1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,120 In Luke 1031 to 33, it says now by chance a certain priest came 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,960 down the road and when he saw him he passed by on the other 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:08,640 side. Likewise A Levite when he 4 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,360 arrived at the place came look and pass by on the other side. 5 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:16,040 But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was and 6 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:18,800 we saw. When he saw him he had 7 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,760 compassion. I have over the scripture. 8 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:26,360 What motivates you? A lot of us can walk around 9 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:31,280 doing the exact same thing as the person next to us, but how 10 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,960 many of you know the motivation behind why we do can be vastly 11 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,600 different? Can I get a Amen? 12 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:42,680 We all have a lot of things that God has called us to do, but the 13 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,640 reasons behind why we do what we do? 14 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,560 I want to talk to you about those reasons this morning 15 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:53,000 because those reasons actually matter. 16 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,520 Now, if you're operating through the Old Testament mindset, you 17 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,360 can just go along doing what God has asked you to do and just 18 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:01,640 kind of operate like a robot, like beep bop, boop, bop. 19 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:03,600 I'm just going to do what God has asked me to do. 20 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,480 But when you move on to the New Testament, the New Testament, I 21 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:12,360 love almost every story of Jesus when he's walking through and 22 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,840 he's helping people and he's reaching out to the people, it 23 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,520 says, and he was moved with compassion. 24 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,320 When we read the story about the Good Samaritan, it says he 25 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:24,960 looked upon the man laying on the ground and it says and he 26 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,520 had compassion. We have to understand that we 27 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:33,600 all can do the same thing, but the motivation behind why we do 28 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:38,400 what we do matters. It may not start out as a right 29 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,920 motivation. You know what I'm talking about. 30 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,680 I'm talking about children. I have to tell my kids what they 31 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,800 have to do, right? They don't really understand. 32 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:49,840 Everything that they think I'm doing is a punishment. 33 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:51,440 Go brush your teeth. It's a punishment. 34 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,440 Go take a shower. We want to smell good. 35 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,480 It's a punishment, right? So they're doing it because 36 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:00,800 they're operating out of rules. But eventually they're going to 37 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,440 grow up and they're going to be like, oh man, I do want to have 38 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,760 fresh breath. Obvious thing, right? 39 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:08,680 Oh man, I don't want my teeth to fall out. 40 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,280 Well, I do actually want to smell good so people aren't away 41 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,880 from me at school, right? We have to understand the reason 42 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,800 behind why we do what we do actually matters. 43 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,640 I want to use a situation that happened this past week with one 44 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:25,000 of my children to kind of break it down for us and and talk 45 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,240 about this reason. So the school that my kids go 46 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:36,960 to, the school that my kids go to, I won't get into all of the 47 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,240 details about this school, but they have a lot of different 48 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,120 rules that the kids have to follow. 49 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,800 And and my kids, if you've ever met my children are pretty like 50 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,480 free spirited. I don't know where they get it 51 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:54,440 from, but so they have these things called demerits. 52 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,040 And if you do something wrong, you get this e-mail that's like 53 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,640 confidential with like all these stars next to it. 54 00:02:59,640 --> 00:03:03,000 And it's like secret, top secret information about your child, 55 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,360 right? And you don't want one of those 56 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:07,000 emails. I can promise you that. 57 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:13,320 So this past week, I was sitting in car line, just minding my own 58 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:15,600 business, sitting in car line, just chilling, wait for my kids 59 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,240 to come out. And I just randomly happened to 60 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,000 check my e-mail and I have all the stars and it says 61 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,960 confidential. And I'm like, Oh my God, like, 62 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,600 just to add, you know, another thing to my day, to my week or, 63 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:30,160 you know, you get in those moves, right? 64 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,520 And I open it and I'm like, who cares about all these words that 65 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:35,120 are written here? I just want to get to the point 66 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:40,040 of what happened. And it's like your daughter got 67 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,480 out of her seat when she wasn't asked to and brought me a pencil 68 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:46,400 even when I didn't ask her to do it. 69 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,200 And I was just like fuming. I screenshot the e-mail and I 70 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,360 send it to Mike with a bunch of those faces with like, steam 71 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:57,760 coming out of their nose. And I'm like, and then I I was 72 00:03:57,760 --> 00:03:59,560 like, maybe I should read this e-mail again. 73 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,400 And I go to the bottom and it was a merit. 74 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,680 So I text Mike wrong emoji and then I sent a bunch. 75 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,880 So my kids get in the car and I'm just like, well, actually 76 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:17,920 the teacher who sent the e-mail, she stops by and she's like, you 77 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,279 got to ask Layout all about her day today. 