FEB 7 2016 | Luke 25

Sea Change Church · "Luke 25" · Adam Stadtmiller · February 7, 2016
Luke 25
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Open them up to Luke 25-37. The sermon's entitled Good Samaritans and the Serving Gifts, but it probably could be entitled basically How to Be a Christian. A lot of times we turn Christianity into rocket science. And Christianity, Jesus was really good at simplifying what it meant to follow and love God. And so in the story here with the Good Samaritan, it's a story that, it might be a true story, but it's a story that Jesus tells as a parable.

And when he does so, he's taking a question that somebody's trying to turn the faith into like a rocket science. Trying to find some matriculation of how to please God and to make him happy. And Jesus takes it all and brings it down to just three things. Three things. To see a need, to go to the need, and to act upon the need. And he says doing that for the love of God is what it means to know God and to have eternal life.

And so he speaks about this to a man who is coming to try to actually put, to trick Jesus. And a guy and also who is trying to self-justify himself. And Jesus comes and he makes the faith very simple. Let me say, have you made your faith a little too complicated as of late? You know, it's pretty simple. Get up, read your Bible a little bit. Spend a few minutes or more.

Maybe linger and tarry. And just talk to God. Good morning, God. Good morning, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you for this day. I want to thank you for all that you're doing. Hey, would you bless me at work today? I got this meeting, whatever. You talk to God a little bit. And then you go, and on the way there, somebody cuts you off on the freeway. And you think to yourself, wait a second.

Like my wife's been doing, bless you. Every time someone cuts her off in La Jolla, she blesses them, which is many opportunities per day. Especially as you turn right onto Pearl Street off Girard. Many opportunities. Jesus makes it simple. We have another opportunity. We just came out of 30 days of fasting and seeking God with the Daniel fast and all these different things.

And we pressed in just a little bit more. And look, I want to say, if you just open one more door of spiritual consolation to yourself. If you read one more scripture over that month. Just one. Well done. Heaven applauds that. Dive in again. And if you're walking on the other side of that and you say, well, I failed. I ate cookies on the day I was supposed to fast and something that I do on a regular basis.

You know what? Start over. And on Wednesday, actually you can start today. But on Wednesday, we have another opportunity for another 40 days of this time where believers all over the world will say, we're just going to take a special time and make God simple again. If God's gotten too complex for you, just make him simple again. You know what? On the way to work, turn your car into a sanctuary.

Go find some good worship music. Buy Chris's CD. Buy Olin's CD. You know, download something. Download some sermons. Your favorite podcast, you know, from some teachers that you know. Maybe it's Kim Keller or people like that. And just dedicate your drive to God again. It's that simple. And then when you see a need, go to the need. Act upon the need.

That's what it means to be a believer. And that's what Jesus says here to a man that questions him. Let me read this starting with verse 25. How much smaller could that 25 get? Oh, my goodness. It's like a dot. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Testing Jesus because he's an expert. Testing God. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

What is written in the law, he replied. How do you read it? I like that. The teacher of the law, he answered, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all of your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. Let me just stop there for a second.

One of the things that struck me this week is why Jesus is saying you inherit eternal life without having to have the blood of Christ shed on the cross for your sins. We have to realize that when he was speaking to this man, this is still before the cross. And Jesus had not, at this point, given the full revelation of what was happening. So he was still speaking and teaching from a post-crucifixion, a pre-crucifixion mindset.

Meaning he was speaking to a teacher of the law about what the Jewish people understood and they had faith. Now, this is the same teaching that Abraham understood who looked forward to a Messiah and had faith looking forward. Why is Abraham saved when he did not ask Christ to cover or shed or cover his sins with the shed blood of Christ? Because he had faith looking forward.

You see, the cross has equal power no matter what side you were on it. Have you ever wondered why people who were born before the death of Christ end up like Abraham and Moses, spending time in eternity when Christ had not died on the cross at that point? The reason being is they had faith. They could not see Christ on the cross, but they looked forward believing that God would answer his promise.

