1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Who is my neighbor? Great question and an understanding in that bumper video showed 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000 the entire spectrum of I think where we are in society today. Everywhere from red and 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000 yellow, black and white. They are precious in a sight from protests to peace to division 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000 to all of these things and as much as we could go super, super wide with it and that 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000 probably makes a great sermon series and I know it will because it's called the book of 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:32,000 revelation. We will get to this. We are going to look at today the question that comes 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:41,000 around this idea of neighbor. Neighbor is a packed word I feel like and excited to get 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,000 back into the pulpit and actually talk about the interactions Jesus has with this idea 9 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:51,000 of neighbor. Before we get to Jesus who is going to trump all of us which is great, he 10 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000 always does. When you hear the word neighbor, what comes and if you are a guest this morning 11 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,000 I like to ask questions, we like to have a conversation. It's one way to keep you all 12 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:06,000 awake and it keeps me from not being boring hopefully. When I say the word neighbor what 13 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:14,000 comes to mind? Mr. Rogers, that's actually real, that's in no joke in my sermon. So way 14 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,000 to go. And again collaborative voice on a lot of this and that's exciting. So Mr. Rogers 15 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:30,000 absolutely. Yep. No one is excluded. Wow. You went deep there, thank you. Others. Next 16 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:43,000 door, sure. A friend. We are going to go there too Mike, good Samaritan parable, absolutely. 17 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Love, okay I heard dove. I was like I don't know maybe the chocolates that you can bring 18 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:57,000 or maybe you're, they have pet doves, I don't know. Others. Let's be honest, let's be real 19 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,000 when it comes to this idea of neighbor and neighboring. Yeah, in the back. Gary, Indiana, 20 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:08,000 thank you. Okay, very good. So you live in Highland so that's your neighbor to the north, 21 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:22,000 right? A fence. Now we're, yeah, thank you pink hair. Alright, fence, good. Others. I 22 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,000 can say that in church, right? Pain in the butt, okay that's fair, alright. Don't want 23 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:33,000 to be Wendy's neighbor. I mean it wasn't Wendy that said that. Others. I am automatically 24 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:39,000 here, get off my lawn, right? I automatically hear that for some reason when I think of 25 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000 neighbor. I think of that person that just sits there and whenever someone gets on their 26 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:48,000 lawn they always just yell at them. I've had good neighbors so I'm not sure why the negative 27 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:56,000 comes out but others. Whoever's sitting next to you. Now just look at everybody at the 28 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,000 table with you. Yep, there you go, neighbor, neighbor, neighbor. Neighboring is a big thing 29 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:08,000 to Jesus, okay? We see not only parables but direct teachings of Jesus to those who thought 30 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,000 they knew Jesus and they didn't, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, that he talks 31 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:21,000 about neighboring and being a neighbor and in that time, in Jesus' kind of era and culture, 32 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 neighbors meant something kind of different. Though it all kind of means this is what you 33 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:34,000 guys talked about. It would be more get off my sand. All right, let's just turn from that. 34 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:43,000 It would be more the tribes and the cultures that surrounded the Israelites and that is 35 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:48,000 very different. And now for some of you, you may have a neighbor that is of a different 36 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:54,000 kind of tribe or culture. Maybe they're a different race. Maybe they just live an inherently 37 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000 different life than you. You do have something in common. You live on the same street. But 38 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,000 I know and I've talked to a bunch of you that when you've had neighbors that are different 39 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:09,000 from you, it's usually one of two responses. It's an invitation that God might be teaching 40 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:16,000 you something about your neighbor or you're building up an even bigger fence. And I'm 41 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,000 going to go the former, not the latter, I think is the way of Jesus. Now don't get me 42 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000 wrong. The Israelites had ceremonial laws and different things that had to do with how 43 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:33,000 they dealt with neighbors. Jesus came to fulfill those that we look at neighbors in a very 44 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:41,000 different way. But understanding, I think the church's mission, what we get from Jesus, 45 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:48,000 is to be neighborly. So this sermon series is going to make us all very uncomfortable. 