Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Roadblocks to Mission

4/3/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 47 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. Lord, we gather to tell you that you are worthy and that we are needy. We gather to let you know how desperate we are for a word from you. Lord, we want you to speak because Lord, we believe that you're our God and that you have a word for everyone who listens. And that every time that your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak. And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear Jesus speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you? Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen. When I woke this morning, I beat my alarm up and I was so excited to be able to come and present this message.

And the reason for that is I've been thinking about this message from the time I left the platform last week because as we've been doing this series called the Kingdom Invasion, we've been taking a look at the uniqueness of who Jesus Christ is and what he did when he came to earth and put on flesh and how he's unlike anyone else who's ever claimed to be God because he himself is God. He's the God man. And what he did is he brought the good news or the gospel into the world. He showed us what it looked like to have a relationship with his father. But this kingdom of vision didn't just stop with him. We saw all that he began to do. It wasn't just salvation. This Jesus not only preached this, Jesus did what He healed. This Jesus delivered and we think that's our God and he's amazing.

But he didn't stop there. He commissioned his 12 apostles to go out and do the exact same thing to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons in unclean spirits. And then he didn't stop there because last week we took a look at the fact that it wasn't just his 12. There were 70 others that he sent out on mission as well. These 70 anonymous saints people that we don't know exactly who they were and what did he send them out to do? To share the good message of the gospel, the good news of the gospel to heal people and to cast out demons. And every time he sent these groups out, he sent the 12 out and they came back and rejoiced, he sent the 70 out and they came back and rejoiced and he said, "Don't rejoice because the demons submit to your name, but rejoice because your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice in this fact that you have a relationship with me. Rejoice in that."

And then he began to praise his dad and he began to say, Dad, I praise you that you've hidden these things from the whys and the learned. You've hidden these from prideful people that don't want to listen. And yet you've revealed to them as children, you've revealed the truth to those who really want to know. And all throughout this messaging, all throughout the New Testament of what this series has been trying to highlight is that Jesus not only came on mission, he came to put those of his followers on mission as well. And it's been clear in our series that God is calling us to do the very same things. This message of Jesus is going to culminate in his death, burial, and resurrection and in his great commission to go into all the world and do what? Make disciples of all nations doing what?

Everything that we've been teaching about everything that Jesus has called us to do. Well, who? All of us who belong to Jesus, that's our responsibility. And yet, isn't it true that while a tuning fork can go off in your heart and say, I want to be used by God like that, I really want to be used by God like that. I love reading through the gospels and I love reading through the book of Acts and seeing all the amazing things that God did through his church. But there's some hesitation in my life too, and there's some things going on right now that keep me from doing that. And there's roadblocks that keep us from being on the mission that Jesus Christ requires of us. And today I want to talk about some of those roadblocks and how we can overcome them in our lives. So if you have a Bible, I'm going to encourage you to open up to Luke chapter 10.

Luke chapter 10. We're going to look at verses 25 through 37. You'll find this story to be a very, very familiar story. And so for that reason, I would like to read it afresh to you today, let you hear it, and then we'll unpack this together. Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25, right after Jesus has been praising his father, right after the 70 have comeback, it says this, "And a lawyer stood up and 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 does it read to you?' 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.' And he said to him, 'You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live.'.

"But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' Jesus replied and said, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him, he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, he took out two denari and gave it to the innkeeper and said, "Take care of him and whatever you spend when I return, I will repay you."'

"'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands?' And he said, 'The one who showed mercy to him.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'" Now, this is a very familiar story. I grew up in the church, so just by a show of hands, humor me this morning. How many have heard this story before? Right? Very popular story, very common story. We call it the Good Samaritan, and like so many stories in our Bible, the more familiar we are with them, the more we miss out on the point. So just to remind you contextually what's just gone on, Jesus has now commissioned 70 of his disciples who go out and do all the things he's asked him to do. Come back, they're telling us stories of healings, demon cleansings, people coming to understand that the kingdom has come upon them, and he's telling them, don't rejoice that demons submit, rejoice that you belong to me.

And then he begins to praise his father and he tells his dad that all things have been handed over to him by his father, and no one knows the son except the father and who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. And he praises his dad for revealing himself to those who are humble. Now, has this sermon series been clear on what we're about? I mean, I've been trying to highlight the points of the text that Jesus is talking about. Once you see this in the text, you'll see it everywhere in the text. You'll see it all throughout the gospels. You'll see it all throughout the letters, all the extra epistles. You'll see this is the method of Jesus, that what Jesus came and taught us to do was to pray for the loss, to go among the loss, to gather with believers for the purpose of encouraging each other to go to the loss.

And as we lead the loss to Christ, then discipling them and growing up them up in the face so that they can do what? So they can pray for the loss, go among the loss, gather with the saints and entrust ministry to those who are coming to Christ. That's the method of Jesus, that's what he was doing, and we've been clear as to who he was calling to do that. In case you've missed the first four weeks, let me be clear, he's calling you to do that. If you're a follower of Jesus, that's the method of Jesus, which believers, all of us, all of us are called to be on missions. Some of us may be called to overseas outreach or inner city outreach or a certain specific type of outreach, but every single believer is called to be on mission by Jesus. Now, when you feel in your heart like, yeah, I'd love to be a part of that, there's also things that can sprout up and say, yeah, but I'm not so sure I'm ready for that.

That's why this story is in our New Testament because it says, as soon as Jesus has got done making completely clear all throughout Luke's gospel and the rest of the gospels, I want my people on mission and I want them doing these things, a lawyer stands up and tests Jesus and what does he test him with? He asks a question, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" So Jesus has been saying, "I want all my followers on mission. If you're going to follow me, come die with me. If you're not willing to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me. You have no part of me. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? I'm calling followers to do what I'm doing." Jesus has been crystal clear.

