Who is Your Neighbor? | Kim Eichorn

I'd like to extend Christian greetings and a good morning to each one here.

I didn't know who all attends here, so I'm going to tell you just relax, because I'm nervous, so you don't have to be nervous.

Like Sean said, I was ordained about three years ago and I remember when I was ordained I was almost 60, I think and I told the Lord you chose the wrong man.

I thought that, but the Lord soon corrected me.

You know, sometimes we in life think we have everything down pat.

We know where we're going to go, we know what we want to do and we know where we're going to go.

But you what we want to do and we know where we're going to go.

But you know that once in a while God throws in some curveballs for us and life is not exactly what we planned.

That's not what I was going to preach about, but I am glad to be here.

I'm glad for the privilege to be here with you and as I was thinking about a message I'd like to ask, this question came to mind.

I'd like to ask this question who is your neighbor?

Okay, we just got done sharing about the work in Mexico, the work in Greece, about all the many needs that are in the world.

I just got sharing about the less fortunate, and so you might get confused by my message, by what I'm going to say, that who is your neighbor?

About four months ago we moved from Dundee, where we have lived for 28 years.

We were there before there were other neighbors, so we were the people inviting in neighbors, right?

So we had been there, we lived there.

Then we decided to sell that and move to Dover, ohio, and we settled in an area where there are many neighbors and one morning Esther was gone.

I was there at the house and I have a knock on my door and I wonder well, who's coming to my?

Why not ring the doorbell?

I got a doorbell, they just use that.

No, they knocked on the door and I went to the door and here this lady said hey, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness, can I come in?

I said I want in.

She came on in and she said I'm just here, I'm the neighbor, two, three neighbors down the road.

I'm the neighbor here and I came to just invite you to go to church.

You know that really, that just about knocked the socks off of me Because I don't know I'm guilty.

I've never went to any of our neighbors in our old place when they came there and said hey, how are you doing?

Welcome to the neighborhood.

I want to make sure you go to church.

I was very guilty of that.

So the question I like to look at this morning is who is my neighbor?

And I think sometimes we overlook who our neighbor is.

Sometimes we think that our neighbor is the people in Mexico.

Our neighbor is people in El Salvador or in Africa.

Neighbor is people in El Salvador or in Africa or in other countries.

But I'd like to take the story, which is very common, that many of you have heard many times, and that's a story that Jesus shared in a parable in Luke 10.

And I'd like to take that story and I'd like to talk a little bit about each, about the journey.

I'd like to talk a little bit about the priest, about the Levite, about the Samaritan and even the guy that was robbed.

I'd like to take each of those people then and see what we can find of who is your neighbor, who is my neighbor?

In Luke 10, I'm going to start reading in verse 25.

Here is the parable of the Good Samaritan, and many of you heard that in reading out of the King James Version.

It says and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And he said what is written in the law and how readest thou?

And he answered and said Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and with all thy neighbor as thyself.

And he said unto him Thou hast answered right.

Do this this, do thou shalt live?

And he, willing to justify himself, and said unto Jesus who is my neighbor?

It's going to stop here.

So here was a lawyer that came to Jesus and he wanted to know how to get into heaven.

And then Jesus said Well, what does the law say?

What are you supposed to do?

Verse 27, that's a key verse, because I'm going to come back to that verse.

But he said to Jesus, he said thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind.

And then he added that last phrase and thy neighbor as thyself.

And so this lawyer wanting to justify who his neighbor is, he said unto Jesus, he said well, who is my neighbor.

Now we have the story that Jesus used to verify or to simplify who is your neighbor?

And Jesus answered and said in verse 30, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance, there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as his journey, came where he was and where he saw him, he had compassion on him and he went up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to the inn and took care of him.

And on the morrow, when he had departed, he took out two pens and gave them to the host and said unto him Take care of him.

Whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.

Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?

This is still Jesus asking him.

And he said he that showed mercy on him.

Then said Jesus unto him, go and do likewise.

Jesus had a parable for this lawyer to tell him who his neighbor was.

Now I want to give you a little bit of a picture of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

I am told that that road.

History tells us that that road is about 17, 18 miles long.

It's a little strip.

It goes from Jerusalem In Jerusalem.

You're at 2,700 feet above sea level.

Once you get down to Jericho, you're 800 feet below sea level.

So what that means?

You're going downhill, gradually, downhill, downhill.

On the one side, as you go down the mountain, you see Mount of Olives.

