God's Heart for the Helpless - Life of Christ Part 82

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt totally helpless? When it comes to working on cars, I'm about as helpless as they come. Now, I'm a great driver, although there are some folks who might not agree with that, like my wife, but I think I'm a good driver, but I'm a terrible mechanic.

Absolutely terrible. Never forget, when I was in college to try to save some money, I had a Volkswagen and my muffler was bad, and I thought, eh, how hard can it be to put a muffler in a little Volkswagen bug? So I went out and bought a muffler at some auto shop and went up and decided to start putting it in myself. Well, what happened is I got the muffler half out and couldn't get it out anymore.

The problem is I couldn't get it back in either. So then on top of having to pay for the muffler job, which is what I was trying to avoid, I had to pay to have the car towed in on top of that. So I'm not a great mechanic.

That's why when I bought a used car from my wife a couple years ago, and that's why I bought one of these extended warranty deals with it because I know I'm no good on cars. So anyway, this last week I heard this whining noise coming from under the front where the motor is, the hood. I opened it up and listened to it. It sounded like the alternator to me or at least something close to it. So I took it into them and I said, you know, I think my alternator is covered.

Would you check it out? They said fine. They called me back the next morning and said, well, we've got good news and bad news. Now that's not what you want a car repair place to say to you. And they said, the good news is, yeah, your alternator is whining and it is covered by the policy and we can replace it under the policy. I said, good. He said, but the bad news is that your battery's leaking and it won't hold a charge and it's corroded the two positive terminals, which is making the alternator work harder. And I can't get justification from the insurance company to put the alternator in until I fix the battery and the cables and make sure they're not the cause of the problem. I said, oh, okay.

How much will that be? He said, well, the battery, the cables and the labor to put it in will be $500. I said, well, wait a minute now.

Let me see if I get this. I pay $500 to put the battery and the cables in and then you tell me whether you can save me money on the alternator. Is that how the deal works? Yes, sir. I said, okay, listen, how much do I owe you so far? He said $30. I said, stop right there.

Stop right there. I've got some friends in town over at Auto Clinic. I'm going to take my car over and I'll let them have a look at the battery. By the way, this is a free plug, but if you need car repair, Auto Clinic over in Merrifield is as good as they come. Been using them for years. The owners come here to our church.

They're fine Christians and that's just a free plug. But anyway, I take the car over there and I say to my friend James at Auto Clinic, James, this is what they told me over at the dealership. Now what do you say?

Have a look at it. He calls me and says, Lon, there's not a thing in the world wrong with your battery. A little corrosion on the terminal. We took the terminal off, cleaned it up, put it back on. The battery holds a charge. Fine, not a thing in the world wrong with your battery.

So I called the dealership back and talked to the fella and told him this story and he argued with me and maintained with me that according to the specs that something was wrong with that battery and that technically speaking that battery needed to be replaced and I went around and around and around and finally I said to him, well now look, I'm not going to argue with you anymore. But here's my big beef with you. My beef with you is that at least you could have told me about the options. At least you could have told me, well we could try to clean the terminal first and see if that works.

That might fix it short of $500. You never even told me there was an option. All you told me was my battery was leaking.

I had this vision of acid dripping out the bottom of my car and you know, I thought it was an all or nothing deal. I said and what really irks me is if some helpless widow lady would have come in there for example who didn't have a friend like James over at Auto Clinic, she'd have paid $500 for a job she didn't even need to have done. That's what really irks me.

Now everybody I've told that story to shakes their head because we all know that car repair places, it's a well documented fact on television. They prey on helpless people, some of them do. But they're not the only ones. You heard the phrase there's a sucker born every minute and the world is full of helpless people. The world is full of weak, powerless people and you know what? The Bible teaches us that almighty God has a special place in his heart for these people and that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. About God's heart for helpless people and then ask the question, what does that mean about our heart for helpless people? Now there's a passage we're going to use and let's look at it. Matthew chapter 25, I want to read it to you and it begins at verse 31. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he'll sit on his throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as the shepherd separates his sheep from his goats and he'll put the sheep on his right side and the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 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.

