Cheat Code

And by Tuesday, I was like, God, for real? Like, I'm done with grace. Can you give me somebody new, please? Like, I'm sick of people needing grace around me. How about you give me somebody that's just normal for just a minute? And it was nonstop. So I don't know if that's where you're at. So today, we're we're gonna look at if we're gonna show people grace, we're gonna come into contact with people that are hard to love. So how do you love people that are really hard to love?

And that that's a really good question. I'm I'm really close to a birthday, and I'm I'm about two weeks away from being halfway to death. Like, there's it's that it's that birthday that's coming. Like, I'm not dead, but it's getting close, and it's closer now than it was. And I'm looking at my kids thinking, what am I gonna give you guys when I'm gone, dude? I picked the wrong profession for money.

So I'm like, here's $5. Knock yourself out.

That's all I got. And my car is gonna be broke down probably by Friday, so I can't leave that to them. What what am I gonna give my kids? And and it kinda dawned on me. I wanna give my kids what my dad gave me. Man, I wanna give my kids the ability to love people. And and I I was thinking back. I love the fact that my dad taught me growing up that it didn't matter what you looked like. It didn't matter where you were from. It didn't matter what you did, man, that you just you love people. You treat them with respect, and you treat people with the same love that God showed you. And that's what I wanna give my kids. The the problem with that is people.

Man, this sounds great, but there are people that are hard to love. Like, how do you love cowboy fans? Like, what do you what do you do with that? That's just y'all know better, but you still root for it. How do you that that's just difficult. How do you love people that are difficult

to love? I I was meeting a friend of mine for coffee. He's a worship pastor in the Valley. We were going to Downtown Chandler, and we walked in. I'm serious. I've been studying for this for like two weeks. And I'm walking into the coffee shop, and I come around the corner just in time to hear this dude cuss out this lady, and he has his hand up like he's about to hit her. And I'm like, wait a second. That doesn't fly. So I walked over to her, and she was, like, shaking. Was like, ma'am, are you okay? Did he touch you? And he's like, no. He just yelled at me. And so I I went inside, and this dude's in the coffee shop. He's a homeless guy. He's in the coffee shop, and he's got sugar packets, and he's just pulling them out of the container and throwing them on the floor.

I was like, oh, you're just a jerk. Okay. And and I didn't think, how can I love this dude like Jesus? Like, how do I show this guy Jesus' love? I I I was thinking that for just a second, but then he looked at me and cussed at me. I was like, get away from me.

I was like, dude, I'm here looking for a friend. It's all good. And and he went back to throwing some sugar packets and looked back at me, cussed at me again. I was like, dude, told you to get away from me. And and with my eyes, I told him how much Jesus loved him.

And it was hard for him to see because it was also mixed with, I'm about to mess you up. Like, so it was it was a conflicting, like, angle, I think, that he had. And then he kicked me in the shin. And I'm like, it's 2018, and we're old. How do you kick people in the shin?

Like, what are you doing? And then luckily, praise God, my friend walked up, who I was there to meet. And I was so excited to meet him because I just read this really cool book, and I had this crazy, like, powerful quote that was, like, gonna revolutionize scripture and ministry, and I couldn't wait to share it to him or or share it with him. And my friend walked up and he's like, hey, man. I really thought my pastor was about to beat up a homeless dude.

And I was like, dude, you were about two seconds away from seeing your pastor beat up a homeless dude. And then I went on to tell him this great biblical truth, and then it hit me. How do I love that dude? He needed it worse than anybody right then. How do I how do I show that guy love?

It's hard to love people, especially people that aren't like you. It was easy for me to show love to the lady that, you know, who had her feelings hurt because she looked kinda like me. I mean, she was just a normal person just out enjoying a cup of coffee, and I I understood her.

But how do you love people who are just hateful? How do you love those people that talk about you? Not to you,

but about you. You know, the ones that constantly are behind your back, bringing up stuff from your past or bringing up just rumors and lies that aren't even true, and they keep spreading that, they keep saying that, and they keep talking about that. How do you love them?

How do you love people who are really difficult to love? It's it's something that if we can get a hold of, it's gonna change things for us. But but we need help. And there's a cheat code I found in the Bible. I don't I know if y'all know cheat codes. I don't know video gamers in the house.

There's some game I mean, Fortnite and Call of Duty and all those, man, that aren't really all that great, but there's an old video game that kind of revolutionized video games in general. If I were to say up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, BA start, who knows what I'm talking about?

