Serving 'The Least of These'

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Serving 'The Least of These'</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id503.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Following In the Footsteps of Faith"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id499.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Spiritual Clean Sweep"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>"Serving 'the least of these'" </B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, January 30, 2005</B></div> <bR> <div>      Last weekend was Sanctity of Human Life weekend. We commemorate with sadness the 32nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade (January 22, 1973), a decision that said states must allow women to kill their unborn children if they wish. In light of this, we must consider again the love that Jesus has for those who are weak, abused, and in need. And we must ask ourselves, how must we respond?</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Matt+25:31-46" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>Matthew 25:31-46</B></U></A><B> - 3 Questions</B></div> <div> <B>1. Who are "the least of these"?</B></div> <div>      People Jesus loves, people in his family, people who have faith in him, people who are his followers. By extension, they are the people for whom Jesus died, people who are in need of hope and help and grace.</div> <div>      The unborn represent the very weakest and most vulnerable among us. Closely following are their mothers, those who are in crisis and do not know where to turn. Also, the elderly; those with physical challenges, people who may not be "like the rest of us." Terry Schaivo deserves to receive food - it is not an "extraordinary measure" to spare her life, it's a meal. It is what is right and appropriate and expected. This is because people are created in the image of God and have value and dignity, and are deserving of respect. This is true even when people's lives are difficult. And life and death are to be in the hands of God, not in the hands of people.</div> <div>      Psalm 139:14-18 (NLT) says, "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-- how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!"</div> <bR> <div> <B>2. What is the connection between their actions and their destiny?</B></div> <div>      Why do some go to eternal punishment and why do some go to heaven? It is a response from a heart of faith in Jesus. It is evidence of real faith; it confirms the fact that you belong to Jesus. What they do for the "least of these" reveals who they are and to whom they belong.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3. How should we respond to those who are "the least of these"?</B></div> <div>      We should serve them, as though they were Jesus himself. If Jesus were here, and he said, "I need some help. I need some willing servants," many of us would get in line. If you would be first in line to serve <I>him</I>, then get in line to serve the people he loves.</div> <div>      It doesn't take a lot of sacrifice to serve a king or the president or a famous one or a rich one. Such people have servants at their beck and call, and if one quits, many more are there to take their place. We are serving the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when we serve the ones he loves (vs. 40).</div> <div>      People who matter to God should matter to us as well. And all people matter to God, especially the weak, the humble, the downtrodden, those in pain. People deserve respect and help, not merely because they may be rich or fun or pleasant or powerful or famous, but because they are people, loved by God and created in him image.</div> <div>      Psalm 27:10 says , "Even if my father and mother abandoned me, the LORD would take me in." (NLT). Most often the Lord helps people <I>through</I> other people who are committed to the him. We are the body of Christ, his hands, his feet, his voice.</div> <bR> <div>      Specifically, what can we do? Regarding abortion , pray, work for a change in laws, help mothers and families in crisis. More broadly, serve by being aware of the needs around you; by serving senior adults; serve in a food pantry; encourage people through interest and conversation; take in children who need a home ... </div> <bR> <div>      Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote an article entitled "The Abortion Debate Is Over" (<I>Christianity Today</I>, December 6, 1999). Here is an excerpt:</div> <div>      "In the early years [of "the pro-life movement" following <I>Roe v. Wade</I>] there was a mistaken overemphasis on the rights of the unborn, based on the erroneous presumption that the average person would oppose abortion upon realizing that the life in the womb was a baby. When ultrasonography made this obvious, Americans still preferred to keep abortion available. They were uneasy about it, but wanted to keep the procedure legal, as pro-choice leader Kate Michel man said, for only three reasons: rape, incest, and 'my situation.'</div> <div>      "This isn't a logical position. Either an unborn child has a right to life and abortion is an appalling injustice, or it is the equivalent of a root canal. Yet it's where public opinion settled, and pro-lifers saw that they had overestimated the average American's allegiance to logic. In the last decade or so pro-lifers have also realized the folly of dividing baby from mother and treating them as combatants. This played into pro-choice rhetoric of antagonism and struggle, a setting in which might makes right. Of the two-mother and baby-only one was empowered to enforce her choice, so pro-life language picturing them as opponents backfired. A more holistic pro-life approach, summarized as "Love Them Both," makes more sense, and in recent years support for pregnant women has bloomed and professionalized to an impressive degree.</div> <div>      "The abortion debate is over. The pro-life cause is not. Christians have opposed abortion since the first-century Christian code, the Didache, specified: "Thou shalt not kill a child by abortion." Valuing the unborn and newborn, women, slaves, and the disabled were distinctive ways early Christians challenged their prevailing culture.</div> <div>      "What about our current culture? We can grow numb, but abortion is one of those monumental issues of justice that comes along once in a lifetime. It is violence against children, a hideous act of poisoning or dismembering tiny bodies, then dumping them in a landfill or garbage disposal. Over 37 million children have died this way. We must respond, and as always this means giving practical help-building support services for pregnancy and adoption, as previous generations built leprosariums, hospices, and hospitals. It also means working patiently for legal justice, since the minimum purpose of law is to protect the weak from violence. To our great-grandchildren it will be obvious that this was the civil-rights challenge of our time, and we will be judged for our response. If we are not moved when people kill children, nothing will ever move us."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2005, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>