Pastor’s Place at FBC Whitesburg

FOUR THINGS WE MUST NEVER SAY IN OUR NEW FAMILY MINISTRY CENTER

What shall we do in our family ministry center? You might ask. We have discussed this on occasion in the past. We named all kinds of ministries to meet needs, youth and senior adult programs, fellowships, sports leagues, and, at the top of the list, leading people to faith in Christ. Today’s message is not about what we will do or not do. The message is about what we must never find ourselves saying inside the walls of our new family ministry center. It is based on Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:30-37

1. I Don’t Help Those Who Won’t Help Themselves

In this story, the Good Samaritan sees. He saw him. Him? Who did he see?” Verse 30 of Jesus’ familiar parable tells us that it was a certain man. We don’t know who he was. It really doesn’t matter. This certain man represents anyone in need that we can see. He was a CERTAIN man. The Oxford American Dictionary defines certain as “known without doubt”. There was no denying this need. He was a real person in real need. God knew him, without a doubt. God knew his need.
What happened to this certain man? He fell. He fell among thieves. He was beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead. You may never run across a person like this in your life time. But you will probably see other people who “fell”. Fell into financial troubles, fell into the ditch, or fell into self-pity. This man fell; and we see people who fall into hard times…if we look.
This certain man, now wounded and helpless, could do nothing for himself. Not one verb describes any action this man took during the entire story…except that “he fell”. If we are not careful, we may become so critical and judgmental that we cannot see straight. We might say, “He’s got to help himself.” We might add to scripture with our own proverb, “God helps those who help themselves”. We could assume that it was “all his fault” for walking on the road by himself or at night. We could surmise that he was foolish and deserved what he got. We could announce that “anyone who carries valuables on himself like this man out in the middle of the wilderness where you know thieves abound is “just asking for it”.
Yet, no where are we told that this certain man did anything to deserve what he got. All the Good Samaritan could see was a man in desperate need. We must keep our eyes open for opportunities to help people in need.

2. I Don’t Want To Get Involved

Look closely at the end of verse 33. “And when he saw him, he had compassion on him.” The priest, a certain priest, known without a doubt, saw the man in need, but he passed by on the other side. God knows those who feel compassion and those who don’t want to get involved. The priest represents someone who has the ability to do something to help, but makes every excuse possible to not get involved.
“It’s a trick.” “It’s a trap.” “Is this the same guy I saw here last week? “If I help him, I’ll have to help everybody.” “I’ll never get him off my back.”
What about the Levite, another religious man? He saw, but he too passed by on the other side. Maybe he said, “I am just too busy”. “There are other churches and agencies that can help.” “I don’t want to get my new robe dirty.” What was missing? Eyesight? No. Heartsight. He had no compassion.
On the other hand, the Samaritan was able to break free from his fears, his prejudices, and his traditions. John 4:9 tells us that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. The Good Samaritan thought for himself. He didn’t care whose feathers he might ruffle. God often leads us to go against the grain. The where and when and who and how may not be part of our plans. We must learn never to take our agenda to a meeting with God. So, what made him stop? What made him different from the other two? Compassion. Again, the dictionary offers this definition of Compassion: “a feeling of pity that makes one want to help”. Yes, I believe he could feel the man’s pain. He probably imagined that, “if this were me lying down here in the ditch half dead, I would hope that someone would stop to help me.” Jesus taught, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Paul wrote, “As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion” (Colossians 3:12). Compassion made him stop. Compassion will not allow you to pass by on the other side.

3. I Don’t Have The Time

This Good Samaritan changed his schedule to suit the wounded man’s needs. He didn’t have the time, but he gave it anyway. Look what he did for this stranger and calculate in your mind the time involved. Leland Johnson in his article, “The M.O. of a Good Samaritan” in the spiritual journal, Heartcry, made the following observation: Look what he did for this stranger and calculate in your mind the time involved.

• He came to him
• He bandaged up his wounds
• He poured oil and wine on them
• He put him on his own beast
• He brought him to an inn
• He took care of him
• And the next day – he spent the night – that took time

Look what the Good Samaritan did not do.

He did not ask, “Are you a Christian?”
“Don’t you go to church anywhere?”
“I need to see your driver’s license”
“Are you a Democrat or a Republican?”
“Do you tithe?”
“Do you drink?”
“If I help you today, what will you do to assure me that this won’t happen again in the same ditch tomorrow?”