I would knead it clothed and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will say, Lord, when did we see you hungry or feed you or see you thirsty or give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in or kneading clothes and clothes you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you? Then the king will reply, I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Then he'll say to those on his left, apart from me you who are cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger. You did not invite me in. I kneaded clothes. You did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison. You did not look after me. And they'll say, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or stranger and kneading clothes or sick or in prison not help you?

We would have helped you. And he'll say, I'll tell you the truth. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you didn't do for me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now when it comes to interpreting this little story that Jesus tells, context is everything. You know, I have a little saying, a text without a context is a pretext.

Meaning if we just take a verse out of the Bible, slap it up on the wall and everybody says, what do you think? Well, I don't know. What do you think it means?

I don't know, Sal. What do you think it means? That's a pretext.

We're kidding ourselves. We've got to look at where something falls and what's around it to make sure we interpret correctly. And that's especially true of this passage. Because see, at first glance it looks like that what Jesus is saying here is that salvation is based on people's good works. That the people who were kind to the needy got eternal life and the people who are insensitive to the needy will not get eternal life. But friends, that would contradict everything else the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches Ephesians chapter 2 that salvation comes not by human works.

The Bible teaches, Titus chapter 3 verse 5, God saved us not because of righteous things that we had done, but by his mercy. And in Romans chapter 3 the Bible says, therefore nobody will be declared right in God's sight because of human works. So it can't mean that because the rest of the Bible says that's not the way it is.

So to figure out what it means we've got to figure out where this is falling in context and what's going on. Now in Matthew 24, if you remember, the disciples asked Jesus, what are the signs of your coming and of the end of the age? And for that whole chapter he's been talking about the end of the age and his second coming. Then he takes a little bit of break in that to tell three stories that have a different but related meaning.

And their meaning is make sure you're ready when I show up. We talked about that last week in the story of the 10 bridesmaids right at the beginning of chapter 25. But then after telling those stories to tell us, make sure you're ready when I show up, Jesus comes back and finishes off this whole section by returning to the subject of, now what about when I come back? Look at Matthew 24, would you?

Let's make sure we're following this. Matthew 24 verse 30. At that time the Son of Man will appear in the sky and the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Verse 31. And he'll send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they'll gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other. Now let's jump to chapter 25 verse 31. Chapter 25 verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne and all the nations will be gathered before him. Do you see the connection?

If we left everything else in the middle out, these two things fit together. We're talking now about not being ready for his coming, we're talking about now in the end of chapter 25 what's going to happen when he comes. And that's what this story is all about. What's going to happen when he comes back a second time?

Everybody with me? Now, knowing that, let's see if we can figure out what's going on in this story. Who are these nations that he gathers together and separates into sheep and goats? Remember the Bible teaches that at the end of the age there will be a period of seven years called the tribulation period. The church is gone. But at the beginning of the tribulation period, the book of Revelation teaches, God will choose 144,000 Jewish people who will suddenly realize that Jesus was their Messiah, that everything we as Christians have been telling them all this time was right, and they will give their life to Christ and God will choose them and seal them to be his evangelists during this seven year period. Now the antichrist and his forces are ruling the world and they declare war. They are determined to eradicate all witness of Jesus Christ. They declare war on these evangelists and the antichrist unleashes all of his fury on them and so he comes up with an ingenious way to flush them out, that you got to take a mark on your hand and a mark on your forehead, Revelation 13 says, or you cannot buy or sell or carry on any kind of commercial ventures in the tribulation period. Well of course these evangelists are not going to take the mark of the antichrist on their hand or their forehead, so they can't buy, they can't sell, they can't go into a store and do anything.

They become hunted animals in this seven year period. And so the antichrist is able then to identify these servants of God, not just because they are preaching, but because after a while their inability to buy food and clothing and medicine begins to show. They begin to be hungry and thirsty and they need clothes and they get sick because they can't buy any medicine and they have to elude the antichrist by living like a stranger and sneaking around in town and when he catches them he puts them in prison. He kills thousands upon thousands of these folks, but some elude his grasp and keep winning people to Christ and then at the end of the tribulation Jesus comes back, defeats the antichrist, sets up his thousand year kingdom and verse 31 says, when the son of man comes in his glory at the end of the tribulation and the angel's with him, he'll sit on his throne in heavenly glory, he'll gather all the nations to him, he'll separate the sheep from the goats.

