Pause Week Three | The Parable of The Good Samaritan

to my dearest sponsor. I'll never forget how excited I was when I learned that you chose to sponsor me. You mean a lot to me because for much of my life I have felt very alone. My father died when I was very young and my mother moved very far away to find work. I haven't seen her in many years. Now I live with my grandmother. Life has been difficult for us because we are very poor. But my future is bright because I am in the One Child Matters programme. I really love going to the centre because I have so many friends there and I am learning so much. They help me to do my best in school. They give me yummy food to eat and teach me about God, that He loves me and He wants me to show His love to others. That is why I help my grandmother in the house because I know she needs me. I think God wants me to become a teacher someday so I can help other children like me. I am studying hard so that I can succeed. I want you to know that I pray for you often that the Lord will bless you. My favourite scripture,

James 4 verse 8 says, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. I know this is true because God has given me you as my sponsor. Thank you and I love you. Zine. Before we go any further, I want to take a quick moment. How incredible was that story that we just heard of the precious girl's life and the impact that is being made because of One Child. Perhaps you don't know this, but One Child has been a partner of Bayside for many years. We have had the opportunity to sponsor many children in Zimbabwe, Africa. We're so excited because they're here with us today and we are expanding our impact. We now not only have children that we are sponsoring in Zimbabwe, but we have opportunity to sponsor children in Nepal and Pakistan as well. What's so incredible is that we already have strategic missions partners in those parts of the world. By joining together with One Child, we are going to be able to make an even greater impact and impact the next generation in those countries.

I want to ask you to visit their table in the foyer. They are set up at all of our campuses after service today. You're actually going to have the opportunity to see some of the children that you can sponsor. Our family visited and we chose a sweet little girl named Layana from Nepal. We're so grateful to be able to do this because for a trip to Chick-fil-A, for just $44 a month, we're able to help give her food. We're able to help her have the education she needs in a Christian environment and clean water. We're so grateful to be able to do that. I want to encourage you, if your family's with you, make this a family thing. Bring your kids. Let them be a part of this. Let them see the impact of living generously and what that looks like. Be sure to stop by today after service. I am so grateful, as I always am, when I'm able to open up God's Word and share with you today. I am very excited about this message,

but I have to tell you this message comes with a warning. It's kind of like when you get on a ride at Disney or Busch Gardens, and it's like if you have neck pain, if you have a back pain, if you have a foot injury, you know you got all these warnings. Okay, here's my warning. You're going to get uncomfortable. You are. God's going to step on your toes. How do I know that? Well, because in my preparation, I got uncomfortable. You know, it's good to preach it to myself first. I got uncomfortable. I walked into the kitchen at one point, I looked at Jordan, and I was like, babe, I'm going to have to repent in front of the entire church for how many times I have missed the message that I'm about to preach. But church, I'm going to tell you, I want to encourage you that uncomfortable isn't bad. It's good. Listen, I'm real comfortable on my couch. Not so comfortable when I'm in the gym, but it's good for me to be in the gym. Comfort isn't what we're after. I was reminded of what the Bible teaches us in James. It says that we are to be doers of the word, not just hearers. You know, how many of you got enough hearers in your house? They're usually the ones that depend on you for like food and medical care and clothing. They're like half your size.

Go clean your room. Hello? Did you hear me? Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, ma'am. Well, why aren't we doing anything? Today we're going to be stirred up to do. I'm glad that you're here, but if you just came to church this morning to tick a box, I'm telling you you're missing it because God's word should move us to action, and I believe that's exactly what he wants us to do today. So if you're with me, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and let's prepare our hearts for what it is that he wants to speak to us. God, we thank you so much that you are here in this place, and God, I thank you for the word that you have given to share, and so, God, I get out of the way, and I pray that your word would go forth, for your word is alive, and it is active, and it is sharper than any double-edged sword, so God, would you pierce our hearts? Would you trim away what needs to be trimmed? Would you cover what needs to be covered? Would you soothe what needs to be soothed? Oh, and Father, would you move us that we would leave here ready to live differently than the way that we came in the name of Jesus, and everybody said, amen, and amen. So we're going to continue in our series that we are in called Pause. I hope you've been enjoying this series. We do this every summer where we take time to pause and really spend time in God's word. This summer, we are looking at the parables that Jesus taught, and we've paired this series with a daily Bible reading plan, and I hope you're joining us in that. The best place to get that reading plan is our brand new Bayside app. If you have not downloaded that yet, be sure to do that. You can do that in your app store. You can also do it by that sticker on the seat in front of you. You'll find a link to it there as well, but you're going to want to do that and dive into