And they were saved through the vehicle of faith. You, can you see Jesus on the cross right now? No, you cannot see it in the same way that they cannot see it, although you believe that it happened. Although some people who revise history say that it didn't happen in the same way people tried to erase the Holocaust. Perhaps you've seen that. It's called revisionism.

But from this point, you are using the same tool that Abraham uses to look back and it's faith that saves you. Whether you're looking back at the cross where Jesus died or forward. Does that make sense if you've ever wondered about that? And so Jesus here is speaking as the revelation is being revealed. And we know as he goes on, he will bring more and more revelation.

He slowly unpacks it all the way until his crucifixion, until his 40 days that he spent before he ascended. And so that is why, if you have any question why Jesus answers him and says, You can be saved by just loving God, loving your neighbor and doing those things. But you are saved, as we know, by more than that and only through faith in the shed blood of Christ.

But it said he wanted to justify himself. This is something we often want to do. He wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, and he told a story. And I love story. Story is the core of the gospel. Jesus tells him a story. And what I like about this story is Jesus picks an enemy to tell the story of who your neighbor is.

Jesus picks a Jewish enemy at the time, a Samaritan, someone who was looked down upon to be the hero of the story. It's interesting who Jesus often picks to be the hero of his story. And maybe that hero is you, even though you don't think that you deserve to be a hero in any story. But God says to you, you're my hero. And he applauds you. And he says, I want to send you.

You're the one. But I'm a Samaritan, you say to yourself. Or I'm this. Or I'm that. Or I've done this. And nothing. I can never be forgiven because I've done this sin. Or I don't meet up. Or I'm only a one-gift Christian and not a 25-gift Christian. And whatever this may be, I can't do it. And Jesus says, but you're the hero of my story. And he sends you.

And he begs you to come along with him and collaborate in the gospel. To go do the work of the kingdom alongside of him. And to enjoy your life doing it all the way with a smile on your face. And this is what the gifts do. And so Jesus speaks about this man. And he throws this teacher of the law off the scent by picking an unlikely hero. He said a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Now we know the man who is robbed in this story, who the Samaritan ends up helping, is a Jew. How do we know? We can assume. Because he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. It is a journey that most Samaritans wouldn't take, but Jews would take on a regular basis. So a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers.

The origin of the man is important because two people of his race, Jews, walked by him later in the story and let him go. But a sworn enemy, so to speak, of this man said, I will bandage the wounds of my enemy. And that is the Samaritan. Once again, God is turning an enemy, turning a broken person, rising them from the ashes to become the hero of the story.

And I want to say that Jesus wants to partner with you in being the hero of your story. Ultimately, he is the hero. No, but he applauds you. And if God's applauding you, you're the hero of a story. It says he was attacked by robbers and they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road.

Now, a priest. Now, all of a sudden, he starts, Jesus is speaking about the people who are in the camp of the one asking the question. Meaning this teacher of the law hung out with priests. He hung out with Levites. It was all about who you hung out with. The problem with Jesus is he hung out with the wrong people. He did. They would always say, if you want to, you know, if you want to increase your ministry, why are you doing this?

And why don't you do this? He had all these handlers that were telling him who he should hang out with. But Jesus kept picking unlikely heroes to proclaim the gospel. And through your gifts, we will be an unlikely hero. And so he tells this man, basically, that the people you hang out with walk by this other Jew with little care for him. And actually went to the other side of the road, cast his need aside, and went on because they had better things to do.

And basically, he was pointing a finger back at him. Jesus was really good at that. A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, see, he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. He didn't get near him. He went to the, Jesus made it clear. He went out of his way to not meet the need. I'm not saying you need to meet every need in the world because you can start having compassion fatigue at a certain point.

