Will You Be My Neighbor | Part 3

am just, like, incredibly grateful that we live in 2020. Right? And we have all types of modern conveniences,

one of them being video doorbells. Who has a ring doorbell in the place? Okay. If you don't, I'm telling you, you need to get one because you don't have to any longer go to the door and then open the door and go, dang it. I don't wanna talk to this person, but now I'm here. You know who I'm talking about. You know what I mean? You're like, I'm pot committed at this point. Like, they know that I'm here. They know that I'm a pastor. It's gonna be really awkward. I'm just like

and just walk away. So you gotta talk to them. Right? Well, in comes Ring doorbell, and it lets you screen who's at your door. So your phone gets a notification, and you're like, it's not happening, man. Nope. And you just keep going about your business. So for whatever reason, a few months back,

get home from the gym, I'm sitting in my kitchen with my wife and we're making breakfast and the ring doorbell goes off. And I look and it's a dude in a collared shirt with a clipboard. Alright? I'm like, he looks like and he smells like a salesman. You know what I mean? Like, I am definitely not answering my door.

And and and I don't know why. Truly, I don't know why.

I didn't do what I do to most salesman at my door, and I'm just like, good luck at the next house. You know? And but for whatever reason, I go to the door and I talked to him, and I ended up, he had, like, a really funny line that he said at the beginning that kind of was like, okay. This is kinda good. Like, I'll see what he does. And he's selling pest control. Right? And it's literally the same sales pitch that every door to door your neighbor signed up. We just happened to be here. You're gonna get a great deal. We're already gonna be here servicing their house. It's basically free for you. I should have in that moment told him,

hey, man. We just rent this house and our landlords actually take care of all of that stuff. We have a pest control company that shows up periodically and sprays for stuff. And part of why we thought we were just gonna rent for a little bit and we are still renting and we're fearful to move is because apparently scorpions are territorial. And your boy doesn't do bugs and our house doesn't have scorpions. And I am literally petrified that I'm going move to a house that has scorpions. And so I'm trying to figure out how to buy the house that I'm renting, a true story, so that I don't have to ever risk having a scorpion fall out of my air conditioning, which I've heard is the thing here. I

thought I didn't like spiders. I don't like scorpions I think even more than I don't like spiders. And so I'm I'm they I I say that to say, like, house doesn't have we don't have a pest problem.

And so I should have just told the guy, hey. I have no need for it. Our landlords take care of it. But for whatever reason, I engage with this guy in this conversation and and truly,

not not to like over spiritualize it, like there wasn't like doves descending and the clouds parting or anything behind him, but I just felt like God

was kind of nudging me to lean into this conversation. I don't know if you've ever had a moment like that, and it was one of those things where I was like, hey, who knows? Maybe something that I ate, but for whatever reason, I felt like God was telling me to have this conversation with this guy.

And I started having this conversation and somehow and I don't know how. It always ends up happening. I move off of the conversation of pest control. I'm telling him about how I'm a pastor in the area, and he starts to just tell me his life. And he used to be in ministry.

He went through some stuff at a church and basically walked away from all the stuff with God, moved out here a few years back with his wife, and now they've just they're literally completely isolated from friends and family. He has zero relationship with God and his life has just gone into a bit of a tailspin.

And I'm sitting there on my porch like how do I always end up in these situations and I know that my wife is going to make fun of me later and part of how I know that she's going to make fun of me is because I can hear my Ring doorbell going off

in the middle of this conversation, which is my wife pulling up the app on her phone and she's literally watching it happen in real time. And she she she took a screenshot that I wanna show you to prove to you that I'm not making this story up. She I got like the preacher hands and everything going. Right?

90% of why I wanted to show you this is because I have a tank top on and I thought my arms looked big and I was like, hey, slight flex, know, like, yeah, I'll work out. No big deal. You know? So I did do push ups before I opened the door. Do that every time. No. Don't judge me. I'm just kidding. Uh-huh. But

my wife is literally listening in and she posted this on Instagram. I had a bunch of texts that I took off when I put the picture up, but she just was like, don't know how he always ends up in this conversation, but this is just who he is. Like, this is just part of what he

ends up doing. And I realized really quickly that this is a conversation. This is like an appointment that I really truly believe that God had ordained. And I believe that this guy showed up to my door for a really specific reason.

And I really quickly start to lean in and it comes to this point. He says something to me that he says, I don't even know if God existing matters. What would it really even change for me?