Love this place so much. Oh, Super Some of you guys are like, what? Yeah. You had a horrible childhood. You were abused as kids, and you missed out on one of the best things ever. There was this video game, and it was so good. It's called Super Contra, and it was impossible.

You'd get to, like, level four, and there was no way to get past it. And I remember throwing my controller at the TV and saying things that I shouldn't say and yelling and getting so worked up because I couldn't beat this this dumb video game. And then my best friend came over, and he was like, hey, Tim, check this out. When you push, you you start the game up. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, VA start on the controller, and it gives you infinite lives.

And the game's beatable. And I smoked Super Contra then because I had unlimited lives. What if there's a system, there's a cheat code that we could adopt into our life that's so simple, it's doable. And and it may sound too easy and too good to be true, but if we did it, it would make loving the unlovable doable.

Grab your Bibles. Let's go. Jump with me to to John.

In in John 13,

Jesus has a moment where he wants to to give this to his friends. Because there's this moment in John 13 where Jesus is almost done with his life here. He's just about to go off and and be crucified and and then go go back to heaven until he, you know, comes back. But he's at this moment where he calls all of his friends together, and he's got his closest buddies in front of him, and he's just giving them some really just some last little bits of wisdom, some last little bits of encouragement, and he's just telling them this one last thing that I want you to know before I'm gone. And in John 13, John records one of them, and it's it's so powerful. It starts in verse 34.

Jesus says this to his friends. He says, so now I'm giving you a new commandment. Love each other. And right then, I I picture the disciples going, hey, boss. That ain't new.

That's the old commandment. That's from Leviticus. Right? We're supposed to love each other. That that's in the Bible. I read that when I was in school. But Jesus probably was like, no. I know. You cut me off. Hold on. Let me finish.

Love each other just as I have loved you, you should love each other. You you see, that's the new commandment is to let not just love each other, but to love each other the way I loved you. And and with some of us, we get how much God loves us. Because we just sang about it. This relentless love, this this, man, this crazy, reckless love that God chases us, and he'll climb mountains, and he'll kick down walls. And he'll man, there's no ends to it. And he man, we get it. Because some of y'all, dude, you had your hands up, y'all had your eyes shut, you had that Christian sway going

Y'all were feeling it, dude. You get how much God loves you.

That's what we're supposed to we're supposed to love people that way. That's what Jesus is saying, man. The same way that I have loved you.

Now that that's how you love other people. And and the the reason for that is huge because there there's a why to that. It's not just Jesus being crazy and bored and being like, go love people. I love you. You might as well. No. There's a there's a reason to it, and it's the next verse. It's 35.

He says, love people the way love each other, the way that I have loved you, for your love for one another will prove to the world that you're my disciples.

You see, for this world to get better, for this world to change, for this world to stop having prejudice and to stop treating people differently because they looked or act differently, For the things in this world that are broken to be fixed, theology is not gonna do it. Our good works aren't gonna do it. Our great songs aren't gonna do it. Good intentions aren't gonna do it. But for us to change this world, the only way for this world to see that we're different is to love people the way that Jesus loves us. And what he's saying is if we will love people with that same passionate reckless love that God loves us,

that they'll see him in our place. And it'll it's more powerful than theology. It's more powerful than cute little catchphrases. It's more powerful than little sayings or tweetable moments. If we can love people the way that God loves us, it's a game changer.

But it's hard. How do you love people? I mean, it's a commandment, so it's not like the commandment's confusing. The the problem isn't in the command. The problem is in the execution.

And parents, we know this. The problem's not in the command. We tell our kids to clean their room, and two months later, got, like, stranger things episode brewing and 14 types of penicillin coming out from underneath the bed. And it's not in the command. It's the execution. How do you love people who are difficult?

Jesus tells a story because I think he knew that we were here, and he knew that we would need some help. Go to the left just a little bit to Luke.

This guy named Luke records this conversation between Jesus and some people where this guy asks God a question, and he asks them basically, hey, how do I love people? And Jesus tells them this great story, and it's it's the cheat code if we'll follow it, and it'll help us love the unlovable. It's found in Luke 10.

It starts in verse 25, and hopefully this helps because if we can figure out how to do this, I'm telling you, it changes everything. Luke ten twenty five starts with this. 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? And this is a legitimate question. Like, this is a great question. So it doesn't matter where you're at in life. If you really believe in God, you believe in the Bible, all those things, this is a great question. What do I have to do to get to eternal life? That that's awesome. If you don't believe in God, and you're just here to get mom off your back because she won't leave you alone, and so you thought coming to church wouldn't kinda ease things over, so you're just here just to get through, or maybe you just need a power nap, and this place is comfortable. So you're just here for an hour to get your get catch a nap real quick. Wherever you're at, this is a good question.