78 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:25,200 I am just so proud of your kids. They are so kind all the time. 79 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,520 I had to catch this one. So Layout comes in the car and 80 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,360 she has a little certificate and it says character catcher on it 81 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,320 and then explains the situation. And I'm like, my mom's heart is 82 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,240 just like, I'm crying. Not really crying, but you know, 83 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:46,120 I'm like so happy for her to be caught in the action of being 84 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:48,560 kind and displaying such awesome character. 85 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,520 So it prompts the conversation, what are my boys? 86 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,440 Well, what did she get? What what happened? 87 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:59,760 I want to know, right? And I'm like, she was caught in 88 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:03,040 action. She has character because she 89 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,720 showed kindness to the teacher without the teacher even having 90 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:08,720 to ask. And they're like, well, what did 91 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:10,720 she get? I'm like this paper right here, 92 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,800 it says character catcher and they're like off paper. 93 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,680 I thought she was going to get like extra recess. 94 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,440 So I'm like, wow, this is the perfect example because I 95 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,560 already know what I was talking about when this situation 96 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,000 happened. I'm like, this is exactly what 97 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,600 I'm talking about, right? She did it out of the kindness 98 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:36,560 of her heart. She was not doing it because she 99 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:42,040 was going to earn a piece of candy or earn an extra recess. 100 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,240 She had the motivation in her heart. 101 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,400 I want to bless my teacher. So I'm just going to do it. 102 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,200 And it's funny because I use this story and you're like, oh, 103 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:54,600 I would never be like your boys. As an adult, we are so many 104 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,320 times do we look at the person laying on the road and it's like 105 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,040 no one's around. I'm just going to, you know, one 106 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:05,720 thing that I got from my mom, she always is picking up trash. 107 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:09,560 And as a child, I was just like, do we literally have to stop the 108 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:11,320 car right here to pick up this cigarette? 109 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:15,760 But that's disgusting, right? And now this is me. 110 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:21,600 I know I'm supposed to pick it. Like, I want to step over it, 111 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:26,240 but I know I need to pick it up right 'cause she instilled that 112 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:28,720 in me. So I'm talking about just 113 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,800 picking up trash and getting caught in the, the act of 114 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,840 kindness of blessing a teacher. But this is serious stuff here, 115 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:37,720 the situation that we're talking about. 116 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,320 And this isn't like, you know, you might not be just, I'm not 117 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,120 talking about just a man who's beaten half to death that you're 118 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:46,440 stepped over. But how many times do we as 119 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:50,080 Christians just step over the situation because we don't want 120 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:53,520 to deal with it, because no one's there to witness it, 121 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,040 right? The definition of compassion is 122 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:02,680 a sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with 123 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:08,280 the desire to alleviate it. We need to be moved with 124 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:12,560 compassion, which means you don't just have this sympathetic 125 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:17,840 consciousness of their pain or this sympathetic consciousness 126 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,680 of their distress, but you're filled with a desire to 127 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,560 alleviate it. How crazy is that? 128 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:31,240 I think about the priest, right? Man's laying on the ground. 129 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,000 Priest is pilot. Oh my gosh, man, that's 130 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:40,200 horrible, right? The Levite walks there and he's 131 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,000 like, Oh my gosh, what did they do to him? 132 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,000 We all think we're going to be the Good Samaritan, but how many 133 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:54,200 times does God present us with an opportunity and we are filled 134 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:57,360 with the sympathetic consciousness of others 135 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,880 distress, but we don't have a desire to alleviate it. 136 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:06,240 We have to be moved with compassion. 137 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,800 Jesus was moved with compassion, so we need to be moved with 138 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,680 compassion. And Luke 1034 to 35, it says. 139 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:20,920 So the Good Samaritan, he went to him, he bandaged his wounds, 140 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,720 pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, 141 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,520 brought him to an inn and took care of him. 142 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,000 On the next day when he departed, he took out two 143 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,600 Denari, gave it to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of 144 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:37,720 him. And whatever more you spend, 145 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:40,799 when I come again, I will repay you. 146 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:47,360 Did you know that in this time the Samaritan, the Good 147 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:51,280 Samaritan that this story is about, would have been someone 148 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:55,400 that people would have passed over because in this time it 149 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,720 says a certain man was travelling to Jerusalem? 150 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,080 This points to the fact that it was probably a Jew, and the 151 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:08,880 priest who stepped over him was a Jew, and the Levite who 152 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:13,400 stepped over him was a Jew. But at this time, the Jews did 153 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,800 not associate themselves with the Samaritans. 154 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,040 They had a long history of animosity. 