If you're like me and most Christians, maybe
at some point in your life, you have
ponder the answer to to this question.
What what's the least that I have to
do to get to heaven?
You ever thought that like that question. And
I know you probably don't wanna admit, because
I don't either, but at some point in
your life, you probably thought to yourself. Like,
is there a minimum amount. Like, just a
minimum essential criteria to make it to heaven.
I think it's a question that's been ponder
since the beginning of mankind when God first
revealed himself in his to his people. I
think they they thought to themselves,
first of all, being in God's presence is
like, oh my gosh. This... The the power,
the glory
the the righteousness and all that kind of
stuff, and and to think like, wow. Like,
okay. So these standards are high.
And it's a question that can come up
if you're a new believer.
If you're a wiley veteran Christian, you can
think this thought.
And it sort of can lead to this
this thought also
about what is
what is the concept of, like, once saved,
always saved. Like, is that a thing?
You know, can you fall away from your
salvation? You you're walking with Christ? You're fe
in your Christian faith.
And then circumstances
change. You lose of God, you know, can
you fall away. I think all of these
things kinda come together.
And it's such a natural thing to wonder,
and I think the reason is is because
when you realize
how
das
we are as sinner
and how far we fall short of the
the super high standards of God It should
make you feel like.
It is so unreasonable
that God would just put just wipe all
of that clean
And say don't worry about it. I forgive
you.
And then say by the way, why don't
you come be part of my kingdom family
in heaven. Like, that does not make sense
when you understand how big and great God
really is.
We should feel like there's this
una unsustainable amount of responsibility and and
you know, acts and things that we have
to do to earn God's favor,
and so many people think that the way
to get to heaven is by being a
good person.
So I doing good work. Like, if we
if we just... I live a pretty good
life. Right? I I'll get to the... I'll
get to this much better place
On the other side of this life, I'll
I'll be with God because I know that
I'm a good person.
But we know and hopefully everybody here this
morning knows that
the way to God and to heaven is
through his son, Jesus. That's what the scriptures
tell us.
And the scriptures tell us that Jesus paid
the ultimate price of sin that
that
sort of that mountain
of
redemption
and atonement that we couldn't pay for ourselves.
We read that Jesus did that.
But are there any other requirements, Are we
sure?
And that's a great question to ponder her
especially today. And as we've been...
Teaching in this sermon series asked the rabbi.
We've we've been thinking about if Jesus was
here with us right now.
What kind of questions might we ask him.
What's on your mind? What's on your heart
to ask Jesus if he was here with
us? We say, hey rabbi, and so we
would ask the rabbi
certain questions.
And so in Luke 10, which we're gonna
study today. We read about an encounter between
Jesus
and a man that the scripture state is
an expert in the law.
So you might consider him like a modern
day
contract warrior. Okay? And this particular expert, he
was...
An expert in the the the contract between
God and the Jews
or otherwise known as the old testament law.
And so
we're gonna read about this encounter today. And
as we read through, I want you to
to pay careful attention because there's kind of
2 camps of people or at least 2
camps of people,
theologian when they study this scripture.
There's a camp of people that that look
at this through the lens of of this
expert in the law
as somebody that's sort of like a contentious
cynical person that's trying to trap Jesus because
we saw a lot of that in the
scriptures with the ph.
But there's also tones in this interaction that
might lead you to believe that this is
actually like AAA
teacher student, like respectful,
mutual
relationships. So just kinda watch as we go
through this. But 1 thing I know,
And as you read through the scriptures and
what Jesus said, you'll learn that he's like
a t degree black belt in verbal verbal
J. Have you ever noticed that with Jesus?
Like, he has this master way
of ref framing things and turning questions
in a way that leads to his counterpart
feeling kinda of be and and f, And
I think we'll see a little bit of
that
today, this this encounter certainly is no exception.
So
we're gonna read today in loop 10. So
gonna be the heart of our scriptures,
and this is this encounter between Jesus and
an expert in the law. So why don't
you read along with me here?
I'll read it out loud.
