Dr. Bibles, Luke chapter number 10. Would you do that? Luke chapter number 10. Find your place there in the pages of God's Word. Luke chapter number 10. We're looking at the greatest stories ever told. Jesus, the master storyteller. But He never told stories just to be telling stories. They always had a point. It was always to drive home a truth into our heart. So often when we read the parables of Jesus we try to find many truths, but actually in each parable there is one truth that God wants you and I to walk away with in our lives. And we're going to find that today. Luke chapter number 10, find if you would please verse number 30. And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, another religious leader, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. He circumvented the man. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an end, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, the innkeeper, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou was his neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he, we're going to meet he in just a moment, and he said, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go. and do thou likewise." What a message, what a lesson that the Lord teaches us. There's an old saying, we all use it or we probably have heard it, somebody will make a boast, they'll make a claim of something they can do, have done, or what something is, and we will look at them and we'll say, well I'll tell you what, the proof is in How many of you have ever said that before or heard that? And what we're saying is that the reality of it, the reality of something, is bound up in the evidence. What you see, what you taste, what you experience. And the Lord is going to tell this man, and He's going to teach you and I this morning, that when it comes to this matter of loving God and loving others, the proof is in the pudding. Let's pray together. Father, as I bow before You, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God might, like an arrow, take Your truth and penetrate our hearts. Lord, all of us probably in our hearts and minds, like this lawyer, think that we love You like we should, or by and large, we love our neighbor. Yet, Lord, what You've taught me this week is usually we're far from it. And I pray, God, that You would speak to our hearts, give us open minds, open hearts, God, ears to hear and wills to obey. Lord, there may be someone here like this lawyer that, Lord, they have a wrong view of salvation. And I pray, Lord, that they'll understand what Bible salvation really is and they'll trust You for it and accept You, Lord, and receive You as Savior. Christians, followers of Christ today, will walk out of here loving the way you love. Lord, help us to see you today and we'll thank you for it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Well, the proof is in the pudding. You realize next to the story of the prodigal son, I believe the story of the Good Samaritan, is one of Jesus' best known stories. Probably more hospitals, medical clinics, orphanages, schools, more helps ministries have been started, more sacrificial acts of human kindness have been done in response to this story than any other story that's ever been told. But you're going to find that the truth of this story is going to go far deeper than helps to humanity. It's going to go far deeper than that. Matter of fact, can I tell you, you can help all the humans you want to help physically, and you can make their lives better, but never make their life better so far as eternity is concerned. The Lord's going to go beyond the surface to the very heart of the matter. This story's given in response to a question that is posed to the Lord by a lawyer, a man who's a scribe. He's an expert in the law. He's not really seeking or wanting help from Jesus. He really doesn't want to know what the Lord has to say about it. He's really wanting to entrap him. That's what he wants to do. He wants to discredit him. He's belligerent. He's arrogant and he is wrong. And he's going to attack the Lord. You know what? Here's one of the things you're going to learn in life. Don't argue with the Lord. You're going to lose every time. And this lawyer is going to lose. Look what he says back up in verse number 25. And behold a certain lawyer, this is a scribe, this expert in the law of Moses, not Roman law, not Jewish civil law, but the law of Moses stood up. He's going to stand up in the crowd and he tempted him. That means He's trying to entrap him. He's going to test him to try to get Jesus to entrap Himself with His Word, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Can I help you to understand something? He may have been belligerent. He may have been arrogant. He may have been seeking to argue and debate with the Son of God, but He asked the greatest question anybody can ever ask and answer in their lives. How do you get to heaven? But here's the problem with that. He missed something in his own question. He said, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Can I help us to understand something? You don't do anything to inherit something. You just receive it. Matter of fact, he answered his own question. That word do, the emphasis is on the word do. What shall I do? This lawyer had the wrong idea like a lot of folks that you have to do something in order to be saved. Jesus and sort of reminds me, this pesky lawyer sort of reminds me of a story I heard of a mom. She was working at home and her little daughter, she