Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Guys are great. Thank you.
Brian: Okay. We got a step.
Jacque: She makes me cry.
Brian: There you go.
Jacque: Just think of the Lord saying, and you are beautiful to me. Let us be one. That's beautiful. Thank you, Sherry.
Brian: We have Norbert and Leslie here today with their family and man, the time just went so fast, didn't it? They are heading back tomorrow to Hungary and so we want to pray over them before they leave. Please come forward, Norbert, Leslie and your family, at least the children that are here. Is everybody here today? Oh, good, good. I wasn't sure if our Bethany Fellowship student had already taken off, but they are standing right down here in the middle here. Which one is going to Bethany? You are. Okay. Good for you buddy. And you are going to a school in a school in Bucharest when you get back, right? So Leslie and Norbert are going to be half empty nesters when they get home. So this is going to be a big adjustment for them too. Come right over here in the middle guys. If any of you want to come up and just lay hands on them, we want to just send them back to Hungary with our blessing.
Some on up and let's just surround them. We are their church; we are their home church. And we love them. We are proud of them. We are so thankful for what God has done in them. I've seen such wonderful maturity and growth happening in their lives. We just want to send Hope Community churches, blessing to Hungary. Most of us will probably never step foot on Hungarian soil. Jacque and I are hoping to get there soon, but maybe you will never be there, but we can send us with them by imparting our grace and our love and our support with them.
Father, I just thank you for Norbert and Leslie. We just value our relationship with them. We thank you for the work you are doing in Hungary through them. There are people that are so wounded in life and they are touching people who are now refugees from the Ukraine, others who are despised and rejected as culture groups. Lord, your heart breaks over the woundedness of this world. But you care so much that you will send someone like Norbert and Leslie to bring the good news of Jesus to a broken world. And so we bless them, Lord. We pray for favor to be upon them. We ask for your mercy to be great towards them, Lord and your provisions to go beyond and above what they could ever ask, imagine or think. I pray, in Jesus' name, that Lord, more and more people would rally behind them and be able to support them in prayer and in finances, Lord.
We pray that you will enable us as a church to do more and people who are watching even online right now, that these people would be stirred in their hearts to want to give and to be a part of what you are doing in Hungary. We just thank you, Lord, for people that are willing to lay everything aside. I thank you for their children. I pray blessings on their children, Lord. They were raised here in America, and yet they have a heart to give for you in a land and in a culture that doesn't have the blessings that this land here does. They are willing to leave those behind to do something of greater value and of a greater treasure in your kingdom. And so we pray blessings upon these children. We pray blessings upon Norbert and Leslie, as a new normal is coming into their home with two of their sons going off to college and school.
We pray, father, that their hearts will be filled, Lord, with comfort from Holy Spirit, as they will be experiencing a loss in their family with all their children not being around them every day. And so Lord, we just pray blessings now. Open up the windows of heaven for them. We pray the windows of heaven would open up and pour out in such a way that they couldn't contain it. In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. God bless you.
Have you ever heard the expression "That's a risky business"? Have you ever heard that expression, "It's a risky business" The children are a risky business that's for sure. But children can be dismissed to go to children's church. The business that Jesus has called us to requires a risk on our part. I want to talk about that this morning. We have a really wonderful story. Jacque and I were talking about what God wants for Hope Community church and what he wants us to be. I don't compare hope to any other church. I don't look at other churches and try to think, well, we should be doing that or they are doing that wrong or anything like that. There was a time in my life where I was much more judgmental in those ways, and particularly, denominations that weren't part of what I'd call our stream at that time. We'd be pretty condemning of, or judgmental of, and look down her nose at him. God has done a real work in my heart through the years about how that's not a reflection of who he is.
I really just have a heart to reflect Jesus. I don't always do it. Please keep praying for me. I need prayers in order for me to do that. But I do believe that God has something very special for Hope Community. Not that he doesn't have anything special for other churches; he does. But the unique thing that God really wants for us is to follow the word that he said to his disciples when he said, "A new command I give on unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you." We don't even ask God to help us love in the way that we want to be loved, but rather we need to ask God to help us love as he has loved us and keep that as our model.
In that context, we believe that God has some really unique things because the level of brokenness in our world today is such a high level or deep level, whatever way you would like to describe it, that only one thing will actually transform people's lives. That's a genuine experience with the love of God, a genuine experience with the love of Jesus Christ. It's only the love of Christ that can truly mend the level of brokenness in our world today. Self-help will raise the standard a little bit. 10 step programs will help overcome certain things, but the level of brokenness that is in the world today with rejection and hatred and murder and prejudice and all the things that are just piling on the only thing that's going to really be the antidote for all of that is a true, genuine encounter with how much God loves us. That's the one thing that will penetrate the hearts of men and bring transformation.