Alright, Lou 10,
starting in verse 25 on 1 occasion, an
expert in the wall stood up to test
Jesus.
Now testing Jesus. Right? That can mean, hey,
I'm putting him on the spot and we'll
try to see if we can catch them
off guard or.
He wanted to seek what Jesus whose response
would be.
And so teacher he asked,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?
What's... And Jesus so Jesus responds. What is
written the law?
How do you read
the law?
And so quoting from D65
on a person's duty to love God and
also from Levi vid 19 18, On a
person's duty to love his neighbor, here's what
the expert in the law responded. He said,
love the lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul, all your strength and
all your mind.
And he said love your neighbor as yourself.
And so instead of rejecting the lawyer's answer
as legal, which Jesus often, did he actually
affirm his answer, and he says,
you are exactly right. You've answered correctly.
And then Jesus commands him and he says,
to this, if you will live. And you
know what I... This this... Every time I
read that script scripture, I always think about,
like, William Wallace and Brave heart. Like, in
the Scottish accent, Do this and you'll live.
Do it not, you'll day. It's always what
pops into my head. Just had to share
that with you. Like, that's that little...
It's the little things in life, man. I...
William Wallace is. Freedom. Alright.
Badger of my poor mother, how she felt.
In other words, Jesus agrees that 1 way
to inherit eternal life is to keep the
law.
He's saying the key to understand all this
is to understand, are you are you ready
for this?
The key to understanding this is in order
to inherit eternal life by keeping the law.
You must love your neighbor
perfectly,
perpetually
forever.
It's pretty easy. Right?
Not so much.
You don't need to be a brain surgeon
and realize that none of us
are able to do that.
And so here goes Jesus again with this
master way of
projecting things to say, okay, here's... You can
do it by doing this method you can
get to heaven.
But see, the expert in the law also
recognized.
That there's no way he was gonna be
able to do that.
Right? And instead of humbling himself and saying
me too, like I need grace, like Jesus,
I wanna follow you. There's no way I'm
gonna be able to accomplish this.
He tries to justify
himself.
By loosening the demands
of the law
as sort of narrowing down who his neighbor
is.
So he asked Jesus. He says, who is
my neighbor
So here's a little context that you needed
to know about this. In
in the... This time in the in the
Jewish culture, and the the rabbi would teach
their students that your neighbor
is a fellow jew.
K? So that's likely what would have been
taught, and that's likely what this
expert in the law would have boiled everything
down to is loving your fellow jew.
And I think he would have hoped that
Jesus would sort of appease him.
By saying yeah. Yep. Love your jew. Love
your people. Love people like you, and you
will get to heaven,
but rather Jesus talks about people like tax
collectors
and gentile tiles, people who were not of
the Jewish culture. He even talks about samaritan
who were hated by the Jews,
And it sounds to me like it's pretty
important
to Jesus that we love our neighbor.
So today we're gonna attempt to answer the
question, who is
my neighbor?
Who is my neighbor? Well, first of all,
my neighbor is,
my neighbor.
My neighbors is my neighbor. You're like, oh,
wow, Brian. This is profound you're rockstar star
preacher. Go ahead and preach your brother.
It seems so obvious. Doesn't it?
Probably so, but I would venture to guess
that every single 1 of us in here,
myself included
could stand to to do the love your
neighbor next door thing a little bit better.
Just a little bit... You won't believe this.
I kitchen you I came in yesterday from...
I was outside, and I shared this with
Jill.
So I'm outside yesterday in the front yard,
and I'm spraying the rocks for weeds.
And I kinda have my back to the
street facing the house. And I hear this
voice say,
Gosh. That seems like a never ending process
sometimes. Doesn't it, and I'm thinking.
The yeah does, spraying weeds man. Soon as
you spray and they pop back up Well,
I look over. Now we're... Let me set
the tone here. I think we're pretty good
at engaging with our neighbors. We know most
of our neighbors as We certainly know most
are our neighbors around us except for 1
house.
And it's the house across and 1 down.
And we just never seem to catch these
people outside and they don't come to the
community events and stuff very often.
So I look and here's that guy. Right?
