June 8, 2025 • 54 mins
This message explores what it truly means to live by the law of love, highlighting the contrast between religious legalism and the freedom found in Christ. Using the example of the Galatian church and the parable of the Good Samaritan, it reveals that salvation comes through relationship, not rules. Jesus simplified the entire law into loving God and others, showing that genuine love naturally fulfills God’s commands. The teaching also distinguishes true compassion from enabling behavior, emphasizing Spirit-led love that heals and transforms. Living this way leads to freedom, answered prayers, and a more fulfilling life in Christ.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everybody say this together Say Lord, I love you.
Jesus, you are the living word.
As I receive your word tonight,jesus, I receive you.
It's like I'm taking communionand Lord, you're going to give
(00:21):
me strength to do it.
Holy Spirit, you're going tobreathe on it, make it come
alive.
I'm going to leave tonight witha clear understanding and with
a call to action in Jesus nameHallelujah, hallelujah.
(00:42):
Well, I do want to minister, wedo.
There's such an anointing heretonight and I just want to.
I want to learn, I want to getthe word in us and then we'll
have prayer time after that sowe can respond to what the Lord
says.
But I just welcome everybodyhere on a Sunday night.
This is a Sunday night crowd,that means y'all are committed,
extra Hallelujah.
(01:03):
But you know, pastor talks aboutthis all the time Teach what
you take for granted, and um,and so sometimes I have heard
him in the pulpit refer to thelaw of love, and that's the way
that we live.
We live by the law of love, anduh, and so I just thought it
would be a good thing atexercise in the word to break
out what that means.
(01:23):
What in the world?
Um, all right, what I want totalk about the law of love,
because it's such a and I justwant to start lay a foundation.
So in Galatians 1.6, if youwant to turn there, the answer
to the burning question thateverybody wants to know is how,
how do I, how can I be savedfrom my sin, how can I go to
(01:47):
heaven?
And this very question is thething that separates everybody
in every religion.
You've got the humanists thatsay well, you know, there's not
really a heaven, it's just, uh,we, we become a perfect human
being on earth, you know, andthen we die and it all ends
there.
Or you have the, the Hindus,that say you're just
reincarnated again and again andand I, if I, if I do enough
(02:11):
good things, and then I can be,you know, a higher life form and
then I'll come back andhopefully, if I, if I do bad
things, I can come back as aroach or something.
But you can learn a lot aboutwhat is the answer to that
question, and I believe mySunday night crowd knows the
answer to that question whatmust you do to be saved?
(02:34):
Anybody know Accept Jesus asyour Lord and Savior become born
again.
Is it by anything that you doright that you get saved.
No, no, okay.
So.
So the Galatians knew this.
Paul is talking to the Galatianchurch, the church in Galatia,
and he is their spiritual father.
And he says in verse six,chapter one, verse six I marvel
(02:59):
that you were turning away sosoon from him, who called you,
in the grace of Christ, to adifferent gospel.
Everybody say a differentgospel.
Paul's saying I know what you,what I preached to you.
I preached to you the real oneand you've got some fake one
that you're going after.
And he said it's not anotherGod, there is no other gospel.
(03:19):
But there are some who troubleyou and want to pervert the
gospel of Christ.
That word pervert means totwist it, to make it say
something different.
Y'all know there's a spirit ofthis age right now that their
entire game is to twist everyword, to make the word meaning
something completely opposite ofwhat you ever.
(03:40):
Everybody five minutes agounderstood the word to mean and
now means something different.
So that's the goal of theAntichrist is to twist the
gospel.
And Paul said if, even if we orany angel from heaven preach
any other gospel to you thanwhat we have preached to you
before, let him be accursed.
In other words, don't listen toanother gospel.
Stick with the right one, stickwith the one.
(04:03):
And so the Galatians wereactually embroiled in this big
controversy, and it kind oftalks about it in Acts 15,
because there were, there were.
It was new for a Gentile to beable to get saved.
Before that it was only Jewishpeople, jew, you know, jesus was
a Jew.
He ministered to the Jews andso Paul was the first preacher
(04:27):
that preached to the Gentilesand it was just a new thing that
they could get saved.
And Peter Peter did actuallyminister to Cornelius and his
family and his whole family gotsaved and they got baptized in
the Holy Spirit with theevidence.
They spoke in tongues, and soit was so puzzling.
How could a Gentile get the samegift that we have?
(04:48):
How could that even be?
And because they'reuncircumcised, they do not have
a covenant.
See, 1800 years prior to this,abraham the patriarch had a
covenant with God.
Guess what?
He wasn't Jewish yet either.
Nobody, there was no such thingas a Jew.
Abraham was the first Jew.
(05:08):
And how did he get to be a Jew?
Well, the Bible says hebelieved God and it was credited
to him for righteousness.
So he just believed.
God gave him a promise hey,appear to him, I'm gonna give
you a bunch of land and a bunchof kids and descendants, you
know, and through you, all thefamilies of the earth will be
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blessed.
And Abraham didn't doubt God,but believed God and it was it
counted to him for righteousness.
So if Abraham can believe Godand he can be, and he can have a
relationship, a loving, awesomerelationship with his creator
just by believing him, then wecan do the same thing, whether
we're a Jew or a Gentile.
(05:51):
So in the Galatian church atthis time, paul's saying man,
there are people trying to addto the gospel and you got to be
careful of that today, becausein the last days are going to be
people who come in, falseteachers, and they're going to
lie to you and they're going totell you, not in this church,
amen.
I know putting our foot down,but they're going to say Jesus
(06:12):
plus or Jesus minus.
What must you do to be saved?
Well, jesus, you, yeah, he'spart of the solution, but you
got gotta do a whole list ofother things.
You gotta grow your hair out,ladies, real long, and you gotta
wear skirts and no makeup, andyou have to fulfill all of these
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requirements or you know lotsof other rules that you have.
There are many.
Every denomination was born outof some.
A good revival.
Usually there was a move of God, but then people started
tacking onto it Well, you haveto do this and you have to do
that, you have to do this, thisand that.
Jesus plus.
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And.
And then there's the Jesusminus people.
Well, jesus, he was a reallygood prophet, he was a good
teacher, but he wasn't reallythe son of God.
Or they'll say you know, and soyou can listen to what he said.
You know the teachings of.
They'll talk about theteachings of Jesus.
(07:15):
Well, beware of anybody whojust talks about the teachings
of Jesus.
The teachings of Jesus will notget you to heaven, but he
himself will, and dying toyourself and accepting what he
did on the cross will All right.
So so Jesus plus versus Jesusminus.