And he said that his wife he he literally, the last few weeks, would come home and his wife would have the the the local Mormon missionary sitting at his kitchen table. And then he's like, no. No. No. That's not for me. And then he would come back in a few weeks and it would be like the Jehovah's Witnesses. And his wife was doing everything that she could to try to get him to wake up spiritually. She was trying to say this isn't working,

but in his own admission, was distracted. He was trying to pursue business. He was trying to do all of these things and in the process, he lost the things that mattered to him most and he sat in the spot saying, what do I do? So I said, hey man, look, I'll make you a deal.

I said, I don't need pest control services, but if it helps you out, I know you're strapped financially, I'll pay for it. I will sign up. I will invest into this. And for whatever reason, I felt like it would give me some tie into his world and let him know like, hey, I care. And then I said, but there's a catch.

I said, you have to show up to church this Sunday. And I said, typically, I want to invite you because the guy that teaches most of the weeks is not very good, but I'm teaching this weekend. I said it to his face last night as he sat right there. Uh-huh. Like,

I'm teaching this weekend. Like, just come to church and and and just come and say, you know, say say hi after service because here's what I believe, not just for him, but for all of us. I believe how we answer the question of is God real

isn't an insignificant question. I would argue that it's the most important question that we will ever answer because if it's true and if he's real, it changes everything.

And I said, and if it's true and if it's real and God is real and he has a plan for your life, maybe, just maybe, he's not done with you yet. I said, maybe we didn't just have this conversation to be this thing that just happened once, but maybe this is God starting a process

in your life. And so I show up the next week, I'm telling you, man, I was I was super excited. I I every service I would get done preaching, I would, you know, go out in the courtyard and see, like, maybe this is a service he comes to and Saturday night comes and goes and nothing.

So I get here Sunday and I'm like, man, he's coming on Sunday. I go, every service comes and goes and he's not here. And so I'm like, ah, you know, maybe he bailed, maybe he just got busy. And then I had the thought of like, maybe he's like the greatest salesman ever and he was like, hey, it's a pastor.

Cry, tell him you're in pain and he'll buy whatever you're selling. And I was like, if that's the case, I respect the hustle. Like, I'm cool with it. Know what mean? Like, I just now have to pay for this pest control service that I don't need. But

a few weeks went by and I kept thinking maybe he would show up and he never showed up. He never came to church. He never walked in the door. He never fulfilled his end of the deal. And I'm telling you, in that moment, I asked myself the question of was am I crazy? Because I really felt like that's what God had asked me to do.

I really felt like it seemingly insignificant moment, this this simple step of obedience, I really felt like it was what God had asked me to do, but it didn't lead to where I thought it would lead. Here's why I tell you any of that.

Because I believe the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus was trying to illustrate to this man asking him a question the same thing that he's trying to convince all of us of this morning. And it's that for you and I to truly grab hold of the way that God wants us to engage with the community around us,

the way that God really wants us to be with our neighbors, with our coworkers, with our families, with the the environments and the people that end up on our path, if he wants us to love in a way that sometimes will leave us looking crazy. Here's kind of the big idea if you're taking notes, loving others often looks crazy.

It's nothing super profound but it's the truth of what I've experienced by trying to say yes to these moments that I believe

that God has set up. Sometimes you end up looking crazy. And because of that, it might be the reason that we end up saying no. 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

a few chapters back. So if you've missed the last few weeks, let me catch you up real quickly what's happening in in Luke chapter 10. There there's a guy who is the Bible says that he's an expert in the law. K? It could be religious law. He could be a lawyer.

Based on his actions, I tend to lean more towards the lawyer because he's trying to find a loophole in God's law. Right? Like, it's a typical lawyer type of thing. My dad's a lawyer so I can say it. Right? Like, they're just trying to find loopholes. And this guy says, look, man. I understand. I've studied the scriptures. I understand how this whole thing works, and I know that I need to love God and love my neighbor. K? Here's where I need help with, Jesus.

I need help with knowing who's my neighbor.

I need you to define it for me. And so Jesus does the Jesus thing and answers the question with a question. He says, let me tell you a story. K? A guy is walking one day. He's beaten, broken, and left on the side of the road to die. A bunch of people walk by. A bunch of people who should care, who should stop, they don't.

And then he says after all these people come and go, nobody stops and helps this guy. Then he says a Samaritan, a man that every Jewish man would have despised for a whole bunch of reasons. Basically, if you're a Cardinals fan, this is the Seahawks fan. Right? Like, this is the opposite of your people,

not the person that you would have thought was the hero of the story. Jesus says, that man is the only one that stops and he cares. And he actually makes a difference and he steps into this guy's world and he loves him

and helps him even though it makes no sense. And Jesus says, again, this is not a real story. It's a it's a story that Jesus is using to illustrate how the kingdom of God works and how he wants you and I to engage with the people around us.