We're so we're talking across the street.
And I said, yeah, You know, it's like
the Flint stones when they were shoveling, you
know, the pile rocks, the pile rocks never
d down. That's how I feel like it
is with spraying weeds. They never really go
away. And I could tell he wanted it
to. So I walk across the street, and
I spent probably 30 minutes with, my new
neighbor who's not so new, named Josh.
And I'm thinking Josh and Carrie find out
his wife's name is Carrie. I'm thinking they've
been there for 3, 4 years, and so
we start talking about it. You know when
they moved in
May of 2015.
9 years ago,
and I don't even know we don't even
know these people's names and I just felt
bad and so did he and we had
this this great connection, and I was so
thankful about, but I walked away laughing, and
I'm like, I did not initiate that. This
is the day before we talk about who
is my neighbor. If you're, I'm gonna stand
up about loving our neighbor next door just
a little bit better. So so timely, just
the way god works.
They made me laugh, and I'm sure God
is like, yep. Where you been, dude? You've
been slack. So here we go. We're gonna
we're gonna get it right.
Now,
let's take a look at some some neighbors
that you might recognize, especially from Tv shows.
Let's let's look at some of these characters
that you might connect with.
Here's the first 1. Let's stir that up
here, Taylor.
Alright.
Do you recognize that especially the gentleman in
the hat? You guys remove who that is?
Who is it? Wilson.
Yeah. If you've never seen the show home
improvement with Tim To man. It's just Tim
Taylor. Tim Allen is so funny and tim
Taylor that character, but This guy Wilson, such
a kind of a sage wise neighbor. Wouldn't
he?
Like, he was a good listener. He would
just... You can never see his nose or
his mouth. That's the sill thing ever. I
love that. But he always had some good...
You know, Tim Allen is is always kind
of, like, in Limbo with some kind of
strife and Wilson always gives him some great
advice.
What about this wonderful neighbor? Do you recognize
that guy?
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?
Won't you be, my neighbor?
Okay. So that's mister Rogers for you
people who are born after. I don't know,
in 19 60.
But,
but anyways, he's great. By the way, there's
a there's a newer show. Daniel Tiger. If
younger people recognize it came from that's home,
his Rogers. He was a great neighbor loving
guy, so so caring and and concerned for
people around him. Called But what happens when
you have a neighbor or person that you
don't really like?
This kind of annoying. How about how about
this neighbor? Remember this guy?
Who's that?
E, Steve E, Man, family matters. Family does
matter. Steve E was a little bit annoying.
He's kinda like the guy that you... It's
it's hard to love, but it's hard to
live without him, You know, kind of thing.
What about this year young lady? You remember
her?
Anybody remember her from full house?
Kim. Kim Gi. Right? She was that girl.
Was always in the house and she was
kind of annoying and stuff, but again, hard
to live without her. What about these guys?
Think about this family. Recognize them.
If you don't know them, get your head
up out of that rock, y'all. They've been
around for, like, 30 years. The Simpsons. Now,
they're kind of a,
I don't know how we label the simpsons.
Right? They... Like many families that have some
dysfunction
and they're probably pretty annoying, but who's their
neighbor? Put this up. Who's their neighbor?
Fl, ned Fl ers. Now,
or taking all these episodes and I I
can only remember so many, but The interaction
with Ned Fl in the Simpsons family was
quite entertaining,
But it did a little research on Ned
Fl system some things you might not know
about.
Fl.
First of all, he was religious. Right? He
was religious. Now what what religion, what denomination
do you think he was? He had a
guess.
Baptist? What else?
I was thinking lutheran. I think he'd be
a nice lutheran. We got Lutheran mustache. That's
a nice... That's a sweet mustache. So I
have no idea what a Lutheran mustache looks
like, but he has that.
He was an entrepreneur.
He was a business owner,
he was a volunteer firefighter, what a noble
thing to do. But he was also a
landlord.
Did you know that he is a landlord
of the Simpsons house?
Yep. And when Matt Groan wrote this whole,
you know, this whole piece about these characters,
he actually is landlord and and he charges
lower rent for the Simpson family.
