God the Samaritan: Mercy Without Borders

All right. Well, God’s already been speaking a lot today on the subject of his unconditional love, his mercy, his grace. And that’s not just something that God does for us. It’s something that God works in us. And we’re meant to be his agents of mercy and love to those that are, you know, um, the most helpless, the most broken, the most destitute, the most hopeless. You are God’s answer to that question. I am

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meant to be God’s answer to that question. And this is such a challenging scripture that we’re going to read in Luke 10. Uh the first section of the chapter talks about the joy of the kingdom and the power of the kingdom where uh Jesus sends out 72 disciples and they’re casting out demons. They’re healing the sick. They’re proclaiming the kingdom. Um the father’s revealing who he is through power. And then the second half of Luke 10 that we’re going to read, God is going to show how he

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reveals himself not only through power but through mercy. not only through power, but through compassion, through uh sharing the sufferings of those who have no other way out. Um, and so I just wanted to get to that today. We’re we’re in our series, the kingdom way, and we’re talking about how to walk as a citizen in God’s kingdom. There’s no kingdom without the king. Does everybody know that we serve King Jesus because he first served us? >> And he says, “I want you to emulate me.

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I want you to imitate me. And I want you to embody me in this earth. In 1 John 4, it says, “As he is, so also are we in this earth as he is the footwasher, the sacrificer, uh the lover of sinners and tax collectors and the unworthy and the foolish.” He says that is who you are. You may not see it when you look in the mirror, but it’s underneath everything else that testifies against it. And this passage of the good Samaritan, I’ve been thinking about it for like two and a half, three weeks, and it is very

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convicting for me, just so everybody gets an idea. We we read about a guy that’s willing to go out of his way and help an enemy, a Samaritan who helps a Jewish man, and this Jewish man would have been willing to spit on the Samaritan. He would have been willing to curse him out in the street. He There was racism there. There was xenophobia. There was religious superiority because the Samaritans believed the wrong things about about the Torah. And the Samaritan was willing to go out of his way and

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help that man and lift him up and pay out of his own pocket and sustain him and and return again to establish relationship and to make sure he was fully healed. This is this is who God is and this is who we’re called to be. And I don’t know about you, but my experience doesn’t always match that that reality. My heart and my aptitude doesn’t always line up with with who I know God has made me in the Holy Spirit. And so I just want to say if you’re somebody who’s willing to

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give out mercy all the time, that that’s so great and continue to do it. If you’re somebody that just needs mercy today, that’s where you start. If you can’t be be somebody that receives mercy, you just won’t be able to help the broken people that are in your path. You just won’t be able to do it. And and how do you receive mercy? Well, I mean, you ask for it. You might go up to somebody and say, “I need encouragement today. I need prayer. I need to tell you what’s going on in my

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life. I need financial help.” That’s a hard one to say. Okay? I need food. I need diapers. Whatever you need to say. And then mercy can flow to you if you ask. The other way is you can wait because God says in Psalm 30, “Weeping will endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning.” And sometimes the best thing you can do to get mercy is just go to sleep. And then you wake up the next day and somehow God did something and you can you can you know hit that kurrig and you

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can hit that pop-tart and you’re ready to go again. You know what I mean? Okay. So that’s that’s just true of me. Okay. Uh you you can ask for mercy, you can wait for mercy and you can believe that mercy has come for you that you already qualify for mercy. See, we’re going to talk about a man who is broken and beaten and left half dead. And all he did to qualify for mercy was to lay on the ground whimpering and begging God to help him. He was half dead. He was hopeless. He was empty. He was naked. He was ashamed.

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He was alone. And that qualified him. That that qualified him to receive mercy from the person that would have hated him that that actually showed him love instead. All right. So um the kingdom way that we’re talking about is not a theory. We live out the life of the king. Jesus died for us but it was so that we could give our lives for others. Right? Jesus actually suffered for us not so that we wouldn’t suffer but so we could suffer to redeem others. He lived as us. He died as us. He rose as us. And he also

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did it all ahead of us. He did it as a forerunner. He did it as an apostle. And he invites us, take your cross and follow me. Receive mercy and show mercy to the one that needs it. It’s not a theory. It It’s who we are and it needs to manifest, especially in our culture today. Is there a more relevant message to our culture today? Mercy is the answer. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over prudence. Mercy triumphs over excuses. Mercy triumphs over politics. Mercy triumphs. This is the ethic of the

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kingdom of God. Did you guys know that Jesus is not a conservative Christian? He’s also not a woke progressive. He just makes everybody angry. And um but then he helps them. You know, they’re angry at him and he just dies for them. And and that’s our role. Okay? We’re not we’re not going to come to the Bible. I hope I hope we’re not going to come to the text of the Good Samaritan and say, “Well, I hope this can give me some reasons why I don’t have to help people,” which is what a guy does in