That is what I believe God has called us to be as a church- the kind of church that will love as Jesus has loved us. When we fall short of that, let's just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and ask God to give us more of him because that will be the only way that it'll happen. With that, I want to go back to a story that most of us, probably all of us are familiar with, but we find the preface to that story in an encounter that an expert in the religious law had with Jesus. We see that encounter in Luke chapter 10, and we'll read verses 25 to 29.
Jacque: One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question, "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" The man answered, "You must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself." "Right," Jesus told him. "Do this, and you will live." The man wanted to justify his actions, so then he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
That's really what he was asking, who is not my neighbor because when he was asking from Jesus, well, who is my neighbor, he was expecting a list. Well, this person or this family or whatever. But what he was really wanting because he wanted to justify himself because he knew he wasn't living a life of love, he wanted to know who his neighbor wasn't.
Jacque: Who don't I have to love?
Brian: Who don't I have to love or who does not deserve my love? That's another way to ask this question. Well, who doesn't deserve my love or to be more blunt, whose lack of food and shelter can I ignore? Whose lack of food and shelter can I ignore or whom can I hold the grudge against and hate? What group of people can I eliminate out of consideration in my life? Who can I justifiably have prejudice against? And the answer of course, that Jesus ultimately gives is no one. That's the answer Jesus ultimately gives because Jesus knows that if we define our neighbor, only as those who are similar to us, which is what this religious scholar was doing, in other words, people who are a part of our own religious group or people who are a part of our own ethnic community, then we will never stretch ourselves to love beyond those to whom it is natural to love.
I would propose to you today that it's actually not natural in a fallen world with a fallen nature, to love everybody. We need help with that. We need a supernatural power to be in us to do that. That's why one of my teachers used to say to me, "Brian, it's really hard to be a Christian when you are not one."
Jacque: It's impossible.
Brian: It's impossible.
Jacque: Love is both natural, but the love that God has for us, he wants us to also love unnaturally. It's natural to love a newborn child that is just born to you. It's natural to love your family. It's even natural in some respects to love those people who are really nice to you and kind to you. But what about those people who aren't? What about those people who think differently than you, who have different political aspirations than you think they should have? What about those people who just have a different philosophy of life than you? This is what this religious scholar was asking about. Who really is my neighbor, or maybe who isn't my neighbor?
Jesus calls us to a love, dare I say, commands us. He commands us to a love that is supernatural. It's not natural. It's supernatural for us to have it. Jesus takes the world of this Jewish scholar and the Jewish audience that was there. He takes this world that they are so every day inundated with, and he not only stretches their definition of who neighbor is. He turns their whole world upside down by the story that he was just about to tell this story, that we call the good Samaritan. as I was talking to you last night, we, we talked about the fact that the word Samaritan in our culture today has nice, warm, fuzzy feelings to it, doesn’t it?
Jacque: Samaritan's Purse.
Brian: Samaritan's purse. That's one. Billy Grahamson directs that.
Jacque: And the Samaritan care centers around town are so warm.
Brian: Yeah. You see the Samaritan word, title or name on care centers and so forth and you have this warm, warm, fuzzy feeling. But let me tell you something, the word Samaritan to the Jewish culture was nothing like that, nothing like that at all. What really shocked this audience, not just this religious leader, but the hero of this story that he was about to tell is actually considered, and don't be offended by this term, but in their language, they thought of Samaritans as half breed bastards. The word bastard in that culture meant someone who was a child of someone who wasn't married. That term has kind of changed in our culture. We used it as a derogatory, maybe even swear word at times. But in that culture, it meant that.
The Samaritan ethnic group came about by Jewish people, intermarrying with non-Jewish people from other tribes or other cultures. The Jewish people didn't even recognize those marriages as legitimate marriages. In their minds, all Samaritans were half breed bastards. That's what they were. Jesus now starts to tell this story where he makes the half breed bastard, the hero of the story. We know this story to be the story of The Good Samaritan. Let's read Luke chapter 10 versus 30 to 32. I know that's really shocks you when I use those words. Just hang in there with me, baby. Hang in there with me.
Jacque: Okay.
Brian: Okay.
Jacque: Okay. I know you are making a good point and you are doing a good job.
Brian: I'm doing a good job of making a good point, right?
Jacque: Yes.
Brian: All right.
Jacque: Jesus replied with this story. So this comes right after Jesus replied to the man's question with the story.
