Who is my Neighbor? | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

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How's everybody doing?

You guys doing good?

It is so so good to see every single one of you.

I'm so glad that that you're here.

If if I hadn't had the privilege of meeting you, uh, my name is Keith.

My wife Megan and I have the incredible privilege uh of serving as the the lead pastors here um at Celebration Orlando, and we genuinely are so glad um that you're here with us uh today.

And today, as we've already communicated, today is a special day because it's it's team Sunday.

And this is something that we do um fairly regularly.

The last time we did this, it was um it was for the Super Bowl when the Eagles went and they were robbed by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Um so we took a year off last year just to give us space to grieve because we all recognize that we are uh an Eagles church.

That's part of the conversion process.

I weave it into every message.

Um but we we wanted to bring it back, and and there's a lot of intentionality around why we wanted to bring it back and when we wanted to bring it back.

Quite honestly, we wanted to bring it back at a time for us to have fun and gather and and to kind of celebrate unique November, as you heard, but we also wanted to bring it back at this time for us to kind of have this safe space for us to look around and see one another, find common ground, find differences, but recognizing that while we may have on different jerseys, we're all part of the same family.

And as we're going into a very critical time for us as a country, and as we're heading into this election cycle, and I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but but as I as I look at the discourse that's taking place and the and the fear and the pandering and all the things like that, it grieves my soul.

And so as we're going into this season, I wanted us to have a safe space where we can address these things, but also look at one another and almost pull a little bit from sports and see that, hey, we may have on different jerseys, but we're still part of the same family.

We still are connected, we still love one another, even if we have different views.

Now, now, as we meant for this to be a space for us to smile and have fun, and we're absolutely going to do this, we're we are gonna be addressing the the state of our nation, so to speak.

But but we also have an opportunity to acknowledge, and even towards the end of our time together, we're gonna enter into a space of intentional prayer, not only for our nation in preparation for the election and some of the the anticipated outpouring and concern and fear and and all the things that could potentially happen.

But but I also want to pray with an acknowledgement of just a few days ago, um, there was a a mass shooting right here in Orlando, not far from here.

Um, two lives of loss, total of eight people were shot, and these things become very common, but this one is fairly close to our front doors.

And so uh we're gonna pray about this at the end of the service, but I just want to pause to acknowledge that we all have all of these moving parts and things that are happening in our lives, and and chaos is all around, and lives are being shortened, and and and there's good things and there's bad things, but but as a church, this is the place that can handle all of it together.

So we want to make sure that we create some space to pray and intercede for families and people who are experiencing trauma and walking through things that they never anticipated that they would have to walk through.

Can we get a good amen to that?

If you have your Bibles, I I want to invite you to join me in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

The Gospel of Luke, chapter number 10.

And I think that this text is very fitting for for our time today.

As I believe that we're gonna engage in a kingdom perspective on how to interact with one another.

Starting at verse number 25, this is after Jesus has sent his disciples out.

They've come back, they're sharing stories about their impact and ministry, and Jesus is continuing to talk about the importance of the work of the kingdom and how to influence and impact people.

And so at this point, he he begins to experience a lot of people that are that are testing him because it's almost like it's too good to be true.

But on the other side of the coin, there's also things that Jesus is saying that is challenging people's theological expression.

So we see here a man come up to Jesus and he wants to test Jesus because he's trying to find the loophole, and what does it look like to truly be a follower of his?

Starting at verse 25, it says this.

Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

What is written in the law?

He asked him.

How do you read it?

These are the words of Jesus.

The man says, This love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

You've answered correctly, he told him.

Pretty simple discourse.

But watch how the man responds.

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

Jesus took up the question and said, Hey, let me give you this example.

A man is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers.

They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down that road.

When he saw him, he passed on the other side.

In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at that place, he saw him and he passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.

He went over to him and bandaged his wounds and pouring olive oil and wine.

Then he put him on his own animal, brought him into an inn and took care of him.

The next day he took out two deneri, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him.

And when I come back, I'll reimburse for whatever extra you spend.

Which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robber?

The one who showed him mercy, he said.

Jesus told him to go and do the same.

Today I want to tackle this subject in a way that I think will challenge us, in a way that I think will encourage us, but hopefully in a way that will motivate us.

If you're taking no tonight, I really hope that you do.

I want to pose the same question to us that the man posed to Jesus, and it's simply who is my neighbor.

As we go into a moment of prayer, I'm gonna ask that you pray with me.

