When Did We See You?

Now I would like us to open our Bibles, Matthew 25, and we will read verse 31.

Matthew 25, verse 31, and we will continue our discussion. Matthew 25, verse 31.

Matthew 25, verse 32.

Matthew 26, verse 32.

Matthew 26, verse 32. Matthew 26, verse 32.

Matthew 26, verse 32.

Matthew 26, verse 32.

Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32.

Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32.

Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. Matthew 24, verse 32. they had exactly the same reaction. One category was amazed, another category was amazed.

The first one didn't know that they did it to Jesus, the other ones didn't know that they didn't do it to Jesus. So it was really interesting when you look at that. They had completely different behavior.

But when they heard the words of God, they had exactly the same reaction to it. They were amazed. They couldn't figure that out. And so the question that I want to ask you today is how can we bring our God into our daily busy life?

I think that this kind of story answers this question. How can we bring God in our daily busy life? See, quite often this story is being read and explained about the judgment.

But if you look at the beginning of chapter 25, Jesus is talking about the kingdom, his kingdom. And all these parables in chapter 25, just look in verse 1.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be compared to, and he gives their parable of ten virgins. Then he talks about slaves and gifts.

They've been entrusted them. And then he talks about sheep and goats. So this chapter is not so much about the judgment. This chapter is actually about us as the church.

And this is what I would like you to do today with me, is to look at this story, not from the point of view of judgment, but from us as the church.

With this question in mind, how can we bring God into our everyday busy life? Look with me at the verse at the beginning of this story.

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another.

And the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right, and the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, Come you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

And he listed what they've done to him. You know, the first thing is that I would like us to pay attention to, what Jesus, what this king in this story was using to separate people.

What he was paying attention to. What he used as the main difference between goats and sheep. What was that? Their service, their works.

What else? A care. When we talk about care, service, and works, what they come out of? When you do something, they come out of our heart, what we call attitude.

You know, if you really love God, what happens? Does it really change us or not? It should. And I hope it does.

But see what happens. Quite often we say things that sound right. I mean, if I ask here, I believe that every one of you will say that you love God. Do you remember your prayers when you were confessing for doing something bad to your closest one?

See, the thing is, when we value something, when we say that we love God, it always has to go down to our behavior, to what we do, how we act.

And the first thing that Jesus is pointing out here, that His church, His people, those who love Him, they love those who are around them.

You know, how often have you seen Jesus sick? Let me ask you this. When was the last time you've seen Jesus? Have you seen Him?

See, it's really interesting the way He puts it here. Look at this. He says this, For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. He didn't say, they were hungry, they were thirsty, they were sick, they were in prison.

What did He say? I, I, I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was sick. See what happens here.

Jesus does not make difference between who? People, and Himself. And even more than people, people who are in need.

Because hunger, thirst, sickness, prison, that's a big need. And see, the thing is, what kind of needs are those?

Hunger, thirst, those are the most basic needs as we as the people have. Everyone around us have to go through the time of sickness, have to go through the time of separation, have to go through the time of need.

And so the first thing that I want us to point out, if you really want to bring Jesus into our everyday life, we have to bring love to our neighbors, to those who are around us, because He is there.

I know that quite often, we as a people, we're looking for Jesus. Sometimes we're looking for Him somewhere in the quietness of our room. Sometimes we're looking for Him in the gathering of believers in this beautiful building.

But where He really is? Where He is really present? And if you look in this story, He is present where there is need.

You know, God loves us. We are all His creation. We are all His people. And one man said this way, he put it this way, you love God as much as you love the least of this world.

Your love is not greater to God than your love to the least around you. And see, it's very difficult for us to realize that Jesus is not really somewhere.

He's actually sitting in front and behind and both sides of you. Why? Because we have people around us. And every one of us is created in God's image.

And every one of us is God's son or daughter. So when we're trying to see Jesus and we're trying to bring Him, actually when we bring Him is when we love those people who are around us.

And see what happens. He says this, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. And I will go to, skip to verse 37.

Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when we did, and when did we see you stranger and invite you in or naked and close you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to me.

See what he does. He said, even the least of them. So he finds him, he identifies him with the least of people that are around us.

You know, sometimes I, as a person, I'm not as nice as I look. And sometimes I do things that I would not even want to confess in front of you to other people.

I'm an arrogant person and I have my issues with me being pride. And you know what happened? Sometimes I put down people.

I really create this pain in them. And see, when you think about that, one thing that helped me to realize that, as the father, I have three children.

And see what happened. If you really want to hurt me personally, if you're going to punch me or do something bad to me, that's going to be pretty painful maybe. But if you really, really want to hurt me, you should hurt my children.

And that would really hurt. And now, just think for a second, every person that you know, every, with no exception, even the least of these that you know, is the one that is God's child.

Every single one of them. Those who do not even look like people or do not act like people, but they are God's children. And you know what else?

He's in love with them about as much as I'm in love with my children. And if we do something that hurts those people, who do you think it hurts more?

Their father. And don't think opposite to it. If we do something small, even to those people, who do you think is excited about that?

Their father. Because if you really do something to my children, I'm really excited about that. Because those are my children. Those are the ones that I love.

And now, think about that. If you're really concerned about bringing God to this world, to our everyday life, we have numerous opportunities. opportunities. These opportunities.

They have faces. They have names. And they have needs. And loving on them, if you really bring God to this forsaken earth, and to those people who do not even know their father.

So the first thing, if you want to bring God to this world, you have to love our neighbors, those around us. The second thing that I would like us to pay attention to, look at the verse 34.

Let me read. Let's go to 35. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. 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, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe you?

When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to extend that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to me.