And he says, which one of them was a good neighbor? And the guy obviously says the one who actually did something. The guy who stepped in and helped. 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 and when he saw the man, felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. And we can just all agree, olive oil with some wine can solve about any problem. Alright?

I'm just kidding. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. Verse 35, 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. K? Again, fake story, not real. Jesus is using this to try to teach this man and us something.

He says this guy sees him, goes out of his way, and he helps him. How does it start? How how does the good Samaritan start? How does the verse story start? It says that he saw him and for whatever reason he had compassion on him. Here's something that you and I have to understand.

There are going to be needs and causes and people and organizations in this world that exist that I will look at and I will not care about. It will not tug the strings of my heart the way that it will to you.

Not all of us will look at the same needs and have the same response. I believe part of how we begin to see how God has uniquely wired us, the way that he has uniquely gifted us in the communities and the people and the places that we're supposed to give our time and energy and effort,

it's not this really crazy process of discovery. I think part of it is just looking and going, man, when I see certain things, where is my heart drawn to? There are going to be things that you look at and you see that hundreds, thousands of other people have seen and they don't feel

any compassion or empathy towards it. They don't feel like they should do something, but you will. And I believe that's how we begin to go, God, where do we step in? Out of the million things, the hundreds of thousands of places that we could serve, the people that we could love, I would venture to say

that if we would just begin to start with a process of saying, where is our heart being pulled? Maybe, just maybe, that's where God is saying you need to invest in. What the story the reason the story is so important for us, especially as Christians,

is because the defining mark of our faith is that we are people who are willing to do and go the extra mile with people. We are willing to actually step in. And what Jesus is saying is that you need to engage with the people around you. You and I are called to engage with our communities and love the people on our path,

not just in a way that says, hey, I will pray for you. K? We as Christians are notorious when somebody says, oh, it's like, I'll pray for you, man. And what that means is that I'm just trying to get out of this conversation, and so I'm gonna say the, like, Christian response to get me out of this conversation.

And when I say that I'm gonna pray for you, what I really mean is that I'm probably not gonna think about this again, but at least now I'm out of it and you still think that I'm a Christian. You know what I mean? How often how often do I truly pray about the situations that I say I'm gonna pray about them?

What Jesus is saying is even that, though it's great, even if you pray for every one of them, it's not enough. For some situations, not all, for some situations when you feel compassion towards them, it's not enough to just pray about them. At some point, you might actually have to pay for them.

What he's saying is that you might actually have to invest. You might actually have to get in the game. You might actually have to step in. It's not enough to look back and say, look, look at this issue, look at this problem, look at this thing that's affecting our culture.

You and I have to become willing to be the people that says we will be the ones that invest into this. If it's time, if it's resource, if it's money, if it's energy, if it's effort, whatever it is, there are going to be things that we have to be willing to invest in even though we might look crazy. It's not enough

to just pray. Sometimes we have to even be willing

to pay. There's three things that the Samaritan does that Jesus, again, remember he's teaching about this, but Jesus doesn't just teach about these three things and how we are called to love people even though it makes no sense and though it makes us look crazy.

He actually lives the three things out. 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,

and he's going to walk through what I believe it will look like if we decide to step out and do this. So beginning of Luke five is Jesus recruiting his team. K? He's starting to get his disciples, build his core group of men who are going to literally change the world, but his public ministry has not yet started.

He's not yet holding rallies or doing anything. He has not healed people like nothing has happened in his public ministry yet. 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. And when the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground begging him to be healed. Lord, he said, if you're willing, you can you can heal me and make me clean.

And then Jesus reached out and touched him and said, I am willing. He said, be healed. And instantly, the leprosy disappeared. And then Jesus instructed him not to tell anyone what had happened. And then he says, hey, go do what the law says. Go to the priest, pay the money, do do all of the stuff.

The the reason that this story, I think, gives us so much insight into how we are called to love is that this moment is such an insignificant moment in the life and record of Jesus' existence that Luke doesn't even record where he is or where he's going. Again, this is a book written by a guy who was around

with Jesus, and he's thinking back on this years later. He's like, oh, man. There was that one random day that we were just walking, and we were all, like, you know, texting people and posting selfies on Instagram and not really paying attention. And then all of a sudden, this dude with leprosy came running over and it was super weird. He, like, threw himself at Jesus' feet and just started begging for him to be healed.

Jesus' public ministry has started. He is not inviting people to be healed yet. Yet somehow this guy with leprosy, this guy that has this debilitating skin disease,

a disease that at the moment you get it, you are removed from your family, removed from your culture, forced to live on the outskirts of town. This guy who probably has not had physical touch by another human for decades, this guy sees Jesus, comes running and throws himself at his feet, and what does Jesus do?

