The Heart of the Gospel: Serving Others with Love

Show Notes

Episode 371:
In this episode of The Bible Guys, we focused on the passage from Matthew 25:31-46. As we delved into the scripture, we explored the importance of living a life of compassion and kindness. We discussed how the passage emphasizes the significance of caring for others, highlighting the actions of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned. We delved into the metaphorical meaning behind the separation of the sheep and the goats, emphasizing the importance of genuine heart change and compassion in one's actions.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, Hey, good morning. Hey. My name is Chris, this is Jeff. We're the Bible Guys, and we just think that you are our privileged guests. You're the honored guest today. That's right, that's right. Well, you make it worthwhile, that's right. That's why we get up and come into the studio. Yes to this studio. That's right. Well, hey, today we're going to kick off one of my favorite segments, yes, which is Dad Joe Competition. Okay, so how about if I I'll just go since you start, I've just got it. Okay, dead joke competitions. Here, here goes. And these are these are important. We take them seriously. So I've never I've not read these, so I'm reading them as i'm reading them. Okay, okay, what do you call it? Excuse me? What do you call it? When Batman skips Church? I don't know, Christian Bale? No, oh no, terrible, now not laughing. I'm gonna refuse the smile on that one. That's sort of clever, though, it's clever clever. What do you call a lonely cheese alone alone? Yep? Oh, that's funny. Okay, okay, when your wife Christian Bale, Yeah you ready, when your wife comes home in a white suit, covered in beastings and smelling like honey, you know she's a keeper. Oh no, oh no, have we done this one before. Once upon a time there was a king who was only twelve inches tall. I don't think it was a terrible king, but made a great ruler. Oh geez, I've not done that's the best one. That's the best one. That's really recently. Somebody gave me a dead joke thing and I think that was in that one. So that's funny. Yeah, okay, ready. I saw a man standing on one leg at an a TM. Confused, I asked him what he was doing. He said, just checking my balance. Oh no, it's noble. No laughing at that one either. You're over today. Let me just say, okay, why did Adele cross the road? I don't know to say hello from the other side. Oh my word, wow, I thought you'd appreciate that one. Yes, I mean yeah, yeah, Adele a concert? Did you I did? I believe you? I believe you Okay, what the what are the last what are the last two concerts? You went to? Adele and uh Lady Gaga? Oh no, oh no, I shouldn't have asked that question. Hey, I got news for you. I've been to a lot of concerts. I know you have. Lady Gaga was one of the best concerts I've ever seen in my life. Okay, she's a performer, buddy, Okay, all right, here we go. Number four. I smeared some ketchup all over my face. No, sorry, I smeared some ketchup all over my eyes once. It was a bad idea in hindsight. Oh geez. Okay, that's your best one so far. Why do bananas need to use sunscreen? Why? Because they peel? Oh? That was pretty bad, weren't weren't? It was pretty bad. Okay, that's my worst one. Okay, that's my worst one. What would the terminator be called in his retirement? I don't know, the ex terminator ex terminator? Okay, I like that one. That's clever. That's a clever one. See turn on words. It's funny. What do you call the knight who loves to scare people? I don't know. Surprise, Oh, my word surprise. That's rough. Rough, Yeah, when you have to, when you don't laugh, but you're going it's funny, though it's not that funny, Okay, all right. I usually don't laugh out loud at most of these. Yeah, I just I just enjoy them. Yeah, I like the twelve inch talk king. He was a terrible king, made a great ruler. It's funny. Yeah. You can picture people picking him up and using it as a ruler. That's that's funny, chasing him around. But that was a quick segment, okay, yeah, yeah, yeaheah. And so today we're going to start a brand new passage and Matthew, well, in terms of you know, it's not parallel, we're not a continuation. We ended that last week and it's Matthew twenty five one through forty six. Wow, that's a lot of verses. It's uh, I have here twenty five, thirty one through forty six. Oh, you're right, I didn't see the three. Yeah. Yeah, it's thirty one through forty six. Yes, so that's not nearly as. No, not even Jeff. We don't have to listen to Jeff Reid forty six versas. By the way, that is thirty less versus than what I thought. Yes, it's a good thing. I'm here, folks. Yes, yeah. Otherwise it's early. This is this is nine am. That's right. We just walked in drinking my coffee. It's it's it's rare that Chris is wanting to read more Bible verses. Right, so we'll tell everybody why because you hate the Bible. That is not why. No, no, that's no implication. That's what people thought when you said it. It's because you have to decide what the tackle in a twenty minute podcast. That's right, it is. It's so hard. So I'm just joking. Chris loves the Bible. That's why you do this show, right, That's exactly right. Okay, So Matthew thirty one through forty six one of my favorite passages on what kind of life should I be living? Right? This is one of my favorite passages. So here's what it says. But when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He'll place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, come you, who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked, you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when