So the lawyer stands up and said, "Yeah, I got a question for you. What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? I don't care about all the mission stuff. What's the least amount I can do and still go to heaven? That's what I want to know. I want to know the bare minimum that I can do and still be considered good enough to go to heaven. In other words, Jesus, I don't care about you. I don't care about your mission. I don't even know that I like you. What I want to know is when I leave this earth and I get to the next life, then I'm saved. That's all I care about." So that's what he's asking. So he is going to put Jesus to the test. He's going to ask him, what can I do to get saved? Now, this isn't necessarily a bad question because when you ask with the right heart like they did in the book of Acts and Acts chapter two, what must we do to be saved?

Peter tells him, repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, why? So that you can go on mission for Jesus, right? I mean, that's the purpose of the gospel. But this guy didn't have that heart. This guy didn't want Jesus. He didn't want to do what Jesus wanted. So he's just testing him. What must I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus, the master teacher, the best teacher of all time, what does he do? He starts with a question. File this away. Many of you are scared to share the gospel because you think you need to start with a statement when you should be starting with questions. When you start with questions, you engage other people. You show them that you care about them and you're actually genuinely interested in who they are and what they have to say. You don't have to go out and just preach to them, go out and ask them questions.

So Jesus is going to ask him a couple questions. He says, what is written in the law and how does it read to you? Simple questions. What is written in the law? How does it read to you? Now, if we go back to the Old Testament, who is the one who dispensed the law? Who is the one who spoke the law? Who is it? It's Jesus, right? Jesus entrusted it to Moses to come to the people, but this is Jesus's law, right? So Jesus is the one that wrote the law. Who's the one speaking to the man? Jesus. Jesus, right? So when he asked what is written in the law, he said, have you ever read what I told you already? That's what he's asking. In other words, I wrote the law. Have you ever read what I wrote? Do you really believe what I say?

What did I already tell you is what He's saying? And then how does it read to you? He says this, do you understand what I said? In other words, Jesus is saying what I already tell you, and do you understand it? You know what? If you're really looking for truth in God's word and you really want to be obedient to what God says, he will reveal himself to you. What trips us up is when we read the word to say, "I don't know that I'm going to believe any of this, and I'm skeptical about everything." That's when we miss parts of what God is trying to say. God is not trying to hide from you who he is. God wants to reveal himself to you. So he asks, "What's written in the law? How does it read to you?" He's telling the guy, what did I already tell you? Do you understand it?

And the man answers, and he quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, and he answered and said, "You should love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." So what does that mean? It means this. He's saying, I know what it says, what the law says. What you're telling me is that I'm to give God my best. I'm to give him my 100% effort, 100% passion, a hundred percent of my mind to glorify the Lord in everything and to treat every image bearer, every one of his creation, either male or female in the way I'd want to be treated in every situation, that I'm called to love them extravagantly to that's what it says. And Jesus says, you've answered correctly. That's exactly what it's all about.

You want to sum up the entire Bible, you can sum it up by saying this, love God with everything you have, love God by being obedient to His word and do everything he's showing you to do. And then treat every image bearer, which is every person that God's ever created with incredible love and love them extravagantly in the same way you want to be loved in whatever situation you see them in. Jesus says, "You've answered correctly." Then he says this, "Do this and you'll live. Do it. He says, you got it. Now do it." There's a difference between just knowing what to do and doing what Jesus requires. Did you know there's a difference? And that's where this man's going to come into a problem because this man doesn't want to do anything.

This man doesn't even like Jesus. This man doesn't want to do what Jesus wants him to do. He's just being an attorney and trying to twist words around to get Jesus to see, yeah, I hear all this mission stuff, but aren't you supposed to be the Savior? I mean, tell me how to get saved. So this is what he says. Jesus said, "Well just do it. Put into practice what I'm showing you." Why do you think I pray every single week you put into practice what God shows you? Because when I'm preaching, God is showing each of you specific things in your own life that he wants you to take a step of faith for and where he shows you, then go do it. You don't need to ask anybody else. But wishing to justify himself. And this is when you know that this man doesn't love Jesus or what he's about.

He says, "And who is my neighbor?" And who is my neighbor? Here's what the man is saying. Hold on a second, Jesus. What's the scope of what you're asking me to do? Do I need to go all the way in on this? Or is it just with my family? Do I need to do it at work too? Do I need to be this way with my coworkers? What about my people at school? Or what if I'm on vacation? What about people in my community? I mean, here's what I'm asking. Jesus, where does this all stop? Remember, remember, remember, I'm just simply asking how to get to heaven. I'm not asking about all this other stuff. I don't intend on doing any of it. I just want to know the bare minimum to get from here to heaven. That's all I care about. So Jesus tells him a story, the story that you all said that you've heard before, because this man is just saying, "Hey, I want to get to heaven, and I'm hearing what you're requiring, but I'm just wondering where does that stop? What's the limits of my love? Where can my boundary end? Because we all have boundaries and I want to know where mine are because I just want to make sure I do the bare minimum and get to heaven. That's all I'm asking."

And so Jesus tells him the story. We call it the story of the Good Samaritan or the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Now keep in mind the story did not happen. Jesus is telling a parable, he's telling a story that gives us truth about what he's trying to convey. So when we read about the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan, they're fictitious characters. So there's no way for us to say, well, here's what he was thinking and here's what he was doing. They're made up fictitious characters. We can't tell that. I can't tell you on the authority of God's word what a fictitious character was saying, but Jesus is telling this story in a way that we can see some truths that are coming out of their lives.

And when it comes to roadblocks to mission, two of the first ones come from personal preferences of religion and reputation, religion and reputation. Because notice what happens. Jesus said that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead. Now, the reason I know that you don't live in the first century is you didn't gasp when I said that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was going down because Jerusalem sits on a hill. He was going down a 17 mile journey, and everybody knows that going down that specific road is a place where robbers, thieves, and burglars all hid.