46 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:54,000 And it was somewhat written that way because it speaks of a pretty vulnerable truth that 47 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:02,000 if you are a bad neighbor, that that actually, in my opinion, taints your witness to the 48 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:11,000 world. It's really hard to yell at someone, get off my lawn, yet invite them to come to 49 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:19,000 church. How do you think that would go? If your lawn is very territorial for you and 50 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:25,000 you make that known to your neighbor and then all of a sudden you feel maybe the Spirit's 51 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:30,000 urge or something, guilt, to invite them to church, I don't think that witness is going 52 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:40,000 to be very fruitful. But more than lawns, it has to do with our life. That how we our 53 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:47,000 neighbors to people, especially those that are different from us, says a lot about our 54 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:53,000 witness. Now there are some of you over this sermon series, you're going to try to poke 55 00:05:53,000 --> 00:06:01,000 holes in this understanding and use of the word love. And understand that as we use this 56 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:08,000 word love, that doesn't necessarily mean acceptance, that doesn't necessarily mean that 57 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:13,000 you buy into everything your neighbor is selling, especially if it's like a timeshare. I've 58 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,000 got to get these jokes out, I've been preached in three weeks. So just let the dad jokes 59 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:24,000 go. But understand that Jesus uses the word love, so we have to use the word love and 60 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:34,000 we have to understand as best we can what he meant by loving your neighbor as yourself. 61 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,000 Okay, so let's start with Luke chapter 10. Here you go Mike, good job. You want to get 62 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:46,000 up here and preach it? No, no one wants that. But understand that Luke 10, 25 says, and 63 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:52,000 behold a lawyer stood up to put him, him being Jesus to the test, saying, teacher, what shall 64 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:58,000 I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus, him said to him, what is written in the law? How do 65 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,000 you read it? The lawyer answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, 66 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as 67 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:16,000 yourself. And he said to him, you have answered, what's the word Max? Correctly do this and 68 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:22,000 you will live. So you have a lawyer, right? You have a lawyer come to Jesus asking him 69 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:30,000 a question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Let's deconstruct that a little bit. 70 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:37,000 What shall I do, works, to inherit something given, eternal life, something you and I can't 71 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:44,000 give. We can take away someone's physical life, we can have a part in creating life, 72 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:51,000 but eternal life has nothing to do with us. This lawyer I think knew this when he's asking 73 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:57,000 Jesus. Now whether or not he knew what Jesus or who Jesus was, the Messiah, the living 74 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:04,000 God, all of those things, he's asking him a very pragmatic question. And he goes back 75 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,000 to the law. He goes all the way back to the Old Testament which a good Jew would. Love 76 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength 77 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:19,000 and with all your mind. Great. That's that vertical relation we talk about all the time, 78 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:23,000 right? If we love God with all of those things, what are we going to do with it? We've got 79 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:32,000 to love our neighbor as ourself. And I've always thought it was interesting as yourself. 80 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:39,000 Because what does that do? That puts you and me and what's going on in here and what's 81 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:47,000 going on in here under the microscope. Because what if you don't love yourself? What if you 82 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:57,000 loathe yourself? What if you are just that negative pessimistic person that battles just 83 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:03,000 being negative all the time? Someone's going to say, wow, look at that beautiful blue sky 84 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:08,000 and you walk away going, they hate blue. Like it doesn't make any sense but you know people 85 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:15,000 that are like that. Dare I say some of us might be like that. So how do you read this 86 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:22,000 verse? Hopefully it's with a pure heart, a pure mind and a pure understanding that Jesus 87 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:30,000 loves you in spite of you sometimes. That Jesus knows all the thoughts, all the words, 88 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:36,000 all the texts, all the things that you're going to do before you do them. And how many 89 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:43,000 of you as you were about to post on Facebook got struck by lightning? Nobody. Because God's 90 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:49,000 also not Zeus. But understand that we have to have an understanding of who we are in 91 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:57,000 order to understand this text. That if we love the Lord with all of our heart, all of 92 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:05,000 our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength, all that we are, nothing's left. Then loving 93 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:12,000 your neighbor as yourself, friend, shouldn't be that hard. Because if we have all this 94 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:18,000 love for God and we have that reciprocal love relationship with God that we are, we love 95 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:23,000 God and we feel that love of God, we know he has saved us, we know that we're going 96 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:28,000 to heaven when we die, we know these good things, then loving our neighbor should not 97 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,000 be that hard regardless of who they are. Because God's already given you the patience to deal 98 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,000 with the get off my lawners, right? Gives you the grace to deal with the neighbor that 99 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:44,000 doesn't pick up after their dog. All of those things that the Lord has put something in 100 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,000 you to love them. Because a God that brings you to your neighbors is a God that's going 101 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:57,000 to teach you to love your neighbors. Let's jump to Mark chapter 12. The great 102 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:01,000 commandment. So we're going to kind of put this on a pedestal because I believe it needs 103 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:06,000 to be. And one of the scribes came to him and heard them disputing with one another. 