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You know, some opportunities, some opportunities come once in a lifetime. I'll give you an example. 1978, in the fall of the year, Paul Picard, not Captain Picard, but Paul Picard, was a TV producer and he got assigned to a new television show. Now, some people thought it wasn't going to be much. It wasn't.
The first season was actually only green light or approved for a half a season. And I'm sure some people thought, you know, whatever. So he was driving to work one day in a, in a van, they were going to film on set. And as he drove to work, Mr. Paul passed an automobile on the road. And out of this automobile come a sound that Paul had never heard before in his life.
And it shocked him. To the point to where he jerked the van off the side of the road. And he turned it around. And he went and chased that car down that had just passed him. He flashed his lights and flagged them over. And when he got them pulled over on the side of the road, he began to ask questions after questions, after questions.
And then, he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and says, I want to buy it. And the owner of the car says, I'm not selling you that. And he offered him, again, more money. No. And he offered him some more money, and eventually the owner of the car gets out of the car, Rips the horn off the car that he's driving and hands it to Mr.
Picard and goes on his way. Now, he's ecstatic. Paul is. He can't wait to get to the set and to show people what he has just purchased. And it turns out, because Paul wasn't a car guy at the time, he didn't know this, but what he had just purchased was called a Dixie horn. And he got to talking to the people on the set and he found out that basically he had just paid this man about five times more than what you could have went and bought one off an auto parts store shelf.
He basically got a bad deal, it would seem like. Except for the fact that the amount of money Paul was going to make with this Dixie horn was going to be unimaginable. Because that is how the famous General Lee got that famous horn. Alright Morgan, scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you that we're talking about Stukes and Hazard from the
Can you imagine that car without that horn? I mean, the show might not ever got renewed for a second season without it. It was one of the defining characteristics, all because Mr. Paul took an opportunity. Now, listen, I love a good all as good as anybody else. But I didn't come here today to talk to you about Dukes of Hazard.
I come here today to talk to you about opportunities and specifically what I want to talk to you about is something that I want to call spiritual opportunities. No, that's not a word you'll find in the Bible. No, that's that's I don't think I made it up, but that's the nomenclature that I created to, to go along with this idea about the opportunities that God gives us and what those can turn into.
Now, to show you that I'm not crazy, if you've got your Bibles, go with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25 here, Jesus, Jesus is going to tell, about what's gonna happen at the end of time when the judgment scene occurs and beginning verse 31 when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit with on his glorious throne before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep on his right.
But the goats on his left Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now, as we continue on here, I want you to notice what he tells them, the reason why they're on the right side. Why are they sheep?
Why are they not goats? Verse 35. For I was hungry. And you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcome me. I was naked and you called me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feeds you are thirsty and give you drink.
And when do we see you a stranger and welcome you are naked and close you. And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 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.
You see, you look at that, that question. Why? Why are the sheep the sheep? And why are the goats the goats? You understand Jesus didn't tell them. Well, you know what? You got the right doctrine. Doctrine is just another word for teaching. You got the right information. You figured it out. Yay, rah, good for you.
Now, is doctrine important? Is teaching important? Yes, it is. But you understand, the reason for truth and the reason for information is not simply to, to have the information to hang on to it. God did not give us this book that we hold in our hands and we hold dear to us just so that we could pass some eternal pop quiz when we stand outside the gates.
The pursuit of knowledge has never been about the knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge. The pursuit of truth is about what the truth does to us, how the truth changes us. Why did these people? Let's back up here. Why did they feed the hungry? Why did they give them something to drink? Why did they welcome in a stranger?
Why did they clothe the naked? Why did they visit those who were sick and in prison? Because they learned the truth about their God. They obeyed that truth and they did what God wanted them to do. You understand Jesus here is not talking about the first step in the process. He's talking about the results of the process.
That is how he divides the sheep from the goats You could almost look at this passage and I thought about entitling this sermon. How do I get to heaven? Because if you look at this text and say how did they get to heaven they got to heaven by Helping what the least of these? You ever you ever thought about that As much as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me You know, we live in a day and time in a culture society where we strive to be the best of these.
We want to be the best preacher, the best plumber, the best salesman, or the best whatever. And there's nothing wrong with working hard and having ambitions and goals. The Bible says in Galatians 6 4 that a man can look at his own work and have pride in that work. There's nothing wrong with trying to be the best of these.
But If we try to be the best of these while forgetting the least of these, that's a problem. You see, these people that Jesus describes, they had opportunities. They come across these people who were poor and neglected and dejected and beat down. And what did they do? They reached out their hand and they loved them.