If you went down that road and you went by yourself, strong likelihood you're going to get robbed and beaten up. Everybody knows that. So when Jesus is telling this story, this Jewish attorney that was listening would've said, "Yeah, of course he got beat up. Anybody that goes down that way gets beat up. What a stupid choice it was to go down that specific road. Everybody knows not to go down that specific road." So what are we seeing? We're seeing a man in the story that got exactly what he deserved because he didn't use his brain. Sometimes we view people like that. Sometimes we view broken hurting people as well. You know what? The reason they are where they are, they got just what they deserve. The reason they're broke is they don't understand how to manage their money. The reason their marriage is in shambles is they've never been good at relationships. The reason their kids are wayward is because they've never been good parents.

Of course, it's bad. I'm not getting involved with them. The reason they're acting the way they are right here is that they did this. They made those choices. They're where they are because they made choices to get there. So what concern is that of mine? Man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he gets beat up, stripped. So the guy's naked, all his money gets taken away and he's left on the street as half dead. Half dead means this. We don't know if he's going to make it or not. He may be dead already. We don't know. But if he's not dead, he's certainly on his way to being dead. That's how bad it is for this man. He's in a bad situation. His situation is so bad he can't even help himself.

There's nothing he can do to get right. And this is where the story picks up. And by chance, notice Jesus has said that because there'd be no way a priest would go down the road. It was by chance a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now, we don't know why, but we can speculate as to perhaps why. What we do know is that when the priest saw him and he's walking down the road and he sees this man who he doesn't know, who's stripped, who's been beaten, who's bleeding to death on the side of the road, who needs help and needs help now, here's what his response was. Not only am I not going to him, I'm avoiding him all together. I'm going to walk around and stay way, way away from that guy. I don't have time for a guy like him.

Now, who is this guy? He's a priest. He's a religious leader. He does official religious duties. Perhaps if the story was told today it'd be a pastor saw him on the road just happened to be coming by now, what was the problem with him going near that guy? The problem was, if that guy was actually dead and he got near that guy, he would be considered ceremonially unclean. You know what that means? He would've to remove himself from the community. You know what that means? He couldn't perform his religious rituals and duties anymore. You know what that means? He can't do his job. You know what that means? His religion's way more important to him than caring for the man who's about ready to die.

That's what we see in the story. I can't touch him. If I touch him, I'm not going to be able to lead my religious service. If I touch him I got to identify with a dead person. And how do I know who that dead person is? And maybe that's not the kind of person I want to identify with anyway. Maybe they got what they deserved. I don't have time for this. I've got a reputation to keep. People need to see me a certain way. They need to see me as spiritual. They need to see me as upright. They need to see me as holy. They need to see me as good. And if I walk myself into that situation, I could lose some of that. And you know what? I care about more than that guy? I care about my religious practices and I care about what other people think about me. That's what's going on in that guy's head. You say, well, that's terrible. Who would act like that? We would. We see broken and hurting people all the time if we open our eyes, sometimes we close our eyes to them be.

Because we don't want to see it. But we're excited to get to church on Sunday and we're excited to tell people about where we go to church on Sunday. We're excited to participate in the religious practices that we have on Sunday or on Tuesday or with our community of people, but we don't want to identify ourselves with people like that because those kind of people are the kind of reason the world's in the shape that it's in. And I don't want to be with them. That's what's going on. So the man gets close and he is not a step closer. What if he's actually dead? What if I'm ceremonially unclean? I don't like it. Moreover, he likely got what he deserved for traveling this way alone. So here's what he thinks to himself. So I'll make sure he doesn't even see me that way I won't feel guilty for not helping him out. If he doesn't see me, then he won't know that I avoided him.

Sometimes when we see others that are broken and hurting and in need, we stay a distance away because we don't want to engage. Because if we engaged and then they saw we didn't want to help, it would make us feel worse than by not engaging at all. So we just stand back and we say things like, somebody needs to help that group of people, or there's no hope for that group of people. I don't want to go anywhere near that group of people. I'm done with them because you know why? Because I'm a Christian and I got to practice my religion and I got to have people think that I'm really spiritual and if I hang out with them, I'm going to miss out on some of my practice and I'm going to miss out on what people think about me. The same thing's true today.

Now, let me tell you why I'm telling you this because all week long as I've been studying this passage. I've been so convicted in my soul about what I'm doing and who I am and what God needs to shape in my life to align more with the mission of Jesus Christ. I've wept tears this week getting ready for this message. I knew this message was going to be convicting. That's why it's really silent in here today because this is where we live and this is how we can act if we're not challenged and encouraged to take a step of faith. Because isn't it true that God wants all of us to be on mission? And we're like, well, where am I going to find that? I can't afford a mission trip. Here's what Jesus to say. Open your eyes. You've walked by people all week long that we're in need that I put you in contact with, and you walked the other way and avoided them.

That's what Jesus would tell each and every one of us. They're always ripe for the harvest. There's always needy people in our city of two plus million people, you're telling me there's nobody out there that could use a touch of Jesus? They're everywhere if you open your eyes. But if you're focused on your own personal religion and you're focused on your own personal reputation, you'll never see them and you can avoid them altogether. And that's exactly what the priest does. And he leaves.

Verse 32 says, likewise a Levite. Now if the priest was the guy where he'd be like, well, sure the priests are going to help him and he doesn't do anything. Who's the Levite? The levies were the chosen tribe of God to serve in the worship of who he was. So this would be the equivalent of a worship leader or likely someone like that.