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this parable. Or we’re not going to come and say, “Man, I hope that this gives me ammunition to just already know what I believe and and I’m going to fit Jesus into my political platform.” But Jesus refuses to fit in into anybody’s political platform. He just says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” >> That’s the one law of the kingdom of God. Did you know that Jesus says, “I give you a commandment.” John 13:34, “Love one another as I have loved you.” And he

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loved us by entering into our suffering. By entering into our death, by entering into our curse, and saying, “Now you can enter into my resurrection and my glory and my family and my relationship with God.” the father. Everybody hears that? >> It’s called the good news. Okay. Um it’s it’s the gospel. All right. So, we want to know this that our king has one law and it’s love. His law is clear. That was anybody unclear about that? Love one another as I have loved you.

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But what if I can be manipulated? But what if I can be pushed? But what if it costs me too much? But what if I become unsafe? But what if they use the money to buy drugs or cigarettes? No. The question, all right, I’ll just say this. The question is not whether to help. It is how to help. >> So it’s not always you help everybody in the exact same way. But it should be very clear to love one another as I have loved you. Do we understand this? It’s very clear. It’s very radical. It’s

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universal. It applies to everybody. Even the person that you wish it doesn’t apply to. Even the woke or the MAGA or the Raider fan, you know, a truly a truly irredeemable monster. I’m just kidding. Sorry, Nick. You’re not. I’m just going to say that. All right. I just picked the person that, you know, most people would be okay with not not showing mercy to them. Um, sorry. Um, all right. So his his law is clear, radical, universal, impossible, and transformational. So nobody should hear this message about

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how to love your enemy and how to help the person that’s broken and say, “Oh, I can totally do this >> all by myself.” Well, no. It’s in the Holy Spirit and it’s in the body of Christ that we have the resources to meet the world’s needs. It’s it’s no lone rangers. The gospel isn’t trying to create isolated social workers. Rabbi. Well, thank you. All right. Call no man Rabbi. Sorry. All right. No. Um, yeah. But that’s Jesus’s teaching. Okay. So, it’s not about this. It’s about

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being one, being a community that meets our own needs and is able to meet the needs of the people around us and isn’t saying, “Well, not those ones. Those ones irritate me. Those ones raise my taxes.” Okay. Sorry. All right. I don’t like I I think if Jesus had one political platform, it’s low taxes. No, I’m just kidding. But um that’s that’s what I want to believe, you know. Um he probably wouldn’t say that, but that’s what I that’s what I want him to

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believe. Um we have to be honest about our presuppositions when we go to the Bible and just say, “Am I do I want to believe what’s right, or do I just want Jesus to say that I’m already in the right?” >> And you come to the Bible that way. I have many many times. Um, but if you come to it open, you’re going to be challenged and you’re going to be stretched and you’re going to see I can’t do this on my own. I have to receive his mercy every day from him directly and from his people every day.

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My wife needs to show me mercy. She could tell me like so much every day. My kids even need to show me mercy. But you guys need to every time I teach, I really hope you guys are merciful. And you’re just like, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt cuz sometimes he’s crazy. All right. I just hope that you can be merciful. I hope that the people that that lead you that you’re merciful to them. I hope that when you lead people that they’re merciful to you as as a leader, you know, cuz mercy is the right

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response, isn’t it? Who wants to to have a problem or a confrontation and the answer you get back is either harsh or hectic. Like, what do you mean? You feel that? No. Or wait, this is a problem. We got to fix it. Come on, I’m going to fix you. What are you doing wrong? You know, who wants that? Who wants those responses? And that’s how I’m wired. That’s how we’re That’s how we’re wired. Shut down the problem or just fix it. You know, that’s how I’m wired.

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But God wants to rewire us. >> And he wants to allow us to receive mercy so we have a wealth that we could give someone where somebody could sue us for our shirt and we’d give them our jacket, too. where somebody could force us to walk one mile and we say, “Let’s do two. I have more to give you than you even want to take from me.” >> That’s the law of the kingdom. That’s love. It’s not something that you white knuckle. It’s something that God puts in

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you. You have more to give than even somebody can take away from you because you have God. You have heaven within. You have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3. God has not left us in scarcity. Pastor Jonathan had a great point in his message at the beginning of the series that this world’s kingdom operates on scarcity. If I give to you, it means I was impoverished. It means I I jeopardized myself when I helped you. But the kingdom of God isn’t about scarcity. It’s about abundance.

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It’s about the profuse grace and mercy and blood of Jesus that brings the Holy Spirit without measure >> that brings a solution to every problem. Whether or not it’s the solution the person wants, God will give you the solution if you’re listening. A lot of times I just don’t listen. All right, cool. All right, let me just read the passage. That was a really, really long introduction. Um, and I’m gonna I I covered a few of my points already. So, I’m not going to just repeat everything.