155 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:24,320 So to this day, at this point in time, they did not associate 156 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:29,000 themselves with each other. So the Good Samaritan was 157 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:32,600 looking at a man who's laying on the ground half dead, and he 158 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:38,120 knows this guy would have stepped over me, but he decided 159 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:43,960 to be moved with compassion and to put his love into action, 160 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:47,000 right? I, I just think this is the most 161 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,320 interesting part of this story here, that God was telling a 162 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:54,560 story of compassion with that desire to alleviate it. 163 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:57,760 But it's also about love. A lot of times you hear people 164 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,400 say that love is not a noun, it's a verb. 165 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:03,640 And we have to live by that because God doesn't want to just 166 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:07,200 like, Oh, I love you. He wants us to put our love into 167 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:08,600 action. And that's what this Good 168 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:11,600 Samaritan did. And this story he says, love 169 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:17,440 your neighbor as yourself, love your neighbor as yourself. 170 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:22,280 I, I think that that is very, that's a very difficult 171 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:27,400 statement to try to explain to someone with words. 172 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:29,880 And I believe Jesus thought the same thing. 173 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,600 How do I explain this to people? Love your neighbor as yourself. 174 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,160 We love ourselves a lot. If you're if you woke up in the 175 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:40,120 morning and brush your teeth, you'll love yourself. 176 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:42,960 If you woke up in the morning and got out of bed, you love 177 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:44,960 yourself. If you ate some bread, if you 178 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,440 drink coffee, you love yourself, right? 179 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:52,560 We love ourselves in the Bible's now calling us to love your 180 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:57,520 neighbor as yourself. This is a crazy, crazy statement 181 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:00,040 to make. So God says I'm not going to. 182 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,000 Jesus says when he's here explaining it, He says I'm not 183 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,880 just going to explain this in words, but I'm going to create a 184 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:10,200 story for you. See love in action. 185 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:17,200 Love does not consider the worth of its object, but it simply 186 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:24,080 responds to the human need. How many times when we are 187 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:29,440 supposed to show love to someone or something or a situation, do 188 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:33,280 we consider the worth before we decide if we're going to show 189 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:37,040 love to that person, before we decide if we're going to give 190 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:40,520 love to that situation? I love that love does not 191 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:45,160 consider the worth of the object, but it simply responds 192 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:49,080 to the human need. Can you imagine if that is what 193 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:56,960 moved us, if we saw a human need and said God has called me to be 194 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:01,520 the hands and feet, God has called me to help alleviate 195 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:06,240 their pain and their distress. See, it starts again with the 196 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:09,440 sympathy of others, distress and that desire to alleviate, but we 197 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:16,080 have to move on to action. I love the Bible, I love the 198 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:19,720 Bible, I love reading the Bible. I love how it's a very revelant, 199 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:26,000 relevant word and I love how there's so many cross references 200 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:28,880 because you're not just taking out one thing and saying, how 201 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:30,600 does this work? It's like you can like, it's 202 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:32,480 like you can like bounce back and forth. 203 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:33,800 I've have you ever seen a picture? 204 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:37,600 It's a picture of a Bible. Whoa, sitting open like this and 205 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:44,400 it shows all the no, no one has ever seen the picture I'm 206 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:47,320 talking about. Look it up when you leave here. 207 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,880 It's a great photo. It shows all these cross 208 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:54,680 references and what I love about this is because when you just 209 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:59,000 look at the story of the Good Samaritan for face value, you 210 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:00,440 read it and it's like, oh, that's a great story. 211 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,680 I shouldn't pass people over, but I love because it talks 212 00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:07,880 about the oil and the wine. Why did it talk about the oil in 213 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:11,040 the wine? Why did it say that He went up 214 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:14,680 to this man and he poured oil and wine on him? 215 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,800 Oil in the Bible is the anointing, showing mercy and 216 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:21,280 care for the wounded. Pastor Lauren's been talking 217 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:26,160 about this new wine. We have a new wine that God 218 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,200 wants to fill us with. And do you know what the new 219 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:30,920 wine is? It's taking the fruits of the 220 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:35,320 Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 221 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:38,400 gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. 222 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:41,760 And it's putting those fruits under pressure. 223 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,680 The priest and the Levite, they may have looked on him and 224 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:51,800 thought, man, I just pray God that you heal him. 225 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,440 They weren't willing in that moment to allow their fruit to 226 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,640 be put under pressure. They weren't allowed to allow 227 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,360 because when our fruit is put under pressure, that means you 228 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,480 have to have a situation in your life where you feel that 229 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:09,240 pressure. When he saw that man laying on 230 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,560 the ground and he was filled with compassion, he was able to 231 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:15,280 say, you know what? Who knows where that man was 232 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,200 going? We don't know if he was running 233 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,600 late for something. You don't know if someone was 234 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:22,880 expecting him to be somewhere. But he said I'm going to stop 235 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:26,920 whatever it is I'm doing and I'm going to allow my fruit to be 236 00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:31,760 put under pressure in this moment and love my neighbor as 237 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:38,120 myself. I was laying in bed with my 238 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,160 children last night. We had an insanely crazy day. 239 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:43,840 Yes, it's always it's kids. It's crazy day, right? 