Weekday Warrior | Week 3

kinda postulates you got a hundred and sixty eight hours in your week.

Let's say you come to church on Sunday and you're dedicated to a time of serving. Let's call it two hours, three hours a week where you're involved in corporate church as it were. It's a hundred and sixty five hours where the question becomes, what are you doing then? And and the Bible presents Christianity

sort of as this homogenous mixture of a person's life. And I think typically when we see especially in American culture and American modernity and the way that we see modern culture existing here, especially on the Western Half of The United States, we tend to be a bit more compartmentalized

when it comes to our Christianity. Right? So maybe you guys ever had Thanksgiving dinner where there's that one guy at the table where

this is me. Where your Thanksgiving meal is a flavor palette and that all kind of works together. Right? So your mashed potatoes and your turkey and your gravy, it's all one amorphous blob of food and you take a bite with a little bit of all of it together. Right?

There's others of you here who every right? It can't touch almost to this point of nothing's able to

that the latter is kind of how a lot of us do Christianity. Don't let anything touch. Right? This is who I am at church. This is who I am at home. This is who I am at work. This is who I am at school. This is who I am at Starbucks. Everything about my life, don't let it touch. Everything's gotta be separate and unique.

And the the Christianity that Jesus presents to us is a bit more homogenous. Everything touches everything. He is the flavoring of everything else in the meal. And and trying to bridge that gap between looking at what the early church would recognize or even the disciples of Jesus, 11 of which are

murdered for their beliefs. John's ex exiled to Patmos. Judas hangs himself. But then you've got, right, James, the brother of Jesus, is thrown off the top of the temple and then clubbed to death. You've got the early church fathers, polycarp, is burned at the stake, and and 60,000,000 people

martyred between that time and this for the sake of the gospel. And sometimes in the modern American coffee cup sitting behind the comfort of what we're doing, we are infinitely concerned with I'm talking about myself, not you. Infinitely concerned with our ego or our curated image or how people think about us.

And what can happen then is the idea of evangelism, which is inviting people to recognize and know who Jesus is. It comes from a big fancy Greek word called euangelion, which is what we translate for the word gospel, good news.

There's a sense in which scripture tells us particularly in Romans and Ephesians that some people are given the gift of evangelism. They just have this sort of supernatural power to be able to explain the gospel simplistically or they're called to cross boundaries or people groups or,

even language barriers to go take the gospel. But there's another sense in which all of us should have the propensity to and willingness to participate in our spheres of influence when it comes to influencing them for the gospel. The reality is it seems as though when you look at scripture,

all of us should be ready for and prepared for this life audit that the text seems to tell us is coming for everyone. Now if you're not a Christian or you're not a bible person or not a Jesus follower, you're very welcome in this place. But this is a deeply held conviction we have as Christians. It's what this ancient document tells us.

Collection of 66 books, fifteen hundred years, 40 authors, three continents, three languages, one story tells us this. One day you're gonna meet your creator face to face. You might not think that's real. That's fine.

But this is a deeply held conviction that we have. And in that, there seems to be these moments that we get this hint towards of an audit of the human life. This audit bears a lot of different sources and compartments of responsibility, but not the least of which,

we see it very specifically in the parable of the talents that we are given as sort of a way of being money managers for God's kingdom. Making no mistake, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the earth and all who dwell in it. The psalmist tells us God has cattle on a thousand hilltops. He owns everything.

And he gives us for a season of time, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years, whatever it might be, ninety, hundred years, hundred and ten, whatever.

We're managers of his finances and this bulk, this little group of his finances and then we've got to give an audit for that at the What who knows Jesus because of the fight? Who's blessed because that because you were blessed? What movement in the church moved forward because of the money that you had? We've gotta give an account for that.

It seems like that audit lives beyond finances though because you've got other stuff. You've got time. You've got personality. You've got giftedness. You've got energy. And there's there's an indication we have that all of that's gonna be audited. And here's something that I'm thinking about for myself.

Your sphere of influence is not an accident. The people who are in your orbit or that you orbit around are not an accident. Which means that when you meet God face to face, if it is the case that Matthew 28 is accurate and Jesus give us gives us this commissioning where he says, go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. And surely I'll be with you always to the very end of the age. The word begins with this Greek term, which means as you go.