Now let's see if we can figure out who's who here. The nations that he gathers to him are all the people left alive at the end of the tribulation period. The kingdom that he mentions he's going to give to people is this millennial kingdom he's now come back to set up and these my brethren who were hungry, sick, naked, needed clothes, lived as strangers and were in prison were the 144,000 Jewish evangelists whom the antichrist is going after and trying to kill and flush out because of their inability to buy food, clothing and medicine.

Okay, are you with me so far? Now, Jesus separates sheep from the goats and he says, I'll give you a different eternal destiny, the sheep, you guys are going to inherit the kingdom, the goats, you guys are going into eternal punishment and the basis on which I'm going to differentiate you is how you treated these my brethren. Who are these my brethren? Well, they're the Jewish evangelists who have been prayed on by the antichrist for seven years now. The sheep, listen, had put their lives on the line to try to help these servants of God. They had tried to feed them and clothe them and take care of them when they were strangers in town fleeing from the antichrist. The goats could care less. The goats didn't care about these Jewish evangelists. Was it their good works that made the sheep, sheep?

No, it's the other way around. It's because they were sheep. It's because they were believers in Jesus Christ. It's because they had embraced Jesus as their Lord and Savior that they were willing to defy the antichrist, put their own lives on the line and try to assist these servants of God who were running and fleeing for their lives. The point is that the good works of these sheep that Jesus talked about here were not the cause of their salvation but the result of it, the outflow of it. The goats had not given their life to Jesus Christ.

They had the mark of the beast on their hand and they could care less about the servants of God. It reminds me of a story in the Old Testament that I want to show you. Turn back to 1 Kings chapter 18.

If you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 253. 1 Kings chapter 18. And here in 1 Kings chapter 18, we have a very similar story that shows you exactly the same point. 1 Kings chapter 18, if you remember back in 1 Kings 18, there's a fellow named Elijah who's the prophet of Israel and the king on the throne is a fellow named Ahab and he's a wicked king. And Elijah said because God is going to judge you, Ahab, there's going to be no rain for three years.

So there was a horrible drought and a horrible famine. Now here in 1 Kings 18, I want you to look. It says, now the famine, I'm in verse two, was severe in Samaria and Ahab summoned Obadiah. You say Obadiah. Oh, Obadiah.

Okay. That's the guy like on the Beverly Hillbillies. No, no, no. That was Jedediah. Wrong. Jedediah. This is Obadiah.

Okay. Obadiah, of course, he was in charge of the palace. Now look what it says. And he was a devout believer in the Lord. He was a devout believer in the Lord. And if you remember, Ahab was married to Jezebel. You remember Jezebel? You say, oh yeah, Jezebel. She's the woman that dominated her husband, messed up her family, ruined the city and generally was nasty to everybody. No, that's Roseanne. This is Jezebel.

Okay. But Jezebel set out to annihilate all the prophets of the Lord. Look what it says. And while Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets, look what it says. Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, 50 in each, and he would sneak food to them and water to them.

Now here's exactly the same situation. Obadiah knew he was putting his life on the line with Jezebel by hiding the prophets of the Lord and feeding them and clothing them and taking them in when their lives were in danger. Why did he do it? He says, I did it because I was a devout believer in the Lord. Look what he says to Elijah when he meets him later.

Skip down with me, if you would, to verse 12. He says, yet I, your servant, have worshiped the Lord from my youth. My point is that risking his life to help these prophets didn't make him a believer. He was a believer, and that's why he was willing to put his life at risk to try to help them. The same is true with these sheep that we see in Jesus' parable.

So let's summarize what the story says. The parable teaches that at his second coming, Jesus will separate believers from non-believers. Believers will go into eternal blessing. Non-believers will go into eternal condemnation. And the way that he will separate them is based upon their reaction to these Jewish evangelists.

They will make it clear whether Jesus is in their heart or not by how they treated these persecuted people running and trying to save their lives. Is everybody clear on what the parable really means? Now, that's the interpretation of the parable. But it leaves us with the really important question, what's our question?