was out of school for summer vacation, went to her mom where she was working in her home office. She said, Mommy, what do you do for a living? What do you do? What's your job? Mama said, honey, I'm a consultant. And of course, like a little child, she said, well, mommy, can I ask you a question? And she said, yes, dear. She said, what's a consultant? Well, her mother sort of caught flat-footed for a moment and she said, well, she said, here's what I do, honey. I sort of watch people work and then tell them a better way to do it. Little girl said, oh, okay, I understand. In school, we just call them a pest. And this lawyer was a pest. And he's asking pesty questions. But the lawyer doesn't argue with him. He doesn't debate with him. You know, some people, they want to make it their business to settle all the theological arguments. Can I help you understand something? Jesus didn't call me to win arguments. He called me to win the lost. You can win the argument on social media, but you can lose your influence and opportunity to win people to Jesus Christ. He's going to turn around and the lawyer is going to put the question back to him. Look at verse 26. And he said unto him, What is written in the law? What does the Bible say? How readest thou? What does the Bible say? And the lawyer is going to give him the right answer. Verse 27, he's going to quote the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 5 and Leviticus 19, 18, which encapsulates the law of Moses or what we would understand as the Ten Commandments. And the answer he said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and then he adds Leviticus 19, 18 to it, and thy neighbor as thyself. This is a good answer. Jesus says in verse number 28, and he said unto him, Thou hast answered right, you've given the right answer. This do, the word do there is very interesting, it's a future present tense, and it means that you do it and you keep on doing it. You know what the problem was? This lawyer hadn't loved God the way he should, hadn't loved his neighbor the way he should, and neither has anybody else. I don't love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength every moment of every day. Do you? No, we don't. But this lawyer in his arrogance thought that he did. But in this area of his neighbor there might be a question. And so he's feeling the heat, he's feeling the pressure. And so knowing that he's in a corner, he seeks to justify and vindicate himself. And so he finds a loophole. Look at what he says. Verse 28, Jesus answered him, the lawyer, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. You'll have eternal life. But he knew he couldn't do it. What the Lord's doing is bringing it back to him to show him his own failure. Look at verse 29, But he, the lawyer, willing to justify and vindicate himself, said unto Jesus, And who? I can hear the sarcasm. It's my neighbor. Can you hear that? If he gets to pick his neighbor and it's somebody like him, he's okay. And so the Lord begins to tell him a story. And he tells him a story about a man, not just any man, but a Samaritan man who's going to evidence what loving one's neighbor is really all about. He's going to drive it home and He's going to tell him, when it comes to loving God and loving others, the proof is in the pudding. Number one, I want you to see with me this morning in Jesus' story, the enemies of love. The enemies of love. Look, if you would please, verse 30, and Jesus answering and said, a certain man, doesn't name him, he's an unnamed man, but I believe he's a Jewish man. He's a Jewish man, and the Bible said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It's a dangerous journey. Matter of fact, just to sort of help you understand, Jerusalem is up here and Jericho is down here. It's about a 17-mile road that connects the two. You're going downhill all the way. It's about a 3,000-foot drop from the Judean mountains to the Jordan Valley below. And it's going to be a narrow, winding road that's going to take you from Jerusalem down to a place called Jericho. It was known in the Lord's day as the bloody way. It was filled with thieves and robbers and danger and difficulty. You wondered why anybody took that road, but it was actually the shortest point between Jerusalem and Jericho. There were caves and crevices that provided perfect hideouts and getaways from the many thieves that inhabited that area that preyed on the travelers that walked the Jericho road. The man's making his way to Jericho in the story. He's a Jew. He may have been returning home from worshiping in Jerusalem. He's going to round a bend, and suddenly, the Lord said, he fell among thieves. Look at what the Bible said. In Jesus' answer, He said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves he encountered. That's what it means. He encountered thieves. This band of robbers came maybe out from behind a boulder, out of a crevice, I don't know, maybe a bend in the road, and suddenly they've surrounded him. They've stripped Him naked because clothes were of value in that day. They took His clothes, they took anything of value. They have beat Him senseless and they run off leaving Him for dead. It was a dangerous journey. But in this dangerous journey, the man now has been beset by robbers. He's beaten. He's in dire situation. It's now a desperate condition. The Bible said that he fell among the thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed. They've run away leaving him half dead. He's at the