You can only meet so many needs. But how often do you go out of your way not to meet the need? This man went out of his way to not meet a need. And I think we need to be careful. And when you're looking at your spiritual life with simple lenses, we want to have really simple lenses at this church. I just want to be simple. Ask yourself the question, am I going out of my way not to serve people?

Am I going out of my way not to give? Am I going out of my way not to give mercy? Am I going out of my way? You're actually getting on the other side of the road. It isn't just like on occasion you say, you know, I just don't have the, Jesus, I just don't have the energy to do that or the emotional strength to do that. And you're going to have to send somebody else.

It isn't that. It's actually going out of your way or speaking a curse in a way or whatever it would be. And a priest happened to be going down in verse 31 to the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite. And when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But, Jesus said, and I love that.

We're always looking at the conjunctions. I love the word but in the scripture because it shows a juxtaposition. It shows maybe the kingdom lives on this side of this word. But something that doesn't resemble kingdom living is on the other side. And so Jesus all of a sudden puts an apex of the word but of this conjunction in scripture. When you see but in scripture, make sure that you stop for a moment.

Or because. Look at these different words. Because you will see an apex of kingdom living often from worldly self-regulated living. And so he says, but a Samaritan. Oh, you can just imagine feeling the tension in the crowd. As all the teachers of the law gathered around Jesus to listen to these questions. Because they were going to trick Jesus. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was.

You see, he didn't go to the other side of the street. You see that? See the difference there? You pick that up in scripture. These little nuances. Isn't scripture beautiful? Isn't it beautiful? If we just slow down to take the time to read it and look what's happening. He went to where the man was. Going to where the need is. I love it. And when he saw him, he took pity on him.

I just got to pause. I know I read preach. I know. My wife hates it. She says, just read the text, Adam. I can't do it. I'm going to read preach. Thank you. Somebody said to me the other day, you know, I was down at this. Area in downtown San Diego. There's somebody from our church. And they said that, you know, this religious organization's there. And this one's there.

And there's this one there. Because there's no Christians there. And the atheists are there. And there's no Christians. And why can't we, the church, stand up and get there and have more Christians? We need Christians. And where are they? And we're missing this opportunity. And I just stopped. And I said, but you were there. I said, you were there. Maybe you're the one.

You're the one that God sent. And let me say, where you go tomorrow, wherever your day takes you tomorrow, whether it's surfing, whether it's up to the Panikin, whether it's to the law offices or the border or a Mexico orphanage or a house doing electrical work like some of you or architecture or being a house mom or house dad and going to the school or coaching a soccer team.

Guess who God sent? You. The hero of someone's story. Because God is sending you, like he sent the heroes of the Old Testament, into this world to throw your life, to cast your life upon the water. To take the gold coins of your worth and your value that comes from the shed blood of Christ and to throw them out to a hungry and needy people. What if we all, see, that's the vision here.

You're the micro church. You're the multi-campus. You're the ones we're sending. You're the answer. It isn't me and the board and the worship team and, you know, a few other apostle, you know, teachers around the world that have television ministries. It's you. You're the answer. Just like Jesus sent out that ragtag group of unlikely heroes to change the world.

So we see that here. Then it says, Do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. And Jesus told him, go and do likewise. Simple faith. It's that easy. Maybe it's not always picking up someone who has alongside the road who's been beat by robbers, but maybe somebody else just needs someone to listen to him.

Maybe somebody has dropped something in the store and you just pick it up and hand it back to him or whatever the need is. You see, Moses was really good at seeing burning bushes. And when he saw it, he said, this is something interesting. Let me go over there. And when he got there, he says, here I am. And God spoke to him. He said, here I am. That's it.

It's simple. Being a Christian is simple. We just got to do it. Because it's so easy to walk to the other side of the road. When you know what God has gifted you with or just taking the general talents that he has created you, what he's built you for, and you see a need and you kind of just show up, sniff around, see what's happening, and try to give your life and spend your life in that need.

