Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / I Want To Be Your Neighbor

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I Want To Be Your Neighbor · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This morning, I guess this could sort of be part two of the Father's Heart.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um last week we talked about the unknown God that Paul talked about when he came to some people that that had lots of gods where they were at, but they had this one altar that says to the unknown God.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, that's the one I want to talk about.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the one that you don't know about.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and we look at at how we know him and how to know him, and what it what it is to know him and what it does to know him.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this could sort of be a part two of that.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a funny title here.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It almost looks like some kind of a real estate thing, like uh you know, like Judy and I are putting out an ad saying, you know, is there a house for sale around here?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be your neighbor.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I want I started to title it um Who is My Neighbor?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because what we're gonna look at today, we're gonna break down, um, if I can get through this very quickly, we're gonna break down the parable of the Good Samaritan as it's found in Luke chapter 10.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you're uh reading your Bibles, uh you can go ahead and and and follow me there.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: But uh in Luke chapter 10, he talks about the the parable of the Good Samaritan.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the big question that we have in that story there is a man asks Jesus, Who is my neighbor?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when he tells the parable.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought about I thought about titling this Who is My Neighbor?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then I thought about what I like better is how um is to turn it and kind of say it like Mr.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Rogers does, I w uh won't you be my neighbor.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but then change it again to I want to be your neighbor because uh first of all this starts with with God wanting nearness with us.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We were alienated from God in our minds, the Bible says.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We we that word alienated, like you're not talking, you're not aware.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's it's like like like like like he doesn't exist in your life anymore.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We were alienated in our mind.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: There was a separation mentality.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the coming of Jesus brought that nearness of God.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: See, the heart of the Father, when we understand how perfectly love He is, is that He wanted us to be near, soul and spirit.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted us to be near.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And He wanted to be near us, with us.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: That word neighbor actually means near.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a physical thing where somebody lives close to you in another house, but it means close to.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It means near.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so He wanted us to be near.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why the Bible says, let us draw near through that blood of Jesus.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let us draw near.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he wanted so much to be near you, close to you, with you, and unite with us, that he Jesus came and he united with us in our sin and our death.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's love.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and forget the idea that people have a lot of times in church that God is waiting for us to come and be like him.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: He came to be like us.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was no way that we were going to rise up on our own and become like him.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he wanted to be with us, so he was willing to be to become like us so we could have that nearness.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what we see in the gospel is this powerful mystery that's been revealed, that he united with us in our sin and our death.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when that union happened, see the union didn't happen in resurrection, the union happened in the uniting happened in our sin and in our death.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He united with us in that.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when that uniting happened, nobody could put that asunder.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when he came out of the grave, we came out of the grave.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: When he ascended on high, we ascended on high.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: He presented, he presented us as a bride.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be near.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're that's one thing that we're seeing when we look at this story of the Good Samaritan.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who is my neighbor?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who is my near one?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So uh uh let me back it up here.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let me find my verse here.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in Luke chapter 10, verse uh 25, we want to start reading.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a man named Matthew Henry that uh I don't know if you do you know who Matthew Henry is.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's a famous Bible scholar.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's written lots of commentaries on the Bible, and he and a commentary statement that he made on the Good Samaritan, he says, nobody will ever love God and his neighbor with any measure of pure spiritual love who is not made a partaker of converting grace.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's that love of God that we receive is the love of God that's manifested.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: We know that's the great commandment.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Nobody can do that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus actually proved it when people would come to him bringing that scripture to him, and he does it right here.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 25, uh it says that behold, a certain lawyer or a scribe stood up and tested him.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he was listening to Jesus' teaching, and he stood up and he was testing or tempting Jesus.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's not really sincere.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's wanting to trip Jesus up.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's wanting to either make him look bad, trip him up, try to catch him in a mistake that he's teaching.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: He stood up and he tested him.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: That seems to be the question over and over again.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: What shall I do to inherit eternal life?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Well, what's written in the law?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is your reading of it?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So he answered and he said, Well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, You've answered correct.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So do this and you'll live.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now notice this was not a sincere question.