And there was another gospel inthe Galatian church, and that
gospel said well, you got, ifyou're a Gentile and you got,
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saved, you also have to do whatAbraham did.
After Abraham got throughcovenant, he then he ratified it
by circumcising himself.
And so there was an outwardsign of the covenant.
Look up what that is, becauseI'm not going to explain it
tonight in church.
But what I want you to know isthat because Abraham, he did
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that, he obeyed that and he saidmy generations from here on out
are going to serve the Lord.
And every time I even thinkabout my generations, or every
time I, I, I, I, uh, I thinkabout you know, being with my
wife, I'm going to think aboutthe covenant that I made with
God and that's going to passdown.
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I'm going to think about theway I love God and put him first
and that's the way I'm going tolove my wife and that's the way
I'm going to love my kids andthey're going to serve God the
way I did.
It was a covenant and it had amark, a physical mark, and so it
was precious and he did passthat down and 1800 years, jews,
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jews, men, were still followingthat tradition.
On the eighth day they werecircumcised and so and that
meant they had a covenant howcould a Gentile, how could a
Gentile and it was heresy, oh mygoodness.
No, we will not be a Christianif it means that Gentiles can be
saved without doing that.
(09:02):
We had to do that.
We're not gonna let them in.
We are not letting them intothe church.
We are not gonna do it.
And Paul said you're messing up, you are messing up.
Then he said and he talkedabout the law versus the promise
he talked and this is an ageold battle that we have all the
(09:25):
time in the church.
Think about it.
So you have the law of Moses.
So after Abraham, you know,several generations later, lots
of generations later, then Mosescame.
He brought the law.
Abraham just had a covenantwith God.
He loved God, he served God, heput God first above his own son
.
He loved God more than his ownson and so he loved.
(09:50):
And then eventually God broughta way to be holy.
Hey, you can't, you can'treally be perfect yet, because
you, you know everybody sins.
Adam fell.
Now you've got to sin, but I'mgoing to institute this, this
law that will be like a teacherfor you, like a lot of symbolism
and stuff, and if you'll dothis law, I'll cover your sins
(10:10):
until I can send my son and wipethem out forever.
And so for all those years, allthose generations, 1800 years,
then the Jews then they werekeeping the law of Moses and
they had to tithe on their mintand their cumin in their herb
garden and they had to keepevery little dot and tittle of
it, all of it.
And if they didn't eat ananimal with hoofs, or an animal
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that had been strangled, or ananimal that with it in its meat,
in its own blood, or an animal,or if they couldn't, they
couldn't eat shrimp or pigs.
I'm sorry, men, we've beenredeemed from that Been redeemed
, we can eat pigs, but they hadto keep all of the law and it
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was onerous, in fact it wasimpossible.
And that really is, isn't it?
The whole point of the wholeBible is that you can't be good
enough.
Really, god is perfect andyou're not him.
And there, in fact, you can'tdo anything without him.
(11:20):
That's the whole point of thelaw.
You can't do it, You'll neverbe able to meet it.
You'll never be able to meet itwithout him.
That's the whole point of thelaw.
You can't do it, you'll neverbe able to meet it, you'll never
be able to meet it without him.
But you're not without him, areyou?
Everybody say I'm with him andwith God.
Jesus said with God, all thingsare possible.
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With God, you are redeemed.
With God, you are enough.
With God, you can meet face toface with your creator and be in
his presence and not die.
In fact, you can be in hispresence and draw life from his
being and become like him and beable to speak things into being
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, into creation, just like God.
It's awesome what he's given.
And so you know what Guess whatReligion hates.
That Religion hates and alwayswars against the true
relationship that we can havewith God.
And it started way back, wayback.
Cain killed Abel, didn't he?
Cain was the, you know, he wastrying to do everything right in
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his own strength and Abel justhad a good relationship with God
, just obeyed God and loved God.
And Cain was so jealous, hehated it so much.
Boom killed him.
And then you have Hagar versusSarah.
You know, abraham had the two.
He had one wife and he had oneconcubine and the concubine had
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a child named Ishmael.
The concubine's name was Hagar.
Hagar was a type of the law,what we try to do ourselves to
get to God.
We know we're supposed to haveGod in our lives and we have
this promise.
Abraham had this promise fromGod.
He tried to fulfill it in hisown strength and it was a curse
to him.
Then when.
Fulfill it in his own strengthand it was a curse to him.
Then, when he just let God doit, it was a blessing.
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And so, and Ishmael hated andwas jealous of, and still the
people groups that descendedfrom those two groups now hate
each other to this day andthere's enmity.
But God Jesus came to bringpeace, all right.
And so you know, and now you'vehad the circumcised versus the
uncircumcised people.
(13:29):
Then you had the Pharisees.
Just look at how the Phariseesrepresented the law, and every
time they questioned Jesus inpublic, they would try to be
catching him in this andcatching him in that, and they
were so jealous they hated.
Oh, he could do miracles.
He healed people on the Sabbath.
It was a scandal.
And then they hated and so muchfought against him and were so
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jealous that what happened?
They killed him, crucified,crucified, crucify him.
It's a theme Religion attacking,they're true.
It's a theme Religion attacking, they're true.
And so what we want to do isnever fall victim to that, never
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, never, never.
Let anybody add somerequirement on you that violates
your covenant with Jesus, yoursalvation, and so, but what?
But then?
What does your salvation evenreally mean?
How do you look at somebody'slife?
You know Jesus said you'll knowa tree by its fruit.
How can you tell if somebody'sreally going to heaven?
How can you tell if they'rereally a born again Christian?
How can you tell?
So?
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Matthew 22, verse 35.
Here's some flipping, you canflip there.
Then one of them, a lawyerhere's a Pharisee asked him,
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tested him, tested.
Jesus, asking him a question,saying teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the law?
You know, because, look, I'm alawyer and I'm all about the law
.
Law, law, I've studied, I knoweverything there is and I'm
going to test you.
Law law I've studied, I knoweverything there is and I'm
going to test you to see if youknow the right answer.
And that way, if you say thewrong thing hi, hannah, she's
smiling at me, she's my friend.
Anyway, if you say the wrongthing, I'm going to, you know,
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I'm going to.
I'm going to be able to provethat you're a fraud.
And so Jesus just turned itaround on him.
He said you shall love the Lord, your God.
This is the greatestcommandment.
You shall love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind.
This is the first and greatcommandment.
And the second is likened to ityou shall love your neighbor as
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yourself.
And on these two commandmentshang the law and the prophets.
That's awesome.
So, in other words, under Jesuswe do not have to try to
remember all of the law and theprophets.
