GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 3 | Sermon

when I was in high school, junior and senior year, I had to take all these AP classes and it was just the worst. But the nice part is you can then get college credits for these high school classes. We gotta sit for these AP tests and it's just it's kinda terrible. Well, my my senior year of high school,

I took AP pre calculus and I, again, I'm not like super strong in math. I'm decent at it, definitely not like a math person. So I went into this class going, man, this is gonna be a really hard class. Well, to my shock and surprise,

our math teacher, he was it was literally his last year of teaching before he retired. And so he started our first class off by telling us, hey, guys, this is my last year teaching. Don't screw this up for me. And we're like, what does that even mean? You know? Like, well, we would come to find out that what it meant was that he had already retired in his mind, but in his body, he was still actually a math teacher. But by all accounts, this man was on vacation in Hawaii, right? He was done teaching.

And so he would do some basic lesson plan and then tell us to do homework that he would never check. We would literally hold up blank pieces of paper and he's like, perfect, 100%. He would hand out a test.

Literally the first time he did it, he would hand out a test and then he would just walk out of the room. We're like, that's allowed? Like, that's a thing, know, like who knew? And then he would like not come back. And so the first ten minutes, the first time he did it, we're like, no, don't move, man. There's cameras here. Like it's we're gonna get caught. And then we're like, I don't think he's coming back. So we're jumping into groups. We're getting out our books, you know, like doing this group, this test as a group. And the funniest part is he could if he wanted to, he could because he had those like a group of windows and then his door. He could have come into the class this way and like snuck in and just caught all of us cheating, but he didn't wanna do that mostly because of what it would mean for him. And so he would come back across the windows. He would slowly walk back across so we could see him coming. We could run and jump back into our desks, put our books away and then he'd walk in the room and was like this order the classroom like yep, just finishing my test. Here you go. Know, I got an a in pre calculus and I learned literally nothing. Okay.

Well, then I go to college and I start to sit with my academic advisor. And I think at the time I was like leaning towards a business major that had more math requirements to it. And so she's like, hey, I saw you took pre calculus. I looked at your transcripts like we should get you into calculus. And I'm like, yeah, the problem with that's gonna be like, didn't do the pre part of the calculus thing. So like the whole calculus is probably gonna be a bit difficult without the building blocks, know. And so, but I don't wanna just come out and tell her right. She's already thinking that I'm a hoodlum and I'm like I can't just say like I cheated my whole way through it right. But it was the teacher's fault not mine like who's gonna believe me you know. So

I'm like can we think of some other options you know because there's no way I'm doing calculus and so I start to throw out different majors and then I realized political science.

Again, my dad was a lawyer and I didn't know what I was gonna do. And I'm like, you can still do that if you get a political science degree. And so she said, all you need for a political science degree from a math standpoint is one basic general ed class. And I said, now we're getting somewhere. Alright. Like we're onto something. So I said, what class do I need to take to satisfy that one? She said, you can take basic algebra. And I was like, in college? Like that's a thing? And she's like, yes, totally. I said, let's let's do it. So I sign up for basic algebra. Literally, I show up in a classroom at college with a person with a master's degree and they're literally teaching us long division.

Like, think I learned this in fourth grade. You know what I mean? But like, let's do this thing. And the teacher, I'll never forget, he's doing like the long division, but doesn't wanna confuse us with decimal points and stuff. So he starts doing remainders like R four. And then this dude in the back raises his hand. He's like, wait, where'd the R come from? And I'm like, these are my people. K? Like, I have I have found my crowd. Right? Letters and numbers should not go together. Like, I am on board with this. Right? And and the reason that I tell you the story is it's just funny to think about our ability as humans to find kind of loopholes out of everything.

Right? If you give us enough time, you you give us enough ability and there's enough motivation,

we will figure out a way to satisfy the letter of the law, but in the process potentially miss the entire heart of the law. I would argue much of what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is he's addressing this thing that we have in us as humans to do that.

To approach God like somebody who just wants us to satisfy these technical legal requirements and to figure out how to satisfy the letter of the law, but the purpose of what God was always trying to do was to teach us the heart that the law is supposed to produce in us.

