Skip to content The Kingdom Invasion: Roadblocks to Mission Apr 3 · 59 min ...more
The Kingdom Invasion: Roadblocks to Mission
April 3, 2023 · 59 min
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church April 3, 2023 · 59 min · BRAVE Church
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. Lord, we gather to tell you that you are worthy and that we are needy. We gather to let you know how desperate we are from a0:12 word from you. Lord, we want you to speak because Lord, we believe that you're our God and that you have a word for everyone who listens and that every time that your word is faithfully and0:24 accurately proclaimed that you speak. And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear Jesus speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows0:35 you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. You know, when I woke this morning, I beat my alarm up and I was so excited to be able to come and present this message. And the0:47 reason for that is I've been thinking about this message from the time I left the platform last week. Because as we've been doing this series called the kingdom invasion, we've been taking a look at the uniqueness of who0:59 Jesus Christ is and what he did when he came to earth and put on flesh and how he's unlike anyone else who's ever claimed to be God because he himself is God. He's the God man.1:11 And what he did is he brought the good news or the gospel into the world. He showed us what it looked like to have a relationship with his father. But this kingdom invasion didn't just stop with him. We saw all that1:23 he began to do. It wasn't just salvation. This Jesus not only preached, this Jesus did what? He healed. This Jesus delivered. And we think that's our God and he's amazing. But he didn't1:34 stop there. He commissioned his 12 apostles to go out and do the exact same thing, to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons and unclean spirits. And then he didn't stop there because last week we took a look at the1:46 fact that it wasn't just his 12, there were 70 others that he sent out on mission as well. These 70 anonymous saints, people that we don't know exactly who they were and what did he send them out to do? To share the good1:58 message of the gospel, the good news of the gospel, to heal people and to cast out demons. And every time he sent these groups out, he sent the 12 out and they came back and rejoiced. He sent the 70 out2:10 and they came back and rejoiced. And he said, don't rejoice because the demons submit to your name, but rejoice because your name's written in the lamb's book of life. Rejoice in this fact that you have relationship with2:21 me. Rejoice in that. And then he began to praise his dad, and he began to say, dad, I praise you that you've hidden these things from the wise and the learned. You've hidden these from prideful people that don't wanna2:32 listen, and yet you've revealed to them as children. You've revealed the truth to those who really want to know. And all throughout this messaging, all throughout the New Testament, what this series has been trying to2:43 highlight is that Jesus not only came on mission, he came to put those of his followers on mission as well. And it's been clear in our series that God is calling us to do2:55 the very same things. This message of Jesus is gonna culminate in his death, burial, and resurrection, and in his great commission to go into all the world and do what? Make disciples of all nations. Doing what?3:06 Everything that we've been teaching about. Everything that Jesus has called us to do. Well, who? All of us who belong to Jesus. That's our responsibility. And yet,3:18 isn't it true that while a tuning fork can go off in your heart and say, I wanna be used by God like that. I really wanna be used by God like that. I love reading through the gospels and I love reading through the book3:28 of acts and seeing all the amazing things that God did through his church, but there's some hesitation in my life too and there's some things going on right now that keep me from doing that. And there's roadblocks that3:40 keep us from being on the mission that Jesus Christ requires of us. And today I wanna talk about some of those roadblocks and how we can overcome them in our lives. So if you have a Bible, I'm gonna encourage you to open3:50 up to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. We're gonna look at verses 25 through 37. You will find this story to be a very, very familiar story. And so for that reason, I would4:02 like to read it afresh to you today, let you hear it and then we'll unpack this together. Luke chapter 10 starting in verse 25 right after Jesus has been praising his father, right after the 70 have come back, it4:14 says this, and a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? And he answered, you shall love4:26 the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you've answered correctly, do this and you will live. But4:37 wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving4:48 him half dead. And by