Who Is My Neighbor?

Want to go to Luke chapter 2 as you make your way to your seats. main standing — I'm just going to read a couple of passages of Scripture, a couple verses, and you can take your seat.

Luke 2: you know, that very first Christmas, God sent His angels to make an announcement — not to the king, not to the palace, but to some shepherds. And says, "Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over the flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to themo not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.'"

For a little while today, before we take the Lord's communion, I want to preach "Who Is My Neighbor?" Hopefully I can make this make sense in just a minute, the way I feel like God laid it in my heart. But will you help me pray that God will be with us for the remainder of the service?

God, I'm so thankful Your presence is real and near and close to us today. God, I'm thankful for what You did so long ago, coming as a little baby in a manger. I pray today, in this moment, Lord, that we could receive what You have for us. Anoint our minds to receive Your Word, which is already anointed. God, I pray that You fulfill Your purpose in this place today, in Jesus' name. Let everybody say, "Amen." Amen.

Merry Christmas. You can be seated. Good to be here with us. We only have one more Sunday that we'll meet together in this room for the year, and that'll be the last Sunday, and we will have worship service only that day. And Kendra Shock is going to be speaking, so she is mightily used to the Lord. I know a lot of our young people enjoy Kendra. She's actually speaking at HYC, and then we were blessed enough that she was able to stay over and be with us for our service as well, so we're looking forward to that.

But today, in the passage I was reading there, I have, in my ministry time, spent several weeks — months at this point — of just diving into the Word of God and trying to allow Him to lead me and guide me through His Word so that I could see what you don't usually automatically see just by reading. And what I mean by that is, as you read through the stories that are there, and the Scriptures, for you and I to glean from, sometimes they can become very familiar to us. And as we read through them, because we have read them so many times, we can sometimes miss little subtle things that are there just because we go into autopilot mode. We've read the story, we have memorized verses, and I don't know if anybody besides me is guilty — that if you're not careful, just not something that you're intentionally doing, you just tend to skim through a familiar passage, especially one that maybe you spent some time reflecting on in the past. Anybody else ever do that?

So when it comes to these stories in Luke and Matthew talking about the birth of Jesus Christ, I mentioned in life class today, as I was teaching over there, that I purposely — unless the Lord directs me — I purposely don't spend a lot of time throughout the year in those chapters, so that when it comes the time for the Advent season and Christmas time, that I can go back in with fresh eyes and revisit those stories and see if the Lord just speaks to me sometimes in a different way. And as I was doing that, preparing for the messages for December, and was specifically thinking about today and our communion service, and was honestly — in my being transparent with he — was asking, "Lord, would You give me a little something different today?" You know, there's only so many ways that you can wad him up in that manger, so many ways that you can talk about the suffering that Mary went through and Joseph.

So as I was there and was reading through this, this word jumped out at me in the verses that I read to you, and that one word is there — is the word "all." "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people." I want to focus for a little while on that "all people."

But I'm going to do something that is going to seem like it comes out of left field a little bit here — a little different view — as I take you to another very, very familiar story in the Scripture. And you may be saying, "Pastor Kevin, what are you doing? Like, how does this — what does this have to do with Christmas?" Well, I wish you would just be patient with me and give me just a little bit of time, and allow me to hopefully tie it all really nice, up in a nice little Christmas bow for you, and hope it makes sense.

But as I was thinking about this, and that word "all" speaking out to me, I'm I'm want to talk about the story that's in Luke 10. And it's something that I feel like is a story that we've all heard and felt before — we're at least familiar with what we would consider to be the main character, or the title character, that's there in the story. But it's, I feel like, lost a little bit of its sting and zeal and pizzazz over the years. It's become so familiar that even people that don't attend church on a regular basis, or maybe have never, ever darkened the door of a church building or a religious place, there there's somewhat familiar with this story. But what I would like to do is maybe bring it back to what I feel like would be its original intent and purpose, as Jesus was telling the story there in Luke 10:25.

It says, "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And He said to him, 'What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?' So he answered and said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all of your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' And He said to him, 'You have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.'"

So Jesus said, "You know what? That's a good answer. I like your response. Do that right there, and you're going to live."