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Um, but I’m going to read the parable and then I’m going to dig through it, okay? Because I think that’s um that’s how I that’s my comfort zone in teaching. Uh, but Father, bless your word. I pray to us today. Luke 10 25-37, New English Translation. Now an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus, saying,”Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him,”What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God

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with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You answered correctly. Do this and you’ll live.” But the expert wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him up, and went off, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road. But when he

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saw the injured man, he passed by on the other side. So to a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling came to where the injured man was. And when he saw him, he felt compassion for him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal. He brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the inkeeper saying, ‘Take care of him, and

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whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way. Which of these three do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” So Jesus flips the question. He the neighbor or the the expert, he says, “Who’s my neighbor? I know I’m supposed to love everybody. I’m supposed to love my neighbor as myself, but let me define that down so

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that I can do it. Let me define it down to the people that I already love so that I can check the box and say I already do it.” And Jesus says, “The question isn’t who’s your neighbor. The question is, are you a neighbor?” >> And who would you want to act like your neighbor if you’re holding your guts in on the side of the road? Does it matter to you who calls the ambulance if that’s you in that situation? It really wouldn’t. I mean, it’s a a horrible, desperate situation. So, the

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measure of a neighbor is mercy. It’s not. I mean, Jesus said mercy triumphs over judgment. And he said God prefers mercy to sacrifice. He prefers what the Samaritan did to what the observer of religious laws did, the priest and the Levite. The priest was a member of the tribe of Aaron. He was a a high-ranking representative of God in the Jewish sacrificial system. Uh the Levite was like a religious worker and a social worker because um in Deuteronomy 14, they would take the tithe for the poor and they would

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aortion that um and they would serve in the towns. So these are people that know God’s scripture. They know actually the Torah that that is a word of mercy. Um there there’s some horrible teaching that somehow the old covenant was merciless. No. Um Micah 6:8 sums it up. What does God require of you? Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. God’s the same God in the Old Testament as the New Testament. News flash. Uh we just see him a lot more clearly in the person of Jesus. We see

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the radiance of his glory in flesh and we go, “Oh, that settles the question. That’s what he was really like all this time.” Okay. Um, but these guys are not showing what the law requires. They may observe the outward form of the law, but they don’t go out of their way to help the man in need. They actually recoil from him and they back up to the other side of the road. And I don’t judge these people because I do this all the time. And if we’re honest, we could say we probably do as well. And we have our

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reasons why we would sidestep the ethic of mercy, the ethic of love, the law of the of the spirit of life. So, um, so who’s in the path of mercy? I already mentioned this is this broken guy. He’s a Jewish man. He’s weak. He’s lonely. He’s dirty. He’s bloody. He was foolish. I mean, he’s d he’s I driving, you know, he’s walking down the the road all by himself, a place where there’s a lot of robbers, but he’s the one that’s in the path of mercy. And I just hope I just want to

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hit that one more time, that you’re not disqualified. If you haven’t been showing mercy, if you’ve been a jerk lately to people, well, you’re right where you need to be to just say, “I need mercy now. I need a soft response from God the Father.” See, you think God is going to respond to your sin and failure with harshness and with hectic solving and behavior modification, but he’s going to respond with mercy. That’s who he is. His steadfast love endures forever. We had a prophecy about

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this. Nothing you could do would change how he sees you. Your sin isn’t powerful enough to change God. Your sin doesn’t change him from a loving father to a judge. He just is your father. Okay? Father said, “I don’t judge anyone. I delivered all that over to the son.” We’re going to keep repeating these things because when we understand how merciful the father is, it will change how we see our fellow man and even our enemy and even the person that really annoys us, it’s going to change things

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because we probably annoy the father sometimes, you know? I mean, he loves us. It doesn’t mean that we don’t annoy him sometimes. Let’s let God have an emotional life, you know. Um, but he never changes and he always has compassion on us as a father pies his children. He doesn’t deal with us as our iniquities deser deserve. But as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. That’s the Old Testament. Okay. Um, so let’s let’s get that wrong teaching out

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that it’s the same God. God’s always been the same. Luke 6 says, “Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.” That that’s what we’re talking about here. Okay. Um now let’s let’s go through this. Um this is a powerful teaching and I I just want to step away here to the other side of the road. All right. Um and just let you guys know it’s very simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. I hope you guys are hearing this. How does God deal with us? uh just

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radical outpourings of love and mercy at cost of his own son, at cost of his own life. And he says, “You go love other people the way I loved you.” But who is the other person? Do you see that? You have to you have to define it down or else you have to admit you can’t do it. So let’s just fast forward to the end and say we need Jesus to empower us to do this. We need him to give us his mercy and to create in us a new self, a new spirit, a new heart, a new mind that with new desires that sees people in a