See, it's a very interesting thing here, very interesting dynamic. All these things that have been listed there, they are, as you said, basic needs of our life. But the thing that really amazes me, how much here God is talking about those people that did all these things.

what was their reaction? Then, they said, and when did we see you?

Those people, those that God called sheep, they were different from goats, because they didn't even know when they were doing that, because they were doing that to people around them.

And see the thing about that, who were they concerned about? Themselves, or others? other people, the second category, ask, Lord, when did we see you?

In Matthew, if you look, chapter 7, you know, when Jesus was talking to some of the Pharisees and righteous people of his time, some of them would say, Lord, we were using your name, actually, to run these evil spirits out.

We were doing all these miracles. and what he would say to them, go away, I never knew you. See, the difference between these two categories, one of those people, they were not concerned about themselves, but they were concerned about other people.

They were doing and living everything for other people, satisfying their needs. And in satisfying their needs, what they did know, they were actually worshipping the one that they loved the most, worshipping their God.

And see, this is the main thing. In the moment, when we stop living for other people, we stop being Christians. In the moment when we stop living for other people, we stop living for our God.

what is the main or what is the sin that is always in front of us, that we struggle the most?

Yeah, it's ourselves. You know, we can go anywhere you want to go. You can go to the island where there's nobody except you. And I'm afraid you will have a problem to deal with.

And that problem you see in the mirror every morning when you start your day. And it's always a battle. Battle between who? How I love myself and how I love my God.

Do I love me and follow the ways I want to do it or do I love my God? And see, here I think a very clear message that Christ is trying to give his church.

And the message is we as the church, we as individuals, we're always battling this battle between loving ourselves and loving others.

Between loving ourselves and loving our God. And the message is if we as a church stop living for the world, we are not the church anymore.

See, the sad story is in Ukraine quite often when I talk to people, I ask them to do one thing, I ask them for a minute, imagine that all of the lost people disappeared.

I mean, no lost people. How is that going to affect our church? And see, the true realization of that, that we as the church, quite often in Ukraine, I don't know about you, you're not going to even realize that something has changed.

It's not going to affect us because you will have a preacher standing and preaching, you will have all the righteous congregation sitting and listening, we will even have a choir singing.

The sad thing is, that quite often we come to the point that we as the church, we do not need lost people because they are messy.

They're different. We have to deal with them. And that's the same thing. You know, we as Christians, when we apply the same principle to ourselves, you know, we don't really need people with needs.

We don't really need people who are hungry. We don't really need people who are thirsty, who are naked, who are in prison, who are sick. We can live without them. And our life will be clean and nice.

We're trying to stay away from the places where there is a lot of need, the need that is listed here. Why?

Why do we do that? And the answer is very simple. Because we love ourselves more than we love those people around us, those who are in need.

that's a simple answer. But here the message is, if you really want to bring Christ to this world, we have to be in the places where they need.

See the difference between those two groups? One group was seeing need all around them and they were spending all their lives satisfying those needs. and other group, they were looking for Jesus or looking for King and they couldn't see him.

And the answer was, Lord, when we have seen you? That's the big difference. And the one that can realize these needs, he sees these needs all over the places.

And just imagine for a second, your neighbors, your friends, I mean all of us, we have so many needs. And people outside the church have even more needs.

And we are the ones who have to bring Jesus Christ into their life because we are Jesus in flesh. We are the ones who can give them food and drink and visit them.

And the last thing, then he will also say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. Naked and you did not clothe me.

Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?

Then he will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. Let me ask you this.

When was the last time you felt pain? Do you remember that? Do you know what I'm talking about when I'm saying pain? You know, can you share your pain with somebody else?

Can you do that? Not at all, huh? And see, the pain is a very interesting thing. When it hurts, when we feel pain, pain, it's very intimate.

I mean, we as parents, when we see our children struggling, what do we want to do? If we can, we can give them their health. If we can, we can give them everything what we have. But the thing is, when we see our children struggling, when we see our children in pain, we feel helpless, because we cannot even feel their pain.

we want to feel their pain, but we cannot. We feel it differently. We feel it in our heart.

It's really difficult for us, because we cannot do anything, and we're trying to do everything. You know, the other important difference between these two people, these two groups, one group of those people, they felt pain for those people who were thirsty, for those people who were sick, for those people who were in prison.

They felt that this is their accountability to give to those who do not have, to visit those who are alone. And another group of people didn't feel that accountability.

Answer me. Whose accountability ability to serve and feel pain for those people who are lost?

Ours. Our God, Jesus Christ, and we remember it today, He was on the cross dying for who? For His children, for those who struggle in the pain of sin, you remember His last words on the cross, Father, forgive them.

I mean, in the midst of that evil, He found something good about us. He said, forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing. There's one thing about us as Christians, but one thing about us as God's children, if we're not going to feel accountability and pain for those people who are around us, nobody else will.

And the only purpose we are here on this earth, and the only reason we are alive and know our God is because He felt a need to come here on this earth, to live through this life, and die on the cross for us, His children.

So, answering the question, how can we bring Christ into the midst of this world, into need of this world, the answer is simple.

We have to start feeling the pain, the same pain that our Father feels. I don't think that He is excited seeing His children dying in drugs, in alcohol, cheating, lying, suffering from all that.

I don't think it brings Him pleasure. It brings Him a lot of pain. And so, my challenge to me personally, do I feel that pain for those people around me that struggle with the same things?

And if you really want to worship our God, if you really want to be His children, you have to bring Him to other children that do not know Him. I will pray that God will help us to love Him as we love the least of this world.

That God will help us to live not for ourselves, but for those people there. And He will give us tremendous pain and accountability for the things that people around us do.

And then we will bring Him to this earth, and people will know who is our God. Amen. Amen.

Thank you.