Church School
Every service, broken down and assigned
Pick a live service to read the Pastor's meaning behind the message, then work the six-day assignment with its applied verses and the new verses added this week.
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Sunday, Week 4 · Morning Worship · 9:00 AM · Matthew 25:31–46
Servants of the King
How you treat the overlooked is how you treat Christ Himself.
Pastor's meaning for this service: the sheep and the goats are not separated by what they believed about the King but by what they did with the King's people. When I preach 'the least of these,' I am not speaking about a program — I am speaking about the neighbor on 28th Street, the child with no coat, the member nobody has called in a month. Judgment day will read like a list of ordinary Tuesdays. So this week, do not go looking for a mountaintop; go looking for a hungry person.
The King sits down (vv. 31–33)
Christ returns not as a baby in a manger but as a Shepherd-King who separates. Meaning: your everyday choices are already being sorted.
Six ordinary mercies (vv. 34–40)
Food, drink, welcome, clothing, care, visitation. Meaning: discipleship is mostly unglamorous and always within reach.
The sin of omission (vv. 41–46)
The goats are condemned for what they did not do. Meaning: doing no harm is not the same as doing good.
Applied verses
Matthew 25:40
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The measuring line of the whole sermon. Memorize it first.
James 2:15–16
“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”
James says out loud what Matthew 25 implies — warm words are not warm coats.
Proverbs 19:17
“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.”
Mercy is never a loss; it is a deposit.
New verses this week
Isaiah 58:6–7
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness... to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?”
New this week: the Old Testament root of Matthew 25 — worship God accepts has hands.
Galatians 6:10
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
New this week: mercy begins in the church family and spills into the block.
Six-day assignment
Church School — Monday through Saturday
Matthew 25:31
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory... then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.”
Start the week with who He is before what you do.
Assignment · Write the sermon's big idea in your own words, in one sentence.
Ask yourself · Where in my week do I act as if no King is watching?
Do today · Pray by name for one person you usually pass by.