Heaven applauds that. Even if it's the most simple thing, heaven applauds. Angels sing that God is glorified. The kingdom of God is made manifest on earth when you do that. When you're coaching your soccer team, whatever the thing is. Why is it always an example for my life? Okay, whenever you're coaching, I will be coaching my soccer team again.

We're getting back together. We're getting the band back together in March. So you'll, my girls' soccer team, and I'm looking. Pray for a striker. Four goals in the whole season in fall. And I picked up a bunch of the same girls. So they don't stack the teams. But what I found out is the coach gets two picks. An assistant coach gets two picks. So I asked one of the parents from before to be the assistant coach.

So we got two more girls on the team. And then if you have a sponsor, you get two more picks. So I went to All Hallows Catholic Academy where two of the girls go. And I said, will you sponsor the team? They said, yes, for 400 bucks. Yes, for, I feel like I'm on a game show, right? And I said, we get two more picks. Now I've got 60% of the team, right?

So six out of 10, that's how you work it. None of them are strikers though. We need a striker. Yeah, right. You can come play for us. Although my daughter's best friend now, a new best friend that she prayed for, is one of the best strikers. But she's in the competitive league. So I'm trying to get her to do rec league. But nonetheless, play for her.

That's Charlotte. We're going to talk about the serving gifts quickly today. Serving gifts are these that you see being used and implemented by this man of God, this Samaritan, who Jesus said, if you want to know what the kingdom looks like, look at this unlikely hero. You know, when you use your gifts, you just show up and use your gifts. You're the unlikely hero.

Just doing it. Serving gifts are those that allow us to recognize, circle that word, recognize need, and then pour out our lives in the giving of our time, our talent, and our treasure. The serving gifts. You love the servants. The gift of helps. The spiritual gift of helps, and I've got four gifts here. This is the second of five we're going to be going through, five categories.

The spiritual gift of helps is manifested in believers who invest their time, talent, and treasure into the life and ministry of others. Now, this is the key for helps, and why it is different from a serving gift. It allows the one being served to increase in his or her own abilities. Let me just say a math tutor would have the gift of helps.

You ever work with somebody, and they're great at serving. They'll come, and they'll serve and help you. And you're like, hey, I'd like to learn what you're doing. They're like, I don't got time. I'm just serving. I'm just serving. They don't have the ability to make you better at doing what you do. Now, some people have gifts of service and helps.

And thank God for the servants. They'll just show up. Here's the difference between somebody with a gift of service and a gift of helps. Somebody with a gift of service, they see a field, and the field needs to be plowed. They'll go out there all day by themselves. And they'll just plow, plow, plow, plow, get done, be done, and say, yeah, that was a great day.

I killed it. Crushed it. You know, just all by myself out there in the field. And the person with the gift of helps, they're helping you, and they're getting fulfilled. They're kind of like, yeah, I'm helping, but I need a buddy out here with me. Come on, I need a buddy that I can, I need someone to do this. I want to come alongside you. I want to do this together like a math tutor.

It helps the student become better at what they do. Both are needed. But there's a bit of a teaching gift in the helping. What are you? You know, where are you? Do you have that gift? And just because you don't have that gift doesn't mean that we aren't called to grow in all of these gifts or to ask for them. Ask for the servant gift. Ask to increase.

As we do a little, God oftentimes gives more. Serving. The ability to recognize a need and use whatever resources are at hand to accomplish the task. Giving is the third one. The spiritual ability to give from material resources. And this is interesting. Perhaps even beyond their ability with a thankful and cheerful heart. Now we know the Macedonian church, when Paul went to take an offering.

I think it's a Macedonian church, pretty sure, yes. Macedonian church to take an offering for the church at Jerusalem. Said that they gave beyond their ability. How do you do that? Only through God can you do that. They gave beyond their ability. And when they began to give, more resources became available to them. God will often do that. As you continue to give, God will make more resource available to you because he starts using you as a channel.

