Neighbor Series: Who is my Neighbor? - Pastor Brad DeLong

Thankful for the presence of the Lord. He's been with us in such mighty way. I cannot think of a single service where we came in together, whether it was a Sunday or Wednesday, where I just felt like, well, the Lord's not here tonight. He's here every time we gathered together, whether we're really here or not. Uh me and Brother Fred greet each other, and I'd said good morning to him. I wasn't totally there in that moment, but the Lord's here, and I'm thankful that his presence is here. You can be seated. Thank you that you are here tonight. Welcome back to I would call our regularly scheduled services. Although we don't have regular services around here. It's kind of our thing and we like it that way.

But it is so good to come back together. We're going to dive into this uh we're going to do a three-week series over the next couple weeks. Many of you know that family day and uh Bishop mentioned that Fall Fest is coming. our connect group uh our connect groups rather are going to launch right around the corner later in the month of September. So, we thought it'd be helpful to talk about some personal evangelism, just lifestyle evangelism. Uh I know that sometimes we relegate this to a select group of elite soul winners, but I'm hoping to break that box tonight and we're going to talk about the title of this series is our neighbor series. Our neighbor series. We're going to begin with the question, my premise tonight. Who is my neighbor?

Pretty biblical question. And I think there's a a good answer for that. We're going to discover. Next week, we're going to talk about reaching neighbors at work and engaging in conversation with neighbors on the way. Uh the week after we're going to hear about nextdoor neighbors, those in our local community, reaching those in our immediate vicinity together. The hope is that we're going to be equipped for the work of ministry. This is such a vital work of ministry that we all need to be a part of. And I'm hoping that we'll be inspired enough over the next couple weeks to invite someone to come to church or maybe just to invite someone to talk about the Bible. You don't even have to have your chart. You can just have a Bible discussion.

My neighbor and I have had four Bible studies and he doesn't even know that. All right. They were about an hour long a piece. So I think that we could chalk that up to a Bible a Bible uh study just having engaging someone telling a testimony just inspired enough to plant some seed and sew some seeds. Such a critical topic. In fact I was talking to one of our national leaders here recently and they said that the only reason that they get to be in this truth is because someone brave this topic. Someone invited their parents to church and uh they are now leading a national department at headquarters. They're one generation removed from just absolute brokenness because someone invited them.

Someone invited their parents and now their their kids are leading uh hundreds and thousands of people in the same cause. It's just another reminder that our mission core value, it's not last or least on the the list of our priorities. It's fundamental. We're called to go and make disciples and we're going to discover that over the next couple weeks. With that in mind, we're going to talk about our neighbors as we prepare for Fall Fest and to invite others to connect with God and with his church. If we could just get out of this uh 20, 30, 50, even a hundred, I think that's doable. 100 people that at least give one invite. I'd be happy with that. And I don't know what the uh the return is on that.

How many uh actually come the the percentage of personal invites, but I know that personal invites are the most effective form of evangelism from what we can tell. So I think that would be a goal and then not even a a lofty goal. It's an attainable one. But together we're going to fulfill this great commission. I think that this question answering this question tonight is going to help us. Who is my neighbor? We know from scripture Jesus addressed and taught on this very concept. And before we get into his teachings, I want to look at another resource that is built on his teachings. It's a book called Everybody Always. Anyone ever read this book? Got a few. Everybody always been? Yeah.

Hopefully, uh, by the end of this you may be inspired to read it. Although I there's a spoiler alert, just heads up. Okay. The reason we're going to look here first is I I believe that the author has a profound perspective on who our neighbors are, who Jesus is talking about when he tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If you don't know the author, his name is Bob Goff. He's a a larger than-l life leader. He's a lawyer, an author, a Christian nonprofit organizer. He's written a bestseller or two about the love of God, loving our neighbors, what truly loving others as we love ourselves, what it actually looks like in our modern setting.