See, God's not interested in just some people who accidentally stumble and trip over the bare minimums to get into heaven one day. See what God is trying to do with his people, the kingdom of God that Jesus kept talking about that he was ushering in

both then and now is something where you and I get to not just experience heaven one day, but it's something where we can begin to the the to we're able point

we're we're be to

to

This supernatural other worldly type of love where you can get to a point where you don't just love the people that live with you, which even that can be difficult at times, but you can begin to love people that God would say you right now think that they're your enemy. They're somebody who's really hurt you.

And see what our natural tendency is is to just go, give me the loophole. Tell me how to satisfy the technicalities of this thing so that I can get to heaven one day and just check the box of faith. And it doesn't work that way.

Here's what I wanna show you that I think Jesus is trying to get across in the Sermon on the Mount, but specifically in this section that we're gonna look at in Matthew chapter five. When it comes to this love, this supernatural love, unfortunately, there is no loophole out of it.

There's no way to just satisfy the letter of the law and miss the heart of it. The bar is incredibly high and difficult to achieve,

but that's also the beauty of it. Because he's not actually asking us to do it on our own and to try harder and to just get to a point where you love your enemy, figure it out and don't come back to church until you do it. He's setting up an impossible standard to say you can't do this on your own. But what is impossible with man is possible

with God and maybe maybe what Jesus invited us into is an entirely new way to experience being human. Matthew chapter five, here's how the story begins in verse 43. Jesus is going to say, you've heard the law that says love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Verse 44, he says, but I say love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?

Even IRS workers do that much. Right? Corrupt tax collectors. Come on somebody. Verse 47. I'm just kidding. They're amazing people. If you work for the IRS, I apologize. Verse 47, if you were kind only to your friends,

how are you different from anyone else? See, even the pagans do that. The non Christians do that. But you are Christian, here's the standard. Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. What is Jesus talking about? Jesus is quoting to this crowd of people who are there to learn from him. Some of them,

others are there trying to find something to use to indict Jesus with. You have religious leaders that are sitting there and Jesus is quoting

the old testament to them. He's quoting Leviticus 19 to them. He says, here's the standard that you've always heard. Here's the law. Here's the technicality that you know. So many of you religious leaders, you've convinced yourself that this is all God wants from you. He says to love your neighbor and then he adds something that if you go read the Leviticus 19, it's not in there. He says and hate your enemy.

If you go read Leviticus 19, you will see love your neighbor, but you will not see hate your enemy. See what Jesus is doing is he's addressing this cultural phenomenon that has begun to sink into the church,

into the people of God. See, they have wrongly concluded that because God oftentimes would tell the nation of Israel in the old testament to live as a people who are set apart, to live other than, to not commingle with other cultures because God wanted them to be holy.

He wanted them to have a period of time where they could go through the process of being born again to being transformed. He would tell them don't co mingle with these other groups of people because you're not strong enough to do it.

If you're around them long enough, you will not be the outlier. You will be pulled into what it is that they're doing. See, there's times when we begin a faith journey where we need to look at the people we spend time with. And sometimes the most practical thing that we can do to grow in our faith is to get a new group of friends to hang out with.

Because oftentimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we pray, we will end up becoming like the people we hang out with. So God in his wisdom would tell the nation of Israel,

stay away from these other people. Well, that over time began to make the nation of Israel believe. Here's what God is saying. Let's read between the lines. God hates those people. God hates anybody that doesn't look like us, vote like us, believe like us, worship like us.

And God is correcting all of that. Jesus is correcting their misinformed theological position that they've landed at here in Matthew chapter five. He says that's not in the Bible. He says, do not make the mistake to think that you are the good people and those are the bad people.

It's not how God operates. He says, look at nature. Right? Jesus talks starts to look at nature. He says, look at rain and look at sunshine. If that was really real,

then God would only allow the rain and the sunshine to fall on the nation of Israel yet it doesn't happen that way. He says the rain and the sunshine fall on both the just and the unjust.

God is in the pursuit of both you and them and he'll bless them and you because he's a God who loves them and he's trying to rescue them. And his number one way he's trying to do that is through you knuckleheads who have circled the wagons.

He's trying to use you to reach the world, but instead of reaching the world, you circle the wagons and said, those are the bad people we gotta keep out of being in here. And I look at where we are today culturally in 2024. And I think Jesus would have a very similar message to his church today.

Friends, there are people who are going to look at issues that you are deeply convicted by and they're gonna land at other positions than you land at.