So what? Alright, now, this story that Jesus tells does not teach that if you want to go to heaven, be nice to homeless people, make hospital visits, and help inmates. That's not what the story teaches. It teaches that to have eternal life, we have to be one of Jesus' sheep, and we get to be one of his sheep by a personal faith, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 10, I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

There's personal relationship. But it does teach us that when you are one of Jesus' sheep, it is normal and natural for good works to flow out of that, even to the point that you're willing to risk your own life to serve God. And one of those kinds of good works that should flow out of us being really personally related to Jesus Christ is a deep compassion and concern for the helpless people of our world, just like these helpless people here were hungry, needy, sick, in prison. Friends, the reason for this is that Jesus has a deep compassion and concern for the helpless people of our world. This is something that we ought to be mirroring the heart of God.

And what grips the heart of God ought to grip our heart. Listen to what the Bible says, Exodus 22. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.

If you do and they cry out to me, I will hear their cry and my anger will be roused against you. Listen to the heart of God for the helpless. The Psalms say that God is a father to the fatherless and the judge of the widows. He supports the orphan and the widow. Listen to Deuteronomy 24. When you're harvesting in your field and a sheaf of grain falls to the ground, do not go back and pick it up.

Leave it so that the stranger and the widow and the fatherless can come behind you and pick it up. And the Lord God will bless you and all the work that you do. And James 1 27, religion that God accepts as pure and undefiled is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world system.

And I could go on and on and on, but the point is when you read the Bible, it is absolutely clear. God is interested in the powerless, helpless, downcast people of this world and he has a heart to see them taken care of. And that means if we're really followers of Jesus Christ, we ought to be having that same compassion for the helpless people of our world that God Almighty has. Now what does this mean for us as Christians?

Let's put some handles on it. What's it mean for us as a church? Well the first thing it means, and there's two things it means, the first thing it means is we have to have a deep concern for people who are spiritually helpless.

The Bible teaches 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the good news in Jesus Christ. And Ephesians chapter 2 says that every person is born into this world spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. People in this world outside of Christ, friends, are spiritual cadavers. They are absolutely helpless spiritually.

There is no greater helplessness than spiritual helplessness. And we as people who know Christ need to have a heart for people who are spiritually helpless and lost. When I became a Christian at 21 years old in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I had a whole fraternity house full of lost people that I was part of. And I'd been involved in supplying a lot of these people with drugs and doing a number of other things with them, but when God grabbed a hold of my life, he gave me a deep burden for 80 other guys who were totally blind and helpless. And I made it my goal to try to go to each and every one of these 80 guys and try to explain to them who Jesus Christ was and what he had done in my life and what he could do for them.

I don't know that I covered all 80, but I got into the 70s, I guarantee you. And people thought I was nuts. They thought I was crazy. They didn't even want to see me.

They walked the other direction when they saw me coming. But I had a burden because I knew these were helpless people and I had what could help them. And dear friends, every day you pass people who are spiritually helpless and destitute and powerless and you and I have got what can help them. We need to have a heart for these people instead of just passing them by every single day. The second thing it means for us is that we need to have a practical, tangible concern for people who are physically needy in our world.

Proverbs 14 says, he who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. I got a letter not too long ago and here's what it says. Dear Reverend Solomon, my name is, and he tells me his name, and I'm presently incarcerated in the Virginia Department of Corrections. Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of listening to a couple of your scripture messages from the Abiding Words Communication Company. Well, we're not a company, I mean, but anyway.

And so he told me what tapes they were. He said, the reason I'm writing you is to ask if your church would be willing to donate any Christian tapes, Bibles or reading material to our Christian brothers here in Dilwin Correctional Institute. This prison has a population of over a thousand inmates, of which approximately 100 to 150 attend Sunday services and weekly Bible studies regularly. Our main concern though is the lack of Bibles, coupled with the high turnover rate. In short, as soon as we distribute the few Bibles in our possession to inmates in need, they ship out and are replaced by new men with a hunger for God's word.

Any assistance you could render us would be greatly appreciated. We will be good stewards. No matter what you decide, I very much look forward to hearing more of your sermons.

Please send me information on how I can get more of your tapes. May God bless you, your family and congregation sincerely, and he signs it. Now, what do we do with a letter like this at a church like ours?

