Who Is My Neighbor? The Good Samaritan Explained

Good morning, Illuminate Church. Good morning.

Welcome to the House of the Lord.

Thank you so much for coming to the House of the Lord and thank

you for your prayers during this week.

I had tooth pain. You know what it means.

You are almost dying, so thank you for your prayers.

And we, I have the honor, my name is Vladimir Arnessi, and I

have the honor to be a pastor here at Luminary Church.

And we are in a series named Kingdom Unveiled.

Kingdom Unveiled. And I believe God's plan through

this series is to make His Kingdom known in such a way that

we can practice it. So we understanding his Kingdom.

And for that Jesus use parables, which not like a usual word, but

we we are learning. And Jesus was using parables.

Parable. This word in Portuguese is

parabolas. And I believe in Spanish, the

same word parabolas. So for me to understand parable

and parabolas is so close the word so it's it's easy to

understand. You know, my first language is

Portuguese. This is the wise.

Maybe you can see some different pronunciation like that, but my

first language, Portuguese. And sometimes in during some

conversations, I, I can understand everything, but

sometimes one word is different. So and I have no idea what that

word means. And I and I'm, I'm always asking

if it's possible. Hey, can you help me to

understand that word? I don't know you, you said all

this, but that word and like I work with faster team.

So he's always making jokes and I'm always do not understanding,

but I laugh all the time. You know, he's my boss.

So wow, can you say it again to understand, you know?

OK, so, but sometimes I, I, I don't understand one word and I

ask and I need to tell you, you guys have been so amazing, so

kind explaining and teaching me and help me to understand the

words. And you know what happens?

A lot of time people were using parables for me to understand

the meaning of that word. And it's amazing.

And I need to say thank you again.

I some, some weeks ago I, I was talking with Ronnie and one

couple when the wife was not good, she was sick.

And I asked Ronnie and one said, oh, I called the husband and the

husband told me she is in good spirit.

And I was like wow, she was sick and now she's in good spirit and

Ronnie was so happy. So wow, the American culture.

Maybe I I forgot. And I, I asked, are you happy?

I said no, she's in good spirit Jesus and also came to my mind.

Sometimes I'm driving and I see wine and spirits and I was, I

don't know is she alive? Is she's drunking a lot,

drinking a lot. You know what's happened with

her. So I said, Ronnie, can you help

me? Is she alive?

Is she drinking? What is she's with the Holy

Spirit. So help me to understand and you

know what Ronnie did, he start explaining to me using an

example, using stories. So I couldn't understand the

crazy meaning of this thing, you know, but I he was using this

and and this is like parables. He was using ways for me to

understand that thing and was so good.

And I, he spent maybe 45 minutes explaining the good spirit

thing. It's not easy, let me tell you

that. You have spirits and we're OK.

So we have the Holy Spirit, we have the good spirit, and we

have the other spirit. OK, OK.

But also one day here the church, one lady, she came and

she said, I want, she just came and said that to me, I want

Jesus so bad. And I said, no, he's so good.

No, no, no. And I, I, I did give wow, I just

don't. Jesus loves you.

You will see. He died for you.

He's alive and he's working for your life and he has a plan for

you. And I explained everything that

I know for her because I never saw someone saying Jesus so bad

and wow, this is my mission today.

And I explained everything. And at the end I said, do you

want to receive Jesus as your savior now?

And she said yes. And she pray and receive Jesus

what's here. And she received Jesus.

And it was, I was so I never had that kind of experience, someone

coming with Jesus so bad, you know, And I was like, wow.

And I went home that day and I was like, whoa, today was whoa,

you know, And I was full of joy. And I start sharing this with my

daughter. You know, when your daughter

knows that you did something wrong and she did that face and

Gabriela, she was with that face.

Gabriel you need to understand she came with like so bad and

finish with so good. Oh I wow the Holy Spirit did

something that day today and she said no dad, no dad so bad means

so good. Then she started I was oh easy

to understand when I say so bad means so good.

Oh, easy, you know, but she start using parables, using

stories for me to understand that so bad was a lot was so

good was something different the way I was understanding, you

know, so I don't know which one is your first language, but

Jesus is working to make his Kingdom our first language.

Jesus is working to make his Kingdom our first language.

So as we open our hearts to understand the parables every

Sunday, God's leading us through that.

So as you open your heart to understand the parables, let's

learn the Kingdom language to speak through our lives.