How do I get eternal life? If eternal life is real, if there's life after death, when I breathe my last breath here, if there's something after that, how do I get it? The question is legitimate, and it's really good. The problem is the person asking the question. He's a jerk.

I don't know if you caught this. He's an expert in religious law. He's an expert.

He's not an intern. He knows the answer to the question. He's trying to trip Jesus up, and he's trying to manipulate the system and trying to get Jesus kind of in a corner. So he's asking Jesus a question that he knows the answer to. But Jesus is smooth. Like, he's he's so good. Verse 26. Jesus replied,

what does the law of Moses say? How do you read it? And I love that because Jesus basically looks at the dude, and he's like, dude, you're an expert, home slice. You tell me. How do you get to heaven? Like, what does eternal life look like? You're an expert. What do you read?

And so the guy goes in, man. Verse 27. The man answers, well, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Right, Jesus told him. Do this and you'll live. That that's it. This guy has it down. He knows the answer.

But I think he's a lot more like us than maybe we wanna admit out loud. I think he starts off kinda being a jerk and kinda being hateful, but now he's at a spot where he gets it, and he's he's looking for a way out.

Because Jesus says, dude, you got it right. You're you're dead on, dude. Love love me with love God with all your heart, soul, mind, body, and strength. Do that definitely, and love your neighbor as yourself. Do that, and you'll live. But the guy looks at Jesus in the very next verse in 27 and says, but the man wanted to justify his actions.

So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? That's a good question. Right? God, I get it. You want me to love people the same way that you love me. And I get that. So I can love these people who are just like me because we sin the same. We I mean, they're smart. They're like me. So it's easy to love them.

But how do I love them? God, how do I love the people who are different than me? How do I love people who are

they they sin differently than I do? They know better, and God, they're they still they run to sin that's so blatantly wrong. I mean, everybody can see it. How do I love them? Surely, you don't mean to love them too. Who who's my neighbor? Because there's gotta be an exception to this. Can I just love like you? You. Don't get to love you. Can I just like this person? God, can I love this person with my car? Just maybe a little tap in the parking lot. Nothing bad. Just a little tap.

Can I love them differently? Who is my neighbor? And Jesus, I think he knew that we would be a lot like this. Because I think we do this as well. We look at people, and we we pick and choose who we're gonna show mercy and God's love to.

And so, again, Jesus does what Jesus does best, and he goes into story mode. And and it's so good. It starts in verse 30. And he starts to tell these people this story.

So the guy asks, you remember he comes up to Jesus and he's like, hey, how do I go to how do I get eternal life? Jesus says, dude, you already know. He recites the answer, and Jesus is like, alright. That's it. Now go do it. And the guy says, but Jesus, who is my neighbor? And then Jesus says this, a Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho,

and he was attacked by bandits. And just right then, dude, you gotta understand this. You'll kinda get this in your head. Jesus is telling this story to a group of Jews. There's a Jewish, like, just a a group of people around him, and they would have known this road that goes from Jerusalem to Jericho. They would have all have traveled this road

multiple times. It's the equivalent of me saying, hey, I'm going on that. I'm gonna take the I 10 to I don't know where the I 10 goes, so I get lost. But I'm gonna take the 10 somewhere. You would know what that means. So they would they would know this road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and and a Jewish man traveling in that road would be great, but then this Jewish man gets mugged.

And and right then, I think the culture would have, like, probably puffed up a little bit and then like, excuse me? He got mugged? What exit? Let's go. Like, we're gonna go wreck shop. Let let's go save this dude because he ain't getting mugged on my watch.

A Jewish man gets rough and gets mugged, but then Jesus goes a little bit even deeper than that. He says they they stripped him of his clothes. They beat him up and left him half dead beside the road.

This dude doesn't just get mugged. It's not like he loses his wallet and his watch. I mean, that's a mugging, but this guy gets wallet, watch, and he gets left naked. Like, that's a whole new level of beat down. When you don't have clothes on, you got beat up. Like, that's that's a whole new world. And this guy's beat up, destroyed, thrown on the side of the road, and left for dead.

And this is a good Jewish man. Who would do that to a good Jewish man? A good person. So Jesus keeps on with the story. 31. By chance, a priest came along. And just then, the priest probably, like like, pressed their robes up a little bit, kind of popped their chest out because the priest comes in to save the day.