Now, the next verse is interesting, and I feel like many of us probably have never really just stopped and marinated in the verse. So draw your attention — 29. He said, "But he, wanting to justify himself..." That's interesting phrasing, isn't it? I would feel like I would be a pretty happy person if Jesus asked me a question and I was able to respond, and He said, "Yes, do that." I feel like in that moment I would be like — He didn't correct me at all. He didn't say, "That's pretty good, but you may want to add to it, this or that." No. But we see here that he, wanting to justify — justify what? He said, "You answered right." But we see there's something else underlying in this man's question. He wasn't satisfied that Jesus had simply said, "You know what? You got a good grasp on this. I like your answer. Go and do that, and you will live." But he says — wanting to just, he said to Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

And it was that question that prompted the story that I feel to bring to us today, here on this Christmas communion Sunday. We see him come in with a very legitimate question. I feel like it's something that we all, at one time or another, have probably thought about or even asked: "How do I inherit eternal life?" — knowing that there's something more than just the now, something more than just this world, something bigger than me. And he goes in, but wanting to justify himself, after the neighbor, he asks a very powerful question: "Who is my neighbor?" To me, I feel like that's a pretty broad category, broad question that's being asked there: "Who is it, basically, that God wants me to love? Who is it that I'm supposed to love like I love me?" That would be something I need to know. That's what he wants to do — he's asking the question.

Now, you may be thinking — well, for those of you who know how the story goes, the familiar passage, you know the answer. You're super sharp and you already jumped to the end. But he's not there yet. He hadn't got the response. Why is he asking? What's he looking for? Because whether you know this or not, there was actually a pretty big debate going on, a well-known discussion during that time that Jesus was walking. Here's the backdrop to it: it's Leviticus 19, verse number 17, where this command comes from: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him."

Now, the rabbis looked at that and they said, "Well, obviously my brother is my neighbor, because he's in the text. And obviously our people are my neighbor, because that's in the text." But then there was some debate on, what about the others? What about people that fall into the other category? What about the people from outside our tribes? What about the people that are outside our country, that are outside our family — the people that are outside, that they're not a part of our religion, they're not a part of us, they're the people that are not converts? Some some was saying that they did count on neighbors, but others disagree. Other rabbis during that time said, "No, that falls outside the scope." And we can see that that had some impact, because there was a lot of division when Jesus showed up.

I was teaching over in life class this morning, talking about Him being born into a world to come and feel what we feel. And He showed up into a broken mess of humanity, and I'm thankful for that — and I'm going to retach that lesson. But springboarding off of that, Jesus showed up and the world was a mess. The world was full of division and hurt and pain, and full of labels and brokenness all around. And in the middle of all this, they were having a debate, based off of law, based off of Scriptures, as "Who's my neighbor? Who do I actually have to care about? Or who are the people that I can say, 'Away with you'?" And they they they like that, because there were some people, because of who they were, or what they had been labeled as, or what they had been born in too, that they considered them to be nothing.

So the lawyer who comes up and is asking the question — and should have just been happy with the fact that Jesus said, "You're doing good; I like your response" — but wanting to prove himself, wanting to justify himself, wanting better qualification off of this: "I want to know who I really got to care about, and who I can walk away from."

And what I feel is important for us today, during this Christmas time time, is to not be so caught up and captivated in the tinel and the lights and the presence and all the stuff that's there — is great, and I've said it past couple of Sundays: enjoy all those things. But don't lose sight of your spiritual temperature and find yourself in a spot where God can't speak to you, that maybe there's some areas of your life that you need to pay attention to. Because it's easy during this time to gather around with your family and your close friends, and the ones that you invite specifically to come and show up, and then through the invitation list that was very detailed and specific, you think life is grand, and life is good, and we're here, and we're celebrating the fact that Jesus was born, and everything. And there's not anything necessarily wrong with any of that — unless it is masking something deeper wrong inside of you. CU I feel like we got to be really careful with who we include and who we exclude. That's what's going on right here.

And I feel this is really, really important, because today, when I wrap things up here in just a few minutes, we're going to partake of the Lord's Supper, and we have to be right before we do that. We have to examine ourself. And what I want to draw our attention to was, this guy was coming in to qualify some things. And I feel like God directed my attention to bring to us today, to make sure that we also are examining oursel, to make sure that there's not people we are leaving out that we should actually be bringing in.

So the story unfolds. And fundamental to the story that Jesus is about to tell — and I'm just going to say this from the get-go — this story got Him in a lot of trouble. I love that Jesus used stories. I love preachers and teachers that use stories; they my favorite preachers and teachers. If you got a story to tell, I want to hear your story. So Jesus loved to tell stories, and by telling stories He pulled you in. Something about those stories, you just related to. Even after all these years — 2,000-plus years ago He told the stories, yet here we are, 2,000 years later, and we're still reading these stories. And in the story we put oursel there.

