We've all heard the expression, the black sheep of the family. And we all know what that means. It's the member of the family that just sort of wanders away, or at least doesn't conform to the rest of the family. Well, it seems to me that spiritually speaking, there are black sheep in God's family. They're those of his children that just seem to wander away. If your heart is in tune with the heart of the father, or the shepherd I should say, you certainly don't want to be a black sheep. So let me ask a very simple question this morning. How can we all be white sheep? I guess one of the answers to that is don't wander away, right? Well, just if you don't wander away, does that automatically make you a white sheep, or do you have to do something else to qualify for the category of a little white lamb? Well, the answer to that is in the latter part of the Olivet Discourse, recorded in Matthew chapter 25. So will you turn with me to Matthew chapter 25, where I'm going to begin reading with verse 31. Matthew chapter 25, verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as shepherds divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left. 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. where 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. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him saying, When did we see you hungry and fed you or thirsty and gave you to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and came to you? 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 my brethren, you did it to me. Then he will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. 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 visited me. Then he will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick in prison and did not minister to you? And he said to them, answered 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 unto me. These will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life. Now, if you've been tracking me as we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew, incident by incident and episode by episode, you know by now that Matthew 24 and 25 is called the Olivet Discourse because Jesus spoke it just before he died while he was on the Mount of Olives. which, by the way, is just outside Jerusalem. Now this is the last portion of that great discourse. I would say that this is one of the major discourses Jesus gave in all of his life. I would have to put the top one as the Sermon on the Mount and certainly in the top 10 and maybe the top three is the upper room discourse recorded in John. But I would say this is one of his major discourses. It is an extremely important discourse. in the overall life of our Lord. But even beyond that, it is one of the most major discourses in all of the Bible on the subject of prophecy. So it is imperative that if you want to know what Jesus taught, and if you want to know what the Bible says about prophecy, that you understand the Olivet Discourse. Since this is the last portion of it, I'd like to take just a minute and show you the total structure of it. I've not made a lot out of this, but before we wrap it up, let me go back and review just one little item that's critical in understanding these two chapters. Go back to chapter 24 and look at verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Based on those two verses, what would you say is going to happen in the future? Well, it's blatantly obvious. I say this sometimes jokingly, but I'm dead serious. You have got to be a theologian to miss this. Look at verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days. Stop! Is Jesus saying there's a coming tribulation period? That's as stated as simply and as plainly as it can be stated in language. And look at verse 30. Then... immediately after the tribulation of those days then the you will see the sign of the Son of Man and peer in heaven and There will be they will see the Son of Man coming on clouds of earth with power and great glory does this say that Jesus is coming back and What's going to happen immediately before he comes back? tribulation I don't know how it can be said any clearer or simpler. The Bible teaches there's coming a tribulation and immediately after that the Lord is coming back down to earth. Now I can talk about that. and all the ramifications of it and there's a lot of details pertaining to it such as Daniel tells us this tribulation period is going to last seven years and on and on we go it's during that seven year period the Antichrist is coming and on and on we could go but I'm going to forego all that for this morning and simply say that in the overall outline of the Olivet discourse Jesus pauses here And he begins to give warnings, warning people to be prepared, that when that period comes, you're prepared. And as I have suggested, the chronology of the passage suggests that what is called the rapture is going to take place before this tribulation period. So these warnings, in my opinion, apply to those who will be living before the tribulation and one of them he says as It was before the days of the flood so he takes us back in chronology to the time before the tribulation and Then he gives parable after parable. There are three of them in all and the essence of those parables is be Prepared I'm warning you it's coming and you need to be ready when it comes When he finishes those warnings, he goes back to where he left off. Now, this is very important for the understanding of the Olivet Discourse. So let me say this very simply and very clearly. Look at chapter 24, verse 