The guy says, are are you willing to heal me? I know you can do it if you're just willing. And Jesus is like, man, I got you. Like, I'm I'm your dude. And so he literally touches the man and heals him. Now it it it might not seem like a big deal for us that Jesus would touch the man and heal him, but Jesus is a Jewish

rabbi. He is supposed to be following all of the laws that exist in the Old Testament and how he supposed to operate as a a that has stature in their faith. And one of the things that he could not do as a religious leader is touch somebody with leprosy because the moment that he did it, he himself would become unclean.

He would then be characterized as somebody that has leprosy. Why does any of this matter to you and I this morning? Because here here's what I believe loving other people in our worlds, loving the people on our path will often look like. It will look like random inconveniences.

Here's what I believe some of the greatest moments of ministry that God wants to do. They will come disguised as these seemingly insignificant moments where we're just going through life, and then all of a sudden an inconvenience jumps in our path that is more than just a random chance

meeting. It's a divine opportunity. We have to see that loving other people will often look and be inconvenient. Jesus is just going through life, walking somewhere that we don't know. He's going somewhere and his life is interrupted.

But he doesn't tell the guy, hey, man. Here's my assistant. You know, like, make an appointment with her. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's there's a process to get to hang out with me. Like, we can't do this in public. Like, you've got leprosy. He doesn't do any of that stuff. There were lots of reasons

why Jesus shouldn't have done what he did. There's lots of reasons why Jesus shouldn't have been hanging out with a man that had this disease that looked different than him. I'm telling you right now, our world is in a really, really unique place. We are more divided and polarized than we've ever been before.

And there are so many people based on external things that we might feel like we have no business doing life with, yet those might be the very people that God puts on our path. The question is, will we be willing to reach out to somebody that on the surface makes zero sense for us to be hanging out with?

Because maybe, just maybe, that it's actually a divine appointment where God is trying to say this isn't just an inconvenience. This is a moment for you to be my hands and feet, which is what you and I are called to be. But here's part of the struggle with us living in America.

We live in a world that is more distracted and busy than we've ever been in the history of the world. I pastor young adults, okay, 18 to 25 year olds. I am always blown away when I ask them, Hey, how are you doing? Oh, man, just super overwhelmed and busy.

And I'm like, You're a single 18 year old dude. Tell me how you're busy. Dude, I've got to get up at 05:00 to work a three hour shift at Dutch Bros, and it's just really I'm not kidding you, true conversation.

It was really draining because I had to listen to all this music that I just don't choose and it's just it's really hard on me. Mind you, this young man wants to go into ministry and I was like, like, just you know, not not that it's not in the cards, but if Dutch Brothers music is emotionally draining and taxing,

ministry is a bit more emotionally draining and taxing than that. But here's the thing. Right? Like, we wear this badge of honor in our culture where busy is like a sign of success. Right?

What we're just busy. What does that mean? Like, we just we have a lot of stuff. We're just busy. Listen how many times when you ask somebody how they're doing. They're all busy but good. You know, busy but but good, man. God is good. Amen?

And the only reason that that I belabor this a little bit is because I think sometimes the reason we miss these moments is because we walk around believing the lies that we tell ourselves that we're really that busy.

And here's the truth of what I've realized. Man, I have a family. I have a ministry. I have a job. I have things that I do. But the truth is is I do have some margin in my schedule if I'm intentional about it.

I do have the ability if I make the choice to slow down a little bit to be present with the people that God puts on my path. But I have a choice. I have a choice to wake up in the morning and say, God, help me see this world today the way that you see it.

Help me walk through life and see it through your eyes. Let me not just see a barista, but let me see somebody who potentially might need to know the good news that I carry. Because I have to remember the same thing that we have to remember. We are called to be the light into an otherwise dark world.

We are called to be the salt into an otherwise tasteless world.

Do you notice that some of the prophets in the Old Testament said to come and taste, come see and taste the goodness of the Lord? How do people taste and see the goodness of the Lord if the light and the salt of the world refuse to be the salt and the light of the world? That is how people taste and see

is by us saying our lives are not ours. God, give us eyes to see the way that you see. Let us operate the way that Jesus operate, understanding that all these inconveniences are opportunities. All of these things that seem like just interruptions are actually

opportunities and Jesus heals this man and says don't tell anybody about it. He's telling him not to tell people because his infrastructure really isn't set up yet to handle the tidal wave that is coming.