Just because full disclosure, I I've been severely under the weather for the past week and some change, and this is probably the most collectively I've talked um in almost a week.

My wife is like, praise the Lord.

Um but I I do still have a lingering cough.

I'm okay, but I have a lingering cough.

So if if I start coughing up here, I'm not dying, but if I collapse, then maybe I am.

But just pray with me and we're gonna get through this together.

How's that sound?

All right, Lord, we thank you so much for your faithfulness.

We thank you for your grace and your mercy and your goodness.

Father, we're thankful for moments where we can just be reminded of the good plans that you have for us.

We're thankful for the opportunities that we get to come together as a community to share space and to to celebrate our uniqueness and honor one another's distinctions and and still walk in alignment with you.

Lord, we just want to learn from you.

Your word reminds us that your yoke is easy and your burden is light.

And so, Father, as we're all walking through a very sensitive time with us having our own feelings and convictions and passions and people who have different feelings and convictions and compassions, and and and how do we coexist when it seems like the lines are so deep, but Lord, in you these things can coexist.

So, Father, I just ask over the next few moments that you just quiet our minds and amplify our spirits so that we can hear from you.

So I ask that you give us uh open eyes to see you.

I pray that you give us open ears to hear you.

And Lord, I also pray that you give us open hearts to receive everything that you have for us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, there's there's something uh truly fascinating about uh the sports uh experience I have found um in my life.

And and one of the things that I've grown to appreciate about being a sports fan, specifically a person who's lived in in different cities, is that whenever you're in a different city and you have an opportunity to see someone who's expressing their connection to a team that you have some connection with, it almost feels like you that you have this common bond, this this brother and sisterhood that makes you feel like, man, I see you, you see me.

We're we're in this foreign land together and we got each other's back.

It's it's a it's a beautiful thing.

Having lived in Jacksonville and in DC and now here in Orlando, and you just get a chance to meet so many different people, it's it's beautiful when you can find how you can connect with people.

But I also love how sports can just bring people together.

It's like this shared experience where we're we're passionate and we're cheering and we're yelling, but but there's a great space for us to express ourselves collectively, coming together, rooting for one another, rooting against one another.

But then there's that other side of it when you start getting into rivalries.

And and rivalries can be a little bit intense.

Again, I I I grew up outside of the Philadelphia area, so that was our our home team.

And and if you don't know anything about a Philadelphia fan, I can admittedly, objectively say this Philly fans are crazy.

Like if you if you like it, there's there's literally, you can Google this stuff, but but when they built the Philadelphia Eagles Stadium, it was the only one that they had to put in jail there because they were prosecuting so many crimes that were happening on site.

And you know what?

Philadelphia fans are proud of that.

Absolutely.

We don't play here in Philly.

Like, so it's it's it's that serious when you when you go to uh a Philadelphia uh event.

And and I I get that, and there's parts of it that that I embrace, but there's other parts of it that I'm thinking, man, this is this is getting a little bit to be some overkill when it becomes like, okay, this is this is going beyond the boundaries of of the sports.

But but I I've seen how rivalries, these these things that that we have, these differences, and now I have a built-in dislike for you, and I don't even know what the origin story of what the rivalry is.

If someone were to tell me they're a Cowboys fan right now, I'm gonna boot them.

I don't even know why.

I don't know why we don't like the Cowboys.

All I know is I don't make the rules and we don't like the Cowboys.

Giants, y'all can get it too.

Like all I'm saying is it's it's just something about certain teams that you're just like, hey, I don't rock with y'all, y'all don't rock with us, and it'll never be this, it'll never be not be that.

But but there's moments when it seems like we can cross the lines a little bit.

Let me let me tell you a story.

This is going back almost 30 years for me.

So I remember when a couple of friends and I, we went to go see the Philadelphia 76ers, back when AI was there, just crossing them over, just doing work.

And so we went to go see AI, um, and and and it was amazing.

They were playing against they were playing against the New York Knicks.

We can take our hats off and grieve for our New York fans who lost the World Series.

We'll accept that.

We'll accept that because I'm anti-New York.

Anyway, we we we get we we get to the game, and and so while we're there, we're cheering.

Stefan Mawberry and and AI are lined up with one another, and and it was great.

But while we were there, this is in Philadelphia, there were some there were some Knicks fans there.

And so naturally we're we're kind of going back and forth in this friendly discourse, and and and I've I've found that that Sixers fans are not as intense as Eagles fans are.

The environments don't allow for it.

So so there's a little bit of friendly banter back and forth.