And as I started to research this, I
realized, this is sort of this a Ben...
Flint relationship here between this entrepreneur leader in
the community well to person that that finds
his family. And I don't know the circumstance,
but he finds his family says, look, You
guys are on hard times. Why don't you
come move into the house next to me,
I'll take care of you. I'll subsidize your
rent and we'll make away.
Man, and what a silly Tv show, but
Like, this is a biblical concept that exists
right here on
sick sitcom Tv.
Right? It's a biblical message.
So what about this? You ever had a
a really bad neighbor or a grumpy neighbor?
Somebody kinda like this? You remember this guy?
Remember A Bundy.
And I get when you have a neighbor
like this, you probably don't wake up in
the morning
eager and excited to go engage
with that neighbor.
K? But here's the deal.
The gru beer
or least served your neighbor is
The easier it is to make a positive
impact in that person's life.
Think of it this way, if you don't
really feel excited to engage with you need...
Neighbor how many people do you think do?
How many people do you think are excited
to engage with them?
They don't feel inclined to positively
be influenced in their life because of this
persona that they put off?
It's kinda like most service based businesses since
Covid has anybody else experienced this. I mean,
service kinda of stinks.
It doesn't matter if you go to a
restaurant or if you hire a contractor at
Hvac or electrician or whatever. It just seems
like service stinks and I understand, like, I
get it. They're busy
can't find good help all those kinds of
things. Communication terrible so on and so forth.
Let alone they actually show up when they're
supposed to, god forbid. They do a good
job. Anybody relate.
Guess what? We're in the auto repair business.
Hadn't hadn't been much better for the last
40 60 years. Has it?
Poor communication,
like shady sales tactics,
people being let down.
Clients feel uneducated and taking advantage of.
And I tell my team all the time
I say, look.
All we... Kinda all you had to do
is a bare minimum is just not suck
right now. And I... That's kind of a
crest word, but that's how we feel service
is, like it sucks.
And we... You would tell our team like,
look, all you have to do is just
not do that, and you probably make an
impression on people.
Now, we have really high standards. We wanna
blow the roof off that experience. We want
people to feel encouraged in and uplifted and
educated and advocated for and all these kinds
of things, but expectations are pretty low.
They're pretty low right now.
And I think the same thing is for
most neighbors, the expectation, the bar is low.
Because most people aren't assert themselves in a
positive way for the neighbors, and that person
that's grumpy and hard to love.
Right? The bar way down here.
1 little small thing can make a huge
impact
in that person's lives.
And I know 1 thing that
when you put yourself out there to love
a neighbor, it can make you feel exposed.
It can make you feel vulnerable, it can
make you feel like
I did this nice thing for somebody and
they didn't even so much as say thank
you.
You ever felt that way.
It does. It can make you feel vulnerable.
Now, I think of the encounter between
Peter and Jesus.
Do you remember this when when Peter asked
Jesus he said, alright,
how many times do you want us to
forgive
our sinner?
He says 7 times.
Jesus says now,
7 times 77
times.
And that's not even really about the number,
but Jesus is saying like, I want you
to do this so often so frequently that
it becomes a habit.
It becomes...
Unconscious competence, like, I don't have to think
about doing it,
so that that's the way you live your
life.
Great leadership coach, that I followed named coach
o, always said, how you do anything
is how you do everything.
So you build your life in this way.
And I think about loving your neighbor.
It's a practice. It's a routine.
And if we get caught in the trap
of thinking, what am I gonna get are
they going to reciprocate? Are they gonna be
thankful?
Then, right? We need to think about that
scripture scripture 7 times 77 times. Keep doing
it?
Keep doing it and keep doing it for
the right reasons.
Now, in our neighborhood, I I felt like
this for a long time. We've been in
this neighborhood for 10 years. Now keep in
mind I have of the greatest examples of
a neighbor to live by my dad was
probably the best neighbor that ever existed. That
that, man will show up and do anything
for anybody anytime. Right? He walked that out.
I struggled a little bit more with it.
But we struggled to connect with our neighbors
and for a lot of years.