But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. And maybe maybe the priest was busy. Like, we don't know why the priest went on the other side of the road. Maybe he had a lot of stuff to do. Maybe he had some priestly duties he had to take care of.

I mean, he's a priest. Right? So there was he had probably had some place he had to be. Maybe it was synagogue day. Maybe he had to go and speak. I mean, how weird would that be for the music to end, the lights to come up, and nobody be up on stage to preach?

I mean, Bill's down the street changing a tire. That's great. But why isn't he here? May maybe he he had stuff he had to do.

Maybe it was bingo night. You can't mess with man, people in bingo, that's that's crazy. You don't wanna get in the middle of that. So maybe he had to get back because he had this thing going on at church he had to be there for. Maybe it was potluck night.

Dude, potluck night, you can't start a riot. You get the bad food up front and the good food in the back. Maybe he had to get that straight so nobody got in a, you know, fist fight.

He just had stuff to do. So maybe the priest wasn't bad. And I can just see the Jewish people coming up with excuses for the priest because he looked at the guy in need and he went to the other side. But then Jesus goes on because there's another verse, verse 32. It says, a temple assistant, or your Bible may say a Levite. A temple assistant. This is a dude who was trained since birth how to assist the priest. His whole job in life was to help people in need. That's what he did. That's his profession,

was to help people in need. So a temple assistant walks by, Dude, this is good news for the man who's beat up because this is what this guy does. This is his job. He walks by, sees him lying, walk he walks over and looks at him, sees him lying there, but he also passes by on the other side.

And maybe he was busy. I mean, maybe the temple assistant, he had to go help the priest. I don't know. Maybe maybe he it was like the guys that we have here that it's super hot outside, and he had to go help park cars so that we know where to park you know, where to put our car.

He had stuff to do. Maybe he had to to hurry and get somewhere as well.

I mean, priest couldn't. That kinda makes sense. I mean, priests are a big deal, so he doesn't have time. But the temple assistant, maybe he had another guy down the road a little bit farther who was beat up just a little bit worse, and and he needed help. And so Jesus goes on with the story because I can almost picture that just they're puzzled. They're like, well, what's gonna happen to the dude? Because those guys should have done something.

But then verse 33. Then a despised Samaritan came along.

And just then, you need to understand this. As soon as Jesus said the word despised Samaritan, as soon as that word Samaritan came out of his mouth, I guarantee you that a hush went over the crowd. And they started looking at each other going, did he say Samaritan? Oh, no. He didn't. Like, are you serious? A Samaritan? What's he gonna do? The dude's beat up and naked. What's left? He's, you know, kick a man when he's down?

A Samaritan? The Jewish culture hated Samaritans. Man, that that was the

there was nobody worse than a Samaritan. That was the lowest of the low the worst cut down you could ever be called. The worst name that you could ever be called would be a Samaritan. In the Jewish culture, if you were a Samaritan, you were not even worthy of life. You were lower than lower class, and they despised and hated you.

You may have heard that in church before. I don't know if you've ever heard why. You see, earlier in Jewish culture,

Assyria came in and attacked Jerusalem. And when it did, it just wrecked shop, dude. It destroyed everybody. And they killed a ton of the warriors, the the people that they didn't kill, They captured anybody that was left that was healthy and strong and smart, and they took them back to their homeland, back to Assyria. And when they did this, this is where you read about, like, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, when you read about Daniel, that's what happened to them. They they came in and were taken back to Assyria. And what what they would do is they would take the strongest and what was left of the best back to their homeland because they would try to now inundate them with their culture.

But then they would take a a huge pocket of their people, and they would plant that in the land that they just destroyed. So it was a super smart war tactic. They would take their people, put it in this country now that was just decimated and and weak, and their country now with their culture would rub off on those people.

And through time, the Jewish men and women that were left fell in love with the Assyrian men and women and got married and had babies, and those were Samaritans. So if you were a Jew, you hated Samaritans because they were

they were outcasts. Dude, they sold you out. They fell in love with the enemy. They gave up on their heritage to follow this freedom of of this new land. They gave up all of their traditions. And so when Jesus said a Samaritan walks in, dude, I guarantee you, these people were like a Samaritan?

And and that was that wasn't expected. A good despised Samaritan came along, and when 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. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn,

where he took care of him. The next day, he handed the innkeeper 2 silver coins, telling him, take care of this man. If this bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you next time I'm here. And then the story ends.