And and I have one friend who is that friend who's very, very passionate and very intense.

And so I'm like, hey man, like, you know, chill out, man, it's good, but we're they're going back and forth, we're going back and forth.

Like, yo, man, if you say something else, I'm like, bro, like calm down.

It's it's a game.

We we manage to get through it, and and the Sixers win.

And we're celebrating, it's a great time.

We we leave, we leave the stadium, we're we're on our way home, but he's like, hey man, I need to stop and get some gas before we head back in.

Great.

We get to the gas station, and this just so happens that the same group of people that was the next row over from us was at the gas station as well.

So I see them and we're up there laughing and joking, like, hey man, what's going on?

Like, oh man, and so we're talking, like, hey, what part of New York are you from?

I got friends from New York.

It's not that serious for me.

But my friend comes out, I'm like, yo, what you talking to them for?

I'm like, yo, like what is what is what is actually wrong with you?

So we're we're talking and there's a little bit of tension, but but it but it's all good.

Well, then the guys, they're getting in their car and they're trying to start their car up and it won't turn over.

Battery must have died or something.

So they're sitting there, so we're sitting right next to them.

My friend is a literal mechanic.

They're trying to start the car up.

And so I'm like, yo, John, like, man, we could probably help him out.

He's like, Man, a Knicks fan can help him.

Got in the car and drove off.

So me and my three other friends spent the next 20 minutes driving home, like, bro, like, did this really just happen?

And he is literally trying to justify his lack of action and helping these poor dudes out who are three hours away from home, and and just because they had on a different jersey, his response was, let somebody on their own team help them.

Even though I have what's in me to help them, but because of my allegiance to my team, I don't even recognize their humanity anymore.

Y'all knew I was gonna turn this on, y'all right.

You know what what I have what I have grown to recognize when I look at the way that we see the world, I wonder if we've gotten to be so so connected and have such a deep allegiance to our side, to our view, to the way that we believe that things should be done, that we've lost the ability to recognize our shared humanity and our ability to even help people when that time comes.

It makes me wonder when I consider all of this, if if maybe it's possible that when it comes to the things of God, we act more like fans than we do disciples.

Because when you break down the distinctions, it's very, very clear.

See, a fan, they identify with their team.

And they have an us versus them mentality.

But a disciple identifies with Christ.

A fan, they celebrate when their team wins, but a disciple, they celebrate when the kingdom advances.

A fan, they dislike their rivals and wants to see them fail.

But a disciple doesn't see people as their rivals and they pray for those who spitefully use them.

A fan has selective values and selective scorekeeping, but a disciple never has to compromise their truth.

Let me break that down a little bit more.

If you ever have a conversation with a fan, what you'll find is there are certain stats that they elevate and celebrate on their side, but they diminish those same stats on somebody else's side.

They have the ability to recognize that we did this and we can't even acknowledge what you have done.

This is why when you see fans are going back and forth, I love the debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron.

Fact of the matter is, I don't know either of these men, but I love both of them.

I'm old enough to appreciate what I have seen with Jordan.

I'm old enough to appreciate the greatness that we see with LeBron.

So I can co- at the same time acknowledge Jordan's impact, and I can at the same time acknowledge that we're looking at history right in front of us.

But when you have an unhealthy perspective, the only way I can feel good about my side is if I minimize your side.

And it makes me wonder if there are times when we as followers of Christ lose the ability to actually function like disciples because we're too busy functioning like fans.

And as long as you're on my side, then I will celebrate you.

But but if you're not on my side, then I'm gonna demonize everything about you.

I won't acknowledge any good that you have done.

And in fact, I don't see any good in you because I am so deeply connected to my view of things.

If there's one thing that I want you to walk away with, and this is a mouthful, but I want you to write this down.

Don't let what you identify with become your identity because it will make it hard for you to identify with others.

Let me say that again.

Don't let the thing that you identify with become your identity because it will make it hard for you to identify with others.

I have seen people where they have identified with things so deeply that they've literally allowed it to become their identity.

And now that it has become my identity, any critique of the thing that I identify with, I think is an attack on me personally.

And now I feel like my response and my reaction to you has no limits or boundaries to it.

This is what happens when we enmesh ourselves and our ideas and our ideologies and allow them to shape our personality.

We have to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to get so attached to our ideas that it becomes our identity because once it does, it justifies my ability to dehumanize you and not see the value that's in you.