104 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,000 And seeing that he answered them well, asked him which commandment is the most important 105 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:14,000 of all? Jesus answered, the most important is this and this is the Shema. 106 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:19,000 Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Ahad, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 107 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,000 And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, 108 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:28,000 with all of your mind and with all of your strength. The second is this, you shall love 109 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:34,000 your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Let's stop there 110 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:40,000 for a second. That's why I love Jesus isn't a math guy and you all know that I'm not. 111 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:48,000 That he takes the ten and then the six hundred and he boils it down to these two. 112 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:53,000 And the scribe said to him, you are right teacher, you have truly said that he is one 113 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:57,000 and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all of the heart and with all 114 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:02,000 of the understanding and all the strength and to love one's neighbor as yourself is 115 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:08,000 much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he had 116 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:13,000 answered wisely he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that 117 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:19,000 no one dared to ask him any questions. April leave that up there. This one's key. 118 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:26,000 So if we love God with everything, vertical relationship, and we love people with 119 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:37,000 everything, ooh that's hard, then we're not far from the kingdom of God. Friends 120 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:42,000 think about that. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 121 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,000 We teach our kids that. We were taught that that is the Lord's prayer. I've said it 122 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:50,000 before. I'll continue to say it until we're all with Jesus face to face. You may be 123 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:58,000 the kingdom come for somebody else. So how does that shape? Get off my lawn. It 124 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:05,000 doesn't shape it very well. So we have to understand that as we work through this 125 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:10,000 life, as we love through this life, we're going to have people in our lives that 126 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:15,000 are different from us. People that try our patience. People that test that last bit 127 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:20,000 of sensibility we have. People that are going to make us fly off the handle. And 128 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:25,000 there are going to be other people outside of the people in this church. 129 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:29,000 Because we can be that for everybody here. And if we don't know how to love people 130 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:35,000 here, then how are we going to do it out there? If this is just a love club and 131 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,000 that's all we do here, but we don't actually take the words of Jesus and we'll 132 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:42,000 get to those in a little bit deeper today and then the rest of the month, what are 133 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:48,000 we doing? It doesn't make any sense. You're taking Jesus' words and you're 134 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:57,000 basically leaving 90% of it there. But if the greatest commandment is to love God 135 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:03,000 and love our neighbor as ourselves, then what does that look like in times of 136 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,000 struggle? What does that look like in times of brokenness? What does that look 137 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:12,000 like when your neighbor, your family member, your coworker, your boss just lit 138 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:20,000 you up for whatever reason? What does that look like to be able to work through 139 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:29,000 that in here and in here first before we go here, here, or here? Let me do that 140 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:33,000 so those were blocked by the podium. Let's go to and work on that with God 141 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:41,000 here and here first before we go here, we go here, or we go here. But we don't do 142 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:47,000 that or at least we don't do it well. But if Jesus is going to jump on the fact 143 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,000 that all the law and the prophets, everything in the Old Testament hangs on 144 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:56,000 these, let's go to something in the Old Testament. Let's go to Leviticus 19. You 145 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,000 shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but 146 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:05,000 you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. All throughout the Old 147 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:12,000 Testament you see that declaration from prophets and kings and priests. I am the 148 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:18,000 Lord. Guess what, he's the only one that can say that. Now, the closest we get is 149 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:24,000 maybe to our children when you get that three-letter word straight from the pit 150 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,000 of hell when you tell a kid to do something, one of your kids to do 151 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:41,000 something, and they ask why. And we say because, what was that? Because I said so. 152 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:47,000 Kids, if any of your parents ever say I am the Lord after something like that, 153 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:52,000 please call your district elder. Don't call me, call your district elder. 