He starts using, oh, okay. I'm going to, this is the way I get my resources out. He doesn't often have coins fall from trees. But he does take believers to come and say, we want to bless other people through this giving. We have a person in this church who, a couple people, who are incredibly gifted in the gift of giving. And they came to me recently and said that they wanted to, and a few people have come recently, and said that they wanted to give towards some projects.

We have a brand new sound system going in because someone came and said they wanted to bless the sound system, which is great. So we have that happening. We had a brand new children's playground. If you saw it or if you haven't, go to the front of the church. We got new grass in there. We put a fence around it. And that happened because someone came and said they wanted to give towards the children's playground.

We have other people right now that are coming and say, we just want to give of our resources to make this happen. After this one person had already given more than I thought they could or should or whatever it is, they just gave a really substantial gift so we could do some stuff around the church here. They came to me last week and they said, when's our gap fund offering?

Now, gap fund is where we take an offering for those in the congregation and beyond who have a need. It's called grace and provision. And so we're going to be taking that next week. What I thought was interesting is the check that they had just written, the ink was still wet before they came to me and said, hey, I thought the gap fund was going to be in January.

You know, we're at the end of January and we haven't passed the tithe for the gap fund yet. We really want to give to that. When's that offering? How many people ask when the offering is? Seriously. It's the other way around, right? Like the pastors are up here going, hey, we're going to take an offering, you know, and then people get tired of it.

Imagine wearing a pastor out like when's that next offering? Could we come on a Wednesday and do it, you know? Hilarious giving. Just radical. And they're so happy. They're so, they're so, they're just, you ever met anybody that has a gift of like just giving? Whether it's their time, their talent, their generosity. Want to be a generous church? And you are a generous church.

But that's been exciting to see that. I don't even, I don't have that, but I want it and I'm going for it. That's the gift of giving. And then finally here, hospitality. Not finally, but hospitality. This gift equips believers to provide open arms, open houses, encouraging welcome for the purpose of encouragement and equipping. Let's quickly look at the story again of the Good Samaritan because what I have found is that when you put story to teaching, as Jesus did on a regular basis, it gives it handholds.

It makes it simpler. It allows us to grasp and comprehend so that you can begin to lean into these gifts and become God's hero on earth. And I hope you understand what I mean when I say that because we are representing him, but we're going into battle. Let's look at a few things here. So it's very simple. It's not rocket science. Being God's answer, and that's what you become, an answer when you use your gift, your God's answer, is a threefold process.

We must see, we must go, and we must act. Now, if you were to look at our church's vision, one of the things we're trying to encourage you to do in all of your micro-neighborhoods is to know, to go, and to grow. Which means you know the community centers. You know the community hubs where people go. For us as a church, we're focusing on the market, the Sunday market.

We're eventually this year at some point trying to get a weekly stall up at the market where we can sell our missionary goods and other things up there because it's a community hub. We want to be there on Sunday. Panicking Coffee, Bird Rock Coffee, places we are hanging out because they're community centers. A little dog park here at the end of the street, the park, the rec center, the YMCA, we're identifying where these community centers are.

La Jolla Shores for Surfers, Wind and Sea, some of the local reefs, we have different people we're sending to those places. And in those places, we know where those places are. The next thing is we go to those places. We regularly go to those places. We have meetings at Panicking. I mention the place all the time. We have meetings there for a reason.

I schedule as many meetings as I can there because we want to be a presence. And I want to bring the godly people of this congregation and my friends and our friends and missionaries who come from all over the world, whether it be, you know, Marshall Shelley from Christianity Today who came last year. I took him to Panicking. Whether it be Brian Hardin who was here.

I took him to Harry's because we were going to Harry's Coffee Shop. I want to take you and the people who bless us and live in this community to know where to go, to go, and then to grow, to just live life there. That's what it is. In this story, it's a little different and the words are different, but it says it's a threefold process. We must see, we must go, and we must act.