God's word because it's not just about Sundays. He wants to pause and spend time with you every day of the week. Today though, we are going to be looking at a parable that Jesus taught that perhaps may be a little familiar to you. As a reminder, a parable is simply a story. Jesus would use these all the time as he would teach, and he would share a story and give people a perspective on a new way of living, a kingdom way of living. And so today, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Luke chapter 10. We're going to be looking at the story of the Good Samaritan, but we're going to start just above the parable in verse 25, and we're going to gain a little context for why it is that Jesus even shared this story to begin with. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me, Luke 10, 25. If not, it's on the screen behind me. Here's what it says. One day, an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question. Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus replied, well, what does the law of Moses say? How do you read it? The man answered, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Right, Jesus told him. Do this, and you will live. Now I don't know if perhaps you have ever thought about this. But love in the English language is a very complicated word. We love a lot of things. Like a lot of us, we love our favorite sports team. Some of you are counting down the days of summer, not because your kids are going back to school, but because football is back. I heard a few claps in the back.

It's okay. You can be excited about football. This week, watching the World Cup, seeing grown men cry, tears, because of how much they love their country and they love the sport. Some of you love Disney. You will go to Disney to wait in a two-hour line in 105-degree heat for a 60-second ride that you have ridden 12 times. Love makes us do crazy things. Let's not forget how much we love food. Oh, the lengths we will go to for a good meal. The lines we will stand in for a peachy donut. Oh, if you know, you know, and if you don't, Google it and you're going to thank me. Love. The command is love. In short, it's to love God and love others. Love, it's not a word. It's not a sermon. It's not a feeling. It's an action. And it's expensive. It costs something. You know, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength, your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself, have you ever thought about what actions should that produce in my life?

You see, the expert here knew the answer. Jesus said, you're right. You know. Now go and do. You see, there must have been some sort of a disconnect between what the man knew and how the man was living. Well, the man, it seems, didn't really like that answer. Perhaps he got a little uncomfortable. And so he says, it says, the man wanted to justify his actions. So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? The command is to love. The question he asks is, well, who do I have to love? Who is my neighbor? Jesus answers it with a story. Verse 30, a Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance, a priest came along. And when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant or a Levite walked over and looked at him lying there. But he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. And then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him.

The next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits, Jesus asked. The man replied, the one who showed mercy. Then Jesus said, yes, now go and do the same. See, in this moment, Jesus did what he always does, and he flipped the script. He shared this story to offer a new perspective, a new way of living, a kingdom way of living. And instead of answering the question, who is my neighbor, he tells the story and he places a different question before the man, he places a different question before all of us today. And it's not the question of who is my neighbor, but it's the question of to whom can I be a neighbor to? You see, the man was looking for justifications for his actions, but Jesus begins to say, Jesus begins to say no. I'm going to show you what real love actually looks like. Now it's important that we have a little bit of cultural context in this story. Because as Jesus began to tell this story, it would have made the expert very uncomfortable. There's two very specific details that Jesus includes. He says there was a Jewish man and a despised Samaritan. Now it's important to understand that at that time, Jews did not like Samaritans. In most cases, they hated them. They would intentionally take extra time to walk around the region of Samaria so they did not have to go through it and encounter its people.