30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory then there's warning after warning after warning after warning that drop down the chapter twenty five and pick up at verse thirty one when the son of man comes in his glory stop you see what I'm saying He said, in chapter 24, I'm taking you all the way up to the Son of Man coming in power and great glory. Then he stops, he pauses, and I would say he preaches, and then he picks that theme back up in chapter 25, verse 31, and says, now let me gonna tell you a little more about what's gonna happen after the Son of Man comes. So it seems to me that that forms the chronology, and for that matter, the division of the Olivet Discourse. Now, with that in mind, let's look at what he says in this last portion of the Olivet Discourse. What's recorded here, beginning at verse 31 and going to the end of the chapter in verse 46, is really rather simple. He's talking about a judgment, and the passage can be divided into three parts. First of all, he talks about the Son who is the judge, the Son of Man, the Son of God. Secondly, he talks about the sheep, thirdly he talks about the goats it's my suggestion that if you listen carefully to what he says you can learn how to be a sheep a white sheep and not a goat so let's look at this beginning with what he says about the judge himself that takes us back to verse 31 when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the Holy Angels with him then he will sit on his throne now we got a pause for just a second I have to explain something that text says that when the Lord comes back he's going to do what sit on a throne there's a huge theological problem here that isn't apparent just as you read the verse there are some who teach that Jesus is sitting on the throne now where is Jesus now at the right hand of the Father. He's not sitting on the throne. When He comes back, He's going to do what? Sit on the throne. And that means he's going to sit on the throne as a king. As a matter of fact, he's going to use the word king in this passage. And it's the only time in the Gospel of Matthew that he refers to himself as king. It's in verse 34. Then the king will say to those on the right hand. So he's going to sit on the throne as king. That means there is a kingdom. Now, let me pursue something for just a second. We'll get back to the passage. Could we then outline prophecy based on the Olivet Discourse? This much is crystal clear. There's going to be a tribulation. There's going to be the second coming. Then there's going to be a kingdom He's gonna sit on the throne and there's gonna be a kingdom It's a matter of fact that I don't want to take the time to do it now But it says he's going to sit on the throne of his glory and another passage in Matthew that expression is used and the parallel passage in Mark says the throne of the kingdom. So it's clear by the use of the word king in this passage and the other references to sitting on the throne of glory in other passages that we're talking about a kingdom. So there's a tribulation. There is the second coming of Christ, and then there is the kingdom. So, which I think is going to be on the earth, and is going to last, the first part of it, for a thousand years. But before that kingdom gets started, there's going to be a judgment. And that's what he's talking about here. So verse 41 says then he will Then I'm sorry verse 31 where we need to start then the Son of Man will come in the glory and all of his holy angels with him then he will sit on the throne of his glory and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats and he will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left so there's a judgment and before the before the kingdom starts there's this judgment and he separates the sheep from the goats now I want to say a couple of things about this I think we sort of slide over some of this stuff sometime. Do you understand what's happening here? Here is Jesus standing on a Mount of Olives saying, and by the way, I'm coming back. And when I come back, I'm going to separate the sheep from the goats. Huh? I mean, if you didn't know anything else about him and you just read this, you would think, well, who are you? Right? I mean, imagine a mere mortal saying such a thing. That's an incredible statement. Matter of fact, one author has said, sitting there, a weary man on the Mount of Olives, with the valley of Jehoshaphat at his feet, which the Jews regarded as the scene of the final judgment, Jesus declared himself to be the judge of the world. in language so unlimited in its claim that the speaker must either be a madman or God. I mean, just think about this. He just calmly says, and oh, by the way, when I come back, I'm going to judge the world. So this is another indication that Jesus Christ is no mere mortal. He is God in the flesh, which we celebrate every year at Christmas. It's called theologically the incarnation, God in flesh. God became a man. All right, other thing I need to say about the son, the son of man, the son of God, which means he's God the son, is that he's going to judge. Now the question is, what judgment is this? Because as you read this passage, it sounds like there's one general judgment, that at one time, he's going to separate the sheep from the goats, and that would be called a general judgment. Now this becomes a theological issue. There are people who say, based on this passage and one in the Gospel of John, that There's just one general judgment. There's only one judgment, and at that judgment, the sheep are separated from