Let's look at verse 33. But Jesus says, a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was. And when he saw him, circle that, I already highlighted it in bold. When he saw him, he took pity on him. What I like here is he recognized the need. He saw him. You know, we're living in a world that doesn't see each other anymore. Isn't it weird to say hi to you in the morning when you walk down a sidewalk?

Like it's awkward. Yeah? Walk down the street and say hi to ten people in a row. See, try this out, okay? Just walk down a sidewalk somewhere. Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you. What happened to hello? Thank you, Zach. Hello to you. The world's becoming invisible. People are becoming invisible. You get that? And it's a lack of compassion. It's a lack of, we have the most extreme intimacy in regard to what we promote sexually in this culture.

But we can't say hi to somebody on a street. Do you see the imbalance there? We will give you complete intimacy in its fullness. And to do that is just exploited as one of the best things you can do in culture. But we don't know how to say hello. We don't know how to buy someone a cup of coffee. We don't know how to care for the most simple needs of people in the world anymore.

But we want to go to the far extremes. See, the world lives in extremes. He saw him. Do you see people? Do you see people? I mean, seriously, my life has really tried to make a transition from, you know, someone said one time when I was listening to a sermon, you know, when you walk into a room, is it, here I am? Ha ha! Lucky you! Or is it, there you are?

Seriously. Is it, here I am? Or, you know, the opposite, besides the, here I am, check me out. Some people walk into a room, I'm no good. I'm worthless. Just kind of hide here in the corner. That's not good either. That's unhealthy. How do you walk into a place and say, I'm fully present, and there you are? Jesus felt comfortable in his own skin. It took me years to feel comfortable in my own skin.

To be able to sit at a table with certain people. I remember I used to sit with my head pastor, Mark Foreman, and he would bring in these big names, you know, to the church, because it was a big church. And on occasion, he'd invite me to the meeting. I'd sit there, and I'd be like, oh, what am I doing here? And I got to the point where I didn't think I belong here, but I thought, I'm cool, I'm just enjoying myself.

It's good to be me in this group of people. And that is a healthy place to be. Jesus was able to show up without misunderstanding his purpose in the community that he was in and caring for others. And so he saw, this guy saw, and he recognized the need. What do you do when you see a need? Now, read this in the notes. What you do when you see a need is what separates the godly-minded from the self-consumed.

Tweet that. What you do, Dick Cotton, tweet that, would you, buddy? Dick's 90 if you're new to the church. I don't think you have a Twitter account. Do you have a Twitter account, Dick? No. No Twitter account? Okay. All right, buddy. What you do when you see a need is what separates the godly-minded from the self-consumed. It says he took pity on him.

We have to, you know what? Pity is a word that is kind of funky in our society today. He had compassion on him is a better way to say it. We have a world that's causing our hearts to become calloused. You can't have compassion unless you have soft hearts. He had a soft heart. We're living in a world that is churning us up. We're so broken. We don't want to be hurt again.

We've been broken by our broken family models. We've been broken by our boyfriends or our girlfriends or a church structure or whatever. You've been so broken. And the salve of God's presence and friendship and fatherhood in your life hasn't been able to break through and heal that. Or you haven't allowed it yet. Because only after you've been broken can you come back for more if you've been healed by the love of a father God.

See, that is what allows us to go back into the game and to keep what Pastor Mark would say at my old church, fresh baby skin. I want to have baby skin. I don't want to be a hard, calloused person that has no sensitivity. That has no sensitivity. We're living in a world that has no sensitivity. Look at the headlines. I'll get to that in a minute.

It's just, it's ridiculous. It's cause to dehumanize you. Everything we see in the media, not everything, majority of what we see in the media, the top TV shows, the things that we watch, it's meant to dehumanize you. An 11-year-old boy walked out two days ago and a girl, an 8-year-old neighbor wouldn't let him see her puppy. So he went inside, got a shotgun and took it out, put it on her heart and blew her away.