But regardless, no matter what he says, the movement just keeps happening. People keep hearing about it. 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. And it seemed that these men showed up from every village in all of Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem, and the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus.

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.

So they went up to the roof and they took off some tiles and then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd right in front of Jesus. Here's what's happening. Jesus

basically said, Hey guys, we're going have a Bible study. And theologians don't know whose house that it was. Most of them conclude that it was probably Peter's because he had the most money, probably the biggest house. It would make the most sense for him to be the one that hosts it. But irregardless, there's a house that they're having a bible study in that Jesus is teaching at.

I'm assuming whoever said yes when Jesus was like, we're gonna have a bible study, like how many people are expecting? Don't know, 12 or 15. We just need some coffee and some, you know, little treats and stuff for the beginning. He's like, you know, wife can do that. Bible study starts, hundreds of people show up. House is packed, staircases,

doorways, like you just you couldn't fit anybody else in the house. These four guys have a buddy who's sick and they go, man, our only chance, our only hope with him is to get him to Jesus. So they take him to the party, carrying him literally on a mat.

And there's a whole another message that the length that these guys are willing to go to, that shows the length that we should be willing to go to, to get the people that are in our lives to the foot of Jesus. But it's a separate message that I don't have time for today.

But these guys show up with their buddy and they go, we've got to get him inside. They go to the door, the door is blocked. They go to the window, like the window is blocked. And then the dudes do what dudes do and they have a really kind of dumb conversation and come up with what they think is a good idea that's really not that great of a good idea, but guys can convince ourselves of some really dumb stuff, right? They go, Hey, door's blocked, window's blocked, I saw a ladder, let's get on the roof and dig a hole through the roof. And four grown men go, Yep, good idea, right? If

that's not scary and shows the depravity of us men and why God says, hey, you need a helper, you know, you need a helpmate. Like, women get offended by that. It's us men who should be offended by that. Like, God is like, you're gonna need some help, brother. Like, you're gonna you know what I mean? Like, you're gonna think some stuff is a good idea that it's really not. As these four guys said, let's let's dig a hole through the roof and lower him down through the ceiling. And I know for us a lot of times, if you've been in church, you've heard the story a thousand times, and this is just folklore.

But imagine for a moment that we were sitting here today and I had my three point sermon and I got through point one

and all of a sudden some dust starts coming down. We hear noise on the roof. We're like, is it Santa Claus? Like what's happening? And then all of a sudden, a hole starts to appear and light starts to shine through and we're like, what is happening? Like the whole room would be looking up there. And then the hole gets big enough, we're like, is that Bob? Like what? Bob, what are you doing on the roof? And he's like, hold on. And they just start to lower a guy down in a wheelchair in the middle of the room.

We can all agree that at best, that would be extremely distracting. Yet this is the scene that unfolds while Jesus is teaching what I assume was a brilliant message.

But he doesn't do what I would be tempted to do to go, hold on, guys. Get him out of here. I still have two more points. Let's wait. We can do this stuff after I get through my message. I spent a lot of time on this. He doesn't do any of that. Jesus being doing something for God is interrupted by another opportunity.

And look what he does. Verse 20, seeing their faith. Jesus said to the man, young man, your sins are forgiven. Jesus understood the second thing that we have to understand if we're going to commit to being people who love people even if it looks crazy. Loving others will always be disruptive.

This guy that showed up at my door, did not want to talk to him. I didn't want to have this conversation. It disrupted my schedule. It changed what I wanted to do. But something that I'm learning that I'm trying to convince you of today is that if we commit to saying, yes, we're in. We believe

what Paul says to the church in Galatia that says, our lives for those of us who are in this room, if you're not Christian, you can check out for a second. But for those of us who are in this room that say, yes, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I've given my life to Him. Paul says, now your life is no longer yours.

It actually says that you and I, the moment we give our life to Jesus, our life, who we used to be, what we used to do, what we used to desire, what we used to be, the priorities of our schedule and our calendar and our finances, those are no longer ours. Our lives have been crucified

with Christ. And Paul says that the lives that we will live while we're still on this side of heaven, the lives that we live now will be a life that is empowered by the spirit of God, but you better believe you're no longer your own master.

Your life is no longer yours to do what you want, to go where you want, to be who you want, to decide what you want. I'm telling you, if you're a young adult that's here and you're like, hey. Can I get a preview of Thursday? I have one message,

and my message is that you and I are being sold a bill of goods inside of America. Cultural Christianity is something that Jesus has really strong language against in the Bible. I would hate for you to come here and to be sold alive that what God wants from you is a life of comfort.