point of death. I thought about that. Here he is, stranded on a lonely road in the middle of nowhere, in critical condition, in need of immediate medical attention, and there's no love in that band of robbers. They're the enemies of love. You know what their attitude was? What's yours is mine. What's yours is mine. Surely one of them would have had some kind of mercy, some kind of compassion, some kind of love. Maybe somebody is one of those robbers as they ran away. There would be the twinge of guilt to run back and help this helpless man who's dying there in the roadway, but absolutely not. They are callous, they are cold, they are uncaring. They run away and they leave him, probably already thought he was dead. Sadly, they're the enemies of love. And sadly, they're those with that same mindset in our own day. They're the enemies of love. Philippians 2, verses 18 and 19. You don't have to turn there. Paul said, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and I'll tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, their desire. They live to satisfy their own craving and their own desire. What yours is mine is the mindset. And whose glory is in their shame, who mind or live for earthly things. Say, preacher, who are the enemies of love? How about those who sanction and even facilitate the murder of the unborn in America? I mean, it's just not natural to take the life of a child. It's just not natural to cast a vote and say that, listen, even if the abortion is botched and the baby is born, mama, if you don't want him, doctor, you don't save him. You just let that little infant die. That goes against the grain of what love is all about. What about those that traffic in children and teenagers today? A part of what we would understand as the modern slave trade that are selling them to the highest bidder. And you realize that North Carolina is at the heart of human traffic in America. We have three major international airports. We have all of the major interstates on the East Coast and coming from the West Coast intersect in North Carolina connecting us with the Northeast and the Southeast and then the Midwest. All of it comes together right here. Right now as we speak little boys and girls are being trafficked right now in our airports and across our interstates and we've not even thought about it. I thought about those that are so worried about the slavery of yesterday, but they don't have any thought about the slavery of today. I thought about the enemies of love who confuse young people about their gender and then mutilate their bodies with gender-altering surgeries, all in the name of progressiveness and enlightenment. I thought about those that rob the innocence of children and call it love and defile their minds with drag shows and pornographic story times. I thought about those that are bent on the destruction, what the world calls the nuclear family, that's mom, dad, and children. Really, that's just the Bible family, Genesis chapter 2. For a permissive, pornographic, perverted, promiscuous society. I thought about those that are bent on taking the lives of our young adult in America through the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl and marijuana. And let me just help you understand something. The marijuana of today is not the marijuana of Woodstock in the 1960s. It's much more potent. It's much more powerful. It's much more addicting. It is far different. And it is devastating lives. Oh, I can't leave without talking about the scourge of alcohol and drunkenness and its destructive nature that's so accepted even among Christians today. And they'll blame Jesus for it. Well, He turned water into wine. Friend, if that's all you know about the Bible, you don't know much about God. As a matter of fact, you don't even know who God is. God will never put to the lips something that is involved in just about every crime that will take place in America this weekend. Violence and murder rate in America is the highest in the world. Our cities are being ravaged with roving gangs, looting, burning, stealing, assaulting, even killing innocent bystanders. Anybody who gets in their way, they're walking away with merchandise. What's yours is mine, and there's nothing standing in the way today. I thought about self-serving politicians who look the other way as long as they preserve their power and pad their bank accounts. I'm just telling you, there wasn't just enemies of love in Jesus' day. There are the enemies of love in our own day that we're living in. And just like those band of thieves, can I help you to understand, their whole mindset is what's yours is mine. They may talk about love in our day, and they may advertise love in our day, but that is just nothing more than a cloak for their own wicked heart, because they are the enemies of love. I'm just going to tell you the proof is in the pudding. But the Lord's not done. Because you know what? It's real easy to talk about them, isn't it? I mean, we stopped right there, we give an invitation, we say hallelujah, amen, we walk out the door, we're feeling really good. No doubt the lawyer felt really good because that wasn't who he was. Oh no, we're going to come number two, the Lord's going to bring it in a little closer home. He talks about the evasion of love. Look if you would please in verse 31. And by chance there came down a certain priest. Hope came in the form of a priest. A Jewish priest. A man who is a servant of the Lord. He's coming that way. He's