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: He was not really saying, Well, Jesus, tell me, who's my neighbor and I'll do it?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's wanting to justify himself.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what's that mean?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he thinks that he's already been doing this.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's another account of a very similar story.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the same person.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if not, it's very similar, where somebody says, Well, I've kept the commandments ever since I was young.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and the scriptures that were given in that instance were were love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, I've done all those things.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Okay, well, if you want to be perfect, he says, go and he says, he says, go.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, take, he says, uh leave your house and come and follow me and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you love the Lord with all your heart, then you'll come and follow me.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get rid of everything and you'll follow me if you love the Lord with all your heart.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you love your neighbor as yourself, you're willing to get rid of everything and give it to now that's not a command to us.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: That was something given to this man to prove to him that you can't really do it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You might draw a line and say, you know, if I do this much, I've fulfilled the law.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus just says, none of you can really do this perfectly.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like Matthew Henry says, nobody can love God and his neighbor without the grace of God.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Peter said in that story, he says, well, then who can be saved?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, you can't.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can do this, but with God, it is possible.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Only with God.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Only with God.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's the grace that He gives, the presence that He gives in our life, the love that He gives in our life is what actually is coming from our lives.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, what makes it easy to give, which makes it easy to love God.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Once you know how much God loves you, you don't have to try to love God anymore.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're still trying to love God, you don't quite know yet.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It gets better.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: You will.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now the lawyer knows that he's been kind to his own kind, because the neighbor, if you were to look at Leviticus chapter 19, and this is a lawyer, he knows the law.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is why he thinks he can trip up Jesus.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: He knows the law.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got this already in his pocket to pull out here.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 19, verse 18 says, You shall not take any vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The children of your people.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: The children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I am the Lord.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is in the Old Testament where we get that great commandment.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Love the neighbor.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's defined there when you look at it, and this is how the lawyer reads it, that the neighbor is those who are of your people.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Your people.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to him that's the Jews or the Israelites.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he's thinking, he's wanting to justify himself, well, who's my neighbor?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't taken vengeance on any of my own countrymen, my fellow Jews.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've been good to them.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's some other people out there I don't like, but these guys, my kind, I like them.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've been good to them.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's who my neighbor is.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So then we know that Jesus is going to tell the story of the good Samaritan, and he's going to expand his neighborhood.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to take it out to another place.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we know he's going to talk about the Samaritan man.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Using the Samaritans as an example here.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning I want us to look at the importance of the Samaritans.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: We know they didn't like each other, but let's look at how much they didn't like each other.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Samaritans and the Jews, their hatred for each other goes way back.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: By the time it got to Jesus' time, they called him many things.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: They said he was demon-possessed.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: They said he was a sinner.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: They said he was a blasphemer.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was a lawbreaker.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: They said he was crazy.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And in one place they called him something worse than all of them.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: They even called him a Samaritan.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't call him that because they thought that he was actually of the Samaritan bloodline.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: They called him that because that's like the worst thing you could call somebody.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Think of some name that's the worst slur, the worst thing, the worst thing you could, the worst name you could use on somebody.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's basically what they what they were what they were saying when they called him a Samaritan.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the lowest of the low in their mind.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason goes back historically.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: This has gone on for many, many generations.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: It goes back to really about when Sam, when Solomon, thank you.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Solomon died.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so Saul became king first.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted a king.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: He became king, but he really just ruled over some of the tribe because they were not one big happy family.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: They were tribal.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you've got twelve tribes, twelve tribes are going to be tribal.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was fighting, there were things that go that were going on.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them united behind Saul.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: When David became king, after Saul, you read the story, David united the kingdom.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: He brought all 12 tribes together.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't united until David came.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now Solomon didn't do much to keep holding it together, so when he died, then his son Rehoboam became king, but the northerners broke off.