As you go about your life, you should be discipling and preaching to the point of baptism to make disciples of all nations. People are gonna be particularly sent to the four corners of the earth, but all of us have this predicated responsibility to

what happens to the people that are in your orbit? Who do you work with? Who who who might that be for you? Because here's a haunting reality for me. If I get into the Lord's presence and this audit starts and then the relational or evangelistic

audit starts and the Lord lines up everyone who he's put inside of my sphere of influence, Not accidentally, not purposelessly. But then he looks over at me

and he loves me. He calls me his own. I am his child. Right? He's got a he's got a grace filled parental bias towards me, just like he has to all of us who are sons and daughters. But then he looks at me and then circling around everyone that came into contact with me who does not believe in the gospel, what if

he looks at me and then looks at them and he says, hey, Chris, do they know?

Like, this was the centerpiece of your life. Like, it it the scripture in in Christ, we live and move and have our being. He's the very foundation by which everything else is built. So they this is what you're all about. The great commissioning. I did not parse it out in some weird way, Matthew 28. Go and make disciples. So just real quick. Do they know?

They you saw them every day. Did they know? Do they know? This has started to kind of haunt my dreams a little bit, this thought of this. The reason it's haunting is because it plays then again with things like my ego. It plays with things like my

infinite concern with not looking weird or being uncomfortable in my own life. Jesus then in Luke chapter 10 presents to us this concept of what it means for us to go beyond the pale and reach outside of the comfort zone in order to recognize that God's doing something bigger.

Here's why I think this is important and here's why I think the bible puts such emphasis on these things.

And maybe the reason why this has been difficult for me again, I'm preaching this sermon today. I'm not even talking to you. Talking to me. Okay? You can listen in if you'd like to. But this is what the Lord's been moving in my heart. And one of the things I'm thinking about is I've got five kids and the oldest is 11, the youngest is five. I don't sleep much.

But so my oldest son is going into junior high. And you know, there's some girl named Daniela in his class or whatever. I don't remember her actual name. Why? Because it doesn't matter. Why does it not matter? Because he's in junior high.

And but when you're in junior high I remember when I was in junior high, the girl that I was dating in junior high, we never held hands. We never hugged. We never it was a Christian school. It was like I just knew she was my girlfriend, but nothing else that was the the be all and end all of the whole thing. And I think back on that, and I you guys remember junior high? Some of you are still in junior high. This is for you.

It's so difficult to try to convince my son, Peyton, that junior high isn't everything because for him, it's everything. He wants these new shoes. I'm like, brother, we're going to Ross and we're gonna go to the sale rack at Ross. Okay? That's right. We're not above that. We are not above that. $30 for shoes?

You could buy yourself a good pair of church shoes for that much. We're gonna get $19.99. That's your budget. Whatever you wanna find. Slides? You can wear slides. I don't care. But that's what we're doing. And he's like, but dad, I'm not cool. It's junior high. Doesn't matter. But to him, it's life.

And as if you're a high school here, if you're in high school right now and I'm saying this, you're going, amen brother. Junior high. Bunch of idiots. Right? And then I go, but what about now? What about you and your life? You're like, well, high school is different. It's not.

But you can't tell a high schooler that. They're like, what do you know? Here's what I know. I was homecoming king of my high school. So I took my crown with me to college thinking that peep shut. I I Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like put it out in my dorm room as like a talking piece, you know?

So I remember it's like the first week of college. I headed out there and someone walked by. They're like, what's the crown for? I'm like, it's crazy that you asked that. That's crazy. I don't even know. It's my homecoming crown. People voted and I was the

where'd you go? Right? Like, didn't even care. They didn't let me finish my story. It's just didn't matter. I took it down. I put it in my car. I I have not I have not seen it again because I just realized, well, it didn't matter.

And now I look back on junior high. I look back on high school where I could articulate my faith really well. And yet if I lined up everyone that I witnessed to in high school and I put them behind this table right now, it would look just like everyone behind this table right now. No one. My concern is this.

