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GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 3 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

46 min

Pastor Daniel Goulding · May 13, 2024 · 5 min read · 46 min listen

The big idea

Jesus sets a standard of love — perfect, enemy-embracing love — that's impossible to reach on our own, precisely so we'll discover that He alone can produce it in us.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7Jesus flips the natural human instinct to find loopholes and settle for the bare minimum of the law.
Point 2 of 7Jesus corrects the false idea that God only loves 'our people' and hates enemies.

Point 3 of 7The standard Jesus sets — be perfect — is intentionally impossible, exposing our need for Him rather than our own effort.
Point 4 of 7The parable of the Good Samaritan reveals the condition of our hearts, not just a call to be nicer.
Point 5 of 7We are not the hero of the story — Jesus is the Good Samaritan, and we start out as the man left for dead.
Point 6 of 7Once restored, we're invited to become innkeepers — using what's been entrusted to us to care for the broken people God brings into our lives.
Point 7 of 7Giving — of resources, time, and testimony — is the tangible way this new kind of life gets lived out, and it comes with real reward.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 5
Matthew 5:43
Matthew 5:44
Matthew 5:47
Leviticus 19
Matthew 7:12

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Daniel Goulding · May 13, 2024 · 46 min watch · 3 min read

GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 3 | Sermon

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 5
Matthew 5:43
Matthew 5:44
Matthew 5:47
Leviticus 19
Matthew 7:12

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Jesus sets a standard of love — perfect, enemy-embracing love — that's impossible to reach on our own, precisely so we'll discover that He alone can produce it in us.

Jesus offers us an entirely new way to be human: not chasing loopholes to satisfy the letter of the law, but letting the Holy Spirit produce a supernatural love in us that even loves enemies. We can't do this on our own, but what's impossible with man is possible with God, and He invites us to become the innkeepers who use what He's given us to restore broken people around us.

Key points

1
1Jesus flips the natural human instinct to find loopholes and settle for the bare minimum of the law.
Pastor Daniel tells a long story about cheating his way through AP pre-calculus and basic algebra to show how humans instinctively look for ways to satisfy the letter of a requirement while missing its heart. He argues Jesus is addressing that same tendency toward God in the Sermon on the Mount.
2
2Jesus corrects the false idea that God only loves 'our people' and hates enemies.
Working through Matthew 5:43-48, Pastor Daniel shows Jesus quoting Leviticus 19's command to love your neighbor, then exposing that the added phrase 'hate your enemy' isn't actually in Scripture. He explains how Israel's call to be set apart got twisted into believing God hates outsiders, which Jesus corrects by pointing to rain and sunshine falling on the just and unjust alike.
3
3The standard Jesus sets — be perfect — is intentionally impossible, exposing our need for Him rather than our own effort.
Pastor Daniel argues that Jesus isn't handing out a bar we can clear through willpower; loving people who look, vote, and believe differently is the starting point, not the finish line. He connects this to Matthew 7:12's golden rule and to Paul's wrestling in Romans with wanting to do good but being unable to on his own.
4
4The parable of the Good Samaritan reveals the condition of our hearts, not just a call to be nicer.
Pastor Daniel walks through Luke 10:25-37, showing the religious expert testing Jesus, Jesus turning the question back on him, and the shock of naming a hated Samaritan as the hero while the priest and Levite do nothing. He highlights the deep Jewish-Samaritan hostility (even James and John wanting to call down fire) to show how offensive and pointed the story was.
5
5We are not the hero of the story — Jesus is the Good Samaritan, and we start out as the man left for dead.
Pastor Daniel warns against reading ourselves into scripture's hero roles, like Goliath and David, and reframes the parable: Jesus stepped into our mess, felt compassion, and paid to restore us when we couldn't save ourselves.
6
6Once restored, we're invited to become innkeepers — using what's been entrusted to us to care for the broken people God brings into our lives.
He explains that we graduate from being the rescued man to playing the innkeeper's role, using resources, time, and testimony (not ownership but stewardship) to care for others, and ties this to two questions we'll answer before God: what we did with the gift of salvation, and what we did with what we were given.
7
7Giving — of resources, time, and testimony — is the tangible way this new kind of life gets lived out, and it comes with real reward.
Pastor Daniel reads Luke 6:38 on giving and receiving, tells the story of a Packers fan who donated blood to afford tickets and later discovered the habit was treating a hidden blood disorder, and uses it to illustrate how stepping out in seemingly costly faith can actually produce real life.

A story from life

Preacher's own story of cheating through AP pre-calculus and taking basic algebra in college to avoid calculus

Application

Pastor Daniel's invitation is to trade loopholes for a step of faith, trusting God with what He's entrusted to you.