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Rehoboam was king over the southern.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we, when you read about the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom, Israel and Judea.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the southern kingdom was Judah and Benjamin.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was led by Judah, and that's why the southern kingdom are called the Jews.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: They are of Judah.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: See, all the Israelites were not called Jews.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: The other tribes of the northern, of the northern kingdom actually set up another capital there, about 35 miles north of Jerusalem, where Rehoboam sat as king over the southern kingdom, and they named Jeroboam in the north.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: They named him king, and they set up their capital, so to speak, in a city called Samaria.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so eventually they just became known as Samaritans because of that city.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then they started calling the whole region of the north, Samaria.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And there was much animosity there.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Later on, the Assyrian Empire, you know, there was always some empire ruling that part of the world.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of them would rule for a long time and then they'd die, they'd fade away, and another one would defeat them and come along.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So at this particular time, the Assyrian Empire, which was like around Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and that area there, they're ruling the world and they've taken over these countries, and like they always seem to do, they would come along and they take Israel too.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: They took the northern kingdom.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: What we would call the Samaritans, those ten tribes.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: They took, carried some of them away and took some of them captive, but a lot of them, most of them they left them there, but they had this thing that they would do when they would take a country, they would bring lots of other people in there, and they would seed them in that land and cause them to live among each other and let the influence take place and they would intermarry and so on, and it would sort of just break up the whole culture, is what it would do.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was a plan that they had, and it worked often.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So they brought in Babylonians, Mesopotamians, different people from different nations of their empire, and they brought them into northern Israel, the land of Samaria.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we see in Jesus' time they did not consider Samaritans even Jews anymore, because they were bred with other.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: They had blood mixed with many other nations.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They were not pure a pure line from Abraham and Jacob and so on.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was going on.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they didn't they they didn't even count them as part of the covenant anymore.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And after the Assyrians, then the Babylonians came and they took the southern kingdom.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: They beat the southern kingdom and they carried them all away into Babylon for 70 years, and that's where you get the story of Daniel and the lion's den and all that stuff.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they were all gone for 70 years, and when they while they were gone, people filled up that land.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Samaritans moved down in there.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so when they came back, you read the story of Ezra and Nehemiah.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: They came back to rebuild the city of Jerusalem that had been torn down.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: They came back to rebuild the temple.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when they started to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans actually wanted to help in this.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be defiled by you guys.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want you guys to have no part in this.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is our thing.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the Samaritans said, All right, they got mad and they just left and they wouldn't have anything to do.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they did have something to do with them.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: They started doing everything they could to work against them.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They were doing everything they could to stop the building of the temple.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: They even they wrote letters, went to the governors and all that, and said, These Jews, they're doing these horrible things and they're rebelling against you, and they're gonna rise up and try to destroy you.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know their plans and I know the evil of their heart and all that, and the governors believed them, and they so then they they they they they came against the the Jews, and all this stuff was going against them, and they they couldn't finish the temple.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not for a long time.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: They just left.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: They said, just forget it.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is too hard.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: There was too much opposition.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they hated the Samaritans even more because of that.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because they, I mean, these guys, they're not just ignoring each other, they're working against each other.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they had some reasons.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: They had some real reasons for that the Samaritans have done some things to them, have been sort of an enemy to them, have worked against them, have fought against them, and uh and the Jews have done things against them too.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a real uh a real history of hatred.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: These people don't like us, and we don't like them.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're against us, we're against them.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh eventually they they they they built the temple, and so uh the Samaritans built their own temple in the northern land.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: They built it on a place called Mount Gerizim.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Mount Gerizim was one of the hills where where uh back in the days of Moses, when they came into the promised land, he said, stand on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and on Mount Gerizim, proclaim the blessing, and Mount Ebal proclaim the cursing of breaking the law.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so they declared that that God really had told them.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They sort of had different uh versions of the scriptures of Moses, and according to theirs, God said, build the temple on Mount Gerizim.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Jewish scriptures, it said build the temple in Jerusalem.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so they hated them for that because each one was being was was blasphemous and they were missing uh the word of God.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were breaking the command of God.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: They thought the Samaritans were just making up their this thing, and so but the Samaritans believed it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They believed that they were supposed to worship according to the commandment of God on Mount Gerizim.