Do You Really Care?
Do You Really Care?
Matthew 25:35-45
Ruth went to her mail box and there was only one letter.
She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again.
There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address.
She read the letter:
"Dear Ruth,
I'm going to be in your neighborhood, Saturday afternoon, and I'd like to stop by for a visit.
Love Always,
Jesus"
Her hands were shaking, as she placed the letter on the table.
"Why would the Lord want to visit me?
I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer."
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets.
"Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer.
I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner."
She reached for her purse and counted out its contents.
Five dollars and forty cents.
"Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least."
She threw on her coat and hurried out the door.
A loaf of french bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk... leaving Ruth with
a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday.
Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.
"Hey lady, can you help us, lady?"
Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway.
A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.
"Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street,
and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady,
we'd really appreciate it."
Ruth looked at them.
They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly,
she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to.
"Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself.
All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight,
and I was planning on serving that to Him."
"Yeah, well, okay lady, I understand. Thanks anyway."
The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley.
As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
"Sir, wait!"
The couple stopped and turned, as she ran down the alley after them.
"Look, why don't you take this food.
I'll figure out something else to serve my guest."
She handed the man her grocery bag.
The man said, "Thank you lady. Thank you very much!"
"Yes, thank you!" the lady responded.
Ruth could see that she was shivering.
";I have another coat at home.
Please, take this one."
Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders.
Then smiling, she turned and walked back ... without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest.
"Thank you lady! Thank you very much!"
Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door.
She was also concerned.
The Lord was coming to visit, and she didn't have anything to offer Him.
She fumbled through her purse for the door key.
As she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox.
"That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day."
She took the envelope out of the box and opened it.
"Dear Ruth,
It was so good to see you again.
Thank you for the lovely meal.
And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat.
Love Always,
Jesus"
The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.
Ask yourself a very serious question.
Do you care?
Do you care about people around you who are hurting?
Do you care about people who have serious needs that need to be met?
They might need a friend, a smile, food, someone to pray for them, someone who cares. . .
Do you care? Do you?
Do you have compassion for other people?
Read Text- Matthew 25:34-45
These verses are about the end of time.
Christ is enthroned and the sheep are separated from the goats.
A big difference between the goats and the sheep is the goats had no compassion.
Do you care about other people and their needs?
These verses should give us the answer to this question.
We will see why Christians should demonstrate compassion to other people. . .
Compassion Is Always Shown First to Christ. (vv. 34-40)
The sheep are described as those who fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, who comforted the lonely,
visited the sick, and provided for the needy.
This is important for us to understand.
Compassion is not just a "feeling".
It is a feeling that motivates you to respond with actions.
These actions are our answer to that question, Do we care?
Read James 2:15-16
Having compassion, requires an outward expression.
It is nothing, if you only feel sorry for others, but do nothing to alleviate their suffering.
Did you really hear that?
Just feeling sorry for someone, does not help them at all.
It is nothing to only feel, and not do anything about it.
James is asking: "What is the profit of feeling that way, if you are not going to do anything about it."
Christ says that whenever we minister or meet the needs of other people, we are really showing it to Him.
Compassion is always shown for Christ, whenever you extend your compassion to another
Do you care? Do you?
If you do, and by that I mean that you actually minister to the needs others, you are really ministering
to Jesus Christ, Himself.
That is incredible!
Must of us would not mind being compassionate to Christ.
It is just tougher for us to care for certain people...
It should blow our mind, when we realize how Christ values the demonstration of compassion.
Whenever we show that compassion, we are showing it to Jesus Christ.
Do you care? Do you?
Compassion is always shown to Christ.
You may never know what a simple act of compassion will mean to someone.
A teen-ager named, Mark, was walking home from school one day, when he noticed the boy
ahead of him had tripped.
He dropped all of the books he was carrying.
He also dropped two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove, and a small tape recorder.
Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles.
Since they were going the same way, he helped Bill to carry all those items.
As they walked along, Mark discovered that the boy's name was Bill.
He learned that Bill loved video games, baseball, and history, that he was having a lot of trouble
with some of his subjects.
He also learned that Bill had just broken up with his girlfriend.