Stop looking for loopholes with God
Quit trying to satisfy the technical minimum of faith and instead let the Holy Spirit teach you an entirely new way to live, led by the Spirit rather than the flesh.
Refuse to divide the world into good people and bad people
Recognize that people who land in different political or cultural positions than you are not enemies to be written off, and let God use you to reach them rather than circle the wagons.
See what you have as given, not owned
Look at your income, home, time, and testimony as things entrusted to you by the Good Samaritan, not things you built yourself, and use them to care for the broken people in your sphere.
Give generously of resources, time, and testimony
Practically step into giving this week even when it feels risky, trusting Luke 6:38's promise that what you give will be returned to you and will build reward in heaven.
Take one step of faith closer to God
Even if it feels uncomfortable and you're not sure what's on the other side, trust that God will do something in you through the step.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So if you brought a bible, which I hope you did, open them up to Matthew chapter five. Matthew five is where we'll be today”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“Verse 47, if you were kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? See, even the pagans do that”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”
From the transcript
“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”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Most of us have never said out loud, 'I hate my enemy.' We don't have to. We just quietly shrink our definition of neighbor until it only includes the people who look, vote, and believe like us — and call that faithfulness. Pastor Daniel pointed out something striking: the command to hate your enemy is never actually in the Old Testament. It was a religious addition, a loophole sewn into the fabric of the law to make obedience more manageable. Jesus tears it out. He tells His listeners — and us — to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Not because they deserve it, but because that is what our Father does. God's sun rises on the evil and the good alike. His rain falls on the just and the unjust. He is not waiting for people to clean themselves up before He pursues them. That posture — that wide, costly, unsentimental love — is what Jesus is inviting us into. It will feel unnatural, because it is. Our instincts pull us toward our own tribe. Grace pulls outward. Sit with that tension today and let it do its work rather than rushing to resolve it.

For reflection

Who have you quietly moved outside your definition of 'neighbor,' and what would it look like to pray for that person this week?

Pray

Pray for one specific person who is difficult to love, asking God to give you His perspective on them.

Day 2

Jesus closes His teaching on loving enemies with a line that can stop you cold: 'Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.' If you have ever used that verse as a standard to measure yourself by, you know how quickly it crushes you. But Pastor Daniel made the case that this impossibility is the entire point. Jesus is not setting a bar and daring you to jump it — He is setting a bar high enough that you have to stop pretending you can jump it on your own. Even loving people who love you back, greeting only your own circle — tax collectors and those far from God do that much. The call of the kingdom is categorically different from what human affection can produce on a good day. The perfection Jesus describes here is not a checklist item. It is a portrait of the Father — and it is meant to drive us to our knees, not to our to-do lists. When we see clearly that we cannot manufacture this kind of love, we become open to receiving it from the One who can. That is where the journey actually begins.

For reflection

Where have you been trying to perform your way to a standard that only grace can meet?

Pray

Pray for honesty about the gap between your natural love and the love Jesus describes here — and for openness to what only God can do in that gap.

Day 3

In a single sentence, Jesus summarizes the entire Law and the Prophets: do to others what you would have them do to you. We call it the Golden Rule, and most of us learned it young enough that it no longer surprises us. That familiarity might be the problem. Pastor Daniel noted that the religious expert in Luke 10 already knew the right answer — he could recite the commandment perfectly. Knowledge was never his obstacle. His heart was. The Golden Rule is deceptively simple and humanly impossible to sustain. Think about the last time someone cut you off in traffic, dismissed you in a meeting, or let you down when you needed them. Your instinct in those moments is not usually to ask, 'What would I want if our roles were reversed?' It is to protect yourself, to pull back, to keep score. The law tells us what love looks like. It cannot produce love in us. That is not a flaw in the law — it is the law doing exactly what it was designed to do: showing us the shape of a life we need help to live. Let that need sit with you today rather than trying to fix it.

For reflection

Think of a relationship where you are keeping score. What would it mean to apply the Golden Rule there — not as a rule, but as a genuine question?

Pray

Pray for one relationship where you need the Holy Spirit's help to move from self-protection toward genuine care.

Day 4

The lawyer who approaches Jesus in Luke 10 is sharp. He knows the law, he knows the right answer, and when Jesus turns the question back on him, he nails it: love God, love your neighbor. But then comes the telling moment — he asks, 'And who is my neighbor?' Pastor Daniel was careful here. The man already knew the answer intellectually. The question wasn't a search for information. It was a search for a boundary — a legal edge where his obligation would end and he could feel justified. We do this too, maybe more than we realize. We ask questions not to open ourselves up but to find the line we don't have to cross. Jesus does not answer with a definition. He answers with a story, because the problem was never in the man's head. It was in his heart. That is a mercy, actually. Jesus could have simply corrected him. Instead, He told a parable designed to get past the lawyer's defenses and land somewhere deeper. If you find yourself looking for the loophole in what God is asking of you today, it may be worth pausing and asking what your heart is actually protecting.

For reflection

Where are you currently asking 'How little do I have to do?' instead of 'What does love actually require here?'

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop looking for the boundary and to ask instead what genuine love looks like in a specific situation you are facing.