chance, a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the5:00 other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him, he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them and he5:12 put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out 2 denarii and gave it to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and whatever you spend5:24 when I return, I will repay you. Which of these 3 do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? And he said, the 1 who showed mercy to him. Then Jesus5:36 said to him, go and do the same. Now this is a very familiar story. I grew up in the church, so just by show of hands, humor me this morning. How many have heard this story before? Right? Very popular story,5:48 very common story. We call it the Good Samaritan. And so much so like so many stories in our Bible, the more familiar we are with them, the more we miss out on the point. So just to remind you contextually what's just5:59 gone on, Jesus has now commissioned 70 of his disciples who go out and do all the things he's asked him to do, come back. They're telling us stories of healings, demon cleanses, people coming to understand that the6:10 kingdom has come upon them, And he's telling them, don't rejoice that demons submit, rejoice that you belong to me. And then he begins to praise his father and he tells his dad that all things have been handed over to6:22 him by his father and no 1 knows the son except the father and who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. And he prays and praises his dad for revealing himself to6:34 those who are humble. Now has this sermon series been clear on what we're about? I mean, I've been trying to highlight the points of the text that Jesus is talking about. Once you see this in the text,6:46 you will see it everywhere in the text. You will see it all throughout the gospels. You will see it all throughout the letters, all the extra epistles. You'll see this is the method of Jesus, That what Jesus came and6:56 taught us to do was to pray for the lost, to go among the lost, to gather with believers for the purpose of encouraging each other to go to the lost, and as we lead the lost to Christ, then discipling them and growing up7:07 them up in the faith so that they can do what? So they can pray for the lost, go among the lost, gather with the saints, and entrust ministry to those who are coming to Christ. That's the method of Jesus. That's what he7:17 was doing. And we've been clear as to who he was calling to do that. In case you've missed the first 4 weeks, let me be clear. He's calling you to do that if you're a follower of Jesus. That's the method of Jesus.7:30 Which believers? All of us. All of us are called to be on missions. Some of us may be called to overseas outreach or inner city outreach or a certain specific type of outreach, but every single believer is called to7:42 be on mission by Jesus. Now when you feel in your heart like, yeah, I'd love to be a part of that, There's also things that can sprout up and say, yeah, but I'm not so sure I'm ready for that.7:53 That's why this story is in our New Testament because it says as soon as Jesus got done making completely clear all throughout Luke's gospel and the rest of the gospels, I want my people on mission and I want them doing8:04 these things, a lawyer stands up and tests Jesus. And what does he test him with? He asked a question. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus has8:16 been saying, I want all my followers on mission. If you're gonna follow me, come die with me. If you're not willing to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me, you have no part of me. Why do you call me Lord,8:26 Lord and do not do what I say? I'm calling followers to do what I'm doing. Jesus has been crystal clear. So, the lawyer stands up and said, yeah, I got a question for you. What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? I8:38 don't care about all the mission stuff. What's the least amount I can do and still go to heaven? That's what I want to know. I wanna know the bare minimum that I can do and still be considered good enough to go to8:49 heaven. In other words, Jesus, I don't care about you. I don't care about your mission. I don't even know that I like you. What I wanna know is when I leave this earth and I get to the next life, then I'm saved. That's9:00 all I care about. So that's what he's asking. So he's gonna put Jesus to the test. He's gonna ask him, what can I do to get saved? Now, isn't necessarily a bad question because when you ask with the right heart like they9:12 did in the book of acts in acts chapter 2, what must we do to be saved? Peter tells him, repent, be baptized, you'll receive the holy spirit. Why? So that you can go on mission for Jesus. Right? I mean, that's the9:21 purpose of the gospel. But this guy didn't have that heart. This guy didn't want Jesus. He didn't wanna do what Jesus want. So he's just testing them. What must I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus, the master teacher,9:33 the best teacher