You know, I have to let y 'all know I actually
went this last week to Las Vegas Yeah, I know
right and I was there for a preaching conference.
I swear I was there for a preaching conference
I really was it really was I know it sounds suspicious
right you know a priest a pastor and rabbi walk
into a casino right okay but and you know I was
there we spent the first two days it was my old
professor from seminary and we were going through
all the different types of patterns that are
used for preaching and all and then spent a couple
days I was doing the sightseeing and you know
definitely went to go see the sphere that place
is huge it's fascinating and I went to go see
a Cirque du Soleil show Not that kind of Cirque
du Soleil show, all right? It was a Michael Jackson
show, okay? Everybody was clothed enough. You
know, Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?
Come on, she's like right there, the Michael
Jackson joke had to be made. And yes, yes, and
I went through the casinos and all, they're in
every single hotel. And I did not, I resisted
playing, especially because a bunch of them were
like $100 buy -in, and I'm like, ah, not so much.
I just went and got a burger from Gordon Ramsay's
place, so it was all right, it was all right.
But you know, while I was in town, I went to
go see the Planzas. The Planzas, were the couple
that sold me my house. They were members here
before they moved to Vegas to work with the National
Weather System. And one of the things with that
is that in doing this, I was able to connect
and share what was going on. But you see, this
couple, they went out of their way to make sure
that I could get into their home. At a time four
years ago, whenever prices were jumping through
the roof, not only did they not raise the price,
They even came down just a little bit so I could
actually still afford it. You know, they technically
were never my neighbor because when I moved in,
they moved out. But they treated me like it.
They treated me like somebody that they cared
about, someone who mattered to them. And when
I was there, they wanted to know about our next
door neighbor. You see, she's been there for
a number of years. She lost her husband a few
years ago. Her kids and her grandkids were there
with her, but she was always the sweetest person.
that she also has a similar faith in Christ But
you know she's always been good kind of checking
on the house and making sure things are okay
But made me wonder What if she weren't similar
to me? What if she wasn't always the nicest what
if there were times when she was difficult or
rude? What if I'd be tempted to call this person
a bad neighbor? Would I still care about her?
Would I be treating her with kindness? At what
point would I be deciding whether or not she
was worthy of being my neighbor? And that's the
question that's at the heart of today's message.
Who is my neighbor? And maybe more importantly,
what kind of neighbor am I willing to be? Romans
13 10 says love does no harm to a neighbor therefore
love is the fulfillment of the law You see as
we think about our neighbors We may be thinking
well I've never done any harm to my neighbor
There's lots of things I might have wanted to
do to my neighbor, but I haven't actually done
anything toward my neighbor But what if we did
do something wrong? toward those around us if
we did Would we even be willing to admit it?
even to ourselves And I wanted to take a moment
and I wanted to look at Leviticus Leviticus 19
there's few verses there and What they're doing
is they're showing us something deeper that we
should consider see before Jesus ever told the
parable of the Good Samaritan God had already
laid out a clear picture of what it meant to
love your neighbor See, in Leviticus 19, we're
given a series of commandments, okay? Not just
about rituals or sacrifices, you know, the things
that we normally think of with like Leviticus
and all the blah, blah, blah. But we also see
justice, generosity, and everyday decency. And
they're all wrapped around this same core idea.
Do not do no harm to your neighbor. do good when
you have the power to do it. Let's break it down
and not like white boys do. Now, verses 9 and
10 say, When you reap the harvest of your land,
you shall not reap your field right up to its
edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings
after your harvest, and you shall not strip your
vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen
grapes of your vineyard, you shall leave them
for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the
Lord your God. See, this talks about leaving
something for the people who are in need. You
see, when you would go through and gather all
of your crops, there was always bound to be stuff
that would fall down, that would fall behind.