One of his premises in his book and in his life is he says we should love people even the difficult ones without distinction and without limits. Love people even the difficult ones without distinction without limits. Another writer said it like this. There is no one the disciple of Jesus need not love. There's no one the disciple of Jesus need not love. And the author, Goff, in particular, he's got some pretty incredible stories about how he goes about that and what this kind of love looks like. If you get a chance to read about him, I uh I encourage you to do that. But they'll give you a different lens and perspective on what truly loving others looks like and what and who those others and neighbors look like.

He does that in some ways by chipping away at our uh modern or maybe our American definition of neighbor. He broke my box uh when I read this book. Obviously, that term neighbor has a wide variety of of meanings. Probably the most notable in our culture is just the person who lives next door, the people who live next door. Of course, they're included. Those are our neighbors. But the Greek word that Jesus uses in in the concept that Goff expresses uh something similar, but something much broader. Jesus uses the word plesion, which just means someone near, someone nearby. He later would expand that understanding and we'll talk about that in a moment. So Jesus's idea of neighbor I believe is what Goff is getting at in his book.

As you walk through his pages, you see him giving examples of our neighbors. Everybody always that'll give you a hint who he thinks our neighbor is. And he says even, and I'll quote him, "Even creepy people." That's literally the title of his first chapter. All right? He says it's easy to love kind, lovely, and humble people who wouldn't love them. Jesus said something similar in Luke 6:32. He says, 'If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you So if you don't love those who love you, you're worse than a sinner. I guess he says, if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners, lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. That's hard. And your reward will be great, and you'll be sons of the most high, for he's kind to the unthankful. He's kind to the evil. Says, "Therefore, be merciful just as your father also is merciful." Goff continues in the same vein. He says, "Loving the people who are easy to love made me feel like I was really good at it." He says, "What I've come to realize though is I was avoiding the people I didn't understand and the ones who live differently than me.

Some of them," he says, his words, "they just creep me out." Later, he said though, he said, "I'd be nice and I'd be kind to them, but I avoided the same people Jesus came to engage in the ones Jesus came to save." He summarized what he believes are the core teachings of Jesus and that is to love everybody always and start with people that are different than we are. This is what he characterizes in the rest of his helpful book including one of the last stories that he shares. It blows my mind. He writes about it in a chapter. The chapter is called which doctors and witness stands? That ought to give you a little insight. I mentioned he's a lawyer.

He was in the right place at the right time to intervene in the first legal case involving a witch doctor in Uganda. A witch doctor who was facing the death penalty in court. This particular man had tremendous power. The witch doctors in in general had power in this region. This man was their leader and he had been caught performing a religious ceremony that involved brutalizing a kidnapped young boy. They kidnapped him and then did this uh horrific ceremony. Goff describes this man not as creepy. He says he's the most evil person I had ever seen. In fact, Goff describes they videotaped this trial for its historical implications. You can read about it.

And he said he had his uh his companion, his friend, his uh fellow employee was videotaping. And he said literally that witch doctor was in the seat and he looked up at the camera and he gazed at the camera and when he did the camera went blurry and the guy operating it was kind of just I mean he he didn't know what to do. He was he was pretty creeped out. Yeah. He lost his nerve. Says all this to say he said this man was the embodiment of darkness itself. Even the judge was afraid of him. The judge hired a small army of armed guards to keep his home safe from this man's followers. The judge eventually issued the first guilty conviction of a witch doctor in the nation of Uganda.

The young man he had harmed whose nickname was Charlie was now safe. That young man was the one who pointed out this man as the one who kidnapped him. And Goff wins the trial and eventually Charlie actually got to meet the president of Uganda. He got to meet the president of the United States. It was a big deal. It was a history making moment. But if it shows anything about G's character and and insatiable love for people, maybe a little bit about his his craziness, he says something unexpected started to happen after that. For some odd reason, he started to think and wonder about the witch doctor who had a name, a name Kabi.

