Matthew 7:16-18; 25:31-40: Good

To the sheep, Verse 40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did for me.’” You are welcome in my Kingdom. The goats, who (equally unknowingly) did not do these things miss out on the Kingdom. The sheep are in; the goats are out.

When we were in Florida, we went to the Animal Kingdom in Disney World. Do you know what is the Animal Kingdom? It is like a big zoo, nature reserve and/or safari with all the requisite Disney characters and rides added to it. It is quite neat.

While two of my daughters and I were visiting the petting zoo at Disney, all of a sudden the sheep left the goats. They were all in one place and then the sheep just split like an invisible hand was separating them. They all ran away from the goats. Rebecca (my teenage daughter) and I noticed this and so we decided to go stand with the sheep.

I then spoke to my six year-old daughter, asking her if she remembered the parable of the sheep and the goats and how they are separated. It was at this point that one of the Disney employees must have heard part of our conversation as he told me that they do this by themselves. He doesn’t know why but every once and a while the sheep just separate themselves from the goats.

I thought about that comment – that the sheep separate themselves from the goats – and recalled Matthew 7:18, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” This is true.

Our actions are the fruit that broadcast to the world whether we are a good tree and a sheep or a bad tree and a goat. If we are sheep and good trees we will naturally feed the hungry, water the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the imprisoned. Just like a good tree cannot produce bad fruit; so too we who love God will naturally produce acts in keeping with repentance and salvation. God won’t make us commit those acts against our will and we will not have to master our own will to do those things. As we love God we will naturally show our acts of love to our God and to our neighbour just like a good tree naturally produces good fruit and a good sheep naturally moves on from the goats.

Today, I encourage us to that end. Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts and then He will naturally transform us as easily as He separates the sheep from the goats.

www.sheepspeak.com

Originally presented to the River Street Cafe, 13 January 17

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