When A Heart Breaks with Pastor Lee Wong

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medichurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, in like manner, I applaud you guys.

It's like when you reconnect with an old friend or family member and you see that they're just doing so well.

Man, I applaud you guys because look at what your investment and your participation in this movement is doing.

This is fantastic.

I ran into somebody, reconnected with somebody in the very first gathering today, and she was like, Pastor Lee, what do you think of the new space?

No more beer signs, you know.

And so I was super excited for you guys to be in this space.

And on top of that, being invited back, it's always a privilege, it's always a joy to give your lead pastor some time off that he might get refreshed so he can return energized and even more enthusiastic to better shepherd all of us.

And so, man, I'm glad to be here with you guys.

And I want to ask you this when a heart breaks, what perspective might we maintain in order to persevere through whatever hardship we are going through?

Or let me ask it this way when a heart breaks, what truth could we hold on to in order to begin our healing process and begin to become whole once again?

Now, as mentioned, I have the privilege of launching us, sort of soft launching us, into a four-part series of sermons that we're calling When a Heart Breaks.

And my guess is actually, my hope is for many of you, when you hear that title, you're thinking, okay, right now my heart is actually in a really good place.

Life is fantastic.

Like, what are these next four weeks gonna have to do with me?

And if that does describe you, man, kudos to you.

Uh, I am thrilled that your life is fantastic right now.

And what our friends on coastal cities would tell us, though, is that the perfect time to prepare for a storm is when?

When it's calm, right?

So I want to encourage you that these next couple of weeks are gonna be preparation for you for life's inevitable storms.

And on top of all of that, no matter where we are in our life right now, we all know one person, at least one person, or we will eventually encounter somebody who is grieving and whose heart is broken.

And if you guys are anything like me, when you encounter those individuals in those situations, chances are you might feel a little awkward as they're dumping onto you everything that they're going through, right?

You're like, ah, I don't know the words to say, I'm not trained in any of this.

You feel ill-equipped and unprepared to engage in the dialogue and to be able to comfort that individual.

And so, over these next couple of gatherings, what your pastors and I are going to do is we're going to parse, we're going to journey through certain narratives in the accounts about Jesus' life, certain encounters that will help equip us and help prepare us for those life seasons for us, and it'll give us language and a model and a template to follow to serve other people whose hearts are broken.

And if you right now are one of those folks whose heart is broken, and you're grieving, I want you to know that you were in our hearts and in our minds as your metachurch team was considering the content of this series.

You are not alone, we are absolutely with you.

You are a part of a community, a loving community that wants to come alongside you and serve you.

And so let me just say in advance, at the end of our gathering today, if you need someone to listen to you, to pray with you, our prayer team leaders will be at the front to listen and to serve you.

And now, my hope today for you is that I will begin to pour into you a perspective that you will be able to maintain and that will sustain you as you persevere through your hardships.

If you are somebody who we consider like a follow-alonger, somebody who likes to take notes and uh you want to follow along in the scriptures with me, you can meet me in Luke's account about Jesus.

The Gospel of Luke, we're gonna journey through the ninth and tenth sections.

So the Gospel of Luke, chapters nine and ten.

Now, before we jump into today's teaching, would you join me in asking God by his spirit to speak to us?

Father, as always, we're seeking to hear from you, so we pray that you would just help drown out any distractions, calm our hearts, calm our minds, and just center us.

And we're listening for you, we want to hear from you, give us a word, an impression, a picture that we might leave here changed and encouraged.

And as for me, Lord, I pray that uh you would just use me.

I'm merely a vessel to submit myself to you.

May the words that come out of my mouth be an accurate depiction of who you are and an accurate reflection of your love for everyone watching or listening.

And I pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And so when a heart breaks, what perspective might we maintain in order to persevere?

Well, where we pick up in Luke's account today, what was going down was a lot like what my family at a hometown college team football game, UTSA, what they experienced about a year ago.

Any roadrunners up in here?

Yes, go roadrunners.

We are bullbound, baby.

Well, last year, in a very exciting game that came down to the final seconds, our UTSA roadrunners, they were about to lose.

