John Gunter: Our father in heaven, God, we thank you again for this day. We thank you for the way that you just bestow upon us your grace and mercy. Lord, for all the ways that we fail you, Lord, for all the ways that we turn away from you, God, we we just thank you for being our God and for welcoming us home. Lord, be with us now as we open your word. Lord, be with the hearts and minds here that are gathered, Lord, to be open to you and and your spirit.
Lord, we're asking for your spirit to work, to be here as we, Lord, as we desire to be closer to you. Lord, just start a fire within us that is burning, Lord, we're a desire to grow closer to each other to to help build your kingdom here, God. Be with us as we do so. Give us strength, give us courage, Lord, and most of all, us love for our fellow man. It's in the precious name of Jesus we pray.
Amen. Well, I always love leading singing. Thank you for singing out this morning. Tyler, when he's going to be gone, he texts me and he'll say, hey, I just want see if you or somebody else could help. It never gets to the or, I won't let it.
I'm sorry. Love helping out and doing that because I it helps us grow close to each other. You're kind of vulnerable when you're singing, right? Even my kids, you know, if we talk about singing at home, I'm like, well, you sing it, you kind of get red faced. The church is about vulnerability and kind of breaking down walls, think.
And so, that helps me as much as anything, but I also like a good sermon to step on my toes. So here we go. We've been talking about, again, tell me the story of life lessons from scripture's greatest moments, and today we are talking about I'm sorry, some of these are really dark. Neighbors' compassion, and we're talking about the good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10, and I know this is one of those you've heard your entire life, you can probably quote it backwards and forwards, but I think every time we encounter God's word, we have an opportunity to grow and be changed by God, don't we? If we really believe that God's word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, let's not get into a comfortable mode of, well, I already know that, but how about God teach me today?
And so my prayer is that we as we encounter God's word, we do not come away unchanged. From Luke chapter 10 starting in verse 25, and behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
He said to him, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? I think it's interesting that Jesus, the Jesus we all follow, turns this man back to the law and says, or asks the question, how do you read it? We were talking in class this morning that for some reason we've gotten in our mind at times that if we all just open the Bible and read it, we'll all come to the same conclusion. How many people in this room do you think agree completely with you?
Well, I'd like to think so. I'd like to think everybody else was right as well, but it's just me. But Jesus asked him this in a way that allows him to interpret this. Right? How do you read it?
How do you understand it? Well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. And this lawyer gives the right answer, but Luke tells us that he sought to justify himself, and so he asked, who is my neighbor? And so in this moment, the lawyer wasn't really trying to find truth, what he was trying to do was limit the love he had to give so he could feel righteous. And so if I can limit, and I can pinpoint, and I can say only you, and you, and you, well, that's a whole lot easier, and I feel really good about myself.
But Jesus, as we know, redefines this and he starts by giving this story, or telling a story about what love looks like. And so, knowing the word is not enough, as this man knew the word. Living the word is what really matters. You know that? How many of us claim to be Christians?
Amen? A couple of you, that's good. Now, if you're watching online, we've got more than two in here, but only two Christians. But how many of us live that calling? How many of us live what we claim?
So knowing the word, coming in here and even being able to quote a bunch of scripture love somebody that can quote a bunch of scripture, it sounds phenomenal. I had to learn for a class the sermon on the mount, Matthew five, six, and seven. I thought it was impossible. It's not. You can do it.
You gotta do it every day, but you can do it. But it's not enough to be able to quote it, what matters is being able to live it, and that's the disconnect that Jesus is going to talk about right here. So in verse 30, Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Now, if you're the lawyer here, when you hear the the word priest, you think, okay, here's the savior. Here's the good guy in the story, he's gonna take care of everything. Right? He's the Jason Bourne without all the abilities, I guess. He's going to win at all costs.
He passed by on the other side. Okay. Well, a Levite, well, we all know the Levites, they're gonna take care of this man. The Levite passes by on the other side. So understanding this, as we do, now they didn't have Philippians, but notice what Philippians said, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. And so true love looks not only at what I want or what I desire, but also for what you want and what you desire. Note, the song leader asked for your song this morning. I get bonus points for that. Right?
Because it's not all about what I want or what makes me happy. Okay? It may look completely different if John Gunther decided what all we were going to do this morning in a different way. Right? I know in my last church, the preaching minister one day, he wanted to talk about communion.