He said, "Every fiber of my being wanted this man to rot in jail." He said, "But my heart felt dark when I thought about him. I felt far from God and I I didn't like that. He recalled the words of Jesus to his disciples. Jesus didn't just tell us to love our neighbors. He said, "You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies who also may be your neighbors." Some of you may have some enemies that are neighbors. Yeah. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven. You may recognize it. It's from the sermon on the mount.

It's a command of Jesus that will work us over. And that's what it did for Bob G. The same God who's not willing that anyone should perish, but all should come to repentance. That God started dealing with Bob Goff and with his heart. And if you read the entire book, it doesn't shock you to find out that the author didn't just think about Kabi. He went looking for him. He found him in what he describes as the scariest place on earth, a place people go to die, a maximum security facility in Uganda. It was originally built for only people on death row. Uh and he says he called, he said, "I want to go see this guy." And they said, "No." And then he tells him, "I am actually the honorary console for the Republic of Uganda. this guy is a big deal.

All right. He just walks into places and he becomes it's it's pretty amazing. And they said, "Okay, we'll let you in." He describes the scene of meeting this witch doctor, Kabby. Again, they meet in a very dark room. Naturally, KBI walks in and he says to his shock, he bows before Goff, who was skeptical of him, wondering, "Okay, what's he want?" Eventually, he says KBI actually apologized to him for what he had done to Charlie and to others. And he said he started to tell Goff his story, what it was like growing up in a community with his father being in the same occupation. That was all that he had known. Eventually, he tells Goff, he said, "I know that I'm going to die here.

What I really need is forgiveness." I pause here to say that most of our neighbors, which doctors are not, some of you might think that your neighbor is, but they've got the same need right now. their sins and ours. They may not be outlined in a book, but they are no less detrimental. They need forgiveness. They need deliverance. They're in a prison, a maximum security prison. It may not be a literal one, but they need somebody to walk into that prison and to meet with them and to share truth with them. I also say that even people like Kabie, they're still people. Where we get in trouble is when we view them as less than people. They are the same people Jesus died for. It may shock us to hear it.

It shocked me the first time I heard it, but Jesus loves them as much as he loves us. He loves the worst of the worst just like he loves us. As dark as their deeds in life may be, light can still shine into darkness and darkness cannot comprehend it. And you can and may be that light yourself and you'll find that people are far less evil when you look them in the eyes and you have a real and actual conversation with them. You might see them on Facebook and paint them as the enemy. And it could be that that person if you actually talk to them, they may be under their gruff exterior, broken and hurting and actually kind and loving. Eventually, this is what Goff found out. And this is what he did.

He discovered that Kabi was already a changed man by the time he got to him. Despite all the evil he had done, he told Goff that he said, "I want to put my faith and my life in the hands of the God that he had opposed and the one that he now pursued. He wanted to follow Jesus." Goff would later travel back and forth to Uganda. He went several times to meet with this enemy turned disciple and now brother Kabby. Eventually, it got to the point where Kabi became a co-labor as well, believe it or not. Goff asked the warden of the prison.

He said, "Hey, can we get everybody together and let this guy share his testimony?" And the warden's like, "No." Like like, "No, we're not going to do that." Of all places, though, I mean, this this place has to be the place where no light of God can shine, right? A maximum security potentially full of murderers and the worst of the worst. This is the place where he said men go to die. But God and Goff knew better. And Goff being as persuasive as he is. A few months later, he's standing with Kabi and he has uh Gooff's own son in the courtyard of the prison. They're holding hands together. He says, "I listened while KBI told 3,000 dying men about the new life that started with Jesus. He spoke for 30 minutes.

He said he butchered the gospel message." He said he barely got anything right. He said, 'I was beginning to wonder if he actually believed in Jesus, you know. But here's what he said. He said, 'Everone in that place knew who that man was and what he had done. And more than a few knew that Gooff was the man who put him there. Our standing in the courtyard together, not as enemies, but his brothers, filled in all the words that KBI messed up. In the end, he said, after Kabie spoke, hundreds of inmates came forward and they responded to that imperfect gospel message. But that obviously changed life. The worst criminals in the country were reached by a member of the rough crowd and someone golf never expect to preach a sermon about Christ.