So He's about to tell a story, but this story lands Him in a whole lot of trouble. end of this story is something that's referred to by storytellers as a rule of three. There are three main characters to this kind of story. The first thing is, the first character that shows up, the first one that's being described, is someone who does something — it can be random. But the second person, or the second guy that shows up in the story, repeats a very similar process, and now we have a pattern. And then that's all a setup for the third guy to come in, and he's going to do something that's so out of character from the first two that it has a way of sticking with you, or zinging to you. A lot of people use this kind of thing when they tell jokes — we've heard jokes, right? You know, a blonde and a brunette and a redhead have a conversation; a priest and a minister and rabbi, they get a new car. If you need somebody to help you with that threepers part, if you'll find a resident jokester, Lpan — I'm quite sure he has an abundance of three-party jokes that he can help walk you through.

But what we see here was not a joke. What we see here is Jesus intentionally using this rule of three to bring into focus a principle that was being missed in that day.

So let's pick up in Luke 10:31. "Now by chance" — Jesus telling the story — "a certain priest came down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion."

Now, what we see here in this story was the fact that there was a man walking down the road, and he got robbed. He was coming from Jericho. We don't know what he was going to do; we don't know where he had been. All we know is he's on this road — if you read the chapter — and he says he fell among thieves, and they stripped him, and they robbed him, and they left him beaten, naked, and ashamed. He was all the stuff there.

Now, in this story, now we see three characters that enter in: there was a priest, there was a Levite, and there was a Samaritan here. So on this stretch of road — this was a real narrative that the people that are listening to the story can get their heads around. Now remember, the story was prompted by the asking of a question. What was the question asked? "Who's my neighbor?" Who my neighbor was, was asked because Jesus said that you need to be sure you submit yourself to God, but the guy wanted to justify himself, wanted to know, "Who is my neighbor?" — wanting to really know, "Who is it that I am responsible for, and who is it I'm not responsible for?" That question prompted this story.

A man fell among thieves. He was robbed, he was beaten, he was stripped, he was left for dead. And in this circumstance, three people passed by him. Again, he's answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Now, for them, this story would have been something, again, that they could grasp a hold on: who is it, basically, that's going to help this person out? Who's to help this guy out?

Well, one possibility to me would have been pretty obvious, because you see that the priest is coming by — he should have been able to help him. But we see that he doesn't. Instead, he acts in quite a different way than maybe you and I would have thought. He simply passes him over.

Now, one thing about priests — and again, I've done quite a bit of homework on this — most of the priests usually were doing okay. Now, some of those who been out in the local outline areas, maybe not so well, but the ones from Jericho especially. Priest — and we at least have this indication that he was coming from Jericho — he probably wasn't even walking; he probably was riding a donkey. And this road that they're on — and I had to paint this picture — this isn't like you and I thinking about I-24 out here, you know, now as we go into Nashville, and we have four and five lanes on one side, and four, five there — 10 lanes, and you HOV lanes and all this stuff — and you think, "Well, if the guy was on the far side over there, and he was on the other side riding his donkey, he probably just missed him." No — I promise you, this road would have been such that if he was riding a donkey, the donkey would have had to stepped over the guy. Again, he's telling the story that was so relatable to them; they could feel the story. But the priest doesn't do that.

Now, what was the reason? Why did the priest not stop? Why is it that he wouldn't pay him any attention? Well, you know, maybe he didn't want to cause himself to become unclean, because he's a priest, right? Whether you know this or not, according to the law of the time, that if you touched a dead body, then you yourself became unclean. And maybe he's like, "I still got things I got to do. I got to work in the temple later, and I don't want to do that, because it's a whole big drawn-out process to get back to where I'm in a state of cleanliness to be used." So maybe that was it. Maybe that's what's on his mind, is, "I don't want to — " I want to get over there. And we see this indication.