But what Jesus is saying is that it's possible to still love those people. He's not saying you have to commingle with them. It's not saying that those have to be your best friends. Those are the people that your kids hang out with all the time. But what we have to refuse to do is to think that this world has been reduced to good people who are in here and bad people who are out there. It is just people.

God has not come to make good people gooder. He has come to make dead people alive. And his primary way to do that is by using you and I to show the world who he is. At the very end of this whole thing, he goes, here's what I want you to understand. This idea of loving the world. Loving enemies.

Here's what I want you to get to. I want you to get to a point in your life where you are absolutely perfect. It's like, wait, I have to be perfect? What Jesus is doing is he is intentionally setting up a standard that is impossible to do on our own. It's like, man, I struggle to love people who share DNA with me.

Yet you want me to love people that like have betrayed me and hurt me? And he goes, the standard is perfection. The standard is impossible to do on your own. But that's the point, religious person,

is you think you're pretty good because you've loved the people who look like you, vote like you, believe like you, but that's just the minimum barrier to entry. That's the starting point, not the finish line. And what he starts to do is he begins to make us understand this idea of love completely differently.

He shows us the supernatural

other worldly type of love that is possible for his people to operate in. He will kind of conclude this whole thing in Matthew chapter seven. He'll kind of wrap a bow on this whole idea and say, here's what God is hoping that we get to. Matthew chapter seven verse 12. This is referred to as the golden rule. He says, do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. Okay. When you see Jesus talk about the law and the prophets, he's talking about the old testament. The beginning of the old testament is all the law books. The end of the old testament is all the major and minor prophets that makes up the prophetic literature. He's saying the totality of the old testament can be summed up in one statement.

Do to other people as you would have them do to you. Now, almost every world religion has a statement similar to that. Nobody heard that this morning. You're like, wow, I've never heard that before. Like that's earth shattering. I should go and try that.

See, most of us have heard that principle before. But the problem is is we don't actually do it.

That's the human condition that Jesus came to solve. See, he's speaking to a bunch of people who would consider themselves far from God and he's also speaking to a group of people who think they're pretty awesome because of the rules that they keep for God. And he's telling both of them the standard is this impossible thing where you actually treat people the way that you wanna be treated.

And at your best shot, you will do it sometimes. You will do it when you're having a really good day. But there will be other days where you will realize though you know you're supposed to do it, you have an inability to do it on your own. And that's the tension in the human soul that Jesus has come to solve.

It's the invitation of real faith to go it's not about just getting to heaven one day. It's about allowing the holy spirit to teach you an entirely new way to exist.

An entirely new way to not be led by your flesh, but to be led by the spirit of God that's in you. And it is possible to get to a spot where you could actually love your enemy. Have you ever seen one of those things? There's of examples of them, but the most recent one I was thinking of is there was that shooting that happened at that church

A white dude, demonic possessed, literal racist dude walks into a black church during a bible study. And he walks in and he mows down, I think 12 people told him. Murders him in cold blood. He gets arrested. He goes to trial. Two of the men whose wives were murdered in that event at trial, they walk up to this man.

They hug him. They ask him to forgive them for the bitterness that they've held against him. They let him know I forgive you. And I want you to know that there's a God in heaven who loves you and my hope is that you would repent.

See, and the point of that is not to go, okay, God is forcing you to forgive people. No, but what he is saying is that if you can do the internal work and you can allow the Holy Spirit to get you to a point where you could literally forgive somebody that does something like that. Here's what it's gonna do to the world. The world is going to look at that and go, how is that possible?

Because that is not my natural inclination.

That is not my knee jerk reaction to respond to somebody who literally has murdered a loved one of mine. Yet all throughout history time and time again, we see it. It's the thing that spurred the civil rights movement. That there are people who figured out a way in the middle of crazy adversity

and hate and bigotry to love the people who persecuted them. And that is what it begins to show the world the God that we worship. Here's what J. Oswald Sanders says the point of all of this really actually is. It says the master. The master expects from his disciples

such conduct as can be explained only in terms of the supernatural. He says, you and I are to live and love in a way where people look at us and they see the God in us that we serve. But it's difficult to do because people are really difficult to love.

Even the idea of loving God with all your mind, soul and strength, like I can I can get behind that because God, he's invisible? Right? Like he he doesn't talk audibly very often.