the goat. The problem with that is that there are other passages that seem to indicate that there's more than one judgment. This is a simple explanation without going into a lot of detail. When does this judgment take place? At the beginning of the millennium, right? Well, if you go to Revelation chapter 21, you discover at the end of the millennium... There's a judgment called the Great White Throne Judgment, where Satan and the Antichrist are cast into the bottomless pit, and all that are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So there is clearly two judgments, and there are others. So my point is that this is not a general judgment. Well, if it's not a general judgment, what is it? We need to look carefully at these verses. He says that he's going to gather the nations. Look at verse 32. All the nations will be gathered together before him. So this is sometimes called the judgment of the nations. Only as you read the passage, it's obvious he's not talking about judging a whole nation. He's talking about judging individuals, clearly. There's no question about that. So what's he talking about? Well, let me just tell you that the Greek word translated nations is the Greek word that's translated elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew as Gentiles. Matter of fact, one of my Greek teachers in seminary many years ago suggested that every time this word appears in Matthew, it's referring to the Gentiles. So this is the judgment of the Gentiles. Furthermore as I have just explained these are Gentiles who came out of the tribulation period. So I would say that this is a judgment on individual Gentiles who went through the tribulation period and who apparently became Christians. At least some of them did, and some of them did not. Or matter of fact, some have gone so far as to suggest that this may be a reference. The sheep may be a reference to the 144,000. I'm not sure I can press that. But clearly, these are people that have gone through the Tribulation period, and that's the point. All right. Let me sum up what I've said so far, and we'll go to the next point. The first thing he does is he talks about the judge, and the judge is Jesus. The judgment is Gentile believers who've gone through the tribulation. The chronology of the discussion forces us to that conclusion. all right now he's clearly said that the result of this judgment is he's going to divide the sheeps from the goats so let's look at the sheep and then let's look at the goats let's pick up at verse 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 and then he explains 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 I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me Huh that sounds like You're going to go into the kingdom because you did a bunch of good work. Is that teaching salvation by work. Does it sound like it's teaching salvation by work. Sounds like it sure does. Now, the Bible is very clear about this. Salvation is by grace through faith. Jesus died. Jesus arose. That takes care of the sin problem. And when we trust in him, his death and resurrection takes care of our sin problem. We're born again, and we enter into the kingdom of God, John chapter 3. Well, then how do you explain this? I mean, this, for all the world, sounds like you get there by doing a bunch of good things. And if that's the case, by the way, we're all in trouble. Yeah, if this is the list, have you done everything on this list? And how many times did you do it? Now, I know some people that might qualify if you grade on the curve. But But this is a tough list. I mean, how many hungry people have you fed? Larry and Kathleen are in good shape in that department. How many people have you closed? You know, how many times you go into the prisons and visited people? I know people have done that. I've done that. years ago but this is a tough list is this saying this is what you have to do to get the heaven and the answer is no how do you know that well look at what the passage says it doesn't say that this is you know good you made it look at verse thirty four then the king will say to those on the right hand come you glass my father inherit of the kingdom in other words he's not saying congratulations your works got you saved he's saying congratulations your works got you blessed and you don't have to go any further than the Sermon on the Mount to know that blessing in the kingdom is being rewarded in the kingdom and as we clearly know from all kinds of passages in the new testament we are rewarded based on our works first corinthians chapter three is one obvious case in point furthermore he says blessed of you who are going to inherit the kingdom and in my opinion there's a difference in the New Testament between entering the kingdom and inheriting the kingdom so he's not talking about entering the kingdom he's talking about inheriting the kingdom and inheritance has to do with rewards There's a double blessing to some in the Old Testament, for example. Not everybody gets the same inheritance. You get an inheritance based on your conduct and your works and your character, I might add. This is not teaching salvation by works. It's teaching rewards by works. And he says to them, this is what you did to me. And therefore you are going to be blessed and you are going to inherit the kingdom. You showed mercy. people and so as James would say in James chapter 2 mercy triumphs over judgment you showed mercy to people and you are going to be rewarded for it now they didn't get it They couldn't remember a time when they did all these