And it says, and when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. So he's a little different. When the priest saw the man from a distance, the priest is like, I can't get involved in this. I don't have the time for this. I don't have the energy for this. This is beyond me. This isn't my problem. But the Levite did something different. He walked up to the man before he went to the other side of the road. He went, now why would he walk up to the man? Bible doesn't tell us, but we can speculate. I think he wanted to see if he knew him. There's this naked bleeding man there. I want to know is that my dad, grandpa, uncle, brother, son, friend, somebody that I know somebody's worth taking care of. I mean, if it's somebody in my sphere of influence, I'll help.

But I better go see if it is. And I want to see if I recognize him. And he bends down like, oh, woo. Thank God. Not one of mine. And he goes around the other side too. So at least he went and saw. At least he was willing to help those who loved him. At least he was willing to help those that he cared about. But guess what? He goes on the other side too. And here's the second thing. The second things that get in the way of us being intentional about mission, some of the roadblocks and their personal preferences of relationships and routine, relationships and routine. The priest didn't recognize him. That wasn't his relationship group. Do you know we love to form cliques. We form cliques based upon who we are. We form cliques based upon our age. We form cliques based upon our skin color.

We form cliques based upon our political preferences. We form cliques based upon our socioeconomic background. We form cliques based upon our neighborhood. We form clicks based upon everything in the whole world. And if somebody happens to fall into one of those circles that's in need, I'll help you because I know you do the same for me. But if it's outside of those, I ain't got time for that. That's the heart of the Levite. The heart of the Levite was if I know them, I'll help them, but I don't know. And thank God I don't know him. And it's too bad it's you and I'm sorry you got yourself in that situation and it doesn't look very good for you. But I don't have time for that right now. I mean, how am I going to help? I'm not a medical doctor. I'm a Levite. I mean, how am I going to help? I mean, there's nothing I can really do. So I'm getting on my way because I too have a routine that I have to keep. I'm busy. Let me talk about this.

Who here's too busy to serve Jesus? Because if you are, you're too busy. Well, what's serving Jesus look like? I'll come on Sunday and I'll come next Sunday when I'm in town and I'll come the next Sunday. What's it look like? It means 24/7/365. I have my eyes open to be the hands and feet and mouthpiece of Jesus everywhere I go. But he's too busy for that. I mean, that's a pretty high commitment, isn't it? I mean, who would Jesus to do that? Every single one of his disciples. That's how the kingdom gets advanced in the world. It's not through a select few. It's through every single person that has been called by the name of Christ who is in a relationship with him who wants to be intentional about opening their eyes and seeing the broken and the hurting and the lost and the half dead in the world and sharing the love of Christ with them.

Priest and the Levite missed out, but the priest and the Levite represent me and you too, don't they? I mean we see ourselves in both of those characters that our relationships and our routine. And oh by the way, I mean we live in a culture where we feign this idea that we're the busiest group of people in the world. I'm so busy. You're so busy. I mean there was a time if you worked in a factory where you had to get up at 5 in the morning to get to work by 6 and you worked in the factory for 12 straight hours with maybe a 15 minute lunch break only to get home at 7:00 to go to bed because you had to get up at 5 the next day to do the same thing every single day without a break. That's busy. Most people don't work like that.

I grew up one generation away from being a farmer. Farmers are busy. They get up at 4 in the morning and they work all day till about 8 or 9 at night and then they get up again every single day. That's busy, that busy. I'm not that busy. We just talk like we're busy. But when we say we're busy, here's what we're saying. I've jam packed in my schedule all my preferences for what's most important to me. My family's in there. My fun is in there. My everything is in there that I want to do. And there's very little margin for anything other than me and what I care about. So I'm busy. And Jesus would say, if you're not seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you're not seeking correctly.

What should go first in is Jesus, I woke up today. You're the one that gave me life. I'm all about you and I'm all about your kingdom. You guide my path. And if something gets interrupted on my schedule because it's more important to your kingdom than what's on my schedule, I'll preference what's on your kingdom agenda. That's what Jesus is saying, right? That's why he's telling the story to the attorney and he's telling it in earshot of everybody else to say, this is how serious I'm about my mission. Anyone who would come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do as I say, are you still so dull? Are you still going to leave too? What was Jesus' message? If I'm really your God, then go on mission with me because I'm entrusting the mission of the world to you. It's pretty special. You're my ambassador. It's pretty special. And we're like, no, I'm good with that. But I kind of just religious services and I kind of like my reputation and how people in religious services think about me. And I kind of like the relationships I already have and I kind of like my routine. And if you're going to try to break that up, Jesus, I'm bothered by you. That's what's going on with the Levite and the priest.

But notice who came next. Verse 33 it says, "but a Samaritan." Now, the reason I know you're not a first century Jewish audience is you didn't gasp. Samaritan. If you were saying to a Jewish attorney in the first century, then along came as Samaritan, he would think to himself that good for nothing, no good waste of life. God hates people like that and therefore I hate them too. That's who came along. Now you would say, well, I don't feel that way about Samaritans. Jesus just told us to go into all the world. Who do you feel that way about? Is there any specific group of people that you would say, I want nothing to do with that group? They're totally lost. They went off the road. They're in the ditch. I don't want them to do it.

If Jesus was telling this story to Fox News, here's what he would say. Along came the Democrat. True? If he's telling this story to MSNBC and CNN, he would say, along came the Republican. If he was telling this story to a group of KKK members, he would say, along came the African American. Do you see? Because even if we don't verbalize it, all of us can have prejudices in our heart unless Jesus Christ redeems us from that. Amen. So he tells them a story based upon his own heart and what he knows he hates and makes that person the hero of the story. So notice what's different about the Samaritan. We're going to see what he actually does, not just thinks. But a Samaritan who was on a journey. Now what was he doing? We don't know where he was going, but here's what we know about him. He was going somewhere. He had a plan, he had a destination. He needed to be somewhere at a certain time because he's on a journey and he came upon him. And when he saw him, he had compassion.