It's up high.

On the other side, you see the Kidron Valley.

It was a very narrow path.

It was known to be a very high traffic area because they did a lot of commerce down in Jericho.

It was a treacherous trek to travel, but people did that.

It was very rocky.

It had some very deep cliffs where the only place to get through was just about one man's path.

That was the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Now let's look a little bit at who was the priest.

What were the priests supposed to do?

So this priest comes up to this man and, he being the man, he was.

So the priests were supposed to be the people that brought the word of God to them right.

The priests were the people that were supposed to make right the relationship between man and God.

The priests were supposed to be those that cared for relationships.

But here the priest comes up and sees this man and really he didn't even look at him, he just walked beside and said I got to keep going, and some translations say that he might even had to step over him so that he could get past this wounded person.

But he was the one that was religious, he was the one that had connection with God.

He was the one that you really would have expected that would have taken care of this robber.

But no, he walked over him.

He didn't have time for him.

He couldn't contaminate himself with a man that is wounded because possibly he was bleeding and so there was no way he was able to touch him.

So no, the priest didn't stop and help him.

Next we have the Levite come by.

The Levite came by and he again is a man that was in the religious duties.

He again was a man that was very religious.

He was a man that did everything right.

He was the one that was supposed to help the priest get ready for when people came for sacrifices.

He was also the one that stood between the priest and man, often to listen.

He was the one that helped to reconcile the people back to God.

So he was a very religious man.

He was also one that would prepare all the things for a sacrifice.

When they had to sacrifice animals, the Levite was the one that would prepare the altar, get all the instruments together that they needed to have this sacrifice.

But he was the one that knew that he couldn't touch blood.

So I see the Levite as a man who was very justifying himself.

Well, I can't do this because this is going to contaminate me.

I can't do this because if I touch this man then I can't go on with my service.

So the Levite does one thing more than the priest did.

He at least comes and looks at him.

He looks at him, but then he walks past and keeps on going.

The Levite could not humble himself to go down and help the person that was left there half dead, that was bleeding.

The Levite person could not go because he was afraid he might get dirty.

The Levite was a person that he could not touch the unclean thing.

He just couldn't do that.

Then you look at the Samaritan.

So the Samaritans were people that lived in Samaria.

Samaria was known as a refugee city for hiding criminals, and so, therefore, the Jews hated the Samaritan.

They didn't like him.

The Samaritans had not used the same Bible as the Jewish people did.

The Samaritans used the first five books of Moses for their Bible, the Torah, and that's how they educated themselves.

They did not believe in using the Bible, they believed in the Torah.

But here comes a Samaritan, and it is assumed that he was probably a businessman.

He was going on his way to Jericho to do business, make sales.

So it is assumed that he was a busy man.

He had things to do as well.

He was a man that probably was in just as much of a hurry, or even more so, than the priest and the Levite.

He had things to do.

But when you look at his response to who his neighbor was, he looked at that person.

He stopped.

I believe he totally stopped.

He got off his animal.

He looked at his wounded person.

He was left there half dead.

The Bible tells us he looked at him and he said I have to do something.

Well, also, you see that the Samaritan was not a person that traveled this road.

Apparently, he knew that those kind of things happened, so he prepared himself.

He had oil and wine and I like to liken that unto mercy and grace for that person.

So he had time to care for the unfortunate.

He took time, he evaluated the situation.

He said this man needs help.

He couldn't just walk past him like the priest and the Levite did.

He had to stop and he looked at him.

He said this man needs help.

He was a man that was prepared to help if we would find somebody in need, because he had oil and wine, as I said earlier, and he was a man who was not afraid to get dirty.

It says that he bowed down and bound up his wounds with oil and wine.

He bound him up, put him on his off and took him to Jericho, took him the rest of the way, took him actually to an inn, and it repressed me.

He didn't just drop him off and say, okay, innkeeper, here, I found this guy along the way.

Now you just take care of him.

Okay, I'm going to leave, you take care.

No, he said he paid him for his service for that night and then he said if you're going to spend more, when I come back again I'll repay you.

He looked into the future the well-being of this person that was wounded.

So we see that the Samaritan was a person that had compassion.

He was somebody that had his priorities were straight.

He was looking for opportunities to help those in need.

Now let's take a little look at the robber.

We don't really know for sure who he was, but they assume that he was a Jew heading on his way to Jericho to do business.

Why was he robbed?