coming. No doubt he hears the man's cry in the distance. He knows there's someone in terrible condition, his situation hopeless and desperate. He needs help. Look what happens. And when he saw Him, He passed by on the other side. Here He is, bleeding and helpless and crying out for help. And here's someone who claims to know God, and He serves in the temple, and I mean, He's got the clerical robes, and He offers sacrifices, and teaches the law. Surely, if anyone knew and understood the love of God and His responsibility to His fellow man, this guy did. Oh, I can imagine the priest. He hears the cries. He sees him. The guy is in terrible condition. He's thinking, man, he's about ready to die. If I touch a dead body, I can't do my priestly stuff. I'm just going to... God bless you. I hope somebody... I'm going to pray for you. Knees is down the road. But then Jesus is not done. Oh, he evaded love, didn't he? He mentions a Levite. Look at verse 32. And likewise a Levite when he was at the place. Who would have a priest and a Levite come along the same road right behind one another and hope would come now in the form of a Levite? I mean, he's not the priest. He doesn't offer the sacrifices. He doesn't have to be quite as... as touchy about this matter of ceremonial uncleanness. He's still a teacher of the law. He leads in the worship of God. He reflects God to the people. I mean, he's serving there at the temple. But what he does is just not quite as crucial as what the priest does. And if anyone would understand the love of God and could help, this man would. I want you to look what he does. And the Bible said when he was come at the place, the Bible said... He did a little more than the priest. The priest was just walking along. He heard him. He saw him and he was like... But that's not what the priest did. He comes up. He looks at him. I mean, he's probably saying, Buddy, you're in bad shape. I mean, you really need some help. You're about ready to die. I mean, boy, they done you in, didn't they? They didn't leave you with anything. You're in a mess. But then he passed by on the other side. He didn't come to his rescue. He didn't cry out for help. He didn't make any attempt whatsoever to come to this man and help him in the midst of all of his struggle. No, instead of helping him, they avoided him. They saw him. They saw his need. They may have even spoken some pious platitudes as they passed by on the other side of the road. Can I tell you, I've read commentary after commentary over the last several days that make so much out of these two guys about religion and the wall. I believe they're missing the whole point. The priest and the Levite are just characters in the story to illustrate the Lord's point about an evasive love. They weren't bad men, they were just busy men. They didn't have time. In the wake of human need, they were indifferent, they were callous, they were uncaring. They loved people, but they only loved them at a distance. and when it was convenient and when it didn't cost them anything. I'm just going to help us understand something, Calvary Baptist Church. Ministry that costs us nothing accomplishes nothing. Ministry that's going to accomplish something costs time and energy and resources. These two men reflect many a person today that, name the name of Christ, they're willing to love as long as they can love at a distance. Oh, I love everybody. I love the world. There's nobody I don't love. I'll go visit people in the hospital and I'll begin to talk to them about spiritual things. Oh, I just love everybody. That's so easy. Is that easy? They claim to love God, they claim to love people, but don't ask them to go out of their way. Don't ask them to do anything, and heaven help you if you ask them to give anything. They love. but they love at a distance. Oh, the thieves, what's yours is mine, they're the enemies of love. But wait a minute, the priests and the Levite, here's their attitude, what's mine is mine, theirs is an evasive love. Do you know there's churches that are empty this morning? Because like a priest and a Levite in our story, they're indifferent and calloused and uncaring to those around them. Oh, they talk about caring, they talk about loving people, they talk about it, but they don't ever do anything about it. I'm just going to go ahead and let us know the proof is in the pudding. Let me come quickly to the third part of our story. There are those that are the enemies of love. There's probably nobody here in the room, more than likely, that you would be the enemy of love. But I wonder if we're not careful if we fit into the story of Jesus in that second group of the priest and the Levite, and we're just sort of evasive in our love. We love, but we love at a distance. We love, but we don't want to get our hands dirty. We love! But don't ask me to do anything, go anywhere, or give anything. But then there's the third section of the story, and that's the expression of love. And I immediately see a picture of compassion. Look at verse number 33. But a certain Samaritan... Now you say, preacher, why is that so important? Because he's the unlikeliest of heroes. I could hear the gasp in the crowd. I mean, good Jews just didn't talk about Samaritans. It didn't even come out of your mouth. Unless it was with disdain and hate. You know what I'm talking about? But he disarmed the lawyer. He disarmed all the Jews in that crowd. All the bystanders. Because this wasn't a Jew helping a Samaritan. It was a Samaritan