And now Jews, modern day Jews,also have to remember not just
the Torah but the Talmud, withall the rabbinical teachings of
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2,000, 3,000 years, 2,000 yearsof history, more than that 6,000
years maybe, goes back a longway.
And they've got all these otherthings that they've got to keep
.
And Jesus said just love theLord, your God.
If you love him, if you reallylove God, you will realize that
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every person on the face of thisearth is created in his image.
And then you will not want, ifyou really love him, you will
never, never want to trample ordo anything to hurt or just
besmirch or wound anybody in hiscreation, because they're made
in the image of God.
But let me just also I wouldlike to get into and I will, I'm
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going to lay it, I'm going tolay out a case in a minute,
because I don't hear this done alot.
We hear a lot about love yourneighbor, love your neighbor,
love your neighbor.
And I want to say, I want to bereally the first to tell you
that that very commandment isone of the most we talked about
how Satan likes to pervert thegospel.
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That is one of the most.
That was one of the mostco-opted scriptures by the left,
by the communists, by theprogressive movement, and I
really do think there.
I think we're seeing right nowand I cannot stand up here
before you and I mean thischurch prays over events that
are going on in our country andwe're at a pivotal time and I do
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believe there have been peoplethat have been crossing our
border for the last four andfive years that have an ill
intent.
I believe there are militaryage sleeper cells right now.
I believe they've beenactivated and that's some of
what we're seeing in Los Angelesand New York.
We've got to pray because Iknow that the devil would like
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to bring that to a lot of citiesacross the United States and
the people in the streets thatare fighting are many of them
are military age men that arenot necessarily from Mexico, but
they may be part of Hamas, theymay be part of other
organizations and terroristgroups in the world and they
would like to just divide ournation against itself and that
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has been a long time stated goaland plan of theirs going back a
long, long time, and I'm notgoing to rehearse that part of
the history.
But this is something I'velooked into for a long time and
I know that the devil has a plan, but greater is he who is in us
than he who is in the world.
Guess what?
We can love our neighbor.
We can love our neighbor, butI'm going to talk about how we
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can apply that not only in ourpersonal lives but as a society.
So y'all can't leave yet, butwe're free now.
We're free because we're underthe law of love and we're not
under this other crazy, all ofthis other stuff.
And if you read in David, wewill not go to Deuteronomy 28
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tonight.
But how many of y'all know thatDeuteronomy 28 lists all the
covenant blessings of the peoplewho keep the law.
And now you've been stampedwith approved.
If you have the blood of Jesuscovering your heart, if you have
accepted his sacrifice for yoursins, I have good news for you.
God has looked over Deuteronomy28 and all the covenant
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blessings.
You'll be blessed coming in andblessed going out.
Blessed in the city, in thefield.
Blessed in your basket, in yourstore.
Blessed in the increase of yourcattle and the fruit of your
body, blessed, blessed, blessed.
Your enemy comes against youone way and flees before you
seven ways.
All of those things you said.
Oh, I didn't qualify.
I sinned one time.
Jesus's blood is over your,over your application, it's over
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your heart and he marks youapproved, approved, approved.
And then those blessings.
For every one of those blessings, there's like a really long
list over here of curses inDeuteronomy 28.
That list all of the bad stuffthat happens when you don't
serve the Lord, when you don'tmeet up with every jot and
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tittle of the law.
And Jesus has taken all of thathandwriting of requirements and
he has nailed it to the cross.
It was contrary to usColossians says, but he took
that and all the guilt and shamethat you've ever done,
everything that you've ever done, every thought you ever had,
every way.
You didn't measure up and Jesustook all of that and he nailed
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that to the cross with his ownsuffering, with his own body.
He took that away from you,bore that away from you, so that
now you are exempt from all thecurses of the law.
And that's even more exciting.
Then, if we go back and readall of those okay, I said we
wouldn't go, but I just have,because we're talking about
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loving our neighbor.
I'm going to just lay this righthere, right now the stated
issue and it's never the issuethat people are demonstrating
about and rioting in the streetshow many of y'all know what the
issue, the stated issue, is?
Immigration.
That is what people will saythat the stated issue is.
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But I and I know that there aregood, sweet people caught up in
the crossfire of that.
But there are also communists,literal communists.
We thought it could neverhappen in America, but there are
literal people trying to co-optthis movement to hurt our
country and to take away ourfreedom in our Constitution, and
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we can't let them.
But one of the curses listed isin here in the curses in
Deuteronomy 28 is that thestranger among you is going to
take over and they're going totake all the land away from you.
And I don't.
If I have my glasses, I canfind it.
If somebody sees it, they canlook at it.
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But that's one of the cursesthat they shall besiege you.
Shall besiege you.
There's a verse 52.
They shall besiege you at allyour gates until your high and
fortified walls, in which youtrust, come down throughout all
your land and they shall besiegeyou at all your gates,
throughout all your land, whichthe Lord, your God, has given
you.
So besieging from the enemy,wartime in your streets, war and
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rioting in your streets, that'sa curse of the law.
We are delivered from that.
Jesus said we were redeemed fromthe curse of the law.
We are exempted from that.
We will not have that in ourland.
We can turn that back, amen.
But we have to be careful as anation that we honor God first
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as individuals and that wespread the love of Jesus to as
many people in our land so thatwe can become a land that walks
in the blessings and not justour own families.
Praise God, we can have it forour family.
Praise God, we can have it forour church.
But we've got to have thepromises of God across our
nation once again, and that'sthe way we were founded.
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But we've let other ideas,we've let other religions, we've
let other false gods and idolsand debauchery creep into our
land and we've got to pray itand evangelize it and bless it
out of our land, amen.
And so we can be a Christianand lovingly also say look,
there are borders, there areborders.
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What if some of the countrieswhere people are fleeing are so,
so bad and messed up becausethe Christians there, they just
all fled and the Christiansthere didn't rise up and throw
off the bonds of oppression ofthe enemy in their own nation?
What if God desires to populatetheir nation again with a
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revival, but all the good peopleleft and ran away to America?
What if that?
And so we have to be carefulwhat we enable and what we just
blindly accept.
Right, all right.
So Galatians 5, 13,.
Back to Galatians.
He said now you're under thelaw of love, but for you,
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brethren, verse 13,.
You have been called to liberty.
Only, don't use your liberty asan opportunity to the flesh,
but through love, serve oneanother for all the laws
fulfilled.
In one word, even in this, youshall love your neighbor as
yourself.
If you bite and devour oneanother, beware lest you can be
consumed by one another.
And then, um.