Again, they're assuming that probably he was robbed because he had money on him, or maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like we say, but he nevertheless was robbed and there he was left as half dead.

He couldn't help himself.

He was unconscious, he needed help, and I don't know what he said when he came to himself after the Samaritan bound up his wounds.

But can you just imagine with me a little bit?

He said Samaritan, you took care of me, you took me here.

I don't want you, you can't do that, but we don't know that.

So that was the person that is robbed.

Now let's go back to the question that Jesus asked.

So who then, is my neighbor?

Who is my neighbor?

In this scripture, jesus verifies that your neighbor is anyone that needs help.

I had mentioned earlier that sometimes that we maybe overlook who our neighbor is because we think that our neighbor is somebody far away, in another land or somewhere else.

But I'd like to ask you this morning maybe your neighbor is your spouse, maybe it's your wife, maybe it's your husband.

Do you ever go through times in your marriage that you just need a little help?

How about us being the neighbor to our own spouses?

How about us being the neighbor to our own spouses?

How about us being the neighbor to our own children?

Our boys are both grown, and so there's been many years that I saw my little boys come running at saying they kicked their knee or they hurt themselves.

That's been a long time ago, but I remember that happening and I look back and I say too many times I was in a hurry.

They were actually the neighbor that Jesus brought to me and wanted me to minister to my children.

Is that maybe your neighbor, who God wants you to minister?

What about your family, your parents, your grandparents?

Could they be your neighbor?

That was going, and I liken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho as the road of life that we journey.

It's our journey.

We're going down our journey of life and maybe it's your brother or sister who are struggling.

Maybe they aren't struggling financially, but maybe they're just struggling emotionally.

Maybe somebody hurt them emotionally and they just need somebody to sit with them and comfort them.

Or let's even get maybe a little closer.

What about somebody in our church?

Now we say, well, we shouldn't have robbers in our church, we shouldn't have people who hurt us in our church.

But in my short 60 years I've seen way too many people in church who have been hurt by leaders.

And maybe Jesus is bringing those people to us and saying this is the neighbor I want you to minister, to Sit down with him, talk to him, comfort him.

Talk to him, comfort him, work with him.

But what about the person you work with?

Maybe you work in a place where there are a lot of employees and one day one of the employees you didn't know very well comes into your office and just starts pouring out his heart, just saying all he's going through, and you say wait, wait, I don't have time, we've got to keep working.

But maybe Jesus is bringing that person to your office as your neighbor, for you to stoop down, kneel down and pour some oil and wine into his wounds.

Or maybe, if you're a person that travels a lot, you sit on a plane and all of a sudden the person turns and introduces himself and starts telling you his life story and it's a sad story.

And you say, well, I don't have time to listen to that story.

I got to keep moving.

I don't thank you, but no thanks.

But maybe Jesus is bringing that person to you as your neighbor because he needs help.

And then there is our neighbors who we are to minister to in other countries.

I think of a happening that happened to us, to me, one time that we were down on the Mexico border.

We were on the Mexico side.

We went into one of the refugee camps.

I showed you.

We got in there and then three people come running and yelling at the person that had taken us down, which was Marion Garber but he doesn't live anymore and said hey, we had just been kidnapped and we just were released and gave their story.

And here they had been kidnapped for 12 days.

They kept them in this little room and it was all closed up, no way to get out, except there was one air conditioner in one of the holes where an air conditioner was in, and they decided if they could jerk that air conditioner out, they could escape.

So for days they planned their escape and slowly moved that air conditioner real quietly, because they were being watched.

On the 12th day they popped that air condition and escaped and they were coming to the camp because they had escaped and we took time, we listened to them and we prayed with them.

I believe that was our neighbor at that time.

That's who God brought through, that's who was to be our neighbor.

So my next question is then how do I respond to a neighbor in need?

Am I like the priest?

Am I too holy?

Am I too righteous?

Do I have too many things on my platter?

To begin with, I don't have time for the neighbor who is in need.

Or am I maybe like the Levite?

The Levite, he was a little bit more open because he at least looked.

He took time to look, but sometimes people who take time to look do it more as just that way they feel good, okay, they did something.

Am I that type of neighbor?

Or what kind of a neighbor am I?

Am I a neighbor who is willing to take time and really look with compassion, listen to the needs of the person, or what?

How do I respond to when there are needs?

In verse 27, I think is kind of the key, and you quoted almost this verse this morning.

But verse 27 says, and he answered.

Now this is the lawyer answering Jesus.

Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself.

I believe this is the key to us working with our neighbor, believing in our neighbor, helping our neighbor, bending down and helping our neighbor.

So how do we love the Lord with all our strength, with all our might, with all our mind?

I believe one way that we love the Lord with all our soul, strength, heart and mind is we give our heart to him and allow him to have full control of our lives.

It's no more a question who gets priority.

We have committed our lives and our hearts to Jesus and he gets priority number one.

Number two, I think, is when we give our hearts to the Lord, we make a commitment to God that goes very deep, deeper than any other commitment that we've ever made, and I think, and I believe strongly, that it even goes deeper than a marriage commitment.

It goes that deep that you will do whatever it takes to be close to the Lord.

I believe that that commitment is a commitment that, even if you suffer persecution, you are still committed to follow the Lord.

You will die for that commitment, because that is how strong that commitment is.

That is doing it with all our heart, soul and mind and strength, everything we have.

And when we do that, I believe that it produces some characteristics that God wants us to produce in our lives as neighbors.

First of all, when we give our heart, soul and strength and mind to Jesus, we produce a fruit of love.

It is impossible to give your heart totally to the Lord and not produce a fruit of love.

Because when you stop and look at the love that Jesus had we just had communion and I had that message and again I was just impressed how Jesus was willing to give all for us Stop and think.

Jesus was up in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and God came to Jesus and said Son, I want you to go down, I want you to live among man, I want you to give your life so that they can have life.

But remember, jesus had it all well in heaven.

There was no imperfection, there was nothing bad in heaven, everything was good.

Now, all of a sudden, he has to sacrifice and leave the perfectness to come down here and redeem us as man.

That is love.

And to take the beatings and to take the dying on the cross, giving his life, the thorns on his head, to take all of that.

You can't do that and not have love.

And I think that is one of the things that Jesus was trying to tell the lawyer here.

You must have love.

If you're going to go help your neighbors, you must have love.

Without love you won't do anything.

Without love you can't even start to touch and help your neighbor.

Secondly, I think that, giving our hearts totally to the Lord, we have a characteristic of compassion.

Compassion can do many things, but unless that we have compassion, we won't help our neighbors, we won't reach out to our neighbors.

We need compassion.

You know, when I first started for Christian Aid Ministry, I did the research for the rapid response cleanup.

When there's storms, I go out and do research for them and help them.

One of the things that I've noticed that is starting to happen to me is I am seeing so many piles of people's trash that I forget what it's all about.

It wasn't actually their trash, it was their belongings, it was their furniture, it's what they had gathered for 40 years or how many years they lived there.

And one day it just dawned on me.

I said, lord, I need more compassion, Because you can't reach people if you don't have compassion.

Compassion is when you can put your arm around a person and say I don't know how it feels, but I'm here to help you along.

Compassion is when you try to put yourself into where this person is coming from.

And, as I said, those piles of trash I've seen a lot of them time and time again and the Lord reminded me, and every time that I go to a project, he reminds me.

Now, Kim, that's not somebody's trash, that is actually somebody's position.

Have compassion on those people.

Think of all the work they have in that pile and what they've been able to do with it, and now today, it's worthless.

Try to feel with them compassion.

I believe if we want to help our neighbors, we must have compassion.

The Samaritan, I believe.

When he looked at the person that was robbed as he lay there, half dead.

He looked at him with so much compassion he probably shed a couple tears over.

This person said oh, it's too bad, but I'm going to help, I'm going to go with him, I'm going to walk with him.

Compassion makes you do and care for people more than anything else.

When you don't have compassion, we get hard and we get rough.

We get used to the situation.

But in order to care for our neighbor, we must have compassion.

Have compassion.

Thirdly, another character that we get when we give our whole to him is grace, grace.

You stop and think again at the grace that God extends to you every day.

Maybe you are perfect people and you don't sin ever, but I'm here to tell you I fail many times and I go back to my father and he says my grace is sufficient, my grace is extended, he forgives me again and again.

If we don't have grace, then it's going to be very difficult for us to reach down to the neighbor laying there dying from being beaten, because we need grace.

Grace is something that I think we don't understand.

Grace is something that I think sometimes we take for granted because we were so used to see it.

But think with me one moment what is the grace of God?

Isn't it that he comes and dies for us and takes away our sin, and our sin is as nothing, we're clean, there's no more sin.

That's grace, and I believe that that's one of the characteristics that God gives us when we give our whole heart to him.