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new way. >> Okay. Uh let me go through this. An expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus. Every other time that’s used in the New Testament, it it’s used to tempt God. So he’s tempting Jesus. He’s trying to get him to to fail. He’s trying to get him to mess up. Um, and it’s really easy to come to God like this and just to be like, “Let me let me understand if this is all real or not. Let me understand if this is going to work for me. Let me understand if your teaching

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will really matter, if it’ll work.” And this is where faith comes in. We have to actually apply these things. It’s not automatic. You apply these things when somebody wrongs you, when somebody excludes you, when someone forgets about you, when somebody has needs that you’d rather not help them. Does your heart still surge in compassion? Do you still realize that this is the way of Jesus? Okay. And when you apply that, you’ll see the spirit is there. The spirit is there to give you wisdom,

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to give you power, to give you kindness, to do those things, and to actually see it through. Not just say, “Oh, I hope you know, God bless him. hope he does better. Be warmed and filled. But to invest your heart in the person. See, the the Samaritan, he he invested some time. He invested some treasure. He invested some hardship in the man who was wounded, but he also invested his heart. >> He didn’t just do his duty. He said, “I’m going to come back and I’m going to visit again. I’m going to make

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sure that he’s all better. I’m going to check on him.” He gave that Jewish man a place in his heart whether or not that man would have given him the same place. And do you see how Jesus just flips it? This this is not what the Jewish audience would have wanted to hear that it’s the Samaritan guy who does this. It really unsettles them. All right. Um I could unsettle us if I wanted with some examples, but maybe you can think of maybe you can think of them yourself. Um I could get to them. But he goes,

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“They’re in the notes. Maybe I’ll get to him. All right. Um, so, but he stands up and he goes, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” Well, number one, that’s a dumb question. You don’t do anything to inherit something. Okay? All that happens for you to inherit someone is someone else dies. That’s how you inherit a fortune. Someone else dies. And in Hebrews 9, it says that because Jesus died, the new covenant promises come to us. So, what do you do to start drawing on that

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inheritance? You just show up as your true self. If you show up as somebody who’s not the heir with a false face, you’re not going to inherit. You’re not going to start experiencing that treasure. But Jesus says, if you want to live the life of God, if you want to step into the life of God, which is a flow of love, you show up as your true self and you show mercy that you’ve been shown. You’ve been forgiven much, now you love much. You step into the life that you inherit. You make it your own. take hold of it.

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Okay? And you have to do that in a genuine way. That could be the hardest thing for us. Pastor Liz said something on our podcast this week that that we’re recording and she said, “You know, the hardest thing is to actually believe that you’re righteous. To actually believe that you’re a person of mercy and righteousness and goodness because of what the Holy Spirit has done. because of the transformation that has been worked in us. It’s hard to just to believe that you have been rewired,

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that you have been remade. But if you show up as that person, you’re already experiencing the life of the kingdom. And everyone you come into contact with is going to experience what Pastor Shelley spoke about, salt and light, illumination and preservation. That’s what they’re going to experience. because you’ve believed what God said about you. You believe that God sent you as an ambassador to this world of peace and reconciliation to heal wounds. You believe that God restored you instead of

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giving you retribution. So in your life, when somebody deserves retribution, you say, “I’ve been rewired. I’ve been remade. I’ve been treated differently. I’ve been saved. I’ve been healed. It would be totally inongruous for me to act outside mercy. It would be totally an abomination. Sorry. Okay. Um, so we don’t merit, we inherit. God, I I said in my last message, he broke the merit system, but he didn’t leave it. He didn’t leave nothing in its place. God replaced the merit system with the

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mercy system. Okay. So, what do I do now? I don’t merit. I just receive mercy and I give mercy. That’s pretty simple. But it’s pretty hard. It’s pretty hard to believe that it’s for me. It’s hard to believe it’s that good. It’s hard for me to believe that I was broken on the side of the road and somebody that I was hostile to and that I hated and that I wouldn’t obey and that I wouldn’t trust and that I didn’t want to be anywhere near would come and pick me up and save me.

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That is who God was to me. That’s who God was to us in our unsaved state. The Bible says we are alienated and hostile to God in our minds. We saw God as the Samaritan. Do we understand this? The the title I was given for this is love without borders. I think that’s a really good title. If I was to add a subtitle, it would be God the Samaritan. God is the one that we were opposed to, that we hated, that we didn’t understand, that we didn’t want to be near, that we were a little bit creeped

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creeped out by him. But when we really needed something, he was there. And that’s the case today. If you’re in a place where you just need mercy, you have someone coming for you. You think, “Oh, I’ve been left alone. Other people have passed by me. My family passed by me on the left. My society passed by me on the right. Politics jumped right over me. Government shut me down. I don’t know. Whatever you want to say, but there’s another traveler coming. There’s another traveler coming. And