And that what God primarily wants for us is a life that is comfortable, a house that is big enough, that it's not a burden to take care of, but it's not so small, that it's an obstacle to do all the things that you want in life. That's not God's primary concern for you and I. God is obsessed with reaching lost people.

And for those of us who raise our hands and say that we've been found, he says, good. Now you're in the army. Go get them. And our goal,

the singular goal that we have on this side of heaven is to take people that are in the line heading to hell and to move them into the line moving and going to heaven. That's it. And yes, to pay for our houses, some of you will be carpenters. Some of you will be, you know, financial people. Some of you will be teachers. You will have occupations

that will help fund this stuff, but all of that comes secondary to who we are primarily called to be, which is the hands and feet of God, to be the light and the salt into the world. And so what we need to become willing to do is to go, look, I I I don't get surprised by disruptions. I know they're coming.

I wake up every morning and I pray a prayer. I I'm not saying that I do. I'm about to make myself sound really holy. My my hope and my goal for all of us is that we would wake up in the mornings and pray a prayer that says, God, today, would you use me?

Would you allow me to be divinely interrupted by your plan? Let me be the hope bearer into this world that I'm called to be because when I was down and out, you saw me. When I was far away, you rescued me. And the thing that we have to understand is the story of the good Samaritan is not the message is not let's try harder and let's all go be the good Samaritan.

We have to first understand the good Samaritan is truly a picture of Jesus. You and I in that story are the person that's broken and left for dead on the side of the road that has no way back to God. We have no way to actually living a life. We are forced to live in this spot but Jesus

stepped out of heaven, lived the life that we couldn't. He saw us in our mess and he came and he paid the price for us. He paid our past sins and he actually paid enough to cover all of our future sins as well. And if you truly believe that,

what first John says is that if you truly understand the love that God has for you, then and only then can we begin to love the people around us. But it starts with us understanding how much God loves us. We have to understand if we say yes, it's gonna be gonna be inconvenient.

It's gonna be disruptive. And the last thing that it it was for the good Samaritan is the same thing that it is for Jesus. It will be expensive. Saying yes saying yes to living a countercultural life, loving people really well, it will cost you something. Here's the next verse.

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. So Jesus, when this guy is lowered down, says, hey, your sins are forgiven. He essentially is saying that he's God because all of the men in the room knew that the only person that could forgive sins was God. And Jesus is one emphatic statement declares that he is not just a good guy.

He's not just a guy that we should look to and go, hey, he taught some good principles. Jesus claimed that he could forgive sins and that he was God. He's either nuts or he is who he says that he is. And he says to the guy, I forgive your sins.

And the moment that he does it, the entire room, a lot of the religious leaders in the room start to go, this is blasphemy. Here's why I say that. Sometimes the reason that we don't say yes to doing the thing that God has asked us to do is because we know that it will cost us something.

For the good Samaritan, it cost him money. For the good Samaritan, he had to take money out of his own pockets and pay for something that he didn't know for something that he had not done. For a dude that he didn't know what the conclusion of it was going to be for Jesus,

in this moment, he knew to say yes was going to cost him his reputation. For him to say yes was going to have the people closest to him in proximity look at him and begin to question some things. Here's why I say that. I believe that one of the biggest reasons that we have become fearful

living in the culture that we live in to being the people who are bold enough to actually live out their faith is because we're scared of what people around us will think. I've got a bunch of Mormon neighbors that I love dearly.

I was having a conversation with one of them the other day and he said to me something that struck me to my core. And he said, you know what? And they don't call us those Mormons anymore. It's all LDS, right? Latter day Saints. He says, we are Christians. We're just Christian enough to live what the Bible says.

And here's here's what struck me about the conversation.

What he was essentially saying is what the Mormon church has become really good at is actually getting their church to live this stuff out. And that's true, but I'm like, you also have the whole, like, salvation thing that you hold in the balance that's a bit of a motivator. You know what I mean? Like,

that's where stuff gets fuzzy. But the part that was so true is we've almost just culturally accepted Christians mostly just raise their hands and say, yes, we're Christian, but our lives don't look any different. That for a lot of us, we have these windows that we give God that we're cool with him doing things in,

but there's a lot of these other areas of our lives and in our hearts that God wants access to that we don't give him permission to speak into. I don't know what it is for you. There's a lot of things in in my life that I almost unintentionally

hold away from God, but he's constantly in pursuit of. And I'm convinced that this life on this side of heaven is going to be us continually in the process of turning things over to God and trusting him in deeper ways. But here's what I'm beyond convinced of. Following Jesus,

man, it's the most dangerous thing that you and I will ever do. Don't believe the lie that it will be easy because it won't be. People will think you're crazy. It will be inconvenient. It will be disruptive, and it's going to cost you everything.