do we ever see you hungry and feed you are thirsty and give you something a drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing. When do we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? The King will say, I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me. Then the King turned to those on the left and say, away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, you didn't feed me. I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink. I was a stranger and you didn't give it, invite me into your home. I was naked and you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, you didn't visit me. Then they'll reply, Lord, when do we ever see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger, or naked or sick or in prison? I help you, and he'll answer, I tell you the truth when you refuse to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me, And they'll go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life. Wow, this is one of those passages that can really get you thinking that he's stressing that good works gets you to heaven. I mean that that is obviously the first There's no way that anybody can read that and not think that immediately. Sure, in my opinion, Right, do you want to tackle that? Yes? Go ahead? Well, I mean, first of all, it's a parallel, it's it's a metaphor, right, So he's talking about lifestyles and oftentimes what he would would, what Jesus would do, and he's done it. Actually whereas he classifies gentiles. And what he does is he's not classifying like individuals. He's not saying Peter or Bobby or you know, lair, He's not saying those things. He says, well, you know, if you live like and he'll he'll use a class of people. You know, if you live like those, anybody who lives like that surely will not inherit the Kingdom of God. And on the surface, you'll say, well, wait a minute, that means that if I do those things, I'll not inherit the Kingdom of God. But that's not what he's saying. He's saying that people who live their entire lives because he's classifying an entire people group, and he's saying people live their entire lives and and uh, don't have a heart change or refuses to do the refuse to do these things, or live like pagans, and they go and they live their lives and they die, which is what the gentiles, by the way, we're known for. Right that he's he's saying that that way will not get you to heaven. He's saying that that lifestyle in general will not get you to heaven, and that that is that is what I learned. And so again he's he's he's not talking about individuals, he's not talking about specific deeds getting you into heaven. He's saying that, you know. The metaphor is, uh, you know a class of people, and the class of people who live their entire lives and in this case die eventually come in front of the Lord. And and what he's really saying is he's saying, there's no heart change, there's no repentance, there's no kindness. You lived your whole life obviously without me, and therefore we're going to say, depart from me, for I never knew you. And then, of course, you know, those who did have compassion, they have compassion for one reason, because Christians do. Christians are the ones who have the heart changes. And that's not every time, that's not true every time, but for the most part, the class of Christians, right, are the ones who have taken care of the world. So James, the author of the Book of James, was Jesus brother, and James whole book kind of is built around this this idea. Right, So James says, some people say, we'll talk about their faith without works, but I'm going to prove my faith by my works, right, right, Jesus said the great the two greatest commandments love God, and the same is like or the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Right. So, Jesus is saying, you can't separate love for others from your faith in God and your love for God. Right, James is saying, Dude, you talk about it all day long, but it doesn't prove anything. You prove your faith in God by the deeds that you do. And it would be the same thing here because you're a Christian, you would a real Christian, you'd really do these things. Pretenders don't, right, right. Pretenders live self centered lives. Pretenders really don't love God with all of their heart and all of their soul and all of their mind and all of their strength. Pretenders don't love their neighbor as themselves. Pretenders tend to like like the words Jesus said, boy, those make me feel warm and fuzzy. I love that. Wouldn't that just be wonderful if people actually did some of those things. That's what pretenders do, as opposed to Jesus going, actually, when it's all done, you're actually going to be judged by that. That's it. You want what you can be judged by it. So, but that's not the gospel, right, servant feeding hungry people, that's not the salvation based gospel. Jesus already said the kingdom of Heaven is nearly repent of your sins and turned to God. That's what Jesus said. The gospel was right. So the good news salvation is you repent of your sins, you turn to God. Right, because God's kingdom is here. But then his kingdom is a part of the gospel, and his kingdom is that now his priests, that's you and me, his holy nation. They go and because they've been changed by Jesus, they visit the sick, they care for the hungry, they clothe the naked, right, And so it's not for it's because of and one of the proofs. Do you remember when Jesus said, by their fruit you will know them. Yeah, right, this is what he's saying here. So if you want to just separate the pretenders from the real followers of