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Jesus will pick you up and carry you to safety. And he’ll finish the job of your restoration. He’ll see you fully healed. Okay. Um All right. So, I can go through a lot of this. Um Jesus condenses the law. He agrees with the man who said, “You have to love God and you love your neighbor.” He’s like, “Yeah, that’s right. Just do it. You’ll live.” The guy goes, “Wait a minute. I sense a trick here.” You know, and even in his subconscious, he knows I

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don’t do this really. There’s problems. There’s people I don’t love. Let’s get the definitions right. Because if we get the definitions right, then I’ll know who I can be merciful to, who I have to understand their perspective, who I have to empathize with. And it there’s people that I don’t have to because then I’ll be confirming sin and then I’ll be, you know, validating destructive things and instead I should just hate their sin really, really, really hard so that they

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know that they should, you know, improve their behavior. And that sounds right to us, but it’s not. It is not how God the Samaritan treated us. He connected to us in our sin while we were enemies, while we were weak, while we were ungodly, while we were sinners. That was when he shed his blood for us. That was when he partook of our suffering and our lostness. That was when he felt our god-forsakeness. That was when he understood our perspective. When we were totally lost and totally in sin and looking helpless

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in our own self, that was when God entered in and partook of flesh and blood and shared with us everything that he has. So we cannot expect people to change behavior before we connect to them. Yeah, there we go. We can’t expect that, can we? All right. Now, so he knows I’m not fulfilling this love to neighbor thing. Let me go to the to the Bible and let me narrow down. Let me take one verse out of context so I can prove this. And he he’s quoting Leviticus 19:18 where it says, “Love your neighbor

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as yourself.” And this is where where his world revolves. It says, “You must take you must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself.” So he’s like, “I’m good, right? I love my neighbor. I love fellow Jews. I love those that worship at the temple. I’m good. You know, this the children of my people, uh, I have a lot of mercy for them. But unfortunately for him, Jesus knows the context of this. And he builds

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a story based on this. In Leviticus 19:10, a few verses before it said, “You must not pick your vineyard bare. You must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.” So if we read the whole Bible and we read it in context, we’re going to get a different perspective than if we pick our favorite verse. The one that doesn’t work will not eat. Okay? You know, let’s look at the whole thing. Let’s look at the whole thing. What

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Jeremiah 22:16 says, King Josiah judged the cause of the poor and the needy. Is not this what it is to know me? Declares the Lord. So, can we get the whole vision of Christ? Can we get the whole vision of Jesus? It sounds kind of liberal sometimes and other times it sounds kind of conservative. >> What am I supposed to do? Maybe this is a different way. >> Maybe we can’t use the political and military mechanisms of this world to advance this kingdom. >> You can’t. All right. So, who do we say

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is not our neighbor? Who do we define away as somebody that I’m not going to really try to understand their perspective? I’m a little bit afraid if I were to get to know them. I might get something on me. I might be like this priest that’s, oh, I’m going to get contaminated, ritually impure, if this guy turns out to be dead. I better stay away from him. I better let him know that, you know, he was a fool. He should have just made a better choice and not traveled at that time of day. Maybe he’ll learn a lesson if he

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lives. Isn’t that’s that’s tough love. That sounds right. That’s that’s prudent. Okay, boy. So, who do we say is not our neighbor? Who’s not worthy of understanding their lived experience? Who’s not worthy of seeing their past wounds or their rejection? Who’s not worthy to be understood or to be helped? Well, I mean, I think we have some answers in our culture. What about women considering abortion? What about undocumented immigrants? What about the homeless comm community? What about

01:39:38 – 01:41:00
LGBTQ community? What about different races? What about kids that are considering a gender transition? Should we understand them? What about progressive school teachers pushing a demonic ideology? Shouldn’t we just crush them? What about Jews? Seems like there’s a lot of stuff they’re doing in uh in Gaza. Should we be anti-Semitic? God forbid. What about Muslims? Should we understand why people do the things that they do overseas or just crush them? What about Christian Zionists? They’re

01:40:19 – 01:41:49
so stupid. That’s all over the reels, right? What about Christian nationalists? those fools. What about criminal aliens? What about billionaires? What about socialists? What about What about prisoners? They deserve to be in there. They’re lawb breakakers. What about Calvinists or Armenians or Catholics or Hindus or Jehovah’s Witnesses or liberals or drug addicts or MAGA or vegans or carnivores? George, what about people who drive the speed limit in the passing lane? Let’s go to the book of Ezekiel for

01:41:05 – 01:42:12
those people. All right. I’m just telling you this is what it speaks to me. Like I’m not when when I tell you like think about it. Hear all these labels. The label becomes judgment. And this man on the side of the road, his blood blotted out all the labels. When somebody’s really in a tough situation, why not let their blood blot out the labels that you want to put on them? God didn’t say like, “Oh, David, you know, he’s a white American. I guess I can I guess I can bear with him a little