And I'm betting that people are crazy confused because you've got a priest and a temple worker who didn't help the person, and they should have. And you've got a Samaritan that everybody hates, it's despised, that nobody would like, and he's the hero of the story.

And then the story ends. And then I love what Jesus does because he he flips the question. Because remember, what got us to this question was, hey, God. So if I'm supposed to love everybody, who is my neighbor? And then Jesus says this in 30 in verse 36.

Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? Because you see, a better question than who should I love that's hard to love or how do I love people who are difficult to love, a better question is who am I loving that's not like me?

The man asked who is a neighbor, and Jesus said, no. No. That question's wrong. Mister Rogers set that up for us. Everybody's your neighbor. Look around you. You're surrounded by neighbors. It's not who is my neighbor, it's who will be, who was a neighbor.

And I love that Jesus asked this guy this question, because remember who he is. This is a religious authority figure. This is an expert in religious law. And Jesus just put him on blast because his only logical answer is a Samaritan, but he can't say that because he's a religious expert. So he's so bad, desperately wants to say, well, it was the priest, but everybody listening to the story is like, dude, it wasn't the priest. He wants so bad to say that it was a temple worker, but everybody listening is like, dude, it wasn't the temple worker.

The only answer he has left is the Samaritan, and that's kinda where he goes in '37, but he can't even say the word Samaritan. Check it out. He says, the man replied, the one who showed him mercy. And then Jesus just says, yep. Now go and do the same.

So this is where, like, in in ministry or pastors, this is my job. To tell you, if you wanna love people who are difficult to love, just go do it. Go do the same. So let's pray, and then y'all get out of here. Go love people. That's a horrible plan.

How do you do that? I mean, on paper, that's great. That that's a great thing to say. Yeah. Now go do. That that's awesome. But the problem isn't the command. The problem is the execution. And I don't know if you've done this before, but I've come into church, and I've listened to messages. And when they finish, I sit there and I think, how?

How do I do that? You're you're telling me I'm not supposed to do this anymore. How? I I mean, I want to do it. I just I don't know how. Or I sit and I listen to a message, and and I hear somebody talk about something. And then I leave, and I think that's that's one more thing. Are you serious, God?

One more thing I've gotta give up for you? It's bad enough that I have to do all of this, but now I've gotta give up music too, and I'm gonna be stuck with old people and, like, pipe organs and accordions, and that's what I get for the rest of my life? God, for real? One more thing?

We we don't know what this man does. We don't know if he leaves with that thought. If he walks out of that going, are you serious? I've got all of these laws and rules and regulations I'm supposed to follow, and now I have to love people that I hate? One more thing. God, are you serious?

Maybe it was that that mind blowing moment where he heard Jesus say this, and that's where it made sense.

And maybe this we don't know. Maybe this dude walks away, and and he just starts loving people. He starts looking immediately for somebody in need, and he starts showing them the same love that Jesus just showed him. We don't know. I just know this. I know it's it's hard. It feels impossible to love people

that don't like me, that aren't like me, that sin differently than me, that have different views and different opinions than I do. So how do you do it? That's the cheat code.

It's what's next. Because I I think as as pastors, too many times we stop right here, and this isn't where the story ends. I I think that what happens next is the code. What happens next is how we do this. And it's so it's so it's so easy. It's right there. It's it starts in verse 38.

It says, as Jesus and his disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha was welcome welcomed them into their home. And this is cool. Think about this for just a second. So Jesus just finishes this story. He looks at this guy. He's like, go do the same. And then he packs up, and he walks down the road a little bit farther, and he comes across Mary and her little sister, Mar I'm sorry, Mary Martha and her little sister, Mary.

And he walks up to them, and he's like, dude, I'm coming over. And and they go nuts. Right? Because Jesus is coming to your house. Tell me you would not freak out just a little bit.

Right? You would take OCD to a whole new level of cleaning. Dude, your house would be I would anyway, dude. I'd be cleaning under the fridge. I'd be pulling the stove out. I'd mop everything, vacuum everything. Jesus is coming over. Dude, I'd put man, my house would be immaculate. It would be better than it's ever looked before, because Jesus is coming over. Right?

Martha welcomed him to her home. Verse 39. Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. So again, kinda get it in your head. Jesus isn't just coming over, but he's coming over to teach.

How cool would that be to have Jesus in your living room just just spilling wisdom out to you? I'd be blowing Twitter up. Like, I'd be claiming all of it, everything he said for my own. Just, man, I'd be going crazy on the Internet just trying to get all those things down and be like, Jesus, slow down. Can't type that That's so good. And that's what Mary's doing.