Fast forward a couple years in golf still trying to live out this great commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, even the ones who are different from us. He's traveled across Uganda uh with active witch doctors. He meets with them. He he's met with several thousand of them. He's warned them. He's told them about their behavior. He's told them, "If you keep this up, I'm coming after you." And he's educated them on the laws. He's shared some tough truths and tough love with them. And shortly at after he talks to them and tries to scare them a little bit, he says, "My pattern is to ask, can I wash your feet?" And they usually let him. And he's done it in most villages. And he's bridged a gap that would have seemed impossible to bridge.

As of his writing in 2018, he started a school for these men in particular. It has two textbooks, the Bible and of course naturally his best-selling book on the love of God. He's so enveloped in that kind of love that Jesus taught about he actually borrowed the fingerprints. Can you put that picture up, brother Jason? He borrowed the fingerprints of all of these witch doctors and that have been through his school and he put them on the cover of his book so they could be a part of what God was doing. Who is my neighbor? KBBY really according to golf and I would say Jesus. Yes.

Now I know that we're not all Bob Goff and you can poke holes in his methods and approach and theology, all the things, but it's difficult to argue with his obedience to this critical command of Christ to love others like we love ourselves. If that seems radical at all, it does in some ways to start a school for evil men to befriend a witch doctor. I want you to listen to Jesus's response to the question that we first started with tonight. Who's my neighbor? Luke 10:25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Jesus, saying, "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus says, "What's written in the law?

What's your reading of it?" He answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." They knew. This man knew. This is uh Luke 10:25, by the way. This man knew the law. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, "You answered rightly. Do this and you'll live." But the lawyer pressed the issue. It says he wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Now, we could all armchair this guy and criticize him for wanting to to just show his piety or weasle his way out of loving others. Uh I I I think we we probably do that from time to time. I do. But I find myself also trying to justify myself all the time.

Maybe I know the law just like he did. I know I've got to love others and and I think that I'm doing enough. And then I read scripture and I'd read books from men like Bob Goff and realize I'm not there yet. I'm not attained just yet. Scribe found out the same. That day Jesus answered and said, he didn't give him a straight answer. Who's my neighbor? He says, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among thieves. He stripped him of his clothing. They wounded him and departed. They left him half dead. By chance, a certain priest came down the road, and when he saw him, passed by on the other side." Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan Kobby as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him. He bandaged his wounds. He put oil and wine on him. Set him on his own animal. Brought him to an end. Took care of him. On the next day when he departed, he took out two dinari. He gave them to the inkeeper. He said to him, "Take care of him and whatever more you spend when I come, I'm going to repay you." Jesus says, "So which of these three you think was neighbor to him who fell among thieves?" The lawyer said, "The one who showed mercy on him." Jesus said to him, "Go and do thou likewise." Obviously, this this passage is loaded with meaning.

The reason I pair it with God's story is because it's just as stark as a Christian lawyer befriending a murderous witch doctor. I want to get into this for the next couple minutes together and I want to answer this foundational question. Give you a little more of an answer by reading a few notes from a couple scholars on this passage. Notes you might miss if you just gloss over it and read it like I just did. I noted first of all the lawyer asked that initial question. He's trying to justify himself and he pushes the envelope. He got an answer and then he goes on to ask, "Okay, well who's my neighbor?" He saw, okay, it means more than just the man next door. But he wanted to know how much more is my neighbor.

The reason he might have asked this is there were different ideas among Jews on this point. They all seemed to be confined only to the nation of Israel. The idea of love towards mankind really hadn't reached them yet. And Jesus was intent to build on their understanding. He was going to break their box in some ways or just broaden the horizon. So they knew from Leviticus 19:18, that's the the law that the lawyer quoted. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. They they knew this law. Some argue though that their understanding of their neighbor was just limited to their own countrymen, maybe even to foreigners who came in the land.