01:41:41 – 01:42:38
bit.” Okay? Not how he operates. He’s the God of the spirits of all flesh. Now, I’ll tell you a testimony. Um I’ll I’ll give you a little insight into me at the age of 25. And it’s a pretty pretty lame person I’m going to tell you about. Okay? Just so you’re ready. All right. Um so, at the age of 25, I worked at a church. I was teaching at a Bible college. Um, every day I would listen to four to eight hours of conservative talk radio. You know, I had like Rush Limba,

01:42:09 – 01:43:07
Mark Levvin, Sean Hannity. Then I’d flip on Fox News. You know, I was like, “Man, we got to just defeat these Democrats.” Um, I would go at UCSB and like try to debate people. Um, you know, my my cousin and me would go around with shirts that said redef communism with Hillary Clinton’s face on it, you know. Um, it was kind of funny. Um, and I was just all about it, dude. I was like, “This is like this is God’s way. No Democrat could ever be a Christian.” Like, this is just insane, dude. I’m

01:42:38 – 01:43:43
just telling you the truth, like from my perspective on that. Um, and I despised illegal immigrants. And I despised homeless people. I I was like, “What what are we doing like with these people? They need to figure this thing out.” Okay. And by the way, I lived at home and I wasn’t providing for myself. [Applause] So sometimes you have a little bit of a telephone pole in your eye when you’re trying to take speck out of somebody else’s eye. Um and you know one day I was like I was

01:43:10 – 01:44:14
doing this retreat at Hume Lake and I was like I was in a cabin and I was praying. I was like God like how do I change my community? How do I transform salt and light? You know like how do I do this? And in the church where I was working at, right across the street, there was um a homeless shelter and there was a labor line for undocumented immigrants waiting to be picked up to work. I passed by it every day. I passed by it every day on the left, some sometimes on the right. And I and I was like, “God, what am I

01:43:42 – 01:44:47
supposed to do? Like, who can I reach?” And he’s like, “Cross the street.” And I was like, “But those what?” like what do you mean? you know when early in the like and so but I I really like started to think about it and it really broke me like it really he brought me to the book of Jonah where Jonah would rather see the Assyrians all die than see God show mercy to them and because they were enemies of his country you know and I was like whoa this is this is me right now it is not a good look you

01:44:16 – 01:45:10
know um but you can’t see it that’s why I’m not judging I don’t want to judge anybody because everybody’s got blinders. Whether you’re a progressive or a conservative or or whatever, libertarian, I don’t know, like I’m not either one, you know, whatever you are, you you have certain blinders probably, unless you’re Jesus. Okay. Um, but I had to cross the street and I started serving at the homeless shelter. Um, and I started bringing coffee out to the undocumented people

01:44:43 – 01:45:48
and some some Spanish Bibles and got to know some of them. Brought some of the students out there. Um, realized they’re human beings. Um, >> realize that if not for certain circumstances, I would be exactly where they are, >> if not worse. And then all of a sudden, you can make decisions based on people, not policies. A lot of my policies never change, by the way. They I think they got more compassionate. But you can have policies, you know, of what you think is the best solution. People can disagree on that.

01:45:16 – 01:46:13
What’s the best solution for immigration? What’s the best solution for LGBT? What’s the best solution for the schools? People can honestly disagree about that. But we should not disagree about seeing Jesus in the least of these. That’s what the final judgment is based on. Matthew 25. So he goes, “Look, you guys that the people that are excluded, they’re brought to the age of Colossus, correction, right? Um all whatever you want to use in the Greek, they’re brought to a bad spot, right?

01:45:45 – 01:46:47
They’re the people on the left that are not embodying the ethic of love and they’re like, “Wait a minute. What do you mean? We we loved all the people that were like us. When did we ever exclude you, Jesus?” And he’s like, “Well, when I was poorer or when I was hungry, you didn’t feed me. When I was thirsty, you didn’t give me something to eat. When I was an alien, xenos, xenophobia, foreigner. When I was an alien, you didn’t welcome me.” Okay. when I when I was in prison, you

01:46:15 – 01:47:22
didn’t visit me, right? And he’s like they’re like, “What? What do you mean? We we never saw you there.” And he said, “You saw the least of these. You saw my brothers. You saw the people that I have taken them into myself and I’ve identified with them 100%. You didn’t identify with them 100%.” Jesus takes solidarity with the broken, the excluded, the foreigner, the fatherless, the orphan, the incarcerated, the drug addict. He takes total solidarity with them.