Amen. So Matthew chapter 6 verse 33

Matthew 6:33

says, but seek first his Kingdom.

Look at this, but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well.

So the Kingdom language should be our first language.

So seek first His Kingdom. And through this series, Jesus

is teaching us the Kingdom language as our first language.

Do you want to learn that language?

It's OK, Let's go. Let's do this in good spirit.

Wanting it so bad. Are you understanding English

here? Wow, it's English.

They told me it's English. OK, I'm just using.

So let's do this today we'll talk about the parable of Good

Samaritan based on Luke chapter 10 and we'll read verse 25 to

Luke 10 · chapter mention

37. If you need a Bible, just raise

your hand. The ushers, they are all around

to help you to have a Bible. It's so important for you to

have a Bible to read the Bible. You see, it's powerful.

Every time we open our Bible, some is going to happen.

I love this, this experience. I love to understand when we are

opening our Bible, something's going to happen.

God will talk with you. So we encourage you to have a

Bible. Thank you for that.

Thank you for raising your hand for the Bible.

We want to bless you. This Bible is for you.

And you know this parable, the Good Samaritan parable is a

famous parable. It's a famous parable.

We have hospitals all over the planet with the name Samaritan

just because of this parable. We have every in every

continent, many hospitals with the name Samaritan just because

of this parable, just because someone understood that word,

that parable and they start open houses to take care of people.

So you understanding one word from the message from the Lord

will change your life. One word can change your life

and many lives around you. So this is the language, this is

the Kingdom language. Can you imagine?

You know, in our planet, we have more than 100 hospitals with the

name Good Samaritan or Samaritan.

Just because of this word. Can you imagine your family?

Can you imagine your finance? When you understand the meaning

of one word, the power that God's giving to you, because you

understood the meaning of one word, it's real for you.

Can you imagine the transformation?

So this is everything is available for you.

Amen. Do you want to receive that

message? OK, Good Samaritan.

So we will read chapter 10 verse 25 to 2925 to 29.

Luke chapter 10 verse 25. Let me drink some water in

Luke 10:25

English. OK.

So on one occasion an expert in the law is stood up to Jesus to

test Jesus better stood up to test Jesus teacher.

He asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

What's written in the law? He replied, how do you read it?

He answered, love your Lord with your love, the Lord your God,

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your

strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as

yourself. You have answered correctly.

Jesus replied, do this and you will leave.

But he wanted to justify himself.

So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

So let's talk about this conversation.

Because of this conversation with the expert in the law,

Jesus came to answer the question, who is my neighbor?

He came with this parable. But before we see, before we

read, before, before we talk about the parable, I want to

talk with you two big pictures about this conversation between

Jesus and the expert, the law. And the first point I want to

share with you is what comes out of you?

What comes out of you? They explained the law, he said

in verse 27. Love the Lord your God with all

your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all

your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

But what came out of him was to test Jesus.

He knew that, but what was coming out of him was testing

Jesus. Can you imagine Jesus showing up

in your house? You arrive from the church today

and Jesus, the chosen Jesus. You know that guy in your couch?

Wow. That guy for me represent Jesus.

I know he's not, but if I see him, I will, you know?

But OK, Can you imagine you in front of Jesus?

So many blessings, so many miracles, so much love available

for me and you. And what was coming out of his

life was testing Jesus. Can you imagine you in front of

Jesus, testing Jesus? I don't know.

I don't know why, but something was happening.

So he was in front of Jesus, testing Jesus.

And I need to tell, I grew up learning so much about do not

trust anybody, do not trust anybody.

So for so long, this Kingdom language about mercy that we

will see in this parable, the Kingdom language about MERS

could not be my first language. Because nobody deserves.

I cannot trust anybody. So nobody deserves.

So I cannot have mercy for someone.

So for me that learning was so for experience that I had and

something that I was walking through was leading me for

another language. So I could not speak this

language before. So just because this thing was

blocking me. So maybe some wrong learnings

became your first language, Maybe first language as fear,

first language because of rejection, first language

because of pride. And pride is so interesting

because many things can lead us to be proud.

So maybe some experience, some some things that we went, we are

trying to make it so hard. We are trying to prove so many

things that we become proud. I understand what I'm saying in

English. So this can be can become our

first language easy and we cannot see, we cannot speak

mercy because we learned that language.

You know, so many work from the darkness against couples and a

lot of not good experience inside the marriage and language

can be created not the Kingdom language.