They, they took these physical opportunities, right? They took these physical opportunities and they helped someone. And you know what I see in my Bible? I see Jesus helping people with physical problems and then turn around and talking them about their spiritual problems. The woman at the well, he starts out talking about water and then he starts talking to her about living water.
Jesus feeds people with bread, and he talks about the bread of life. Right, he starts with the physical, he goes to the spiritual. That's why I say these, these things here are spiritual opportunities. And today I want to talk to you a little bit about what it means to partake of some of these spiritual opportunities.
I want to ask you a question, and I don't ask this question to be To be crass or, or to be mean or, or for any other reason, but when is the last time you helped one of the least of these? I understand we can't take every opportunity. I, I get that. I've missed plenty of opportunities in my lifetime. But when's the last time you took any opportunity to help the least of these?
I don't know the answer to that question for you. But I do know that the Bible is everything that we need for life and godliness. And it teaches us about these spiritual opportunities, what it's going to take. And I just want you to understand the truth. I want you to be able to count the cost and to be able to look at a situation and say, Am I going to do that?
Am I going to not? So to do that, I want to go to Luke chapter 10 and I want to look at a very Very, very familiar parable, but I want to go at it from a different angle. This is the parable of the Good Samaritan, and usually when we read this parable, we're going to, we're going to read it from the point of view and talk about the people who are here.
We're going to talk about the Samaritan and how they would be looked down, looked down upon in their culture and the, and the priest and the, and the Levite who come along and talk about their, their status. And those are great, great lessons. But that's not how I want to address this today. Today, I want to look at this parable and I want to consider it from the point of view of this man laying naked, beating, beating, bleeding, dying on the side of the road.
He was an opportunity. And when you look at it from that angle, we learned quite a bit. Now, before we look at the reason why Jesus was telling this story, let's let's back up and set the context. Verse 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
You notice another, how do I get to heaven question, right? He said to him, what is written in the law and how do you read it? And he answered, you should love the Lord. You're God with all your heart and all your stole and all your strength and all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly.
Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Here we go. This is such a human, a human behavior, right? We want to, we want the exception, we want the shortcut, we want the loophole. Where's the, where's the exception at? There's not an exception. As we come into verse 30, the parable of the Good Samaritan is going to start here.
And we're going to look, look at this and like I say, I want to, I want to tell you some things about spiritual opportunities. Beginning 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 the road 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, I want you to notice a few things here. This man laying naked, bleeding, beaten, dying, he was an opportunity. And the first thing I want you to know about spiritual opportunities is, is that often times, I almost want to say every time, but I don't know that I want to be that brass, but almost every time that you come across a spiritual opportunity, it's not something that you can put on the calendar.
You notice here, verse 31. Now, by chance, three men are going down the road. Three men did not sit out from their household and say, You know what? I want to go find somebody dying on the side of the road. Wouldn't that be a good thing to do today, Brian? They went down the road for some other reason. They were going someplace.
Maybe they were going to work. Maybe they were going to vacation. Maybe they had to go to the store. I don't know why, why they were going. But they did not set out that morning with the idea in mind that, Hey, I want to help somebody. You see, these opportunities, when they present themselves, They're, they're right then.
You can't, It'd be nice if you could plant them. You know, if your life could fall apart next Tuesday around three o'clock, that would be great for my schedule and it worked that way. They were going down the road. They saw this man in the situation that he was in and instantaneously they had a decision to make and you can just hear the thoughts going through their head.
Man, I've got to get out of here. to my family. I've got to get out here to do X, Y and Z. I could just hear them saying in their mind, I don't have time for this.
Maybe they didn't. But three men saw this man laying on the side of the road to to walked on past him and one didn't. What was the difference? It's not always a good time. In fact, sometimes the spiritual opportunities present themselves at the absolute worst time.
But two men stopped. I mean, two men went on and one didn't. Here's the next thing about spiritual opportunities from the same passage. This man, the reason he's laying on the side of the road naked, bleeding, and beaten, I'm having trouble saying that over and over again. That's really a tongue twister. Try it after, after worship today.
The reason he's laying there is because robbers came and overpowered him. And if you're walking down the road and here's somebody who's been overpowered, who's been stripped of their clothing, who had, had their wallet taken from them, and you see that person, maybe the first thing you think is, Huh, I wonder if the robbers are still around.