But it's like to do the same thing to love my neighbors the same way that I love God. Like, that's a tall order. Like, have you ever met Bob in accounting? Like, nobody even likes Bob. You know what I mean?

And so the logical question in all of this that every Jew sitting there that sometimes I think we when we read these scriptures, we go, who is Jesus actually talking about? There's no way when he says love your neighbor that he's referring to all people.

Well, here's what's amazing. If you flip over a couple of books to Luke chapter 10, there's actually a story where one of these religious leaders comes and asks Jesus this very question. When you're talking about the supernatural love and you say that we have to love our neighbor as ourselves,

who is my neighbor? And it's this really amazing exchange that happens between this Jewish leader and Jesus that I wanna show you right here. Luke chapter 10 verse 25.

Here's how the story begins. It says, One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question, teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Okay. A man who's an expert at religious law. What he does day in and day out is he teaches in the temple and he teaches the Jewish people

how to inherit eternal life. All of the commands that they're supposed to follow. He's an expert in it And he's coming to Jesus not because he sees that Jesus could help him with some enlightening thoughts and help him overcome some struggles that he has. He's coming to try to trap Jesus.

Now most often, this guy would probably have been a member of the Sadducees or the Pharisees, which were essentially the two largest ruling denominations at the time that Jesus walked this earth who literally could not agree on anything theologically. But there's one thing that they could agree on. We both hate Jesus.

And we think that he's teaching a message that's contrary to all that we spent our life learning about the old testament. We think he's preaching a message of just cheap believe ism.

You don't have to earn it. You don't have to work for it. All these rules, all these laws, all these things, all these rituals that we've done, he comes in with his message of grace. So they come to him not to get enlightenment from him but to trap him. They're hoping to ask Jesus a question that this man would have known the answer to. What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is the loophole to where when I get to the gates of heaven, God's like, man, we are so glad you're here. Here's the VIP section. Like you just you crushed this life thing. Like what's the loophole to get that?

Of which he would have known the answer. And what he's hoping Jesus is going to say is he's hoping Jesus will say something like, oh, it's all grace. Just believe in your heart and then you and I, we skip through flower fields for the rest of your existence here and just throw out all of the old testament because if Jesus says that,

now they have enough to indict him. Now they have enough to crucify him. But Jesus, knowing what's in the heart of every man, he knows the man's intent and so he applies what's called the Socratic method, the Socrates method. He answers a question with a question. And when this man tries to trap him, Jesus responds

verse 26 and says, well, what does the law of Moses say? What does the old testament say?

How do you read it? And he throws the thing that he's hoping he can indict Jesus with. Jesus throws it back in his face and says, well, what do you read? Trying to get him to understand Jesus wasn't preaching a different message. It's not like Jesus was different than the God of the Old Testament. It's always been a message of grace and love. Verse 27, the man answers, okay. Again, quotes Leviticus 19, same thing we just read in Matthew chapter five. He says, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, alright, let's close in prayer and go to lunch. That's pretty easy.

Just do that and you will live. See, here's the problem.

This religious leader, much like you and I, he knew what to do. But the reality is the reason he's standing before Jesus asking him the question, what do I have to do is because there's this inability within him to actually do what it is he knows he's supposed to do.

See, this is what Paul wrestles through in the book of Romans where he says, why is it that what I know I'm supposed to do, I struggle to do. But the things that I don't wanna do, those are the things that I find myself still doing. Oh, what a wretched man I must be. He talks about the tension of the human experience

where I know the standard of God, love God with all that I am and love my neighbor as myself. But then I find myself and I'm like, I just wanna run my neighbor over. Right? Like what do I do?

How do we resolve this tension to which Jesus is going to give us a parable? He's gonna tell a story. And this is what makes Jesus such a brilliant communicator It's because he takes this incredibly lofty, deep theological thing and he reduces it to a practical tangible story that we can feel and see and understand.

But again, don't do what a lot of people do with the story. It's a parable to illustrate to a man trying to find the loophole out of actually living for Christ. He's trying to show him what's in his soul. But what we do is we reduce it to a moral lesson to learn from.

There are moral things we can learn from it, but the primary purpose of this whole thing is for Jesus to show a mirror to a man who thinks he's pretty good on his own.