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And then in romans 13 says oh,no one, anything except to love
one another, for he who lovesanother has fulfilled the law.
So that's the way we fulfillthe law today is by loving first
God with all our heart and thenactually loving, in word and in
deed, our neighbor, and sowe're going to talk a little bit
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about what that looks like andI'm going to read an
uncomfortable scripture and thenI think I'm going to bring it
home.
I don't hear a lot of word offaith People teach on the Good
Samaritan because, honestly,toxic empathy I'm going to use
that word from Allie.
Beth Stuckey is a person I liketo follow anyway, but there's
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such a thing as compassion fromthe Holy Ghost and then there's
another such thing over here,like I'm going to call it toxic
empathy.
It's where you just, you know,you just coddle what is evil and
what is wrong, because it'seasy.
It's when your child, when yourtoddler, throws a tantrum in
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the grocery store because theywant all the candy bars on the
aisle, and you say, no, See,isn't that love sometimes to say
no?
But if we just give them allthe candy bars because, well,
that's what they wanted, is thatlove?
No, that's toxic empathy.
Well, they were crying andthey'll look, her little eyes
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just welled up with tears and Ijust couldn't look at that sweet
little face and say no.
Toxic empathy, right?
So we have that sometimes inour lives and we have that as a
society.
But I want to look at realBible compassion, and we'll go
to Luke 10.
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And here's another question froma lawyer against Jesus.
Behold, certain lawyers stoodup and tested him, saying
Teacher, what shall I do toinherit eternal life?
There's a question, what shallI do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus did not answer him.
Actually, he turned thequestion on him.
Well, what is written in thelaw?
(26:53):
What is your reading of it?
How do you, how would youanswer that question?
I have learned over time.
I have finally I believe I havefinally learned this that when
people ask me what they shoulddo, what do I have?
What's my next move?
What should I do?
What should I do, claire?
What do you think I should do?
I have finally learned to saywhat did God say you should do?
What do you feel like God'stelling you?
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I have finally finally learnedto do that.
And you know what.
Most of the time, god's alreadytold them, and they just wanted
somebody to say somethingdifferent.
But Jesus asked him well, whatdoes the law say?
And this guy rightly answeredyou shall love the Lord, your
God, with all your heart.
There it is again all yourheart, all your soul, all your
(27:36):
strength and all your mind.
First love God, and then youlove your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus said to him you'veanswered rightly, do this and
you will live, but he wanting tojustify himself because that's
hard to do, right, it's hard toreally do that when you really
think about loving and alwayspreferring that word agape.
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Love, it means to consider thewellbeing of other people before
yourself, and that's hard.
And so he's like man.
Do I have to do this toeverybody on earth?
Who is my neighbor?
Jesus, I mean, you know who areyou really talking about here?
And then I can absolve myself.
And Jesus told him this story.
A certain man went down toJericho.
Now listen to this story.
(28:26):
I want you to see it.
It's an allegory.
I do not want you to think ofthe traveling stranger that you
passed on the way here.
That is not the same thing.
But I want you to see it asJesus is our good Samaritan.
Just for a minute.
Let's go there.
Let's go to the figurativeJesus.
We are that certain man.
(28:49):
And we went.
We were making a trip fromJerusalem to Jericho and we fell
among thieves.
We fell among the devil.
We were going through our lifeand the devil assaulted us.
He's a thief and the father ofall lies, and he stripped us and
he wounded us and he left usfor dead.
We were roadkill to our sin andin our, with our life's
(29:12):
problems.
And you know what?
A priest came by down that roadand he saw him.
So religion came by and lookedat him but went to the other
side and kept going.
Religion had no answers forthat man and his wounds.
Likewise a Levite, again now areligious, but even more so
(29:34):
because had to be born to aspecial family.
And he arrived at that placeand came and looked and passed
on the other side.
Nothing did religion do.
Two times religion passed youup.
Two times.
There was a long list ofrequirements and you didn't meet
them and it didn't care aboutyou and you didn't fall on the
right side of the of theequation and so you had to get
(29:58):
left.
But Jesus came left.
But Jesus came A Samaritan.
You know, people actuallycalled Jesus as a way to
criticize him.
They said oh, you're aSamaritan, your doctrine is so
crazy, you're like one of thoseSamaritans.
But Jesus, he came and hejourneyed and he came to where
(30:20):
he was and when he saw him hehad compassion.
Everybody say compassion,compassion, not only like, feels
the heart of the and feels thatthat person wears their, but
takes it on and sees the way out.
And he went to him and hebandaged his wounds and he
(30:43):
poured on the oil and the wineTo bandage the wounds.
He probably had to break up hisown garments.
He probably had to.
Who carries a bunch of bandagesaround with him, I don't know,
but he, you know, cloth had tobe woven by hand out of flax
that was grown in a field.
It wasn't like you could go toWalmart and buy an eighth
(31:04):
bandage, so it was a greatsacrifice even to do that.
And then he poured on the oilEverybody say the oil.
And he poured on the wineEverybody say the wine.
And he set him on his ownanimal, thereby choosing to gave
him a vehicle whereby theSamaritan himself walked on foot
(31:25):
and sacrificed in that way, andbrought him to an inn and took
care of him.
And on the next day, when hedeparted, so he spent the whole
night with the guy making surehe was going to be okay.
And when he departed he spent Imean, jesus has spent some
nights with us, has he not?
Has he not spent some nights?
(31:45):
And then on the next day hedeparted and he took out two
denarii, which I believe is ayear's one denarii.
Is that a year's wages, james?
I think that I've read thatbefore a year's wages.
So it's not just a little bitof money, it's a lot of money.
And Jesus, our good Samaritan,he gave it to the innkeeper, so
(32:07):
he's gonna take care of the guythrough his sickness and then
whatever more he needs, I'mgonna repay it later.
Jesus took on all of our debt.
Everything that we couldpossibly need, he has already
supplied.
He has already said paid infull, I've got it covered, don't
worry about it.
(32:29):
No-transcript.
And so which of these three doyou think the neighbor was
actually a neighbor?
So now Jesus is coming back, hesays well to the Pharisee or
the lawyer, and the lawyer says,well, the neighbor was the one
who showed mercy on him.
And Jesus said to him go and dolikewise, go and do likewise.
(32:50):
So I believe that this call,this is actually a call to
evangelism, it is a call to seepeople.
Yes, there are times when youjust there's a practical need
and we should be sensitive tothose things.
And we're going to tease outkind of some scenarios, because
(33:11):
I think there are some timesthat we enable people too much.