But with a miracle throw and an even more miraculous catch, in the very last seconds, they scored a touchdown and won the game, and every fan in the Alamo Done erupted with joy, jumping up and down, screaming out, it's a miracle! High fiving each other, strangers were making out.

It was wild up in that place.

And similarly, that imagery of people jumping up and down, the author of this gospel, Luke, he used a certain grammar in order to paint for us a picture that Jesus' own disciples, they too were jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, shouting for joy at what God was doing in and through their lives.

And so Jesus essentially turns to his disciples and he tells them, Look, yo, don't just be thrilled at what God is doing in and through your life.

Y'all be thrilled at what God has freely done for you.

You have received the gift of eternal life in his presence.

In peace, Luke recorded what Jesus said this way.

He said, Don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but y'all rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

And then again, using certain grammar that paints for us this picture of like a geyser that is just erupting, unable to contain his own excitement.

Jesus shouted at the top of his lungs, praising our heavenly Father for his desire to give to any and everyone who would accept it eternal life.

Luke recorded this at that time, he, Jesus, rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

And he said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent, and you have revealed them to infants.

Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.

And so, what heaven Heavenly Father revealed to Jesus' disciples that enabled them to inherit eternal life, that their names were written in heaven.

Well, uh, if we travel backwards one section in Luke's account in the ninth chapter, we see in a history-defining moment, one of Jesus' closest friends, Peter, he realized exactly who Jesus was.

You see, Peter had come to a point in his faith journey where he accepted and he affirmed that Jesus was the long-awaited God King that had been promised in their Jewish scriptures, which we call our Old Testament.

And y'all, this God King, he was to usher in peace and govern with perfect justice, and he would rule a kingdom that had no end.

And so Peter, he arrived at a place in his faith journey where he, other authors say believed, right?

Where he accepted and he affirmed who Jesus was in this way.

He declared it like this.

He said, Jesus, you are God's Messiah.

Not a term that we typically use in our day and age, it just means the appointed king that was promised you are God's Messiah here at Metta.

They would say, Savior.

Jesus, you are our Savior.

And so, according to Jesus, whenever you or whenever I arrive at a place in our faith journey where we accept and affirm or where we believe what God had revealed, that Jesus is God's Messiah, then it is our Heavenly Father's good pleasure to give us eternal life.

And then He, like a fan at a football game whose team became victorious, he and all of heaven they jump up and down, shouting for joy, rejoicing that we get to spend eternity in his presence, reunited with him.

And so, y'all, for us, this creates for us a new baseline.

That no matter our circumstances, no matter the hardships, and I do want to validate your feelings that yes, they are very real, and you might be down and you might be depressed, but we get a new baseline that no matter our circumstances, we can rejoice for what God has done.

Some of y'all might be thinking, I get that, it doesn't change my circumstances.

So, how practically?

And we're gonna get there.

All right, so here's where our conversation today actually really, really picks up.

So, have y'all ever seen that four-movie installment?

It's currently on Netflix right now, it's about a kung fu grandmaster named Ip Man.

Anybody seen that?

It's relatively appropriate.

Okay, all of you guys were best friends, all of a sudden, I love you guys.

Now, in those movies, Master Ip, he, this Kung Fu grandmaster, developed a very unique fighting style that was more supreme, it was more effective than all of the other fighting styles and philosophies that were around his area.

And at that time, and as a result, he gained this really huge following, and all of these young men they wanted to learn from him and become his apprentice, they wanted to be his disciples.

And so Master If's popularity, it grew so greatly that it affected the business of all these other kung fu grandmasters in all of China, and this infuriated them.

It frustrated them because it was impacting their bottom line, right?

Master If's reputation goes up, theirs goes down, losing all these profits.

And so, all throughout this four-movie installment franchise, grandmasters from all over China began to challenge Master Ip to some public fights.

Because what they wanted to demonstrate is hey, my fighting style and philosophy, hey, it too can compete.

My style is more supreme, and they wanted to establish their honor.

They wanted to diminish Master Ip's reputation.

And just spoiler alert, all right, there's four movies, so that should tell you a little bit about how well he does.

But here's why I bring all of this up.

I bring all of this up because, in the same way that in these movies, these masters of very different fighting philosophies, they sought to challenge Master Ip for supremacy to destroy his reputation, to boost their own.