And Jesus is trying to get him to address the condition of his soul and his heart and to realize there's some things in there we need to deal with. Okay. So Jesus says, just go and do that and you will live. Verse 29, the man wanting to justify his actions to make sure that what he's already doing is good enough. He asked Jesus,

who is my neighbor? Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man and a rabbi walking to a bar, right? This is a Jewish man

was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along but when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and took him and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Jesus, again addressing what's in this man's heart, he tells him a story. Says, say there's a guy. He goes on a business trip, he goes to Jerusalem and now he's gotta leave Jerusalem and get back to the city of Jericho where he's from. The moment he says that every person listening would have known exactly the road that Jesus was talking about. There was a literal road. It was a 17 mile journey from Jerusalem to Jericho that was a path referred to as the blood

path because it was filled with bandits who would sit by and wait for people that had a slow camel and they would take advantage of them. They would rob them and beat them and leave them on the side of the road. He says this man goes from Jerusalem to Jericho and on the road, these bandits attack him. They steal all of his stuff. They beat him up. They leave him at a point that we're not even sure if he's still alive and he's half dead sitting on the side of the road. By chance,

fate would have it. A pastor shows up. He says a priest shows up illustrating to this leader of religious law, the person who you would say is the best amongst us, the most holy, the most godly, the person who upholds all the standards of the law, That man shows up. But because of some reasons that we're not sure of,

again, there's probably justifiable ones. This man does nothing. And he could have convinced himself because again, for a Jewish priest to touch anything dead based on Jewish ceremonial law, he would now be ceremonially unclean for two weeks.

So he's probably having a debate in his head where he's like, man, I've gotta do stuff at the church. I've got these weddings coming up. I've gotta preach some messages. And if I touch this guy and he's dead and he's not just half dead, now I'm ceremony unclean. And so for whatever reason, he justifies

not doing anything. And he sees this man that he should act, he should have compassion on and he gets to the other side of the road and he just moves on. Then he says, a second guy comes. Your translations could say a Levite or temple worker. It's a person that has position,

that has influence, that has wealth. Again, would have been upholding the majority of the Old Testament laws. He shows up, does the exact same thing. Sees a man in need and instead of meeting the need, he goes to the other side of the road and does nothing.

Now again, here's the hard part when we read these stories removed from the cultural context in which they were written.

We read these stories and go, okay, he went to like the other side of Ellsworth Road, right? Like that makes sense. It's a big road. You could get to the other side. You would, you know, maybe not even see the other guy. Maybe these guys aren't as bad as you think. But here's what's crazy. You can still walk this road that Jesus is referring to. It is still in Israel. We know this exact path and I wanna show you a picture of it to get the context of what Jesus is addressing. Okay? This is the road that he's talking about from Jerusalem to Jericho.

It's not a wide road where you would take multiple cars down. It's a hiking path that you could barely walk side by side shoulder to shoulder with somebody.

It's a picture of two people who should have acted, but because of some reason that we're not completely sure of, they see a person in need who's broken and almost dead, who don't think, man, what would that be if that was my dad? How would I respond if that was my mom? Instead,

they just kind of step over the guy and they're like, hey man, my bad. I got stuff to do and they don't do anything. And now Jesus is about to turn the corner and say something that would have been met with a literal audible gasp in the room. He's going to set up the hero of this story as a Samaritan man.

Get point point where we're we're the

gonna gonna fans. Like we just don't like them, but we're we like joke about it. This is like deep seated hatred. They think that they're half breeds.

A Jewish prayer every morning would finish with something to the effect of like, well, God, we're just thankful that eventually one day when we get to heaven, there will be no more Samaritans there and we can be with you forever in eternity.

I'm thankful for a day where there will no longer be a Samaritan on the earth. Please, God, let there be no Samaritan in heaven.

If you go read again, this whole story, this is the parable of the good Samaritan that's recorded in Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter nine tells a story of Jesus trying to go do ministry in Samaria.

He tells his disciples, go ahead and go to the town of Samaria. Here's some money. Go and rent us a banquet hall. Get us some caterers. We're gonna party for a couple days and do some ministry. So they go, they try to secure a place, but the Samaritans won't deal with them. So they come back to Jesus

and they tell them, man, we tried, won't take our money, they won't deal with us. To which James and John, Jesus had 12 disciples, of those twelve, three of them were like his closest buddies that he spent the majority of the time with. James and John were two of the three. Those two guys look at Jesus and they're like, okay, know what you want us to do. Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and light them all on fire?