154 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:57,000 Because we're not allowed to say that. That's not for us to say. God can say 155 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:05,000 that because he's God. The best I can is because I say so. Now, how many of you 156 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:13,000 have kids that are 30s, 40s, or 50s? Raise your hand. Does that still work? 157 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,000 Jim, do you say that to Seth if he talks back to you and you say, well, because 158 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:25,000 I'm your father because I said so? No, it doesn't work. Because we are, this is 159 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,000 something we like to do in inside of ourselves. We like to actually take that 160 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:35,000 God piece, that judgment piece, that condemn piece, and go, ooh, I'm going to 161 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,000 throw that on whoever I disagree with, anyone that's different from me. We're not 162 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:44,000 allowed to, friends. And it's hard. The struggle is real. You shall not take 163 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,000 vengeance or bear a grudge against your sons of your own people, but you shall 164 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:53,000 love your neighbor as yourself. I am the law. And if all the law and the prophets 165 00:16:53,000 --> 00:17:01,000 kind of all hang on these two things, love God, love people. I would say, love 166 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:10,000 God by loving people. Love God by loving God. Awesome. And you guys do that a lot. 167 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,000 And I think we do really well with that, but there's not a condition from him to 168 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:19,000 us, but from us to him. We need to love his creation too. Love God by loving 169 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:26,000 people makes a lot of sense. Why? Because there are two things that we kind of 170 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:31,000 have to understand about our way of love, our way of being a neighbor. When Jesus 171 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,000 says that these two things hang on all the law or all the law and the prophets 172 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:41,000 hang on love God, love people, right, it's about two things. They're about giving an 173 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:47,000 offering, right? These passages are about offerings. It's about offering yourself, 174 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:52,000 offering your love, your time, your talents, all of those things to God and to 175 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:57,000 people. Because as we're going to see over the coming months, love is action 176 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:04,000 driven. That these offerings are action driven. It's by putting out an olive 177 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:10,000 branch, maybe the hand of hospitality. Maybe it's the hand of just not yelling at 178 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:16,000 your neighbor anymore or showing patience, showing grace. Because you know 179 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:23,000 that one time that you go on their lawn, they have every right to say get off it. 180 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,000 I really don't have anything against lawns. It's just what comes in my head when I 181 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,000 think about neighbors. And I've had good neighbors, right? We've had good, well 182 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:33,000 except for the one in Crown Point. We won't talk about her. But understand, it 183 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:38,000 wasn't so much her, it was her dogs that I wanted to lovingly end. But understand 184 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:44,000 that both passages have to do with us offering stuff to God but also to other 185 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:51,000 people. And these passages have to do about the purity of the law. There's 186 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:58,000 purity in the law. But that's so hard to get to because we're really dirty people. 187 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:04,000 We think things, we say things, we send things, we type things, we do all of these 188 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:10,000 things that love God by loving people. If the church did that well, guess what? Our 189 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:16,000 churches would be chock full. We'd need all of the churches in the Ileana area. 190 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:20,000 But when the church doesn't do that well and they just kind of make a mess of it, 191 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,000 we lose the offering side, we lose the purity side because it's not, people 192 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,000 don't see that. You may think in your mind, oh but I love God enough to condemn 193 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:35,000 that person to hell. That's not a thing. We've made that a thing in the church. 194 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:43,000 We've made denominations that build themselves around that. You are not God. 195 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:51,000 I am not God. God doesn't bring offerings to himself. God is ultimate purity. 196 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:59,000 This is for us, the muck and mire of people. What Christ is saying in these 197 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,000 passages about treating our neighbors is that to be holy is to love your neighbor. 198 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:11,000 To love God who cannot see means loving the people that we can see. To love God 199 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:16,000 who is, yeah, to love God who we cannot see means loving the people we can see. 200 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:21,000 Have you ever looked at your neighbor as a creation of Christ, as a creation of 201 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:30,000 God? Or are you still condemning them for the week of 4th of July? Why are you 202 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:36,000 celebrating 245 in the morning? Nobody does that, not even Europe. Yet you're 203 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:42,000 still holding that. Yet when they say hi to you, you go, under your breath. 204 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,000 Or you're cursing them in their head. Or you wish they would have blown their 205 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:50,000 hand off so they don't do it again next year. However you want to think about it, 206 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:55,000 that's not bringing an offering of love to God's creation, nor is that a purified 207 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:02,000 understanding of what it means to love other people. But if we're going to be 208 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:10,000 potentially the kingdom come for somebody else, whoo, that's a responsibility. 