CMLC 2025-07-13 Sermon

You know, I have to let y 'all know I actually

went this last week to Las Vegas Yeah, I know

right and I was there for a preaching conference.

I swear I was there for a preaching conference

I really was it really was I know it sounds suspicious

right you know a priest a pastor and rabbi walk

into a casino right okay but and you know I was

there we spent the first two days it was my old

professor from seminary and we were going through

all the different types of patterns that are

used for preaching and all and then spent a couple

days I was doing the sightseeing and you know

definitely went to go see the sphere that place

is huge it's fascinating and I went to go see

a Cirque du Soleil show Not that kind of Cirque

du Soleil show, all right? It was a Michael Jackson

show, okay? Everybody was clothed enough. You

know, Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?

Come on, she's like right there, the Michael

Jackson joke had to be made. And yes, yes, and

I went through the casinos and all, they're in

every single hotel. And I did not, I resisted

playing, especially because a bunch of them were

like $100 buy -in, and I'm like, ah, not so much.

I just went and got a burger from Gordon Ramsay's

place, so it was all right, it was all right.

But you know, while I was in town, I went to

go see the Planzas. The Planzas, were the couple

that sold me my house. They were members here

before they moved to Vegas to work with the National

Weather System. And one of the things with that

is that in doing this, I was able to connect

and share what was going on. But you see, this

couple, they went out of their way to make sure

that I could get into their home. At a time four

years ago, whenever prices were jumping through

the roof, not only did they not raise the price,

They even came down just a little bit so I could

actually still afford it. You know, they technically

were never my neighbor because when I moved in,

they moved out. But they treated me like it.

They treated me like somebody that they cared

about, someone who mattered to them. And when

I was there, they wanted to know about our next

door neighbor. You see, she's been there for

a number of years. She lost her husband a few

years ago. Her kids and her grandkids were there

with her, but she was always the sweetest person.

that she also has a similar faith in Christ But

you know she's always been good kind of checking

on the house and making sure things are okay

But made me wonder What if she weren't similar

to me? What if she wasn't always the nicest what

if there were times when she was difficult or

rude? What if I'd be tempted to call this person

a bad neighbor? Would I still care about her?

Would I be treating her with kindness? At what

point would I be deciding whether or not she

was worthy of being my neighbor? And that's the

question that's at the heart of today's message.

Who is my neighbor? And maybe more importantly,

what kind of neighbor am I willing to be? Romans

13 10 says love does no harm to a neighbor therefore

love is the fulfillment of the law You see as

we think about our neighbors We may be thinking

well I've never done any harm to my neighbor

There's lots of things I might have wanted to

do to my neighbor, but I haven't actually done

anything toward my neighbor But what if we did

do something wrong? toward those around us if

we did Would we even be willing to admit it?

even to ourselves And I wanted to take a moment

and I wanted to look at Leviticus Leviticus 19

there's few verses there and What they're doing

is they're showing us something deeper that we

should consider see before Jesus ever told the

parable of the Good Samaritan God had already

laid out a clear picture of what it meant to

love your neighbor See, in Leviticus 19, we're

given a series of commandments, okay? Not just

about rituals or sacrifices, you know, the things

that we normally think of with like Leviticus

and all the blah, blah, blah. But we also see

justice, generosity, and everyday decency. And

they're all wrapped around this same core idea.

Do not do no harm to your neighbor. do good when

you have the power to do it. Let's break it down

and not like white boys do. Now, verses 9 and

10 say, When you reap the harvest of your land,

you shall not reap your field right up to its

edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings

after your harvest, and you shall not strip your

vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen

grapes of your vineyard, you shall leave them

for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the

Lord your God. See, this talks about leaving

something for the people who are in need. You

see, when you would go through and gather all

of your crops, there was always bound to be stuff

that would fall down, that would fall behind.