If you're worried about your wallet and God just wanting your money, man, that's secondary to Him wanting your life. Yes. Eventually, you should trust God with your money. But here's the crazy part. It usually comes secondary to us trusting God with our eternity. Okay?

I lived my life for a long time as a Christian saying that I believed God for my eternal resting place but I couldn't trust him with 10% of my money. Like how crazy is that?

Yet so many of us, that's where we find ourselves. And I don't say that to beat you up, but what I'm saying is a lot of times we hear, we listen to a video that says, hey, we need people to serve in small groups. All we think is, well, Monday nights, I watch The Bachelor and that's it's going be inconvenient and disruptive.

I'm not giving it up. And I'm like, this Bachelor is super emotional anyways and I don't like him, but I'm like, dude, no wonder you're single. Okay? Like, get over yourself. Stop judging me. It's mostly my wife. K? But for a lot of us, when we hear the invitation

or feel the nudge that God is giving us, all we think about is it's gonna be inconvenient, disruptive, and expensive. I'm not gonna do it.

And what I'm saying is it's not just in the way that we love. It's not just in the way that we're called to neighbor. It is the entirety of our Christian faith. You better believe it's gonna cost you something.

It's going to disrupt every plan that you have made. It's going to be inconvenient. People might think you're crazy. But here's the part that we have to understand. Here's the reason why I would stand on a stage and try to convince thousands of people to live a life that is inconvenient,

disruptive, inexpensive because there is a reward on the other side of it that is beyond your wildest dreams. Yes, it might cost you something. Yes. But you and I will be paid back 10,000 times over when we get to stand in heaven and see what God has done. Because the story this story ends

by Jesus starting to read the people's minds and he goes, I know what you're thinking.

A lot of you were thinking that this guy in the wheelchair just came down and he wants physical healing. And I said, your sins are forgiven. And some of you were like, well, what about his body? He says, don't worry, I'm going heal his body too. And he says, hey, pick up your mat and walk and go home.

And the guy is healed and his life is transformed because Jesus was willing to be disrupted. The man's life was forever changed. But the very last verse in this story says the entire room, every single person was there, walked away with a sense of wonder

and awe just worshiping God for how good he was. That's the posture that I believe that God wants you and I to live this life from. To live a life from the posture of just awe and wonder of the magnitude of his plan and how good he is. But I believe the only way that we do that is by saying yes to the things

that seem crazy and intrusive and disruptive and expensive. Because here's the thing we have to understand, loving others, it will always be rewarding. The part that I didn't tell you

about the sales guy that came to my door is I thought that was the end of the story. I thought that he was going to just bail on me and I would forever have the guy come service my house and I would curse his name as he sprayed the poison stuff at my house. I'm like, God, you got me, you know?

But fast forward a few months, his life just got busy, things just happened, he wasn't able to make it to church. Well, last weekend, I was up in Prescott doing a winter camp with a bunch of high school kids and I got a text message on Sunday morning from

lady that runs all of our guest services here and it was a really bizarre text. She said, Hey, there's a guy that's here, says his name is Ethan, and he's from a pest control company and he's paying a debt to you.

And I was like, That's a random text message, but I fully know what it means. And I just kind of started laughing. And I was like, Man, he showed up, like how awesome, stoked for him. And I thought that was the end of the story. I show up Monday morning to the office and somebody hands me a card that's like, hey, Ethan filled out a connect card, here's his phone number and said on the bottom, hey, pastor Daniel, would you call me? So what did I do? Well, I was like, I've been at camp all week. I'm behind on some stuff. I will push this off till Monday, and I will call him on Monday. Made an appointment in my calendar,

went through my regular rhythms in life. And Wednesday, I'm prepping this message about how to love people irrationally ridiculous. And I sat there and I was like, I just don't really have any good stories or illustrations. And I'm not kidding you. I look over and see this card sitting on my desk.

And I just kind of laughed to myself like, God, could you be so big that this is truly you would ordain all of this to happen this week and make this this I'm gonna call this guy. He's gonna be this great, so I call him, but he doesn't answer. I'm like, dang it. It's over. You know? He calls me back.

He calls me back like twenty minutes later, I end up spending close to an hour on the phone with him. And he's just telling me about how his marriage has continued to go downhill and how he's now not living with his spouse and how he's just broken.

And I said to him, said, Ethan, for whatever reason, I feel like God put our paths together because I made a mess of my marriage too. I made a lot of poor choices that left my relationship with my wife in shambles too.