We live in a world today where there are so many different jerseys, there are so many different perspectives, there are so many different social groups, there are different political ideologies, there are different cultural backgrounds, there are even different denominations.

And I'm finding more and more that what we're spending our time doing is demonizing one another at the expense of recognizing, no longer seeing the image of God that is inside of one another.

We no longer pray and encourage one another, but we demonize and destroy one another.

The divisiveness that we see in our culture, specifically when it comes to politics, is a prime example of this.

We've allowed our political affiliations to become so intertwined with our identities that we struggle with even recognizing the perspective of the other side.

We don't even sometimes even acknowledge them as brothers and sisters in Christ because, after all, how could you be a follower of Christ if you vote this way?

But I want to serve this as a reminder for some of us.

No political party can contain the glory of God.

No political party can contain the glory of God.

No political party can contain the glory of God.

Politics is a system that was birthed out of our current ecosystem.

And it was a system that was meant to bring order, but the system is also one that the enemy uses to bring about oppression.

We have to acknowledge that.

So to believe that a system that has the enemy's hands in it and influences it will not be something that can contain the glory of God.

And this isn't new to us.

In fact, when we look at the biblical narrative, we see over and over again that the context of Jesus' ministry dealt with some of the same things that we're talking about today.

It may look a little different, it may sound a little different, but the principles remain.

Again, not dying.

There was a very clear understanding that there was a distinction between the kingdom and the empire.

Jesus came to bring in the kingdom.

He never came to try to enforce himself as the leader of the empire.

This is why when we look in scripture and when Jesus would perform miracles, the Bible says that they tried to make Jesus king by force.

And the Bible says that Jesus literally left those environments because he says, You can't make me king by force, I have to be invited in.

You can't legislate someone's faith, I have to be invited in.

So whenever someone tried to force Jesus into a position, he always left those environments because Jesus was fixated on the kingdom and not so much on the empire.

He understood there was a huge distinction between the two because the empire was filled with compromise.

The empire was looking for power, it was looking for influence, it was looking for control, and that is not the way of the kingdom.

So Jesus came to invite people who were in the empire into the kingdom so that they can begin to let their light shine so that it can change the atmosphere.

But it was never meant for Jesus to take over the empire.

This is why, when we look inside of the context of the Jews waiting for the Messiah to come, they all had different expectations of what they could get from the Messiah.

You had some people that were saying, Man, when the Messiah shows up, Caesar's out, and we're gonna see this, we're gonna see this governmental reign.

Jesus said, I never said I was gonna do that.

Other people said, When when he comes up, he's gonna come back just for the Jews, and that's it.

Jesus said, I never said I was going to do that.

So people had these huge expectations of the Messiah, and whenever they didn't have their needs met, they were riddled with disappointment, or what we would probably define now as church hurt, because he didn't show up the way that I wanted him to show up.

But even within the religious sects, they had different breakdowns of what their expectations of Jesus were.

For the Pharisees, they were people who were very, very strict by the letters of the law.

Look at what the word of God says, and we implement it and we enforce it, and this is the only way to live.

You had the Sadducees, and these were the people who were pretty much more liberal or progressive in the expression of their faith.

And they held these positions that had influence, but they also understood the importance of working alongside the government.

Then you have the zealots.

These were the passion nationalists.

They believed that we needed to take over at any cost because our world is being overturned.

And then you had the Essenes.

This was a group of people who wanted to withdraw from the world altogether and didn't want to have anything to do with connecting with the government.

And here's the fascinating thing of all of those distinctions, they were represented in every one of the disciples.

That means that when you break down the DNA of the disciples, Jesus intentionally selected a Pharisee, a Sajgesty, and a scene, and a zealot.

He brought them all to sit at the same table and he began to raise them up in his ways.

Jesus at that time was modeling to us that those things are not the determining factors of who I invite into the kingdom.

So now Jesus is interacting with all these people, and everyone that he interacts with, it's offending another people group who don't feel like he should be interacting with them.

So as he's doing these lessons, as he's doing these teachings, we have an expert of the law.

This is a man who is very well studied.

He would be a modern-day scholar.

He would be a person who has multiple PhDs.

He understands Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic.

He understands all the cultural nuances.

This man was very well seasoned in scriptures.

And so his he's looking at the scriptures and he's looking at Jesus, he has some questions.

So when he has these questions, he's looking at the discrepancies of his expectations of Jesus, and he confronts Jesus.

He's like, hey, okay, I want to test you in this area because you're doing some things that makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

And there's parts of you that I see is very conservative, and I'm I'm I'm on board with that.