So you'd have to go out of your way to go back

and spend all this effort to catch up all the

little pieces. But it was so little, it wouldn't

really make a difference to your profits or to

what you were reaping. But if there was someone

desperate, who didn't have a home and didn't

have food, they could go and gather it and it

would be enough for them to live. The idea is

don't grab every scrap for yourself. Sometimes

we're so desperate to hold onto what we think

is ours, even leftovers, things that wouldn't

matter to us, that could mean everything to somebody

else. What we hoard might not really help us.

but it could be a lifeline for someone else.

Did you really need to sell the old couch that

was 20 years old for 50 bucks online, or could

you have given it to that new couple next door

that you know they don't have furniture? Or even

looking at verses 11 and 12, and it says on there,

you shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely,

shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear

by my name falsely and so profane the name of

your God, I am the Lord." Because how often do

we do things that are actually lying and honestly

stealing, but because we can make it look right

or act that somehow this is what God would want

and this is what good people would do, it's like

we're just taking a spiritual bumper sticker.

of Jesus saves and putting it on things just

to make things look holy. See, there's a reason

I don't ever put a Jesus bumper sticker on my

car knowing how I drive in Houston traffic. See,

we might say this is what God wants when it's

really just what we want. And worse, we hide

behind our identity as God's people that, well,

I'm a good person. And acting as if being religious

or having our moral high ground makes everything

that we do right. Even as we go over and manipulate

things on our taxes to make it look better, knowing

in reality that it's not true, not right. And

then in reality, we've just done something deceitful.

Verses 13 and 14. You shall not oppress your

neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant

shall not remain with you all night until the

morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put

a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall

fear your God. I am the Lord. Do not take advantage

of those who can't stop you. Let's be honest.

We know that there are people we could do what

we want and they couldn't actually do anything

to us. We know that there are people out there.

It could be the person that we underpay, they've

already done the work, but we're only gonna give

them so much. Or the person that we ignore, or

the one who needs help but there's no real reward

for it, for us. Or the times whenever we pretend

that we've done nothing wrong because it was

legal even though we know it was immoral. If

you know that that employee, needs the paycheck,

but you found an excuse to hold it back for two

weeks? That's not being savvy, it's being sinful.

Or verses 15 and 16. You shall do no injustice

in court. You shall not be partial to the poor

or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall

you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around

as a slanderer among your people, and you shall

not stand up against the life of your neighbor.

I am the Lord. How often it is that we want to

get our way so we can somehow figure out how

to manipulate the courts or manipulate popular

opinion or manipulate those around us manipulate

our friends or our family to somehow take our

side and To get what we want the power the money

the influence We don't go to the person we talk

about them because we know that if we actually

went to them it would be easily fixed We speak

about others and we trample over them using our

social media or our group chats to ruin someone's

reputation saying we're just venting when in

reality we're just looking for vengeance or even

the last two verses from this section you shall

not hate your brother in your heart but you shall

reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur

sin because of him you shall not take vengeance

or bear grudge against the sons of your own people

but you shall love your neighbor as yourself

I am the Lord You know how you feel deeply wronged.

You know that resentment. You know that hurt.

Where, you know, I've been mistreated. There

should be justice done. All I want is justice.

But is that actually how God sees it? Is it possible

that that person actually feels that you've wronged

them? Or more than that, even if they did wrong

to you, would you actually be willing to let

God take care of it instead of you? How often

do we say we've forgiven somebody but every time

they come up we make sure we bring up exactly

what they did? All of these verses Keep reminding

us one thing Love your neighbor as yourself.

You see sometimes we harm our neighbor without

realizing it and other times we harm our neighbor

We know exactly what we're doing. We just don't

want to admit it But either way the question

remains How can we do better? And that's an idea

that we want to see as we look at Jesus. See,

in Luke 10, we see the parable of the Good Samaritan,

and I'm sure that you know this parable and maybe

you know it a little too well. See, sometimes

we know a story so well that we stop listening.