Brian: Yes, with this story,
Jacque: A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits.
Brian: Notice the man that was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho. By the way, Jerusalem is here and Jericho is up here, but the reason they say down to Jerusalem is Jerusalem is on a mountain and Jericho is down closer to sea level. And so he was traveling down the mountain to Jerusalem. But it was a Jewish man who was traveling
Jacque: From Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up and left him half dead beside the road. By chance, a priest came along. When he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him, lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
Brian: It's interesting that Jesus uses the word "by chance" a priest came along. I'm not sure it was actually by chance, but we often think that just by chance we happen upon things. These things that are by chance are ordered by the Lord for us. We see that a priest as well as a temple assistant saw this man. The priest walked to the other side of the road because he didn't know if he was dead or not, and he didn't want to get defiled, so he walked to the other side of the road. The assistant went over and checked him out, lying there. But he also decided to not invest any time or wealth or energy into helping this guy. And he walked to the other side of the road.
The fact of the matter is these two men were very religious men. One was an assistant in the temple. The other was a priest in the temple. Oftentimes, religion is a barrier rather than a motivator to becoming involved in the life of hurting people. Sometimes our religion is actually more of a barrier than a help in us trying to get involved in helping hurting people. The priest not only passed by, but he made sure to cross on the other side of the road. Sometimes we are just too afraid of what might happen to us if we actually take the time to stop and help, because we have too much on our busy agenda. We have too much to do, too many places to go, too many things that we think God wants us to do that we won't take time to stop and help a hurting person.
There was also fear in this probable priest and assistant because they were fearful of being defiled according to their religion and their understanding of the law. At times, fear and self-preservation are powerful instincts that Jesus challenges us as followers to press through in order for us to love well. Sometimes loving somebody is a risky business. Sometimes loving as Jesus has asked, it's a love is a risky business. It takes risks. Most people, when they take risks, there is an element of fear to it. Isn't there? There is an element of fear to it. Let's get on now to the hero of the story. Let's read versus 33 to 35.
Jacque: Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. And the next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I will pay you the next time I'm here.
The hero of the story is now shocking the listeners of Jesus, not just this religious scholar. The Samaritans were not only considered to be outside of God's covenant people, and therefore, if they were outside of covenant people, they were not their neighbor. They were not a neighbor in the context of Deuteronomy and Leviticus to love. They were actually ancient enemies of Israel. They had been thought of as imitators. They had made their own temple. They had even gone into Jerusalem and defiled the Jerusalem temple. There was a lot of fighting. There was a lot of killing back and forth. The area, geographically, of Samaria was what was called the ancient Shakhum. You are familiar with that or that word in the Old Testament. Shakhum was, believe it or not, the area where Jacob's daughter, Diana, had been raped.
Later on, there was another judge that had done away with his competition. His name was a Abimelech, and he murdered his rivals. This was also in Shakhum. Samaria or Shakhum were known for these two really dastardly deeds. When Shakhum's name changed to Samaria, Samaritans were associated with rape and murder. The idea of a good Samaritan would make no more sense than the idea of a good rapist or a good murderer in the eyes of Jewish people. When the religious leaders wanted to insult Jesus, which they wanted to do often, they actually called him a demon possessed Samaritan. We even see that in in the book of John. Let's read that John 8:48.
Jacque: The people retorted, "You Samaritan devil, didn't we say all along that you are possessed by a demon?"
Brian: This was what was said to Jesus. People called Jesus a Demon- possessed Samaritan. This was just a really derogatory way of expressing your derision for somebody. By depicting a Samaritan as the hero of the story, what is Jesus doing here? What is Jesus actually doing in the areas that create for us this us versus them mentality? What is Jesus actually doing to the Jewish people? Because they, for sure had an us versus them mentality when it came to the Samaritans, didn't they? What Jesus was really demolishing here is this whole idea of social position or race or religion that they actually don't count for anything. They don't really count for anything. He is going after all of the people that are there, as well as this religious leader.
The eternal life that Jesus was describing and defining here when he was asked the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life, this eternal life that Jesus is describing here was that quality of life that is actually characterized by showing mercy to those who are in need. There is a quality of eternal life that is measured by how we treat people who are in need regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their region, in which they live, regardless of their philosophy. Also, get this, with no thought of a reward, with no thought of a reward. Let that sink in for a moment. Jesus goes on in verse 36 and 37, and he asked the religious scholar a question, and he says this.
Jacque: Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?
Brian: Because Jesus doesn't just want to describe what it's like to love as he loves, he wants to keep pressing a little deeper. Here is what he says.