Their understanding was limited in some ways to their proximity. Oh, it's just my next door neighbor. We need to get that out of our minds. Break that box right now. They are your neighbor, but there's so much more to it that if they're nearby, if they're of the same nation, lineage, culture, context, that's my neighbor. I love that person. But the scribe wasn't ready for Jesus to expand what it meant to love your neighbor. Here, I want to read an excerpt directly from an author named Leon Morris. He breaks down this story in an interesting way. He said Jesus didn't answer the question directly. He tells a story. This is kind of what he does. The traveler in the story is clearly a Jew, but he doesn't put any stress on that.

He's called a man. It's the need of the neighbor. It's not his nationality that's important. Jesus right here starts breaking the box. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho goes down a pretty steep descent through some desolate country. It's about 17 miles and it drops about 3,000 ft. Pretty wild territory. It's a place where robbers might have been safe. And and notice Jesus doesn't say they robbed him. That's kind of understood. He concentrates on their violence towards this man that they beat him and they left him half dead. They're brutal. They're not just uh robbing him. They're beating him in the process. And it happens that a priest comes by while he's still lying there.

I had never thought of this before, but the priest may have been on his way to perform a priestly role or duty. and he sees that the man is half dead and he probably would not have been able to ascertain, okay, is he alive without touching him. And if he's dead and he touches him, at that point he becomes ceremonially unclean. If he's heading to do his job and he touches a a a dead man, he's got to purify himself and he's negated from that role at least for a time. So there seemed to at least be some sort of legitimate reason for him not to. And he has two laws uh somewhat competing. The the law to be ceremonially clean, the law to help your fellow Israelite, and he chooses ceremonial purity. And then the Levite probably has the same reason.

I think it's notable to just stop and think there usually are legitimate reasons for us passing on the other side of the road. Now, I don't think any of us are just like, I just hate that person. I don't ever want to talk to them. I don't ever want to interact with him. It's just inconvenient, isn't it? Ceremonially unclean for the next seven days. That's inconvenient. And he makes note that they passed on the other side of the road. They're like, I'm not even going to chance that. We're going to move on. Leon Moore says at this point they're probably expecting Jesus to introduce a Israelite layman, someone who's not clergy or or clerical rather, someone who who wouldn't have been under the same restriction.

Instead, he says, "And then there's a Samaritan which would have been like there's a bitterness, there's a rivalry, there's somewhat of a hatred between these two groups." And Jesus introduces the character that no one probably saw coming. It's devastating. There's this rivalry and the Samaritan was the last person who might have been expected to help like Goff and the witch doctor. But this man had compassion on the sufferer. I need you to notice this. The other two passed by. They drew away from the man on the other side of the road. Again, probably had legitimate reasons. Don't we all? Jesus mentions emphatically in verse 33, the Samaritan instead, the phrase in New King James is came to where he was.

The original language though is that he he went down to where he was. He stooped down. Many point out that this is a Jesus-like characteristic. Jesus came, made himself of no reputation, became obedient even to the point of death. He stooped down and came to where we are. He met this man in his brokenness at his lowest point. Jesus is intentional with his words. And then he uses the word compassion. Same word used when Jesus was moved with compassion for the lost. One source defined that word as to be moved with compassion or pity to have a deep visceral feeling of empathy and care. When Jesus sees those sheep without a shepherd, he's moved by it. says that it's often described as being moved in one's gut.

It it signifies a profound and almost physical reaction to another's suffering. It prompts a desire to help. He's moved in the same way Jesus is moved with compassion. Or says he tended to him as best he could. He he expends his own wine, his own olive, puts the man on his own transportation, which means he has to walk. Takes him to an end. It doesn't just get him to safety. doesn't just get him to the sanctuary, but make sure he's taken care of while he's there. And it's one thing just to get him to the house of God, just an aside. Another thing to continue to care for them until their brokenness is ease and they're healed. And then he spends his own money. Jesus is just painting this picture. He is laying it on thick.