240 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:45,480 Mine's no more crazier than yours. 241 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:49,720 However, I allowed my crazy day to get to me and I'm laying in 242 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,680 bed with my kids and I'm like, I always, if you know me, I always 243 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:53,800 talk about the fruits of the Spirit. 244 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:55,240 I'm like God's working patience in me. 245 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:57,000 And last night God showed me something. 246 00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,320 He said I'm working gentleness in you. 247 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:03,080 And I'm like, I'm not physical. I'm not talking about I haven't 248 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:05,400 given physical with my kids, although I want to sometimes, 249 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:10,320 but he said, but God was like I'm I'm putting your fruit under 250 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,680 pressure and it's the gentleness that I want to work with you and 251 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:18,720 it doesn't feel good stopping in that moment for that man laying 252 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,480 on the ground may have been an inconvenience. 253 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:27,520 It may not have came at an opportune time, but when our 254 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:33,640 fruit when we allow our fruit to be put under pressure, we're 255 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,600 responding to that human need and it produces is the new wine. 256 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,000 God has says you cannot put new wine and old wineskins. 257 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:46,480 He's calling us to a time to pour out that new wine on other 258 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:48,440 people. What does it mean We're not just 259 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:52,040 praying for them, but we're putting it into action How many 260 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:59,880 times I will pray for you. I'm not the only one you said 261 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:01,880 I'll pray for you. Time goes by and they're like 262 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:04,960 thank you for praying me. You're like, you're welcome. 263 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:10,920 Y'all are laughing because you've been there before. 264 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:16,080 This new wine isn't one that just says something, but it does 265 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:21,960 something and it allows us to be put under pressure so we can 266 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:26,240 produce that new wine to pour out as a drink offering to the 267 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:31,480 people that God is asking us to pour that drink offering out too 268 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:37,800 in Luke 1029. I mean, I think this entire 269 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:42,200 parable is about this man. The parable is called the Good 270 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:45,800 Samaritan. But man, this lawyer something 271 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,720 else. But the lawyer wanting to 272 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:55,200 justify himself said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? 273 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:58,840 What a statement, what a statement. 274 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:01,760 All right, love my neighbor as myself. 275 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,079 Who's my neighbor? Because if they're not my 276 00:17:06,079 --> 00:17:07,119 neighbor, I'm not going to love them. 277 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:08,599 They're not my labour not loving them. 278 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:11,359 They're not my labour neighbor. I'm not loving them. 279 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,240 How many times do we as Christian, we want to know who? 280 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:19,920 Who must I reach out to? Who do I have to reach out to? 281 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:23,440 Because if it's not that person, I ain't doing it because I got 282 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:28,079 something else to do. I have over the scripture, what 283 00:17:28,079 --> 00:17:30,920 do I have to do? How many times do we have this 284 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,360 mindset of Lord, what is it that I have to do? 285 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:38,000 What are you expecting of me? What are you requiring of me? 286 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,840 In the very beginning of this parable it says what do I have 287 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:46,720 to do to inherit eternal life? He was seeing, so I say short 288 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:51,040 sighted, but he was singing with such a small glimpse into what 289 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:55,720 God has called us to do and who God has called us to be. 290 00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:58,960 If we're just having the motivation of why we do what we 291 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:00,560 do. And it's just to get that jewel 292 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:02,120 on your crown when you get to heaven. 293 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,880 I mean, you can live by this. I'll do it if I have to. 294 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:10,880 God hasn't called us to live life doing it because we have 295 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:14,120 to. I love at a very young age here 296 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:16,240 at church. I'm, I'm pretty sure sorry 297 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,200 because of my mom. I don't know, but I learned from 298 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,160 my mom. But we do it here at church with 299 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,760 our kids. We don't have to go to church. 300 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:27,120 We y'all know it. You get to go to church this 301 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:29,480 morning. I like to wake my kids up. 302 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:33,360 I turn the light on in the hallway so I can they can just 303 00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:35,040 kind of like ease into waking up right? 304 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:39,840 Because I'm that nice of a mom. So I turn the light on and I go 305 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,840 back to my room and Asher's like, I don't want to go to 306 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,080 school. I was like, bro, it's Sunday. 307 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:50,280 We're not going to school today, We're going to church. 308 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,160 And he goes, yay. And he jumps out of bed and runs 309 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,000 to the bathroom. He's like, I'm ready to go 310 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,200 Because I have instilled inside of him we don't have to go to 311 00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:02,840 church. We get to go to church. 312 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:08,440 Amen. We don't have to stop to help 313 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:13,160 the man, we get to stop and help the man. 314 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:19,360 We don't have to have our fruit under pressure. 