I think sometimes we enablepeople's bad decisions and but
then there's another time wherewe have to love them and the
Holy Spirit can help us know thedifference right and that's
what we want to pray for andthat's why I think it's hard to
teach on this parable right here, because it would be hard to
live like this every single dayIf we had compassion for every
(33:35):
single person that we drove paston the freeway and that we met
at the grocery store andeverything.
It's overwhelming.
Do you know 14.1 million adultsin the US?
That's a lot of how manymillion are in Harris County,
james, six million, so, if youhave like.
(33:56):
So I don't know more than twoHarris counties of the
population in the United Statesare diagnosed with serious
mental illness.
But do you know that the wholediagnosis of a mental illness is
not a scientific diagnosis?
It's just did that person saythey wanted to commit suicide?
There's no actual brainchemistry that they can do a
(34:18):
test on and say oh, you know,it's an imbalance.
The whole chemical imbalancetheory has been completely blown
.
I don't know if y'all saw that,but that was groundbreaking
news.
That happened oh, a few yearsago I saw it.
Basically the whole way we'vebeen treating mental illness
since the 80s was like wrongOops.
(34:38):
And we say, oh, they had amental imbalance, they need some
Prozac or they need someEffexor or they need some drug
with a name on it.
And there's no measurable brainchemistry that if you ask that
person, basically it just stripstheir soul.
They can't feel anything now,they're numb and they can't
(35:02):
really.
It's hard for them, many ofthem, most of them.
If you ask them, do you feelbetter?
Maybe they do for a minute, butthen they have to go to a
different treatment and adifferent treatment.
It's just a drug, it's justanother drug, it's another
street drug and by the timethey're done stripping out all
of their feelings, they've gottheir actual relationships in
their life.
Their actual relationship toGod or their ability to hear his
(35:24):
voice or connect with him hasactually been.
Has it been improved?
Probably not.
But did they really feel pain?
Yes, yes, they did, and you cantake that issue times a million
.
Did the medical industry reallyhelp that person with their
problem or were they nothingbetter but rather grew worse?
(35:46):
People have real pain and guesswhat?
Jesus is still the answer.
He is still the answer.
And you still have the oil andthe wine the oil of the Holy
Ghost and the wine of the newcovenant.
You still have the answer forthem, and guess what Many times.
(36:08):
So they, they see, you know, ifyou're mentally ill, well, what
do you need?
You need a psychologist, youneed a shrink to talk to you.
You need to go meet with apsychotherapist.
And you know what you can paysomebody.
Your insurance will paysomebody to talk to you for an
hour a week, or two hours a week, and now nobody would have
talked to you before.
But if you pay them enoughmoney, they'll talk to you and
you'll hear all about.
(36:28):
Now.
You can talk to them aboutwhat's bothering you today and
what your mom did or didn't do,what your dad did to mess you up
or what you know that your dogdied or why you're.
I'm not trivializing any of it.
It's awful, it hurts, but wedon't have real relationships
anymore in our society where wecan just talk to our friend
about it and get down the road.
(36:49):
And so then what happens?
You go down and then you getdiagnosed.
Now you have a serious mentalillness and you'll always this
is what they say.
It's the same way aboutalcoholism.
Well now, you'll always be analcoholic.
Say it with me I.
You know the 12-step program.
It's helped a lot of people,but that's a bad confession.
(37:11):
And guess what?
There is no, actually.
There's nothing actually wrongwith you.
You're just going through adark time and Jesus is the
answer and he has a way out foryou, and the people of God ought
to be able to find you andreach out and slap the devil off
of your mind and love you back,and we ought to be able to do
(37:31):
that.
The church of the living God isthe answer.
The church having a communityof believers, following the word
of God and saying it over yourmind every day, having peace
with God and righteousness thatdidn't come by your own works,
feeling loved by God and byother people.
That is the way out for all ofthese people.
(37:53):
And the church has such a bigopportunity.
We are on the biggestopportunity with this mental
health crisis.
Can you imagine if churchesresponded by, instead of just
shuffling people off to the nextmedication and the next?
What if the church stood up andanswered?
What if we saw and didn't passby on the other side but talk to
(38:17):
that person and invited theminto our lives.
I believe it's a call.
I believe that Samaritan callis a call to evangelism and to
put people first and to taketime out of our busy schedule
when they need to talk and totake time out of our busy
schedule when they need to talk.
(38:49):
But and I want to say that Psalm147, 2 and 3, it says God, he
gathers the outcasts of Israel.
Isn't that awesome, I know.
I mean, I think a lot of peoplecould relate to this, but
there's always a time when welook back in our lives and we
felt like an outcast.
We looked around and we didn'thave that support system.
And it looks like, especiallyon social media.
(39:09):
If you start comparing thisperson you know 932 people liked
her post about her morningcoffee and only two people like
my posts about my morning coffeeand it doesn't look like we
have a support system.
It looks like everybody elsehas a bigger support system than
I and I didn't have this.
(39:30):
I didn't have you know what.
God gathers us together.
And then it says in verse threethat he heals the brokenhearted
and he binds up their wounds.
He heals the brokenhearted andhe binds up their wounds and
when he heals you, you arehealed forever.
(39:51):
It can't ever come back.
Whom the son sets free is free,indeed, hallelujah.
So we shouldn't have a mentalhealth crisis in the church.
We should have.
We should have the joy and loveof Jesus.
So if we will really walk inlove, if we'll love God first
(40:13):
and that's the, that's thestandard We've got to love him
first and we've got to put onour own oxygen mask before we
help other people.
And so I think, whenever we'reliving our life according to the
law of love, we're just goingdown in the world and we want to
(40:33):
say Lord, how can I, what isthe fruit that I've really been
saved?
Well, it's my love.
And Jesus said as I have lovedyou, that's the way I want you
to love other people.
Well, you know how Jesus lovedus.
He died, he gave everything.
So I might not be able to giveeverything to one person, but I
(40:59):
can give everything to God andbe obedient to him.
That's all I have to do.
So it takes the pressure off.
I do not have to sucker thewounds of every homeless person
on 249, but I do have to beobedient to God.
I have to be willing to do whathe tells me to do and I'll do
my part.
So true compassion versus toxicempathy.
(41:22):
I made a little chart righthere.
I'm going to go through mylittle chart.
So true, compassion is inspiredby the Holy Spirit.
But toxic empathy is inspiredby the flesh and the desire to
please other people, or iscoerced by just you know, guilt
(41:45):
or shame or some need.
No, be inspired by the HolyGhost.
Know the difference.
True compassion you feel led byGod, you feel pulled in a
direction.