Jesus is like, what? Like what are you talking about? Because their knee jerk reaction is like, well, already hate those people. Now they've offended us. Let's just annihilate them. This is what's in the heart of every Jewish person that Jesus is trying to address,

that He's trying to bring up and He tells a story about the two people that you would say are the best amongst us and they do nothing.

And yet, here's where he turns the corner and sets up the Samaritan man as the hero. Verse 33, then a despised Samaritan came along and he went and he saw the man. He felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them together.

Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn We took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper 2 silver coins telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time that I'm here. Now Jesus with a smirk on his face, I have to imagine,

looks back at this man and says, now which of these three would you say was the neighbors of the man who was attacked by the bandits? Three options. Circle the one that you would say was the good neighbor. To which the obvious answer should be the Samaritan man.

The Samaritan man was the one who was a good neighbor. But this man has so much racism in his heart towards Samaritan people, he won't even utter the word. He won't even acknowledge with his vocal cords that a Samaritan could possibly ever be used by God. Look at his answer.

The man replied, I guess the one who showed him mercy. To which Jesus being the gangster that he is just says, yes. Now go and do the same. Mic drop, turn around and walk out. Like pretty simple, bro. Just do that. See, here's what's amazing when you see the story. A Jewish

leader of religious law comes to Jesus saying, who is my neighbor? Jesus responds by telling him a story about a man who was a neighbor. A man who not just saw somebody who was in a situation where they needed help, but he actually allowed what he saw to lead him to feel something.

He felt compassion for the man. He started to envision himself in that position. That could be me. That's where other people's responsibilities become ours. Other people's burdens become ours because you feel what it feels like to sit in that seat and it leads you to take action. And he takes him, he gets off of his donkey,

he puts this man on his donkey, he takes him to a hotel, he gives the innkeeper two pieces of silver which we know is enough to take care of this man for probably two months and he tells him after he spends the night making sure he survives, he tells the innkeeper whatever it costs,

take care of this guy, make sure that he's okay, nurse him back to health and I've given you enough money to take care of him for two months, if it's not enough, I will come back and I will take care of the bill. I will make sure that whatever you pay will be paid back to you.

And now here's the problem. We hear this story. We know the parable of the good Samaritan and the takeaway for humanity has always been, okay, go and try to be the good Samaritan. But that's not the point of the parable of the good Samaritan.

See, this is the freeing part when you begin to really understand what Jesus was doing in these stories. He wasn't using this as an example of morality that you have to try to live up to. See, when you read the Bible,

when you read stories like David going and slaying Goliath, you have to be really careful not to read yourself into the hero part of the story. We are not the heroes of scripture. Do you know who the hero is? His name's Jesus. The David that is foreshadowed

in the fight of David and Goliath, it's Jesus. You know who we are in the story? We're the guys on the side of the battle terrified that this guy Goliath keeps yelling at us. We're like, somebody better do something And then a savior steps in. See the good Samaritan in the story is not a standard

for us to live up to. We can't take this and reduce it to, okay, just go be a good Samaritan. If you find a wallet, return it and hopefully don't take the cash. You know what I mean? Like just be a good Samaritan.

There are moral principles that we can glean from it, but this is a story where Jesus is talking about what he's done for us. In this story, Jesus is the good Samaritan.

And you know who we are? All of us began as the person on the side of the road that is half dead, barely alive with no ability to get to God on our own. Yet Jesus, in the middle of our mess,

He stepped off of His high horse. He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I had the ability to become the righteousness of God. He got out of his perfect world. He stepped into our mess. He saw us. He felt compassion and he made a way to restore us. He put us on the donkey. He takes us to the end and here's the beautiful part is we were resuscitated back to health and the goal of the story of the good Samaritan

is eventually here's what I believe God wants us to become. He wants us to graduate from being the guy on the road who used to be dead, who's now alive. We don't go from that guy to being the good Samaritan, but I do think there's a person in the story that we can play. I think there is a role inside of the kingdom of God that we're supposed to fulfill and you know who it is? It's the person that's overlooked in this whole story all the time. It's the innkeeper.