And so when everybody walked in, the seats were all in a circle. We had chairs like this, and they were in a circle. So when you walked in down the big aisle, all of a sudden you came into a circle. What do you think the first thought was people had? Uh-oh.
He had done that like four years before I got there, and people were still talking about it. Because it changed, it helped it helped teach, it helped bring people together that all of a sudden we're looking at each other and not just looking at one person here. If I ask you guys to look over at other people right now, how comfortable are you doing that? Like Karen is. Extroverts are like, hey, let's do it.
Can we talk? Can we get up? The introverts
John Gunter: are wanting to
John Gunter: climb under the chair and say, boy, I've got a head out, I need some Tylenol, I'm gonna be back. Yeah. But we okay. Well, that's what love is, is to look at other people and to appreciate them, and it even says, okay, count them more significant than yourselves. How much do you care about you?
Anybody wanna speak up to that? Nobody point at your spouse and say anything about them. How much do you care about you? You look out for you. Right?
When you're hungry, eat. When you have a desire for something, you're gonna try and get it. Right? Okay. Look at someone else and care about them even in the same way.
That's very difficult, isn't it? That's what Philippians is saying, and so as Jesus tells this story, he is is pointing that out. Right? They have something else going on where they have no time for this other person. And so, love begins really when you open your eyes to see the needs of others.
That's when love begins. There is no reason that we should sit here and claim, I'm a Christian and I love people, if my eyes are closed to the needs or even desires of others. Do you understand that? In verse 33, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn, took care of him.
And the next day he took out 2 denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Now, Doctor. Darrell Bock is one of the he's kind of an expert on the book of Luke, and what he says about this is, the Samaritan's act was an act that included risk in this story. Right? If you saw a man that has just been beaten up, your first thought might be, okay, where are the people that did this?
Because I don't wanna encounter them. Right? What am I gonna do? And so, somebody might actually blame you. I don't remember who beat me up, I've got a head injury.
Well, were you the guy who did it? How do you prove that? So he risked danger, suspicion, and even personal resources to care for this man. Did you see that? It's not as Jesus is telling this story that all of a sudden, this man got lucky that he found a guy whose calendar was open.
Right? A wealthy man whose calendar just happened to be free. Jesus tells the story in a way that these other people, I've got more important things to do. But this man, and again, as he tells the story, they would not have expected they would have expected the priest and the Levite to be the hero of the story, but not a Samaritan. A half breed, a half Jew who didn't accept all of the Old Testament.
They only accepted the first five books. And so, when the Samaritan comes up, you're going, oh, I know this guy didn't do any good, but he does. He binds up the wounds of this man, puts him on his own animal, carries him to an inn, not only does he do that, but he leaves money for the innkeeper to take care of it and says, any more you spend, I'll pay for it. That, my friends, is love. Because, what did he care about this other person?
Why would he why should he care about this other person? Well, if you're a lover of God, if you're saying, I'm following God, I am walking in the light, so to speak, what God tells us to do is to love one another. In first John three, it says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Saying you're all talk, if this is what if this is you.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And so, real love always costs you something. Yes? You understand that? Men, you understand that because you had to start buying flowers immediately, didn't you?
All of a sudden, our calendar gets rearranged because we like someone. Real love costs something. It costs time, resources, or even safety. Try to explain to someone who doesn't have kids why kids are great because they're real expensive. Sometimes they're a headache, don't tell them.
Mine's in here. But real love costs something, doesn't it? Could I have more money if I didn't have two kids playing sports and all that stuff? Absolutely. But when you experience love, that's something special, isn't it?
And so what I do as a parent, what I desire to do is to not only show that love, but to instill in my boys how to love. And you don't just love people who are just like you, or you don't just love people who think exactly like you. That would be impossible. You love because they are people and God loves them. Verse 36, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
And he said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. And so at the end of this story Jesus tells, he probably shocks his listeners as the Samaritan becomes the hero. The audience would would never expect this, they would expect, again, the priest or the Levite to be the savior of all of this. But notice, when the lawyer said, who is my neighbor?
Jesus reframes it as, who became a neighbor. And so neighbor is not a category to define, but an identity to live out. It is not about I can I can say you, you, but not you, it is about who I am? Again, the question was, who are they? And Jesus reframes it in a way that says, who are you?
We can't be all about talk. In Galatians three twenty eight, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Paul removes all question about who's higher than who, who belongs, who doesn't. Paul says, there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave or free, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And even in Christ Jesus, because sometimes we can be the most judgmental of anyone, sometimes we look around and say, you're in, you're in, you're out.