helping a Jew. What are you going to say about that? This Samaritan is a member of a despised race and a hated people. He owed absolutely nothing to this Jewish man he's going to encounter on the road to Jericho. But I want you to listen to these words I'm going to share with you. Yet he dared to care. I want you to notice Jesus said He had compassion. Look at what the Bible says, verse 33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, he come into the vicinity of this man, he heard his cries, and when he saw him, he no doubt heard him in a distance, he's coming up and he's hearing him crying out, he hears his moans, he hears his cries for help, he hears his desperation, and he comes near. And when he saw him, notice what the Bible said, he had compassion on him. Preacher, what's compassion? That's not just love, that's love in action. It moved the heart of the Samaritan toward this Jewish man's need. There was something inside of him that empathized with his hurt and his pain and his situation. Somebody's described compassion as your hurt in my heart. I thought about this and it came to me. I sat in my office and I was contemplating this word compassion. And here's what came to my mind. Compassion is love with legs on it. does something. So it reminds me back during the days of atomic experiments down in New Mexico. There was a Native American there and he wanted to say, I love you to his sweetheart that lived across the valley. And so he was on one side of the desert and he started with smoke signals and started putting the blanket over the fire and the smoke started coming up and the signal read, I love you. He was waiting for the answer of his sweetheart in the distance, waiting for the signal to come up. I love you too. And suddenly there was an atomic explosion. There was a huge mushroom cloud in the desert. And he said, Boy, I wish I'd have said that. And what I want us to understand is that love cannot be silent. When I love people the way God loves people, it can't remain silent. No, it has legs on it. This man was moved. He didn't just see. He didn't just hear. He didn't just understand. No, there was something inside of him that yearned toward that man and he did something. He came to his aid. And before I get to that point, let me just give you number two. He looked beyond personal prejudice. This man was a Samaritan. The wounded man was a Jew. There's a social barrier that separated those men larger than the Grand Canyon. The Samaritans were part Jew and part Gentile because of the captivity of Israel back in 700 years earlier. And you're going to find that Tiglath-Pileser, he was the dictator of the Syrians that had conquered the Jews and he deported many of the Jews and then he imported Gentiles into this region of Samaria. They mixed. They had their own worship. way of doing things. They had their own culture. And the Jews, because they weren't pure-blooded Jews, hated them and despised them. Do you know that a Pharisee every day of his life woke up and he prayed this prayer? God, I thank You, number one, I'm not a woman. Number two, I thank You, I'm not a Gentile. And number three, I thank You, I'm not a Samaritan. And that was the prayer of this lawyer. I noticed that in the story, and it's true to life, and I believe the Lord's right on the money. Here's this Jewish man in desperate condition. I don't think he cared who was helping him. What about you? I don't think he said, Oh, wait a minute. You know, I'm about ready to die, but you're a Samaritan. I really don't want to help you. You just let me die. I don't believe he did that. I believe he's glad for his help. What do you think? See, this lawyer, as long as he could love somebody like him, he was okay. He could love his neighbor, but when it came to loving somebody not like him, he wasn't okay. I reminded the Samaritan woman at the well when Jesus met her there to lead her to himself, and she made this statement. She said, Why are you a Jew talking to me, a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans. But this Samaritan looked beyond the social and ethnic prejudice. He didn't see a Jew. He saw somebody in need. And I'm going to tell you folks, we're going to make a difference in the lives of people when we look beyond social and ethnic prejudice and people that may not be exactly like us and we decide that God loves them and that we love them and they're in need and we're going to come to their aid. He went to Him. Look at verse 34. And He went to Him. He didn't avoid Him. He was not evasive. He was expressive of His love. Love was legs on it. This man in his need moved Him to action. He didn't love at a distance. He came to where He was. He met this Jewish man at the point of his need and He cared for him. Look at verse 34. And He went to Him and bound up his wounds. He begins to clean out the dirt and the blood, and then begins to rip up his own spare clothes and make bandages out of them. And then he took his own oil and his own wine, and oil to soothe the pain, wine, the antiseptic to clean the wounds. He's bandaging him up best that he can, and he puts him on his own beast, his own donkey. He walks while the Jewish man rides. Could you imagine? Some would say, well, listen, buddy, that's a long walk down to Jerusalem. I hope you can make it. I'll tie you to the donkey, and if you can't make it, I'll just drag you the rest of the way. And he came to the end. Somebody said, well, that's the church. That's not the church. That's a