Questioning our Works

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

Matthew 5:44–48

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.

James 2:15–16

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

Luke 10:30

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.