We don't want to just go about our business,

but we want to lean in and hear what this is

truly saying to us. You see, there's a man who

is beaten and half dead on the side of the road

and two men pass by, a priest and a Levite. Again,

not a joke. But these are the religious leaders,

the ones that bring people to God's presence

with the sacrifice, with the temple, the tabernacle,

the ways in which they connect people with God.

If anyone should stop and help, shouldn't it

be them? But they don't. They see them, and they

go to the other side of the road. See, the text

doesn't tell us specifically why, but we can

guess. Maybe they were in a hurry. They had stuff

to do. You know, here's a problem. Maybe they

weren't sure. Maybe that man was already dead.

See... If they tried to help and he was already

dead, they'd be unclean. They'd have to deal

with all these other issues. You know, someone

else would probably take care of it. Probably

the priest thought that the Levite could take

care of him because the priest has priest stuff

to do. The Levite, maybe somebody else could

help him. Maybe the Levite's saying, you know,

I've got all this stuff to take care of. Someone

else, I'm sure, will come along. Maybe his family

will be there. I just, I don't want the hassle.

But they keep going. See, technically they stay

clean, but spiritually, they walked right past

the heart of God. See, this part of the message,

you know, it always reminds you of those things

where like the one person you know they're struggling

with their groceries, but you've explained to

yourself in your mind why you shouldn't go help

them, because I'm sure that they'd be uncomfortable

with that and they wouldn't want me to be in

their business. Or, you know, that one person

who's had their blinker on, for the last several

seconds they're trying to get over but in your

mind you're like if I just speed up I can get

there before them so that you know I could get

there two seconds faster the times that we intentionally

look in the other direction if you don't make

eye contact then it lets you off the hook you

know what I mean it's as if your moral obligation

is canceled by your ability to act like you didn't

see it it's the priest and Levite level avoidance

and it's kind of funny except that it's kind

of true. And then comes the Samaritan, the outsider.

See, the one that was considered impure by the

religious establishment, he sees the man, but

instead of calculating the cost of what it would

take to help him, he crosses the road to him.

He helps, he gives, he stays. This is the move

from not just not harming people, but to actively

helping them. From avoiding trouble to becoming

a blessing. From asking what happens to me if

I stop and deal with it to asking what happens

to him if I don't. And this parable hits today

because we live in a world where we've gotten

really good at defining who does and doesn't

count as our neighbor. If we find a technicality,

a zip code, a background, a legal status, a lifestyle,

we can convince ourselves that we don't have

to help. That's not our issue. And yes, I know

you caught what I put third in that list as if

somehow I were trying to be sneaky to convince

you to look at people without finding an excuse

to get out of loving them. Because Jesus doesn't

give us an out. Our neighbor is the person right

in front of us. It's the person on the side of

the road. The one God placed on our path. We

may not agree with them. We might not understand

them. We might even be afraid of the implications

of helping. But Jesus doesn't call us to be cautious.

He calls us to be compassionate. It doesn't mean

we throw away wisdom, but it does mean we throw

away indifference. Because love doesn't look

for a loophole. So let me ask you, who have you

been avoiding because it might be inconvenient

to care? Who have you crossed the road to avoid

physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually?

And what would it take for you to cross back

over to them? 1 John 4 11, Beloved, if God so

loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Let's go back to that question. What would it

take for you to cross back over to them? To stop

avoiding and to start loving? Let's take just

a little closer look at that Samaritan. That

word, it may not land fully with you today, but

it would have hit hard in Jesus' time because

the Samaritans, they weren't just outsiders.

They were of the offensive enemies. These were

the ones that the kingdom had separated And they

were going to have their own altars, their own

worship, their own places, their own king. And

then they even were seen as traitors. They were

seen as spiritual traitors, ethnically impure

and religiously heretical. It wasn't a neutral

word just saying, oh, you're from Samaria. When

a Jewish person said it, it was a racial slur.

They were the half -breeds. They were offensively

termed this because they were the people that

even though they were also children of Abraham,

they married people from the surrounding nations.

They were worshipped at the wrong place. They

had their own version of faith. They were seen

as people to be avoided, dismissed, and rejected.