Jesus, just look at how they live. Lots of people go to church, lots of people say Jesus words, but they don't actually live a life that is love God and loving others, and so this is one of those things. So we know, based on everything else Jesus said about how to go to heaven, that you're not getting to heaven because you went to the prison and visited somebody, right, right, And just like James says, faith doesn't require works to get to heaven, but what he is saying is true. Faith will always have always produce works. It was always produce works. It always produced fruit. Right. Well, so when Jesus said you know by their fruits, you'll know them. Orange trees produce oranges, right period, right, and inter fact, I remember that one time we were reading a while back and Jesus comes up to figree there's no fruit. He gets mad and he curses. It is never going to bear fruit again. Jesus expects fruit, not that he's hoping for fruit. He expects it. And then and then whatever the tree is is going to produce that kind of fruit. So if everything that my body produces, everything that my life produces, is always bad, and I'm never living for others, I'm never serving others, well then guess what, Maybe I'm not producing the kind of fruit that real repent produces right, So movie movie quote, you will always get a peach. You may wish for an orange, but you will always get a peach. It sounds like Kung Fu Panda. It is ka. I mean it's not exact quote, but it was really close to the Holy Cow, I can't believe you got it. Well. So so that sounds to me like like a master teaching a student. Yah yeah yeah yeah. And then I know that probably you've watched more cartoons than actual kung fume. No that's not why. That is not why you guessed because you know. No, No, that's that's not true. I didn't know it. Yeah, it was so funny. You've you've never seen it. I've seen Kung Fu Panda. I just didn't know that. Okay, okay, that that was the phrase, and I remember uh uh me Shu says, yes, but you can control where it goes and he grabs that seed throws in the ground. Okay. Yeah, it's really funny, good good movie. That's hysterical. So hey, I'm just proud of you that you got one. It was a total guest to really proud of you. So hey, so let's talk about the idea that a lot of churches seem to some well, let me say it differently. In my experience, I think that there are not enough churches that focus on caring for orphans and widows, visiting people in prisons, helping the poor, feeding the poor. Right, So, there was there was a book that I read called have you ever Heard of the Hole in Our Gospel? Yes? So I forget who the author sterns okay, and I read that he was the former CEO or president of World Vision. I think, yeah, yeah, okay, yep, that sounds right. And basically what he's saying is the hole in our gospel is is that, you know, Jesus over and over talks about, you know, doing these things, taking care of the least of these, and and sometimes in our gospel we don't. The church does not the responsibility of doing so. Right, So, and it really is truly convicting because you know, you think about it, let's unpack that a little bit. Why why doesn't the church do that? I have strong opinions about this, so don't take too much time. I think it's because I think it's because we've gravitated toward letting our government do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Yeah, so, and I think that I think that maybe uh, you know, the church would say, hey, that's you know, maybe it's also that whole Charlie Brown starfish illustration, remember, which is, you know, he throws the starfish back and there's thousands on the shore and Lina says, you can't save them all, and he says, yeah, but I can save this one, right, right, And so maybe it seems overwhelming. Yeah, we feel like the little bit we do doesn't matter, right, right, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think that Here's here's my strong opinion about this. I think if you pulled all five thousand people that were part of Hair to church this weekend, four ninety nine of them would say the church should feed naked people. The church should feed hungry people, I mean clothed naked people should feed hungry people. The church should visit people in prison and should take care of the sick. They should, right, And what they mean is the teacher on stage should and the teacher should hire some staff to do that. And it's because the devil sold us ability goods. And as the church, we tend to believe that clergy does ministry and that the laity benefits from the ministry of the clergy, and as opposed to talk about a Western mindset. Yeah, as opposed to a gifts based faith and a gifts based church. The Bible says, you know, the Bible mentions, the New Testament mentions depends on which lists you put together, twenty something spiritual gifts. So there's a spiritual gift of leadership, there's a spiritual gift of apostleship, there's a spiritual gift of leadership, I mean of teaching all these things. There's also a spiritual gift of mercy, and there's a spiritual gift of helps And now what we know, based on a lot of research and based on basically how the Bible talks, there seems to be a narrow number of gifted Bible teachers. Right, there's a narrow number a smaller number of gifted spiritually gifted leaders. That's why you can have a church of five thousand and have a couple of leaders, right, That's why, because God does it. So then the flip side of that is, we know the huge majority of Christians do have a heart for somebody should care for them. Somebody should do that thing. You know, why because you're probably gifted to be