209 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:17,000 Wow. And shouldn't that like pause, make us pause? I know it does for me. It 210 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:22,000 terrifies me at times. Right? And maybe it's just like, well then I'm just not 211 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,000 going to go outside. I know for some of you introverts you're like, yes, he's 212 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:32,000 talking my language. No, you have to because Jesus also says go. Go and make 213 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,000 disciples. How are we going to make disciples? Ah, by throwing holy water on 214 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:41,000 everyone, by gonging all of their sins, by doing all of the things. No, go and make 215 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:45,000 disciples. Get into a relationship. Baptize them in the name of the Father, 216 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:50,000 Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I have commanded you. What did 217 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:57,000 you just command us? Love the Lord your God with all of your everything and your 218 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,000 neighbor as yourself. So how does this come into play? Luke 10 helps us 219 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:07,000 understand this. Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He 220 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:11,000 fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half 221 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:17,000 dead. Now by chance a priest was going down the road and when he saw him, he 222 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:23,000 passed on the other side. That other side is like, I'm just not about this today. 223 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:30,000 And a lot of us do that. That on our way to go do Jesus' things, we forget to do 224 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:35,000 Jesus' things. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, 225 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Levite, so Pastor Jim came, let's just call for what it is, right? Then Pastor 226 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:47,000 Jim came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan who 227 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:53,000 they hated each other. I mean this is deep, deep rivalry. This goes beyond 228 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:59,000 Cub Sox, this goes beyond Bears Packers, this goes beyond US Australia. All of 229 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:07,000 those things, this was cultural hatred, systemic hatred for generations as he 230 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:16,000 journeyed came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. Guess what? 231 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:21,000 If you don't have love inside of you, if you've not received God's love in your 232 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:29,000 life, you can't have compassion without love. It doesn't work. And some of you may 233 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,000 fight me on that and bring it on after I get back from vacation. This week, call 234 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:39,000 your elder. He went to him, bound his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, things 235 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:45,000 that cost money. He spent resources in his compassion. Then he set him on his own 236 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:50,000 animal and brought him to the inn and took care of him. And the next day he took 237 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:55,000 out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and 238 00:23:55,000 --> 00:24:02,000 whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do 239 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:11,000 you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Well, the 240 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:18,000 Samaritan. And then Jesus says, go and do likewise. So maybe the question, friends, 241 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:25,000 maybe the question isn't who is my neighbor? Where it's us doing the things, 242 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:30,000 doing the pointing, doing the judging, doing the looking. Maybe, just maybe, and 243 00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:35,000 let's walk this together for a couple weeks, maybe the question is, whose 244 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:42,000 neighbor am I? Because that really changes the question. That really changes what 245 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:48,000 goes on in my heart. That's what goes on in my soul. Because I can walk out of the 246 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:53,000 house asking who is my neighbor and have judgment go, yeah, we have 15, 16, we like 247 00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:00,000 them, yeah, 15, 18, 15, 19, well, yeah, we could do, but what if we woke up, we 248 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:07,000 walked out of our days asking the question, whose neighbor am I? Because we 249 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,000 love to take the high position, right? I would get up on this, but I guarantee you 250 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:15,000 I'd fall. We'd love to get up there and be, it's called didactic, right? It's how 251 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:19,000 preaching was taught and still is in some seminaries that the pastor needs to be up 252 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,000 here didactically, we're going to preach down there. You go to the East Coast, you 253 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:28,000 go to a lot of those kind of first churches, where's the pulpit? Up in that 254 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,000 corner. Part of me thinks that would be awesome. Part of me thinks that would be 255 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:39,000 great. High enough and you can soar, never mind. But understand the reason why is 256 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:44,000 because the pastor, the priest, whatever, was up there with the high, lofty words 257 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:49,000 of God, Yahweh, thus saith the pastor, and we're just going to didactically 258 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,000 throw it on the people. One of the best things, and you may disagree with it, that 259 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:59,000 I love about this sanctuary when you all did the remodel is lowering the stage. 260 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,000 Now, you made it a little bit high because you didn't know what you're going 261 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:05,000 to call the sure pastor, but understand that it's a little more comfortable, 262 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,000 right? Because the minute you take that high, elevated position against your 263 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:17,000 neighbor, you're a bad neighbor. Oof. Oh, it's just the beginning, friends. 