The old hymn puts it this way, when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to bring in praise than when we first begun. There's a moment in the thirty second billionth year in heaven where your whole life is proportionally one second

to what our life is right now for a 75 year old person. Here's what that means. One second of this life is equal to 75 of a full life lived as seventy five years of life is when you've been in heaven for fifty or for thirty two billion years. So there's gonna come a moment where proportionally speaking, your whole life

is like a second of your seventy five years in this life. And at that moment, we're gonna think back and think, why didn't I do something? It's all junior high. If you're in junior high, no offense. I know you're you're you're just getting brutalized right now, but like it doesn't matter. Okay. Anyway,

this is my concern. I'm gonna get to the end of my life and be on my deathbed and go, but why didn't I do anything? And so these are good encouragements for myself to ask

this sometimes I even pray. I'm like, Lord, I wanna be a witness for you. I I wanna invite someone to church. I want to just if there's anyone like dead on the side of the road that needs you, I wanna be able to excuse me.

I wanna be able to just tell them about the gospel. If there's anyone who needs your help stop screaming. I'm talking to the Lord. If there's anyone who needs your help or anyone who's in distress, would you be quiet? I'm talking to the Lord. And this is how I live my life. Like horse with blinders on, just

Luke says this. Jesus is telling a story. He's challenged by an expert in the law.

And the expert in the law says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Okay. Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Which anyone with a brain and a softened heart would go, what?

In order to inherit eternal life, I need to uphold both tablets of the law perfectly, love God perfectly and love my neighbor perfectly? That should bring us all to go, but I can't. But he's an expert in the law. So he goes, okay, just so we're clear, I'm perfect on the first one. I love God perfectly.

Now let's move on to the second one. What do you mean neighbor? How how many neighbors do I have? What what what is the boundary of neighborness? You see the teachers in the law at this point would set up new rules about around God's existing rules in order to qualify themselves as approved. Right? So

old testament rule, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. It's part of the first tablet of the law which is the the vertical dimension of the law. Our laws with God. K? First four commandments in the 10 commandments, No other gods before me, no graven images.

Do not take the Lord your God's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. That is what we call the vertical tablet of the law, your law with God. Then you have the horizontal tablet of the law, which is commandments five through 10,

which is do not, honor your father and mother, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not, steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet the whole night. Well, the whole 10. Anyway, so Jesus essentially says, if you're perfect in accordance with the law, you'll get into heaven of your own accord. But

this this is the reason the gospel exists is because anyone would listen to that and go, but no man is perfect in accordance to the law. No one has loved God perfectly and no one loves their neighbor perfectly. But not this guy. This expert in the law goes, okay. Good. Good. I'm tracking. I'm tracking.

What do you mean by neighbor?

You don't just the Greek word here for neighbor means anyone near you. But he goes, but the Jews of the time, the Jewish elite rulers of the time in religion

started to qualify what a neighbor meant. And if you look at their old ancient scribal notes, was, well, neighbor means anyone like you, near you, and who agrees with everything you agree with.

So is it really a task to love people who are like you, who think like you, act like you, talk like you with everything you agree with? That's not difficult.

But this was the concept was if we can make the word neighbor mean just this specific group, I'll be perfect with God and perfect with the neighbor and I will have inherited eternal life of my own accord. Jesus,

knowing that this man is broken, at least pride, like this guy thinks that he's upheld the tablets of the law perfectly. What does Romans tell us? Three verse 10, there is no one righteous, not even one. Three twenty three. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is a blanket diagnosis of humanity.

We are messed up. But this guy says, not me. So Jesus listens to his question of, can you show me how big the box is for neighbor? And Jesus says, let me tell you a story instead.

In reply Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Down is a topographical elevation change. This is a 3,600 foot descent. Because it's a 3,600 foot descent from Jerusalem to Jericho, the way you got there was you went on these switchback roads to get down the hill.

And they were famous for getting robbed because as you were taking the switchback, people would hide behind rocks at the end of the switchback and they would chase you down as you walked away.

So in that day and age, two things would stick out in the story. The first thing is if you were familiar with this passage and I said a man was traveling alone, you would go, uh-oh, he gonna get robbed. The second thing is this, if I were to mention that this story involves a Samaritan, you would be

furious with me as an ancient near eastern Jew.

A Samaritan was this, the kingdom is divided after Saul, David, and Solomon. This is not uber important, but just so you can understand the background. Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. Northern Kingdom Of Israel, Southern Kingdom Of Judah. Northern Kingdom Of Israel, terrible. They just disobeyed Yahweh from the jump.

So God, he judges them by letting Assyria come in and take them out. He brings them into captivity, the first one pre Babylonian captivity. And the Assyrians go and they take people captive, but there's a couple of people that they go, we don't even want you in Assyria.

