thing to teach it, to talk about it, but there's two ways to know what you really believe in life. And again, it's what your mouth says and what your life says. And one of those is going to tell the truth and the other is not.
But the second thing that this text I think helps us to understand is what I mentioned earlier is this middle ground that I think we've tried to create that is there such thing as what we sometimes call a lukewarm Christian?
I mean they're not like super on fire, but they're not as bad as the people down the street.
Like they're not like doing all the terrible sins, but they're not doing what they're doing.
Like, is it possible to be a lukewarm Christian?
There's a chapter in a book that I really love and it's called the Profile of the Lukewarm Christian.
And I'll never forget, it was on a Wednesday night when I was at University church. I found out like 30 seconds before Bible class that my Bible class teacher was not going to be there. I was like, okay, what are we going to do? And so I went and got this chapter and we read through each of the things the author mentioned. And I said, hey, what are your thoughts? You could have heard a pin drop because I felt the same thing.
And so listen to some of the things that are mentioned. He uses scripture to Point these things out.
See, lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living. Like, if they have a little bit extra and it's easy and safe to give, they'll do that. And after all, God loves a cheerful giver, right?
It says in First Chronicles, I will not take for the Lord what is yours or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.
Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right. When they're in conflict, they desire to fit in, both at church and outside the church. They care more about what people think of their actions than what God thinks of their hearts and their lives.
Woe to you when men speak so well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Lukewarm people? Well, they say they love Jesus and he is indeed a part of their lives, but only a part. See, what they do is they give him a section of their time, of their money and their thoughts, but he isn't allowed to control their lives. Lukewarm people think about Earth much more often than eternity in heaven.
Daily life is mostly focused on today's to do list, this week's schedule, and next month's vacation.
Lukewarm people do what is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty.
I love what the description says and what he wrote. He said they want to do the bare minimum good enough without requiring too much. They ask, well, how far can I go before it's a sin? Let me tell you, if you're already thinking in that way, you've lost that battle.
If you're thinking, how close can I get to the line? Here's what you need to think is what he says here.
The thing that I need to think is, I am a temple of the Holy Spirit, and because of that, how can I keep myself pure?
But a lukewarm person will say, well, how much do I really have to give?
They try to, like, maybe skirt around and figure it out. Instead of saying, how much can I give?
They ask, well, how much should I spend time in prayer and Bible reading? Instead of saying, I wish I didn't have to go to work so I could just sit here and read a little bit longer.
Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe.
They are slaves to the God of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God.
Lukewarm people do not live by faith.
Their lives are structured in such a way that they never have to.
Would you say Right now, your life is structured in a way that they're like, man.
The only way I can explain that is faith.
Like the decision she just made. Wow. Faith and the choice that he made.
Faith and the way he used. Or she used her resources and he used his time, and she used his time.
All I can say is faith. That don't make sense.
You can tell that they're not living on their calendar but God's.
And they're not seeing it as their own, but they're seeing it as his. The only way I could describe that is faith.
Would people describe us like that?
So I want to ask you this question. Is it possible to be a lukewarm Christian?
Well, similar to Matthew 25, how it's a study of the end times.
So is the book of Revelation.
And the book of Revelation presents several churches.
And so this is a letter to us as a church today.
And so this is what it says in Revelation, chapter 3 to the church in Laodicea. And they had, by the way, if you look at the geography of Laodicea, they had a warm spring and a cold spring that actually went near their towns.
And so they either went to this one or to that one, because the one, the source in the middle, had nothing to offer.
He says this. I know your works.
You're neither cold nor you're hot. I wish you were either cold or hot.
But because you're lukewarm, you're not hot or cold. I want to spit you out of my mouth.
Now, from what I understand, that is one of the harshest terms in Greek.
When he says, I want to spew you out of my mouth, it's like from the depths of his stomach.
And I was trying to think of a way to illustrate how he views that middle ground.
When I was growing up, I used to go hunting with a family down in, like, the Fort Rucker area. And there's not a lot to eat down there, by the way.