In last December, we were having a neighborhood,
Christmas party at the little at Westwood Golf
club over here.
And we had been traveling all week, and
we got home and it's a Saturday
afternoon and Saturday Nights the party, and I
told you him I'm, like, I don't I
don't feel like killing this.
Like, I don't... We don't connect with all
of our neighbors. Right? It's kind of a
sometimes about all the Jones is made... Maybe
you can relate to that.
And I'm like, looks sweetheart. We're gonna go,
we're gonna make the most of it.
So we go, we had 1 of the
fun nights. Did we not? It was so
much fun. It was so engaging. And it
didn't matter what group of people we're were
hanging out with. We had a blast.
And I realized in that moment, it's so
much about perspective
It's so much about outlook. Right? It's so
much about what are we doing this for?
Right? My eyes were opened.
And and I know that it happens in
school too.
And 1 of the reasons I know is
because our oldest daughter Camille. It seems like
she often ends up in a class with,
like, not a lot of her existing friends.
And she comes home the first couple days
and she's in tears and stuff, and she's
up about it. And I tell her I'm
like, commit, look.
You first of all, god bless you and
gifted you with the ability to make friends.
I think that's 1 reason he puts you
into these classes with other kids who don't
have friends because you're you're good at it.
But I said, god's building a life skill
in you
to be able to go and reach out
and assert yourself and make friends with people.
That's gonna go with you forever.
Right? So what happens in all aspects of
life, we feel vulnerable we feel exposed.
And when we view the command to love
our neighbor. Through the lens of Jesus commands,
it allows us to do it more joyful,
more consistently,
for the right reasons,
So who else is my neighbor. Well, guess
what y'all. Our neighbors also are enemies.
Our enemies. And here's that really unpopular part
in the sermon. Okay? Here's that really, unpopular
part.
The command to love one's neighbor as
ourselves comes originally from Levi vi 19 18,
which says,
do not seek revenge
or bar grudge against anyone among your people,
but love your neighbor, as yourself. I am
the Lord.
Pretty clear. Right? It's pretty clear in the
Old testament. So here's a new testament version.
In Matthew 05:44
through 48 Jesus
says,
and it's up on the screen. I tell
you
love your enemies and pray for those who
per you.
That you may be children of your father
in heaven.
He causes his son to rise on the
evil and the good,
He sends reign on the righteous and the
un unconscious,
and he says, if you love those who
love you,
what reward will you get?
Do not even the tax collectors do that.
And if you greet only your own people,
what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that.
And he challenges them He says be perfect
therefore as your heavenly father is perfect.
Now, someone may be thinking to yourself. You
know Brian, I really don't have a lot
of enemies.
I get along pretty well with others. I'm
an eye personality type on the disc profile.
Right? I get along all kind of stuff.
Awesome. Like, that's a blessing if that's where
you are today.
But think about a few of these people.
Think about the person who roots for your
opposing team.
Right? Think about your arch rival sports team
or, if you're a parent in the room,
think about the student of the school that
is your school's competitor, your top competitor. Right?
Is there a little bit of an there?
You go on Youtube and you watch the
videos of these parents acting like idiots to
these games. Right? You'll see that's a real
thing.
Sorry. That's a cross way to say it,
but that's what they act like sometimes material.
Think about a person who day in day
out
seems to have 1 objective that's to make
your life a living
h e double hockey sticks.
Right? They're out there.
What about the person
who's a political extremist?
And they vote for
the other candidate,
the other side of the aisle.
You 1 day, a few years ago,
had a banker for a lot of years
and our businesses and he had left the
bank.
And this new guy shows up to introduce
himself to me. Really nice guy, and we
start talking and come to find out he's
a Christian,
and he's taking over this banking role.
Well, he went on to tell me that
he's actually running for political office in Jefferson
County.
And I started to unpack with him what
role and
he was doing that. And he had some
great points. He's like, look, I think that
we can reform education. I think I'm tired
of all these policies and all this red
tape and so on and so forth. Why
he starts to get pretty fired up about
his political affiliation in his parties.
