This tape contains the third of three sermons in a mini-series titled, Low, He Comes, presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this sermon is, The Sheep and the Goats, and the scripture reference is Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. I'm reading from the 25th chapter, beginning at the 31st verse. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, Come, O blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. 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, Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?

And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee? And the king will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

Then he will say to those at his left hand Depart from me you cursed Into the eternal 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 welcome me Naked and you did not clothe me Sick and in prison And you did not visit me Then they also will answer Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee? Then he will answer them Truly I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me and they will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life The Gospel of the Lord I want to come back to the scripture that we heard earlier this morning. Parable of the sheep and the goats. I remember making an offhand comment some years ago about the need for us to go out into the world and turn some of the goats into sheep.

And afterward, Joe Kitts took me aside and very gently, very lovingly corrected me. He said, goats never become sheep. The job of the shepherd is to separate them.

I read an article some time ago, you may have seen it, that said that some genetic engineers have been experimenting with cross-breeding between sheep and goats. And they have created a bizarre mutation. Have you read about that?

This is true. They call it, what else would they call it? They call it a shoat.

I don't know what to make of that. I don't know what that is, and I don't know what it's good for. one thing is certain that like the mule which is half horse and half donkey the shoat can't reproduce itself if you try to be half sheep and half goat you may be a curiosity but you'll never produce anything that lasts it's like trying to be half hot and half cold and Jesus said because you are lukewarm I will spew you out of my mouth when the son of man returns in all his glory he will separate us into sheep and goats welcoming the sheep into life eternal and consigning the goats into everlasting punishment.

That's strong stuff, isn't it? That's much stronger than the bridegroom saying you can't come in because I don't know you. Or the master saying you're a slothful servant.

It's of the same peace with that, but it's much stronger. The shepherd king says, depart from me, you cursed. into the eternal fire prepared for Satan.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to hear those words. Two things I find fascinating about this parable. The first is that the great separation is made on the basis of what we've done or not done.

Does that surprise you? I thought the whole point of the Gospel is that it's by grace we're saved through faith. It's not a matter of works, lest anyone should boast.

It's the gift of God, right? Right? Right.

Right. But, if you've truly received the gift, it ought to make a difference in your life. Jesus says so, Paul says so, James says so, The whole Scripture bears witness to it.

If you've received the gift of new life, it begins to affect your behavior. Gert Behanna used to say, O Lord, I'm not what I ought to be. And O Lord, I'm not what I'm going to be, but thank You, Lord, I'm not what I was.

It begins to make a difference. I'm not perfect by a very long shot, but it begins to make a difference. John Wesley put it this way.

He said, I don't do good works in order to receive salvation. But because by God's grace I have received salvation, I do good works. Get it?

If I'm really a new creature in Christ, I begin to act differently. My priorities, my interests, my values, my activities begin to change. The way I spend my time, The way I occupy my mind, what I read, what I look at on television, what I go to the theater to see, the kinds of relationships I cultivate, the way I use my talents, the way I invest my money begins to be affected.

And if it isn't, then somewhere along the way we need to question whether the conversion was real. You see, I can spend my time with sheep, and I can go around saying, Bah! The fact that you live in a garage doesn't make you an automobile.

The fact that you hang around the sheepfold doesn't mean you're a sheep. That's the first thing. Fascinating that the separation between sheep and goats is on the basis of what we've done.

The second is, did you notice the unselfconsciousness of the sheep? Lord, when did we do that? They weren't even aware that they had done all those lovely things or that they had failed to do them.

And he says, when you've done them to the least of these, my brethren, to the folks that everybody else ignores and walks right past. When you've done them to them, you've done them to me. In other words, they weren't trying to impress anybody.

It was almost a matter of course. Because they've become different kinds of people, it almost flows from them automatically. That's the theme of this morning's scripture, and it's also one of the things that God has been saying to us in a very powerful way the last couple of weeks.

I wrote to you on November 5th that we were in a cash flow crisis. We're in a crisis this year, even while we're on the brink of a stewardship call that involves a big increase for next year. And I asked you to pray for me, for the vestry, for each other.

As we re-examine the plans already largely formulated, I asked you to fast and to seek God's leading for the parish as a whole and for each of us individually. I want to thank you. Because it's obvious that many of you did that, took that very seriously.