Spends two months uh worth of of uh in expenses for this man. And he says, "If he goes over, you let me know. I'm coming back through. I'm going to pay for him." Point taken. Jesus. Jesus did not answer the lawyer's question, but asked him, "Which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" The answer is not in doubt. Jesus drove home the point with the command, "You go and do likewise." The man had asked Jesus, "Who's my neighbor?" But Jesus faced him with the question, "To whom are you a neighbor? Who would I be willing to consider my neighbor? I should love them. Whatever box or parameters we and the scribe put on the word neighbor, Jesus, I believe, shatters it.

With this parable in mind, some have contended, a neighbor, your neighbor is anybody in need. A neighbor is a fellow man, a fellow woman. A neighbor is anyone in your proximity. The Greek definition would just be someone nearby. Or a neighbor is everybody always. Jesus, by the way, the he lived and and he taught, he loved, and he made neighbors of the following. I want you to notice this. He made neighbors of a troubled Samaritan woman, tax collectors, gruff fishermen, lepers, Pharisees like Nicodemus, zealots, scribes, a demoniac, a prostitute, an occupying Roman soldier, a woman caught in adultery, a thief who ridiculed him on the cross, a disciple who would betray him shortly after he washed his feet, and even his murderers and enemies.

and those who spitefully used him. If these were Jesus's neighbors, they are also ours. Someone in your proximity, anyone in your proximity. It includes the person who cuts you off in traffic. I had a guy, I don't know what in the world happened. I put my blinker on trying to get over and he wasn't pulling up and I didn't want to cut him off. So, I just waited and he finally pulled up next to me and he looked out the window at me. This was uh Sunday after church. He looks at me, tells me to get behind him. I'm like, I was planning on that. I just That's why I put my blinker on. That's my neighbor. That's the member of your HOA that keeps calling on you in your tall grass. That's your neighbor, literally.

But the co-workers had a rough time of late and is making waves in the office. The family member that hurt you and wounded you behind your back. It includes Kyle who was sitting on our picnic table the other night needing a rest while he was walking to work. It includes the man who regularly sleeps on the same table someday. It includes a guy who rode up to me on his bicycle a couple months ago on a Friday afternoon. The kids were playing out front. He came up and stood in front of my driveway. This highway noise. He yells out, "Hey Moj with a cat." I said, "What? Hey man, what a cat." Oh man. So, I get up, I go over, I said, "Hey, what's going on, man?" He had a bag on his back.

He said, "I just want to see if you want this cat." And there it was. It looked scared to death. I will say this carefully. Well, I I just I got bold. I I asked. I said, "Where'd you get that cat?" He say, "It's my cat." He didn't really answer the question. The cat looked like it didn't know him. He said, "I just want to see if you want this cat." I said, "No, I don't want that cat." He said, "Okay." He took off down Barracks. I sat down as he drove off and rode off and I thought, "These are my people. That's my neighbor, the South County cat contractor or burglar. My I regret honestly to this day I regret I didn't get his name.

I said, "No, I don't want that cat, but why don't you come to church?" You know, that would have been a weird segue, but I need to love this man. as I love myself. It's not just acknowledging that that's my neighbor. We're called to love that person with our entire being. And this has convicted me of late. Matthew 22 says, "The Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. They gathered together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question. He test Jesus, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. Jesus says to him without skipping a beat. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. It's the first and great commandment. And the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This was a common question in this day and age. And Jesus, even in the original language, pairs these two together. They're inextricably tied. Craig Kener says he uses a common phrase. The English is and you shall love. And I'll butcher the Hebrew, but theya same opening phrase. Jesus puts these pretty close to on par with one another. They share the same phrase and Jesus ties them together in this language. He he uses that on purpose. He shows how intricately they're tied together. And and later he would say, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Which ones? probably the two that Jesus says these are the top two.