So you'd have to go out of your way to go back
and spend all this effort to catch up all the
little pieces. But it was so little, it wouldn't
really make a difference to your profits or to
what you were reaping. But if there was someone
desperate, who didn't have a home and didn't
have food, they could go and gather it and it
would be enough for them to live. The idea is
don't grab every scrap for yourself. Sometimes
we're so desperate to hold onto what we think
is ours, even leftovers, things that wouldn't
matter to us, that could mean everything to somebody
else. What we hoard might not really help us.
but it could be a lifeline for someone else.
Did you really need to sell the old couch that
was 20 years old for 50 bucks online, or could
you have given it to that new couple next door
that you know they don't have furniture? Or even
looking at verses 11 and 12, and it says on there,
you shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely,
shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear
by my name falsely and so profane the name of
your God, I am the Lord." Because how often do
we do things that are actually lying and honestly
stealing, but because we can make it look right
or act that somehow this is what God would want
and this is what good people would do, it's like
we're just taking a spiritual bumper sticker.
of Jesus saves and putting it on things just
to make things look holy. See, there's a reason
I don't ever put a Jesus bumper sticker on my
car knowing how I drive in Houston traffic. See,
we might say this is what God wants when it's
really just what we want. And worse, we hide
behind our identity as God's people that, well,
I'm a good person. And acting as if being religious
or having our moral high ground makes everything
that we do right. Even as we go over and manipulate
things on our taxes to make it look better, knowing
in reality that it's not true, not right. And
then in reality, we've just done something deceitful.
Verses 13 and 14. You shall not oppress your
neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant
shall not remain with you all night until the
morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put
a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall
fear your God. I am the Lord. Do not take advantage
of those who can't stop you. Let's be honest.
We know that there are people we could do what
we want and they couldn't actually do anything
to us. We know that there are people out there.
It could be the person that we underpay, they've
already done the work, but we're only gonna give
them so much. Or the person that we ignore, or
the one who needs help but there's no real reward
for it, for us. Or the times whenever we pretend
that we've done nothing wrong because it was
legal even though we know it was immoral. If
you know that that employee, needs the paycheck,
but you found an excuse to hold it back for two
weeks? That's not being savvy, it's being sinful.
Or verses 15 and 16. You shall do no injustice
in court. You shall not be partial to the poor
or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall
you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around
as a slanderer among your people, and you shall
not stand up against the life of your neighbor.
I am the Lord. How often it is that we want to
get our way so we can somehow figure out how
to manipulate the courts or manipulate popular
opinion or manipulate those around us manipulate
our friends or our family to somehow take our
side and To get what we want the power the money
the influence We don't go to the person we talk
about them because we know that if we actually
went to them it would be easily fixed We speak
about others and we trample over them using our
social media or our group chats to ruin someone's
reputation saying we're just venting when in
reality we're just looking for vengeance or even
the last two verses from this section you shall
not hate your brother in your heart but you shall
reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur
sin because of him you shall not take vengeance
or bear grudge against the sons of your own people
but you shall love your neighbor as yourself
I am the Lord You know how you feel deeply wronged.
You know that resentment. You know that hurt.
Where, you know, I've been mistreated. There
should be justice done. All I want is justice.
But is that actually how God sees it? Is it possible
that that person actually feels that you've wronged
them? Or more than that, even if they did wrong
to you, would you actually be willing to let
God take care of it instead of you? How often
do we say we've forgiven somebody but every time
they come up we make sure we bring up exactly
what they did? All of these verses Keep reminding
us one thing Love your neighbor as yourself.
You see sometimes we harm our neighbor without
realizing it and other times we harm our neighbor
We know exactly what we're doing. We just don't
want to admit it But either way the question
remains How can we do better? And that's an idea
that we want to see as we look at Jesus. See,
in Luke 10, we see the parable of the Good Samaritan,
and I'm sure that you know this parable and maybe
you know it a little too well. See, sometimes
we know a story so well that we stop listening.