315 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:23,800 We get to because then it produces inside of us. 316 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,120 Not that just we get blessed, but we become a blessing to 317 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:29,480 other people. Yes, Amen. 318 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:34,160 We have to get beyond this place that says, do I have to? 319 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:37,440 I remember my mom when I was younger, she says, if I say 320 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:43,280 jump, you don't say why, you say how high and I'm I'm like, yes, 321 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,000 this is it. How many times when God asks us 322 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:51,160 to do something? Well, why my children, children, 323 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:57,880 why every single time I say to do something, they know the 324 00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:59,960 answer. Why? 325 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,000 Why? My children, the ones who drink 326 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:11,000 milk, are able to say why. My children who are still 327 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:16,040 immature, they're able to say why do I have to do that? 328 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:20,040 But God has not called us to remain as infants. 329 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,000 He's called us to grow on to maturity so that we can eat 330 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,600 meat. So we're not asking why or why 331 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,600 do I have to or how far do I have to go or who do I have to 332 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,760 reach out to? How many people God do I have to 333 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,920 be kind to this week? Because once I hit my quota, I'm 334 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,760 done. You may feel like that, right? 335 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:49,520 But we got to get to the heart of why we do what we do. 336 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:54,480 What if we ask the question, how much can I give versus how much 337 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:59,400 do I have to give? Do I have to give of my time? 338 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:06,160 Do I have to give of my talents? Do I have to give money? 339 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,880 Do I have to sign up for this event? 340 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,480 What if he said, man, I get to give my time, I get to give my 341 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,760 talents, I get to give my money. I get to go to the man. 342 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,400 Your church has so many events, man, my church has so many 343 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:22,160 events. How many times? 344 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:25,880 I'm so busy. We're all busy doing the things 345 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,600 of the Lord. That's not a burden. 346 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,960 That's a joy that we get to do church. 347 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:37,440 We have to get beyond the why do I have to do it or what do I 348 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:42,640 have to do to say, Lord, you've created me for such a time as 349 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,680 this. I get to be your hands in your 350 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,560 feet to the people in need. Amen. 351 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:54,280 In Mark 410 to 12 it says, But when he was alone, those around 352 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:57,880 him with the 12 asked him about the parable, and he said to 353 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,600 them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the 354 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,440 Kingdom of God. But to those who are outside, 355 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,080 all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not 356 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,880 perceive, and hearing they may hear not understand, lest they 357 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,000 should turn and their sins be forgiven them. 358 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,840 Jesus taught in parables to make the spiritual truth clear to the 359 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,880 hearers and put in a form easily remembered and easily 360 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,080 understood. In this scripture right here is 361 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,960 talking about spiritual perception. 362 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:36,000 The lawyer from the parable, who is my neighbor, he was not 363 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,680 operating with spiritual perception. 364 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:44,280 He was operating as we call out of a natural side or the natural 365 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,880 tendency. He was saying, well, I don't 366 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,480 want to have to do too much, so just lay it out plain for me. 367 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,760 Who's my neighbor? And then Jesus goes on to tell a 368 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:59,440 story of compassion, to tell a story of love, to tell a story 369 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,360 of mercy, all these different things. 370 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,640 The lawyer had a outside perspective. 371 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:10,360 He was looking for the natural or the legalistic, the wrong, 372 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:13,240 the right, the good, the bad, the left, the right, all these 373 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,320 different things. He wanted to know the rules and 374 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:19,960 the laws. As kids, you have to teach them 375 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,480 the rules and the laws so they understand the boundaries as 376 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:28,600 children and they don't go outside of those boundaries. 377 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,920 But the New Testament is teaching us something else. 378 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,800 It's teaching us about a spiritual perspective. 379 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,880 We have so many talks that Pastor Lauren, I swear, has been 380 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,440 talking about this for as long as I can remember about having a 381 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,840 Kingdom perspective, having a perspective that sees from up 382 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,160 here. Yet I still have people coming 383 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:52,120 to me and saying like, well, what about this and that? 384 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,600 And I said, God doesn't want us to think about this and that 385 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:57,840 anymore. He wants us to see from here 386 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,800 because if we constantly try to see from this or that, we're 387 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,320 always going to be in this constant state of tug and warm. 388 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:04,640 Like, what am I supposed to think? 389 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:09,520 I can tell you what you're supposed to think with the word 390 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:15,200 of the Lord, right? God wants us to operate with a 391 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,560 spiritual perspective. We can't see the man laying on 392 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,240 the ground and operate from a natural perspective. 393 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:25,000 We have to see the man on the ground. 394 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,280 We have to see the situations that God has called for each and 395 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,680 every one of us with a spiritual perspective. 396 00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:34,760 But what I love about a spiritual perspective is God has 397 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,640 called every single one of us to do something different. 