of all time, what does he do? He starts with a question. File this away. Many of you are scared to share the gospel because you think you need to start with a statement when you should be starting with9:43 questions. When you start with questions, you engage other people, you show them that you care about them and you're actually genuinely interested in who they are and what they have to say. You don't have to go out and9:53 just preach to them. Go out and ask them questions. So Jesus is gonna ask him a couple of questions. He says, what is written in the law and how does it read to you? Simple questions, right? What is10:04 written in the law? How does it read to you? Now, if we go back to the Old Testament, who is the 1 who dispensed the law? Who's the 1 who spoke the law? Who is it? It's10:16 Jesus, right? Jesus entrusted it to Moses to come to the people, but this is Jesus' law, right? So Jesus is the 1 that wrote the law. Who's the 1 speaking to the man?10:28 Jesus. Right? So when he asked what is written in the law, he said, have you ever read what I told you already? That's what he's asking. In other words, I wrote the law. Have you ever read what10:39 I wrote? Do you really believe what I say? What did I already tell you is what he's saying. And then how does it read to you? He says this, do you understand what I said? In other words, Jesus is10:51 saying, what did I already tell you and do you understand it? You know what? If you're really looking for truth in God's word and you really wanna be obedient to what God says, he will reveal himself to you. What trips11:02 us up is when we read the word to say, don't know that I'm gonna believe any of this and I'm skeptical about everything. That's when we miss parts of what God is trying to say. God is not trying to hide from you who he11:12 is. God wants to reveal himself to you. So he asked what's written in the law? How does it read to you? He's telling the guy, what did I already tell you? Do you understand it? And the man answers and he quotes11:22 Deuteronomy six:five and Leviticus 19 18, and he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.11:34 So what does that mean? It means this. He's saying, I know what it says, what the law says. What you're telling me is that I'm to give God my best. I'm to give him my hundred percent effort, hundred percent passion,11:45 hundred percent of my mind to glorify the Lord in everything and to treat every image bearer, every 1 of his creation, either male or female in the way I'd wanna be treated in every situation that I'm called to love them11:57 extravagantly too. That's what it says. And Jesus says, you've answered correctly. That's exactly what it's all about. You wanna sum up the entire Bible? You can sum it up by saying this,12:09 Love God with everything you have. Love God by being obedient to his word and do everything he's showing you to do, and then treat every image bearer, which is every person that God's ever created with incredible love12:20 and love them extravagantly in the same way you wanna be loved in whatever situation you see them in. So the man says, yeah, Jesus says you've answered correctly. Then he says this, do this and you'll live.12:33 Do it. He says, you got it? Now do it. There's a difference between just knowing what to do and doing what Jesus requires. Did you know there's a difference? And that's where this man's going to come12:44 into a problem because this man doesn't want to do anything. This man doesn't even like Jesus. This man doesn't want to do what Jesus wants him to do. He's just being an attorney and trying to12:56 twist words around to get Jesus to see, yeah, I hear all this mission stuff, but aren't you supposed to be the savior? I mean, tell me how to get saved. So this is what he says. Jesus said, well, do it. Put into practice13:08 what I'm showing you. Why do you think I pray every single week? You put into practice what God shows you because when I'm preaching, God is showing each of you specific things in your own life that he wants you to take13:16 a step of faith for. And where he shows you that? Go do it. You don't need to ask anybody else. But wishing to justify himself, and this is when you know that this man doesn't love Jesus or what he's about, he says, and13:27 who is my neighbor? And who is my neighbor? Here's what the man is saying. Hold on a second, Jesus. What's the scope of what you're asking me to do? Do I need to go all the way in on this or is it just with my13:39 family? Do I need to it at work too? Do I need to be this way with my coworkers? What about my people at school or what if I'm on vacation? What about people in my community? I mean, here's what I'm asking Jesus, where13:51 does this all stop? Remember, remember, remember, I'm just simply asking how to get to heaven. I'm not asking about all this other stuff. I don't intend on doing any of it. I just want to know the bare minimum to get14:01 from here to heaven. That's all I care about. So Jesus tells him a story. The story that you all said that you've heard before because