You're too old. You're decrepit. You don't you don't look right. We don't like you. So he leaves this group of remnant Jews who didn't make the cut for slavery in Samaria. So these this group called Samaritans were looking around and going, well,

these foreign nations have taken out our walls. The Assyrians have plundered our capital. What do we do now?

Well, one thing God said was do not intermarry with pagan people. Do not worship foreign idols. But the Samaritans were in self preservation mode. And they went, well, if we marry some of them, they'll help and protect us and that's actually a good thing. So the Jews in exile begin to hear about this, that the Samaritans began intermarrying

with pagans and they began diluting the religion of following Yahweh. So the Jews in exile go, they're messed up. And the second thing is this, the Samaritans believed that there was a mountain in Gerizim where the temple was going to be built. And so they rejected the Jerusalem temple that Solomon and then Herod built

and they believe that the true resting place of God is in Gerizim. So they call the everyone who believes in the temple at Jerusalem apostates and foreigners and messed up people, while they themselves

make a fake temple in Gerizim, the one that God does not inhabit. They consider everyone to be apostates while they are intermarrying with pagan belief systems and practicing idolatry including human sacrifice. So the Jews hated the Samaritans.

Ancient Talmudic texts tell us the best kind of Samaritan in the eyes of a Jewish person at this time was a dead Samaritan. They hated them. So Jesus,

knowing all of this, knowing he's talking to teachers in the law, previously they would have been alive during the last insurrection of the Samaritans. See, when the Jews got out of captivity, they went and they razed the temple in Gerizim. They burned down the Samaritans' fake temple.

Well, the Samaritans in response went and threw human bones inside of the temple in Jerusalem desecrating the most sacred and holy place. They hated each other.

Sometimes people are like, how come they crucified Jesus? He made a Samaritan the hero of this story. Okay? When you jump back into the culture of the time, Jesus is intrinsically offensive to almost everyone listening. And here it's the religious elite. Here's what he says.

A man's going from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. We saw that coming. They stripped him of his clothes and beat him and went away leaving him half dead. Or if you're an optimist, half alive. Anyway, the why does it matter that he was stripped of his clothing?

Because almost every Jewish customary robe or Jewish customary garment would have been taken off of him. So the Jewish zit zit from the the the phylactery on the head, the leather on the arms, the the religious robes,

the kippah, every part of their religious Judaism would have been taken off. So Jesus wants us to know we don't know the background of this dead man. It's just representative of mankind. There's a dead man on the side of the road. A priest,

The priest is representative of the old testament law. Okay? And if anyone was supposed to stop and help, it would have been them. Some people go, well, priest couldn't help because he would have defiled himself by touching a dead body or touching a bloody body. But Hosea six specifically gives the ability in emergency situations

to break defilement law in order to help your brother in need. So the priest happened to be going down the same road and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So two, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, by on the other side. So they understand cautionary tales, folklore, and jokes.

And this is the rule of threes in all all of those different systems. You get the setup. Right? The straight man, if you will, in like a comedic thing. Here's position number one. Here's position number two. Right? This is the this is the type. This is the this is the problem. This is the exception.

And then the third is the hero. It's the one unlike the first two. So what do they see? Apathetic Levite representative of the prophets. So we have the the law of God represented by the priest is apathetic and doesn't save the man. Then you have the Levite representative of the prophets,

walks by the other side refuses to save the man. So the law doesn't save him. The prophets don't save him. And you would expect these are the two most likely candidates to stop and help the man. So what are you waiting for next? You're waiting for the hero.

So they're thinking, oh, he's gonna say the Pharisee then walked by or a religious elite leader or an expert in the law then walked by or a a God fearing Yahweh loving Jew walked by. Instead Jesus says, then a Samaritan.

Tension builds. As he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. The the Greek word here for took pity is splendonizomai. In the old testament, when God reveals his character to Moses in Exodus 34 in the cave,

the first word out of Yahweh's mouth about his own character is this. Isaiah Exodus thirty four six. Yahweh Yahweh, compassionate and gracious. That word compassionate in the Hebrew is which is where we get this word in the Greeks, and it means to be moved on a bowel level. K? It it it actually the word Rehum means womb like.

So it brings about the concept of let's imagine after church today, let's if you're a parent in here, you know this feeling very well. You go over to pick up your kid and as you go to pick up your kid, you see someone else that you don't recognize, grab them and start running away. Now should you do this at Rock Point?