She's sitting at the feet of Jesus, and she's listening, she kind of forgets what's going on. And granted, there's probably a lot to get done, and there's probably some things that she should be doing other than just sitting there. I'm I'm the baby in my family.

And reading this, I I I think a lot like Mary because I I'm she could have. Maybe she just sat there, and she's like, dude, if I sit here long enough, they're gonna get everything else finished.

And I ain't gotta do nothing. That's a good plan for younger siblings, and we work that system really well. Dude, if you're a younger sibling, you know this is true. Dude, we can work the environment, and and we can make the older brothers and sisters do their thing if we just hang out long enough by being confused because we're young. We don't know what's happening.

I don't think that's what Mary's doing, though. I I honestly, I think that Mary started hearing what Jesus was saying, and she got so lost in the wisdom and the revolutionary things, and that he was saying things that was so brand new and so mind provoking. I think she just got lost in what he was saying to her.

And and she loses track of time. And she forgets about the house being dirty, and she forgets about the food that's on the stove. And she can't help but listen to what he's saying. Martha, though, is a different sister.

She's distracted by the big dinner she's preparing. She came to Jesus and said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to get up and help me. Isn't this just like your big brothers and big sisters?

Like, they walk into the room, and they see Mary sitting there. And Martha could have gone, hey, Mary, could you help me, please? This is a little hectic. I got a lot going on. Could you just come in the kitchen? And she doesn't do that. She does what big sisters and big brothers do. She walks in the room. She's like, hey, Jesus. Do you not see Mary sitting there doing absolutely nothing while I'm working so hard? Tell her to help me. Will you make her get up and come into the kitchen and make her start cleaning, God? Will you tell her to help me?

Now, right after what we just read, Jesus' response

should be pretty easy for us to figure out. Right? Because just a second ago, this guy was like, hey, what do I have to do to get eternal life? Who is my neighbor? And and Jesus tells this great story. There's a dude beat down, broken on the side of the road, and Jesus says, go and do that. Help those people. So the answer to this should be really simple. Jesus should look at Mary and be like, Mary, hey, know that you're listening, but get up and go help your sister because you should be doing stuff other than just sitting there. Because that's what he just said just five seconds ago. But look at his response in 41.

But the Lord said to her, my dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There's only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. How do you go from go and do to just sit, hang out, and listen? It kind of contradicts itself.

How how do you go from one sentence telling one group of people, hey, go and do. Don't just sit there. Don't just sit back. There's people in need. Go out and do. And then in the next sentence, say, hey, she's doing exactly what she should be. She's sitting and listening. It's the cheat code.

If we're gonna learn to love people who are difficult to love, we had better be spending time at the feet of Jesus.

There is no way for you to love people who are hard to love if you don't spend time with Jesus. It's just not possible. That there's no way for us to love the unlovable if we don't spend time with God's presence. And the reason this world is so screwed up is because we don't spend enough time with Jesus.

And I'm I'm really sorry. This may sound harsh, but an hour on Sundays is not enough. And you may catch the Christian Super Bowl and World Series by coming for Easter and Christmas too. And and, man, that that's awesome. But that's not enough.

If we're gonna love people who are difficult to love, we have got to invest more time with Jesus. Because when we spend more time with Jesus, we love people accidentally. It just becomes who we are. You don't have to try to love them. It it just happens. Because when we spend time with Jesus, we start to understand

how much he loves us. Let me explain the characters in the first story. Maybe that'll help a little bit. The first story with the the guy who gets mugged. Remember the good Jewish dude who's traveling up the tent and he gets beat up and and thrown on the side of the road? That's me. That's you.

Because in life, sin attacked us, and and it abused, and it it bruised, and it chewed us up, and it spit us out. And it called us all sorts of names, and it abused us, and it threw us to the side of the road completely naked, exposed, and and just guilt and shame ridden and helpless.

And then a priest comes in with tons of laws and condemnations

and lots of regulations. And no matter how many laws and no matter how many how many times they tell you how sinful and how dirty you are, it doesn't really help it doesn't do anything for you. And so the priest come in and couldn't really do anything for me. I was still bruised and beaten and naked on the side of the road. But then religion came in and all the good deeds, and no matter how much good I did, I still found myself not being good enough.