this man is just saying, hey, I want to go to I want to get to heaven and I'm hearing14:13 what you're requiring, but I'm just wondering like where does that stop? What's the limits of my love? Where can my boundary end? Because we all have boundaries and I wanna know where mine are because I just wanna make14:23 sure I do the bare minimum and get to heaven. That's all I'm asking. And so Jesus tells them the story. We call it the story of the good Samaritan or the parable of the good Samaritan. Now keep in mind, this story did14:33 not happen. Jesus is telling a parable. He's telling a story that gives us truth about what he's trying to convey. So when we read about the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan, they're fictitious characters. So14:44 there's no way for us to say, well, here's what he was thinking and here's what he was doing. They're made up fictitious character. We can't tell that. I can't tell you on the authority of God's word what a fictitious14:54 character was saying, but Jesus is telling the story in a way that we can see some truths that are coming out of their lives. And when it comes to roadblocks to mission, 2 of the15:05 first ones come from personal preferences of religion and reputation, Religion and reputation because notice what happens. Jesus said15:18 that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead. Now the reason I know15:30 that you don't live in the first century is you didn't gasp when I said that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was going down because Jerusalem sits on a hill. He was going down a 17 mile journey and15:40 everybody knows that going down that specific road is a place where robbers, thieves, and burglars all hid. If you went down that road and you went by yourself, strong likelihood you're gonna get15:52 robbed and beaten up. Everybody knows that. So when Jesus is telling this story, this Jewish attorney that was listening would have said, yeah, of course he got beat up. Anybody that goes down that way gets beat up. What16:03 a stupid choice it was to go down that specific road. Everybody knows not to go down that specific road. So what are we seeing? We're seeing a man in the story that got exactly16:15 what he deserved because he didn't use his brain. Sometimes we view people like that. Sometimes we view broken, hurting people as well. You know16:27 what? The reason they are where they are, they got just what they deserve. The reason they're broke is they don't understand how to manage their money. The reason their marriage is in shambles is they're never been good16:37 at relationships. The reason their kids are wayward is because they've never been good parents. Of course it's bad. I'm not getting involved with them. The reason they're acting the way they are right here is that they16:49 did this. They made those choices. They're where they are because they made choices to get there. So what concern is that of mine? Man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho on the way. He gets beat up,17:00 stripped, so the guy's naked. All his money gets taken away and he's left on the street as half dead. Half dead means this, we don't know if he's make it or not. He may be dead already, we don't know.17:13 But if he's not dead, he's certainly on his way to being dead. That's how bad it is for this man. He's in a bad situation. His situation is so bad, he can't even help himself. There's nothing he can do to get17:24 right. And this is where the story picks up. And by chance, notice Jesus said that because there'd be no way a priest would go down that road. It was by chance a priest was going down on that17:36 road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now we don't know why, but we can speculate as to perhaps why. What we do know is that when the priest saw him and he's17:48 walking down the road and he sees this man who he doesn't know, who's stripped, who's been beaten, who's bleeding to death on the side of the road, who needs help and needs help now, here's what his response was.18:00 Not only am I not going to him, I'm avoiding him altogether. I'm gonna walk around and stay way, way away from that guy. I don't have time for a guy like him. Now, is this18:11 guy? He's a priest. He's a religious leader. He does official religious duties. Perhaps if the story was told today, he'd be a pastor. Saw him on the road, just happened to be coming18:23 by. Now what was the problem with him going near that guy? The problem was if that guy was actually dead and he got near that guy, he would be considered ceremonially unclean. You know what that means? He would have to18:34 remove himself from the community. You know what that means? He couldn't perform his religious rituals and duties anymore. You know what that means? He can't do his job. You know what that means? His religion's way more18:44 important to him than caring for the man who's about ready to die. That's what we see in the story. I can't touch him. If I touch him, I'm not gonna be able to lead my religious service. If I touch