It's the person that Jesus in his sovereignty, in his beautiful plan of redemption for humanity allows us to not just be the broken person who's been made well, but we now also get to play a small role in the reconciliation and restoration of other broken people that the good Samaritan brings to us.

The question is, do you see what you have, what you've been given as things that the good Samaritan has given you to take care of the people in your life that he's brought into your world?

See, here's what it takes for us to graduate from being just the broken guy on the side of the road who's been restored to being the innkeeper.

Who goes, you know what? We get to play a role in this whole thing. God uses us to restore his world. Here's the beauty in the whole thing. Here's the freeing part of it. He's the savior. He's the good Samaritan. We don't have to be. But what we can do is realize that the good Samaritan, you notice how the innkeeper had money to take care of this person?

The good Samaritan gave it to him. He said, here's two months worth of money. Use it to help humanity and I'm gonna come back. And if what it cost you to take care of them was more than what I gave you, don't worry about that because I'll repay you.

It's not gonna cost you to go into lack. It's not gonna cause your family to go hungry. I promise you I'll take care of you. I will settle my debt with you. But you have to start with an understanding that everything you and I have in this life, everything that we have, the ability to earn an income, the businesses, the houses, the retirement plans, all of it. It is all things that have been given to us on loan from the Good Samaritan.

That we all that we have is what has been given to us. We are not owners. We are not self made. We are not people who did it on our own. Yet God in his amazing plan to restore humanity allows us to be the innkeepers.

To be the ones who get to play a small part with the people that he brings to us. And all of us in this room, we have people that God has brought into our sphere of influence. There are people that he's brought into your community, into your family, into your kids sports teams, into your PTA meetings, into your office

that you can if you begin to see your life differently, you can begin to see it as not, hey, what can I get out of this life? You can begin to see to go, God, look at all that you've given me that I can use to leverage to build your kingdom.

We should be the people who are like chinging, man. We're just running around being like, yo, it's hotel, motel, holiday inn. Like, we're the innkeepers in this place. Come on somebody. If you're not from the nineties, you're like, what are we talking about? Okay? Here's what I want you and I to see.

What we have been what we have is what we've been given. See all of us, we are not owners, but we've been entrusted with some things. We've been entrusted with some talents. We've been entrusted with some treasures. And here's what I want you to know this morning.

When you get to the end of your life, all of us are gonna be forced to answer two questions. The first one is what did you do with the free gift extended to you through what Jesus did on the cross?

What did you do with my son? The pathway into eternity for us is by accepting the free gift of salvation that Jesus extended to us on the cross. That's the first question.

But there is a very closely tied behind second question that we often don't like to think about. He is going to ask us, it is all throughout the New Testament. It is woven into the entire Sermon on the Mount everywhere. Go read it and just look for reward. It's all over there.

At some point, Jesus is gonna ask you the question, what did you do with what I gave you? What did you do with the 2 coins that I gave you to take care of the people in your sphere of influence? Did you hoard it? Did you think that it was yours?

Or did you begin to really use all that you've been given to take care of the people in your world? See, and this is the part again. I don't know exactly how it's going to work. But all of us who've given our life to Jesus, we will go to the same heaven. But our experience in heaven will not all be the same.

There is going to be rewards that we get in heaven based on what we do while we're on this life. While we are on this side of eternity, what we do with what we've been given on this side of eternity will directly result in the reward that we experience in heaven.

Here's the second thing I want you to know. The good Samaritan is coming back and at some point there will be a reward for what it is that we give. There will be a reward for what it is that we sow in.

And I know we go, oh, here we go. This is the church doing the money thing and we're talking like but you can't ignore it. If you read these stories, Jesus talks about money almost more than anything else because it is the closest link to your heart. It is the closest way to go. Here's how to know what you value.

Look at your calendar and look at your checkbook. It will tell you what it is that you value.

And what Jesus is saying is that there's an invitation to an entirely new way to be human. To begin to look at what we have is not as things that I have built, but things that have been given to me on loan from the good Samaritan so that I can leverage it to help the people in my sphere of influence.

And I know at some point when I stand before God, I'm going to store up for myself treasures in heaven where mosses and steal and thieves cannot steal. I'm not gonna try to spend all of eternity or all of my time here building treasures up here hoping that I can build heaven on earth. You can't do it. It's always going to disappoint.