You see, sometimes when a spiritual opportunity, opportunity presents itself, it's scary. Well, I'd like to help, but man, if that happened to him, what's going to happen to me? Like I say, I can just hear it going through their minds. I've done the same thing. You see an opportunity. Man, I ain't got time for this.
And, you know, it's on the side of the road and the cars are whizzing by. And I just, it's scary. I get that. I've struggled with the same thing. But once again, I say to you, two men walked on by and one stopped. What's the difference there? Lastly, And I kind of call this the excuse section. Because we're good at excuses, right?
How many times do we see an opportunity to help? And, man, we can just come up with excuses. Left and right and left and right. I mean, I get it. I do it too. I don't stand, don't think I stand here never having made an excuse and drove on by or missed an opportunity. I have. But, the last thing that we learn here in the excuses section is that quite often times When somebody needs your help, when a spiritual opportunity presents itself, it's uncomfortable.
This man, I mean, you imagine walking down the road and all of a sudden here's somebody, not only is he bleeding profusely, but he's naked. I don't even want to look at him, let alone go over there and touch him. I mean, they don't, they don't look like us. They don't smell like us. I mean, you talking about uncomfortable.
This is uncomfortable. Once again, two men walked on past. One stopped. I get it. A lot of times, spiritual opportunities, they present themselves. It's not a good time. And you've got something else to be doing. And it is scary. What if this happens to me? You know, it's uncomfortable. They're not like me.
They're different. We're so scared of different. But. But one man did stop. Let's go look at him. Verse 33. But a samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. Can I tell you that if you're going to take a spiritual opportunity sometime, it's gonna require heart. It's going to require heart.
He had compassion. What's that mean? It means he looked at that man, he felt something, and because he felt something, what, he did something. I think compassion is really the end result of the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule says what? Treat others as you'd like to be treated. You're walking down the road and you see somebody that's been, been beaten and dying and bleeding and stripped of their clothes And you look at that person, you say, huh, if I was on the side of the road and I was beaten and bloodied and bruised, what would I want somebody to do for me?
Well, I think I'd want them to come look at me and make a big long list of excuses and walk on off and leave me to die. That's not what I want. What would I want someone to do for me? I'd want them to come help me. If that's what I want someone to do for me, then what should I do for someone else? If that's what I want, what should I do?
I should help them. It's going to take heart to do this. That's not the only thing it's going to take. But I'm going to tell you, it's a big part of what it's going to take. You think about this, how many times did Jesus, do we read about Jesus and it says, He had compassion on the multitude. Right, He fed people, He healed people, He did all kind of things, why?
I don't know. Not because it was what best for him. Oftentimes, when Jesus had compassion and help someone, it wound up getting him run out of town. He didn't do it because it was what best for him. He felt compassion. His heart was stirred within him, and he did something about it. Now, the Samaritan, the one that everybody around thought wouldn't do anything, it's going to stop and help this man.
Look at what else we learned. 34 and 35. He went to him. He bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and then he set him on his own animal, and he brought him to an end and took care of him. Don't miss that part right there. And the next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him.
And whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. I want you to know that if you're going to take a spiritual opportunity, And I don't say this to scare you. I don't say this to discourage you from taking a spiritual opportunity. I just want you to understand the truth. I don't want you to get partway through this and say, boy, I didn't know it was going to be like this.
You shouldn't know it's going to be like this because this is what God told us. It would be like, but if you're going to take a spiritual opportunity, sometime it's going to cost you, it's going to cost you something. Notice the beginning of verse 34. He went to him. The first thing it's gonna cost you is some awkwardness to walk up to somebody.
Hi, my name's Doug. What's your name? How are you doing? How can I help you today? Right, a lot of times, that's one of the greatest hurdles we have, is just getting over our own awkwardness inside, to go up to someone and say, How are you doing today? Doesn't look like you're doing too good. Can I help you with something?
It may cost you that. It'll also cost you your resources. Notice he bound up his wounds. The man had bandages with him. Pouring on oil and wine. That was his oil and wine. Put him on his own animal, right? He used his own resources. Things that he did not plan to Hey, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do today.
I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna give stuff away. Sounds like a great plan. That's, that's not what he planned to do. But when he saw the need and he had things to meet the need, what'd he do? So he gave
Besides that, he took him to an inn and what'd he do? He took care of him. You understand, this man who had other plans, who had somewhere to be, who had business or family or whatever it was. Now I'm sure traveling down the road he'd have had to stop somewhere, but it was not his plan to take in a sick person and stay with him all night and, and take care of him.