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why later on, when Jesus goes talking to the woman at the well and she says, I have a question.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: We say that we we should worship on Mount Gerizim, the Jews say we should worship in Jerusalem, which one is right?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, That's not even what it is, that's not even the real issue.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a matter of which place, how you do that.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: The true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's about relationship, it's about knowing the Father.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus brought to us the whole time.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So all that was going on.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they hated these people.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't have anything to do with them.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that in the days of Jesus, they would not even defile their shoes by walking on Samaritan soil.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have times when Jesus would actually walk through Samaria when people didn't do that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Coming from Galilee down to Jerusalem, the normal route for Jews to go from Galilee to Jerusalem was to leave the land, go across the Jordan River, go down south, come across back across the Jordan and come into Jerusalem, but don't touch the soil of Samaria.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's how cursed it was.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was horrible.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: It would defile you.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't want Samaritan dust on your shoes.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was the worst of the worst.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritans in their mind were the lowest of the low.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: The only way the Samaritans could possibly have any kind of redemption, any kind of restoration for them, recognisely, was they would have had to change their ways, change their beliefs, and accept what the Jews were doing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: We know in one instance Jesus was going, was about to go through the land of Samaria in one of his travels, and he sent his disciples and 70 other people with them, and he sent them out before him to prepare the way and gave them some instructions about when you find a house.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's, you know, find places for us to stay, places for us to eat, and so on.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so they come to the first city, and the Samaritans stopped him, wouldn't even let them in the city.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, because they knew that Jesus was on his way to worship in Jerusalem.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so their thing is, no, so you can't come into our city.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: If he if he's agreeing with them, if he's going to Jerusalem for their worship feast, when we these Samaritans don't believe in that.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: We believe in Mount Gerizim.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have to make a choice.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you for us or are you against us?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're for them, then no, you can't come into our city.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the hate that they had with each other.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't let Jesus come.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So they go back and they tell John and James, said, What do you, hey, should we call fire down from heaven?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Elijah did it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's call fire down.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: They rejected you.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's call fire down from heaven and consume them and get this same thing over with.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, What?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, you don't know what spirit you're of.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what, that's not the spirit of it.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Elijah might have done it.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It might be in the scriptures.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's written, it is written in the in uh, you know, we have precedent in the Bible that you can do it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but that's not the right spirit.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what spirit you're of.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Here's my spirit, my heart.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to destroy anybody's lives, I came to save them.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but look at what they're doing.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're blaspheming, they're doing all these things.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: They rejected you.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to destroy him.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to destroy him.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little history of what's going on there.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling the story.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: We go back to it.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the next verse says in Luke says, And Jesus answered, and he said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can see if you just very quickly you can see a picture of Adam here.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Look at Adam.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: He has he he had been he fell among thieves.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: What did Jesus say?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Those that came before me are thieves and robbers.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: That tree that promised to bring life and to make us godly actually did not give us anything.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It took from us.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: It took our took took our awareness of God.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It took our our senses closeness to God.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said, We fell among thieves, stripped him of his clothing.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Adam saw that he was naked and ashamed.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was wounded and left half dead, or some of your Bible might say mostly dead.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: What did God say about when we eat that tree?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And man has been dead in trespasses and sins, even though physically he has continued to live, exist.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: So what we see, we look at Adam, we say, Jesus is saying, listen, this is every man here.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is every man.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at this, he says, every man has been wounded, every man has been bleeding.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 16, verse 16 refers to this when God says, When I saw you laying there polluted in your own blood, I had compassion on you.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I washed you with clean water, and I took my garment, and I wrapped you up, and I covered you, and you became mine, said the Lord.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we see the Samaritan doing this.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: In one instance, Jesus actually is that good Samaritan, in one way of looking.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: At this for sure.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there is also a lesson for the person here, besides that.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed on the other side, and likewise a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked, and he passed by on the other side.