There's 613 that they guesstimate commandments and Jesus says he puts a hierarchy on his own commandments on his own laws and says these are the top two you better do these on these two hang all the law and the prophets which is another way of saying the entire Old Testament hangs on all the 611 other commands hang on these. You better love your neighbor. Says this commandment to love God and love our neighbors is so important. Deuteronomy 6 and five of course we know they recite it every day to love the Lord with all of our being. And the image is to love him with your whole person. So love God with your entire being and person. If I could just say it like this, love your neighbor as well.

Love the guy riding on a bike with a cat in his bag. Love him with all your being and all your person. Love him as you love yourself. Love him like you should love your own self. Take care of him or her like you would yourself. Honor them like you'd want to be honored. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. We call that the golden rule in the kingdom. James would call it the royal law. Paul talks about in the context of marriage. But I want you to notice this. He says, "No one ever hated his own flesh, but cherishes and nourishes it just as the Lord does the church." So if you love yourself like you should, you'll nourish yourself. You'll cherish yourself. What does loving your neighbor as yourself looks like?

It looks like showing them the same compassion and nourishment, kindness, respect, and love you'd want to be shown yourself. It's loving them like you love your own. Loving them like you love God with all of your being. It's having a love for souls that consumes your heart and your mind and your strength that you can't go a day or two or three without thinking about somebody that's lost. I know that might seem wild, but if I can't go a day or two, and I shouldn't without thinking about God, I should also be thinking about my neighbor. Loving someone enough not to pass them on the road, go the other side in their brokenness, but stopping and stooping, coming down to them like Christ did for us.

Pick them up, care for them, make sure their future is different than their past and present. On this hangs all the law and the prophets and our entire value, core value of mission hangs on this. The truth is our love for others, for neighbors, for people. It's the entire foundation for the mission that Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:19. We know that God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whoever believe in him would not perish but have ever everlasting life. Jesus loves them unconditionally. And he calls for us to do the same. And it's the baseline for everything we do, church, for one another and for others. And we've got to love others.

This type of love and these neighbors we're discussing tonight, this love drives everything we do as a church. Without that love, I'm telling you, we will rarely be on mission. We may do it out of compulsion because pastor asked us to text somebody or we got special events or or it comes front of mind again and oh man, I've been meaning to talk to that person and and that happens to me all the time. But when we really love others like we're called to in front of us regularly. We're looking for them regularly. We're on mission regularly. And tonight, my hope is we gain such a love for souls that it changes even our routines. It will drive us to our neighbors, all of them.

I obviously have had the advantage of knowing what I was going to teach tonight, but I've experienced this in recent weeks, just this change in mindset and perspective. The Lord's just helped me to grow. It started last Wednesday. I was talking to Keith and Robin at Mila's school. They found out I've known Robin for a year. I don't go around telling everybody my occupation. Hi, I'm Brad. I'm, you know, Robin found out I was a pastor. And she said, "What what church do you pastor?" I said, "Apos Pentecostal Church." And her husband, Keith, he said, "Honey, these are real Pentecostals." We talked for about 45 minutes and I'm hoping I convince them to come for a visit soon. I got to the office, I was fired up. I was ready to go reach everybody.

Christy noted that. She said, "You were probably just am." Oh, I was. I was ready. But let me just say this, okay? You could chalk that up to extraversion. And you could, well, you're a pastor and this is But but I'm telling you, there are few things more fulfilling than talking to someone and planting a seed in their life. And you don't even have to be an extrovert. Now, it helps, but anybody can have a conversation with someone. you can have a conversation with somebody. Paul says all of us are ambassadors. He talks about this in 2 Corinthians 5. And I want you to notice. He says, "The love of Christ compels us." That's the love had me fired up that Wednesday. It was the one that was pushing me further on Friday. I'm coming to a close.