01:46:48 – 01:47:48
He bore their curse. He bore my curse. He understands it. He feels in the guts. Do you know the the word for feel compassion that the Samaritan said he felt compassion? It’s the word um I’m not going to be able to pronounce it, but it’s really a long word. It means to feel the guts of somebody else. It starts with splong. So it’s you could just think of like spl like he’s like this is this is how Jesus was. He’s like I’m not going to just sympathize with you from heaven. I’m going to feel what

01:47:19 – 01:48:39
you feel. I’m going to take on the likeness of sinful flesh without sin. I’m going to take on all that you feel and I will get it. I will go to the prison. I will go to the border. I will go to the abortion clinic and I will love those that do not deserve it. I will have mercy on the one that would never have mercy on me. I will forgive those who torment me and nail me to a cross. And I will teach my followers to do the same. Remember Steven when he’s getting stoned, he looks to heaven and he says,”Lord, don’t

01:47:58 – 01:49:12
charge this sin against them. Because se Steven was just a son. He was a chip off the old block. He was just like his dad, Aba, father God. He was just like his brother, Jesus. And that is exactly who you are. Did everybody hear me say that? That is who you are. You’re in the image and likeness of God. You have a new self created after the image of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24. That’s you. Do you believe that? Now, are you going to mature right away? Maybe not. Maybe you’re not going to go

01:48:36 – 01:49:37
outside and immediately just start calling all the people you hated. You know, I don’t know. Maybe you could. Maybe you could just repent. But if we grow into it progressively, we’re still growing into it. >> The seed of love is growing. The seed of mercy is developing. Christ is being formed in us because he’s already in us. He’s not stapling new qualities onto you from the outside. He’s saying, “Show up as your true self and inherit the kingdom.” And how do you show up and inherit the

01:49:06 – 01:50:16
kingdom? Oh, I received the gift of miracles and all of a sudden I’m, you know, the boss at my company and I’m rich now and I influence and I prophesy to presidents and that’s how I show up and inherit the kingdom. Sometimes sometimes you go across the street to the people that you wrongly hated and you get to know them and you figure out how you can help them. That’s how Jesus is. Although the difference is he never hated anybody even though he had a reason to. Does this make sense to you guys?

01:49:41 – 01:50:45

Okay. So, are we seeing Jesus and those around us? The Samaritan didn’t see a Jew that he was supposed to hate. He saw a guy covered in blood. He saw a brother. Isaiah 58 says, “Don’t hide yourself from your own flesh.” Don’t hide yourself from people that are your family. That’s not just talking about your physical family or even your church family. That’s your human family. The Old Testament included the foreigner. It’s like you have one law for the native born and the foreigner.

01:50:13 – 01:51:30
These divisions and these separations are man-made. Do we understand this? Okay. So, do we see Jesus in the person who’s broken? Even if they put themselves in that situation, even if they ran up debts, even if they got addicted to drugs, even if they committed a crime, even if they said something they never should have said, even if they ran out on their kids, do we see that Jesus took total solidarity with them? He’s in them. This is a teaching. I told you it’s kind of simple, but it’s kind of hard.

01:50:52 – 01:51:53
It’s actually impossible. I’ll just keep saying it. But if we keep just loading in the mercy of God for us every day, when we go, man, I did not love today. I really was biased today. I was really harsh today. I was hectic. I was controlling. I didn’t love. I didn’t go out of my way. I did close my eyes to the the needs of the people around me. Can I get another try? His joy comes in the morning. His mercies are new every morning. His compassions fail not. He will not cast off forever,

01:51:24 – 01:52:26
but he will show compassion. Lamentations 3. This is our God. And he’s like, “Look, if you’re not feeling it from me, you got a whole body down there of people. You need encouragement, why don’t you call up a brother or sister in Christ? You need prayer, connect with somebody. Invite people into your home. go to somebody else’s home. I mean, I’m speaking to myself. It’s hard. It’s hard for me to ask for help. It’s hard for me to ask for mercy. It’s hard for me to say, “I don’t I

01:51:55 – 01:52:48
don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how I’m going to figure this one out.” If that’s you, I mean, there’s a lot of stuff going on in our society now with the government shutdown and poverty. And if if you’re like, I don’t know what to do, well, please come talk to us as pastors and we want to help you figure that out. Even if you’re not a formal member of our church, we still want to help you, you know, and we want to connect you to long-term help.

01:52:22 – 01:53:07
All right? So, that’s just that’s my heart. Maybe it’s not the other pastor. No, I’m just kidding. No, but they it is. Um I’m just kidding. They’re they’re actually way better people than me. I already told you how bad of a person I am. So, Pastor Pat almost died shoveling snow off my roof. So, that’s he’s a he’s a great guy, you know. Um but please avail yourself of that opportunity. We really want to walk with you. We’ve all been in bad spots. Um we’re not looking

01:52:44 – 01:53:47
to judge anybody or say, “Why’d you do that?” You know, it’s we’ll help you figure out what to do, you know, as much as we can. Um because you’re not alone. The the the guy that was broken on the road was not alone. Somebody stopped for him. Um my wife was a missionary for Iris Ministries and their their slogan was stop for the one. We’re so tempted to get so many things done and impact so many people, >> but it’s the one. It’s the one that is in your path that