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why didn't he say a Pharisee and a Sadducee?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why did he say a priest and a Levite?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Could have said a Pharisee and a Sadducee.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: He could have said a rich man and a lawyer.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: He could have said a pastor, a priest, and a rabbi walked into a bar.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: He could have used, could have said something, but but he used a that yeah, that was a joke.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: A priest and a Levite.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because the significance of that is that they passed by on the other side.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: When they looked at him, they passed by on the other side.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's two reasons this could have happened.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is number one, it could have really been a trick.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is that they could have left this guy laying there hoping somebody would stop and then they would also rob the other, the next guy, too.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it could have been.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: More likely, it was a it was a matter of of purity and uncleanness.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because when they saw him, they didn't just walk by and look down and say, oh, that's too bad and keep going.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: When they saw him, they went to the other side of the road so they wouldn't even get close.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So either way, they were their whole their whole point was that they were looking out for number one, right?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: They were there to protect themselves.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were thinking of themselves more than the guy, right?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of I there's a funny little thing.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: When I was like seven years old, I was living in Huntsville, Alabama, and uh and uh there was a kid that wasn't in my class, but he was at the school, and he was probably about the same same age, probably my grade, or maybe a little one older.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he was an Asian boy, like Chinese or something, or or Japanese or something.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a little seven-year-old, and I don't know anything except what I've seen on TV.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm scared of him because I think this boy, if I get too close, I think I think I think they get mad easy.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're mean, and uh they know all these ways to fight.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was and I and I went and I passed by on the other side.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I went to the all the way to the other side of the road.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to get too close to him because I thought if I got too close to him, he'd give me a karate chop.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and as I passed him and I walked by on the other side of the road, I remember kept looking back to make sure he wasn't sneaking up on me to come and give me a karate chop.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I was thinking of myself there.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the priest, the the priest passed by on the other side, and the Levite, he's basically the same.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: The priestess just has the high higher office, but they all have those those those um commands of purity.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're not allowed, they're not supposed to be polluted by somebody else's blood.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're certainly not supposed to touch a dead body, which as far as they know, this guy could be dead.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: They would be defiled.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was called corpse um impurity, and they would have to go through this long ritual and they they didn't to try to get clean again, and uh they couldn't afford that.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they they thought, you know, this is not worth messing with, I'm gonna pass by on the other side.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go on down, and it says, but a certain Samaritan, let's skip on down, where he says a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, he came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: We know this story.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So he went to him, he bandaged his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, which is like two average days' wages in those days.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: He gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him or near to him who fell among the thieves?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the man said, Well, I guess the one who showed mercy on him.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Go and do likewise.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: He told the story to this man, because this man thinks that my neighbor is my fellow countryman.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: He used an example, Jesus did, of two men who were also fellow countrymen of this guy, but they were not near to him.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: They were not neighbors to him in their heart.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan was not a physical neighbor.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was in another land, from another land, but when he passed by in his heart, he drew near to him.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: He had compassion on the man instead of hating him simply because of where he was from.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus was talking about that, the nearness.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: The neighbor is those that you're near to, and that can be anybody.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, now go and do likewise.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: There again, the man can't do it without the grace of God.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we see here is that we see Jesus showing the heart of the Father in this, and we look at this, and he says, Who is your neighbor?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: We wrap this up.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: We look at this this morning, and we think, you know what?
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: God so loved the nice people that he came and you know he so loved the world, didn't he?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: God so he didn't just so love the Jews, he loved the world.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't just love the ones that were trying to live right.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a lot of those he knocked heads with the most.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he says, I didn't come for the good ones.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I came for the sick, the ones that need a doctor.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Those who aren't doing it right, those who are who are wounded.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when he looks at the whole world, if this Adam is every man, what we're looking at is a world that God loves, knowing and loving them, understanding, and he sees a world that's wounded.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's where so much of this evil work comes from, all the hate and all the fighting and all that, is that mankind has been wounded.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Mankind has fell among thieves, mankind has been wounded, and mankind is laying around half dead, and wounded people are wounding each other, and God's got a vision.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: His vision says that as surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the vision of God.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: How does that happen?