But there's also some things I've seen in your life that's very, very liberal and progressive, and I got questions about that.

So let me test you with this question.

Um, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God?

He's just he's just throwing a question out there to see how Jesus is going to respond, because if you respond this way, then that aligns with my conservative view.

If you will respond that way, then that means that you're a liberal and a progressive, and I knew that you weren't the coming Messiah.

He was trying to test Jesus.

So Jesus responds and says, Well, hey man, you you know the word.

You know it, you know it very well.

You tell me what's what's important in order for you to live a life that demonstrates that you're in fellowship with God.

So so he he quotes from this sacred text called a Shema.

It's in Deuteronomy 6, and this is something that that every Jewish person, child, woman, and scholar alike, they will quote this every day, saying, Be hear, O Israel, your Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength.

This was something that they said over and over again.

It was written on their walls.

They told them that we want you to write this on your hands and put it on your foreheads, literally.

We want you to see it when you walk into your homes.

This is something that is really, really important.

And the reason behind that is they are he was ultimately trying to reinforce that your love for God needs to be integrated into every area of your life.

This needs to be a lifestyle for you.

That this is not something that you just do on the Sabbath.

This is not something that you do on the week.

Like you are literally immersed in what it looks like, and you're loving God with every aspect of yourself, with your mind, with your finances, with your time.

I'm loving God with everything that is in me, and I'm taking that same love and I'm also extending it to others.

The man answered correctly.

Jesus said, That is absolutely it.

If you take all of the Ten Commandments, if you take all of the oral laws and you were to crunch it down into two ideas, it is love God and love others.

You've answered correctly.

Great job.

But then the man was like, okay, that's that's that's a little too easy.

And and and I need I need to know where to draw the lines, Jesus.

Because some people, if you honestly ask me, they they honestly don't they don't deserve love.

You see those people, you see the way that they act, you see the way they dress, you see the way that they vote, you see the lifestyle are in.

So he asks Jesus, he says, he says, okay, so who is my neighbor?

Because he was trying to draw the line.

How much do I really have to love?

Like, how much do I really need to extend kindness?

Like, Lord, I need you to give me a boundary so that I can find a space where I can justify turning my back on people.

I need to feel a little bit better about my indifference with people.

So, so what is the line, Jesus?

Isn't it interesting how when it comes to extending grace to others, we're looking for a line, but when it comes to receiving grace, there is no line.

I I need to know how much I need to forgive you, but if I make a mistake, I'm expecting you to forgive me.

It's interesting how the human condition is always looking for an opportunity to figure out just how much do I need to do to be okay with God, but to also justify not being okay with you.

So Jesus uses this as a teachable moment.

And he says, Man, let me let me give you a story that I think you can relate to that has a lot of deep cultural implications that I think will help you to understand exactly who your neighbor is.

Jesus starts off by saying, I want to tell you a story, and there's a couple of key characters in this story.

There's a man that I'm gonna talk about.

There's also gonna be a Pharisee, or I'm sorry, you're gonna see, you're gonna see a priest, and you're also going to see um uh a Levite, and then we're gonna talk about a Samaritan at the end.

So he's setting the tone on who the characters are in this story.

He talks about this man first.

And what he says about the man is he said, there's a man who's on this journey.

He's he's going from Jerusalem and heading to Jericho.

Now, now there's a lot of theological implications in this, and and I wish I had more time to unpack it, but but let me give you the shortened version.

That Jerusalem was considered to be the house of God, the location of the literal presence of God.

It's where the temple was.

So whenever people went to Jerusalem, it was always communicated, even if geographically it wasn't an upward climb, it was always considered ascending or going up to Jerusalem, because it was always a view of saying, I'm going up to encounter God, and it was a belief that God was in these high places.

So Jerusalem was always pictured as this place that was elevated, that when I'm engaging with God, it's an elevated perspective.

But Jericho, Jericho, geographically and spiritually, had kind of gone into a space of moral decline and a lot of idolatry.

So the very fact that this man is going in the direction of Jericho would insinuate that he's not going in the direction of the things of God.

This is the backdrop.

You have a man who's on a journey, and the journey he is not going in the direction of the things of God.

While he is on this journey, there are some thieves who saw him and they exploited him and they beat him up and they robbed him.

He was on his own journey, just trying to make it to his destination, but there was someone who saw him, they wanted what he had, and they took advantage of him and they beat him and left him half dead.

This man was just trying to make it to his next destination.