So maybe because of this experience, what's coming out of

our lives can be loneliness. I prefer to be alone.

Nobody. I don't trust anybody.

You know, some kind of answers close to aggression.

I create a word in Portuguese aggressivity, you know, because

in Portuguese is aggressively dodgy.

And I'm creating my words in English during my life, you

know, but because of the experience that we had, we

become aggressive. So people are coming with

something and our answer, our language is with anger.

Many times we are look at this. And I was praying God gave me

that. I thought wow, many times we

were we are testing friends because of experience that we

had. God gave us friend they are

around us but we cannot trust. We have issues here and we are

testing our friends and we we are open the door to lose

relationship just because we are testing our friends because this

is the language that we know. Jesus came to teach us a new

language and he was using parables so we could learn and

speak the Kingdom language. So one good way for us to know

the answer about this question, what comes out of your life,

what our life? One good way is to listen what

people around us, what they are saying, what they are receiving

from you, what they're receiving from us, what they are saying.

And I encourage you to ask, ask them maybe two or three people,

what do you see coming out of my life?

What do you see coming out of my life?

So be courageous. These answers can restore, can

change your life. These answers can restore, can

heal you and heal relationships. This kind of answers can open a

way for prosperity that you be, you receive peace, freedom.

So ask for your husband. You don't need to ask for your

wife because she will tell you anyway.

You know, this week I was with my my tooth was like this size,

you know, I, I was like, I'm going to die, you know, so much

pain, so, so much pain. And my daughter was coming with

ice. I was with ice here, you know,

everything was I could not speak.

And Celia, my wonderful wife, I was at the bed like, oh, I'm

going to die today, you know. And she starts saying to my

daughter, you know, dad has no many experience with pain.

This thing. I was nothing with pain.

Once you say crazy wife, my pain is nothing for her.

No, but I could not do because I was so you know.

We need to learn what we are speaking, what they're receiving

from us. So ask for your husband, ask for

your wife, ask for your wife, ask for your roommate, for your

kids, Co workers and you learn things, real things.

What are they saying that's coming out of your life?

So the answer means what you have the most inside of you and

it's so important. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

at the last part of the verse 34, he said for the mouth speaks

what the heart is full of. So what is coming out of you is

what your heart is full of. So whatever you discover, I

need, I need to tell you that we're talking about maybe hard

things, you know, maybe. And I, I really encourage you to

talk with people close to you and maybe people close to you,

they, they are hurt because of your language, because of what's

coming out of you. And I encourage you to ask and

receive. That can be hard.

You can discover difficult things, but Jesus is ready to

bring his Kingdom over your life.

Amen. So maybe people will say to you

that you are rude. People can say to you you are

always complaining. People can say to you you are

sad, you're always sad. People can just answer you that

you are inappropriate. It's hard to listen, it's not

easy, but maybe this is what's coming out of our lives.

Are you with me? Do you hate me?

Don't answer, don't answer, don't answer.

So rude. Always complaining.

Sad, inappropriate. Maybe lazy, maybe not trustable.

It can be hard, I'm telling you, but Jesus is here and his

language, his Kingdom is available.

And this is the healing process. We need to know what's coming

out. Maybe we don't know.

So it's wonderful to work this way, to see what what are you

receiving from me? It's a freedom process, it's a

healing process. So do not deny, receive that

maybe someone who is hurt can give you a bad answer, you know,

and do you want to know? Do you want me to speak to you?

I will speak, you know, like people can answer you in

different ways, you know, but we need to learn maybe the fact

it's a gift, but the package is not wonderful.

Sometimes we receive some gift that the package is so beautiful

and inside we have like an apple or a banana.

We were thinking about a new car key and came with a banana, you

know, but sometimes the gift is terrible.

The the package is terrible, but the gift is good.

So don't worry about the package receive, do not deny if they're

saying that you're receiving this from you, receive it and go

to Jesus. He has his Kingdom to heal, heal

us and to lead us to peace and to freedom.

Amen. So I believe we can learn a lot

from that. And also here at Illuminate

Church, God gave to us life steps and oh, oh, you, you are

listening this everywhere. We help people find abundant

life in Jesus and the way we understand that is walking with

Jesus and life steps every season, every every life stage

that you are. You can't walk with Jesus to

receive abundant life, and abundant life is what's coming

out of your life. So Jesus is available to work

with us to teach us what's coming out of our life so we can

have His Kingdom coming out of our life.