And I want to share with you the fact that I believe God has spoken to us and through us, through his people, through many of you, I believe God has spoken two words in particular. Neither one of them is easy. Neither one of them is the word that I really wanted to preach this morning.

But God has been dealing with us. The first word is repent. repent of the idols in your life idols of materialism spending more and more and more even money that you don't yet have which leads into bondage spending not on his kingdom but on yours idols of self-righteousness which says I can criticize you I can deal with the blind spot in your life and I don't have to deal with the blind spot in mine.

You're wrong! You're wrong! Problem in the church is your fault.

That's an idol. That's an idol. You know, when God gives you insight into a problem, it is never so that you can criticize.

It is always so that you can intercede. And it is usually because it applies to you first. And to me first.

Idols of pride. Pride in our accomplishments. Pride even in trouble.

If we're proud of the church rather than proud of the Lord of the church, we're in deep trouble. I'm thrilled at what God has done and is doing and promises to do in and through this place. But don't let me cross that line.

I'm proud of Him. Proud of Him. It's not Him.

It's garbage. It won't last. God has spoken the word repent.

Repent. If you weren't here on Friday evening, you missed an extraordinary experience. prayer and praise before the music had even ended God began to interrupt that's his right with words of prophecy along exactly this line one after another after another it just kept coming repent repent fall on your knees fall on your faces repent of the idols in your life repent of greed and materialism, of luxurious lifestyles, of self-satisfied hypocrisy, of easy commitment.

You go to church. You give your money. You're just like everybody else.

You're just like everybody else. Those words kept coming. finally we abandoned all that we had planned and we got down on our knees and we began to pray we began to repent we began we haven't finished we began to repent let me say that was not my message to the congregation that was God's message to all of us and I'm under that with you and God has been harrowing my life putting his finger on things that are very uncomfortable to me.

It's not pleasant to come under that kind of a word, but it's good. It's good. Aren't you glad God loves you enough to say, I want the best?

I'm not satisfied with inferior commitment. I want the best. I want to read you a letter that arrived on my desk just yesterday.

We went into a day of prayer and fasting right through the night and all day yesterday. And God kept speaking that kind of a word of repentance over and over and over all during the night. When we came together yesterday afternoon at five and we read all the notes, all the messages that people sensed God was giving to them, almost all of them were right along that line.

And I had to say, either God has spoken or everybody who spent the night here is crazy. Because they all heard the same thing. This letter says it as well as any of them.

This letter is in response to your request for our thoughts about the recent decline in giving. More accurately, it describes a condition in the body here and perhaps something to reflect on as we consider stewardship. The Lord is working on a grand scale and I suspect with great consequences.

I suggest to you that we are beginning to reap some of what we have sown. We, the body at Truro, have been given much in provision, opportunities and choices. Corporately, we've been given the resources to make an extraordinary impact on our community and world.

And good work has been done, and it continues. But we also have begun to abandon our first love. We have, in many cases, too many I fear, grounded ourselves in the things and ways of the world, from lifestyles to attitudes to pleasures to enterprises.

All of us. The secular world has seduced us and we have yielded. We have compromised our calling.

It is evident by our lifestyles, materialism, seeking the bigger and better houses, more houses, furniture, and cars to match. Our energies are directed toward accumulation of money and material goods, a life of overworking and individual expression and pursuits. We're in debt and bondage, yet hunger for more at a price we cannot afford.

That price is sacrifice in other areas. Our families and relationships are breaking up. We're losing our children.

Sickness is prevalent and we're ineffective in helping our wounded and brokenhearted. When we ask for miracles, our prayers are being unanswered. And the Great Commission to change the world, where is it?

We're no different from the world. Many of our values come from society. Too many of our decisions come from committees.

And our vision comes from our reasoning. Our spiritual gifts are wrapped. God is calling us to repent of our excesses and selfishness.

God is calling us to repent and become a God-fearing people dependent on Him. But first we need to hear the truth and see our folly. The prophets of the body at Truro will speak.