Day 5

The hero of the parable is the last person the original audience expected. A Samaritan — someone the Jewish listeners would have written off entirely — is the one who stops, crosses the road, and does something about the broken man lying there. Pastor Daniel drew out something deeper than the moral lesson, though. He pointed to Jesus as the true Good Samaritan. Jesus is the one who stepped off His high horse, entered our mess, felt genuine compassion, and paid the full price to restore us when we were half dead on the side of the road. That is not a metaphor to improve upon — it is the gospel. The wine and oil poured into wounds, the placement on the animal, the inn, the promise to return and settle every remaining debt — all of it points to what Jesus has already done. Before you can be sent out to love your neighbor well, you need to sit with the fact that you were once the man in the ditch. You did not climb out. You were carried. Receiving that fully — not just knowing it, but letting it actually land — is what makes the rest of this possible.

For reflection

How fully have you received the care of the Good Samaritan for yourself, not just understood it as doctrine?

Pray

Pray for a fresh, personal sense of gratitude for what Jesus has already done for you — not as a concept but as lived reality.

Day 6

After the Good Samaritan pays the innkeeper and tends to every immediate need, he says something simple before he leaves: 'Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the difference when I return.' The innkeeper is not the savior of the story. He did not find the wounded man, does not own the donkey, and did not pour the oil. But he has been trusted with someone who matters to the one who did all of that. Pastor Daniel pointed to this role as the one we are called to — not hero, but steward. The Good Samaritan has entrusted people to your sphere of influence: your family, your coworkers, your neighbors, the person in your community who is half dead on the side of the road in ways you might not immediately see. Your time, your resources, and your story of redemption are not things you built — they are things He has placed in your hands to care for the people He brings to your door. That reframes generosity entirely. You are not giving out of what is yours. You are managing what is His, on His behalf, until He returns.

For reflection

Who has the Good Samaritan recently placed in your sphere of influence, and what has He already put in your hands to care for them?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the people God has already placed in your life who need the kind of care only you — with your specific time, resources, and story — can offer.

Day 7

Pastor Daniel closed the sermon with a direct challenge: look at your calendar and your checkbook, because they will tell you the truth about what you actually value. That is not an accusation — it is an invitation to honest self-examination in light of everything this week has surfaced. Luke 6:38 puts it plainly: give, and it will be given to you — good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. The generosity Jesus calls us toward with our time, our treasure, and our testimony is not a transaction designed to benefit us. But Jesus does say it produces something real. What we steward faithfully — what we give rather than hoard — shapes not just the lives of the people around us but something that reaches into eternity. The uncomfortable step Pastor Daniel described is not a one-time grand gesture. It is usually small and specific: one conversation you have been avoiding, one morning you redirect toward someone else's need, one honest sharing of what God has done in your life. Take that step this week. Not to earn anything, not to perform faithfulness, but because the Good Samaritan has already covered the cost, and the people in your sphere are waiting at the inn.

For reflection

What is the one uncomfortable step — with your time, resources, or testimony — that you have been putting off, and what would it look like to take it this week?

Pray

Pray for the faith to take one specific, concrete step of generosity this week — and for trust that what feels like lack may be the very place where real life grows.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

The message this week put a surprising twist on two familiar passages — the Sermon on the Mount and the Good Samaritan. Before we dig in, what's one word or image that stuck with you from the sermon?

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus points out that the command 'hate your enemy' never actually appears in the Old Testament — it was added by religious teachers looking for a way to narrow their obligation. What does it tell us about human nature that we tend to look for that kind of loophole in God's commands?
2
Jesus says in Matthew 5:45 that God sends rain on both the just and the unjust. What does that image suggest about the way God defines 'neighbor' — and how does it compare to the way people typically draw that line?
3
In Luke 10:25-29, the religious expert already knows the right answer before Jesus tells the parable. Why do you think Jesus responds with a story aimed at the heart rather than a correction aimed at the head?
4
The sermon described Jesus as the true Good Samaritan — the One who stepped off His high horse, entered our mess, and paid the full price for us when we were 'half dead on the side of the road.' How does seeing Jesus as the Samaritan change the way we read that parable?
5
Pastor Daniel used the image of the innkeeper — not the hero, but a steward of what the Good Samaritan has already provided. What might it look like in everyday life for a community of people to think of their time, resources, and personal stories of redemption as things entrusted to them rather than things they built?
6
Pastor Daniel challenged us to stop looking for the loophole and take one uncomfortable step — give something, serve someone, or share our story. What tends to make steps like those feel costly, and how might the innkeeper picture reframe that cost?

Pray together

Gratitude that Jesus is the Good Samaritan who has already paid what we could not — and openness to steward faithfully what He has entrusted to us for the people around us

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Week 3 · 8 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 5 Leviticus 19 Matthew 7 Luke 10

Explore related topics

Generosity Impossible Standards of Grace Loving Your Enemies Stewardship The Good Samaritan

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