We don't want to just go about our business,
but we want to lean in and hear what this is
truly saying to us. You see, there's a man who
is beaten and half dead on the side of the road
and two men pass by, a priest and a Levite. Again,
not a joke. But these are the religious leaders,
the ones that bring people to God's presence
with the sacrifice, with the temple, the tabernacle,
the ways in which they connect people with God.
If anyone should stop and help, shouldn't it
be them? But they don't. They see them, and they
go to the other side of the road. See, the text
doesn't tell us specifically why, but we can
guess. Maybe they were in a hurry. They had stuff
to do. You know, here's a problem. Maybe they
weren't sure. Maybe that man was already dead.
See... If they tried to help and he was already
dead, they'd be unclean. They'd have to deal
with all these other issues. You know, someone
else would probably take care of it. Probably
the priest thought that the Levite could take
care of him because the priest has priest stuff
to do. The Levite, maybe somebody else could
help him. Maybe the Levite's saying, you know,
I've got all this stuff to take care of. Someone
else, I'm sure, will come along. Maybe his family
will be there. I just, I don't want the hassle.
But they keep going. See, technically they stay
clean, but spiritually, they walked right past
the heart of God. See, this part of the message,
you know, it always reminds you of those things
where like the one person you know they're struggling
with their groceries, but you've explained to
yourself in your mind why you shouldn't go help
them, because I'm sure that they'd be uncomfortable
with that and they wouldn't want me to be in
their business. Or, you know, that one person
who's had their blinker on, for the last several
seconds they're trying to get over but in your
mind you're like if I just speed up I can get
there before them so that you know I could get
there two seconds faster the times that we intentionally
look in the other direction if you don't make
eye contact then it lets you off the hook you
know what I mean it's as if your moral obligation
is canceled by your ability to act like you didn't
see it it's the priest and Levite level avoidance
and it's kind of funny except that it's kind
of true. And then comes the Samaritan, the outsider.
See, the one that was considered impure by the
religious establishment, he sees the man, but
instead of calculating the cost of what it would
take to help him, he crosses the road to him.
He helps, he gives, he stays. This is the move
from not just not harming people, but to actively
helping them. From avoiding trouble to becoming
a blessing. From asking what happens to me if
I stop and deal with it to asking what happens
to him if I don't. And this parable hits today
because we live in a world where we've gotten
really good at defining who does and doesn't
count as our neighbor. If we find a technicality,
a zip code, a background, a legal status, a lifestyle,
we can convince ourselves that we don't have
to help. That's not our issue. And yes, I know
you caught what I put third in that list as if
somehow I were trying to be sneaky to convince
you to look at people without finding an excuse
to get out of loving them. Because Jesus doesn't
give us an out. Our neighbor is the person right
in front of us. It's the person on the side of
the road. The one God placed on our path. We
may not agree with them. We might not understand
them. We might even be afraid of the implications
of helping. But Jesus doesn't call us to be cautious.
He calls us to be compassionate. It doesn't mean
we throw away wisdom, but it does mean we throw
away indifference. Because love doesn't look
for a loophole. So let me ask you, who have you
been avoiding because it might be inconvenient
to care? Who have you crossed the road to avoid
physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually?
And what would it take for you to cross back
over to them? 1 John 4 11, Beloved, if God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Let's go back to that question. What would it
take for you to cross back over to them? To stop
avoiding and to start loving? Let's take just
a little closer look at that Samaritan. That
word, it may not land fully with you today, but
it would have hit hard in Jesus' time because
the Samaritans, they weren't just outsiders.
They were of the offensive enemies. These were
the ones that the kingdom had separated And they
were going to have their own altars, their own
worship, their own places, their own king. And
then they even were seen as traitors. They were
seen as spiritual traitors, ethnically impure
and religiously heretical. It wasn't a neutral
word just saying, oh, you're from Samaria. When
a Jewish person said it, it was a racial slur.
They were the half -breeds. They were offensively
termed this because they were the people that
even though they were also children of Abraham,
they married people from the surrounding nations.
They were worshipped at the wrong place. They
had their own version of faith. They were seen
as people to be avoided, dismissed, and rejected.