Anybody see that in the news? Yeah, you saw it? 11 years old, going to spend the rest of his childhood there in a penitentiary. Where's that come from? I got more. I don't even know how much I should share. But I saw 10 headlines yesterday and 8 of them were horrific. One of them was that one. Horrific. You know what? We just become, we've become so desensitized.

We need the love of a father God. And I got to tell you, it's simple. You're not going to be able to change the world unless you get in touch with a father God who loves you. And to get that soft baby skin and say, God, give me a heart for other people. Give me a heart for my enemies. Jesus was hammering, he was taking the pariah of society, the Samaritan.

Now, who's the pariah of society now? It depends on what side of the aisle you're on. But our world is demonizing all sorts of people. Whether it be the Christian, whether it be whatever, you know, political, whatever cultural lifestyle you have. We're demonizing. And it's setting people up against each other. You see that happening. You see that in Europe right now.

With immigration, the whole world is polarizing. How hard is it to keep a soft heart? We've got to have soft hearts here. Because you're not going to be able to spend your life or even recognize. You'll get to the point where you don't recognize a need anymore. You lose the ability to know when someone else is sick. You lose the ability to know when someone else is suffering.

Or you just don't care. Someone is broken and hurting and you're able just to walk on by. Because you need to get your shoes shined or you need to get to the bank or there's a game on that you don't want to miss. How do we know? Only God as Father can heal our hearts. And if you've been broken, we have to die. You can spend the rest of your life pursuing an understanding that God is your Father and loves you.

And you will not waste your life in the process of doing it. And the overflow of that is you will recognize need and be able to meet them with the love, compassion, and pour the oil and the wine on a person like this Samaritan did. Guys, we have to do that from this corner. I have to do it. You have to do it. We need to be careful in what we allow to callous our hearts.

His heart was touched. We must avoid compassion fatigue, I wrote. And I've got to say that that's going to happen if you don't watch what you put into your mind. You know what? Into your mind. Mainstream news media, because of the success of things like TMZ and other salacious news that is just pushing out the most disgusting headlines you can see.

It's not news. It's not news. It's not news. It's not news. But because the Washington Post and the New York Times and the LA Times are losing in clicks, you get how this happens, to organizations that put out the most carnal, salacious, pornography, violent, you see it, right? Mainstream news is starting to run the stories. Have you noticed that?

I can't watch. I try to click into the news to see what's happening, and I'm so assaulted, I don't know what to do. That's what's happening. We can get into a discussion, but that's what is happening to the point where you're not going to have anywhere you can go anymore without getting slimed. That's why we need to be spending time with God. We need to avoid compassion fatigue.

Matthew 24, 12. Look on the backside of your notes. Look at this. This is how you know the end times is coming. There's a whole, I've always heard, okay, well, Russia this, and there's all these, I don't know about end time. Every decade there's a new, there's a new anti-Christ. You read the books, the books every decade. Just read through all the prophetic books of the last, I mean, Bonhoeffer thought it was Hitler.

It wasn't. All the way through, there's always something. But there's one that's always struck me, and I thought, when I see that happening, then I'll know. I don't know about Russia coming down, the big bear in Afghanistan. I don't know about all that, and three moons, and Shemitah, I don't know. Smarter people than me probably do. But this one, and I thought, when I see that, I'll know.

And this is what I see. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. It's freezing. Love is freezing. It hasn't grown cold. It is, I just saw the Everest movie, the oxygen bottle. The guy couldn't open it, and he died. Rob Hall, because he couldn't get the oxygen bottle because it was frozen shut. There was no oxygen, no life, no breath of life.

That's what's happening. That's what's happening. And the world celebrates the wickedness. They celebrate it. And in the midst, our hearts are dying. And when your heart dies, your mind dies. Because I believe the heart, a healed heart will heal a mind. I believe that the mind is sovereign to the heart. This is my thinking. We want to see healed hearts.