But what we would do is we would get up early in the morning, we would go hunt.
Then after we would go hunt, we would go to Hardee's, and then we'd go back and hunt. And the reason why that's an important detail is we would get our Hardee's cups, and the dad of the family that I went with, he chewed.
So he got his cup, and he would have it there, and I got my Dr. Pepper cup to go.
And so we were sitting in his truck, and when we got down, you know, sat down in the truck, we were heading there. And I looked down for my cup, and I grabbed it and I drank it.
I think I'll see where this is going.
It wasn't Dr. Pepper.
It was the spit from that man. Okay?
And I made such a noise and spewed it everywhere that I think I cured him of his habit that day.
And I know that's gross, but he's basically trying to say, I'm trying to give you the reality of how I feel when people try to walk that middle ground.
Like, think about this for just a second. Like, in what relationship would you love for somebody to say, hey, I'm just. I love you, but I'm kind of like, love you a little bit, but not as much. Right? I can kind of stand the middle ground. Y' all want a relationship with that person.
That's what he's saying to the priest in Malachi's day, do you know what they tried to do? They tried to give him the leftover sacrifices, their second best. Do you know what it says?
It didn't say. He didn't, like, said, I hate their sacrifice.
So notice where the text ends in Revelation, it says this.
He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
You know what's really interesting is that most scholars believe that the oil that is being referred to is the Holy Spirit or the heart of the person, that what helps them make that kingdom type of decision is the Holy Spirit. And I want you to think about for yourself right now.
Are you having a little bit of a battle like I've had this week? Like, I told one guy this morning, I was like, man, I feel like I need to set an alarm that goes off Monday morning. And I read Matthew 25 every week from the rest of my life.
And as you think about this and you read this, maybe right now you're having a little bit of a battle.
And as you have that battle, you might be thinking, well, I'm going to stay on this road for a little bit. I love what he says as he kind of defines being a lukewarm Christian. As I see it, a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron. There's no such thing.
To put it plainly, churchgoers who are lukewarm are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.
So who might be the least of these we serve today?
Because I want this to also be practical, because I think sometimes it's easy to think, well, I don't know what to do. Like, is there really opportunity, like, needs here? Well, he already told Us who they are, right? The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, those in prison.
But I'll get even more practical with you. Thanks to AI, I found some really cool research.
There have been several studies done about the greatest needs right now in the Bible Belt. Here's what they are.
Here's our list.
Safety, which refers to, like, people that don't know where they're going to sleep at night.
I think about a group of families here. Some of y' all may or may not know this. We have a group of families here that are seeing a huge need that is happening in the state of Alabama right now that a lot of kids, when they are put into foster care, there's not enough homes.
And what happens with these kids, a lot of them are sleeping on the floors of those agencies.
In fact, I remember when I was on the board of Agape Montgomery, we had several times where there was nights where our social workers were staying there, and kids were just sleeping bags everywhere, all over the floor, not knowing where they're going to be the next night.
And so we have a group of families here that said we want to be a part of that solution. So what they're going to do is they've started something called the Foster House Project.
And their goal is to build a house here where members here at Madison are helping at night with those kids to give them a place to stay.
Food insecurity.
And I know we live in a very blessed area, but did you know a lot of our elementary schools have something called the Backpack Food Program? And what that basically is, is when the kids go out to recess, you just call a school and find out if they have it when they go to recess.
They put in their bag, a paper bag so other kids don't see it. That has basically anything you could need to make a meal for that night.
Generational success. I went to a workshop in 2022 that studied analytics and what it can tell us for the church. And one of the things that it talked about is that in 2022, when people Googled the word church, these were the most googled terms with the word church. Church, marriage, church, divorce, church counseling.
That tells us a lot, right, that people see the church in a way that can help the family.
So cyclical marriage problems, family problems, foster care, adoption, addiction recovery.