Right? He starts to bash the president at
the time he starts to bash the speaker
of the house and all that kind of
stuff. And which I get it.
And as I'm listening to him, and this
is my banker,
the spirit telling me like,
to to ask him a a really important
question. And and I said this to him.
I said look, can I ask you a
question?
I said,
Do you think you'd be able to walk
up to that president, the current president? Look
them in the eye, stand them face to
face
and tell them I love you.
Like Christ loved you.
And he looked at me with a blank
face and he said, I don't think I
could.
And I said, look, I just maybe maybe
in God's not telling you to run for
office then. Right? Until you can do that.
And that's... That was really hard thing to
say. Right? There was a risk of maybe
losing a banking relationship somebody but that's just
what this spear told me.
And the reality is there's an there's an
antagonist
look looking around every corner.
And I think to myself, Brian, can you
wholeheartedly wish that person will?
Can you can you wholeheartedly pray for their
well being and their salvation?
And Brian, can you imagine 1 day
crossing through those pearly gates,
walking up to that person,
hugging them and saying, welcome. You made it
brother.
Right? If I can't do that, maybe God
wants to do some work in my heart,
and maybe he wants to do some work
in your heart as well.
Because there's so many days that I don't
feel like it.
I'm burnout out. I'm tired. Like, I'm feeling
insecure today. I don't have the the juice
in my tank to go up and assert
myself for somebody else. Like, I feel like
that and god's saying
just 1 more time. 1 more time today.
And then 1 more time,
tomorrow.
And if you're in that place, if you
feel tired or burnout or inadequate or insecure,
or you feel like you don't have anything
left me take, come get prayer for that.
That's what we're here for. We wanna pray
through that together.
And so thirdly, who's my neighbor?
Well, my neighbor is a person who society
rejects.
Now, my family loves dogs. Anybody else love
dogs,
Are you just being shy, do you love
dogs or nose Like, okay. There's at least
6 people that love dogs? That's right.
Now, reality is, like, even if you don't
love dogs. When you when you were walking
down the road and you see a puppy
coming. Isn't it? Like, kinda melt your heart.
Like a cute little puppy and stuff.
Now our middle daughter Kai is really allergic
to dogs and pets, so we can't have
them. And we miss our little guy's. Many
of you remember a little miniature sc are
we had Stuart.
But it's pretty easy to love a a
sweet little puppy.
Do stewart what about a cute little kid
that is just giggling and laughing and you
get to tickle them and they're funny and
they're silly. Right? It's kinda easy to feel
love for for that little kid.
It's 1 thing to love the lovable, but
it's a whole other ballgame to love the
out cast and the mis fits
and the un
unbelievable people.
Jesus half brother James
said in James 02:15 to 16.
If a brother or sister is poorly cloth
and lacking in daily food.
And 1 of you says to them, go
in peace,
be warm and be filled without giving them
the things needed for the body. What good
is that.
In other words, Christians are commanded to do
more for our neighbor than offer cheap talk
and well wishes.
And 1 way to measure how much love
we show another person is to measure how
much it cost you to love that person.
And a well recognized example of such a
sacrifices has found a little further in luke
10 in 1 of the most famous parable
of Jesus since the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
You might remember this story. So we're gonna
pick it up here in Luke 10 verse
30
as Jesus is telling this story this parable
to this expert in the law.
So let's check this out. So
in a reply,
Jesus said,
a man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho.
When he was attacked by Robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, they beat
him and they went away,
leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down the
same road. And we saw the man, he
passed on the other side.
So to a levi, when he came to
the place and saw him. He passed on
the other side.
But a samaritan as he traveled,
came where the man was. And when he
saw him, he took pity on him.
He went to him. He bandage his wounds.
He poured on oil and wine.
And then he took the man. He put
him on his own donkey,
he brought him to the end and he
took care of him.
The next day he took out 2 Den,
he gave to the inn keeper. He said,
look after him.
And when I return, I will reimburse you
for any expense or extra expense that you
may have.
You've wondered why the Samaritan acted like he
did
Now this is... I don't think... I don't
know this is a a real life story.