Probably a bad idea. Okay? If there's one congregation that's always packing, it would be this one. I just San Diego, you'd be fine. They'd probably help you out the door because maybe you've heard our political climate over there but not in Queen Creek. I've learned that. Right?

I don't mess around with Queen Creek. That's all I'm saying. You guys do your thing. I'm here. I'm a faith servant. If I go too long, please don't. Sometimes people go like this, when I'm going too long, they go, you wanna

Don't do it at Rock Point. Okay? But if you saw this, if you were to imagine this and you really got into a position where this took place, something would happen deep inside your gut. This this paternal or this maternal womb like anger and frustration, but also this,

I would give anything in this moment to protect my kid. This is the word compassion. And this is what is applied here to the Samaritan. The Samaritan has this deep womb like compassion.

And they would have recognized his word. They know this is how God reveals himself. So why are you saying that the Samaritan is acting like God does? He went out and bandaged the man's wounds, pouring on oil that soothes wounds and wine as a disinfectant.

Then he put on put him on the man's own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out 2 denarii, that's two days wages, which would be a lot for a simple hotel stay. That would have gotten you a long way, And gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense.

Jesus then asks this question in response. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? As a church, we all know the answer to that. Who was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Help me out. That's the answer. Does the man say the Samaritan? He

can't even get the word out. The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. Right? It says as Jesus is going, what's his name? What do we call him? I told you. He's a Samaritan. Jesus said, go and do likewise. You be like the Samaritan.

What this brings up for me is a series of questions. I'm gonna ask you these five as we wrap up. Again, I'm asking it to myself. You can just listen in if you'd like to. I so wanna be a part of what God's doing in evangelism, and yet when I ask myself these five questions, I go, I am absolutely

putting my hand up to God in so many areas of my life. I'm claiming to be ready to be to be a vessel by which people come to know the Lord and at the same time I've got my right hand raised saying, but I'm not gonna go that far. The first question is this, it's a question of margin. If I really wanna do

the work of an evangelist, I really wanna invite people, is my life so interwovenly impacted, every minute accounted for, that even if God were talking to me, I would slow down long enough to listen. Is my life interruptible? It's a question of margin.

And for a lot of us, we go, oh, man, wish I had more time that I'd part of evangelism. I wish I had more time that I would invite people. We're also the same generation that spends seven hours a day in front of a screen and is all caught up. I've watched The Office like 13 times through. Right?

And I'm still willing to tell you I don't have enough time in my week. That's one of the lies that Satan tells us is what CS Lewis says. Satan will always take the time to rock the cradle of a sleeping Christian lest he be awoken to the realities of the world.

One of things that the enemy doesn't tempt me with like PCP or crack. It's just not my palate. It's not my appetite. I don't know what your background is and and this is not even a judgment thing. Some of us have different backgrounds. My appetite is for comfort, to not look weird.

It's actually it's it's a it's a it's a much duller appetite. And so all Satan has to do with me is someone else will do it. Don't don't talk to them. Someone else will do it. You got it. You are so busy. You are so busy.

Other side of the road, that's you, man. You've got five kids? They don't have five kids. They should be doing it. They're not doing it. They're your friends, but they should. Right? You've got you don't The second thing that I have to ask myself is a question of meekness. If I did have time,

would my ego permit me to look weird for the sake of the gospel? Would I be willing to look a little bit bizarre or to cross social boundaries or to feel any ounce of discomfort for the grounds of the gospel. This is what Jesus says in Luke chapter six. Blessed are you who are reviled and hated and despised

because of me, Jesus says. Some of us when we hear that list were like people revile and despise me all the time but but that's that's maybe you just might be a mean person. That's not what he's saying here. Right? Like jerks for Jesus kind of group. The the

what Jesus is saying is and this is a question I have to ask. I'm a I'm a pastor in San Diego. Right? Maybe the most post Christian part of this whole nation. And outside of a few Instagram comments every here or there from people who I'm never gonna interact with in real life,

When's the last time someone despised me because of a stance that I took on the gospel? At least made it clear. Or or I I I felt any measure of pain because I followed Jesus. Would my is my ego too fragile to be effective for God's kingdom? John 12, this is Jesus' condemnation to the Pharisees. You guys

are too afraid of man to be any use for God. Could you imagine Jesus saying that to me? But it's true. In the grand scheme of things, if I'm totally honest with you, I'm more afraid of what you think of me than what God thinks about me. It's embarrassing, but that's where I am.