He helped him. Yes, we must be as wise as serpents. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit’s leadership. We must use good practices and procedures. But above all, we must take the time that is necessary to do the job right. Ministry to people in ditches takes time.

4. I Don’t Have The Money

When was the last time you gave a chunk of your schedule and your hard earned dollars to help a total stranger? I pray that I will never in this lifetime determine whether or not I will help someone in need based solely on money. When money becomes that much of a priority to me, I will be in deep spiritual trouble. God always equips and supplies what he calls us to do.
The next day, verse 35 tells us, the Good Samaritan reached into his pocket and gave to the host what amounted to two days wages. Would you give two days pay to help a total stranger that may not even be grateful to you when it’s all said and done? Notice the Bible says, “He gave”. Not loaned. Not reluctantly paid the bill. Not charged it to the wounded man’s account. But gave. It would be like me spending a couple hundred dollars to provide for shelter, food, and medical care for a total stranger. If that wasn’t enough, he promised to pay more if more expenses in the future were incurred.

Jesus measures our love for God by our generosity to others. Is that right, you ask? Look at Matthew 25:34-40.
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry and you gave me meat: I was thirsty and you gave me drink: I was a stranger and you took me in: Naked and you clothed me: I was sick and you visited me: I was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed you? Or thirsty, and gave you drink? When did we see you a stranger, and took you in? Or naked, and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

CONCLUSION:

How do you create a heart of compassion and giving? You can’t create it. It comes from a relationship with God. Paul told about the Macedonian Christians who gave generously in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 and concluded by saying, “but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God”. You will have the most difficult time giving your time and money to ministry until you first give yourself to God.
Jesus concluded his story with a simple command that I will use to conclude this sermon: “GO AND DO LIKEWISE.”
Open your eyes to opportunity.
Open your heart to compassion.
Open your schedules for ministry.
Open your wallets to give generously.

Our family ministry center will afford us wonderful opportunities to minister to people in need. As Paul told the Galatians, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (6:10).

Posted: Sermons

“ABANDONED”

In Matthew 16:21, Jesus began to show His disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross. The Apostle Peter, who, only moments before had spoken one of the most God-inspired confessions of faith in all Christianity (verse 16), now rebukes Jesus. The Bible states that Peter even took him. That sounds like he grabbed His arm and pulled Him aside as he informed Jesus that the cross would not be allowed in His future.
Jesus, who had just commended Peter for his confession, now calls him down as one influenced by Satan himself. Jesus then taught Peter – and all of us – that in suffering and obedience we demonstrate our love for the will of God; and in selfishness we demonstrate our love for ourselves. Then follows what I would call one of the greatest lessons in the Bible – and one of the greatest calls to discipleship.
Matthew 16:24, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Jesus’ call to discipleship involves abandoning our selfish will in order to find true life. What does it mean to abandon your own will and selfish pleasures for the sake of your soul? What does the word abandon mean?
The Oxford American Dictionary defines Abandon as – “to go away from a person or a thing, without intending to return. To give up. To yield completely to an impulse or an emotion”.
If…If…a decision must be made. If you want to come after me or if you truly want to be my disciple or if you truly want to find life or if you want to invest in the profit of your soul. You must satisfy this question first. Do you truly want to be a follower of Jesus Christ? If not, say so. As Joshua said, “Choose this day who you will serve”. But if you do want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you must abandon yourself. How can we abandon ourselves? If any Christian truly desires to be a disciple of Jesus, he or she must take three actions. All three must be taken and in the order Jesus gives us.