398 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,320 Can I get Amen. I was not created the same way 399 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,560 that you were created and you were not created the same way as 400 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:46,080 the person next to you is created. 401 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,160 A lot of times as Christians, we box ourselves in and we box the 402 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,680 body of Christ in and we kind of look at it for if I have a need 403 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:55,480 for this, you should have a need for this. 404 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,280 If I think that this is important, you think that this 405 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,520 is important. God's word is truth. 406 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:06,920 Everything else is just opinion, but God places things on our 407 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,680 hearts when we have a spiritual perspective. 408 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,720 One thing that I find interesting is the way that God 409 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,560 convicts certain people of different things. 410 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,680 And I've had so many conversations with people where 411 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:23,480 they've had a conviction that is different than my conviction. 412 00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:27,280 Now, if it's in the Bible, I'm not talking about the things 413 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:29,960 that like, oh, well, do you know that God says I don't need to 414 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,840 love? OK, God says love your loving. 415 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:33,120 I'm not talking about that stuff. 416 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:34,320 I'm talking about the other stuff. 417 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,960 All right. When God places something on 418 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,720 your heart, you have to have the spiritual perspective to hear 419 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,960 and know what God is placing on your heart. 420 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,400 There, there was this book. Everyone love this book. 421 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:51,760 So I'm like, I'm going to buy this book. 422 00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:54,280 And I mean, I, when I say everyone, I'm like, I feel like 423 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:58,280 everyone was loving this book and I'm just like, I got to read 424 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,240 this book and I open up this book. 425 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,080 I'm not talking about the Bible. And I open up this book and I'm 426 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:07,240 like, what are these people reading? 427 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:13,400 This is absolute trash, right? And immediately God placed a 428 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:15,600 conviction on my heart. I don't care if anyone else is 429 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,520 reading this book. You're not reading this book. 430 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:23,320 And I'm like, yes, so I follow this girl on Instagram who, you 431 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,320 know, because I like romance. I won't get into the details, 432 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,160 but I like reading romance, but I'm not interested in reading 433 00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:30,840 about that. Right? 434 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:37,480 OK, that's a conviction that God placed on my heart. 435 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:39,440 That was something that the Bible doesn't say. 436 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,080 If there's this in the in the book that you're reading, then, 437 00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:44,320 right? It was something that I had to 438 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,280 allow God to speak to my heart, to show me what it is that he 439 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,560 placed on my heart to give me spiritual perception. 440 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,800 Our convictions will all be different. 441 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:58,040 The people that you're called to may be different than the people 442 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:02,000 that I'm called to. The thing or situation that 443 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,440 you're called to may be different than the thing or 444 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:08,480 situation that I'm called to. That's why we have to be so in 445 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:13,360 tune with the Holy Spirit. We have to get to the motivation 446 00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:17,760 behind why we do what we do. You know, in the scripture, it 447 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,760 talks about the mystery. It says something formerly 448 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:28,640 hidden but now revealed, which people cannot understand except 449 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:34,480 with divine revelation. Our spiritual perception is 450 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:36,960 divine revelation. This is something people could 451 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,440 never know by their own understanding. 452 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,720 Some things that God's speaking to us are not going to make 453 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:47,000 sense from a natural perspective, but it will make 454 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,080 sense with a spiritual perception. 455 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,920 So we have to have this revelation given to us by God. 456 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,080 These are the understandings that are revealed to believers. 457 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,840 This is not something that God is trying to hide from you. 458 00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:07,520 We have to be able with spiritual perception to see a 459 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:15,840 need, because how can we meet a need if we don't see the need? 460 00:28:16,120 --> 00:28:18,480 In the Scripture it says seeing they shall see and not perceive, 461 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,280 and hearing they shall hear and not understand. 462 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,360 This means those who have shut their eyes and ears to truth are 463 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:29,280 not going to understand the significance of what they are 464 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,680 seeing and hearing. And I don't know about you, but 465 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:34,320 I don't want to miss out on that. 466 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,840 I don't want to have my ears shut and my my eyes closed to 467 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:43,040 not be able to see the things that God is trying to show me. 468 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,320 I want to operate out of spiritual perception so I can 469 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,160 see what it is that God's calling me to. 470 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,760 But I want to go to Psalms 95, eight to seven. 471 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,080 It says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden. 472 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:58,640 Your heart is in the rebellion, is in the day of the trial, in 473 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,600 the wilderness. When your father's tested me, 474 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,520 they tried me, though they saw my work for 40 years. 475 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,360 I was grieved with that generation and said it is a 476 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:13,000 people who go astray in their hearts. 477 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:19,480 They do not know my ways. They do not know my ways because 478 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:23,240 they went astray in their hearts. 