Well, in the first century, in the Eastern Mediterranean region, there were various teachers of the Jewish law, and they would want to challenge one another for supremacy in these public debates because they wanted to establish their own credibility, they wanted to grow their own following.

And so, all throughout the accounts about Jesus' life and the gospels, what you see often is that there are various debates that are taking place, right?

Various Jewish law leaders and experts challenge Jesus to public debates.

And so a public debate on interpreting scripture is exactly what Luke recorded happens next.

And so let's go back to our narrative.

All right, remember, Jesus and his disciples were shouting at the top of their lungs, they were jumping up and down, rejoicing, like fans whose team won, surprisingly, at a football game.

They were rejoicing that God had freely accepted them and written their names in heaven.

Well, one expert in the Jewish law, he likely became offended by what he was seeing.

And so he likely thought to himself, now wait a second.

I have internalized and I have interpreted and I have painstakingly lived out all of the commands and these laws over at least 25 years, close to three decades of my life.

And these guys who are following Jesus, all right, these prostitutes and these folks who are tax collectors, folks who are sinners, their lives look nothing like mine.

So if anybody's name is gonna be written in heaven, if anybody's gonna have inherited eternal life, it is me.

There is no way that they've inherited eternal life.

And so this expert sought to boost his own reputation, sought to diminish Jesus' reputation, and in front of the large crowds, the thousands of people that often followed Jesus everywhere, he publicly challenged Jesus.

And he asked him this question.

He said, Teacher, Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

To which Jesus, he masterfully and he brilliantly responded with a question of his own.

Y'all, if anybody's ever trying to entice you, lure you into an argument or in a conversation, a coworker or spouse or something like that, respond with a question.

Jesus is brilliant in modeling this for us.

He basically asked this person, you know, you're the supposed expert, right?

You've dedicated three decades of your life to this.

How do you interpret the scriptures?

Luke recorded it like this.

Jesus responded, what is written in the law?

How do you read it?

I want to pause here.

Because you're maybe maybe you're relatively new to our faith.

You're exploring, trying to figure it out.

Maybe somebody gave you a Bible, or maybe you've been following Jesus for a really long time and you still have yet to really make sense of what the scriptures are teaching and communicating, and maybe, you know, because here in the West, Western part of the world, we read from left to right.

So you start from the very beginning of the Bible and you go through about two-thirds of it, and you think to yourself, man, this is some really tough reading.

Like, how am I supposed to apply this to my life?

How do I interpret this?

What is what is the lens of the big picture narrative that the Old Testament is trying to communicate to me?

Well, if you've ever asked any of those questions, let's put a pin in them right now because we're gonna come back to them.

And Jesus' question, in response to the expert in the law, what it tells you, and what it tells me is that we are now on the sidelines of a debate, of a conversation about scriptural interpretation.

Namely, how do we interpret the parts that we today call the Old Testament, the big picture at least?

And our understanding of the entirety of this exchange, it's going to answer our questions about one, how we interpret it and apply it to our lives, and two, why we can rejoice, why we have a new baseline, no matter the circumstances that we're facing.

So how did this expert in the law, how did he interpret how to inherit eternal life?

Well, he responded by combining two foundational scriptures that are found in the portion of our Bibles known as Deuteronomy and another in the portion known as Leviticus.

And so he said, essentially, look, Jesus, this is how we interpret or how we inherit eternal life.

We devote our entire being to observing God's laws and observe and to those who also observe God's laws.

Luke recorded it this way, he said, We are to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength and with all of your mind.

And on top of that, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

To which Jesus responded, he essentially saying to him, Yup, that is exactly right.

According to our Jewish law, right, according to our Old Testament, that is exactly how you inherit eternal life.

And so Jesus responded similarly with a foundational scripture of his own, saying, Do this and you will live.

You will not perish.

Love perfectly, live perfectly with all of your being.

That's how you do it.

And then the expert to ensure that the audience around him understood that he was the credible teacher, that he was somebody that needed to be followed.

He carefully observed God's laws and he wanted to boost his own reputation and then to contrast himself with how Jesus was not observing God's law because he hung out with prostitutes, because he hung out with poor people, and he wanted to diminish Jesus' credibility.