Toxic empathy is pushing youfrom behind.
True compassion doesn't take onthe burden of the result.
(42:07):
You're just obedient to whatGod told you to do and then the
result is up to that person.
Will they receive the word thatyou gave them?
Will they receive the love?
Will they?
And if they won't, then it'snot on you.
You cannot carry that burden.
Jesus already carried it.
Don't you do it.
But toxic empathy will feelresponsible for the other
(42:29):
person's continual happiness atevery minute.
And then we make ourselves adoormat and we don't wanna do
that.
That's toxic.
Don't be a doormat.
Be meek, not weak.
Meekness to obey God's verygentle command, but not weak to
be stepped on and used bypeople's whim.
(42:51):
True compassion leads toredemption and healing, not only
for the other person but foryou.
Toxic empathy leads to enablingunhealthy behavior.
Do not enable other people'sunhealthy behavior.
(43:11):
True compassion acknowledgesthe truth.
If there's an elephant in theroom, if the person is begging
on the side of the road, that'sthe elephant in the room.
They're begging you.
Will they use the money fordrugs or alcohol?
The likelihood is probably ayes.
I would have to have a pillarof fire by night and a cloud by
(43:33):
day to give money to the personon the side of the road.
I mostly won't do it.
I would have to because I feellike I would be high, like I
would, unless I could sharetruth with them.
Now there's one time.
I'll give you an example, james.
I've been with James at gasstations a few times in our
lives.
James at gas stations a fewtimes in our lives, and so one
(43:58):
time, when we were first married, we lived near the bus station
downtown.
We lived in the lofts at theballpark.
It was a really fun time in ourlives, but it was right by the
bus station and there was ahomeless encampment underneath
the like.
We could out our window and soone time we didn't usually get
gas in that part of town but wehad to get gasoline and there
(44:21):
was a homeless person thatreally accosted the truck and I
was in there and James feltthreatened and he had to have
that person get away and he hadto and that person felt very
threatened.
I think James was kind ofmenacing to that person.
You know what?
I was very comforted becauseJames I mean the priority here
is James loves God and um, andthen we've got to love the
(44:45):
people to whom we have acovenant with.
Are you married?
Love that person.
Do you have children?
They are your dependents.
Love them.
Love them first.
Put them first before anyhomeless person.
Make sure, before you dosomething, that it honors God
and that you have honored yourfamily and the people that
you're in covenant with.
And then the word says be goodto all, especially those of the
(45:08):
household of faith.
So do they go to your church,be good to those people first.
Do they go to your?
Are they a believer?
Are they at least a believer?
Be, be, make sure that you'reobeying God in those areas.
And then um, and then, and thenjust be obedient to God, in, in
for areas of evangelism, sothat one, that person.
They did not get any money fromus that night, they did not get
(45:30):
to clean our windshield, theygot to go away.
But then there was another timeat a gas station where there was
a guy in a beat up truck kindof sputtered in there, pulled up
to the and he had his wife.
She was haggardly, she wastired, they had a couple of kids
in the back you could tell thatthey were living in their truck
(45:51):
and or something like that andJames had compassion on him and
he didn't ask for a dime.
That guy didn't ask foranything but James offered to
fill up his truck for him andwhile he was there the whole
time, and whatever long, howeverlong it took, james got to
preach the gospel to him, loveon him and share with him.
And you know, one man waters,another another plants and
(46:13):
another waters and God yieldsthe increase.
James isn't responsible to makesure that that guy personally,
he doesn't usher him into thepearly gates.
I don't know that we, we ledhim to the Lord that exact day,
but he sure did get a witness ofthe gospel that day.
Amen, because James followedthe Holy Ghost and it was nice
that the guy didn't ask.
I'm just saying that's mypersonal opinion.
(46:35):
There was a lady in this weekthat was in the tire store and I
needed new tires.
I needed four new tires on myExplorer.
Hallelujah, we have an abundantsupply.
Did we like buying tires?
No, we didn't want to have tobuy the tires.
And while we were there, whileJames was there, there was
another little lady and and heoverheard her and she just
(46:57):
sounded very distraught becausethey told her well, man, these
last two, yeah, we're going toreplace your other tire that you
came in here for, but thoseother two, and that you really
need to replace them.
They're, they're bald, they'reon the, they're showing the
metal in there and the the steelis, is shining through.
And she said, oh, I'm going tohave to wait, I'm going to have
to wait on that.
(47:17):
And so James found a way tosecretly walk up and arrange
where he could buy those twotires for her.
And it was really I'm braggingon him, not me.
I didn't have anything to dowith it because he did not ask
me, he just told me later.
But he had compassion and I'mglad he followed the Holy Ghost.
(47:39):
I'm glad he did that.
He followed the Holy Ghost.
He just had compassion on arandom person, but I think we do
, and you know what.
So the tire salesman came backto him later when he picked up
my car and got to tell him thestory.
James just told the guy hey,tell her, god bought your tires
today.
And so the guy told her thatand she cried.
(48:01):
She cried, well, she knew thatshe felt the love of God that
day.
And so, Lord, we pray for her,and we're, but we're just doing
our little part.
We're doing our little part.
Now, the good Samaritan did allof the parts, didn't he?
He did all of the parts, but ifyou try to do all the parts for
all the people, you can't.
It's not enough, is it?
(48:22):
That's why I have to have theHoly Ghost, and together all
things are possible.
Amen.
By the way, oh, true, compassionuses your own resources and
does not use the resources ofthe taxpayers.
So put that right there.
Because the taxpayers guesswhat?
(48:42):
When the government gives themoney, when you vote it out of
the government treasury, youthink you're being kind and
loving your neighbor by votingsomething that didn't really
cost you.
It just cost the wholegovernment in general.
So it's an amorphous blob,right, just voted it in.
But that's not our money togive away.
That belongs to all of yourneighbors.
That's not just and fair In myopinion.
(49:04):
Entitlements are not just andfair because and there's no
blessing of the Lord or love.
So the answer to society's illsis for churches to rise up and
be churches again where wedispense resources with love and
care and accountability.
Government requires noaccountability.
(49:25):
Government has no mechanism forloving, it can only just write
checks.
And is money ever the problem?
Money is never the problem.
Money is never.
There's a spiritual the problem.
Money is never the problem.
Money is never there's aspiritual problem that's causing
that need.
Amen.
So the quickly the benefits oflove if we walk in this way.
John 15, nine says if we'll dothat, then we'll bear much fruit
(49:49):
.
Well, our prayers will beanswered.
If we ask anything, we'll getit answered.
If we ask anything we'll get it.