him, I gotta18:56 identify with a dead person. And how do I know who that dead person is? And maybe that's not the kind of person I wanna identify with anyway. Maybe they got what they deserved. I don't have time for this. I've got19:08 a reputation to keep. People need to see me a certain way. They need to see me as spiritual. They need to see me as upright. They need to see me as holy. They need to see me as good. And if I walk myself into that19:19 situation, I could lose some of that. And you know what I care about more than that guy? I care about my religious practices and I care about what other people think about me. That's what's going on in that guy's head.19:30 You say, well, that's terrible. Who would act like that? We would. We would. We see broken and hurting people all the time if we open our eyes. Sometimes we close our eyes to them because we don't want to see it, but19:42 we're excited to get to church on Sunday and we're excited to tell people about where we go to church on Sunday. We're excited to participate in the religious practices that we have on Sunday or on Tuesday or with our19:54 community of people, but we don't want to identify ourselves with people like that because those kind of people are the kind of reason the world's in the shape that it's in and I don't want to be with them. That's what's20:04 going on. So the man gets close and he's like, not a step closer. What if he's actually dead? What if I'm ceremonially unclean? I don't like it. Moreover, he likely got what he deserved for traveling this20:16 way alone. So here's what he thinks to himself. So I'll make sure he doesn't even see me. That way I won't feel guilty for not helping him out. If he doesn't see me, then he won't know that I avoided him.20:28 Sometimes when we see others that are broken and hurting and in need, we stay a distance away because we don't wanna engage because if we engage and then they saw we didn't wanna help, it would make us feel worse than by20:37 not engaging at all, we just stand back. And we say things like, somebody needs to help that group of people or there's no hope for that group of people. I don't wanna go anywhere near that group of people. I'm done with20:48 them because you know why? Because I'm a Christian and I gotta practice my religion and I gotta have people think that I'm really spiritual. And if I hang out with them, I'm gonna miss21:00 out on some of my practice and I'm gonna miss out on what people think about me. Same thing's true today. Now let me tell you why I'm telling you this because all week long as I've been studying this passage, I've been21:11 so convicted in my soul about what I'm doing and who I am and what God needs to shape in my life to align more with the mission of Jesus Christ. I've wept tears this week getting ready for this message. I knew21:23 this message was going to be convicting. That's why it's really silent in here today because this is where we live and this is how we can act if we're not challenged and encouraged to take a step of faith21:34 because isn't it true that God wants all of us to be on mission? And we're like, well, where am I going to find that? I can't afford a mission trip. Here's what Jesus would say. Open your eyes. You've walked by people21:44 all week long that were in need that I put you in contact with and you walked the other way and avoided them. That's what Jesus would tell each and every 1 of us. They're always ripe for the harvest. There's always needy21:55 people in our city of 2 plus million people. You're telling me there's nobody out there that could use a touch of Jesus? They're everywhere if you open your eyes. But if you're focused on your own personal22:07 religion and you're focused on your own personal reputation, you'll never see them and you can avoid them altogether. And that's exactly what the priest does and he leaves. Verse 32 says, likewise, a22:19 Levite. Now if the priest was the guy where he'd be like, well, sure the priest is gonna help him and he doesn't do anything. Who's the Levite? The Levites were the chosen tribe of God to serve in the worship of who he22:30 was. So this would be the equivalent of a worship leader or likely someone like that. And it says, and when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. So he's a little different.22:42 When the priest saw the man from a distance, the priest is like, I can't get involved in this. I don't have the time for this. I don't have the energy for this. I'm just, this is beyond me. This22:54 isn't my problem. But the Levite did something different. He walked up to the man. Before he went to the other side of the road, he went Now, why would he walk up to the man?23:06 Bible doesn't tell us, but we can speculate. I think he wanted to see if he knew him. There's this naked bleeding man there. I want to know, is it my dad, grandpa,23:17 uncle, brother, son, friend, somebody that I know, somebody that's worth taking care of. I mean, if it's somebody in my sphere of influence, I'll help, but I better go see if it is and I want to see if I