The expert in the law asked something to the effect of and who are the kind of people that God cares about that I need to care about?

He asked.

And who is my neighbor?

Clarify that for us.

And y'all, how Jesus responded that you don't want to miss.

Because what Jesus said was so profound, so earth-shattering, that in our day and age today, we have laws that have been inspired by what Jesus communicated.

And we have nonprofit organizations that have been inspired by how Jesus responded to this.

And so Jesus, he responded with a story that highlights God's expectations and his ethics.

We call that a parable.

And what I'm gonna do right now, here's what I'm gonna do.

To make sure that we make the most of understanding this parable, folks in Jesus' day, first century, they would have understood it pretty well.

I'm gonna try to modernize it for us.

Alright, I'm gonna give you guys a modern rendition.

And then what we're gonna do is ping pong back and forth between my rendition and what Luke recorded that Jesus actually communicated.

All right, we're gonna ping pong my rendition and what Luke actually recorded to make the most of this.

And so I need y'all to follow along with me.

Yes?

Y'all gonna be able to do that?

Okay?

Nudge the person next to you, wake them up.

And oh, on top of that, there is gonna be a pop quiz at the end.

So pay special attention.

Y'all ready?

Yes?

All right, here we go.

Here's my rendition about what Jesus taught concerning God's ethics and expectations.

So, suppose you, and that includes you watching online, listening to the podcast at a later date, you guys sitting in the seats here physically at MetaCurch, suppose you set out on a journey from where we are here in San Antonio, Texas, to the Rio Gran Valley, to RGV.

And along your journey, there is this band of baddies like Dominic Toretto's Fast and Furious Crew.

These guys execute a highway heist and they hijack your vehicle.

They wanted your catalytic converter.

Everybody's getting those things stolen right now.

Yeah, y'all are laughing because you probably know somebody whose converter was stolen.

And so these guys, they yank you out of your car, they strip you naked, they beat you to within an inch of your life, and not only did they take your vehicle and all of your possessions, but they took from you your security, your innocence, your joy, your peace, your dignity, and what they left you with was anxiety and angst and anger, all alone in the south of Texas in the desert, destined to perish, buzzards circling overhead, waiting for you to take your last breath so they can begin to peck at you.

Now hold that imagery.

Because here's how Jesus introduced his explanation of God's expectations.

He said, There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him, they beat him up, and then they fled, leaving him half dead.

Now, let's go back to our rendition, right?

Where you're in the story.

So as you psychologically and as you physically suffer, someone who is responsible for reconnecting people, reconciling people with God, someone who is responsible or entrusted for the care of the well-being of a certain community, that person comes along.

And so let's just say it's me, for example.

Someone you would think, or you would hope, would do the right thing.

And so from a distance, I see that you're laying lifeless, buzzards are circling over, and I think to myself, well, hmm.

Based on how I've been trained, and based on traditions that have been passed on to me, that I've inherited, it's probably not in my best interest to help you out.

Or you might have some other transmittable disease.

And that could really impact me.

Oh, and all the blood that you got going on there, I don't want to deal with that.

And it would be a really huge inconvenience.

It would get all over me, and that would keep me from doing other duties like preaching to the masses.

And you guys know the masses are more important than the one, right?

And so I just keep moving along and I leave you there to suffer, to die.

But then a few moments later, another person comes along, and this time it's someone who is responsible for teaching God's people his expectations and his ethics, somebody who helps people worship God and experience intimacy with him.

And so let's say that's Pastor Ryan.

Anybody ever met him?

He's like one of the nicest guys that I have ever met.

Not a mean bone in his body.

Now, Pastor Ryan, he leads MetaCurch's next generation program.

Surely he's gonna do the right thing, right?

Well, for similar reasons that I didn't stop, based on how he had been trained, traditions that had been passed on to him, he too decides to keep moving along, leaving you in your anxiety and in your agony to perish alone.

Here's how Jesus told this part of his story.

He said that a priest happened to be going down that road.

And when he saw this man who fell into the hands of robbers, he passed by on the other side.

And then in the same way, another person that you would absolutely expect to stop, because he's representing God, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and he saw the man who fell into the hands of robbers, he passed by him on the other side.