This is a parable, but think about the
intentional of what Jesus taught.
You wonder why Tam samaritan did that. Now,
maybe it's because, like, maybe he was bullied
and beaten when he was a kid.
Right? If any of you were kind bullied
when you were younger or have been bullied
if you are younger. Right? Does that not
strike according your heart for injustice.
Bullied Well, think about somebody that's verbally def
deficient you or ba you in your life
and ridiculed. Does that not stir with up
within new passion for a person that goes
through that?
Injustice can lead to great reform.
I wanna talk about the priest and levi
first, because I think that and and maybe
rightly, but I think they get a really
bad rap.
Because all we hear is these righteous
jews,
they were too good to stop and help
the guy. Maybe that's the case, but maybe,
When you understand the priest in the levi
at those time, they were very important people
in the temple.
And so for a priest or levi to
go touch a person that was
be to a pulp or potentially dead meant...
That they may not be able to go
to the temple and leave worship for many
days.
So I try to think about my example,
What would that be like for us?
Right? I think I'm driving down the road.
I've been late to work 4 times.
I've got a super important meeting today, and
I'm already tracking to be late.
And I'm driving by somebody on the side
of the road that's in desperate need. You
have to make a choice.
Right? I get it. I have a little
empathy for that. Maybe Maybe today, the choices
somebody else is gonna help. I'm just gonna...
I gotta get to work.
Maybe.
Okay? Or what about this?
You're driving through a really rough neighborhood and
there's gunshots going off and somebody gets shot.
What do you do?
Mean, do you stop and bail out of
the car and and help. I... Maybe I
hope we would be able to do that.
And that the holy spirit and the covering
of God would protect us and our families
in that, but that's a risky thing, and
maybe they were fearing that they might just
get beaten up, I don't know.
But there's some things that we can surmise
about the good samaritan.
And the good samaritan had these things. Look
at what the good good samaritan had. First
of all, he had intentional and he had
margin.
Now, I think if you ask any person
in America,
if they're busy, they will say, yeah. Super
busy.
Right? And how many of us know person
that's retired. That's busier after retirement than they
were before retirement. Yeah. Some some of you
are in this room.
But here's what I've learned people that have
margin,
you know how they get margin?
They make it.
They make time for important things, whether it's
serving in a nonprofit or it's having lunch
with a friend or helping somebody in the
side of the road that's in need.
You know what else? We learned about the
good Samaritan. And he had grace and compassion.
Somebody told me about a year ago, a
really
impactful
thing about compassion. They said, look, sympathy
is when you feel sad for somebody.
And they said, empathy is when you can
relate to somebody. You say I know how
you feel. I'm so sorry because I I've
been there too and I feel the same
way,
but compassion.
Compassion doing something about it.
So he had compassion. He said, I don't
just feel bad for the guy. I'm gonna
get out and I'm gonna help him.
He had money in relationships. Now we know
if he was a wealthy man. We don't
know if he had really good savings, but
he had money relationships. How do we know
that? Well, he goes to the in keeper
and he says, look, first of all, relational
equity. I don't We have trust? He said,
would you take care of this guy?
And then secondly, he says, I'll take care
of the bill. Don't worry about it Just
bill me. That's trust and relationships.
And you know what else he had he
had reliable transportation.
Now you don't need a sports car to
love your neighbor. Y'all.
K? Some of you have a car that's
about as fast as a donkey and I
get that,
but it's gonna get you where you're going.
Isn't it? It's probably gonna get your neighbor.
Where they're going to. And if you have
a problem with your car, come talk to
them, we'll see if we can figure it
out. We can soup that donkey up a
little bit.
But look at Jesus life,
How often do we see Jesus hanging out
with the cool kids.
Those were rich in of high status.
Who do you spend most of his time
with?
He spent his time with a bunch of
blue collar, teenagers and twenties,
prostitutes adult,
tax collectors and of hard money, lame, deaf
and blind people. That's who he spent most
of his time with.
So who do you hang out with?
Who do I hang out with?