Of course we help him. I wrote him back a little note and I said, hey, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I was gone this summer.

The letter came while I was gone this summer. I said, here's what we're going to do. I said, we're going to write you, Abiding Words Communication Company is going to write you, and we're going to help you set up a tape library there at our expense. And I've already told our tape people, I mean, between me and them, we're going to cover this. I'm going to put some money in and we're going to cover this. And I said, and we're going to try to get you some Bibles. If you want to donate some Bibles, you can come up and talk to me and we're going to send a guy some Bibles. Of course.

Of course we're going to help him. But you know what? It's easy from an organizational point of view to respond to this letter. But how about personally? How about personally? What if this guy came to church here in an old pair of jeans and a kind of a shirt that didn't look the greatest and sat down? You know, that takes this and makes it real personal, huh?

I mean, it's easy to get real concerned about a letter. This guy's in prison. He's not sitting next to you. You know Steve who did our drama this morning? I mean, let's face it, Steve was not from Gentlemen's Quarterly making a fashion statement this morning, huh? I mean, he looked pretty miserable, didn't he?

Unshaven, looked pretty shabby. You know what I noticed when I got up here to make announcements? Steve was sitting kind of right out in there somewhere and there was nobody sitting around him. Isn't that interesting? There's nobody right on his left, right on his right, real close to him.

I mean, there was lots of seats around Steve. Do you find that interesting? I find that interesting.

I also find that kind of indicting, don't you? Why didn't somebody look at this guy and go, now this guy is here. I don't know what he needs, but he needs a friend. I'll go sit next to him.

Now we didn't plan him to trick you, but hey, I think it's real interesting. You know friends, we have a nursing home ministry here that Ollie Carter runs. We believe God wants us to be helpers of the helpless. We have a 12-step substance abuse ministry that our friend Gene Walters runs. We have recovery groups that Debbie Zabo coordinates. We have food that we take to homeless people on Sunday nights through our frontline ministry.

We work with the Indian Reservation in South Dakota, working with, you haven't seen poverty like this in the United States. We send a team out there every summer to teach Vacation Bible School. We have people of the world ministry. These are the strangers in Washington, people from China and Japan and all over everywhere, don't know anybody in town and come to go to school at Georgetown or wherever. They need a friend.

That's why we do people of the world. And we support the Good News Mission and the Gospel Mission and Prison Fellowship and we have a single parents ministry. You know and some single parents do just great.

They have family and support systems in town, but there are some single parents friends where life is very difficult. And we care about those people. My question is how much of any of this are you and I involved in? We're going to keep doing more in this arena, but I want to know how much of this you and I are involved in. Are we too busy? Are we too insulated? Are we too hardened by seeing beggars and panhandlers on the street everywhere we go in Washington? Are we too preoccupied with our own things?

Too bothered by our things that we're not willing to really take the time and care about helpless, powerless people? Inside of your bulletin is a purple insert. It looks just like this.

It says, is the Lord speaking to your heart? And on the back there's all kinds of opportunities to do things part of our caring ministry and the only thing this ministry does is just help needy people. That's all it does.

It doesn't make money, doesn't collect money, doesn't sell anything. This is just a chance for you to use your gifts and help needy people. That's all. You can help them by making meals. You can help them by visiting the hospital. You can help them by helping out with funerals. And you know what? If we're not doing things like this just to help people, I question how much of all the other stuff we're doing God really cares that much about.

Because I mean more than anything else, God just cares about helping needy people. That's our job. Well, got to tell you a quick story and I'm done. A couple years ago I was invited to speak at the Gospel Mission, which you know ministers to homeless people down in Washington. And they had a banquet and they invited me to come speak to the banquet and I thought this is great.

But it kind of packed my schedule up for that week and so I had a meeting one night and I was rushing home from a meeting and I had to go speak to the Gospel Mission the very next night and I didn't have my message done. And I had my middle son Justin in the car with me. He's about six or seven years old at the time. And we stopped at 7-Eleven to get a Coke real quick on the way home and sitting outside 7-Eleven was this guy drunk on peach wine. And he's just sitting there. I could see the peach wine.