Amen. So in life steps, we work with

these and we, we, we walk together reading the Bible and

learning about abundant life, abundant joy, abundant peace.

Can you imagine your life with abundant joy, abundant love and

abundant peace? This is the calling.

This is this is in the Bible. So let's walk through this and

and join us for life step. If you have never registered for

that, please think about this. You can walk this way with this

abundant. It's not like a training to be

whatever it's walking with Jesus to receive abundant life from

the king. Isn't it amazing?

So we need to learn that and walk this way.

So the first thing is what's coming out of your life?

The second thing that I want to talk with you is who will

receive? Who is our neighbor?

So let's watch what Jesus said to the expert in the law.

The miracle of mercy, the Good Samaritan.

This is Jesus, who is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

You see, when Jesus was on earth, he wanted everyone to

know what God thought about things.

So he took every opportunity to teach people about God's heart.

One day a religious expert stood up to test Jesus by asking him

this question. Teacher, what should I do to

inherit eternal life? What does the law say?

The man answered. You must love the Lord your God

with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all

your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself, right?

Do this and you will live. Wait.

The man then asked. And who is my neighbor?

Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man was travelling from

Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up and left

him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along

hey, but when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the

other side of the road and passed him by.

Another man who worked in the temple, who was called a Levite,

walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed

by on the other side. Then a Samaritan came along.

Samaritans were hated by Jews. They were seen as lesser people

and Jews would not interact with them.

But when the Samaritan saw the man, he felt compassion for him.

Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive

oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his

donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him.

One room, please. The next day he handed the

innkeeper 2 silver coins telling him take care of this man, If

his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm

here. Now which of these three would

you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?

The man replied the one who showed him mercy.

Then Jesus said yes, now go and do the same.

Yes, so go and do the same, Jesus said Go and do the same.

And the Kingdom, Kingdom language was mercy.

Jesus was showing the Kingdom language was mercy.

And in the New Testament, the Greek word for mercy is ellaos,

not English. OK, Greek words was ellaos,

which points to the active demonstration of kindness and

goodwill toward those who are afflicted or in need.

And the man who was attacked, the Jewish guy in the parable

and in the video, he was not Maybe we don't have like all

the, the, the, the information that he was asking for mercy,

but his life was saying mercy on me.

His life was asking for mercy. I believe we can hear, just

listen the story. Listen the parable, we can hear

he, he was in need. He was asking for mercy.

And let's talk about what can be a barrier to speak Kingdom

language. What can be a barrier to speak

Kingdom language? The first one that we saw here

was the priest. So Jesus was talking, the first

one who came to that way was the priest.

And I need to tell you, when I was a little boy at the church

and I heard about this parable, I thought, wow, the pastor is

not good. I was, oh, the pastor saw the

thing and didn't help. Oh, pastor is not good.

And I, I don't know if you watch that move, forgot the name left

behind. My wonderful wife is helping me.

You know, she's always saying the truth.

OK, so left behind, I don't know if you watch that movie.

If you didn't, it's your problem.

I will tell you the movie, OK, OK, you should.

It's like old movie. So the left behind Jesus come

back and everybody went with Jesus and the pastor did not the

pastor stay. He was not going with Jesus to

heaven. And I was, oh, pastors, they're

not good. Now I am a pastor, so I'm

learning, I'm learning this meaning and in this parable,

Jesus was talking about the priest and how to hear how we

can hear how we can speak that language.

And Jesus was teaching her teaching the the expert in the

law. He was talking about because the

priest represent his connect with the scriptures.

You see in in the video, he had like the scriptures.

So what I want to tell you is our times reading the Bible need

to produce actions. Our time reading the Bible, our

times reading the Bible need to produce actions Need to make us

ready to listen the answers that people are asking around us.

Amen. So are you reading the Bible?

Start reading the Bible. If you are not reading reading

your Bible, please start reading the Bible.

I have seen in our discipleship groups at the church.

If you don't know what is this, go to the connect center.

They can help you. But we are reading the Bible you

are sharing. But we are reading the Bible,

reading the Bible and you know, with we, we share and I have

seen a lot of miracles, you know, couples that came and they

were going through a divorce and they start reading the Bible,

receiving the power of the Bible, the word of the Lord.

And you know that message, the divorce, divorce, divorce,

divorce because of the Bible, break that message and the law

of the power restoration wonderful thing from the Lord

came to the marriage just because of the Bible.

So if you are not reading the Bible, please read your Bible.