479 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:28,840 We have to understand that to get our spiritual perspective 480 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,280 and our spiritual perception. It's all about the heart. 481 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:38,120 Compassion comes from the heart, Love comes from the heart, Mercy 482 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,360 comes from the heart. All of these things that the 483 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,160 story is talking to us about comes back to our heart. 484 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:52,360 And in here in this story, the lawyer was operating out of this 485 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,560 legalistic mindset. And if we're operating out of 486 00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,280 the natural, we can never be motivated by the spiritual. 487 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:06,680 His heart was not engaged. If we want to have spiritual 488 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,640 perception, our hearts have to be engaged. 489 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:14,240 That's why the texture of your heart matters. 490 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:19,240 In your heart matters, the hardness of your heart. 491 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,840 If you want to see God's ways, you cannot have a heart heart. 492 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,080 If you want to see God's ways, you can't have roots of 493 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,240 bitterness springing up inside of your heart and causing you 494 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:32,520 spiritual blindness. I've. 495 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,960 Mentioned the story before. There was a time that I always 496 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,680 say I don't get offended very easily and I was talking to 497 00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,560 Pastor Lauren about this situation. 498 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,120 He's like, you're offended. I was like, I am not offended. 499 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:51,160 You are offended he. Said and I had to take a real 500 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,600 good look at my heart to see that offense. 501 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,280 You want to know why? Because of that situation that I 502 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:04,400 had offense in with someone, I couldn't see this person the way 503 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:08,600 that God had called me to see this person because I now had 504 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,080 spiritual blindness to this person. 505 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,560 How many of you know they say hurt people hurt people. 506 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,280 You've heard that hurt people hurt people, But I didn't see 507 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,760 this person as someone who is hurting because I had an offence 508 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:25,320 in my heart where God wanted me to see this person with 509 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,600 compassion, with love, and with mercy. 510 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,880 But all I was concerned about is them hurting me and my offence. 511 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:37,320 Now that was only impacting my spiritual perception, right? 512 00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:44,720 I'm we missed out on opportunity because I allowed offense in my 513 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,320 heart? How many times do we miss out on 514 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,080 opportunities because you are offended, because you are hurt, 515 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:55,120 because you have bitterness and you can no longer operate out of 516 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:58,120 a spiritual perception because now you have spiritual 517 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:02,280 blindness? How can we meet the need if our 518 00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:08,560 hearts can't see the need? We have to understand that the 519 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:14,800 condition of our heart matters. In Colossians 19 to 12, it says, 520 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,280 for this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not 521 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,920 cease to pray for you and to ask you that you may be filled with 522 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,960 the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual 523 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,040 understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully. 524 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,360 Pleasing to Him, being fruitful and every good work and 525 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,960 increasing, and the knowledge of God strengthened with all might 526 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,520 according to His glorious power for all patience and 527 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,440 long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has 528 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:49,120 qualified us to be what partakers in the inheritance of 529 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,680 the Saints of the light. This is what we need. 530 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,760 This is the Scripture that we need. 531 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:57,800 It says we need spiritual perception and perspective. 532 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,480 It says we need knowledge, we need spiritual understanding 533 00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:07,600 that we may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. 534 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,040 I don't know about you, but I want to be fully pleasing to 535 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:13,640 Him. Amen. 536 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,280 I don't want to just do things because like I said earlier, I 537 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,400 got a jewel on my crown. When I get to heaven, man, I 538 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:24,480 want like the full thing, right? But we're not doing that because 539 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:26,680 of that. We're doing it because we've 540 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:32,560 allowed God to work in our heart so much that we have a spiritual 541 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,480 perspective to see the way God wants us to see. 542 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,560 And then it says, why? Why do we do all these things? 543 00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,600 To be fruitful, to be strengthened, and to be 544 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:51,400 partakers of your inheritance if you want to receive your 545 00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:53,720 inheritance. Because we are called to be the 546 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:54,920 sons of God. Amen. 547 00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:00,080 And he says when you are sons you become heirs and you have an 548 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,160 inheritance. But we cannot get to that place 549 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:07,520 if we don't allow God to work in our hearts. 550 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:13,080 In Luke 1036 to 37 it says so which of these three do you 551 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:16,560 think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? 552 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,600 And the lawyer said he who showed mercy on him. 553 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,840 And Jesus said to him, Go and do what? 554 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:30,960 Likewise, mercy is God's compassionate, unearned kindness 555 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:37,199 that withholds deserved punishment, and it forgives sins 556 00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:42,239 and alleviates suffering. The Good Samaritan. 