the one to do it. But what you want is you want the organization of the church to do it. That's because you've been convinced that's what happens, as opposed to understanding you are the church and you are here for the world. If you're following Jesus, you are the church. You don't go to church, right, you are the church. And so then if there's how many how many leaders do you need in an organization just a couple? How many people to do the work of that organization do you need? All the rest? All the rest? Right, So it's not about so people talk about going to a church service and really they're going to the church to serve us there you go right right, And instead what he's saying is no, no, no, no, you are here. You are the church and you are here for the world. So if the church people would say it would not wait for somebody to go to the jail and visit and instead just go nobody's doing, I'll go to it, because that's what Christians do. Instead of the seat of the people of the church waiting, you know what you should You should open up a bigger food pantry instead of that, how about just feed hungry people because every one of these things can be done regardless of budget. You don't have to be rich to go visit people in the prison. You don't have to be wealthy to go visit the sick. You don't have to be super rich to be able to provide a jacket that somebody doesn't have a jacket, right, you go to a good will and do that. So, so he does not say the elites or the super organizations or those that have more. Instead he says everybody should be doing these kinds of things. And so when the church really gets a vision that they're not waiting around for an organized ministry to begin, but instead just start doing it, then though the world will change, right, And that's that's that's it. So that's my my little soapbox. And I love it too, because that's actually a hard thing to learn. When I went to church for quite a while, you know, I mean, I mean I really started seriously going to church when I was like sixteen or fifteen something like that, and then I would say I was in my twenties, maybe even mid twenties before I understand the priesthood of every believer. You know, the idea that like every every person is a pastor and a minister, right and and so you know, the idea that like ministry should be up to the people was not something that was necessarily talked about, especially and the denomination that I was a part of. Uh. We we just always sort of viewed the pastor, and it was it was actually the downfall of that mentality is we viewed the pastor as the person who should do everything. He should go to the hospital, right, he should he should lead the church. You know, so we expect to be a leader, a good business mind person, a good speaker, a good counselor. Right. I have all the time in the world to mary Berry and visit people, you know, all these different things, and it's like that's impossible, which is why the Bible says no. You know, even in even in the leadership structure, when he says and Ephesians to some of you get into somebody gave the gift of apostleship to some profits, to some evangelists, to some pastors, some teachers. Uh, you know, even in that leadership mindset. Uh, you know, most pastors only operate in the top two right, right, right, I mean like maybe three maybe, right, but you need another staff member to come up on your last two so you can take that test. It's called the apest, yeah test, right because they used to ask for the word shepherd as opposed to pastor. And uh so the eper or the apest shows that I am a teacher first, then I'm an evangelist, and then I'm an apostle, right, and then i am a pastor. Uh no, no, no, then I'm prophet, then I'm pastor. So pastor, which is the gift who cares is actually my fifth out of five? It's mine too, Yeah, but you know your order. Yeah, it's apostolic first, evangelist, yeah, evangelist second, teacher third, and then prophet and then pastor. Okay, oh no, no, profit, profit is fourth, is third? Oh, prophets first, teacher, teacher fourth, Okay. So yeah, so so that is uh so, that's great. So you and I compliment each other. Yeah, at the same time we're sort of in the same vein though, right, because our bottom two are going to be Yeah, but that's why God has so many Christians in the church, that's right, right, is we make up where others have deficits and then they make up where we have deficits, not staff, just the church in general, all the people in general. So anyways, hey, look for somebody to feed this week. You're looking for a ministry, Go start visiting. Find out how to start visiting in the in the jail. If you live in our county, Macomb County, Michigan. One of the guys that at Heritage Churches is one of the key leaders at the county jail. You know, you want to start visiting and serving. He can help that. Bill is my friend. Let us know. You can visit in the hospital, you can clothe people, right, That's that's important. So yeah, so that's great. And so obviously Jesus is commanding us talking about you know, think about it. If you think that maybe the task is too great, and you think that maybe it's too overwhelming, and you think that nobody's seeing you and you're not making a difference, Jesus himself is saying, I see you every time. Well, he says, when you do it, that was me, that was it for me. You did it for me, you did it to me, right, And so literally what he's saying is he's saying that's his heart. He's not saying that that's him in the flesh. He's saying that's where his heart is right. So that's great. That is a great topic and we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,