Now, for this next part of Jesus' story, I want you guys for just a moment to consider somebody you completely detest.

Somebody you despise.

And the very thought of this individual, it makes you cringe.

Or you just feel repulsed thinking about them.

Maybe it's an ex.

Maybe it's a coworker.

Or a boss, former boss, perhaps.

Maybe if you're somebody who's really charged up politically when somebody posts things on social media, and you're like, dude, this person has absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

That is like, I don't know, man.

I just have to unfriend this person, I have to unfollow this person.

It's a conspiracy theory.

Or perhaps it's even one of these guys here.

Right?

Folks that just really rile you up and are very polarizing.

And so, who is that person for you?

And thinking about them, what are you feeling right now?

Some of y'all are like, man, I came to church to be encouraged.

I don't want to be thinking about this.

I'm going somewhere with all of this, right?

I am trying to get a rise out of you.

I am trying to rile you up.

And here's why.

Because the very sentiments that you feel about that person right now, the person that you detest, are similar to the sentiments that Jesus' audience would have felt when he brought up, when he introduced the very next character in his story.

You see, in the first century, there was a particular people group for whom the Jews, like Jesus' people group, whom they had a deep-rooted hatred.

And they viewed this people group as even lower than the beasts.

There is an ancient historical document that kind of helps us see exactly how this people group was viewed.

They suggested that they were considered not even a people.

And so when Jesus introduced the next character to come along in his story, many folks in his audience they would have gasped.

It was so controversial, so controversial that is largely the reason this story is so famous.

Here's how Jesus would have shocked his audience.

He said, But a Samaritan, a Samaritan on his journey came up to the man who fell into the hands of robbers.

Now let's go back to our rendition here.

So as you're laying lifeless, the person that you detested, whoever that was that came to mind, that person comes along.

And despite your sentiments toward them, them seeing your condition, they think to themselves, like, dude, I know at one point in our lives we were sworn enemies.

I know we had a deep-rooted hatred towards one another, but your life is precious.

You don't deserve this, you don't deserve to perish.

In fact, you deserve to flourish.

And so they feel this guttural sense in their stomach, moved in their spleen, this stomach-turning sickness that compels them to create a positive change in your life.

That is, they feel compassion towards you.

Y'all say the word compassion.

Compassion, that is a critical word for this series over the next couple of weeks, an anchor word.

And so the way I'm communicating compassion, at least today, specifically, might be elaborated on in the coming weeks, but it is seeing somebody's condition and being compelled, seeing their condition to create a positive change for them.

Compassion is seeing somebody's condition and being compelled to create a positive change.

And so this person that you detest, they feel compassion towards you, and they thus disregard their very expensive clothes.

They tear it up, they begin to bandage you.

And then they pour out a concoction of very costly, off-to-market medicine to jumpstart your healing process.

And then for your own protection, so that you can be nursed back to health, they take you and they entrust you to a community whose responsibility it is to always accept and to never reject.

It's a sort of caravancery.

You would see these healing communities, these protecting communities in the first century, a caravancery.

And then this person that you detest, they tell the caretaking community, they say, Look, here are some resources that I am providing for you.

You have everything you need for an extended period of time to support and to strengthen my friend.

And then he says to them, Look, I will return.

And when I return, I will repay you for how you treated my friend, for helping my friend experience the life that God intended for him.

Here's how Jesus told this part of the story.

Y'all follow along on the screen.

When he, the Samaritan, saw the man who had fallen into the hands of robbers, pay attention to this part.

He had what?

Compassion.

There's that word again.

He was moved, compelled to create change, and he went over to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine, and then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

And the next day he took out two denarii and he gave them to the innkeeper.

And he said to the innkeeper, he said, Take care of him.

When I come back, I will reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.

Now, remember I said there was gonna be a pop quiz, right?

Here's the pop quiz part.

I'm gonna ask you guys a question that was similar to Jesus' question that he asked his debater.

It does welcome a verbal, out loud response, okay?

And so of the three people in our rendition of this story, who lived up to God's expectation and ethics of loving their associate or their neighbor?

Or as Jesus asked it, he said, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

Don't say it out loud yet.

All right, we're gonna do multiple choice, they're gonna come up right on the screen.