Fourthly, forgiveness.

I think that's another thing that we get as a characteristic from God when we give him our heart, soul and strength in mind is forgiveness.

You know, this Samaritan might have could have looked at this Jew who had been robbed.

He's laying there half dead and said too bad, I mean, you don't like me after I'm a Samaritan, you don't like me.

But no, the Samaritan had forgiveness in his heart.

He was willing to kneel down beside him, pick him up, pour his oil and wine.

He forgave him.

Forgiveness is a big, big picture.

Someone gave this picture once to us some time ago and he said forgiveness is when you can take a two-edged sword, turn around, give them the handle.

You have hold of the sharp edge, meaning that they can hurt you again.

That's forgiveness.

You know, forgiveness is a big subject and that sometimes is hard to do, and maybe for you forgiveness is not a big thing, but for me, forgiveness is a big thing.

And then I look again at the picture of Jesus coming down and coming to me and saying you are forgiven, I don't hold any of those sins against you anymore, you're totally washed white.

Isn't that a wonderful forgiveness?

Next, I see the characteristic of mercy.

The Samaritan person had to have mercy on this person and that means extend a hand.

Because he cares for that person.

He had to have mercy on him.

And when you look at again our relationship with our Heavenly Father, god has had tremendous mercy on us, didn't he?

He has given us mercy time and time again.

When we fail, he gives us mercy, when we stumble, he gives us mercy, and when we do good, he still gives us mercy.

God is a merciful God.

Lastly, I look at giving our hearts totally to him, that we are a gracious people, very gracious people, people who are long-suffering, people who are willing to forbear, who are willing to be nonjudgmental when we see others.

We're gracious to others.

So, in conclusion, again I come back to the question who is my neighbor?

Is it the thief that has been robbed that you've met somewhere?

Is it your spouse?

Is it your child?

Is it your child?

Is it your family?

Is it somebody in your church?

Is it somebody you work with?

And how do you respond to your neighbor?

We have an example of three people.

We have an example of the priest, the Levite and Samaritan how they responded to their neighbor.

But I'd like to ask you the question how do I respond to my neighbor when I see somebody beside the road?

Good example down in Dover, 7739, there's a man that stands there begging.

How do I respond to you?

Ah, if he would just want to go get a job, he could Just go get a job, quit begging.

Is that how I respond?

Or how do I respond to my neighbor?

Am I like the Samaritan person who was loving, compassionate, who extended grace and forgiveness and mercy and was gracious to the person that was laying there and needed help?

So the next question I want to ask well, what motivates me to reach out to these kind of people, to my neighbor?

I believe the reason that we are motivated is because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's why we do it.

We do it because we live in joy.

We enjoy the life that Jesus has given us.

Our life is fruitful, we enjoy our life and that's why we want to reach out to those who are less fortunate.

Why would somebody want to go to the mission field 10,000 miles away and share the good news?

Isn't it because that we were extended mercy?

Isn't it because we were extended forgiveness?

Isn't it because of our relationship that we have with the Heavenly Father?

That's what motivates us, that's what should motivate us.

And the question that I would ask is when I serve my Heavenly Father, do I do it with passion or do I do it out of obligation?

And I can say that for myself Too many times.

I grew up in a Christian home.

I knew how to do it Read my Bible, get down on my knees and pray.

But why did I do it?

Did I do it because I love the Lord, out of passion, because I wanted to serve him?

Or did I just do it because, well, what would other people think if they found out I didn't do it?

What would other people think if they found out I didn't do it?

In the end, I want to leave you with this who is your neighbor?

And if you defined who your neighbor is, how will you respond when you face that neighbor?

Can you respond as a Samaritan, with love and compassion?

Can you do it because of the mercy that God has shown to you.

Let's bow in prayer, heavenly Father, we thank you this morning again for your presence.

We thank you, lord, that you were our Father, that you looked down on us and you redeemed us.

You didn't hold any grudges against us, but you redeemed us with the blood of your Son.

We thank you, lord, for this service.

We thank you, lord, for this word and I pray that you would just help us just as we go through this week, that we could take it and we could think about it and we could digest it as we go this week.

And, lord, I pray you would help us.

Whatever neighbor you bring into our midst, may we be able to serve him in a compassionate and a gracious way.

Lord, I thank you for the church here.

Bless the church here at Grace Point.

Just give them wisdom as they continue to grow.

We love you and we praise you.

In Jesus' name, I pray Amen.