1.
John 4, 17 says if we walk inlove, that love has been
perfected among us in this, thatwe may have boldness in the day
of judgment.
There is no fear in love, butperfect love casts out fear,
(50:10):
because fear involves tormentand he who fears has not been
made perfect in love.
If we can work on our love walk, it'll cast out fear for the
person.
It'll cast out fear in your ownlife.
It casts out fear.
Guess what Luke 6, 38, give andit shall be given unto we.
Apply that all the time in ourmoney and our finances and our
(50:32):
offering times.
Yes, give and it shall be givenunto you.
Guess what it works with love.
Do you feel like the outcast ofIsrael?
Do you feel like the personalways on the outside looking in
?
Find somebody worse off thanyou and love them and be their
good Samaritan and pour the oilin the wine and see if, when you
(50:56):
water somebody else, see if youdo not feel watered.
Also, it is a concept that willnet the law of sowing and
reaping.
Do you are you?
You know we, we teach this allthe time.
When we have a need financially, we sow a seed.
But if you have a needemotionally, sow a seed.
I could.
Oh, I'm going to.
(51:17):
I'm going to quick, quick story.
When I was, I had just graduatedfrom college my whole life, I
felt like my whole life fellapart, and that's dramatic
because I still had my familyand I still could move home and
be supported and eat and have aroof over my head and I wasn't
homeless, hallelujah.
But I graduated from collegeand I didn't.
I didn't like the job that Ichose.
(51:37):
I lasted about three months asa reporter.
I was a journalism major andand the person I thought I was
going to marry that didn't Godsaid no.
I mean, it was very clear to meI could not do that, and so I
was really stuck and I felt, Ihonestly just felt like the
(51:58):
outcast of Israel.
I just felt like I lost every,all of my friends.
I lost all.
Everything had changed.
I had graduated, I moved out ofCollege Station and now I'm
home.
My dad just started this newweird church and I just didn't.
My whole life was just had movedon and I didn't know what to do
(52:18):
.
I was struggling and, um, andour youth pastor quit.
We had a youth pastor lined upand he quit at the last minute,
with no notice, and there wasnobody to do the youth service
that Sunday and I felt like theleast qualified person to walk
the face of the ever earth.
And my dad said Claire, I don'thave anybody to do the youth.
You're going to do the youthfor me.
(52:39):
You're going to do that Justjust till we find somebody.
I said, ok, just see if I'msomebody.
But you know what?
The law of sowing and reapingworked, because, even though I
was heartbroken and lonely andmiserable or whatever, I can
feel sorry for myself and sitaround.
That would have been reallystupid, by the way, because
(53:01):
that's still again first worldproblems.
You know, I had a roof over myhead, I had some things going
for me, but whatever, I didn'tchoose to do that, I had to go.
I had to find some kids thatwere worse off than I was and
that didn't know.
I mean, I didn't feel like Iknew anything, but they knew
even less than I did.
So I got to pour into them andI got to.
(53:21):
And all the church people if,if their kid had a choir concert
, I went to it.
If and if it was boring, ifthey had a baby shower or a
wedding or whatever, I I went to.
That I made.
The church family was my familyand I poured into them.
And guess what?
I was so fulfilled.
I'm still fulfilled and Godbrought me my own family.
But for me, giving emotionallywas the way out of depression,
(53:48):
and I know that that can be thecase for everybody when we give,
it shall be given unto us.
When we water, we will bewatered.
So it's the law of love and itworks.
It always works, and I hopethat helps you tonight.
Amen.
Everybody say this together Say Lord, I love you.
Jesus, you are the living word.
As I receive your word tonight,jesus, I receive you.
It's like I'm taking communionand Lord, you're going to give
(00:21):
me strength to do it.
Holy Spirit, you're going tobreathe on it, make it come
alive.
I'm going to leave tonight witha clear understanding and with
a call to action in Jesus nameHallelujah, hallelujah.
(00:42):
Well, I do want to minister, wedo.
There's such an anointing heretonight and I just want to.
I want to learn, I want to getthe word in us and then we'll
have prayer time after that sowe can respond to what the Lord
says.
But I just welcome everybodyhere on a Sunday night.
This is a Sunday night crowd,that means y'all are committed,
extra Hallelujah.
(01:03):
But you know, pastor talks aboutthis all the time Teach what
you take for granted, and um,and so sometimes I have heard
him in the pulpit refer to thelaw of love, and that's the way
that we live.
We live by the law of love, anduh, and so I just thought it
would be a good thing atexercise in the word to break
out what that means.
(01:23):
What in the world?
Um, all right, what I want totalk about the law of love,
because it's such a and I justwant to start lay a foundation.
So in Galatians 1.6, if youwant to turn there, the answer
to the burning question thateverybody wants to know is how,
how do I, how can I be savedfrom my sin, how can I go to
(01:47):
heaven?
And this very question is thething that separates everybody
in every religion.
You've got the humanists thatsay well, you know, there's not
really a heaven, it's just, uh,we, we become a perfect human
being on earth, you know, andthen we die and it all ends
there.
Or you have the, the Hindus,that say you're just
reincarnated again and again andand I, if I, if I do enough
(02:11):
good things, and then I can be,you know, a higher life form and
then I'll come back andhopefully, if I, if I do bad
things, I can come back as aroach or something.
But you can learn a lot aboutwhat is the answer to that
question, and I believe mySunday night crowd knows the
answer to that question whatmust you do to be saved?
(02:34):
Anybody know Accept Jesus asyour Lord and Savior become born
again.
Is it by anything that you doright that you get saved.
No, no, okay.
So.
So the Galatians knew this.
Paul is talking to the Galatianchurch, the church in Galatia,
and he is their spiritual father.
And he says in verse six,chapter one, verse six I marvel
(02:59):
that you were turning away sosoon from him, who called you,
in the grace of Christ, to adifferent gospel.
Everybody say a differentgospel.
Paul's saying I know what you,what I preached to you.
I preached to you the real oneand you've got some fake one
that you're going after.
And he said it's not anotherGod, there is no other gospel.
(03:19):
But there are some who troubleyou and want to pervert the
gospel of Christ.
That word pervert means totwist it, to make it say
something different.
Y'all know there's a spirit ofthis age right now that their
entire game is to twist everyword, to make the word meaning
something completely opposite ofwhat you ever.
(03:40):
Everybody five minutes agounderstood the word to mean and
now means something different.
So that's the goal of theAntichrist is to twist the
gospel.
And Paul said if, even if we orany angel from heaven preach
any other gospel to you thanwhat we have preached to you
before, let him be accursed.