And so frustrated because there's not enough old people to help across the street that's gonna get you where you feel good for the filth that's in your life. And no matter how much religion I had, I still felt completely exposed and bruised and naked on the side of the road. But then the Samaritan showed up. What

law and religion couldn't do, Jesus did. You see, Jesus is a Samaritan completely hated by everybody, despised by people around him, rejected by friends. And yet he came in and and saw me and my need. And did you catch it in the story? He picked the dude up and bandaged his wounds, gave him fresh clothes,

put him on his donkey, and then took him to the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn, took him downtown. And he went up to the innkeeper. Did you catch it? And he gave him 2 coins and said, hey, this is gonna get him for the next couple days, but if if this isn't enough, I'm coming back, and I'll take care of what's left.

You see, what religion and what law couldn't do for me, Jesus did.

And the only way for me to understand the depth of that is to spend time with him. The only way for me to grasp even a little of that is to spend time in this book where I can understand more of who he is. But the reason that most of us can't love people who are hard to love is because we don't spend enough time with Jesus.

And it's not out of out of guilt or shame. It's out of for me, it's out of thankfulness. Dude, once I start to understand the reckless love that God has for me, the way that he loves me in spite of who I am, I wanna spend more time with him. Who wouldn't wanna spend more time with that person?

But the only way you find that is spending time here. And maybe maybe we're not lazy. We just we don't know how to read this book.

Because in school, you're taught you just start at the beginning and you read all the way to the end. And if you try that with your bible, you're gonna get to around Leviticus and hate everything.

Oh, tell me that's not true. You get to the begots and you're like, if one more person begots one more person, I'm gonna lose it. Like, in the world is going on? You you don't read this book like it's a book because it's not like any other book.

That this book is alive. Man, this this book is real. There's things and tell me this isn't true for those of you who have spent time in this book. You can read one passage of scripture, and then you can read it again two weeks later, and you're like, is that new? How did he put that in there? And you're like, no. It's not new. I just missed it. How did I miss that? And then you read it again, you're like, how did I miss that? Holy cow. It's just and the more the more you read this book, the more it comes alive, and it speaks to you. And the more time you spend in this book,

the more you understand who Jesus is. Let me give you a couple of things to do to help you maybe. Because maybe it's not the command, it's the execution. And maybe people have told you to to read this, but they've never told you how. Maybe this helps. There's an app for your phone. It's free. It's called YouVersion.

Download it. It'll read it'll read the bible to you. It's super creepy, so don't listen to it late at night because it'll mess with your head. That voice is weird, But it'll read scripture to you. You can put it in your car while you're driving, and listen to God's word while you're you're traveling.

If you're old school like me, and you want a paper bible, there there's this really cool way of studying scripture. I was taught this as a kid, and I've taught this everywhere I've ever gone. It's called SOAP, And it's so easy, it's an acronym, which I hate acronyms, but it's the best way for me to remember stuff on this. It stands for scripture, observation, application, and prayer.

And basically, what it what you do is you find a passage of scripture. So, like, for this, you would take Luke 10, say 30 through 30 through 42, and you would read that passage of scripture, but you wouldn't read it to get from beginning to end. You would read it so that this passage of scripture could speak to you,

so that you could see something that's in that. And you may spend two days reading this passage of scripture, looking for something to come out, but you would spend some time reading this. And as you do, that's the s, you're gonna observe something in it. As you observe stuff, you write it down.

For me, as I'm reading this passage of scripture, the thing that I observe is that that you have a priest, and so you have laws and regulations that didn't help the guy. And you have a temple worker who's supposed to be religious and really good, and he didn't help the guy. The only person who helped was the guy that everybody hated,

the Samaritan. That's gonna stand out to me.

And then just because I'm a I'm a baby brother, this part at the end is gonna be funny where Mary just sat there and Martha had to do all the work. That that's gonna be funny. I'm gonna observe that. And then I'm also just because I like to I like to look into history, I'm also ladies, this is free. I'm gonna look at where Mary sat, and she sat at the feet of Jesus, which was a spot that was reserved for authority and for teachers, and yet she was there.

You can do something with that later. I'm gonna observe that and write that down as well. And then the application side. So scripture observation, the application side, I'm gonna look at whatever I just observed, and I'm gonna try to figure out how do I apply this to my life.

How do I love people and not become the priest that walks away? How do I love people and not become the religious leader that that has so much religion in me that I can't help people in need because I've gotta go and do religion? How do I not do what I did Friday to this guy at the coffee shop?

The application for me is, okay, I guess this week I'm gonna go back to this coffee shop and I'm gonna go back every day until I see this dude so I get one more chance to try to show him what Jesus looks like. Because I did a really crappy job of it. I've gotta do a better job of that. How how do I do that?