264 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:22,000 Because when we do this, when we put it all on who is my neighbor, when we put 265 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,000 what they're bringing to me, that what they're going to do is going to change 266 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:32,000 my opinion of them, puts us in the driver's seat. And guess what? We love 267 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,000 that. Oh, if I can be in the driver's seat of my life, it's great because it's 268 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:43,000 everyone else's fault. It's the way that myself and my wife drive, right? See, 269 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:48,000 I took it with you, okay? It's everyone else's fault. I may have cut you off, 270 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:55,000 but you shouldn't have been there, right? I use it as stoptional and almost hit 271 00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:00,000 you. Why did you stop? We can put it on everybody else. It's just like our 272 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,000 neighbors. We throw so much stuff on our neighbors that our neighbors don't even 273 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:10,000 know. Now, take the word neighbor and put person on the other side of the aisle of 274 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,000 the church. Put it on someone in leadership. Put it on your coworker. Put 275 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:20,000 it on if all I'm doing in my life is sitting there going, what is this? What? 276 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:24,000 And maybe this is some of you. What is this person going to do now to 277 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:32,000 disappoint me? Is that a fun life to live? I try to be an eternal optimist to the 278 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000 point where it's annoying. You can say amen, Carrie. I get it. But a lot of us 279 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:42,000 tend to do that. I know I can do that. People call you on the phone. People come 280 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:48,000 into your office. There's a battlefield of the mind. Sometimes it's like, oh, I'm 281 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,000 so excited to hear this testimony and this story. The other time it's like, again? 282 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000 We do the same thing. And who are we to put ourselves in that position? Because 283 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:02,000 when we're doing that, then we're missing the basic needs of people. We're putting 284 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,000 ourselves in a high lofty place where you don't have to worry about all the junk 285 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:11,000 down here because I'm going to be way up here. One of the things I love that I 286 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:18,000 know for years was kind of supposed to be taken out of the pastorate is this idea 287 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,000 of psychology because, you know, psychology can be woke. It can be liberal. 288 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000 It can be all of these things. Psychology is a study of how we think and do things. 289 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:31,000 Psychology, sociology fascinate me. I may be bad with math, but I love and I think 290 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:37,000 I'm decent at understanding how the brain works in a way that we connect to 291 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,000 certain things. But I also take my cue from Jesus as we all should because 292 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:47,000 Matthew 25 sums up in this verse, and the king will answer them. This is the sheep 293 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:51,000 and the goats. Remember that? And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, 294 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,000 as you did for the least of these, my brothers, you have done unto me. And what 295 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000 is he talking about? Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the 296 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:06,000 naked, visiting those in prison. When you've done to the least of these. Guess 297 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:12,000 what? If we're sitting up here on our high horse, who are the least of these? 298 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:20,000 Everybody that's not me. When we become that egotistical, narcissistic, all of 299 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:26,000 those things, when we think that all that we do is great and holy and godly, and we 300 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:31,000 love to put it on our social media so everybody knows, the least of these 301 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:36,000 probably is everybody then, right? But Jesus really is talking about the least 302 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:43,000 of these by meeting their needs. One of the things you learn is the basic needs 303 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:48,000 of people actually break down to five different things. It's called the, it's 304 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:54,000 the Maslov, I always get his name wrong, hierarchy of needs. Okay? The basic needs 305 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:02,000 of people, right? The kind of physiological needs. Food, water, warmth, 306 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:09,000 and rest. Are those needs being met in your life, regardless of the temperature 307 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:16,000 of the sanctuary? Are those needs being met? You all look pretty fed, right? 308 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,000 You're all, you're all so clothed, and we appreciate that, we follow the same thing 309 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:24,000 as Burger King, no shoes, no shirt, no service. You all have water to drink, or 310 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,000 you will, and it'll be coffee. You're all fairly warm, and you're all, maybe you 311 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:34,000 didn't have the best sleep, but you have areas to rest. People that don't have 312 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:39,000 that, think about that from their point of view. If those are things that they 313 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:46,000 don't readily have, where are they at in life? I think they kind of are the least 314 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:50,000 of these. It's another reason why we want to develop missional relationships with 315 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:59,000 organizations that meet these needs. I know they hate when I spotlight them, but 316 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,000 Smedberg's deal with it. You guys do a really good job at this. Follow their 317 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:08,000 social medias. They're feeding people all the time. If they go to the farmer, 318 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:14,000 are they going to get fed? Wake up. Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, they're going to get 319 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000 fed. See, they're resting. They're meeting their physiological, no they're not. 320 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:24,000 They weren't asleep. The second basic needs, safety and security. I can, I'm 321 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:32,000 preaching to a group that has this, but if you don't, what is life like? And for 322 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000 some, maybe we don't feel safe in our relationships. Maybe there's an area in 323 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,000 our life we don't have safety. Don't you think about that all the time? Isn't it 324 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:45,000 hard to actually go through and live life if you don't feel safe and secure 325 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:51,000 regardless of a system you may have in your house or you carry or not? If you 326 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:58,000 don't have, these are basic human needs. So let's go a step further. Our 327 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:03,000 psychological needs is a belonging and love need. Having intimate relationships, 328 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:09,000 having friends, it's important to have those. I'm going to say you can have them 329 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:14,000 online. I'm still not sold that solely online relationships are good because I 330 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,000 do think it meets, I think there's something about meeting with someone 331 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:23,000 face-to-face, but we're not going to get into that today. But belonging and love. 332 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:29,000 Isn't this the church? Or maybe, let me change the question. Shouldn't this be 333 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:35,000 the church? Shouldn't the church from the top down or from the yellow down? I think 334 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:40,000 that should be your missions committee. That should be your outreach. That should 335 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,000 be most of your ministries should be meeting some of those needs, if not all of 336 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:50,000 them. Something to think about. The next one, esteem needs. So prestige and feeling 337 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:54,000 a sense of accomplishment. I don't know the data for this. My guess is there's a 338 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,000 percentage of people that never get there. Because how in the world, if you're 339 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000 struggling to eat or stay warm or have water, you feel no safety and security, 340 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:07,000 you have no intimate relationships, are you ever going to feel esteem about 341 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,000 yourself? Are you ever going to have a feeling of accomplishment if you go 342 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:20,000 without food? No. Again, the church. Or basic human decency. And go one more. 343 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000 Self-actualization. Achieving one's full potential, including creative activities. 344 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:31,000 You know who uses systems and tables like this? Places like Habitat for Humanity. 345 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,000 Ministries like This Way Ministries in Christ Church. I'd like to think there's a 346 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:43,000 section of Munster Church that would like and does do some of this. But forget the 347 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:50,000 church. Forget those organizations. What about your address? What about your 348 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:57,000 household? What about the Holland owner house? What about the Skutt house? What 349 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000 about the Nadeberg house? A lot of your last names are completely blanking in my 350 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:10,000 mind. But what about your house? Does your house care about this? Or you do 351 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:13,000 expect the church to do it. Or you know Habitat for Humanity is doing it. Or 352 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,000 This Way Ministries is doing it. So we're good. We're just going to give money. 353 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:21,000 And that's not inherently bad. Right? Even people need to buy Paul's tents to 354 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:29,000 have Paul continue in his ministry. But if Jesus says to the least of these, 355 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:34,000 you've done unto me, I think there's something here. It's not going to be the 356 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:38,000 last time we see that. And next week what we're going to do is we're going to take 357 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:43,000 it in a little bit more active way. Right now we're building a baseline. And not 358 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:48,000 only are we building a baseline, we're building an understanding that Jesus 359 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:57,000 reminds everybody he talks to about being good neighbors to go and do. Not go 360 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:04,000 and think, not go and wish, not go and plan, but never do. Go and do likewise. 361 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:11,000 So maybe friends it's not so much my neighbors. It's more of how am I a 362 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:18,000 neighbor. We're going to close with Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. 363 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:23,000 Fred Rogers, a Methodist pastor I believe, said this, love isn't a state of 364 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:32,000 perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to 365 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:38,000 accept that person exactly the way they are right here and right now. And here's 366 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:44,000 the rub. I know there are some of you that struggle with this because of where 367 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:49,000 we find ourselves in our culture today. Because that exactly the way they are 368 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:54,000 right now we immediately want to go to. But they're living a life of sin, ergo 369 00:35:54,000 --> 00:36:01,000 they need condemnation. And friend, though that may be true, it's not your job to do 370 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:06,000 it. But what would that look like if we actively loved, because if we follow 371 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:11,000 God's word, and this is getting into sermon number three and four, doesn't 372 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:17,000 everyone deserve this? Doesn't everyone deserve to learn this and to understand 373 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:23,000 what this has to speak into life? Oh, I would love my neighbor if they were 374 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:29,000 exactly the way I want them to be. Friend, it doesn't work. But let us in this month 375 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:38,000 take this journey to recognize the needs of the people around us and to go and do 376 00:36:38,000 --> 00:37:02,000 likewise. Let's pray.