I could smell the peach wine. And I got out the car and just so happened where I parked I had to walk right by him to get into 7-Eleven. So I walked up and I kind of like, oh no, I hope this guy doesn't say anything to me and I got to get home. I don't have time to deal with this guy.

I got to get home and work on a message about how important it is to deal with homeless people. You understand what I'm saying? So I hope he doesn't say anything to me. So I walk by him. He goes, hey, hey, hey, you.

And I'm like, oh no, man, I was afraid of this. I go, what? He goes, hey, could you buy me a pack of cigarettes? I go, no, man, I'm sorry.

I don't have time to do this, man. You know, I thought I got to get home and work on a message about how we ought to be taking care of people like you. You know, I walked on into 7-Eleven, got my coke started and I thought, all right. So I bought him a pack of cigarettes. And I went on out and I gave them to him and I said, hey, here's your cigarettes. I said, what's your name? He said, my name's Jimmy.

I said, Jimmy, okay, you know, I'm happy to buy you a pack of cigarettes. He said, hey, hey, man, can you give me a ride home? I said, well, where do you live? He said, I live a couple of blocks down the road there. I said, but he said, but I know I can't walk it.

He said, and if I try to cross the street, I'm going to get hit or the police is going to see me and pick me up. Could you give me a ride home? And I said, all right, all right, all right, come on, come on, come on. All right, come on. So I opened the back door, I put him in the back seat and I said, now, Jimmy, do you think you sure you can find your house? Yeah, I said, okay now. I said, because I have a lot of time now.

You sure you can find your house? Yeah, I can. Okay. I said, now, Jimmy, if you feel yourself getting sick, Jimmy, you need to tell me right away, Jimmy, don't you wait till the last minute now. So we start driving along and I'm going, Jimmy, you feel okay now, don't you, Jimmy? Yes, sir. I know you don't feel sick, do you, Jimmy?

No, sir, I feel okay, Jimmy, you let me know. We found his house, went in, I carried him in just about. I've never seen such a pig pen in my entire life. I mean, there was mold growing in.

I mean, it didn't get much worse than this. And so we're standing there and he goes, you know, I got a loaded gun in here in case anybody tries to break in. I go, what would anybody want to break into this place for? You know? I said, well, Jimmy, don't get it out.

Do us all a favor. Well, to make a long story short, a friend of mine and I here were able to get the detox unit out to see him. And you know what ended up happening?

I'll cut to the chase here. Jimmy ended up coming to know Christ. He ended up going down to North Carolina to a Christian rehabilitation center. He ended up working for the Christian rehabilitation center. Sound like I've been drinking peach wine, doesn't it? But anyway, and he began helping them with other people coming to know Christ.

And he writes me letters and keeps me posted on how things are going in his life. You say, Lon, you're such a hero. Friends, I tell you that story to indict myself. I didn't want to help this guy. I didn't want to stop. I was busy. I had things to do. This guy was an interruption.

He was a pain. I didn't want to do this. And I'm embarrassed to tell you that. But it's true.

And yet because God forced me to, somebody came to know Christ. I think there's other people out there in the world like Jimmy that if we would just take the time to stop and help them, I think we might be surprised what might happen in their lives. But this is Washington.

This is a power town. Jimmy didn't have no power. All Jimmy had was peach wine. But Jimmy was a person Jesus Christ cared about.

And so were the people you're going to pay us on Monday morning begging you for money, missing arms, living out on heating grates, and all kinds of other people we meet. Jesus cares about them all. And I'm here to challenge you as Christians, caring for those people won't get you your salvation. But if you've got your salvation, then the heart of God is God loves those people.

And we need to care about those people. And that's my challenge to you. And I hope you'll take it to heart. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word of God this morning. Thank you that you are the friend of a wounded heart. And Lord, there's lots of wounded hearts out there, some of them even here this morning. Forgive us, God, for getting so wrapped up in our own deal that we don't have the time and the energy and the willingness to break in our schedule to care about needy people.

Lord Jesus, remind us when you were here on earth, you always broke your schedule for needy people. And help us as your followers have that same heart. Help us as a church have that same heart. God, grip our hearts with your concern for the helpless and the powerless and the downcast. And may we be your arms and may we be your hands to those people in this world. As a church and as individual Christians, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.