So in our story, myself, Lee, representing the priest in Jesus' story, that's A.

B, Pastor Ryan, who represented the other person responsible for caring for God's people, the Levite, or C, the person that you detested who came along, representing in Jesus' story the Samaritan.

So think about that for just a moment.

We're gonna do a little Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

All right, on the count of three, meta church, I want you guys all collectively to yell out what answer you think is the person who proved to be a neighbor.

Here we go.

One, two, three, let me hear it.

C.

Fantastic.

Shout out to all of you guys, to all of your pastors you were being taught incredibly well.

If you answered C, the person that you detest, or the Samaritan in Jesus' story, then you answered very similarly to the expert in the Jewish law.

And y'all, I want you to see just how deep-rooted the hatred he had was for this people group.

He wouldn't even say the word Samaritan when he responded to Jesus.

He responded to Jesus' question, who proved to be a neighbor?

He said very pettily, he said, the one who showed mercy to him.

So petty, right?

The one who showed mercy to him, to which Jesus affirmed him.

Jesus affirms those of us who said, see, the Samaritan.

According to the Jewish law, what one must do to inherit eternal life is to show to everyone mercy, Jesus said.

Go now and do the same.

You want to receive eternal life?

Do what this guy in the story did.

Now, my guess is if you've ever heard of teaching on this particular parable of the Samaritan who showed compassion, perhaps you were told that Jesus redefined for us who a neighbor is.

Now everyone is a neighbor to us all.

And so we all need to be like the Samaritan.

We need to cultivate our compassion.

We need to show mercy to everyone.

And perhaps you were encouraged to begin to volunteer in some sort of capacity.

Or perhaps you were encouraged to pull all of your resources together so that you can begin to give back in some way and be a good neighbor.

And if you've been taught that in any teaching in the past, I want to be clear: none of that is inherently wrong at all.

You don't need to dismiss any of that teaching.

We should cultivate our compassion.

We should show mercy to everyone.

Everyone now is our neighbor.

It's been redefined.

In fact, Katie Tiner, your social action coordinator, she very regularly organizes serving opportunities for y'all to be a good neighbor, like the coat drive that you guys just heard about.

But here's where our conversation today takes a very interesting turn.

Because there was yet another point, an often overlooked point when folks teach on this, that Jesus was trying to communicate.

And that point that Jesus was making was in what he did not say.

And that point was in what Luke did not record.

See, but that point that Jesus made, it was in how the expert in the Jewish law and how people in the audience, how they would have responded when they heard Jesus' charge for everyone to show mercy, be like the Samaritan, to go and do the same.

And if you and I are being self-aware, it is exactly how we would respond as well.

And so we've got to remember this.

The entirety of this exchange was all about scriptural interpretation.

How do we, from an old testament standpoint, the big picture of the Old Testament, how do we inherit eternal life?

And so when Jesus explained that the way, according to the law, for you to inherit eternal life, for your name to be written in heaven, is for you to be like the Samaritan and to show mercy to everyone, folks in the audience would have thought that's impossible.

I'm imperfect.

There is no hope for me.

There is no chance that I could ever perfectly live and perfectly love according to God's standards.

Even on my best day, if I made every attempt to mercifully care for other people, there is no way I will ever inherit eternal life.

My name will not be written in heaven.

So this brings us back to the questions that we had previously pinned.

Let's put those back up on the screen.

Like, how are you and I, as we're reading through this two-thirds of the scriptures, and we're trying to make sense of the big picture story that is being communicated in this first part.

How do we make sense of the Old Testament teaching?

How do we apply them to our lives and interpret it?

Well, based on what God Himself revealed in human form, Jesus, how Jesus Himself interpreted it for us.

We interpret the big picture through this lens.

Something along these lines.

Look, there is no way I could ever, on my own accord, inherit eternal life.

There's no way I could ever earn it.

There's nothing I can do.

I am doomed to perish.

There is no hope.

So I need someone like the Samaritan in Jesus' story to come along and to save me.

If I'm ever to experience God's, the life God intended for me, then I need his compassion.

Y'all following along?

Now here's what's so fascinating.

Okay, so this word that we previously described as this, that I previously defined as stomach churning sickness from seeing somebody's condition and it compels you into action.