things like feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit strangers, clothe naked people or visit sick people. They couldn't remember doing that. So they begin to quiz him. Verse, where is that? It says, verse 37, and the righteous will answer and say, Lord, when did we do this? And they reiterate everything he said that they did. And they couldn't remember. So the Lord gives them an answer verse 40 and the king will answer and say to them Assuredly I say to you in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me now It's a very famous passage This gets quoted all the time. This gets quoted by people who don't even believe the Bible and This gets quoted by people that don't believe salvation is by grace through faith. This gets quoted by some to say you got to work to get to heaven, or it gets quoted by people who just want to motivate you to give to poor people. This is not talking about giving to all poor people. And that might be an application. Don't misunderstand me. We'll get to that later. But strictly speaking, the interpretation of this verse is What? Well, look at it. He says you did it to my brethren. Now we have to identify my brethren. I've already told you that the context of this passage is we're talking to tribulation saints keep Gentile saints who are being rewarded because they came out of the tribulation during the tribulation they they ministered to what he says are my brethren and they're rewarded for it at the end of the tribulation so my brethren must be believing Jews There are Jews who are going to be saved during the tribulation period. And some of the Gentiles are going to minister to them, believing Gentiles. So Jesus is saying that the believing Gentiles who ministered to believing Jews during the tribulation period will be rewarded. That is the point. Now, that's the interpretation, and like I said a minute ago, I'm sure we can apply this, because this truth permeates the scripture from beginning to end, that God blesses those who bless others. That's taught repeatedly in the scripture. So, there is an application here, that if we show mercy, we will receive a reward when we stand, not at this judgment, but at the judgment seat of Christ. Someone has said, I was hungry and you formed a club and discussed my hunger. I was in prison and you crept off quietly to your chapel to repray for my release. I was naked, and in your mind, you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me. You seemed so close to God, but I was still very hungry, lonely, and cold." Out. This passage was the basis of a rather famous poem written by a fellow named Edwin Markham. It was called The Shoes of Happiness, and it goes like this. It centers around Conrad and Cobbler. One night, Conrad dreamed that the Lord would come to be his guest. When the dawn was young, he arose and decorated his little shop with flowers, anticipating the master's visit. When the master's come, he said to himself, I will wash his feet where the spikes had been, and I will kiss his hands where they were punctured by nails. But the Lord did not come. A beggar boy came by, and Conrad gave him a pair of shoes. An elderly woman came by hungry and bearing a heavy load. He lifted the load from her back and gave her some food. Finally, just before the day ended, a little lost boy wandered into his shop. A little lost child, I should say. Her eyes were wet with tears. Conrad compassionately led her back to her mother. But the Lord never came to a shot. Then, according to this poem, soft in the silence and deep within him, he heard a voice that said, and here's the poem. Lift up your head, for I have kept my word. Three times I came to your friendly door. Three times my shadow was on your floor. I was the beggar with bruised feet. I was the woman you gave to eat. I was the child in the homeless street." And then the author said that it dawned on Conrad that in serving others, he was serving his master. Now, if you don't remember anything else I say today, tattoo that somewhere so that you're reminded of it often. That's the spiritual impact of this passage. That's the spiritual truth that transcends whatever details we want to see in the passage, that when you serve others, the Lord regards it as serving him, provided, of course, you do it in his name. So that's the judgment of the sheep. He then moves to the judgment of the goats. We pick up in verse 41. Now pause, because we need to make a couple of observations here. Clearly these are not saved, right? Clearly, clearly, clearly, clearly. So we don't need to labor that point. Clearly they are being cast into what is called hell, right? He calls it here everlasting fire. But I want you to notice something. It was not prepared from the foundation of the world. Look at verse 34. The king will say to those at his right hand, come ye blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The kingdom was in the mind of God from the very, very, very beginning. But everlasting fire is not said to have been prepared from the foundation of the world. Interesting. Secondly, it was not prepared for people, it was prepared for The devil. Did you know the devil has angels? They're called demons. So, hell was not created for people. Hell was created for the devil and his demons. Now, these people are gonna join the devil and the demons there. And Jesus says it's because you did not feed me, give me to drink, clothe me, and visit me when I was sick. And they say, verse 44, well, Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister you? We don't remember seeing