Jacque: The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy." Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."
Brian: So who was the neighbor? Jesus is asking that question really of us too: who's the neighbor? Or maybe the better question that Jesus is asking is this: whom will you be a neighbor too? Whom will you be a neighbor to or toward? He is asking that of us at Hope Community, who are we willing to be a neighbor toward? The religious leader in this story, Jesus asked, now, which one of these three would you say was the neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? The man, the religious scholar, couldn't actually get himself to say the Samaritan. There was still too much disdain in his heart towards this other culture. He couldn't get himself to say the Samaritan. He could only say the one who showed him mercy.
I wonder at times how much disdain we, actually, carry hidden in our hearts that we should ask God to expose. But Jesus, when this man said, the one who showed mercy, wasn't done with this religious scholar. It wasn't enough for this religious scholar or this religious leader to admit that it was the Samaritan who was the neighbor. It wasn't enough for him to admit that. Jesus really wants to bear down on him, which he does to you and I as well when we are listening, doesn't he? He says to this religious scholar, "Now you go and do the same.' You go and do the same. It wasn't easy playing the role of the Samaritan in this story. It was much easier to just go to the other side of the road, wasn't it?
The Samaritan actually had to invest his time and money. Love takes time and it takes money. It costs us something. That's why it's a risky business. He turned his donkey into an ambulance.
Jacque: And then he had to walk.
Brian: And then he walked. But now get this, where did he take him to? He took him to Jericho. Jericho was a Jewish city. The Samaritan knew that he could be better served in a Jewish city than in maybe a Samaritan city. He risked life and limb by carrying a guy wounded on a donkey, into a Jewish city. There is risk in loving. He ran the risk of being attacked himself by continually traveling on that road, which was full of bandits. There was danger in bringing this man to a Jewish town, but you know what the Samaritan did more than anything else? I bet you that day when he set out from wherever he came from to wherever he was going, he had a to-do list. I bet you he had a to-do list that day and he set it all aside for love's sake, for love. He set it all aside. He let go of his personal to-do list. He let go of his hard-earned money, even let go of his own personal safety in order to show love to a stranger.
The way, my friends, of Jesus is the way of risky love. That's the way Jesus, the way of risky love. I believe that the way we show love for the Lord isn't how we show love for one another. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." And then at the end of his life, he says to disciples, "A new command I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you." Who is my neighbor? The answer is everyone, everyone who has a need regardless of educational background, ethnic background, religious background, philosophical background, regional up raising. They are all my neighbors. When we see a need, and I have been guilty of this myself, when we see a need, do we look away? Do we say, "Gee, I wish I wouldn't have seen that. Why wasn't I just looking there? Because now I'm going to be inconvenienced and my time schedule and my to-do list and my money is all at risk if I'm going to love."
We send out prayer requests virtually maybe once a week here, and I know there are people, I didn't make a list of their names, but I know people don't even open up those prayer requests. They don't even take the time to open up a prayer request from someone who needs prayer in our family of faith. We can't take three minutes out of our schedule to click on an email and see who needs prayer and really pray for these people. I've got too much to do. The bathroom needs cleaning. The laundry needs done. We all have a to-do list that, my friends, never ends even when you get the list done. Am I right?
Jacque: But I'd love to spend my time doing things that will last for eternity because the bathroom gets dirty right away again.
Brian: We'll get our house cleaned, and then I think I better not go in there.
Jacque: Good.
Brian: As soon as I go in there, it's going to need to be cleaned again.
Jacque: And we can pray for somebody while we are doing our tasks.
Brian: We can open up our prayer request emails and show these people how much we care.
Jacque: Maybe some of you aren't on our email prayer chain. You can just go to our website and there is an opportunity to click right there.
Brian: Do you know what will also happen? You'll get the Moments of Hope if you are on our email list.
Jacque: Oh, and that's a nice thing to do to share that with people. There you go.
Brian: And so even inconveniencing ourselves, maybe even by picking people up and bringing them to church, putting ourselves out to help somebody who can't drive. I talked with a gentleman yesterday. We had a Memorial service here yesterday for a longtime friend of ours who served the Lord so well. She was 89 when she passed. A gentleman who came and I know a little bit about him. He lives way down in the Southern part of the city and he is very poor. Someone picked him up, so he could come to the memorial service.
With the price of gas nowadays, it's harder and harder for people to drive. They are picking and choosing well, what do I drive to this week? That's where many people are at. How do we help meet those needs so that we can stay connected as a family in a community of believers? These are the things that God wants us to do. There are so many ways. Jacque and I were talking about, do you think we should make a list of the ways that Jesus loves? And I said, "Yeah, that's a slippery slope." Start making a list of all the ways you are supposed to love people.