But there was an enemy who was lurking, who was looking for an opportunity to exploit this man while he was on this journey.

This man is no different than you or me.

He was on a journey, but the enemy was able to capture him and brought pain to him and stripped him of his dignity.

And the Bible says that he was robbed of what he had.

I'm not sure if you've ever felt like I'm just on this journey trying to make it to my next destination.

And it seems as if there's an enemy who's always stealing something from me.

I'm just on this journey and the enemy is stealing my hope.

I'm just on this journey and the enemy is stealing my peace.

I'm just on this journey and the enemy is leaving me to a place where I feel like everything I have has been taken, and I don't even know how much life I got left.

This the scripture actually says that he was beaten and left half dead.

Just half dead, glass half empty.

I I don't know how much I got left in me because I can't know how much more I can continue on in this position, and he seems to be stagnant.

And maybe that's you right now.

Maybe you've been on this journey and you've been beaten, and there's some things that have been taken from you, and you feel weak and weary, and maybe you feel like, man, Keith, I feel like I'm half dead right now.

But I believe that God sent me here to speak to the part of you that is still alive, because God is not done with you yet.

He sees exactly where you are, and help is coming.

But just make sure you keep your eyes looking towards the hills where your help is coming from.

And so as he's looking around and it's part of him that is still half alive, he looks up and sees the face of religion coming towards him.

Good news.

Certainly, if anybody who's going to have compassion on a person who is broken and desolate and dealing with significant pain, it will be the people who are literally trained to do it.

The Bible says that the priest is walking by and he sees this man in this broken condition, this man who has been stripped and thrown away into the margins of society.

And this man who knows God, who knows God's word, who knows what his responsibilities are, but when he looks at this man, he passes by and goes on the other side.

He doesn't even pay attention to him.

He doesn't even have a conversation with him.

I believe that there's something really important that we have to do, and I want you to write this down, is that while we're on our journey, make sure that we actually see people.

We have to slow down enough to actually see people.

And you can write this parenthetically because I think it's important.

But when I say see people, I mean see people beyond their sin.

See see people beyond their labels, see people beyond their limits, see people beyond their lifestyle, see people beyond their decisions.

Jesus is giving us this important illustration of that this man who was trained and who was the face of religion looked at this man but did not see him.

The Bible also says that a Levite, another man who would have worked in the church if we were to put it in modern context, that he sees the man but does the same thing.

He distances himself from it.

Why is it that those who are the most religious, that when they see people who are broken, we love to distance ourselves from them?

Oh man, he got that lifestyle, let's distance ourselves from him.

He he got this going on.

Well, let's we have to distance ourselves from that because we don't want to be associated, because if we're associated with it, then maybe that means that that we're accepting and we're affirming of something.

So we have to distance ourselves from it.

It's only in religion that we get into this weird space where we have to try to draw lines and we love to distance ourselves from the very people that Jesus drew close to.

But interestingly enough, Jesus begins to challenge them because I believe he's challenging all of us is let us not grow numb to the brokenness that we see in society.

Let us not grow to this place where we allow our fear to distance us from our very missional assignment.

The Bible tells us that when Jesus was doing ministry, that he saw people, that he would see people, that there was a what there was a widowed woman who had lost her husband and she lost her son.

Jesus was already on a mission field.

He was focused on where he was supposed to go, but he saw this woman grieving and he did something about it.

The Bible tells us over and over again of how Jesus saw people, that even when he was in the midst of going in one direction, he was never so busy that he didn't pause to see people.

We must ask ourselves: what have we gotten so numb to that God is sending us our missional opportunities, but we're looking right past them because we love to distance ourselves from them, or maybe we've grown numb to it, or maybe we're uncomfortable with it, or maybe there's a little bit of fear from it.

But I believe that God is challenging us to see people beyond those labels and those statuses and begin to meet people where they are.

Here's the second thing I want you to write down.

We need to be people who show compassion.

We have to show compassion, and compassion moves us to action.

Jesus then talks about the Samaritan man.

And the reason why this is so significant when he interjects the nationality of this man is because that has a lot of nuance with this particular culture.

The Samaritans were a mixed race.

They were descended of Jews, but they also had intermarried with foreigners.

They had their own version of the first five books of the Bible.

They worshiped differently than the traditional Jews did in Jerusalem, and the Jews considered them to be heretics and traitors of the faith.

This was a two-way, deep-seated hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans.

The Samaritans had to live in a completely different area.

They were often considered to be unclean.