It's great to hang out with our people
just like the Rabbi would teach It's great
to hang out with your fellow Jews. It's
great to love. People that are like you,
but he said, it's greater
to love the people who aren't like you.
And unfortunately, I think that Christians have kinda
ruined it for Christianity.
Over the last several decades.
There's so many opportunities but we sw them
away. Hypocrisy,
hateful speech, double standards
Right.
People expect us to live perfect lives. We're
not gonna do that, but that standard the
bar is high.
And I think that there's
an opportunity to sow new seeds on fertile
ground.
It's for our acts and our deeds to
be attractive.
To be considered to be impactful and least
case noticeable.
Look out Jesus responds
to this expert cry, at the end of
this scripture? He says, in verse 36
and 37 Luke lieutenant 10, he says, which
of these 3? He's asking this
legal experts, which of these 3 do you
think was a neighbor to the man who
fell into the hands of the Robbers.
And the expert in the law replied, the
1 who had mercy on him?
And Jesus said him. And he said, go
do that.
Go be like him. Go be the 1
who has mercy
on a person that's not easily loved and
cared for.
So in the eyes of Jesus and God
the father, the way we love our neighbors
has
substantial
implications.
And you won't, and I repeat you will
not be able to do it perfectly. We
won't.
And so is it a matter of salvation?
Jesus says do this and you'll inherit heaven.
So is it a matter of salvation, I
don't think it necessarily is.
Because we read from the scriptures that
these out pouring of our good works is
just a byproduct of salvation that we've received.
Right? That renewal renewing of life, renewing in
spirit, renewing in mind,
And we know for reading the scripture teachings
of the Apostle Paul that we don't partake
in workspace religion you guys.
That's most religions of the world are works
based, you do these things to be right
with your god. Christianity, it's all been done
already for us.
Based
So how do we do it?
How do love the way that Jesus prescribed.
And I would just say this. Love people
by genuinely seeking what's best for them.
Loving people doesn't mean agreeing with them all
the time,
It doesn't mean pac other people.
Right? It's not just to seek approval.
Loving our neighbors means attending to their needs
both physically.
And spiritually.
It's some practical examples.
When I'm driving down the road,
and I get cut off. Maybe I think
to myself
they need to get somewhere more than I
do.
Maybe if you're in business,
you think more about serving your clients and
your patrons and you do beating your competitor.
Maybe you carry AAA
care kid in your car for somebody that's
homeless.
It's something that I do under in the
wintertime. Plow your neighbor's driveway or your sidewalk.
Alright small thing. No words exchange, small act
of kindness,
or maybe God says he wants you to
send your adversary a letter.
Tell them you love when forgive them.
Here's a healthy way to think. God,
was willing to sacrifice his holy son.
What would it cost me to sacrifice for
somebody in my church or my community.
God's repeatedly continually willing to look past my
sin and my ugliness? So what would it
cost me, what can I find 1 way?
To exhibit grace to somebody and treat them
better than they deserve.
And guess what God provides for me and
my family provides for us.
Our daily bread. So how can I partner
with him
to help somebody receive their daily bread?
Quote from Martin Luther or Scott shared last
week a love that god doesn't eat our
good words but people do.
And so if you put your faith in
Jesus, let your actions show, that's all God's
saying here.
If you haven't,
it's time to put your faith in Jesus,
but and watch your life be transformed.
Pray with me.
Father such a humbling message
such a subtle yet bold reminder
about how important
it is in your sight to love those
around us.
We are not perfect and we cannot do
it perfectly, but god, that's
that's why
there's grace, but for Grace, Lord, we would
all
have a very different eternity.
So thank you for this reminder this morning,
God, let there be joy our hearts.
But there'd be excitement
to go and do 1 little thing to
impact the lives of someone else Lord and
as a reminder
of all you've done for us through the
death and the resurrection of Jesus and that
whoever puts their faith and follows that savior
We'll have last life. We'll inherit that
eternal resting in place in heaven. Thank you
for your power, for your grace,
and your mercy, Lord were forever indebted, but
we love you we praise you today. Thank
you, Jesus.
Amen.