Now, what in the story we see is, there's a lot of specific details that are being given to us for a reason. In case you didn't know, rule number one in the written law that would make them impure is any contact with the corpse. Rule number two in the oral law — because they had written in oral law — to make you impure, with the priest, is if you had contact with a Gentile. He doesn't know who's there. He just knows there's a man who fell among thieves. And in the brilliance of this story, how's he going to identify whether he's in the club or out of the club? Now, had he been clothed, he could have told by his attire of whether or not he was in the club. But the brilliance of Jesus telling the story is, he fell among thieves and he was bitten — or bitten, maybe bitten — he was beaten, stricken, stripped, everything. I lost y'all on the bit, didn't I? There's crazy stuff that goes on. He was in a bad way, I'll just put it that. But he had no way of indicating whether or not he was in. He would have had to have gone over and done a more detailed examination to see if he was part of the club. I'm going to leave that right there, not go into a whole lot explanations, but most of you Bible followers know that there would have been a sign that he could have followed, but that would have required him doing a more diligent search of the body. But he doesn't do this. Again, brilliant story, because Jesus is a brilliant storyteller, and we see that he simply passes by.

So God number one does it. God number two, though — we see this. Now, the term — don't let me skip over this point too — it also says that he was half dead. So maybe he could have touched him if he wasn't fully dead. But he doesn't know. Half dead was actually a technical term, and priests were used to declare whether or not he was there. Anybody — I know I'm going to lose some people right now. Look at your neighbor and say, "Hang on."

There is this really goofy movie called The Princess Bride. And in the movie, the hero's name is Wesley, and at some point Wesley's there, and it is under the appearance that he is actually dead. But he has to come and they bring him to see if he's really dead before Miracle Max. And Miracle Max says, and I quote, "He is not all dead. He is only mostly dead." He's mostly dead, so he's a little alive. That's kind of like what's going on in this situation right here. It said he's half dead.

Now, some of you like, "How in the world did Pastor Kevin bring Princess Bride into a spiritual moment on Christmas communion?" We will all ask for forgiveness in a minute before we partake of the Lord's Supper. My point for bringing it up was to say that half dead was technical term, but the only way the priest could have determined that, he would had to have touched him. So he passes by.

So guy number one in the story does that. Luke 10, verse number 32, says, "Likewise the Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side." Passed by on the other side. This is one of those same stories that follows the rule of three: the first guy does something — it could be random; the second guy comes and does the same thing, and now we have a pattern.

Now, the Levite — maybe he was of the tribe of Levi, we know that, and know they were responsible for being a part of the temple work. Maybe he was doing this. Maybe he was in the same kind of boat that the priest was in, like, "I can't do this. If I go over there — you know, he looks like he's dead, but he may only be half dead — but I can't get involved in it. If I do, I become unclean, circumstantially. I don't know that I can position myself to be of any help or benefit, because if I do that, it may have a bigger impact in my life than I'm willing to take, so I'll just simply pass by on the other side."

Maybe he seen the priest from a distance. Maybe he was just far enough back that he didn't know what was going on, but yet he was close enough to see that the priest paid no attention; he kept walking. And he thought to himself, "Well, you know what? I'm not going to bother either." Whatever the reason is, the information that we're given is: two have seen the same thing. Two seen somebody hurt. Two seen somebody what appeared to even be dead — obviously some terrible circumstances has occurred in their life — yet two people have walked by.

Now remember, what is this story being told for? "Who is my neighbor?" And then we get up to the point, and the crowd listen to the story, they're okay with this, because they're actually enjoying this. They know the question that was asked; they're listening to the story; it's a relatable story; they can identify with the story. They're not upset that the priest and the Levite walk by. They're not upset at all. They're thinking, "Okay, I probably would do the same thing. We're fixing to find out who our neighbor is. Obviously that guy's not a neighbor, because we're walking right on by him."

But here comes the third. Here comes the third guy. This time things are a little bit different. This time the story is going to take a little bit of a turn. They're not expecting — there would have been a priest, there was a Levite, now there's a third guy. And I feel like those that are listening to the story, they're probably like, "All right, we're fixing, the third guy, we're going to see how this is." Maybe — so we got priest, we got Le — maybe we're going to have some common guy's going to come in. We're going to see that maybe it's going to be like somebody basic, just somebody just normal, somebody that's average. Somebody that's just — maybe it's going to be like Joe the Plumber. Y'all remember Joe the Plumber? For some of you, I don't have a clue, but you remember Joe the Plumber showed up. So they're thinking maybe this is going to be it. Maybe it's going to be Joe the Plumber guy that's going to be there. Maybe Joe Six-Back — I don't know.