So I want us, if we can, to rewind time, just to give you a little bit of context.

It'll make some uncomfortable, but I want you to meet me there.

But rewind time to a time of Jin Crow era here in the States.

Imagine, well, you guys can drink over here, but you can't drink over here.

You guys have to go to that school, you can't go to our schools.

We're talking about that level, if not more, of deep-rooted hatred and racism towards one another.

So a man who had been oppressed, who had been considered unclean, who had been considered less than worthy, who had been considered less than human because Samaritans were referred to as dogs.

If you're following me, this man, as he's on his journey, he saw this broken down man and he was compelled to do something about it.

He was able to overstep the centuries of racism that he experienced.

He was able to by step all of the things that he had been raised telling him that we don't have any interaction with Jews.

You know that.

But he saw the condition of the man and he says, I feel compelled to do something about it.

I I often ponder why would he do it?

What would compel him to do it in spite of all the evidence that we know?

If I could be honest, when I break this down, there's a revelation that I feel that identifies with me.

Because I want you guys to recognize that the Bible over and over again says that they were all on the same road.

The only thing that separated the Levite, the priest, and the Samaritan from the man who got robbed was the timing.

They were all on the same road, but that man just happened to get caught that day.

And I truly believe that compassion is birthed when we don't look at others and forget at one point I was on the same road as you.

That could have been me.

If it had not been for the grace of God, if it had not been for my family that helped me, if it had not been for my support, I don't know how you got in this condition, and I don't know what your family dynamics look like, and I don't know what trauma you've experienced, but but I've learned in my own life to not judge people because of where they are, because I don't know how they got there, because I've been on some of those same roads.

When I rewind time and look at my own life, there are some things that I shouldn't have survived, but by the grace of God, it wasn't my time.

There are some things that God has helped me to get through.

So how dare I judge somebody because they didn't survive the very thing that God's hand on my life did for me?

When you don't forget where you came from, it allows you to help other people get to where they're supposed to be.

The Bible says that he was moved with compassion because he had this understanding that we're all on the same road, and that could have been me.

I believe that there's a challenge that God is issuing to us that when it comes to looking at one another, and we see people who are living different lifestyles and people who are struggling, we don't know their story, and don't forget that could have been you.

So that compassion should compel us to extend grace and mercy and kindness and get us to move.

Here's the third and final thing.

I have to wrap up here.

But here's the third and final thing.

Be generous.

We need to see people, we need to be compassionate, but we just need to learn how to be radically generous.

This man literally took from his own resources to make sure that this man who would have been considered an enemy had everything that he needed.

We have different jerseys on, but we're on the same team.

I want to make sure that you're good because we're both made in the image of God.

And I and I recognize that that if we were to talk long enough, we would probably find a lot of areas where we don't agree with.

But what we can agree with is that you're made in the image of God.

And because of that, I have a I have a literal mandate on my life to love you like I love myself.

I have a responsibility in my life to love you like I love those who were with me.

Because you are other, you, but you are still my neighbor.

This man literally took from his resources and he was radically generous.

Watch this, without any expectation of being paid back.

I think one of the things that challenges me within the political ideology is that generosity is often attached to this.

I do this for you if you do this for me.

This is what compromises the system.

Because we have to find a way to compromise, and I'll push this thing through if you push my thing through, and and and and I'll I'll sign off on that if you if you sign off on this.

It's uh you scratch my back, I scrap your back philosophy.

But inside of the kingdom, there is no compromise.

Inside of the kingdom, I I can be generous out of the overflow of God's generosity in my own life.

I believe that when we begin to ponder and think in the season that we find ourselves and we ask ourselves exactly who is my neighbor, who are the people that I need to show kindness to, the answer is simple.

Everybody.

The people who vote like you, the people who don't vote like you, the people that look like you, the people who don't look like you, the people that have the same ideas as you, the same people who don't have the same ideas as you.

That God is challenging us for us to begin to view one another like neighbors, see people beyond their labels, have compassion that compels us to do something about it and be generous without expecting anything in return.

This Friday, yes, this Friday, Megan and I and Caleb, we we went and voted all together.

Um and and De Niro had went and voted uh the day before us, but we we typically try to vote all together as a family.

It's it's it's something that we enjoy doing.

Um but this was Caleb's first time voting in a presidential election.

He did the government election, uh the government election two years ago, but but now he's old enough.

And so I remember as we were there, having voted multiple times in my life, um, the tension was just different.

It just felt different, if I can be honest with you.