recognize23:29 him and he bends down like, oh, thank God. Not 1 of mine and he goes around the other side too. So at least he went and saw, at least23:41 he was willing to help those who loved him, at least he was willing to help those that he cared about, but guess what? He goes on the other side too. And here's the second thing. The second things that get23:53 in the way of us being intentional about mission, some of the roadblocks and their personal preferences of relationships and routine, relationships and routine. The priest didn't recognize him.24:05 That wasn't his relationship group. Do you know we love to form cliques? We form cliques based upon who we are. We form cliques based upon our age. We form clicks based upon our skin24:17 color. We form clicks based upon our political preferences. We form clicks based upon our socioeconomic background. We form clicks based upon our neighborhood. We form clicks based upon everything in the whole world and24:28 if somebody happens to fall into 1 of those circles that's in need, I'll help you because I know you do the same for me, but if it's outside of those, I ain't got time for that. That's the heart of the Levite.24:41 The heart of the Levite was, if I know him, I'll help him, but I don't know him and thank God I don't know him and it's too bad it's you and I'm sorry you got yourself in that situation and it doesn't look very good for24:52 you, but I don't have time for that right now. I mean, how am I going to help? I'm not a medical doctor. I'm a Levite. I mean, how am I going to help? I mean, there's nothing I can really do.25:04 So I'm getting on my way because I too have a routine that I have to keep. I'm busy. Let me talk about this. Who here is too busy to serve25:15 Jesus? Because if you are, you're too busy. Well, what's serving Jesus look like? I'll come on Sunday and I'll come next Sunday when I'm in town and I'll come the next Sunday.25:27 What's it look like? It means 20 fourseven, 3 65 I have my eyes open to be the hands and feet and mouthpiece of Jesus everywhere I go. Yeah, but he's too busy for that. I mean, that's a pretty high commitment, isn't it?25:39 I mean, who would Jesus ask to do that? Every single 1 of his disciples. That's how the kingdom gets advanced in the world. It's not through a select few. It's through every single person that25:51 has been called by the name of Christ who is in relationship with him, who wants to be intentional about opening their eyes and seeing the broken and the hurting and the lost and the half dead in the world and sharing26:02 the love of Christ with them. Priest and the Levite missed out but the priest and the Levite represent me and you too, don't they? I mean, we see ourselves in both of those characters that our relationships and our26:12 routine Oh, by the way, I mean, we live in a culture where we feign this idea that we're the busiest group of people in the world. I'm so busy. You're so busy. I mean, there was a time like if you worked in a26:24 factory where you had to get up at 5 in the morning to get to work by 6 and you worked in the factory for 12 straight hours with maybe a 15 minute lunch break only to get home at 7 o'clock to go to bed because you had to26:33 get up at 5 the next day, do the same thing every single day without a break. That's busy. Most people don't work like that. I grew up 1 generation away from being a farmer. Farmers are busy. They get up at 4 in the26:45 morning and they work all day till about 8 or 9 at night and then get up again every single day. That's busy. Y'all aren't that busy. I'm not that busy, right? We just talk like we're busy, but when we say we're26:57 busy, here's what we're saying. I've jam packed in my schedule all my preferences for what's most important to me. My family's in there. My fun is in there. My everything is in there27:09 that I want to do and there's very little margin for anything other than me and what I care about. So I'm busy. And Jesus would say, if you're not seeking first the kingdom27:20 of God and his righteousness, you're not seeking correctly. What should go first in is Jesus, I woke up today. You're the 1 that gave me life. I'm all about you and I'm all about your kingdom. You guide27:32 my path. And if something gets interrupted on my schedule because it's more important to your kingdom than what's on my schedule, I'll preference what's on your kingdom agenda. That's what Jesus27:44 is saying, right? That's why he's telling the story to the attorney and he's telling it in earshot of everybody else to say, this is how serious I'm about my mission. Anyone who would come after me must deny himself,27:56 take up his cross and follow me. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do as I say? Are you still so dull? Are you still gonna leave too? What was Jesus' message? If I'm really your God, then go on mission with me28:06 because I'm entrusting the mission of the world to you. It's pretty special. You're my ambassador. It's pretty special. And we're like, no, you know, I'm good with that, but I kinda just like religious28:18 services and I kinda like my reputation and how people in religious services think about me and I kinda like the relationships I already have and I kinda like my routine and if you're going to try to break that up,28:29 Jesus, I'm bothered by you. That's what's going on with the Levite and the priest, but notice who came next. Verse 33 it says, a Samaritan. Now the reason I know you're not a first century Jewish audience28:41 is you didn't gasp. Samaritan. You know, if you were saying to a Jew, Jewish attorney in the first century, then along came a Samaritan, he would think to himself that good for28:53 nothing, no good waste of life. God hates people like that and therefore I hate him too. That's who came along. Now you would say, I don't feel that way about Samaritans. Jesus told us to go into all the world. Who do29:04 you feel that way about? Is there any specific group of people that you would say, want nothing to do with that group? They're totally lost. They went off the road. They're in the ditch. I don't want them to do29:15 it. If Jesus was telling this story to Fox News, here's what he would say. Along came the democrat.29:27 True? If he was telling this story to MSNBC and CBN, they would say, along came the republican. If he was telling this story to a group of KKK members, he would say,29:40 along came the African American. Do you see? Because even if we don't verbalize it, all of us can have prejudices in our heart unless Jesus Christ redeems us from that.29:52 So he tells them a story based upon his own heart and what he knows he hates and makes that person the hero of the story. So notice what's different about the Samaritan. We're gonna see what30:04 he actually does, not just thinks, but a Samaritan who was on a journey. Now what was he doing? We don't know where he was going, but here's what we know about him. He was going somewhere. He30:16 had a plan. He had a destination. He needed to be somewhere at a certain time because he's on a journey and he came upon him and when he saw him, he30:28 had compassion. So here's the difference because when the Samaritan comes up and he sees the guy, we get to see what he feels. He felt compassion. He felt pity.30:40 Now, it's not just an emotion because as we've talked about already, compassion is not just, Oh, I feel so bad for you. That must be painful. You must be cold because you're naked. I'm so30:52 sorry. That's not compassion. Compassion is when you feel a need and you yourself are going to do something to make it right. So he feels compassion. Who do we serve?31:04 We serve the God of all compassion. Amen. When God sees a need, he comes and makes it right. So Samaritan sees a need. So Samaritan is going to come up to the man and notice what31:16 he does. He came up to him and bandaged his wounds. So Samaritan is going to run right up to this guy and bandage his wounds. Now, couple of questions. What are you gonna have to do31:27 in order to bandage somebody's wounds? You gotta touch them. You gotta physically make contact with that person. None of the other 2 are willing to do that. They not only didn't want to identify31:39 him, walked on the other side of the road, they didn't want to touch him, they didn't want to get near him, they don't want to be identified with him. What's the first thing he does? He goes up and touches him. Now he31:49 bandages him and pours oil and wine on his wounds. Where did he get the bandages and where did he get the oil and wine? They're his personal resources. I'm gonna take what I32:01 have and give you everything that I have because I wanna see you be completely healed. And even though you're half dead and even though you may die, I'm willing to take my32:12 resources, use them on you even if you never respond in the way that I'm hoping for. See a difference in his heart? That's the heart of compassion. See, there's certain people sometimes that we have32:24 in our heart where we begin to think, I don't really care what happens to them. They just got what they deserve. They'll know someday when they meet God, they'll know they were wrong. Let me32:36 tell you a little story. You also went down the wrong road too and Jesus came after you. So, what's he do? He bandages the wounds, he pours32:48 oil on them. Does that take some time? I mean, that takes some time. I mean, the guy's been beat half to death. So, where was he hurting? Here's the answer. Everywhere. If you've ever seen somebody beat33:00 up, you know, his face is swollen, his body's swollen, he's probably got broken ribs, he's probably having a hard time breathing, he's bleeding out, he's stinky, he's smelly, and what's this guy do? He goes and gets down33:10 on his hands and knees and starts touching the guy. He doesn't ask this question, is he worthy? Maybe this guy's a pedophile. We don't know. Maybe this guy's a leader in government. We don't know. Maybe this33:22 guy's an athlete. We don't know who he is. That's the whole point of the story. He's in need so we're gonna help him. Why? Because he's an image bearer of my