I'm not doing for you, I will do for you, don't we? Unfortunately. Do you think Paul would write us a letter for that attitude? I think so. I don't think it would be anonymous, I think it would have his big old name in there, and there would probably be indentions in the paper from how hard he wrote about the attitude he heard that we had.
But often that is us. Well, who is our neighbor? Because you can just hear, I want to be justified, but I wanna do as little as I can. So being a neighbor isn't just about who qualifies, it's about how you choose to live. James two fourteen through 17 says this, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Now, this is not a a verse about working yourself into salvation. This is not a thing where you, oh, I did this Lord, pay me what I'm owed. This is about living out what you have already claimed.
I believe in Jesus, live it out. I am a Christian, go do it. I go to church on Sunday, fantastic. How are you living your life? I'm glad you're here this morning, but I'm more interested in how's your life going?
How are you treating other people? Because often, those two things unfortunately don't go hand in hand. That the way I I the thing I claim to love God, or to be a Christian, or to follow Christ doesn't fall in line with the way I live, the way I talk about someone else, the way I point to that group and say, you don't belong, you're not a part of us. Go in peace, be warmed and filled. That is like saying to someone, okay, go away.
I'll pray for you, knowing that you have the things to take care of them. Knowing that you have the ability to fulfill their needs, I'm desiring to do nothing. I'm not going to do anything. Matthew 25 verse 40, Jesus says this, and the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Now the whole story is there's a question there of when did we do it for you? I didn't see you show up. If I would have seen you, right, you know, Jesus Christ, hello, my name is Jesus Christ, I would have taken care of you. And Jesus says, the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. The problem is how we view other people.
The problem is, oh, I think, well, if Jesus showed up this morning, boy, we'd all be, oh, yeah. I'm gonna say amen this morning. John's asking to and I won't do it, but I'll say amen if I'm old. Let it be, Lord. Let it be.
If I knew Jesus was in here, I'd act a little different. The problem is, you're not seeing other people as Jesus. You're not valuing other people even as yourself, and so that doesn't change your behavior. And so what that shows is, we're all talk. I'm claiming something I have no desire to live out.
Truly, say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Some of us need to keep this in our mind next time you go to talk about someone else, to talk badly about someone else. Is that Jesus? Do you see that other person as important? Bach also notes in this section, I think it's fantastic, he said, before we identify with the Samaritan, before we identify with the hero of the story, we must first identify with the beaten man in the ditch.
Oh, I like that. Some of you need to you need to hear that again. I can see on your face, know, hold on. Before we identify with the Samaritan, we must first identify with the beaten man in the ditch, helpless and in need of mercy. Because it's real easy to go, I'm the good Samaritan.
I wouldn't be the priest or Levite, I am the good Samaritan. Well, maybe you, and we all are, the man that was beaten and in the ditch, helpless and in need of mercy. Are you a sinner in need of a savior church? What kind of church is this? Here.
I'll tell you, my favorite place to preach is prison ministry because they will talk back. I don't know why we're not excited about this this morning, because you have a savior. You understand? Are you a sinner in need of a savior? If you're not excited about that, how in the world are you gonna impact someone else's life?
Right? I'm not just trying to get you to talk up just because I wanna hear it, I think we all ought to be excited about it. Because what God has done for us, we can identify with both of these people. Hopefully, I am the person who needed help. I am the person waiting, needing assistance on the side of the road, And God took care of that, and we're thankful for that.
But what we can't do is understand that about ourselves, go out and live life, and look at someone else and go, not time, I don't have any time for that. Yes. I know that's difficult, isn't it? Because we're all busy, we're all we all have calendars that are way too full, but we too were helpless until Christ showed us mercy. We were rejected like a Samaritan, yet we were full of compassion, or he was full of compassion.
I wanna speak very clearly this morning. Our culture, and especially our political landscape right now, has a way of trying to dehumanize anyone with whom they do not agree. If you're thinking about it, I'm talking about your political affiliation, I am. Okay? Whichever side that is.
But what we do is to continue dehumanizing, talking so badly about someone that the the reaction to that or the the fallout from that is we no longer have any issue talking badly about them because they're not on our level. And guess what? Jesus died for them too. I don't care if it's some political ideology that, oh, we don't agree with the right, we don't agree with the left, they're trash. Uh-uh.