Here's what a verse I wanna share with you from Luke chapter six, where Jesus just says this incredibly plainly. He says in verse 38, he says, give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full.

Pressed down, shaken together to make room for more running over and poured into your lap. Here's where it is plainly. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. You wanna know what your reward in heaven is gonna be like? It's gonna depend on how much we give.

Not just of our money. I know some of you right now you're like, this is why I hate church. I'm not coming back. This is it. They always do this. It's not just your resources, but you better believe he also is talking about our resources. He's talking about what you give of yourself, what you give of your time,

what you give of your testimony. See the story of redemption that God has written in your marriage, the addictions that you've overcome,

the battles that you've waged war with and you've gotten to victory in, Those are all tools in your tool belt that you are supposed to use to be the best innkeeper to the community around you.

There are things that God has entrusted you with to leverage to help the people in your life. And this is the beautiful part of the redemptive plan of humanity that God has been ensuing. Is he not only takes us from brokenness to life,

but now we also get to play a part in building his kingdom. He takes the same people who were on the side of the road dead, and now we get to be a part of the redemptive plan of other people. And what begins to happen is the life, the peace, the joy,

all the things that we are hoping will get out of possessions and things and people in this life, all of a sudden come from doing these very counterintuitive things. And maybe, maybe the life that you really want

is on the other side of not just satisfying some loopholes, but really leaning into going, okay, maybe I can trust God.

Maybe I can take him at his word and begin to take a step of faith towards him. And maybe it will produce something in me that I would be surprised by. I was reading a story a couple weeks ago that I'll with. There was a guy who was a diehard Packers fan. And basically, twenty five years ago, he he couldn't afford a ticket to get into the game. So what he started to do is he would go and he would donate a pint of blood before every game. And he could sell one pint of blood for $15

and then he could buy a ticket for $12 I'm like, man, $12? Like that barely gets you like a bottle of water today in a stadium, right? But for $12 you go to a Packers game. And this guy did this for 20

doctor's appointment and goes through like a routine checkup and they go through his medical history. And they start to connect some dots that he'd never connected before. His grandfather and his father had both passed away in recent years. And both of them had this rare blood disorder called hemochromatosis

or something crazy like that. Essentially, what happens is they say that it's more, you know, found in people who are Irish, but what happens is your your the iron inside of your blood starts to build up to a point where it actually becomes toxic and you go septic and you will die if it's not caught.

So here's what the question was that he had. Do I have the same disease? So they test him and he tested positive for the same blood disorder. But then the other question became, well, how is he still alive? You know what the cure is for this blood disorder that he had?

About once a week, you know you need to go to a blood bank and have about a pint of blood taken from you so that the iron never builds up to a toxic level inside of you and you can actually live. I read that story and I said, that is what God is trying to give us.

To potentially do something and try something that we think is gonna do something else and maybe it becomes the thing that actually is producing real life in us.

That maybe trying something that seems crazy, stepping into something by faith going, man, I don't get it. I only see how this is gonna lead to lack and me having less. Maybe stepping into that for you will actually be the thing that produces life.

And I wish I could tell you, here's the loophole to get out of all of this. But there is no loophole. It's a hard earned walk that we have to live by faith. But the beauty is the good Samaritan has paid the ultimate price and freed us to be the innkeepers to our community.

My hope, my prayer is that you would take a step of faith with God this week. To take one step closer to him to say this feels uncomfortable. I'm not sure what's on the other side of this, but I trust that you have me and that you're gonna do something in me. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father,

God, we're thankful for the opportunity to be here. God, thank you that every single person here this morning has come with just the intention to grow closer to you. And father, I pray that there would not be a single person that walks out of here with condemnation.

That God, that the problem is when we talk about money and giving and resources and all that stuff, we filter that through the lenses of which we've heard all of this stuff. And God, I know that people have stood on stages like this and taken verses like this totally out of context and butchered them. Father, I pray that people would hear your

gentle whisper this week. Not the condemning spirit of the enemy, but that God, we would hear the gentle whisper that is your voice. And that we would listen to that voice. We would heed it and take a step of faith closer to you. God, we're thankful that our best days are ahead of us in Christ Jesus.

God, would you be with all the amazing moms as we celebrate them today? It is in the mighty name of Jesus all God's people said. Amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.