They did not like these people religiously. They despised each other racially. It was a deep hatred. So while it was shocking that Jesus set the story up like this, it was not by accident that the man who was attacked was a Jew and the hero of the story was a Samaritan. Because only in Jesus' kingdom would a story be written like this. You see, a Jesus-like love does not limit our love to someone who is like us. It doesn't limit our love to someone who is kind to us. It doesn't limit our love to someone who looks like us or is from the same place as us or who has the same political views as us, no. A Jesus-like love loves even your enemies. Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, but to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks. And when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. Now remember in this parable, Jesus is illustrating what it looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. And so he gives us a road and he gives us four people in the story that meet this Jewish man on the side of the road and we're going to take a look at them together and perhaps you may see yourself in a few of them. The first people that encounter this Jewish man are the bandits. The bandits, they saw this man as nothing more than a victim. They saw him as an opportunity. They saw him as someone who was weak, who could be bullied, who could be walked on, someone who simply didn't matter. Have you ever viewed anyone like this before? I'm sure most of us in here have not beaten someone and left them for dead on the side

of the road, but I don't know, maybe at work you saw someone as a means to an end. You used someone as an excuse to get a promotion, to get out of trouble. You lied about someone. You blamed someone. Maybe you see a stranger's bad day, you see the iced coffee spill all over them, you see the trip on the sidewalk and your first reaction is to, oh gosh, I got to tell somebody about that instead of offering the help. I love you, we're going to get uncomfortable today. See, instead of seeing a neighbor, these bandits, they saw a selfish opportunity. They didn't have eyes to see anyone but themselves. And then comes along a priest and a Levite and you would think, great, here come the heroes of the story. These are the church people. They should know what to do. It's kind of their job. But when he, talking about the priest, saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant or a Levite walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. You see, where the bandit saw a victim, the priest and the Levite saw a burden. I want to take a minute and speak to all of us who are Christians in here, because I think we have to be careful. We bear the name of Christ, but we don't always wear it well. Our daughter, she loves to go to a hotel, and she loves the sense of adventure. She loves the new place. Everything is so big and grand. She loves jumping on the beds, all the things. I love a hotel because they have a sign that looks like this. I am on vacation. I'm going to sleep in.

You can come clean my room later. I'm going to take my time. I'm going to enjoy my coffee. Do not disturb me. I think that sometimes we don't just hang these signs on our hotel room doors. I think often we wear these signs just like this. And this is where I have to repent. I have worn this sign more times than I want to admit. Perhaps you have too. Oh, we're in Publix. Instead of having eyes to see the person that God would put in our path, oh, not that aisle. I don't have time for them today. Get on an airplane. First thing we do, AirPods in, sign on. Get a text message from that person we know is going through a difficult time, but we just leave it unread because we don't have the bandwidth. I don't have time to send a text back. Maybe you justify your sign. We're good at making excuses. I just don't have time right now. I got to get to church. I'm on my way to small group. When I have more money, I'll do it. I'll do it next time. It's just not the right time. I'll do it next time. There's a scripture in Ecclesiastes that says this. He who watches the wind, waiting for all conditions to be perfect, will not sow seed. And he who looks at the clouds will not reap a harvest. You see, if we live with excuses and with a sign around our neck, we are going to miss

out on the harvest that God has called us to. Now, listen, we should pray about everything, but sometimes we're so quick to pray, God, bring somebody to help Susie. Oh, God, bring someone to pay for his groceries. Could it be that God is just needing you to do it? He needs you to be the neighbor. He needs you to sponsor the child. He needs you to lead the group. He needs you to talk to the person in line at Target. He needs you to pray for your server when you go out to lunch after church. See Jesus doesn't just want us to be spectators on the road. life but participants. He wants us to live a life that's interruptible. So Jesus brings him the fourth person. Down the road comes our friend the Samaritan. Now like the men before him, he saw the Jewish man. But instead of abusing him, instead of ignoring him or walking away from him, he had compassion on him. And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling him, take care of this man and if his bill runs higher than this, I will pay you next time I'm here. You see the Samaritan saw a neighbor to love. He saw a neighbor to love. I noticed a couple things in the verses that we just read that the Samaritan did that none of the others did. The first thing I see is that he came close. He didn't just see the man, but he saw him and he walked towards him. He bent down. He came close. What's crazy to me is that of all the people in the story, the Samaritan is the one with the biggest reason for an excuse. Jews hate me. He probably won't even accept my help. Why would I help him after what he's done to me? After what he's done to my family? After what he's done to my friends? Yet the Samaritan never made an excuse, not one. I've got to be somewhere. I'm sure in the story like the priest and the Levite, he was headed somewhere. It says they were on a