Jesus was talking with him saying the priest came, he knew

the scripture, but read the Bible need to produce actions.

And I also want to tell you, and in our church center app, if you

open the church center app, the first thing I believe you have a

picture in your so the first thing there is message notes.

You know everything that we are talking every Sunday you have

all the passage and at the end you will see there today if you

go, you see the passage. And at the end we have like a

journal method how you can read the Bible.

And we call this here method HEAR here method.

And here method means H means highlight, E explain a apply and

now we have something special. They are the last one is how I

will respond. How is going to be my actions?

I'm reading the Bible. What I will do with this?

So our times reading the Bible need to produce actions.

Can you say Amen for that need to produce action?

So he was talking about the priest.

Then he came with the Levite and Jesus said the Levite was there.

And you know, the Levite represent the temple tasks.

And when I was thinking about this, I want to share with you

that our agenda. Agenda is a word in English in

Portuguese as well. You know, agenda in Portuguese.

Isn't it easy Agenda OK, agenda in English OK.

But our agenda cannot interrupt mercy callings.

So focus on agenda can make you unable to listen so many tasks.

So focus on the tasks that we maybe cannot listen, so we can

be so committed with the goals, with our agenda that our ears

are blocked to people around us that are shouting, asking for

mercy. So what if you open your agenda

to listen? You create like something that

you stop and you will pray for your friends.

This is Kingdom language. So every, whatever, Wednesday,

Tuesday, every day, I will pray for my friends and I will stop

and I'll be quiet and I'll start to remember my relationship with

some friends. Wow.

I need to pray for him. I need to do something.

I need to speak mercy. He's asking for mercy.

You know, people around us, they are in need and Jesus is calling

us to speak the language so we can work with our agenda for our

agenda to do not interlude what people are asking around us.

Mercy callings. And the last one, and I will

finish with this, the last one is the Samaritan.

And for me, that we understood this Samaritan was the

unexpected. Nobody was expecting, even maybe

the Jewish guy who was there, he was not expecting the mercy

coming from the Samaritan. And I need to tell you, people

around you, maybe they are not expecting from you, but God's

calling you to speak Kingdom language with mercy from for

them. So give to them mercy.

So this week I encourage you think about someone, if

someone's coming to your mind now, please pray for them.

And during this week, do something God will lead you to

do. Maybe you need to pay something,

maybe you need to go and give a hug.

Maybe you need to do anything different.

One day I was praying for a friend and, and he said to me

that he was having some issues with the company that he was

working. And it was like maybe 10 PMI was

in Brazil. And I, I, I just said to him for

do you allow me to go now with you to your company?

Oh, but the company's closed. I don't want to enter the

company, but I want to go in front of the company with you

and pray blessings over you in front of your company.

And we went there and I just pray in Portuguese.

Easy. I just pray with him in front of

the company. You know, when I finished the

prayer, he gave me a hug and the other day he called me.

Everything is different. I didn't do anything different,

I was just praying. Are you understanding?

God will do, God will complete, but we need to speak the

language and it's easy when we just talk.

I will pay attention to people around me and I will speak

Kingdom language. Can you say yes for that?

So people are asking mercy and God want to use us.

And this is the way. And I want to also talk about if

you come today, if you came today with not expectation,

maybe asking for mercy, Jesus is here.

And the answer is Jesus, walk with Jesus.

If you never prayed receiving, asking Jesus to come to your

life, I want to pray with you together this morning, asking

Jesus to come to your life to walk with you.

Can we do this prayer together? So please close your eyes and

repeat everybody. Please repeat with me.

Jesus, this morning I want to declare that I need you.

I want you to be my Lord and I open my heart for you come to my

life. I receive you in my life in

Jesus name, Amen. Amen.

Praise the Lord and I, I want to, yes, praise the Lord, praise

the Lord. If you did that prayer for the

first time today, it's so important if you never did that

pray. If not said that word, today's a

special day and I will count to 3 and I will ask you if you did

that prayer for the first time to raise your hand because this

is a special day, is a day to walk, to start your walking with

Jesus, Amen. So I will count to 3 and you

raise your hand. If you did that prayer for the

first time, we have something to give to you to help you in your

journey. OK, 123, just raise your hand.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen.

We see you. So the ushers will give you some

information that will allow you to have your wonderful first

step walking with Jesus. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this time. Together we want to overflow

mercy and I pray for the blessings coming over us to obey

you and to speak your language. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. I invite you to stand up.