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: It happens because this morning here, even though, even though this is not a great large group, I was thinking this morning, I got saved in a Sunday morning church service that was about this size, and so I did as they did in those days.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: I come to the altar and and and gave my heart and did all that.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And to this day, that guest speaker who was there might not even remember me because he probably sees that kind of stuff every other week.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what kind of influence can one have?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of influence can a few have?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's exciting to know that the kingdom is within us, and what's happening to us is we're growing in knowing the Father's heart.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as we are growing in knowing the Father's heart, it does so much because what we're doing is growing in that love, and that love is its own reward.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me, says, What if you give love to people in the world and they don't receive it, or they don't give it back, or it doesn't affect them, or it doesn't change them?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if nothing else, just operating out of that is its own reward.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be happy.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have peace.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have joy.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: But God's got a vision.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus was looking at here is what is here.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: He is a Jew.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan woman says, You guys don't have anything to do with us.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't put me in that group.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of the wounded and hurting and hating.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: But he was telling that Samaritan woman when he went out of his way to sit with her and it surprised her, he says, I want to be your neighbor.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be with you.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: You guys don't have anything to do with us.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I do.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be with you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: When he saw Zacchaeus in that tree, and nobody else wanted to be with Zacchaeus because of who he was and what he does.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, knowing full well who he is and what he does, looked at him in the tree and he says, Come down.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be near you.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be your neighbor.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to your house.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to eat with you.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's he doing?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the heart of the Father.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be your neighbor.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do I have to say to a world?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Much of them are against everything I stand for.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Something's happening in my heart.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can honestly say, I want to be your neighbor.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be your neighbor.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: I see things differently.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: We start to our eyes start to open and the veil falls off of our eye.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: The scales fall off of our eyes.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we see a world differently.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it heals all of our pains.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a vision.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: The whole world shall be filled with this knowledge of the glory.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because they will know because of our love.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Something's happening to you and me.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Something's rising like the sun rising in our hearts.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's changing us inside.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's changing our vision.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's changing how we look at the Samaritan.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, I'll say this the other night.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me and said, Who would be our Samaritans today?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: It might be different for different people, but you can sit there and think right now, who are your Samaritans?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Who are those?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the ones?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what does God feel about them?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you what, when the church starts feeling what God feels, seeing what God sees, thinking the way God thinks, and this is going to happen because we're going to know him just as much as he knows us.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier on, his ways were not our ways, his thoughts were not our thoughts.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: We tried to put our thoughts upon him, creating God in our image.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, But my thoughts are not your thoughts.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know the thoughts that I think about you.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let's reason together.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to know me.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I love you.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's stand up.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Father's heart is altogether lovely.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: He gives to all men liberally and upbraids not.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: That means he finds no fault.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: He finds no fault.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I hope every one of us here know that about us with God.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: That God finds no fault with you.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus is that pure and powerful.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the heart of God itself is that pure and powerful.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus changes us because not only does it cleanse us from all sin, but it says it purifies our conscience.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Means we don't feel like a sinner anymore.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't think that way.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the blood of Jesus did not change God's heart.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes people have the idea that when Jesus came, it changed God.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: God has always been love.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And through Jesus, the gospel, Jesus has revealed that to us in a beautiful and perfect way.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: His heart towards you is always for love.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some think you're the Samaritan.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: God sees you differently.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: What can we say?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're wonderful, you're altogether lovely, you're beautiful beyond description.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we're thankful today.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thankful.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are our shepherd, and we shall not want.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Give you praise in Jesus' name.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.