That's the application side. So scripture, observation, application, and then prayer. Because if you're like me, when I start to think through this, I I start to come up with this is impossible. God, there's no way that how do I love this dude? What if I go back and he kicks me in the shin again?

Dude, I wanna get in a fight in front of me and be on the news and be like, hey, I know him. I don't want that.

How do I do this? So the the pee in in soap is prayer. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna have to spend time in prayer because the only way for me to love people the way that God loves me is to be able to talk to God and communicate.

And through prayer, I'm not gonna try to convince God of what he needs to do for me. I'm gonna ask God what he wants from me. Because prayer isn't about me convincing God of anything. It's about me connecting to God with who he is and and him showing me what he has for me.

Maybe that helps you spend time with God. Maybe there's there's other things. I mean, there's a ton of different ways to read your bible. There's 9,000,000,000 classes and small groups that this church offers,

and they're for everybody. And your kids, if you've got little kids that are back in the back, they're not being babysat right now. Those people are are are telling them who Jesus is.

Even the little bitty tiny kids are hearing about who Jesus is. They're spending time with Jesus. And, yeah, they're getting hyped up on sugar, so you get them back fully loaded. But they're learning who Jesus is back there right now.

There's small groups for old people. You could be a 100. Your small group's gonna be small because you may be the only one. But there's there's small groups for old people that you can come in, and you can talk about who Jesus is as as family. Man, they just started this college, young adult small group that Daniel's leading. That's dude, it's incredible.

They're gonna get people together and and teach them who Jesus is. And together, they're gonna learn and just spend time with Jesus because the only way that this world sees anything different from us is when we start spending time with Jesus.

And the only way that we're gonna love people who are difficult to love is when we spend enough time with Jesus that it just accidentally happens through us.

And if we would stop giving God excuses and maybe just give him ten minutes of our day, things would change.

You you wanna try a social experiment. See see what this does for you this week. Look at your life right now, this next week. And I know it's gonna be busy because you're missing Monday, and and you got a lot of stuff you gotta do.

In your week right now, is there ten minutes that you could shave out to spend with Jesus? Just ten minutes. And and by spend maybe doing this soap thing. Maybe you're gonna pick a passage of scripture. If you don't know where to read or what to read, go in the New Testament and find anything that's read.

That's a great place.

Anything that's read. Read read through that, and then remember, you're not reading to get from beginning to end. You're reading so it can speak to you. Maybe that's that's how you spend time with Jesus. Maybe it's you get this bible app and you there's tons of different studies on it. You just do that for ten minutes a day, but do you have ten minutes a day that you can spend with Jesus? And then at the end of this week, if you'll do that every day this week, I guarantee you by the time you get to the end of this week, you're gonna be better at loving people.

And you need to be be careful because as you do this, you're gonna get a lot more people that need love, and it's gonna be hard. And you're gonna mess up.

And when you do, you're gonna stand back up, and you're gonna spend time with Jesus, and you're gonna love people with the same love, the same passion, the same reckless abandonment that he loves you. And if we do this, I'm telling you, it it changes everything. Do you have ten minutes

that you could just shave out? And some of you guys already do that. Add ten minutes to it.

For us to love the unlovable, we've got to spend time with Jesus. Pray with me. God, thank you for thank you for who you are. Jesus, thank you for grace. Thank you for loving us in spite of us sometimes. God, I thank you for just the simple truth that that your love is is never

it's God, it's it's never gonna be something that that's that's not for us.

God, your your love is is always gonna be available, God. Your love is free. Your forgiveness is for all of us. And no matter what we do or have done or doing, God, no matter how broken and naked and bruised and thrown away and cast out of society that we are, God, that Your love for us is bigger, and You'll do exactly what the Samaritan in Your story did, God, that You'll pick us up, and God, that You'll give us new life, and that you'll you'll move us into a new place of safety, and God, you'll do these things in spite of who we are. So Jesus, no matter where we are in life, would you help us to understand your love for us? And God, what as we do that, would you help that to cause a desire for us to spend time in your word, and to spend time at your presence? Because there's tons of people around us on a daily basis that don't know what you look like

and that are crazy difficult to love. And theology and fancy little sayings, they're not gonna help. But the only way that we're gonna make a difference, Jesus, is if we love them the way that you love us. So God, would you give us the wisdom to spend time with you? And as we do, would you rub off on us?

And would you allow that to rub off on the people that you put around us? So Jesus, use us for your glory. And God help us to help us to just get a just a glimpse, God, of how much you love us. And help us to love those God that are hard to love in your name. Amen.