Jesus ends up dropping a bomb in the middle of the story. A priest comes by and doesn't do so good. A Levi comes by and doesn't do so good. And then long comes a Samaritan. Now, when He said "Samarit itan" to the crowd, He said a really, really, really, really, really bad word. Because the Samaritans were their enemies. The Samaritans were half-breeds. Samaritans were not worth the time of day. Samaritans were less than. So what's Jesus doing when He talks about a priest, who's respected, and a Levite, who's respected, and how they respond, and then now you throw in a Samaritan — they shouldn't even utter that word with the other two people there. But what's this story about? What's this story about? "Who is my neighbor?" And in the middle of the who-is-my-neighbor's story, we got a priest, we got a Levite, and now I got a Samaritan.

Samaritans — actually, you can go back and study this out — in the time of Jesus, man, they had actually defiled the temple by taking rotten bones of human beings and throwing them across the wall of the temple. In the previous chapter in Luke, when Jesus and His disciples — the ninth chapter Luke, right before this story — they're going through Samaria, because Jesus is going to go to Jerusalem, and they were not received very well by the Samaritans, to which causes a little bit of righteous indignation to build up in His disciples. And in Luke 9:54: "And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven to consume them, like Elijah did?'" We can see, even amongst His own disciples, there was division between who's in and who's out. And because the Samaritans didn't treat Him well, they're like, "We can call down fire — this — let us..." Like they could do that anyway; if they could have done it, they had already called fire down.

But I bring this point up to show you the division in the world in which Jesus came. Let me get real with us today. Let me get transparent. And at the end of 2023, there's a lot of division in our world today. There's a lot of division even in the Church of the Living God, the Apostolic Pentecostal movement. There's division in our world, in our ranks, and among us. And I feel like the Lord directed me to this story on this Sunday, right before Christmas, to make sure that you and I are aware of what we're allowing to go on inside of us. Who is our neighbor? How are we treating people? Are we being what He wants us to be?

And this story has a rather bland title — most of you know it as the story of the Good Samaritan. But when Jesus said that word, He was crossing every line of decency and good taste. I promise you this: when He said "Samaritan," He offended everybody in that crowd. It was an inflammatory word — a very inflammatory word. It's inflammatory word, like words that we have in our world today, words that involve some kind of racial tension or political tension. Like, I could say words that don't that are appropriate in this place, but I could say those words, and immediately this room would be filled with tension. That's the kind of word "Samaritan" was.

So He's got their attention, and they are mad. They liked the story, but now they don't. They liked the fact that a priest simply walked by somebody in need that needed a hand up; they were okay with it. They were okay with a Levite doing the same thing, to not even care about somebody who's had been beaten and robbed and stripped and laying there ashamed. They should be ashamed, but yet they're okay with the story. But all of a sudden He says, "And a Samaritan..." I'm telling you, there's a couple of times in Scriptures when Jesus simply blows up the situation. This is one of those situations where He is blowing it up. He doesn't just slip the word in. There's a pattern: come and do and go; come and do and go. Jesus says: the priest comes, he sees, and does nothing, and he goes. The Levite comes, he sees, he does nothing, and he goes. But verse 33: "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, had compassion. So when he went to him, and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine, he set him on his own animal and brought him to an end, and took care of him." The Samaritan comes, and he sees, and he doesn't go. It says he took pity on him.

Remember, this is all answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?" The lawyer just wanted to be justified: "Who can I leave out? Who can I exclude? Let me tell you a story: there was a priest, there was a Levite, and there was a certain Samaritan." What's going on in the heart of the priest? I don't know; we have to guess. What's going on — we have to speculate. What's going on in the heart and the mind of the Levi? We don't know; we have to speculate; we have to guess. But do you know what it did to the crowd to hear that the Samaritan was closer to the heart of God than the priest and the Levite? That it was the Samaritan that had pity; that it was the half-breed, the worthless one, the no-good, the trash, the dog — he's the one that has the pity. He's the one that has compassion. He's the one that actually stops to see if the guy's actually living. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, He's got him. He's got him in this moment. They took pity on him. He went to him, he bandaged his wounds, he poured on oil, he poured on wine. By the way, oil and wine — both used in the temple, both instruments of worship. But it wasn't the priest, it wasn't the Levite — it was the Samaritan who used it. Then he puts him on his own animal, takes him in in, he takes care of him. The next day, he comes out, he takes two coins, and says, "Look, I'm going to leave this with you for whatever else he does, and if it is more than this, when I come back by, I will take care of the charge."