Friday rolled around. I ran into Antonio at Aldi. He's collecting shopping carts for extra quarters. He's so kind. He walked up to me. He said, "Sir, would you mind if I took your cart?" And I knew he was needing the quarter out. I said, "Absolutely. Yeah, go ahead." And he's gathering cards together. And I said, he had a a pen and paper in his hand or pin pad and I said, "Hey, are you getting signatures or what are you what do you got there? Is that a drawing?" And I mean, he lit up. He's like, "I'm an artist." And he opens his book and I wish I brought that picture tonight. I think it's uh in our living room, but opens his book and he's showing me and he was he was good. I didn't know half of what I was looking at, but he was good stuff.

Like I could tell he's talented. I said, "Man, that's awesome. That's great." And I didn't have any cash on me or anything. I I get in the van and Mariah's sitting there and something in me all I can when I read about that compassion that that visceral rea that that physical feeling I told Mariah I said I I've got to talk to this guy. I need to help him in some way. She said, "Go for it." All right. Hop out of the car. I said, "Antonio." I said, "Hey, let me buy one of your pictures, man. I don't have any cash. You got Venmo. You got Cash App. You got" And he said, "Someone stole my phone." Ah, man. Okay.

He said, "You don't have to pay for it, though." He said, "I want to give you one." And now I'm like, "No, I gotta I got to do something now." You know? I said, 'How can I find you? And he gives me an Instagram handle and and told I said, "I got to figure something out." So me and Wesley went down, ran ran to the store, picked up a a pay you go phone. Ran back up to Aldi. He's gone. We're driving down Limay looking for Antonio. I'm looking at bus stops. I'm looking I still haven't found him. I prayed before service. Lord, you know where he is. Help me find Antonio. I rarely feel more like Jesus than when I'm looking for someone who's lost. I heard brother Park say this.

The only thing worse than being lost is being lost with no one looking for you. The only thing worse than not feeling like you got someone who will love you as a neighbor is having someone who is your neighbor but is yet to show you the love of God or never will. We've got what they are looking for. And I often I so often forget this. We've got what they're looking for. They are our neighbors and they are our responsibility. As we come to a close tonight, I quote brother Terry Black. He said, "Love people. Don't expect anything in return. Love them anyway." Love people. Don't expect anyone in return. Love them anyway. Who is my neighbor? How should I love them?

Your neighbor, I would say, is everybody always Your neighbor's the guy who sleeps on our picnic table. Your neighbor might be a witch doctor. Love them as you love yourself. This is such a critical command and I feel the Lord stirring our hearts to help us. I want us to stand right now. And I need to pray it as much or more as any of us in the room that the Lord would really help me fulfill this command the way that he's intended. I wonder if you join me right now. Would you lift your voice and ask for the Lord's help, oh God, you've given us a clear command. We know our neighbors, Lord. There are those in our vicinity. There are men and women in need. There are men and women who need our help, Lord.

And we've heard your your word loud and clear. And we see examples and testimonies of it, oh God. I pray that you'd help this to be top of mind and and on the front burner, not on the back burner, that we wouldn't put this second and great command to love those in the the church family, even to love those around us and outside of these walls as we love ourselves. I pray that you'd help us to sear this in our hearts and help me to truly live it. I want to love you uh every day with all my being, but I also want to love my neighbor every day with all of my being. even the difficult ones, even the ones I don't understand, even the ones that oppose my way of thinking and way of life.

I pray that you'd help me to love them as you would to follow the Holy Ghost. And I pray that you'd help me find Antonio in Jesus name I pray. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. I felt the Lord stirring in this. And again, my hope is that we would do better than sending a text message out and that's wonderful. I don't diminish that. We should be inviting people and I use that as a medium if I can't see him in person. But maybe, just maybe, tomorrow this will click or maybe tonight it'll click and maybe you'll run by Taco Bell and you'll find someone who needs a gospel like Brian did and see him baptized a few months later. They're out there and they're our responsibility. We can do this.

we can reach them and the Lord's going to help us to do that.