And this is the place to come to see it and to have it healed. Next thing it is, he went. Verse 34. He went to him. He bandaged his wound, pouring on oil. And then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to the inn, and took care of him. I love this. He went to him. The Samaritan had to sacrifice, spending his life to care for the man. He let him ride his own donkey.

He just cared for him. He went out of his way. I'm not saying you have to meet every need. I don't give to every homeless person on the street in La Jolla every time. I can't. I don't do it every single time. But sometimes I see where God says now is the need. Now, you'll notice in this story, there was no one else helping him. Now, a lot of different places you'll see where people are getting help.

You can't meet every single need. But to have a soft enough heart to be aware when God says to you, that's your need. I wrote your name on it. You see, there's a need that says Chris Peterson. There's a need that says Alex Young or the Adlers or Zach. There's a need, and God's written your name on it. And when you walk by, it's going to stand up, and your name's going to be on that need.

Whether it be a playground, whether it be a homeless person, whether it be people in Mozambique, like Christine Gard is with, whatever it is. Your name is written on needs. It says that he has created good works in advance that he has prepared us to do. Your good works are prepared for you in advance. And you know the only person who's going to recognize probably that they're yours?

You. Unless our hearts are frozen and calloused. Soften our hearts. Be careful what you put into your eyes. Be careful what you put, you know, into your heart, what you allow. It always wants to lead to death. Final thing is this. He acted. And I like this. This is an interesting point. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper.

Look after him, he said. And when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense that you had. First of all, look at this. I think this is so important in serving so you don't burn yourself out because you need to make sure your own wounds are being bandaged and you're taking care of yourself. Even a runner needs to breathe. He was willing to go the extra mile, but he did not lose his own well-being in the process.

Here's what you'll notice. One, he said to the innkeeper the next day, he took out two denarii. He gave them to him. And he said, I'll reimburse you for any extra expense. He didn't give him a limit on what that was. I think that was interesting. He didn't say, I've got two denarii. I've got two more coming back tomorrow. If you want to cap that at two denarii, we'll just give it a little cap.

Make sure I don't go above and beyond too much. No. He said, if there's any extra need, whatever it is, you've got to take him to the emergency room, whatever it is, I'll figure it out. Why? Because I have a great God. I have a God that's bigger than my pocketbook. I have a God that's bigger than my time needs. I just have a big God. And I'm going to leave him with you and you let me know and I'll figure it out.

I'll get it sorted. When was the last time you jumped into a need with that kind of understanding? This is what Jesus, this is Jesus' story, not mine. Jesus throws it out there and he says, just cast your life, sometimes beyond what you think you can do. But at the same time, you know what I love about this guy? He went home for the night. I've never seen that before.

He said to the innkeeper, you know what? Look, I'm paying for it. I'm out. I'm going home. I've got to go get some rest. I've got to go have a glass of wine. Whatever he's going to go do, he's going to go sit there because Jews drank wine. And look at him. Did you say wine? He went and recovered. He went away. He didn't let the need, like so many servants do, or maybe they're trying to, like the guy, the teacher in the story, justify themselves by their serving.

Make sure you're not doing that. He went home and he rested. Or he went about his other business. And then he let other people step into that need with him. I would say, if you're the suffering servant that never says no, let me say, you have to ask, why do you never say no? Sometimes the most service you can do is to say no. Jesus says no all the time.

Master, where are you? We couldn't get a hold of you. Sorry, I was out. You know, we live in this age, if you were not accessible 26 hours a day, you have sinned. Jesus, on a regular basis, I'm out. He taps out. Where's Messiah? There's crowds here. There's healing that needs to be done. Where's, tap out. Done. It's a great lesson to learn. It's a servant who gave everything away, but had the sense and wherewithal to make sure that he was being nourished by the Father himself.

We're going to get ready for communion. We're going to ask the worship team to come up and do that. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer.

We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer. We're going to ask the prayer.

Jo.