road between two major cities. I doubt he was just taking a leisurely walk, but you see he was interruptible. You see this wasn't a distraction to him. It was a divine appointment. And so he came close, he bent down, and he had compassion. The scripture actually says he felt compassion for him. In the Greek, it's a word that's very complicated to say, so I'm gonna spare you my poor attempt. I would be spitting on this whole front row if I tried it. But what it means is to feel it, to be so moved that you feel it in your bowels. He felt it. It was like in his gut that he had to do something. It's actually a word that's used all throughout the Gospels when talking about what Jesus felt when he saw someone, and he was always moved towards action. You see, compassion doesn't think of ourselves. The Samaritan didn't think, well, I don't know CPR. He didn't think that is a lot of blood. I might get a disease. Let me pray for a doctor to show up. No, he did whatever he could with whatever he had. You see, there's something powerful that happens when we get our minds off of ourselves, off of our needs, off of our abilities, off of our inabilities, and focus on others. I've shared this story before, but when our daughter was a year and a half, she was diagnosed with cancer, and I praise God every day. She is over 10 years cancer free. All glory to God. But during that season, we basically lived up at All Children's for about six months, and I will never forget a moment that I had with the Lord. There was a traumatic situation that had just gone down with our daughter, and I needed a breath, so I went to the only place that I knew I could find one, the bathroom. And so I'm standing at the sink, and I'm just trying to breathe, and I remember I look up. up into the mirror, and I feel the Lord tell me, Kristen, you are here for a reason. I love you, and I'm gonna take care of your family. I'm gonna take care of your daughter. But honey, there are my children that are on this floor who do not know me, and I need you to take care of them. And so Jordan and I, we started serving coffee

out of our hospital room. We weren't doctors, we couldn't pay for anyone's medical bills, but we could be a friend. And we could make a cup of coffee that was better than the hospital's. And the conversations and the families, I'll never forget them. You see, compassion never stands still. It always does something. I'm gonna just take a moment, because as I was in worship, the Lord dropped this on my heart. And I wanna take a minute, and I wanna ask if there is anyone in here at our campuses, and you have a cancer diagnosis, or you know someone with what, I feel the compassion of the Lord for you. And I wanna pray for you. So we're gonna just pause for just a minute. And so if you're in here, and you carry that diagnosis, or you know someone that does, I wanna ask that you would raise your hand. And if you see someone with their hand raised, I wanna ask that you would just go next to them, place a hand on a shoulder. God, I thank you that you were so moved by your love for us, that it moves you towards us. And Jesus, I thank you that you came close to us, and you took stripes on your back for our healing. So God, before you today are your sons and your daughters, and they are battling a diagnosis

that is not greater than you. So I call on the mighty name of Jesus, the name that is above every other name. And I speak healing in the name of Jesus. I command every body, every cell to line up with God's word, every tumor to shrink in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, I pray miracles would break out. I pray healing would take place. And God, that you would get all the glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen, and amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Compassion, it'll move you. It'll move you to serve coffee. It'll move you to pray for somebody that you don't know. It'll move you to have a conversation, place a hand on somebody's shoulder. It will move you. And it moved the Samaritan. Then it didn't just stop there. He took care. He cared for his wounds. You know, the text doesn't say that he was a doctor,

so I'm gonna guess that he wasn't traveling with a first aid kit. I'm gonna guess he wasn't traveling with a doctor's bag. So perhaps when he bent down to care for this man, he had to rip up his own clothes to make bandages. He definitely, according to the story, gave his own oil and wine to soothe him and placed him on his own donkey. In any case, he was inconvenienced in order to care for someone else. He took care. And then he covered the cost. He put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins. Wayne's telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. He paid for everything. And he put no limits on what the man needed. In every way, this Samaritan loved this neighbor as he would himself. So Jesus then finishes the parable, and he says, now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits? The man replied, well, the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said, yes, now go and do the same. Church, the same challenge is before us today. To go and do, to not just be hearers of a message,