1. GIVE “let him deny himself”
The gift of yourself is the greatest gift you have to offer God. There is one temptation that will keep you from following the Lord. What is that? Love of yourself. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 13 that, “Love seeks not her own.” It is our nature, our carnal nature, to look for the things that bring us personal comfort and pleasure. There is no sin in comfort or pleasure; but these can never be our god. We must abandon our will for His will. Remember what it means to abandon? To go away from our selfishness, never to return. We leave selfish pleasure permanently. It is a complete giving of our lives into the will of God. We yield to Him.
It may seem difficult for some mothers to wean their babies off the milk. The baby does not want to give up what she is used to and what brings her satisfaction. But the mother weans the baby off the milk to solid food because that is how the baby can live and grow. The weaning process may not be comfortable or pleasurable at first, but in the long run it is the best.
God sometimes has to wean us off our selfish pleasures. It does not come easy or pleasurable to give ourselves completely for God. If it were easy and pleasurable, more Christians would be doing it. Since it is only natural to love ourselves, we must draw close to God and deny ourselves in order to be His intimate disciple. Then we will know real pleasure. Only then are we truly satisfied. We may think that we are satisfied with our lives the way they are. We satisfy our own bodies and our own egos. But a true disciple is one who learns to abandon himself for the sake of Christ.

2. GIVE UP “and take up his cross”
To give someone something is generosity. We give ourselves to God. But to give up implies surrender. What is it that we must surrender? First and foremost, we must surrender our love of self. That is what our Savior did. In the garden He prayed, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” Then He went to the cross. Denying ourselves is a giving of our lives to God. Taking up our crosses is a surrendering to His will. We are willing to suffer in order to follow Him.
We speak about loving the world. John tells us in 1 John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he who does the will of God abides for ever.”
The love of the world is nothing less than a love of ourselves and a desire to fulfill our lusts and pride. Paul told the Corinthians that “Love does not seek her own.” That is why we take up the cross. The cross is a symbol of suffering. We are crucified. Paul told the Galatians in 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
You and I are nothing without the cross of Christ. To take up our cross is to follow Him to the death, all the way, complete, and wholehearted…no matter what the cost. It is a true giving up of ourselves. The 15th century Christian writer and spiritualist, Jeanne Guyon wrote, “God gives us a cross, and then the cross gives us God.”

3. GIVE IN “and follow me”
When a person gives in, it implies that a struggle has gone on inside him for a long time, and finally he stops putting up a resistance and goes along. We may have resisted God for years and turned a deaf ear to His call. But one day, the Holy Spirit’s draw on our life was so strong and the burden of sin so great that we stopped resisting. We said yes to Jesus and began to follow Him. Remember the order of these steps. We cannot expect to be a follower of Jesus until we give our lives completely to Him and surrender our self love for love of Him. Only when we dethrone our pride and submit to His will, can we follow Him.
Following Jesus is a one time commitment. We don’t need to be saved over and over again. We don’t need to make a new decision to follow Him every minute. Once we declare our commitment to follow Him, we will follow Him all the way….as long as we have given our lives to Him and surrendered to His will. If we stray, we may remind ourselves where we are supposed to be going, but we don’t have to start all over will a new salvation experience.
When I set out on a trip to Lexington, every step I take and every mile I drive is intentional and voluntary. I say to myself, “I intend to go to Lexington”. I only say it only once. I don’t have to say it every step or every mile marker. I don’t repeat for three hours, “I am going to Lexington. I am going to Lexington. I am going to Lexington.” If I start out with the intention in my heart to arrive in Lexington, I will go there without having to tell myself over and over that Lexington is my destination. If I intend to follow Jesus and set out on that journey, I don’t have to keep telling myself over and over that Jesus is my destination. It will come automatically…if I have the intention…if I am doing the other two things first. There may be times I stray or take a wrong turn. I may have to ask for directions. But I do not have to return home and make a new decision to go to Lexington. I pick back up where I am. That is the beauty of forgiveness.

Conclusion: A traveler was invited once to spend the night at the home of a rich man. The rich man told him, “go on in the house and make yourself at home. I have some business to attend to and I will come in and join you later.” The traveler climb the steps of the big house and observed brand new bamboo furniture, ceiling fans spinning above, live plants, soft lights, a lovely carpet, and so much more beauty. He decided to lie down on the couch and cover up with a hand crochet throw that the rich man’s wife had made herself. As he rested on the couch, he admired the beautiful home. He began to envy the man who lived in such a comfortable home. Soon, the rich man entered through the glass door. “You have such a beautiful house,” he told the rich man. “You haven’t seen the house,” he replied. “You’re only on the front porch.” Don’t live your life on the front porch. Come on in the house. The doorway is self abandonment. Give of yourself wholly to God. “God loves a cheerful giver.” (Second Corinthians 9:7)

Posted: Sermons