So here's the difference, because when the Samaritan comes up and he sees the guy, we get to see what he feels. He felt compassion. He felt pity. Now, it's not just an emotion because as we've talked about already, compassion is not just, "Oh, feel so bad for you. That must be painful. You must be cold because you're naked. I'm so sorry." That's not compassion. Compassion is when you feel a need and you yourself are going to do something to make it right. So he feels compassion. Who do we serve? We serve the God of all compassion. Amen. When God sees a need, he comes and makes it right? So Samaritan sees a need. So Samaritan's going to come up to the man and notice what he does. He came up to him and bandaged his wounds. So Samaritan's going to run right up to this guy and bandaged his wounds.

Now a couple questions. What are you going to have to do in order to bandage somebody's wounds? You got to touch them. You got to physically make contact with that person. None of the other two are willing to do that. They not only didn't want to identify and walk down the other side of the road, they didn't want to touch him. They didn't want to get near him, they didn't want to be identified with him. What's the first thing he does? He goes up and touches him. Now he bandages him and pours oil and wine on his wounds. Where did he get the bandages and where did he get the oil and wine? They're his personal resources. I'm going to take what I have and give you everything that I have because I want to see you be completely healed. And even though you're half dead, and even though you may die, I'm willing to take my resources, use them on you even if you never respond in the way that I'm hoping for.

See a difference in his heart? That's the heart of compassion. See, there's certain people sometimes that we have in our heart where we begin to think, I don't really care what happens to them. They just got what they deserve. They'll know someday when they meet God, they'll know they were wrong. Let me tell you a little story. You also went down the wrong road too, and Jesus came after you. So what's he do? He bandages the wounds. He pours oil on them. Does that take some time? I mean, that takes some time. I mean, the guy's been beat half to death. So where was he hurting? Here's the answer. Everywhere. If you've ever seen somebody beat up, his face is swollen, his body's swollen, he's probably got broken ribs, he's probably having a hard time breathing, he's bleeding out. He's stinky, he's smelly. And what's this guy do?

He goes and gets down on his hands and knees and starts touching the guy. He doesn't ask this question. Is he worthy? Maybe this guy's a pedophile. We don't know. Maybe this guy's a leader in government. We don't know. Maybe this guy's an athlete. We don't know who he is. That's the whole point of the story. He's in need, so we're going to help him. Why? Because he's an image bearer of my God. And if I really love my God, my theology plays out in how I treat out other people, not what I say in church. Amen?

So he goes and he bandages the wounds. And this is where it really gets interesting. He pours oil and wine on them and then he put him on his own beast. Now, we don't know what kind of animal this was. We don't know if it was a donkey or whatever, but here's what we do know. Apparently prior to meeting this guy, he was riding on the beast. He wasn't having to put his feet on the ground. He wasn't having to do all the walking. Now, what's he going to have to do if he gives up that? I mean, we're not talking about a two or a four seater here. We're not talking about a SUV he's putting him in. There's only room for one. But how do you get a man from the ground who can't move, who's almost dead onto this beast? I mean, even if he's a little guy, 130 pound guy, how you going to get him up there?

You're going to have to get down on your hands and knees and embrace him and bring him towards you and feel him and all of the blood and stink and sweat and dirt that that man has is now going to be all over you and it's not going away. And then you got to use all your strength to get him up and to get him on the beast. And now guess what? Because you're on that dangerous road. You're going half as fast as you once were and now you're even a bigger target for the next robbers to come along. And you know what the Samaritan thinks? I don't care. I'm doing the right thing here. I'm honoring what my God would want me to honor, which are people that are hurting and broken and in need, and it's my job to touch them and to help them and to make them better.

See, a religious person might do this. They would probably walk over and be like, "Oh, thank goodness I have a tract. I'll leave this with you. And if you happen to wake up and don't die, read all four steps and you'll be saved. Good day," right? That's not the gospel. There's truth of the gospel, but it gets lived out in your actions as well so people can see it in your eyes and your touch and your heart and your passion for them. People know how much you care by the way that you treat them. Or they know if you're just an assignment for your religion, they know the difference. You know the difference, but he's not done there and he brought them to an inn and he took care of them. It would've been enough if you would've bandaged the guy's wounds and got him to sit up, it would've been enough if he did that and put him on his beast and took him into town. It would've been enough just to say, okay, somebody will come find you. But what does he do? He takes them to an in and guess what he does? I'm going to stay with you all night.

But this guy had plans, didn't he? I mean, this guy was on a journey, didn't he? I mean, they didn't have cell phones in the first century and he couldn't call ahead and tell all of his family he was going to be late. So what was he doing? He was preferencing this man that he didn't know over all the other relationships that he had. And he was like, until I see your full healing, you are my priority. Convicting? Convicting to me. He's going to stay with him all night. You say, well, how do you know that he stayed with him all night? Because the text tells me that he did. Because notice what happens 35 on the next day, the next day, yeah, he spent all night what with this guy? He wasn't concerned about his sleep, wasn't concerned about patting himself on the back. He took out two denari I and he gave him to the end keeper and said, "Take care of him and whatever more you spend when I return, I will repay you."

So now he's going to reach into his pocketbook. Now he's going to his own finances. He used all his resources. Now he is like, "I'll give him my money too. Whatever it takes to see this guy that I don't know that I don't even know is worthy, I'm going to make sure he sees the love of God. So I'm going to stay with you all night. I'm going to talk to you all night. I'm going to make sure you rest all night. I'm going to be there with you and the next day I do have to go, but I'm going to pay for somebody else to take care of you." So he got to do? He's got to convince the innkeeper that this guy's worthy of being taken care of. Sometimes when we identify with the lost, it's hard to convince other Christians that it's worthy of your time. You're spending time with a group of people most Christians will be like, "Oh, that's despicable. How could you hang out with them?" Because that's exactly who Jesus would hang out with and you should hang out with them too. And not only should you hang out with them, you should care for them too. So he's convincing the innkeeper to take care of him.