haven. It's a place of safety. Quit making something out of something the Lord didn't make something out of. That's poor, poor interpretation and poor preaching. It's not what it is. Because see, if I'm a Jew reading that and I want to come up, I can make it a synagogue and a Muslim can make it a mosque. Make it whatever you want to. Jesus said it was an inn. It's a hotel. It's a wayside place. It's a place of safety, a place of rest. It's a place where this man can be cared for out of the elements. And the Bible said, look what he said in verse 34, he took care of him. He nursed him through the night. He sat up all night long ensuring the health and the care of this man. But he didn't stop there. Look at verse 35. He gives to him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence. Enough money to pay for two to three weeks care. and gave them to the host, the innkeeper, and said, take care of him. I'm paying you, take care of him. Room, food, drink, help, and whatsoever that, if it costs any more, I'm going to come back this way. When I come again, I want you to know I'm going to make it good. Wow! Look at the attitudes, the thieves, the enemies of love. What's yours is mine. The priests and Levites, what's mine and mine? They said they loved, but theirs was an evasive love. They loved at a distance. The Samaritans' attitude was, what's mine is yours. He showed his love. His was an expressive love. I'm just going to tell you, when it comes to loving God and loving others, the proof is in the pudding. Calvary Baptist Church, we say we love God and that we love others. We'll tell people we're the friendliest and most loving church in town. Can I help us today? The proof is in the pudding. All around us are people and they're not all like us. They're just like this man in desperate need. I'm not talking about need of food and need of clothes. I'm not against having a community meal. I'm not against clothing people that don't have any clothes. I'm not against food pantries and feeding people that are hungry. But I can feed people and clothe people and shelter people and let them go to hell if I'm not careful. And that's exactly what churches are doing all over King and Stokes County and Surrey County and everywhere else. And they're going to have a little meal and make everybody feel good. And we fed some hungry people. And I'm going to tell you what, deed goes far deeper than just being hungry and not having some clothes. And I'm not against any of that, by the way. Matter of fact, we do some of those things. But there's a need far deeper than that. There's people's lives that are broken by sin and devastation. And we look at them and guess what? I've been guilty of it. And I look at them and I say, good night. Why don't you go get a job? Some of them need to. Some of them are so strung out on drugs they can't work. And some of them are so beat down by alcohol and sin and devastation and homes are broken. And there's parents that their children have overdosed this weekend and died. And it might be somebody in your neighborhood. Did you make a visit? Or did you just go by and notice that somebody died and felt sorry for them and loved them at a distance? Did you go by and tell them, hey, we have a ministry at our church to help you called Grief Share. I want you to know we love you. If I can be a blessing to you, did you take them a pie and then share the love of Christ with them? I'm just asking. See, people expect us to go on visitation and knock on their doors and leave an invitation to Calvary. They don't expect a member just to drop by and say, hey, you're my neighbor and you're suffering and I love you and I just want to be a blessing in your life. And I want to show you the love of Christ. Or are we just too busy? Oh, I'm preaching to me. I'm just trying to make us think the way Jesus made this lawyer think. And it's really not comfortable. Is it? I'm not real comfortable, are you? How easy it is for us to sit in here and say we love the Lord and love others, but we just love at a distance. God wants us to get out of our comfort zone. to have the heart of the Samaritan, which really I believe is the heart of Jesus, to get outside of ourselves, to get outside of these things and maybe welcome somebody you don't know. You know, if we're not careful, Calvary, we can be friendly. We're just friendly with ourselves, and we think we're the friendliest church in town because we shook each other's hands and said hello to each other today, and that guest was standing right there, and I never took a moment to say, boy, I'm glad you're here today. God brought that guest here today. How did you welcome them? Or did you ignore them to get to somebody you wanted to talk to? Maybe He wants us to let them have our seat or our parking space. This week God's going to bring some people across your path. You're journeying through life like the Samaritan. And God's going to bring some people across your path and you're going to have an opportunity to love them to Jesus or show the love of Christ to them. I remember, and I know I'm preaching a long time, but we need it. We're gonna be okay. They're not gonna run out of food. We might just wait a little longer for it. We'll be okay. I remember Lori had just had surgery. She was having a tough go of it. Hadn't slept about 24 hours. I was taking pictures of stuff to show the doctor, hey, is this normal? You know, because I was really worried about it. You know, because she had a lot of nausea and