you. Why had we known it was you? We would have done it. You know if you had a sign hanging around your neck that said Hey I'm Jesus. Maybe we would have done it. And Jesus says to them verse forty five. Assuredly I will say to you and as much as you did it unto the did not do it unto the least of one of these. You did not do it unto me. What was their sin. Well for one thing it was a sin not of commission but of omission this is something you did not do can not doing something get you in trouble you bet just ask any husband you were supposed to laugh louder than that or ask any wife all right let me let me remind you of a verse in John chapter 16 Jesus said when the Holy Spirit is going to come, he's going to convict the world of sin because they did not believe in me. That's a sin of omission. They did not believe, nor did they show mercy. So Jesus is saying, in essence, if you take all of his teaching into consideration, they didn't believe me and they didn't show mercy to other people. So, no wonder they didn't recognize me, they didn't trust me, and they didn't know my word enough to know that I regard serving others as serving me when it's done in my name. So, these people didn't recognize who Jesus was enough to trust him and who his children were enough to serve him. In the fall of 1775, the manager of the largest hotel in Baltimore refused to lodge a man because he was dressed like a farmer. And he thought the fellow's appearance would discredit him with other possible guests. So that farmer-looking man went to some other motel, or I should say hotel. Later, that manager discovered that that was really not a farmer. It was a more important person. And he sent over a messenger and apologized and offered to give him accommodations. That farmer-looking guest wrote back and sent the messenger back with this message. Quote, tell him I've already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly. But if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States, signed Thomas Jefferson. Not recognizing what you're dealing with could be very expensive. Now, here is the judgment, and it's harsh. Verse 36 and these will go away into everlasting punishment but righteous the righteous into everlasting life Was obvious these people weren't righteous and from we know from the book of Romans the way you get righteous is by trusting Jesus Christ and you are declared righteous So they didn't do that, but the punishment is they're going to be cast Into everlasting fire Here it's called everlasting punishment By the way, it's real simple. This verse says it all. Righteous into eternal life, and it's the same Greek word as everlasting, by the way, so it's translated differently, but that's not a big problem at all. And notice what it says. There's either pardon or punishment. And the punishment is as equally long as the life. You see, there's a little, we speak of going through hell. Did you ever say that? I've said that. You ever say going through hell? That's not accurate. Nobody ever goes through hell. You go and stay, right? Now that's not a pretty picture, but it's eternal, folks. You don't go through it. There's no exit sign. If this building were to catch on fire, there are exit signs over the exits and you can get out, right? No exit signs in hell. You go and stay. So I'm here to tell you in the most sober and serious term, there's a heaven to gain and there's a hell to shine. I'm here to tell you there's a heaven filled with happiness. and there's a hell filled with horror. And the good news is you can escape the one and gain the other by simply trusting in Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, John 5.24 says, if you trust in Jesus Christ, you have passed from death unto life, from light to darkness, and it promises there is no judgment. of eternal separation from God for those who trusted in his son, Jesus Christ. All right, let me sum this up. Let me make a couple of observations. The sum is simple. This passage is teaching that at the end of the tribulation period, the Lord will reward believing Gentiles who showed mercy and kindness to believing Jews, and he will send unbelievers into eternal punishment. So, very simply, at the end of the tribulation, at the beginning of the kingdom, there's going to be a judgment where the Lord is going to separate the sheep from the goats. Now, I want to make two observations about this, and one is personal. When I became a Christian, the man who led me to Christ taught that there's coming a tribulation, that there's coming, the Lord's coming back, and he's gonna rule on the earth for a thousand years. I got taught that early in my Christian experience. He also taught me the Lord was gonna come back before the tribulation. So I entered into my Christian experience believing all of that. It's a long story and I don't have time to tell it to you now but along the way something happened that made me doubt all of that. And that happened while I was in seminary. And I was part of the required course was I had to take a course on prophecy. The teacher was Dr. John F. Wolvard. That name may mean nothing to you. He's with the Lord now. Lived to be a very elderly man and passed away. He was one of the great authorities on prophecy. One day in class, he was lecturing on the rapture. He brought up this passage, and I almost fell out of my seat. You see, There's several different views as to when the rapture could happen. It could happen before the tribulation or it could happen after the tribulation, right? And there are a lot of good Christians who believe