It's powerful, this story. It's a story you got to you got to let yourself really marinate in. This man's money had been stolen, and a Samaritan doesn't just pick him up, doesn't just put him on his own Amal, doesn't just take him to the end, but he pays for the guy out of his own pocket, and takes care of whatever possibly could come. A Samaritan is doing all this stuff — not the Levite, not the priest, not what would have been the heroes in the story. No, no — the heroes don't look so good, and the guy that shouldn't look so good is the guy that does what he's supposed to do.

Then He turns to LZ expert. He says in verse 36: "So which of these three do you think was the neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?' Which was the neighbor? Which was the neighbor? The question was, 'Who is my neighbor?' And He answers and said, 'Which one was the neighbor?'"

Now look at the response. "And he said to Him, 'He who showed mercy.'" He can't even say the word "Samaritan." He can't allow it to come out of his mouth. That's the kind of hatreds that's there. But he can't deny the truth: it was the one who showed mercy. And then Jesus says what? "Go and do likewise."

Part of what was so explosive in this situation — a lot of people don't get this — is that answering the question "Who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Who do I have to respond?" — not the beating-up guy on the side of the road. Of course he's going to be your neighbor, too. But it's the person that you despise the most — that's the — you can't miss the point. Yes, by default, we all understand the guy that was hurting, the guy that was beat up, the guy that was stripped, the guy that was robbed, the guy that was left there half dead — yeah, he's got to be your neighbor. You should automatically — you should just feel bad that the priest and the Levite walked past that guy. just can't be a human being worth your salt if you don't have some compassion for that guy. But that wasn't the answer to the question. Jesus said, "Which of them was the neighbor?" He was bringing the attention back to the lawyer. He's bringing the attention back to the crowd, to let them know and understand: the ones you hate the most, they're your neighbors.

"You wanted to know what you got to do to inherit eternal life. You answered the question, but you had to justify yourself. You had to qualify it. You wanted to know who the neighbor is, so I'll tell you a story to let you know who the neighbor is. The neighbor is a Samaritan — the one you want to dismiss, the one you want to walk away on, the one that you don't feel like deserves any of your time and attention."

At some point it ought to get in your heart that you and I have not been neighborly. That there are people that you and I have drawn the conclusion in our own minds and justified the way — "I don't have to talk to you. I don't have to pay you any attention." You have willingly walked away. You have willingly aligned yourself — you willingly bound yourself up, you willingly tied yourself to that — "You really — I don't have to. No. Samaritan. Dirty Samaritan."

I know you're like, "Pastor Kevin, this is Christmas. Where's the happy baby in the manger and shepherds, and bring the kids out and let's sing a little pretty song?" Sorry, I'm just not that kind of pastor. I love you too much to walk you through communion and your heart not be right. I was praying, saying, "God, what is it You want me to say?" And He took me here. And I was like, "Really? The Good Samaritan — that's where You want to go?" I don't know if y'all ever talked to God like that, but He and I talk a lot like that in my office. "Really, God? The Good Samaritan?" "Yeah. Yeah, because humanity has a heart problem. Yeah, the Good Samaritan, because too many of My kids hate each other, and they're allowing stuff that has no eternal bearing or consequence make eternal consequences in their life, when they get so caught up on what political side of the aisle you're on, what color your skin is, or what race you are. You're not being neighborly."

Where are we at? Where we at? God came to the brokenness of this world to heal the sick, men the brokenhearted, to set liberty those that are held captive. He came as a babye wrapped in a manger. He came and lived a life out. He came, He walked among the ones that society said are dogs and aren't worth any saying. He was with the lawyers, and He was with the publicans, and He was with the harlots, and He was with the lame, and He was with the lepers. What was He doing? He was trying to show you: they're your neighbor. Yeah, they're not maybe where they should be, but they have no value? Are you simply writing them off as if they're nothing? What He was saying is, "You're failing to realize that the way I look at you and the way I love you is the way I look at them and the way I love them. But somehow you've determined that you have the ability to qualify who's in and who's out." And He came to die for all. "I bring you tidings of great joy for all men" — not just those that are in, not just those that are the tribe, not just those of the circumcision. No, it's good tidings and great joy for all. He came down in the broken mess of this world in a way that you and I could have never pinned, but He came. He came to give compassion.