And I said, man, somebody stepped into my world and they put their arm around me and just said, hey, I don't know the outcome of this, but I'm going walk through it with you. And I said, I know it sounds weird. I promise I'm not a stalker. Like, I'm not I don't do this to like all bunch of but I said, do want to get coffee tomorrow?

And he said, sure. And we sat down for coffee. And for two hours, he poured his heart out. And he just told me about all the things, the mistakes that he knows that he's made, the things that he knows he's fallen and the things that he wished that he could do different.

And I said, Ethan, what do you hope comes of this? And he says, man, I would love a chance to restore things with my wife and to create a life for my two year old named Anna, where I'm not just a weekend dad. I don't want to just have this be my life.

The reason that I tell you any of that is not because I know the outcome of Ethan's life, but here's the truth. He sat in service right over there last service. And what I do know is that God's not done writing Ethan's story. I don't know what the outcome is going to be, but I sat down and I said, whatever it is,

I'm willing to walk through it with you. If it's divorce, I'm in. If it's paying for your marriage counseling because you can't afford it, I'm in. Whatever it is, because this is how God loves me

and how some other guy stepped into my world and loved me, paid for my marriage counseling when I couldn't afford it, maybe this is my opportunity to do it for you. And we sat for two hours and when I walked away from that meeting, was two things that I was deeply impacted by. The first of which

was that you don't have to have formal training to do what I did. 95% of that conversation was just me listening. I didn't say much. And when I talked, here's what I said. I said, man, I don't know. Like, that's that's that's kind of a mess. Like, that's a lot of stuff that God's gonna have to fix.

But, hey, man, I'm gonna pray with you because I made a mess. I ruined my relationship with my wife, yet God did a miracle. And here's what I believe. God still does miracles. God still heals. God still transforms. And right now, you might not believe it, but I will hold your hands and I will stand in the gap with faith for you because you might not see it now,

but I do because God did it for me. And the reason that I say any of that is because all of us, every single person there well, you don't have to be a pastor to do that. You just had to be willing to build margin into your schedule to make time for somebody that ended up on your path.

And the second thing that I want to leave you with is I walked away from that coffee meeting just deeply, profoundly moved. And my heart was filled in a way that I was like, God, if I could experience this every day, day in and day out, I would take this over anything else.

And the crazy part is it came on the other side of just building margin into my schedule to have a conversation with a dude who just randomly ended up on my door that I just randomly didn't deny through the ring doorbell that I just randomly ended up having a conversation, who randomly came to church randomly. You know what I mean? And I looked back and I thought about the magnitude of God.

And I said, God, this is who you are. And then the very end of our coughing appointment, I said, dude, this is going to make a great sermon illustration. Don't be weirded out, but I'm going to share it. You know what I mean? He's like, that's cool. I'm going be in Texas. And then he showed up last service. I was like, I thought you were in Texas. Like, what happened? I feel awkward. Know? Just kidding.

Here's why I say all of that. I close all of this up to say, I wonder what would happen to our communities, to our workplaces, to our families, to our sports teams, to our classrooms, if we became the people that believed this thing enough,

believed the charge that we've been given from heaven enough to wake up and say, God, today my life is not my own. Give me opportunities. Show me the people on my path. Show me the things that I need to say yes to. And if we slow down, if we become willing to be inconvenient,

disruptive and pay whatever it costs, I'm telling you right now, we might not be able to change the world, but we can definitely change the worlds that we live in. Here's how Paul says it that I leave us with this morning.

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. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone,

especially to those in the family of faith. He says, if you feel like you've been burned, don't give up. Eventually, at the right time, you and I will see the fruit of what we've done. But until then, we just continue to do good, we do what Mr. Rogers says and we change the world through one act of kindness

at a time. Father, I thank you for every person that's here this morning. Lord, I pray that that that we would become people who would just refuse to settle for cultural Christianity. That, Lord, I think a lot of times look at the people that claim your name.

That, God, I know there's moments in my life that I just settle into playing church and going through the motions. And God, that is not what you've invited us into. You've invited us into an incredibly dangerous, bet the farm, risk it all type of faith. And it's in that place that is dangerous

that our faith becomes the most real and most alive. And that, Lord, your promise is that you will teach us to walk by faith and not by sight. So, Lord, this morning,

whatever it is in our life, if it's a person that's on our path that we need to engage with, if it's a step of obedience that we need to say yes to that we've been saying no to, if it's something that we need to stop doing,

God, whatever our excuses are, would you give us the willingness and the boldness to say yes even if we think we'll be crazy, even if it's inconvenient, even if it's disruptive, and even if it's expensive. Jesus, our lives are not our own. Have your way. In Jesus' name, everybody.