A Cup of Water
Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the
throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His
right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35
for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger
and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in
prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or
thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe
You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer
and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My
brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no
food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in,
naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them,
saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did
not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life.”
Oh what a day that will be! When the Son of Man comes in His glory with all the holy
angels. When He comes He’s going to separate the sheep from the goats. He’ll put
the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. Now, He’s not really going to be
separating farm animals. It says as a shepherd divides sheep from goats. The point
is there’s going to be a separation and there’s only two different ways to go. So after
all the nations, because that’s who it says will be gathered before Him, the nations.
This is obviously talking about us; man, mankind, humans. Here the King is going to
say to those on the right hand, come on into My Father’s kingdom. His reason why are
that He was hungry, and thirsty, and a stranger, and naked, and sick, and in prison;
and these people on the right had ministered to Him in His need.
Now, evidently, they have no idea what He’s talking about. You can tell by the way
they ask when. When did we do all these things? Here’s the important part. The King
says that anytime they did for one of the least of these My brethren, you did it for Me.
I can imagine Him waving His right arm out over the group on His right. These, My
brothers and sisters. Look around! We’ll probably start noticing different people that
we’ve help or been helped by. That’ll likely be an interesting moment..
Next, He turns to those on the left and tells them to get away from Me and go into the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It was never meant for mankind.
He goes into the reason why. He was hungry, and thirsty, and a stranger, and naked,
and sick, and in prison; and these people on the left did nothing. In the same way,
they don’t understand. When did You need something they ask. I can picture Him
doing the same wave move with His arm. They’ll start noticing different people they
may have had the opportunity to help and chose not to. What a horrible moment that
will be.
The LORD has had this message on my heart for some time now. You may remember
about a month ago when this fellowship pledged to support Life Today’s Water 4 Life
to help build water wells for people who have no access to clean water and also the
American Leprosy Mission to make the cure for leprosy available for those who can’t
afford the $240 that it cost. We began to earmark funds for both ministries and have
collected about $150 this month for each ministry. Then this week He gave me a
vision of giving away bottled water. It seems like a little thing but in my vision there are
people waiting for buses in the heat that would really appreciate a bottle of cold water.
My mom and I have talked about the logistics of it and we’re going to do it. Not just
because we want to be on the right side when the LORD is separating us. There’s
more to it.
Read Hebrews 13:2-3. Paul tells the Jews to remember to entertain strangers. He
also says that we should remember the prisoners as if we’re chained with them
because we are also part of the body. I remember when I had no car. When I was
living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. It really wasn’t that long ago. The LORD
has brought me so far. But it’s easy to forget those still in that position when you’re no
longer on the bus stop. Paul says we’re supposed to remember like we’re still there,
because we are if we’re a part of the body. It’s one of those situations we read about.
You know how nice it would have been if someone had given me a cold bottle of water
some afternoon on my way home from work. That should be our motivation.
I watched this show called ‘In Justice’ on Friday night. It about this group that fights for
the rights of people in jail that are innocent. This episode started with this guy
contacting the group for help for a friend of his. Turns out that his friend was
convicted of rape 10 years earlier and this guy had an entire room with evidence and
newspaper clippings trying to get his friend off. His wife had just had a baby and was
pretty much like, ok that enough. We need the room for the baby and you need to get
on with your life. So the guy from the group ask him why he’s been doing this for 10
years. The friend said that he had been going down the wrong road, getting high,
stealing, living on the streets and he said his friend took him off the streets gave him a
place to stay and got him going in the right direction. When he asked him why he’d
done so much for him he just said Matthew 25:35. That why he felt obliged to do all he
could to help him get out of jail.
In the end, the woman who had identified him realized that he was indeed the wrong
man. The innocent gets out of prison after being there for ten years. He’d been a
football player in college in the prime of his life when he was falsely accused. He lost
so much time in jail that he’d never be able to get back. They had a party for him and
everyone was enjoying themselves when the woman who’d accused him comes in.
When you see the show it wasn’t really her fault that it happened it was a unique set of
circumstances and she really believed he was the one. So she comes over to him all
teary eyed and says that she is so sorry that this happened to him. When he says no I’
m so sorry this happened to you.
I was almost in tears and looked at my daughter Kristen and said that he looked so
much like Jesus. The way he forgave her completely and instead of being mad at her
or making her feel guilty he had compassion for her. That is the mind of Christ we
should all be striving toward. That should be our real motivation when we help
someone in need. To be like Christ. Do you remember that commercial campaign
Michael Jordan did? ‘Like Mike, I wanna be like Mike’. Well, I want to be like Christ.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: March 5, 2006