The vision for Truro will come from God through them and not through professional people, architects, accountants, not even the clergy, no matter how well intentioned. It will happen. Our hearts must be changed and He will break us if necessary to make His body fit to become His bride.

it is a high calling that's one of the two major things that the Lord has said let me comment on the other we had a special meeting at the vestry on November 8th and in spite of all the plans already formulated, plans primarily dealing with the completion of the physical plant here, we heard a very clear word from God. And once again, that word has been confirmed and reconfirmed and reconfirmed. You've heard the same thing.

many of you, dozens of you, have shared the same sense of God speaking to us. The word is, wait. Wait.

This word isn't a word of rebuke. It's not a matter of God saying that the plans to build are an abomination to Him. He's not saying we're completely off base in our thinking.

He's just saying, wait. Wait on the building, I've got something else. We've already taken on a major commitment in the purchase of the ICM building across the street, and by the end of this year we will have paid off about a third of that.

And I think that what the Lord is saying, among other things, is finish that commitment before you take on another one. I could take you through much more financial detail than I think would be helpful, the bottom line is this by redoing the budget completely redoing the budget for next year the brochure we sent out last week is out of date already by redoing the budget for next year and delaying new construction until we've paid off ICM we can free up $400,000 for outreach that would otherwise have been spent on bricks and mortar. I think we need to get the bricks and mortar.

Don't misunderstand. I really think God has led us in all of the plans, but he's saying not quite yet. This is a very strategic year in the history of the Episcopal Church.

The year of the General Convention, I believe it may be a watershed in the life of our church. I believe there's a high probability that we're going to see the church change its stance on abortion and affirm far more forthrightly the sanctity of human life. And that's in no small part the result of the work of Noel.

This is the year that the church will deal with radical proposals that will legitimize what are euphemistically called alternative lifestyles. We're not going to do that. We're going to reaffirm monogamous marriage and the family as God designed it and the sanctity of sex.

If enough biblical Christians get involved in the dialogue, And friends, we're going to be involved in that dialogue. Visit the table downstairs. Alan Meninger has had God transform his life in the most wonderful way.

All the folks working with him have been rescued from the most horrible bondage. Alternative lifestyles. I believe we're to come alongside those ministries that are going to have a major impact on general convention.

Just for instance, ERM, Episcopal Renewal Ministries, wants to have nightly prayer and praise services at general convention. We need to be part of that. We need to make that happen.

You can't even imagine how expensive that is, but we need to do that. We need to be part of the effort along with a number of other churches to distribute thousands of tapes free of charge across the country this year. I believe God is calling us to expand our audio ministry and to get into video as well.

We're to send out teams of people, I believe, every week. many of you are going to be on those teams to other churches around the country every week at least 50 churches this week this year we're going to send out other teams of people to take advantage of the exploding opportunities for international ministry you're going to hear about that on Friday evening it boggles the mind to see what is available to us in East Africa some of you are going to be involved in that and I believe God has said we're to establish Trinity Christian School as one of the finest Christian institutions of learning in the country all of these things and many others we would have to cut back on severely or even eliminate entirely were we to proceed with building just now and so the Lord has said he has said I didn't say, he said, wait. You're going to get the building, but not quite yet.

I want to read you another letter. This too is typical of dozens of letters. Generally, I'm 100% behind any plans having to do with improving or enlarging the facilities at Truro.

but for some unknown reason the recent building plans made me very uncomfortable and although I couldn't put my finger on it I just knew we ought to wait. So I decided to pray and pray and pray. Most mornings I walked for about 30 minutes and during that time I talked to God and I'm nothing if not specific in my requests.

I asked him, please, to stop Toro from going ahead with the building plans if the time wasn't right. To speak to the hearts and minds of those on the vestry, so that in spite of our desire to make all these plans a reality, they'd have the courage to say, not just now, let's wait. Back at my office, I flipped open my Bible.

Let me tell you that when I flip open my Bible, I take care to flip it open to the New Testament. this time however I just opened it and when I looked down my eyes literally fell on the third verse of the second chapter of Habakkuk which said but these things I plan won't happen right away slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled if it seems slow do not despair for these things will surely come to pass Just be patient. They will not be overdue a single day.

Repent. And be patient. and get on with the work that I've called you to do in a very strategic hour.

This is the time when we do whatever it is God has told each of us to do. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me