01:53:16 – 01:54:18
and it makes it simple again. It’s like, oh, here’s a person that even if it blows up my schedule and even if it blows up my um you know what what I’m thinking for today, I can stop for this one. And I want to get better at that. I haven’t I haven’t arrived fully at that, but I like to think that I can remain teachable. And I like to think that God can continue to stretch me and I can see people, not policies. I can separate the two. Is that possible for us to do? I think it’s going to help us, you know. Um, let

01:53:47 – 01:55:07
me just say one one last thing here. I got I will end on time. I promise. Um, I want us to see God in this Samaritan who stopped and who helped man. Because God the Samaritan is just like the guy in the story. God the Samaritan saw our dire need and misery. He empathized with his enemies and loved us before we ever loved him. God the Samaritan gave his life for those who hated him. He dared to die even for the ungodly. God the Samaritan stopped for us taking on human flesh. God the Samaritan got dirty washing the

01:54:28 – 01:55:30
feet of his betrayer Judas. God the Samaritan got bloody and his blood blotted out all our labels. God the Samaritan carried us through the cross, the burial, and the resurrection into a new life. God the Samaritan healed his tormentors. God the Samaritan rescued his rebellious family. God the Samaritan secures those that he rescued. Remember the guy says, “I’m going to bring you to an inn and I’m going to come make sure you’re all right.” God’s not going to save you just to drop

01:54:59 – 01:56:18
you. Drop you off. Figure it out. It’s not what he did. God the Samaritan paid the ultimate price. He gave his only son as our ransom from sin and death. God the Samaritan poured out oil and wine on us. The blood of the new covenant, the wine, and the Holy Spirit, the oil. That was at great cost. God the Samaritan befriended us even after we murdered his son. God the Samaritan finished the job. We are complete in Christ. God the Samaritan returned to visit us at Pentecost and he will return again

01:55:38 – 01:56:43
at the end of the age. Okay? He sent us to other outsiders. This is the point I want you to see. Um God didn’t just save us. He sends us in the same capacity, right? Um, he sends us to other outsiders without limitations, without borders. If you could put a border around God’s love, you could put a border around the love that you’re supposed to show. But you can’t. Paul prayed in Ephesians 3, um, I just pray that they would see the height, the width, the depth, the breadth, and they

01:56:12 – 01:57:17
would know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. You can’t even understand or comprehend the boundless nature of his love. And that’s the same love that he placed in us. That’s the same new creation that he’s placed in us. So as we walk with him, we can ask him, “Show me how to see people the way that you see them. Show me how to love them the way that you love them. Show me what is going to be a merciful thing to do in this moment. I will not turn anybody away, but I want

01:56:44 – 01:57:55
to ask God, how do I help in this moment? What is the way to do it? Okay, but he sends us in in Acts 18, he says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. There’s no limit to the mercy we’re supposed to show, to the people we’re supposed to love. Do not define away your obligation to love because it’s not an obligation. It’s an inheritance. Don’t define away your inheritance.

01:57:21 – 01:58:24
Don’t bleed your own trust fund. The reward is sharing Christ’s suffering and his love and his redemption for the good of the people around us. When we get saved, we’re good. Why do we have to do anything else? because there’s a lot of other people out there and it’s not about us. We’re totally free to give or not. But Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down freely.” Do you see how God has set you totally free? He’s given you so much mercy. And

01:57:53 – 01:58:59
now he says, “Now, what do you want to do with the life I’ve given you?” And I have to believe by faith that each one in this room is going to say, “I want to give that life for the person in need. And when you do that, there’s no fear. There’s no obligation. There’s just a beautiful expression of the son of God. Father, I thank you that your mercy triumphs over our judgments. Father, I thank you that your mercy can even triumph over our prudence and our excuses. And I pray, Lord, that you would make us

01:58:26 – 02:00:01
ministers of mercy that take joy in getting to know people that are not like us and introducing them to our savior. God, just rid us of judgment so that we can love. Give us discernment so that we know how to love. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. [Applause] Heck yeah. I affirm everything that he has just said. Amen. church. Can you imagine a community that reflects these values? Can you imagine the goodness that will come when we learn to walk this out? Can you imagine the strength that is going

01:59:14 – 02:00:23
to exist in our community if we understand what was just spoken? That is what we’re about. That is what I want. That is what I know you’re here for. And so God is at work. Amen. Thank you everyone that has come. We’re going to close this service in prayer. We have fellowship um uh across the parking lot where we sit and eat food together. If you’re new here, we have food ready for you if you’d like to be brave enough to join us and and hear some story of where we’ve come from and those sorts of

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things. But let’s pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this word. Lord, may we continue to see your truth and embrace it. Help us. We want to reflect you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. church.