And then he says this as if that's not enough, he's not done. You know how he's not done because he says I'll pay more if need be when I come back. He's not just going to leave. I mean he is done enough. He could leave and pat himself on the back and say, I'm better than the priest and the levies of my day. But no, because what's his heart? It's a heart of compassion. "I want to see him fully restored. I'm coming back. I'm going to stay with this guy until I see him fully restored."

Whose heart is the Samaritan representing? That's the heart of Jesus. You're the one that went down the wrong road. You're the one that got what you deserved. All the poor sinful decisions you made that wound you up in a ditch. Jesus was the one that came out of heaven. Jesus is the one that died on the cross for your sins. Jesus is the one that rose from the dead. Jesus is the one who revealed himself to you. Jesus is the one who's staying with you, bandaging your wounds, helping you through this life. And I promise you, Jesus Christ is the one who will come back and make everything right. Amen. Because he loves you like that.

So you think this story is done because this is a pretty powerful story. Here's a guy saying, yeah, I don't care about all your mission. Just what do I need to do to get saved? What's the scope of my ministry? How far do I have to go? And Jesus tells him this story. And then Jesus asked this question, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? In other words, which one showed a mercy? And you can almost hear the guy saying, Jesus is saying, you were asking me who you should be a neighbor to. But my deeper and more profound question is that I am personally asking you how should you act like a neighbor? Think carefully before you answer because your answer will be the accountability you will have for all eternity.

I'm showing you what to do now. I'm showing you what I require now. When you stand before me, this is what I'm holding you accountable to. The lawyer's done. It's game set match. I mean, you can almost hear them like, "Ugh. I mean, all I was doing was saying, how do I get saved? And you've turned this into some big thing. I wasn't even caring about any of this stuff, but there's no way I'm going to say the word Samaritan. I won't even let those words come out of my mouth," right? So he answers him and he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. I'm not going to say the word Samaritan, but I will tell you about that third character that showed mercy. I know you're going to tell me that that's how I need to live. Because you see some of the things that hold us up are our personal preferences for our resources and our responsibilities.

We care about our money, we care about our time, we care about our responsibilities. We care about our family. We care about all those things. And some of those things are really good things to care about. And God gives us wisdom in his word on how to handle money and how to handle marriage and how to handle singleness and how to handle parenting and how to be a honorable child to parents and how to respect authority and all those things are good, but what's most important to Jesus is what? Loving him and loving those that are far from him. That's the mission.

So now Jesus says what? Then Jesus says, "Go and do the same." Here's what he says. "Go and do likewise." Go be the Samaritan. Go be like the one that you hate. Go find ways to love the ones you hate. Let them see Christ's love through your eyes, your face, your hands, your feet, your resources, your time, your energy, your effort, your willingness to identify with them, your genuine love for them, your investment in them, your willingness to follow back up with them, your sincere care for them, your focus on getting others to care for them and your desire to come back and see them completely restored. All this knowing that they may reject your kindness and will likely never to be able to repay you. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

That is the gospel, that is the good news, that is the great commission. And that's what a transformed life for Jesus Christ will look like. And by the way, in case you're wondering what God is trying to build in you, it's that. He wants you to be the third person in the story. He wants you to be the Samaritan. Now, why is this so important? Well, it's so important because as your pastor, I want to lead you into things of God's word. I talked to you last week about when we started our church, how long it took us to figure out how to do a Sunday, how to do children's ministry well and invest in them and how hard it was to make a decision that, "Hey, we're just going to say true to the word and just whatever God says. That's what we want to do."

I want to teach you the whole counsel of God. I want to feed you every single week. I don't want people at Brave to say, "I just don't know the word. Nobody's telling me anything about it." I want Jesus to have full reign through his word to feed you and to grow you. I also want to encourage you, and I want to teach you how to worship. When you come to brave on a Sunday, I want to teach you, you can take your hands out of your pockets. You can sing from your gut, you can raise your hands. You can applaud because the God that we are serving and the God that we are worshiping and the God that we are celebrating loved you so much that when you went down the road in the wrong ditch, God sent his own son to be slaughtered for you. He's worthy. Amen.

And as I read through the New Testament, I see it's important for us to gather as a church, it's important to teach the word and proclaim the word. It's important for us to worship his name. It's important for us to put God on display because there's not a lot of other places in our world where that's happening on a regular basis. So it's important to us. But as your pastor too, I want to teach you how to pray and seek the face of God. I believe for Christians that truly know how to seek Jesus and hear his voice and know how to call out to him and cry out to him and pour out your heart to him that your life can change. To know how to hear his voice and know his still small voice and to understand the word and how to pray the word, which is why for us, on the first Tuesday of every month, we gather as a church to pray and seek his face.

It's so important. But I also want to be a pastor that challenges you to live on mission for Jesus Christ too. Last week we unveiled what we're going to call our groups that are specific missional communities. Call them cadres. I want to challenge you to live what you put into practice. I've been through cadre orientation twice. I know I'll go through it again and then I'll start teaching it. But when it comes to what we do, I wouldn't be a good pastor if I didn't provide a pathway for you to do that. Now I know what that means. I don't expect everybody to opt in. I do expect some to say I'm too busy right now, even after I preach that you're not.

I do expect some to say, I don't think God can use me even though he says that he can. I do expect roadblocks and that that's okay. And I told you last week, if that's you and you're saying I'm just not doing that yet I love you. I'm not making you. I can't convince you to, I can't save you. I can't make you think the word of God's important. I can't make you think prayer is important. I can't make you think worship's important. I can't make you think mission's important. Only Jesus can do that. And I love you no matter what. But I want to provide a pathway. I want to provide a pathway for you to do that. And for us, this is what it boils down to. I mean, we've really shaped our mission statement to be memorable. Every church has a mission statement, did you know that?