And yet this is the guy that you'd never expect
who chooses to stop. He's the one who chooses
to help. He's the one who chooses to love. Like
people crossing into our state just to help us
find our lost children, despite everything we've
done to label them over the years. And here's
the key. The Samaritan doesn't get caught up
in religious posturing. His own moralism. He's
not worried about ceremonial cleanliness. He's
not calculating risk or social consequence He's
not looking for a theological loophole to justify
walking away. He sees a person in need and He
moves to him Because his heart won't let him
do anything else and that right now that that
is what righteousness looks like Because sometimes
we use our own morality as a shield to protect
our comfort. We use our religion as an excuse
not to love. We say things like, it's complicated,
or it's not my problem, or they don't belong
here. All while the person on the side of the
road is bleeding out. But the Samaritan sees
a person, not a category. A neighbor, not a nuisance.
An opportunity. Not a threat. So how much more
should we, the people of God, do the same thing?
And Jesus asks the question that flips everything
on its head. Who was the neighbor to the man?
Not asking who counts as my neighbor, but asking
who became the neighbor. Do you hear that? Who
proved it? Who became the neighbor? Because neighbor
isn't something we inherit. It's something we
choose to become. Do we want to be the neighbor?
Do we see it as a burden or do we see it as a
privilege? Because the world isn't going to be
changed by protecting ourselves, it's going to
be changed by sacrificial love. By people who
cross boundaries, people who break through the
prejudice, people when love, it's not just for
when it's easy, but especially when it's hard.
We keep asking why the world is so broken Why
people don't know Jesus maybe? Maybe it's because
we've stopped looking for ways to be their neighbor
Maybe it's because we've made loving people optional
But Jesus says the neighbor the true neighbor
is the one who stops who serves who loves Even
when it costs even when the person is offensive
to us or thinks we're offensive to them even
when your pastor is afraid of how many people
don't want to hear it. It's a privilege to be
a neighbor. So what's stopping us? This is what
we see in Jesus. Because Christ has done everything
to be our neighbor. Even when we were His enemies
because of sin. And yes, He's our Savior. He
is the Lord of all. I'm not minimizing that by
using the word neighbor, but to show that the
same heart that we've been talking about, The
heart that crosses the road? The heart that refuses
to look away? The heart that sees worth in the
wounded? That's the very heart of Christ. Because
Christ wants to be our neighbor. Not because
that's nothing, but because it's everything.
From the one who dwells in the Kingdom of God
and welcomes us into it. See, that's the miracle,
is that the Son of God saw us not just as lost
sheep, but as neighbors worth loving. When we
were His enemies because of sin, He didn't walk
away. He came closer. He made room for us not
just to live next door to Him, but to be in His
home. To give us everything, to give us life,
to bring us into His family. Because God sees
broken people like us and says, I want you in
my kingdom. I want you in my home. I want to
live with you. And if that's the heart of Christ,
then what greater privilege do we have than to
reflect that same heart to others? To look at
someone, the one we disagree with, the one we
feel distant with, the one that we've labeled
as others, and to say, I want the privilege of
loving you. I want the privilege of seeing you.
I want the privilege of being your neighbor.
Because that's how the world changes. Not with
arguments, not with excuses. With love. Real
love. Cross the road kind of love. Love that
doesn't make excuses to avoid people, but searches
for opportunities to bless them. Because there
are many voices that you're going to hear. Priestly
logic. Levite caution. Theological technicalities.
Political talking points. But there's one voice
that cuts through it all. It's the voice of Christ.
The one who came as the unexpected neighbor,
the one who, like the Samaritan, was rejected,
misunderstood, and even offensive. And yet, He's
the one who showed us what the Father's love
really looks like. And He says to you, go and
do likewise. But if I may, not just do, go and
be likewise. Be the neighbor Christ has made
you to be. Because He was the neighbor who crossed
heaven to love you first. So go and love like
that in the name of Jesus. Amen