What happens to us? All right, let's just be real. I got a couple minutes here. It really doesn't mean nothing when I say that — we're going to get to communion, and it's special. I'm going to describe it in just a minute, because I believe it's important for you to understand what we're going to do. Before I get there, I feel like you and I — it's not an excuse; I'm just saying this is how it happens. We get caught in the busy of life. And man, life is busy. It is busy. We get caught in the busy of life, and we don't intentionally try to exclude people. But because of the sake of having a quality life, we don't allow oursel to get trapped up in the mess that's over there. We will bypass it and walk past it. We'll tell oursel, "I just — I got to pick. Even in ministry, I got to pick, I got to pick, I got to pick." And it seems that compassion becomes a luxury at the speed of life increasing.

And one of the reasons the issue of hurrying is so important isn't just so that I have a more pleasant life. You see, you cannot come and do and go, as Jesus would, if you live in a chronic state of hurry. You can't. I can't. Look, when I read after Him — and you're say, "Well, Pastor Came I, how do this?" I don't know. I'm not perfect at it either, okay? I'm not perfect at it. But when I read what He did — that when He allowed Himself to be moved with compassion, He stopped. He stopped. The woman with the issue blood — there was such a crowd around Him pressing and pushing that they were like, laughable, that, "Oh, somebody touched You? What do You mean somebody touched You? There's hundreds of people touching You!" "No, you don't understand. I'm stopping, because somebody touched Me."

Are we guilty? Are we guilty of simply pushing on through and never stopping, because we want to allow anybody to touch us? See, the good news of Christmas is — it's not good to be good and nice to be nice. The good news is that Jesus comes into our world, and then He goes through life where He serves and He heals, and He still does this. And He died on the cross to forgive our sins, and He's raised again. And then He goes and prepares a place for us. But before He left, He said in John 20:21: "Peace be unto you. As My Father hath sent Me, even so I send you." Go do what I did. Go be My hands and feet — not to the select few, not to the ones that you think are right, but go be My hands and feet. Go love the unlovable.

See, as we move forward towards partaking of the Lord's Supper, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse number 28: "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." We have to examine oursel before we go here. We have to make sure that we have not become okay walking past the neighbor. Got to make sure that we are in a good place, so that I don't partake unworthy in this time we're going to take here in just a minute, because it's important. It's important to reflect. It's important to self-examine. We need to take a little time to pray. Why do we do this? Well, because the verse before that, verse number 27 in chapter 11, says: "Wherefore, whosoever shall eat of this bread and drink of this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the blood and the body of the Lord." Here, what's important to know is, honestly, none of us are truly worthy participate in the Lord's Supper. Just thankful for what He did for me. You should be thankful for what He did for you. But we have instruction, we have caution here, that we need to stop. We need to pump the brakes for just a minute, and make sure, to the best of our knowledge and the best of our ability, that I'm in a position to do this.

So we're going to spend just a couple of minutes asking God to examine, to repent. Now, here's what I'm going to do before we do this. Did everybody get a communion cup? If you didn't get a communion cup, will you raise your hand? Chris, will you help that out there? Just keep your hand up. Just keep your hand up. We're going to start to pray in just a minute.

Now, here's the deal: I'm in no position to say who can and cannot partake of communion, okay? I can't look at you and determine where you are with God inside. So here's the deal. This is our church's standard, what we typically go by, in that is: if you have repented of your sins, if you asked God to forgive you — and if you haven't done that, then there's going to be a moment here in a second to do that — you want to be in a state of repentance before you do this, okay? This isn't something you just do. This isn't just a ritual. This has very, very meaningful spiritual significance, okay? We don't go halfhazard into this. So you evaluate yourself, and you ask God to forgive you of your sins. And if you feel like God has forgiven you of your sins, you feel good about that, you can take forward.

Now, for moms and dads with little ones here: if you have a little one here that's under the age of 12, we would typically recommend is that if they haven't received the gift of the Holy Ghost [infant Spirit], if they're not there yet, then I'm asking you to be a good mom and dad and make a judgment call on that. But I would say, if they haven't done that yet, then you would let them hold off on this. I'm going to talk a little bit more about it in just a second, but this is where we are. Now, if they have — because we have an amazing kids department, Jennifer Tedric and her staff and volunteers over there doing amazing job, and our kids get filled with the Spirit over there — so if your child has received the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost, baptized in Jesus' name, you know that, and you talk with them and they're okay, then we're behind you 100%. But this is where you need to be, Mom and Dad. Okay? Everybody okay with me? All right.