Very few are memorable, but they all come out of Matthew 28:18-20, "Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I've commanded you. And I'll be with you always to the end of the age." That's every church's mission statement. Now we put language to it so that we can remember, okay, what is it? So this is our mission statement of Brave. This is what we say. Our mission is to challenge brave warriors for courageous kingdom advancement. That's how we understand what God's entrusted us to challenge brave warriors for courageous kingdom advancement. Why would you use those words? Well, I'm going to challenge you no matter who you are, no matter where you are to take a next step of faith in your life.

If you're far from God, I want to challenge you to repent of your sins and trust Jesus as your savior. If you're new to church, I want to challenge you to get a Bible and open your ears in here. I want to challenge you to take the word of God and put it into practice. I want to challenge you to worship like you've never worshiped. I want to challenge you to become a prayer warrior for Jesus and learn how to pray. And I want to challenge you to be on mission. I mean, that's what I want. And I always want it for you. I want it for me. Well, who are we challenging? Brave warriors. What's a brave warrior? Brave means one that's bolded their faith, resolute in their identity, authentic in relationships, virtuous in their character, engaged in mission. That's the kind of disciple we believe Jesus is trying to make here.

Challenge brave what? Warriors. Why warriors? Because we're in a spiritual battle. We're not fighting this in the flesh. We're not just being rah rah about this. That's why we put on spiritual armor and we have spiritual weapons and we're spiritual warriors for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are in a battle because from the time that Jesus Christ came from the time centered in sin entered into the world, there's a battle between good and evil and right and wrong. And I want to challenge you to engage that battle spiritually the way Jesus would want with all the weapons available to us like love and mercy and compassion and all those things.

For what purpose? For courageous kingdom advancement. Why courageous? Because one of the devil's biggest tricks is to cause fear in the heart of you. You should be scared. We say no. You'll feel scared. But I want you to take a step of courage. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. The Lord will go with you wherever you go. And what's kingdom advancement? Kingdom advancement is when Christ is living his life in and through you. It's go. Go do this. Go pray for the loss, go among the lost, go and gather with people so that you can go among lost, entrust ministry to the lost. That's what he's saying. I want to be a pastor that helps you do that. Now, let me tell you this. I've been through cadre orientation twice, and I'm telling you this from my own heart.

First time I went through it, I was asked to write down 63 names of lost people that I know that I can pray for on a regular basis. I was embarrassed. Before I became a pastor I hung out only with lost people. After becoming a pastor. I realized I get so engaged in some of the activities I'm doing. I wasn't even thinking about some of the lost people that are right around me. I mean, to be honest with you, I came up with about seven names of people I know that are lost that I see on a regular basis. And I was embarrassed. It troubled me. So I said, give me two sheets because I want to start writing down names of people that I'm walking by every single day that I'm not paying attention to because I'm not just teaching you this as your pastor, "Y'all need to go." What God's teaching me is as your pastor, I'm going to go, I want to be engaged in the mission too. That's where life is.

I mean, think about it like this. When Jesus Christ made disciples, how many years did he spend with his disciples? Three years, right? We know a year is 365 days and we know the average Hebrew calendar was 12 hours a day, right? Some days he spent longer with them, spent all night with him. Some days were shorter. But if you just take 365 days times 12 hours a day times three years, that means he was discipling his disciples for 13,140 hours. Okay? You know how many Sundays it would take you to become a disciple based upon that math? 252 plus years to become a disciple? And fortunately for you, you go to Brave and we do 90 minutes. So I did the math. It will only take us 168 years. And if you've been here from the beginning, you only have 155 years left to engage in religious activity, to be the disciple Jesus called you to be.

Friends, I don't care if you're 10 years old or you're 90 years old, God can use you on mission right where you're at. And it's what he cares about the most in your life if you're a Christian. So let's go. I mean, it's no wonder we don't see Jesus move when we passively sit on our rear and expect God to move through our complacency and apathy. The church is an offensive weapon. The church can be offensive at times, but it's an offensive weapon. We're not just called to play defense. We're called to support it with the pillar of truth, the word of God, and all the things that God calls us to do. But then we're to go where? Into the world among who? All the people that can't stand you. All the people that say Christians are just like this and they don't care. Go to them, show them what it looks like.

And by the way, when you see all this, you can't unsee this. Howard Hendrix used to say when he taught at Dallas Seminary, he goes, "I wish we would not bestow a degree upon anybody at DTS until they had demonstrated they had three to 500 scriptures memorized and had led at least four or five people do the Lord and could show us over the last four years what they'd done to grow them up in the faith. And if they couldn't do that, why are we giving them degrees?" That's what ministry is. And I agree with him. It's more easy to be religious than it is to be on mission for Jesus.

Now, I wrote down some rhetorical questions. I'm not asking you to answer these, but before I do, I just want to tell you this. If you don't remember our mission statement, can I just tell you I'm totally cool with that? We want to challenge brave warriors for courageous kingdom advancement. Seven words, right? That's it. But if you can't even remember that, say, well, what's Brave about? I go to Brave. What's it about? We're about Sundays, we're about Tuesdays. We're about cadres. Because we believe that's a pathway for you to be on mission for the Lord Jesus Christ, for you to engage his word and engage in worship and engage in prayer, and engage in mission and engage in evangelism. This is our pathway. That's what we're about.