While we're there, the line was a little bit longer than we had anticipated, but but we stayed.

And while we were there, you could just feel that in the past there were always like these casual conversations that people would have with one another.

And and now it's like everybody's in their own world and and nobody wants to talk to any anybody, and and you don't know where anybody's at with things, and and people are whispering about what are you gonna vote for and what about this amendment, and and this is what and and you could just feel that the tension and the vibe, it was just off, and you could just you could just feel that that man, this this matters.

But there is also this moment where you almost feel a little bit helpless because as I was there, I'm I'm hearing stories about fights that are taking place at voting precincts.

We're we're talking about literally ballots being set on fire.

So so we're already seeing this this sense of fear and panic and control, and and and there's moments where you could just feel like, man, like does it even matter?

Like, what like what do we do with this?

But I remember as I was talking with my son and and trying my best to keep my faith and my hope and eyes on Jesus, but still expressing my my civic duty and and privilege and and talking to him about this.

And and I I had this statement that I thought was very meaningful for him, and I hope that it can be impactful for you.

Even when it seems, we ask.

The question of does it matter?

And no matter who gets in office, there's gonna be a bunch of people that's upset, and that may perpetuate more division.

But there's gonna be a bunch of other people that feel like they just elected their savior, and and and there's gonna continue to be this appearance of disbalance if there's not a revival.

But I told my son, I said, This is what we're gonna do.

We're gonna use our voice to vote and our heart to love and our hands to serve.

That's how we're gonna function.

We're gonna use our voice, but we're gonna use our hearts and our hands.

As we face these challenging times with divisions and prejudice and indifference and numbness, I want to give this sobering reminder to us as a body of Christ.

The will of God has never been limited by the elections of man.

How you vote does not make you more righteous than anyone else.

Anything that you put in front of Jesus is an idol.

Be humble and know that there are people who love their families who are just as educated but may have come to different conclusions than you.

And that's okay.

The Bible tells us in these moments in Micah 6, 8 What is required of you?

The Lord says this to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

Celebration Orlando.

What is required of us?

Use your voice, use your heart, use your hands.

But let's make sure that we act with justice and justly.

We love mercy and we walk humbly with our God.

I want to go into a time of prayer.

And then what are we doing next?

Is somebody coming up?

Okay.

We're gonna go into a time of prayer and then someone's gonna come up and give us some instructions.

Lord, we thank you so much for your faithfulness.

We thank you that we live in a democracy where we're able to share our voices, that we have the freedom to express our uh convictions and our passions and our interest.

But Lord, I pray that that we never mistake any of these things as being our savior.

That that, Lord, we can we can come back to this this message and recognize that everyone is our neighbor.

Because we could have been the man that was on the side of the road, but you're calling us to be the Samaritan.

We will not distance ourselves from people.

Father, I pray over our nation that as we acknowledge, at least on the surface, it seems as if the division isn't going anywhere.

But Father, we need a move from you.

There are people that passionately believe that if their candidate doesn't get in, that all is lost.

And God, we see them.

There are people who passionately believe that if this policy doesn't get through, that that all is lost.

And Lord, we see them.

It's coming from a place of fear.

And God, we just ask that you comfort them, you comfort us, you give us all wisdom and patience and and compassion for one another.

There are people that are concerned about the future of this country and and what relationships are going to look like and differences, God.

We we just need to move from you.

We recognize that no matter who's in the White House, Jesus is on the throne.

And that is where our focal point is, and that is where we get our instructions from.

And while there may be policies that we like, there may be things that we don't like, but God, we recognize that that no political party can contain your glory.

So, Father, we fix our eyes on you.

We want to be informed and inspired by you, and we want to speak kindly.

We want to use our words to build up and not tear down.

Lord, we are not fans, we are disciples, and we want to function accordingly.

Lord, we also pray for our city.

The civil unrest and the violence and the loss of life and the trauma that's been recently experienced, God, we we need to move from your spirit.

But God, we know that we are called to move with compassion.

So, so stir our hearts and inspire us and lead us to serve and to reach out and to do things that can actually make a difference.

We have thoughts and prayers, but we also recognize that those prayers are often actualized through the activities of your people.

So, Father, we just ask that you soften our hearts and open our hands so that we can recognize that we too can make a difference.

We pray for those who have dealt with this trauma.

But Father, we trust you and we believe that even in this, that you can use this as an opportunity for your glory to still come through it.

People of God, do not be dismayed, for God is with us in Jesus' name.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.