So I need the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to consume my heart and change and transform those things. Am I interruptible? Can my ego handle what it takes to evangelize the gospel? The third thing is a question of means. Does my love for the lost and broken world around me cost me anything? Or do I only contribute

what I have to spare? C. S. Lewis has asked this question one time. Someone asked him, how much do I have to give to my local church? And this is not just a financial question. How much of my time do I have to give my local church? How much of my effort? How much of my talent? How much of my brain space?

And Lewis says, I'm not going to tell you a number or a time frame. But here's what he says. He goes, but I do know one thing about sacrifice and I know one thing about love. If it's effortless, it's not love. If your sacrifice doesn't hurt, I'm afraid it doesn't count as sacrifice. My,

I've talked to this story last time, my late wife passed away in 2021. But she one of the things that she taught me before she passed was there's this old testament story of a man named David who purchases an altar for the Lord. He walks up on a mountain and he goes to buy it.

When he gets up there, the guy who's selling it wants to give him a discount. And essentially goes, David, you're gonna buy this for the Lord? No. No. No. Let me give it to you. I'll give it to you for free. It'll be a And David had saved up and he was ready to purchase this thing. And in a moment,

here's what She she rephrases it like this, that has become one of the talking points inside of my soul for what it means to follow Jesus. And and here's what David says that my late wife, verbalized so appropriately. I dare not lay before the Lord a sacrifice which costs me nothing.

In other words, David goes, I couldn't imagine walking into the presence of God with my spare change, my spare time, and my spare effort and going, I wasn't using this anyway so you can have it. I I don't even feel the weight of sacrificing this. So it's as if God's going, then don't call it sacrifice.

Don't say that it's motivated by love and don't even consider yourself to be generous if what you give is what you were would have spared anyway. If part of my income, I would have been willing to throw out the window because I don't feel it anyway, but instead I give it to the church, is that sacrificial giving? No.

I'm afraid, Lewis says, it doesn't begin until you feel it. So when it comes to evangelism, that's gonna look different for all of us. Some of us can write a check and build a building. Some of us can write a check and upgrade our chipotle bowl to avocado. Right? Like, that's all we can do. But it's not strictly financial.

It's I I mean, even in my own life, right, like, part of it is it's my job. But I remember before I was a pastor just going, do I have time for church this week? Nope. Sorry. It's the last thing on my schedule. What does it mean for me to see? What am I means what am I contribute what sacrifice

am I actually making for the gospel for people that know Jesus? Or just every once in a while when I have a little bit of extra, throw it God's way as if he's going, yes. This is what I meant by sacrificial love and giving. The fourth thing is this, is mercy. If God's gonna use a guy like me,

I need to start praying this prayer. Does my heart break for the destiny of the lost? The truth is this, the majority of every person you've ever met will not spend eternity with Jesus. The majority. One theologian asks this question. I'm not sure if a man is saved if he's not afraid of the fact that someone else is not.

Another way of putting it is this, I fear for the salvation of anyone who's not afraid for the salvation of someone.

Sometimes it just needs to be a prayer of our hearts on a regular basis. Lord, would you let me see the world the way that you do? We break each other up in a lot of different categories by race and skin color, by sociodemographics, by political affiliation.

I'm afraid if you put on the glasses of heaven, would see children of God and you would see those who are separated from our Lord. That's the two colors of the world you would see. And I think it would haunt us. And I know this is true,

but part of the rocking of the cradle of my own conscience is pretending like there's things that matter more than that. And lastly is this, is the question of mission.

Have I been willing to pray the really bold prayer which is here I am Lord, send me. This is a commitment that I made to the Lord not that long ago and it's kind of changed everything and here's how it goes. I call it the Jericho window. If my schedule ever gets messed up by a delay or something falling apart,

I take that as the Lord tapping me on the shoulder and saying, slow down, there's a dead body around you. Slow down, someone needs you. So if I'm at the airport and my flight gets delayed three hours, my commitment to the Lord is that I'm gonna go, alright, what? I'm delayed for a reason.

And whether it's the Lord's supernatural intervention or it's just me picking my dang head up every once in a while, Martin Luther says, we are by nature our crevadis insane. We're navel gazers. We're turned in on ourselves.