You say, well, I have a great ministry idea. Great. Here's who we're going to listen to for great ministry ideas going forward. Those who are members, those who come on Sundays, those who come on Tuesdays, those who lead in cadres. Then we're ready to listen because now I know you're living on mission and we want to hear what you have to say about how we can do a better job of doing that. Don't want our church to become just a religious activity. I like this and I don't like that, and I like want to have a bunch of brave warriors out in the world winning people to Jesus. Now for those of you who say, "Well, I'll never opted into that, I'm just not going to do it." I just have a couple rhetorical questions, 15 actually to ask you.

Then you can just ask yourself, because all these questions are questions that Jesus would ask you if he were here today. So I'm just going to ask it for him. Where's your list of lost people that you're currently praying for on a regular basis? How many people are on that list? How frequently are you engaging the lost in sharing the gospel through your deeds and your words? When was a recent time you were significantly inconvenienced in your life because of your love for the lost? When specifically was that time? How was your Bible study time challenged you to be more obedient to the word and stay on mission? What is one way that God has changed your life in the last two weeks? How much more are you now engaged in mission because of the people you associate with? What are the names of the people you have recently shared the gospel with? What are the names of the people you have led to the Lord? Where are the people you have led to the Lord? How are they now serving the Lord? How many of those that you've led to the Lord are now leading others to Christ? How are you staying connected to and leading the people you have led to Jesus? How is your passion for the mission of the church to reach the nations of the world been growing?

That's not an exhaustive list. That's just a few things Jesus would ask. So if what you're doing can answer all those questions affirmatively, great job. For most of us, including me, I can't. I need other people around me that will hold me accountable to doing that very thing. I'm inviting you in to membership. I'm inviting you in to cadre orientation. Cadre orientation is four weeks. They're going to come at different times throughout the year. You'll see when those times are coming. When your time comes, would you be willing to engage in that for four weeks just to see? Now, here's the deal. You can be skeptical if you're skeptical. I'm just going to go to that cadre orientation and show them how stupid they are. Don't come. It's okay. But if you're really looking to say, I don't know, but if God could actually use me and do that, I'd be curious to know how he could use me. I'm willing to at least learn. I invite you to come.

And by the way, you don't need to be a pro at anything. Matter of fact, we don't want pros. We want humble people that want to trust Jesus to work in their life. We want to do this together as a team. We want to help you grow and be the fullness of Christ. So what we did this week was we put together a short little two minute video of what's the benefit of cadre orientation. We have some people on staff that have gone through now, some others outside of staff that have gone through them. We just ask them, "Hey, share your heart for what difference that cadre orientation has made in your life so that our congregation can see why it might be a benefit to them." So I just want to encourage you to watch this screen just for a couple minutes.

Video:

I learned that I can actually use and apply my faith into real life situations and principles and actually go and reach the lost.

He's actually shown me parts of the discipleship journey I've never understood. He's revealed to me what it looks like to truly be a follower. And in doing so, I've discovered what it looks like to actually disciple the next generation of believers. And it's been a wild, wild ride.

I've always been a part of Bible studies and community groups, but they were very me focused. And it wasn't until I went through cadre orientation and I joined a cadre, but I learned that it is a lot less about me and it is more about God and his people.

After going through cadre orientation, I learned what a prayer walk is, and now I go among the lost looking for prayer moments. It makes it easy for someone who's an introvert like myself to share the gospel in a way that doesn't seem awkward or forced.

I've seen people come to Christ, and that in itself is the most incredible thing to be a part of. And that's because of cadres.

It turned out it was so much easier than I thought I was ready before cadre orientation was over.

In all the Bible studies that I led, you could say I was proficient at being simply a hearer of the word, but not a doer of the word. Now, I have an intentionality that every time I hear the voice of God, I'm going to put into practice what he says and fulfill the great commission.

I realize that I was neglecting the responsibility of evangelism, which is to make a disciple who makes a disciple. The method of Jesus, generational fruit.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen.

If you attend here and you want to learn how to be on mission for Jesus, we'd love to teach you. We'd love to train you. We'd love to see you put into practice everything that the scriptures teach, because I'm going to tell you, it's way easier to teach the scriptures than it is to live them. Way easier to talk about them than to do them. Way easier to preach on being a good husband than being a good husband. Way easier to preach on prayer than pray. Way easier to preach upon the law on reaching the lost than going and reaching the lost. Cadres is just our way of how we can put people on mission to go live the great commission and what would happen, not just in our church, but if people around the world actually live like this, not sitting passively idly by saying, "Hey, I'm just looking for this. I'm looking for this. I'm looking for this. Say, God, I'm looking for you. How would you want to use me? If there's any way you can use me to reach the lost, open my eyes, help me do that." And we were equipped on how to do that.

Friends, I know within a 15 mile radius of wherever you're sitting today, there are lost, broken, and hurting people by the millions that don't believe there's a God in heaven that loves them and don't have a great view of Christians that are waiting for us to open our eyes and go among them and show them that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus, make today your day. He loved you so much that when he saw you on that road and he saw you far from him, he's the one that came.

And the way that he bandaged wounds, the way that he heals is he died in your place on the cross for all your sin, and he was buried. Good news is he rose from the dead and he will give life to anyone who wants to turn from their sin and turn to Jesus. And if today's your day, turn to him. He loves you. He created you. He wants to be in relationship with you for all eternity. Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me as we pray?

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, as we talk about reaching our city and seeing you be the God of revival, Lord, revive us in our mission for you, Lord, that we would go among the loss, that we would use one another as Christians to challenge one another, to do that very thing. And Lord, we would be your hands and your feet and your mouthpiece and your resource to take the gospel out. If you're here today and you want Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you can pray like this. Lord Jesus, today I repented my sins and I place my faith in you alone. I want you to be my God. Come into my life and save my soul. Father, fill all those who prayed that with your Holy Spirit, set them on mission and on fire for you. Lord, do a healing work today as we sing to you about being our God of revival, we give you all praise, all glory in all honor in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Can we give God praise today?