Stop that. I don't care if it's, well, they did something illegal. Anybody done something illegal this week? There you go. Thank you.
I'm not gonna say your name over the name. Anybody accidentally speed? Accidentally speed this week. Why is it that we know that, but we will look at someone else who has done something illegal and say, no, we can't have that. They're trash, they're garbage, we got to get them out of here.
Why not us too? Isn't that justice? But we don't like that, we don't see it that way. Because we're not doing what scripture said, we are not looking at someone else on the same level, we're looking at us and them. I've got the best of intentions, you just didn't want to follow the law.
We continue to dehumanize. It's been said, and you've heard it said, that every illegal immigrant that comes across is a rapist or murderer. You think that's true? You really think that's true? No?
That hyperbole, and we understand it's hyperbole, you understand it's not true, that hyperbole ends up hurting, and we start thinking of even those people as less than. And why don't you get out of here because you're not following the law. I broke the law this week, but I'm going to stay. Now, what I'm not doing is trying to get into debate about any of that as far as the legality or anything like that, but what I am trying to say is, if Jesus was here this morning, how would he tell you to care for the least of these? What do you think?
And is your speech, are your actions in line with that? Because I'm afraid Jesus would come in and really step on our toes, we'd come limping out of this building, wouldn't The we thought, the way we talked, things we posted on social media, all of those things. I imagine we walk out here going, oh, I've a lot to change. I took a lot of notes today. And so, if you know that, if you know that Jesus wouldn't stand for it, why in the world are we baptizing it out here in culture?
Why is it if my political party says something, I have to baptize that even though I know it doesn't fall in line with what Jesus wants? What that says is I'm more aligned and I love my political affiliation more than the way I love Jesus. And as a minister, I'm sick of it, to be honest with you. I don't care for any of the political affiliations or anything like that, and again, even those people are worthy of redemption, I wanna
John Gunter: clear that up.
John Gunter: I'm not trying to run them down either. But, we are all sinners in need of a savior. Don't look at yourself as the hero before you identify yourself as the person in the ditch, helpless, in need of mercy. The problem is not that the people say these things that I'm talking about. We can't control what everybody says and does, can we?
We know that. The problem is when we support the people who say these things as if it is a Christian thing. And for that, we should stand up and say, No. I may align with you politically on a lot of things, I'm not going with that. If for whatever reason we've decided if we're one side or the other, we have to adopt and accept every single thing that political party does or says.
And I see it all over Facebook, I see it on social media, and it needs to stop. We need to be salt and light within the world. That means standing up for people who can't stand up for themselves, that means saying no when someone is speaking for you, and saying this is the Christian way to do things. You say, uh-uh, not my Jesus. No chance of that.
If Jesus wouldn't have done that, I'm not standing for it. Not that we're going to be perfect in it, but I want to stand with him. I don't want to get on my deathbed, I don't want to meet my Lord saying, boy, I put a lot of time and effort into my party, but I didn't spend much time in the word learning about my Lord and Savior. So the call this morning is not just to know the story, but to live it out. Not identify who is my neighbor, but to become the neighbor who shows compassion, who shows mercy, who loves without question.
You notice within the story, Jesus didn't have the Samaritan quizzing the person on the side of the road saying, hey, do you believe this or this? What books do you accept? Where do you worship? How often do we do that? Are you really I've got to fill out all of the required things to find out whether you are qualified to be my neighbor, rather than understanding I am the neighbor that needs to help out.
So Jesus has shown mercy to you, now you go show mercy. That's it, church. Jesus has shown you mercy, now you go and show other people mercy. See people as Jesus sees them. I'm talking about the person with whom you don't agree, I'm talking about the person you have a rift with right now.
See them as Jesus sees them. Respond as if you were serving him, as you have done for the least of these, you have done to me. So we're gonna offer a time of invitation. We'd love to pray with you, to encourage you if you've been down the rabbit hole of of hatred and those people are less than, we'd love to just restore you this morning. We all can fall very easily into those traps, but Jesus calls us home in the example that he set for us.
Being there for all types of people. Being there for the sinners. You remember the religious people got upset. Why is he eating with those people? You remember that?
Well, he said, I I you know, it's only the sick people who need a physician. Right? So I need to go to those people. I need to care for those people, not just to hang out with the people I like, but to care for all and to see all as being worthy, being sinners in need of a savior just like me. So if you'd like to begin that walk with him, we'd love to, see you baptized this morning.
Would you come as we stand and as we sing?