but to do something with what you've heard. So this week, how will you respond to the neighbor that God places before you? Are you gonna wear this sign? Are you gonna make an excuse? Are you gonna cross to the other side and ignore the need, or are you gonna move towards it like the good Samaritan did, like Jesus did? I wanna challenge all of us in this room, at our campuses, online, to live this week differently and see what God does. I wanna ask you that when you wake up every morning, before you get going, before you get to work, before your mind starts going, I want you to ask God one simple question. Who can I be a neighbor to today? Or who do you want me to show your love to today? And then I want you to have eyes to see. Because He will show you. I don't know what He's gonna do. Maybe He's gonna ask you to pay for somebody's meal at a restaurant. Maybe He's gonna ask you to help your neighbor, or to drop by a care package to the homeless person that you pass by every day. I don't know, maybe He's gonna ask you to sponsor a child after service today. Maybe this is the week that you're gonna see someone pulled over on the side of the road with a flat tire and you're gonna stop.

Maybe this is the week where you're gonna finally sit with the person at work who always eats lunch by themselves. Or maybe after church today, when you sit down and you eat dinner, you eat lunch, you're gonna leave your server a really, really, really big tip. And then you're gonna ask if you can pray for them. You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to have eyes to see, and a heart that's willing to be moved by God. Y'all, imagine the problems that could be solved if we as Christians did as much as we knew. Imagine how different our world would look, how different our community would look, how different your workplace would look, how different our neighborhoods would look. And this week, you have the opportunity to not just be a hearer, but to be a doer. So are you with me? That's an actual question. Are you with me? Are we gonna do this? Yes. Yes. Yes, we are. And listen, you can't lie in church, so I got you. We're gonna do it. If you would, bow your heads all across this room, online, at our campuses.

And before we go, I wanna point out one more thing that we see in this parable that is not to be overlooked. You see, at some point, every one of us was like the man who was left by the side of the road. Every one of us was beaten. was bruised, was left for dead. Maybe perhaps you're in here today and that's how you feel. Maybe you're sitting on the back row because you didn't feel good enough to come in any further. You feel abandoned. Maybe by the world's standards you have been abandoned. I want you to know that Jesus did for all of us. Jesus did for you what the good Samaritan did for this man. Romans 5.8 says, but God demonstrated his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see, when we didn't deserve it, Jesus came close. God gave us Jesus and Jesus was born and he lived a perfect life for us. He had compassion for us and he willingly walked to the cross for you and I. He took care of us with every stripe on his back for our healing and he covered the cost. He covered all of it. He covered all of our sins, all of our mistakes, past, present, future, all of it and he hung on the cross and he declared, it is finished. Three days later, he rose again. He is alive. He is seated at the right hand of our heavenly father and today, if you don't know him, if you don't have relationship with him, he is inviting you into this relationship and so I want to give you an opportunity to make that decision. If you're here, if you're at one of our campuses and today, you want to receive the gift of salvation. You want to receive the gift of eternity with your heavenly father in heaven and you want

to make Jesus Lord and savior of your life. I want to pray for you. So if you're here today, if you're at one of our campuses, would you raise your hand on the count of three, one, two, three. Lift your hand up. I see you. God sees you. That's the most important thing. He knows your heart. Thank you for lifting your hands. Would you join me and let's pray this prayer in our hearts as I pray it out loud. Jesus, thank you for coming close to me even when I did not deserve it. When I was turning my back on you, you still came and you died for me. God, thank you for being such a loving God that you would send your one and only son for me. Today, I receive the gift of salvation. Jesus, I ask that you would come in, come close to me, clean me up, purify me, forgive me of my sins and God, set me on a new path. Today I declare with my mouth and I believe in my heart, Jesus, that you are Lord. Thank you for a fresh start that I have in you today. In Jesus name, everybody said amen. Come on, let's celebrate all of those that made decisions for Christ today.