You know, one of the greatest blessings that has ever happened to me, and I know I haven't been here long, but to me in my short time has been Project Rescue.
You know, I know with that ministry, I oftentimes feel, you know, the point maybe originally was we're going to try to help these guys. I feel at times they've helped us more than we've helped them.
But this ministry that we get to partner with Beltline in to see these men that are.
We had a guy recently, came right off the streets, by the way.
Now a part of project Rescue.
The opportunity to partner with them, to help these men that are struggling with addiction is a huge opportunity. Well, I don't know what to do with that. Well, guys, one of the things you could do is get to know them. Maybe after you've gone to the class. David's probably like, Andrew, I'm already running out of room in there. So sorry. But to partner with them by taking them to breakfast, building a relationship with these men, getting to know them again. I'm not trying to tell us what to do. The ideas are in your heart.
But don't let Satan give you a few lies. And here's one of those lies. Well, you just need to wait for the church to organize something for you.
Some of the greatest ministries that happen at this church are things that no one formally organized.
And I'm grateful for that. You know why? Because you go to the book of Acts and it says that they were taking care of each other's needs. There was not a need among them. And they didn't have msp, they didn't have ministry Scheduler Pro. It wasn't like, hey, I would have given like Susie something to eat but like I didn't get an email notification. Like that was not what happened. They saw a need and they met a need.
And so don't let Satan say, well, someone's got to organize it for you in order for it to happen.
Number two, well, when things settle down, then we'll do that.
You know who said that?
The five foolish virgins.
Like we look for points in life where they things are going to settle down. When things calm down, go ahead and all self confession right now it's not happening.
It's not about like waiting for this moment where we all of a sudden have margin. It's about making margin. The Bible says seek first his kingdom and then all these things will be added to you. The goal of life is not balance. It's focus seeking. First his kingdom, then all those other things will take place.
Well, I'm not really feeling called to that. Well, it's between you and him because he already told us what we're called to do.
So I want to come back to the balance beam Maybe you're like me as you read this text and you think, man, I've started well, but I haven't finished well.
You know, this past week, Cruz and Cam, remember, we were on Hughes Road, and there was this man that was in the median. His car was broke down, and it was my boys that said, hey, shouldn't we stop and help him?
To which I replied, well, y' all are with me, so I probably shouldn't.
You know, I was thinking, well, I don't want something to happen to y'. All.
I could have dropped them off with Lorianne and then gone to help the guy.
And it kind of hit me like, what would have my children remembered more?
Daddy played it safe, or Daddy helped that man.
And so the reason I mention all this is I stink at this at times.
That picture of happily ever after is when we look at our kids and we look at our friends, and we're able to tell them, man, wasn't it worth it?
So maybe you're like me.
You've started on that balance beam and you just hugged it.
And one day you're going to stand before God, and because he is so righteous, he's gonna say, well, I told you what to do. Like you knew it.
And you want me to be okay with that kind of routine.
Maybe you're here, and that's kind of where you're at. You started well, but in the middle, you haven't.
Maybe for some of you, you never made that initial decision.
You know, part of what helped those virgins be so wise as they understood what was within them.
If you're here today and the Holy Spirit is encouraging you to make a change, do not grieve him.
Take that step. Maybe you're here today and you've never made that decision to put on Christ in baptism.
Maybe you're like a lot of us. We've started well, just haven't finished well. What I want to encourage you to do is to make a decision, but also to make a choice. After today can be a decision where you come forward, either to the front or the back, and go to the shepherds and say, listen, I need help with this.
I need to ask for forgiveness. I need to give my life to Jesus Christ.
But then there's some of us that maybe what we need to say is, I haven't been the example. I haven't lived like I should. I haven't. I've lived more like a goat than a sheep, or even more dangerously sometimes. I've created this middle road. It.
So whatever it is that you are struggling with. We want you to find encouragement through Jesus Christ, and we want you to find encouragement through all of us, to know that we're all trying to do that same thing.
So if you have a need today, please come while we stand and we sing the song.