The word that we saw in the scripture, that when he, the Samaritan, had seen the man who fell into the hands of robbers, he had what?

Compassion.

That word compassion.

This word is used only 11 other times throughout the scriptures.

And in each one of those 11 other times, each one of the total 12 times that this word is used, it's used only in association with one person.

It's used only to describe one person.

Any guesses, metachurch, again, this is one of those that welcomes audible responses.

Any guesses, metachurch as to who this one word compassion is used to describe and is associated with.

See, he is a God that when he sees a heartbreaks, love for him breaks out.

And that is a model for us.

It is a perspective to maintain.

When we are heartbroken, God's love breaks out for us.

When we see somebody who is heartbroken, we imitate Jesus and we break out in love to care for that individual.

And so when we retell this story that Jesus told, with Jesus as the Samaritan, with Jesus at the center of the story, then we get the answers to why Jesus and his disciples, like fans at a football game whose team had just won, why they were jumping up and down with joy, shouting at the top of their lungs.

And it gives us the reason for why, no matter our circumstances, no matter the heartache that we have, we have a new baseline where we can operate from a sense of joy, a perspective that will help us persevere.

And so, you guys, when you came in, you were given a key card.

Yes?

If you got one of those key cards, go ahead and pull it out.

We're gonna refer to this here momentarily.

I'm gonna give you context for exactly what it is, why you received it.

Now, understanding all that we just talked about, understanding that Jesus wrote himself into his story, he is the Samaritan, trying to communicate who he is, how he is.

Listen now to this parable.

And for those of you who are familiar with the gospel, those of you who have heard it, communicated all sorts of ways, man, I hope and I pray that this gives you yet another way to understand just exactly what God has freely done for us.

So, man, created in our creator's very good image.

We were to experience joy, eternal joy in community with our Heavenly Father intimately, right?

But along our journey, we were deceived and we were robbed of the life that our Father intended for us.

We were left with anxiety and angst and in agony, and we were left to lose our souls and to perish for all of eternity apart from our Father's presence.

And there was no priest and their rituals and their ceremonies, neither a temple system with God's laws and all of those animal sacrifices, neither tithes, no offerings, no Old Testament principle that would ever help restore that connection or restore our condition.

And so seeing the condition of his most prized possession, you and me, seeing that his image bearers, and knowing that his image bearers, you and me, that we deserve something differently, he had a different intent for us.

Our father, he felt that stomach churning sickness, right?

That guttural sense that he needed to create a positive change for us, lest we would forever perish.

That is, he felt what for us?

Compassion.

He felt compassion for us.

And so he sent his son Jesus, who emptied himself of his divine attributes.

And he entered into our human experience as a baby born of a virgin to journey alongside us in our human experience as God with us.

And then, like the Samaritan Jesus, he was despised, then he was detested, he was insulted, he was rejected, so much so that he eventually was stripped naked, and he became for us the man who fell into the hands of robbers in order to be the once and for all payment for the penalty of our inability to live up to God's perfect expectations.

And in order to that, he would eventually clothe us with his most costly clothing and pour out onto us his most expensive wine and oil.

When you see wine and oil and clothing in some of the New Testament gospels, it refers to Jesus' Holy Spirit.

That is, he freely gives to us his spirit, he imparts it to us to restore our connection with our Father, to guarantee our eternal life.

And then for our protection, so that our well-being is cared for.

What he does is he entrusts us to a Jesus-centered community.

In our day and age today, we call that the church.

And so, entrusting us to this community, the church, he gives the church, like meta church, every single resource that we need.

His grace gifts, the gifts of his Holy Spirit to care for one another until he returns.

And he promised that when he returns, he will return, that he will reward you, he will reward me for every effort that we made in helping people experience God's compassion and inheriting his Holy Spirit.

And so this key card serves as a reminder.

Put it in your purse, put it in your wallet, put it on your dashboard, wherever.

It is a reminder that yes, while we were at one point the men who fell into the hands of robbers who were saved, we also become that caretaking community.

We also become like the innkeeper.

So this kind of represents a little hotel motel key, right?

We have the key.

We are the caretakers now, to whom other people's well-being has been entrusted.

And Jesus will return, he will repay us for every effort that we made in showing his compassion.