God. And if I really love my God, my theology plays out33:34 in how I treat out other people, not what I say in church. Amen? So he goes and he bandages the wounds and this is where it really gets interesting.33:46 He pours oil and wine on them and then he put him on his own beast. Now we don't know what kind of animal this was. We don't know if it was a donkey or whatever, but here's what we do know. Apparently prior to meeting33:57 this guy, he was riding on the beast. He wasn't having to put his feet on the ground. He wasn't having to do all the walking. Now what's he gonna have to do? If he gives up that I mean, we're not talking about a 2 or a 434:08 seater here. We're not talking about an SUV he's putting him in. There's only room for 1, but how do you get a man from the ground who can't move, who's almost dead onto this beast? I mean, even if he's34:20 a little guy, hundred and 30 pound guy, how are you gonna get him up there? You're gonna have to get down on your hands and knees and embrace him and bring him towards you and feel him and34:32 all of the blood and stink and sweat and dirt that that man has is now gonna be all over you and it's not going away. And then you gotta use all your strength to get him up and to get him on the beast.34:44 And now guess what? Because you're on that dangerous road, you're going half as fast as you once were and now you're even a bigger target for the next robbers to come along. And you know what the Samaritan thinks? I34:55 don't care. I'm doing the right thing here. I'm honoring what my God would want me to honor, which are people that are hurting and broken and in need and it's my job to touch them and35:07 to help them and to make them better. See, a religious person might do this, they would probably walk over and be like, oh, thank goodness, I have a track. I'll leave this with you and if you35:19 happen to wake up and don't die, read all 4 steps and you'll be saved. Good day. Right? That's not the gospel. There's truth of the gospel but it gets lived out in your actions as35:31 well so people can see it in your eyes and your touch and your heart and your passion for them. People know how much you care by the way that you treat them or they know if you're just an assignment for your religion.35:42 They know the difference. You know the difference. But he's not done there. And he brought him to an inn and he took care of him. It would have been enough if he would just bandage the35:54 guy's wounds and got him to sit up. It would been enough if he did that and put him on his beast and took him into town. It would have been enough just to say, okay, somebody will come find you. But what does he do? He36:05 takes him to an inn and guess what he does? I'm gonna stay with you all night. But this guy had plans, didn't he? I mean, this guy was on a journey, didn't he? I mean, they didn't have cell phones in the first century36:15 and he couldn't call ahead and tell all of his family he was gonna be late. So what was he doing? He was preferencing this man that he didn't know over all the other relationships that he had And he was like, until I see36:27 your full healing, you are my priority. Convicting? Convicting to me. He's gonna stay with him all night. You say, well, how do you know that he36:39 stayed with him all night? Cause the text tells me that he did. Cause notice what happens. 35, on the next day, the next day, yeah, he spent all night with this guy. Wasn't concerned about his sleep, wasn't36:50 concerned about patting himself on the back. He took out 2 denarii and he gave him to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and whatever more you spend when I return, I will repay you. So now he's gonna reach into his37:01 pocketbook. Now he's going to his own finances. He used all his resources. Now he's like, I'll give him my money too. Whatever it takes to see this guy that I don't know that I don't even know is worthy, I'm gonna make37:12 sure he sees the love of God. So I'm gonna stay with you all night, I'm gonna talk to you all night, I'm gonna make sure you rest all night, I'm gonna be there with you and the next day I do have to go but I'm gonna pay37:23 for somebody else to take care of you. So what's he gotta do? He's gotta convince the innkeeper that this guy's worthy of being taken care of. Sometimes when we identify with the loss, it's hard to convince other37:33 Christians that it's worthy of your time. You're spending time with a group of people. Most Christians would be like, oh, that's despicable. How could you hang out with them? Because that's exactly who Jesus would hang37:42 out with and you should hang out with them too and not only should you hang out with them, you should care for them too. So he's convincing the innkeeper to take care of them and then he says this, as if that's not37:52 enough, he's not done. You know how he's not done? Because he says, I'll pay more if need be when? When I come back. He's not just gonna leave. I mean, he's done enough, hasn'tShow more
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