They arrived at Bill's home.
He invited Mark in for a Coke and to watch some T.V.
The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs, some small talk, and then Mark went home.
They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice.
They ended up at the same High school, where they had brief contacts over the years.
Finally, the long-awaited senior year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark
if they could talk.
Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met.
"Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things from school that day?" asked Bill.
"You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else.
I had stored away some of my mother's pills, and I was going home to commit suicide.
But after we spent some time together, I realized that if I had, I would have missed your much needed friendship.
So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books for me that day, you did a lot more.
You saved my life."
Do you care? Do you really care?
When you do, you may be making a much bigger difference than you could ever realize.
When you do really care for someone, you are really expressing your love to your Saviour,
who expressed His precious love for us on Calvary.
All compassion withheld, is also withheld from Christ. (vs.41-45)
This should make us stop and think.
Having compassion and acting on it, is an evidence of your love for Jesus.
Have you ever felt that you should visit someone who is sick or lonely?
Have you ever thought, I know a person could use some food or possibly clothes?
Have you ever thought, I should do something nice for them, because they are hurting?
If you have ever had these thoughts, but did nothing about them, you were withholding compassion
indicating that you really didn't care.
You didn't care enough to make the effort.
You didn't care enough to sacrifice a small portion of your time or substance.
You were not only hoarding it from others, but you were also withholding it from your Saviour, Jesus Christ.
You were telling Jesus that you did not care!!!
Some sheep dress up and pretend they are goats.
It starts with a hard heart.
Then, they run around like a goat eating anything they can get in their mouth.
I know some who do this.
And I think I have seen their horns at different times!
Of course, some of these are really goats, because they were never really sheep.
Do you care? Do you?
Or, are you just an old goat?
Or, are you just too lazy to act like the sheep you really are?
Stop withholding your compassion from Christ.
Visit the sick and the lonely!
Alleviate the needs of people who have them!
Be compassionate! Really Care!
Start with one person, and you will make a difference!
As an old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a small boy up ahead of him -- picking up
starfish and flinging them back into the sea.
Finally, catching up with the youth, he asked him why he was doing this.
The boy told him that the stranded starfish would die, if left in the morning sun.
"But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish, "countered the old man.
"How can your effort make any difference?"
The young man looked at the starfish in his hand, and then threw it into the safety of the waves.
"It makes a difference to this one," he said.
Listen, every time you care, it makes a tremendous difference to that person!
Remember, caring means doing something, not simply, feeling sorry, for someone.
Why is it so important?
It is so important because Jesus takes it personally! It is important to Jesus!
Do you realize that?
You are showing whether you care about Him!!
That is important!
Do you care? Do you?
We must meet needs as we see them.
It might just take a smile, a kind word.
Often, caring means doing things that are inconvenient for you, but may be invaluable for someone else.
A nurse escorted a tired, anxious young man to the bed side of an elderly man.
"Your son is here," she whispered to the patient.
She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.
He was heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, and he dimly saw the young man
standing outside the oxygen tent.
He reached out his hand, and the young man tightly wrapped his fingers around it, squeezing
a message of encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair for the young man to sit next to the bedside.
All through the night, the young man sat holding the old man's hand, and offering gentle words of hope.
The dying man said nothing, as he held tightly to his son.
As dawn approached, the patient died.
The young man placed on the bed, the lifeless hand, he had been holding, and then he went
to notify the nurse.
While the nurse did what was necessary, the young man waited.
When she had finished her task, the nurse began to say words of sympathy to the young man.
But he interrupted her. "Who was that man?" He asked.
The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father."
"No, he was not my father," he answered. "I never saw him before in my life."
"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" asked the nurse.
He replied, "I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here.
When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I knew how much he needed me..."
Who needs you?
Who, in your life, could be wondering whether or not you care?
A neighbor?
A friend?
A relative?
Someone else?
Someone you might meet or hear about?
Jesus?
Do you care? Do you?
It matters to Jesus.
The answer may indicate something about your own spirituality.
Do you care?
YOU SHOULD!
YOU MUST!
Sermon By Dr. Harold L. White