stuff, a lot of blood. And I was real hungry, and I had a headache, and I went downstairs. They'd give her some pain medicine. I went downstairs, and I went to the cafeteria, and I found the furthest table I could find away from everybody because I didn't want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to eat my food, read the news, and then go back upstairs. And I kept noticing. I tried not to. I tried to ignore it. I kept noticing that there was another family that was nearing the back away from everybody else and there was a woman that was sobbing. She was sobbing. And I was trying to ignore her because I didn't want to talk to anybody. And finally, have you ever had God like He's got a poker stick? And I finally said, okay, okay. And I got up over there And I went to him and I said, and by the way, just because I'm a preacher doesn't mean that it's not for everybody. Just move that part of it out. I'm a Christian first. God was telling me to do something. And finally, I quit arguing with God. I said, God, I don't know them. They don't want me coming over there. God, they're crying. They don't want anybody bothering them. And I went over there, and I said, listen, my wife's upstairs in the hospital. She's resting right now. I got a few moments. I said, I pastor Calvary Baptist Church in King. Can I be a help to you? They said, oh, oh, could you? My friend's husband, they just helivac'd him in with a massive stroke. And they don't know if they're going to make it. And she don't know what she's going to do. And we don't know which way to turn. And we're from out of town. We don't know what to do. And we're just waiting on the doctors. They think they're going to ask us to do something that's hard. I said, can I pray with you? Oh, would you pray with us? They didn't care whether I was a Baptist or what. They didn't care. They just said, will you pray with us? And I sort of gathered around them and we began to pray. And it wasn't long that God broke my heart and I started crying with them. And no doubt they come and told her that her husband was going to die. And they no doubt had to unhook him from life support. But in that moment, there was a little moment where God stepped into that picture and brought comfort and that woman quit sobbing. And she began to say, help me, Lord, help me. Come to find out they were believers from Morganton, North Carolina. They weren't even unsaved people. They knew the Lord. They went to a church that I knew, but their pastor was a long way away. And in that moment, they didn't care who I was. They didn't care what my name was. They don't even probably remember me, my name. But in that moment, God let me love them in a difficult time. And I didn't want to. But I sure am glad now that I did. And God's going to give you an opportunity this week to put your arm around somebody, to pray with somebody, to love somebody. What we're going to do outside these walls are far more important than what you'll ever do inside these walls. There's going to be some people you're going to have an opportunity to hand a gospel tract to, to invite to church. Maybe there's a member right now in our church in our own body that's hurting and you know it. And it's real easy to ask somebody on the pastoral staff or ask the life group leader or ask somebody else or a deacon and say how they're doing. Why haven't you went by to find out how they were doing? If God's burdened your heart, maybe He wants you to go by and do something. Not just me. Tonight I'm going to share with you opportunities where you can love people the way Jesus loves them. And if some have compassion making a difference, in a little while we're going to have an opportunity and a missions revival to determine whether or not we're going to support more missionaries for people to hear the gospel and whether or not you're going to give of your resources so they can hear. There's a picture of compassion, but could I quickly, quickly, would you give me just a couple minutes to tell you what I really believe we also see here? We see a picture of Jesus because everything this Samaritan is and did is what Jesus did for us. I'm glad He looked beyond my fault and saw my need. I'm glad He left heaven and came to where I was and met me in my point of need and loved me in my broken sinful condition and bound up my wounds and poured in the wine of His cleansing and the oil of His forgiveness and lifted me up and gave me a new life. Maybe you're here today and that's what He wants. You think it's doing and Jesus said, no, I've already done it. I just want you to receive me. And you need to be saved today. Can I tell you when it comes to love of Jesus, the proof is in the pudding, wasn't it? And church, let's not say we love God and love others unless there's some proof in the pudding. Who is it God's putting on your heart? Are you open? Are you saying, God open my eyes this week so I can have compassion. I close with this, loving everyone in general is just an excuse for loving no one in particular. It's real easy to say, like those enemies of love, what's yours is mine. It's easy to say, those that are evasive of love, what's mine is mine. What's hard is the expression of love. What's mine is yours. My time, my energy, my love, my care, my compassion, my resources. To make an eternal difference in somebody else's life, I ask you, Or I say to you what Jesus said. I say to us what Jesus said to the lawyer. Go and do thou likewise. Let's bow our heads in prayer.