But there is a spirit that lives within us called the spirit of Christ, and he wants us to love as he has loved. There is a neighbor that needs to be loved in all of our lives. They look different every day. Years ago__ I'm going to test your memory here. You used to sing a song. The first line was, "I met Jesus today."
Jacque: [singing] "I met Jesus today and I really must tell you, he didn't look at all like the picture. It wasn't even Sunday, and I wasn't in a church, but it was him just as sure as can be. He was a lonely child, a lost friend of mine, a stranger who needed a coat. He was a lonely old man who needed a friend, a stranger for second hand alone. Suddenly, I knew that I had seen him before, so many times before."
I don't remember the last line.
Brian: It was Jesus.
Jacque: It was Jesus. Yes.
Brian: We say that we want to see Jesus, but we never see Jesus where he is at. He was a lonely old man. He was a child who needed a friend, a prisoner, a forsaken and alone, someone who needed a coat, someone who needed to be bandaged, lying by the side of the road. Jesus was separating the goats in the sheep, and he put the sheep on one side, and he said, "I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was in prison, and you came and visited me. And all these sheep said, "When did I do that?" He said when you did it unto the least of these, you did it for me.
I think it's wonderful for us to have prayer gatherings. I love to pray. I love even to, actually, worship the Lord in music even more. I love to study God's word and all of those things help facilitate me in my relationship with God, but I am most like Christ when I love, especially the unlovely. I am most like Christ when I love those who are disenfranchised, who are outside of the sphere that we call are stream
Jacque: Brian, God is depending on us to be Jesus, to the people around us. The last line of that song came back to me: and I'd let him down, not knowing that it was Jesus here in my hometown. We have that opportunity. I don't want to let him down when he gifts me the chance to share him and his love and care.
Brian: That's right. And here is the thing. Sometimes loving the wounded, it doesn't happen by you having your calendar out and them making an appointment for you to love them. It always happens at the most inconvenient of times. This Samaritan had things to do. He was obviously a, a fairly prosperous man. At least he had enough that he had a donkey and he had enough to pay for this guy's rehabilitation or medical needs, as well as "if you needed more, I'll be back and pay you more." So he obviously was a somewhat put together person, shall we say? And most put together, people have a to-do list. His to-do list was set aside that day for the sake of love, for the sake of loving his neighbor as himself.
So father, I pray in Jesus' name that you would help us to keep our eyes on the prize. Oftentimes, when we say that, we think we are talking about going to heaven when we die, and don't get me wrong, Lord, that's a great prize. Yesterday, we celebrated a life well-lived, and Ruth is with you today. She has heard those wonderful words, "Enter into the joy of the Lord. Well done, thou good and faithful servant." But Lord, while we are here on the earth, the real prize that we need to keep our eyes on is to love like you love. And that should just be the end of it for us. The end of all being is to simply love as you love, and you will take care of everything else.
You will make a way where there seems to be no way. You will help us in our journey of love. As Hope Community church launches into another, maybe 25 years [inaudible 1:32:14]. We just celebrated last Sunday, our 25th anniversary of when you birthed this church. Today we begin another length of that journey, another leg of that journey. I pray that Lord, as we travel on this road now that is before us, we will love as you love that we would make a commitment to truly love, as we have already been loved, that we would in essence, just pay it forward, to use a 21st century term, will just pay it forward. Because you have already loved us, we can love, Lord. We can pay it forward. We can look at people who are different from us. They think differently than us. They look differently than us. They've been raised differently than us. Their culture is different from ours.
Help us, Lord, to be okay with this risky business, loving as you would love. May Hope Community church become a place where the disenfranchised and the wounded and those who are forsaken and those who have failed, and those who carry great shame on their shoulders can come and find mercy and find a place to belong and find a place where wholeness is within reach because you are here to heal. This we pray, Jesus, in your name and for your sake. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Did you receive this today? Good. I'm so thankful for all of you. Thank you to those who are watching by livestream today. It's an honor for you to connect with us every week. We don't take you for granted. We take all of you for granted. If you'd like to financially do something for Norbert and Leslie, you can do it through the kiosk here and just go to the category special and that will pull up. We'll make sure that they get your gift to them. Let's raise our hands together.
And now may the Lord bless you. And may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you love as Christ has loved, and let's keep our eyes on the prize. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
We will have people here at the altar to pray with you. Dave and Luo will be serving communion this morning, so feel free to have communion as well. Thank you for being here today. We love all of you. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-28-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.