it's after. You're gonna go through it. I don't happen to be one of them. And part of what convinced me was this passage. Say, how in the world could this passage convince you? Well, this passage convinced me that the tribulation is not at the end. I'm sorry, the rapture is not at the end of the tribulation. Could it do that? Well, you got to think for a minute. So you got to put on your thinking cap. All right Now if the post-tribulational view was right, here's the picture The Lord comes back and all the Saints are taken up, right? We meet him where in the air first Thessalonians chapter 4 and then we come back down to the earth, right and If that's the scenario, the rapture separates the sheep from the goats. Right? Right. But this passage says, no. The Lord's going to come down, sit on His throne, and then He's going to separate the sheep from the goats. And I sat in class and said, ooh, Dr. Wolford, that's good. That means post-trib can't possibly be right. And all God's children that don't want to go through that said amen. Christians, you're chickens. All right. All right. I just had to throw that in. That is that this passage, every time I think about this passage, that's what I think about. And as I've already, I've labored long and hard But I think in chapter 24, there's plenty of indication that the rapture comes before the tribulation. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the New Testament echoes that and buttresses it very strongly. But I want to conclude by making one other observation. And frankly, I think it's the most important part of this whole story for us today. And that is, there's no question but that this passage teaches us that when you serve other people, especially saints, in the name of the Lord, he regards it as being done unto him and he rewards us accordingly. Folks, if there's anything we should get out of this is God rewards those who show kindness toward his children. We just need to be more kind to each other. Hey, there's a good New Year's resolution. Put that down You can start ahead of time start now You can start today. All right Let me just tell you If you give a cup of water in the name of a prophet you get a prophets reward If you give a cup of water to a prophet you get a reward One author said, God's judgment does not depend on the knowledge we have amassed, or the fame that we have acquired, or the fortune we have gained, but on the help that we have given. He goes on to say, and the help is the simple things, giving a hungry man something to eat, welcoming a stranger, cheering the sick, visiting the prisoners. And he adds the things that anybody can do. Hey, how would you like to rack up some points? Well, here it is. Just go be kind. Go be kind. And let me suggest something else. That starts with your tongue. I've been really impressed lately with the fact that some believers have a sharp tongue. and it hurts people, and you ought to just be kind with your tongue, as well as your hands and your feet. Ruth went to the mailbox, and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening it, and 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 would like to visit. Love, always, Jesus. Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. Why would the Lord come to visit me? I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer. With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinet. Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I will have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner. She reached into her purse and counted out the contents. $10.40. Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts at least. She threw on her court, hurried to the door, some bread, some sliced turkey, carton of milk, leaving Ruth with a grand total of 23 cents until Monday. Nevertheless, she felt good as she headed back to the house, her meager offering tucked under her arm. Hey lady, can you help us? Ruth had been so absorbed in the dinner plan 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, you 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 kind of hungry. Well, could you help us, lady? We'd really appreciate it. Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty. They smelled bad. And frankly, she was certain that they should 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 it to him. Yeah. Well, okay, lady. I understand. Thanks anyway. The man put his arm around his wife's shoulder and they turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched them leave, Ruth felt the 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 the bread? I'll figure out something else that I'll serve my guest. And she handed the man her grocery bag. Thanks, lady. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you, said the man's wife. And Ruth could see that she was now shivering. You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one? Ruth unbuttoned her coat jackets and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back down the street without her coat and with nothing to serve her guests. Thank you, lady. Thank you very much, she could hear. Ruth was chilled by the time she reached the front door and worried, too. The Lord was coming to visit, and she didn't have anything to offer him. She stumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in the 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 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 the coat, Ruth no longer noticed. Father, help us to be like Ruth so we can be like Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.