557 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,280 Back to the story of the Good Samaritan. 558 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,520 How many times are we? Treated poorly. 559 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:54,719 And we kind of allow. Something to spring up inside of 560 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,400 our heart because we were treated poorly and because that 561 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:01,200 something starts moving in our heart. 562 00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:04,800 We want to treat the other person. 563 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,480 Poorly. Right, the good. 564 00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:14,880 Samaritan, years of animosity between the two and this guy 565 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:19,880 laying on the ground. In a natural sense, you deserve 566 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,680 that. You deserve to be where you are 567 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,760 at from the perspective of a Samaritan. 568 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,920 But he didn't operate in that perspective or that perception, 569 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:38,480 But he allowed his heart to get to the place with God that he 570 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:43,160 had a spiritual perspective and he was able to operate out of 571 00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,680 compassion, operate out of love and out of mercy. 572 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,640 Someone who may have deserved that and he could have easily 573 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,320 just slid on by. They would expect the Good 574 00:35:56,320 --> 00:36:00,520 Samaritan to just move on by. But he said, I'm not going to do 575 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:04,440 that because I'm not operating out of the natural, but I'm 576 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:08,880 operating out of the spiritual, out of the what I know that God 577 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:13,080 has called me too. How many times do we try to 578 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:17,160 justify why we don't do what we should? 579 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:22,120 Do We have justification for treating people poorly? 580 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,120 If you talk to my children, they always have justification. 581 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,920 I call it excuses. And I'm not trying to be hard 582 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,960 this morning. But that's the reality of. 583 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,960 It. We get to the place where we. 584 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:41,320 Want to justify why we didn't do what God had placed right in 585 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:45,200 front of us? God, I'm on my way. 586 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,200 To do something else. God didn't ask you to do that 587 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:48,800 something else. He asked you to do that. 588 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:51,440 God, it's. It's inconvenient. 589 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,960 Or I don't have the tools or I'm not the right person for the 590 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:56,320 job. He says, yes, you are. 591 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,680 If I've called you to do it, I'm going to qualify you to do it. 592 00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,800 God's going to give us everything that we have need of 593 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,520 to do what he's called us to do. Don't justify or have excuses 594 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,840 for why you can't do it. And maybe today you feel like 595 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:14,320 I'm the person laying on the ground this whole time you're 596 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:18,600 thinking I, I'm the, I'm the man laying on the ground who feels 597 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,800 beaten, who feels. Broken. 598 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:29,480 Who feels that they have robbed me of everything that I have and 599 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:33,600 you feel justified to not go out and be the hands of feet of 600 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,000 Jesus because you feel like that you're that person on the 601 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,200 ground. But God hasn't called us to live 602 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,640 in this victim mentality or victim mindset that says, well, 603 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:48,840 until everyone else does what they're supposed to do and I'm 604 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:52,960 right, I'm righted for this wrong that I have inside of me, 605 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:54,880 I can't be the hands and feet of Jesus. 606 00:37:56,280 --> 00:38:00,600 There's no time like right now to be his hands and feet. 607 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,120 Don't come up with justifications. 608 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,960 Don't come up with excuses for why you can't, but allow God to 609 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:12,120 work in your heart. So when people see you, they're 610 00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:15,000 like Cassie, man, She was moved with compassion. 611 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,640 Jeannie, she was moved with compassion. 612 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:24,680 Fill your name in the blank. They were moved with compassion. 613 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,800 I want that. I want that for myself. 614 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,000 God wants that for each and everyone of us. 615 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:35,600 If we can allow our hearts to get to the place that says God, 616 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:40,680 soften my heart. Do whatever it is that you need 617 00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:46,800 to do inside of my heart so I can be moved with compassion, so 618 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,840 I can be filled with love, so I can put my love into action and 619 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:54,760 allow the fruits of the Spirit not only to be developed inside 620 00:38:54,760 --> 00:39:00,240 of me, but Lord, I willingly, I get to have this fruit put under 621 00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:04,040 pressure to produce this new wine that God, we know that 622 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,720 you're calling for the body of Christ. 623 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,120 Lord, you are so good. God, you are so worthy, Lord, 624 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,080 and we know that you have a call for each and everyone of every 625 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,120 single person who has walked in these doors. 626 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:25,240 Lord, you have called, you have chosen, and you will equip us 627 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,600 for whatever it is that you have for each and everyone of us. 628 00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:33,120 Lord, we just thank you, God. Lord, I pray for every heart in 629 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:37,480 here who feels like they've been filled with bitterness, hurt, 630 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:42,200 shame, doubt, A hardness of heart that's caused spiritual 631 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,640 blindness. God, deal with our hearts. 632 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:49,920 Lord, deal with our hearts. This is Pastor Lauren Coburbius. 633 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:53,000 From Mount Zion Church, we thank you for joining us today and 634 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,920 invite you to connect with our church family by visiting 635 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,240 mountzion.org and following us on social media. 636 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:00,240 God bless you.