And so when we see somebody whose heart is broken, when a heart breaks, love breaks out.

That's what he modeled for us, right?

And now we have context, now we have language to come alongside somebody and to comfort them, to give them a perspective to help them persevere.

And love or love breaks out when a heart is broken.

Y'all, this is the gospel story.

The gospel is all about God's compassion for us, being moved.

This is why it's so significant.

This is why we can rejoice no matter our circumstances.

See, the gospel is all about your need and my need for God's compassion, lest we perish psychologically and physically, and it's all about God revealing to us that he freely and he willingly extends his compassion to us because he is compassion.

It is his nature, and so you and I need only to receive Jesus and his compassion.

And we can have a new baseline for life for where we can rejoice.

And that's what I'm inviting every single one of us to do for the first time or once more.

And so, how do we receive Jesus' compassion?

How do we inherit eternal life according to Jesus?

And how might we get our names written in heaven?

Well.

So more practically we receive compassion when we do what Jesus' friend Peter did.

When we accept and we affirm that Jesus is eternal King, who will establish his eternal kingdom, he will rule with righteousness.

That is when we accept and affirm or believe what Peter declared, that Jesus is God's Messiah.

And so whether you've already arrived there in your faith journey, whether you've accepted Jesus' compassion, or you never have, but you are ready to, here's what I want us to do all together in this moment.

We are here in you know the closing moments.

I want us to acknowledge to our Heavenly Father that we all need his compassion.

And if you're so willing, I want us to accept it, to receive it.

And so I'm gonna lead us through a sort of like guided prayer, if you will.

I'm gonna make some statements up front so that you can, of your own volition, consider the words that are being stated and determine for yourself if you want to restate that in your own way.

So I'm gonna say something along these lines, and you can pray these in your own words.

Or at least just marinate on them.

Father, I know I was robbed of the life you intended.

And I know on my own there's absolutely nothing I can ever do to earn eternal life.

I know I am doomed to perish and so I need your compassion.

I need your saving.

But I accept, I affirm that Jesus is Savior, Messiah.

And I receive your compassion.

And I receive your spirit to indwell me to restore our connection, to begin restoring my soul.

And I receive your promise of eternal life through accepting that Jesus is the only one who can give me life.

Thank you that my name is written in heaven.

Now, if you've you've declared that, or if at any point in your life you eventually declare that, let me tell you what we believe about those declarations.

We believe that you have received God's compassion and that his spirit now indwells you, so y'all, you can rejoice.

We believe that you have thus received the free gift of eternal life.

And so you have your name written in heaven.

You can have hope for your future, you can rejoice.

Man, we believe that you have received the mind of Christ, so you have the capacity to be connected to our Creator, meaning you can be creative and He can turn your confusion into clarity.

You can rejoice.

We believe that you have received his grace gifts, that you have been given a power and an authority to trample over even demons, and so you don't need to live in fear or in anxiety, y'all.

You can rejoice.

You have received purpose and the promise of your particip the rewards for your participation in his kingdom movement.

He will repay you.

You can rejoice, y'all.

You have received the promise he promised he will return to crush his enemies, rule with perfect justice.

You don't need to live in anger or in angst or seek vengeance on your own.

Y'all, you can rejoice.

I'm telling you, look, the implications are so significant.

We have received the best gift ever.

This is the perspective that will help us persevere through any circumstance in our life.

It'll help us endure.

And so, like a fan at a football fan celebrating a victory or like a geyser that is erupting, y'all.

I want you to rejoice.

And so here's what we're gonna do one last thing as we transition into this last song.

There is going to be a statement that's gonna come up on the screen, and it's derived from Jesus' response as to why we can rejoice.

It just reads, My name is written in heaven.

And so, hearing now all of the implications of the good news, the gospel, I want you meta church on the count of three with a loud, resounding, joyful noise with a voice.

I want you to shout out, My name is written in heaven.

Can y'all do that for me?

Or how about this?

How about we go ahead and stand up?

We're gonna prepare for a time of worship, and on the count of three, we're gonna together rejoice with what is on the screen.

My name is written in heaven.

Here we go.

One, two, three, my name is written in heaven.

Hallelujah.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

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If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.