And now when something gets delayed, I look up for the first time and I go, oh, you need help. Oh, he needs prayer. Oh, there's a

this is so difficult to do. I get it. I went I took my kid bowling on Friday at San Diego State. They've got a bowling alley and this summer it's free because there's no students. Right? Basically free. You had to rent shoes which is $55 a pair. But anyway,

I was gonna go get picked up afterwards, be taken back to our house and my ride was late. So I have a commitment to the Lord that I've gotta do something. I'm holding my bowling bag. I have my own bowling ball because I'm super cool with my son Leo.

And I looked and I went, uh-oh, my ride's late. So I went I turned and there's a group of Jehovah's Witnesses that are proselytizing and witnessing to a group of San Diego State students. And I went, oh no.

So I looked at my son,

He's six and I went, we I'd start justifying myself to my son like, well, it's what if the ride gets here when they're and my son's like, I don't care. You're my dad. What are you talking about? I'm like, oh. So I took my dumb bowling bag and I walked over and I started talking to Jehovah's witnesses.

I actually had a really good time. Honestly, if I'm being honest with you, I was like, nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Bible. Bible. Bible. Bible. It was I everyone's got their hobbies. Okay? And you probably like something normal. I like getting into debates with Jehovah's Witnesses. Am I weird? Yes. That is true.

But sometimes just giving God permission to go, I'm available. I'm gonna slow down. I I just technology removed this part of my work week and I'm not gonna fill it with new things. I'm just gonna let it be my Jericho window. I'm just gonna sit and go, what? Who? How?

The neat thing about this is that Jesus isn't asking us to do anything that he didn't do first. There's a really cool theological idea in parables. This is way nerdy for some of you, but hopefully it sheds a little bit of light on the concept. We in theology call it messianic duality of parabolic function.

Do you care? No. But here's what it means. It means that while Jesus is telling a story of horizontal aptitude, he's also telling a story of vertical character. Meaning this, you could walk away from this sermon and go, we should all be like Samaritans.

That's how we teach the story. We teach it in Sunday school. You should be more like a Samaritan. That's a horizontal dimension. Be more like a Samaritan this week. That's absolutely an appropriate way to understand the passage. But on a deeper level, here's the story. There was once a man despised by his own people

who was rejected by those who were supposed to call him his own. Let's call him Jesus. He would be a Samaritan in this story. He observed the world and mankind was dead on the side of the road. You, me, there, lifeless, broken, spiritually dead. And he could have stayed. He was very comfortable.

The law didn't save us. The prophets didn't save us. The 613 laws of the old testament were insufficient to save mankind, you and I. And it would have made total sense for the Samaritan to go, I am wholly indifferent than you. I'm not crossing the street. Instead, Philippians chapter two says this,

Jesus who being in very nature of God did not consider equality with God's son to be grasped and held onto but instead made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. As a servant, was found in human likeness, became obedient to death, even death on a cross. In the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and tongue confess on above and under the earth that he is lord of the glory of god the father.

So what does he do? He crosses the street. He binds up our wounds. With the oil of his compassion and the wine of sanctification. He then puts us paying a great price of his death on that cross, on his own donkey and takes us to an inn which is the church.

Believers who are he literally assigns the inn, the church, take care of this guy until when? Until I come back. And when I come back, I will make all things right. I will make all things new. I will pay any price

that they have cost you. You see, the story of the good Samaritan is about us trying to be good Samaritans, but it's also about what Jesus did for us when we were dead on the side of the road, naked and shameful.

And he crossed the street and beaten, put on skin in order to come and take our place, to live a life that we couldn't live and die a death that we deserve to come back from the dead, proving that he can make dead things live again.

Jesus is not asking me to do one thing that he hasn't done for me infinitely greater on a cosmic scale. The question is, am I willing? Do I have the meekness? Am I willing to sacrifice that other people might know, love, and follow the real Jesus? Let's pray. God, you are good,

and I am so broken. And I need your spirit to continue to remind me on a daily basis that this is not all that there is. There's a greater dimension that the battle we forge is not against flesh and blood but against the unseen realm. Lord, would you give us a heart at Rock Point Church for the broken and the lost

That we would be compelled, we would be compassionate, we would have this gut wrenching level of desire that other people would know and follow you in all that they do. Would you make us that church that looks like you who crossed that street, got into our mess, and paid that high price that we could live.

I pray all this in your name. Amen. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. You can stay connected with us through rockwind.io or our social media.