And yet this is the guy that you'd never expect

who chooses to stop. He's the one who chooses

to help. He's the one who chooses to love. Like

people crossing into our state just to help us

find our lost children, despite everything we've

done to label them over the years. And here's

the key. The Samaritan doesn't get caught up

in religious posturing. His own moralism. He's

not worried about ceremonial cleanliness. He's

not calculating risk or social consequence He's

not looking for a theological loophole to justify

walking away. He sees a person in need and He

moves to him Because his heart won't let him

do anything else and that right now that that

is what righteousness looks like Because sometimes

we use our own morality as a shield to protect

our comfort. We use our religion as an excuse

not to love. We say things like, it's complicated,

or it's not my problem, or they don't belong

here. All while the person on the side of the

road is bleeding out. But the Samaritan sees

a person, not a category. A neighbor, not a nuisance.

An opportunity. Not a threat. So how much more

should we, the people of God, do the same thing?

And Jesus asks the question that flips everything

on its head. Who was the neighbor to the man?

Not asking who counts as my neighbor, but asking

who became the neighbor. Do you hear that? Who

proved it? Who became the neighbor? Because neighbor

isn't something we inherit. It's something we

choose to become. Do we want to be the neighbor?

Do we see it as a burden or do we see it as a

privilege? Because the world isn't going to be

changed by protecting ourselves, it's going to

be changed by sacrificial love. By people who

cross boundaries, people who break through the

prejudice, people when love, it's not just for

when it's easy, but especially when it's hard.

We keep asking why the world is so broken Why

people don't know Jesus maybe? Maybe it's because

we've stopped looking for ways to be their neighbor

Maybe it's because we've made loving people optional

But Jesus says the neighbor the true neighbor

is the one who stops who serves who loves Even

when it costs even when the person is offensive

to us or thinks we're offensive to them even

when your pastor is afraid of how many people

don't want to hear it. It's a privilege to be

a neighbor. So what's stopping us? This is what

we see in Jesus. Because Christ has done everything

to be our neighbor. Even when we were His enemies

because of sin. And yes, He's our Savior. He

is the Lord of all. I'm not minimizing that by

using the word neighbor, but to show that the

same heart that we've been talking about, The

heart that crosses the road? The heart that refuses

to look away? The heart that sees worth in the

wounded? That's the very heart of Christ. Because

Christ wants to be our neighbor. Not because

that's nothing, but because it's everything.

From the one who dwells in the Kingdom of God

and welcomes us into it. See, that's the miracle,

is that the Son of God saw us not just as lost

sheep, but as neighbors worth loving. When we

were His enemies because of sin, He didn't walk

away. He came closer. He made room for us not

just to live next door to Him, but to be in His

home. To give us everything, to give us life,

to bring us into His family. Because God sees

broken people like us and says, I want you in

my kingdom. I want you in my home. I want to

live with you. And if that's the heart of Christ,

then what greater privilege do we have than to

reflect that same heart to others? To look at

someone, the one we disagree with, the one we

feel distant with, the one that we've labeled

as others, and to say, I want the privilege of

loving you. I want the privilege of seeing you.

I want the privilege of being your neighbor.

Because that's how the world changes. Not with

arguments, not with excuses. With love. Real

love. Cross the road kind of love. Love that

doesn't make excuses to avoid people, but searches

for opportunities to bless them. Because there

are many voices that you're going to hear. Priestly

logic. Levite caution. Theological technicalities.

Political talking points. But there's one voice

that cuts through it all. It's the voice of Christ.

The one who came as the unexpected neighbor,

the one who, like the Samaritan, was rejected,

misunderstood, and even offensive. And yet, He's

the one who showed us what the Father's love

really looks like. And He says to you, go and

do likewise. But if I may, not just do, go and

be likewise. Be the neighbor Christ has made

you to be. Because He was the neighbor who crossed

heaven to love you first. So go and love like

that in the name of Jesus. Amen