That wasn't his plan for the day. It cost him his time. And I know that's perhaps maybe our most precious resource. You can't get that one back. You can make more money, you can get more Band Aids, you can get more oil and wine. Most of, every one of us in here who's old enough to drive can swap a credit card or a debit card and get nearly anything that we need.
But we can't get that time back. But yet he gave it. And of course, it cost him money, right? He had to pay for the hotel. He not only pays for the night, he pays ahead and says, You know what? Open a lot of credit and whatever he spends, I'll pay it. He put himself out there. If you're gonna take a spiritual opportunity, it's going to cost you something.
And I don't say that. Like, say once again, I don't say it to scare you. I don't say it. to Washington. I shouldn't do this. It's gonna cost me something. No, you just need to understand what you're getting into. Need to understand what it might require of you.
But here's the other part. Yes, it cost him all these things. It cost him his time. It cost him his money, cost him his resources. But here's the other thing about a spiritual opportunity. You don't have to do it by yourself. Yes, this man stopped his life for a period of time and help this man. But what he do?
He took him somewhere to an end and said, you take care of him now and I'll help pay for it. I've got to go, but I'll come back and check on him. You understand that when we see a spiritual opportunity, we don't have to do it all ourselves. Yes. I mean, you think about just the people that come and assemble here on a Sunday morning.
How many resources do we have sitting in this room right now? You need some lights? Got you took care of. You need some tile? Got you took care of. You got a problem with some insurance? Got you took care of. You need something welded? Got you took care of. You need something fixed? Got you took care of. I almost dare you to come up with something.
that this group of people right here, this body that we couldn't take care of if we needed to. And what? What would that do for someone for a group of people who say you don't know me from Adam, but yet you come in and help me. What kind of door do you think it would open for them to say? What do y'all got?
Y'all got something that I don't have. You understand why I don't call these physical opportunities. They are physical opportunities, but we're not, Jesus didn't go around doing these things just for physical reward. He didn't go around doing this for a pat on the back. He did this so that he might open the door and talk to them about their soul.
And you know what, it's a simple recipe, we can do the same thing. But it's going to take us all working together. You see a spiritual opportunity, you don't have to do it all yourself. you You can make a phone call, wave the flag, say, got to, got one on the hook, but I need some help and help will be there.
I guarantee you many times that doing ministry that I've needed help or Tony's need help and we raised the flag and said we need help and you know what the help comes. Do you think we're the only two people that can ring the flag, ring the bail and say, we need help. You think that we would, we'd come any less near to helping you or you or you or you and you said, Hey, I got somebody on the line over here.
I need some help. I don't think so. I think this is a loving group of God's people that wants to do what God wants us to do. And I think oftentimes the only thing stopping us from doing that is just ourselves. We don't think we can. We don't think we're good enough. We don't think, well, who am I to do this?
You may be the person who God put in the right spot at the right moment to, to strike when the iron's hot. That may be exactly who you are. You don't have to do it all yourself. We look at all these things and I want you to understand that irregardless of what a spiritual opportunity may cost you, how inconvenient it may be, How uncomfortable it may be.
You need to understand that these spiritual opportunities, they're the right thing to do. We're 36 37. Jesus asked, Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said the one who showed him mercy and Jesus said to him, you go and you do likewise. Yeah.
Irregardless of what it cost you, it's the right. thing to do. And like I say, I understand we're not gonna be perfect. We're not gonna catch every opportunity. But what if we caught 50 percent of what if we caught 25 percent of what if, what if we struck out sometimes, but at least we were swinging, be better than not swinging at all.
Wouldn't like so you look at all these, look at all these things. You think about we read this morning in Bible class. Was it Hebrews 11 6 without faith? It's impossible to please God. We read Ephesians 2 10 that we're his workmanship, creating Christ Jesus, that we may walk in good works that he's created for us.
Right. God gives us the spiritual opportunities. There are people today who are members at Westside because somebody took an opportunity that was presented in front of them. Even though it may not have been the most opportune time, even though it may not be in the most comfortable, every one of us here is a Christian because somebody come and shared with us the gospel and it's a That's a simple recipe that we can replicate from now on into eternity if we want to.
I don't know what your, what your need is this morning. Maybe you're the one, instead of walking down the road and everything's great in your life, maybe you're the one that feels like you're beaten and bruised and battered and left for dead. I don't know what your need is this morning. Maybe you need to come down front.
Maybe you need to go out back. Maybe you need to catch somebody in the parking lot. But if you need help today, don't leave here without it because God loves us and we do our best to love one another. And if you need to come forward this morning, you can come and take that opportunity right now.