Will You Be My Neighbor | Part 3 · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Jan 27, 2020 · 74 min watch · 3 min read

Will You Be My Neighbor | Part 3

Big Idea

Loving others the way Jesus calls us to will often look crazy, feel inconvenient, prove disruptive, and cost us something — but it is always worth it.

In week three of the 'Won't You Be My Neighbor' series, Pastor Daniel argues that the greatest obstacle to loving our neighbors is not lack of opportunity but our unwillingness to say yes when those opportunities feel inconvenient, disruptive, or expensive. Drawing from the parable of the good Samaritan and two healings in Luke 5, he shows that Jesus modeled exactly this kind of costly, interruptive love — and calls every believer to follow suit, trusting that a life surrendered to divine interruptions yields a harvest of blessing beyond anything we could arrange for ourselves.

Key points

1
1Loving others often looks crazy — the biggest obstacle to neighboring well is our fear of appearing irrational.
2
2Compassion is the starting point: notice where your heart is genuinely pulled, because that is often where God is directing your investment.
3
3It is not enough to pray for needs you see — sometimes you have to be willing to pay, to actually invest time, money, and energy.
4
4Loving others will be inconvenient — Jesus' healing of the man with leprosy illustrates that the greatest ministry moments come disguised as random interruptions.
5
5Loving others will be disruptive — just as Jesus stopped his teaching when the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof, we must accept that God's agenda will interrupt our own.
6
6Loving others will be expensive — saying yes to a countercultural life of love will cost your reputation, your schedule, and your resources.
7
7Loving others will always be rewarding — those who do not give up will reap a harvest of blessing and experience the deep satisfaction of participating in God's ongoing story.

Application

Pastor Daniel's challenge is straightforward and personal: stop letting busyness, fear of looking foolish, or the cost of inconvenience become excuses to walk past the people God has placed on your path. Build real margin into your schedule — not as a self-care strategy, but as an act of surrender — and pray each morning that God would use you and divinely interrupt your plans. When that nudge comes (a stranger at the door, a coworker in crisis, a neighbor in pain), lean in. You don't need formal training; you need willingness. Say yes to what is inconvenient, disruptive, and expensive, trusting that — as Galatians 6:9 promises — those who keep doing good without giving up will reap a harvest of blessing at just the right time.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So if you have a bible, open up to Luke chapter 10. I wanna look at the end of this story, and then I want to use it to kind of jump into another story”
From the transcript
“In Luke chapter 10, in verse 33, I want to look at a couple of things at the end of this story where he talks about this good Samaritan. Verse 33 says, Then the despised Samaritan came along”
From the transcript
“So if you have your Bibles, flip back a few chapters to Luke chapter five, and we're going to see two miracles, two healings that Jesus does”
From the transcript
“And in Luke five, it starts with him calling some of his first disciples, but what we're going to read in verse 12, 's just going through life. He's just going through an ordinary day. And verse 12 says, in one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy”
From the transcript
“So if you jump a few verses down, it's gonna get into an entirely different miracle that'll show us the last couple things we'll close on. Verse 17. It says that one day, while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby”
From the transcript
“Verse 18, some men carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, but they couldn't reach him because of the crowd”
From the transcript
“Verse 20, seeing their faith. Jesus said to the man, young man, your sins are forgiven”
From the transcript
“Verse 21. It says, but the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law said to themselves, who does he think he is? That's blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins”
From the transcript
“Paul says it this way in Galatians chapter nine or Galatians chapter six verse nine. He says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up”

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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.

The parable of the good Samaritan is famous, but familiarity has a way of dulling its edge. Pastor Daniel pointed out something that can be easy to miss: the Samaritan's act looked irrational. He stopped for a stranger on a dangerous road, touched someone considered untouchable, spent his own money, and handed his reputation and schedule to a person he would never see repay him. Nobody would have blamed him for walking past. Two respected religious figures already had. This is where the sermon cuts close. The obstacle to loving our neighbors well is rarely a shortage of people who need help. It is the quiet, reasonable-sounding voice that says this is not a good time, this is not my problem, or this will make me look foolish. Pastor Daniel named that voice for what it is — not wisdom, but fear dressed up as practicality. Jesus told this story in response to someone asking who qualifies as a neighbor. The answer He gave was not a category but a posture: the neighbor is the one who showed up. That is the invitation for us too. Not to have it all figured out, but to be the kind of person who stops. You do not need a plan — you need willingness. And willingness, as it turns out, is exactly what Jesus models throughout the Gospels.

For reflection

When have you talked yourself out of stopping for someone because it felt irrational or inconvenient — and what did that feel like afterward?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the people God has already placed on your path today, and for the courage to stop.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. 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

This message asked a pretty direct question: what actually stops us from loving the people right in front of us? Let's spend a few minutes sitting with that together.

Discussion questions

1
In the parable of the good Samaritan, the Samaritan's actions likely looked irrational to anyone watching — he crossed social lines, spent his own money, and derailed his travel plans for a stranger. What do you think made it so hard for the other travelers to stop, and what does that tell us about what neighboring well actually costs?
2
Pastor Daniel pointed out that the Samaritan's compassion came first — it was what moved him toward the man before he did anything else. What's the connection between genuine compassion and the direction of our attention and investment?
3
In Luke 5, a man with leprosy interrupted Jesus while He was already on His way somewhere, and Jesus stopped and healed him. What does Jesus' response there suggest about how He viewed interruptions to His plans?
4
When the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof, Jesus was in the middle of teaching a crowd. He paused His own agenda entirely. How might our communities look different if we took seriously the idea that someone else's urgent need can be God's agenda breaking into our own?
5
Pastor Daniel challenged us to build real margin into our schedules — not as a self-care strategy but as an act of surrender — and to pray each morning that God would use us through divine interruptions. What would it practically look like for a group like ours to make that kind of space?
6
Galatians 6:9 promises a harvest of blessing for those who keep doing good without giving up. Pastor Daniel tied that promise directly to the cost of a life of love — reputation, schedule, and resources. What does it look like for people to hold onto that promise when the cost feels high?

Pray together

Courage to say yes to the people God places on our path — even when it's inconvenient, disruptive, or expensive

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Go deeper

Continue the series

Will You Be My Neighbor

Week 3 · 1 message

Where these passages are preached

Luke 10 Luke 5 Galatians 6

Explore related topics

Compassion in Action Costly Discipleship Divine Interruptions Loving Your Neighbor The Good Samaritan

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