Now we're going to pray. Before we do this, I want you to really pray. I don't want to just be like, "Okay, Lord..." You know, I want you to really stop for just a minute and pray: "God, examine my life. I want to be right with You. I want to have right motives." Paul basically says this: that if we eat of the bread and drink of the cup without taking time to reflect on the seriousness of the cross and His sacrifice, we enter into the guilt of those who crucify ified Him in the first place. He say, "Well, Pastor Kevin, how is it that I could do this in an unworthy manner?" The Scriptures give us seven ways: to have envy or strife in your heart; to see the Lord's Supper as a mere ritual with no real spiritual implication or significance; to be irreverent to God or towards His church; to disrespect those that are needy, those that are poor; to have unbelief in the significance of Jesus Christ sacrifice for human ity; to not having repented of your sins; and to not examine our life in relationship with Jesus. That's in 1 Corinthians 11, from verses 18 to verse 32 — you get those seven principles that are there. One of those — if you got one of those seven, then it says it's unworthy. Again, I'm not the one that judge who can participate, but I believe after we have taken time to pray and repent, you'll know. You'll know.

So what I want us to do right now is — you don't have to get up and go anywhere — but I want you to know this altar is open if you want to come. But I think you can be right there where you are. We're going to take this little time, we're going to pray. You're going to hear me praying, but I'm going to turn my microphone off; you'll just hear me praying like everybody else is going to pray. You don't have to pray out loud; you can just pray. And I'm going to come back here in a couple of minutes, and I'll give us more instructions. But during this time of prayer, really reflect and ask God to examine you, to help you be mindful of where you are, and in light of my message today, that we have not unknowingly excluded our neighbor in some way, that God will help us see that. Let's pray.

God, I love You. I'm so thankful for this moment, Jesus, that You've given us here. Lord, I pray that You would examine our life, that You would look at where we are. See us, Lord Jesus. But I know we're surrounded with brokenness all around us, this world we live in — so much, so much we fight each and every day. God, help us to see the changes we need to make. I want to be right before You, Lord. I want to stand lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubt. So God, I ask that You examine my life. God, forgive me of the wrongs, the sins that I've committed, the things, Lord God, that I've done that go against Your commands. God, forgive my thoughts. Forgive my actions. Forgive my words. God, help me, help me where I am. God, forgive me of my anger, my pride, my jealousy, my coveting. Forgive me of lust. Forgive me, God, of disobedience and dishonesty. God, examine every corner of my life. Let there be nothing hidden from You. From me — oh no, be clean. God, let Your blood wash over me today. Cleanse me from the unrighteousness that comes in. Oh Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus.

May try to put this together for you in a little bit of a nutshell here this morning. The Lord Supper is a process of looking back to the cross and the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. It's about looking within, as we examine our life and our actions and our emotives, to be in a state of repentance, in the right condition with God. It's looking outward, because when we participate in what goes on here, this Lord's Supper, we put into perspective our need for the body of Christ — because no man or woman is an island; we need each other. We need to look out to our lost world in need of the salvation that you and I enjoy in our life. This world needs what we have. It's part of what we're doing today, acknowledging and recognizing that. And looking ahead helps us look ahead to the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — that moment when we truly are with Him, the risen Christ.

So if you want to prepare sacrament, if you want to stand with me — there's two parts to this. There's a top layer that's under that purple; you can peel it, and there's a wafer in there. You'll do that and kind of hold that in the one hand, and open the cup. Paul, as he was talking specifically about this in 1 Corinthians 11, says: "For I have received the Lord that which I also deliver to you" — verse 23 — "that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He break it and said, 'Take, eat. This is My body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me.' After the same manner He also took the cup, and when He had s, saying, 'This cup is the New Testament in My blood. This do ye, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

Thank You, Jesus. Thank You for Your sacrifice, God. Thank You, Lord, for loving us enough to come down in the brokenness of our world, and the mess that humanity had made. You came — You came down, Lord, to feel what we feel, to experience what we experience. You came to die, to give us life eternal. I'm so thankful for Your sacrifice, God. So thankful for this time of year when we reflect on how wonderful it is that the King of kings and Lord of lords came as a little baby in a manger, so that we would have hope in the life beyond. We celebrate today. I know when we do this during Easter time, we leave in a somber mode, but we celebrate today that our King came. Our King came. He came. He didn't leave us alone. He didn't leave us in a mess. But He came down into the brokenness and the heartache and the pain. He came down so He could be with us. Oh, what a wonderful day it is. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, the highest praise we can give is hallelujah. Hallelu— Hallelujah.