In other words, don't listen toanother gospel.
Stick with the right one, stickwith the one.
(04:03):
And so the Galatians wereactually embroiled in this big
controversy, and it kind oftalks about it in Acts 15,
because there were, there were.
It was new for a Gentile to beable to get saved.
Before that it was only Jewishpeople, jew, you know, jesus was
a Jew.
He ministered to the Jews andso Paul was the first preacher
(04:27):
that preached to the Gentilesand it was just a new thing that
they could get saved.
And Peter Peter did actuallyminister to Cornelius and his
family and his whole family gotsaved and they got baptized in
the Holy Spirit with theevidence.
They spoke in tongues, and soit was so puzzling.
How could a Gentile get the samegift that we have?
(04:48):
How could that even be?
And because they'reuncircumcised, they do not have
a covenant.
See, 1800 years prior to this,abraham the patriarch had a
covenant with God.
Guess what?
He wasn't Jewish yet either.
Nobody, there was no such thingas a Jew.
Abraham was the first Jew.
(05:08):
And how did he get to be a Jew?
Well, the Bible says hebelieved God and it was credited
to him for righteousness.
So he just believed.
God gave him a promise hey,appear to him, I'm gonna give
you a bunch of land and a bunchof kids and descendants, you
know, and through you, all thefamilies of the earth will be
(05:30):
blessed.
And Abraham didn't doubt God,but believed God and it was it
counted to him for righteousness.
So if Abraham can believe Godand he can be, and he can have a
relationship, a loving, awesomerelationship with his creator
just by believing him, then wecan do the same thing, whether
we're a Jew or a Gentile.
(05:51):
So in the Galatian church atthis time, paul's saying man,
there are people trying to addto the gospel and you got to be
careful of that today, becausein the last days are going to be
people who come in, falseteachers, and they're going to
lie to you and they're going totell you, not in this church,
amen.
I know putting our foot down,but they're going to say Jesus
(06:12):
plus or Jesus minus.
What must you do to be saved?
Well, jesus, you, yeah, he'spart of the solution, but you
got gotta do a whole list ofother things.
You gotta grow your hair out,ladies, real long, and you gotta
wear skirts and no makeup, andyou have to fulfill all of these
(06:33):
requirements or you know lotsof other rules that you have.
There are many.
Every denomination was born outof some.
A good revival.
Usually there was a move of God, but then people started
tacking onto it Well, you haveto do this and you have to do
that, you have to do this, thisand that.
Jesus plus.
(06:55):
And.
And then there's the Jesusminus people.
Well, jesus, he was a reallygood prophet, he was a good
teacher, but he wasn't reallythe son of God.
Or they'll say you know, and soyou can listen to what he said.
You know the teachings of.
They'll talk about theteachings of Jesus.
(07:15):
Well, beware of anybody whojust talks about the teachings
of Jesus.
The teachings of Jesus will notget you to heaven, but he
himself will, and dying toyourself and accepting what he
did on the cross will All right.
So so Jesus plus versus Jesusminus.
And there was another gospel inthe Galatian church, and that
gospel said well, you got, ifyou're a Gentile and you got,
(07:37):
saved, you also have to do whatAbraham did.
After Abraham got throughcovenant, he then he ratified it
by circumcising himself.
And so there was an outwardsign of the covenant.
Look up what that is, becauseI'm not going to explain it
tonight in church.
But what I want you to know isthat because Abraham, he did
(08:01):
that, he obeyed that and he saidmy generations from here on out
are going to serve the Lord.
And every time I even thinkabout my generations, or every
time I, I, I, I, uh, I thinkabout you know, being with my
wife, I'm going to think aboutthe covenant that I made with
God and that's going to passdown.
(08:22):
I'm going to think about theway I love God and put him first
and that's the way I'm going tolove my wife and that's the way
I'm going to love my kids andthey're going to serve God the
way I did.
It was a covenant and it had amark, a physical mark, and so it
was precious and he did passthat down and 1800 years, jews,
(08:42):
jews, men, were still followingthat tradition.
On the eighth day they werecircumcised and so and that
meant they had a covenant howcould a Gentile, how could a
Gentile and it was heresy, oh mygoodness.
No, we will not be a Christianif it means that Gentiles can be
saved without doing that.
(09:02):
We had to do that.
We're not gonna let them in.
We are not letting them intothe church.
We are not gonna do it.
And Paul said you're messing up, you are messing up.
Then he said and he talkedabout the law versus the promise
he talked and this is an ageold battle that we have all the
(09:25):
time in the church.
Think about it.
So you have the law of Moses.
So after Abraham, you know,several generations later, lots
of generations later, then Mosescame.
He brought the law.
Abraham just had a covenantwith God.
He loved God, he served God, heput God first above his own son
.
He loved God more than his ownson and so he loved.
(09:50):
And then eventually God broughta way to be holy.
Hey, you can't, you can'treally be perfect yet, because
you, you know everybody sins.
Adam fell.
Now you've got to sin, but I'mgoing to institute this, this
law that will be like a teacherfor you, like a lot of symbolism
and stuff, and if you'll dothis law, I'll cover your sins
(10:10):
until I can send my son and wipethem out forever.
And so for all those years, allthose generations, 1800 years,
then the Jews then they werekeeping the law of Moses and
they had to tithe on their mintand their cumin in their herb
garden and they had to keepevery little dot and tittle of
it, all of it.
And if they didn't eat ananimal with hoofs, or an animal
(10:35):
that had been strangled, or ananimal that with it in its meat,
in its own blood, or an animal,or if they couldn't, they
couldn't eat shrimp or pigs.
I'm sorry, men, we've beenredeemed from that Been redeemed
, we can eat pigs, but they hadto keep all of the law and it
(10:57):
was onerous, in fact it wasimpossible.
And that really is, isn't it?
The whole point of the wholeBible is that you can't be good
enough.
Really, god is perfect andyou're not him.
And there, in fact, you can'tdo anything without him.
(11:20):
That's the whole point of thelaw.
You can't do it, You'll neverbe able to meet it.
You'll never be able to meet itwithout him.
That's the whole point of thelaw.
You can't do it, you'll neverbe able to meet it, you'll never
be able to meet it without him.
But you're not without him, areyou?
Everybody say I'm with him andwith God.
Jesus said with God, all thingsare possible.
(11:40):
With God, you are redeemed.
With God, you are enough.
With God, you can meet face toface with your creator and be in
his presence and not die.
In fact, you can be in hispresence and draw life from his
being and become like him and beable to speak things into being
(12:02):
, into creation, just like God.
It's awesome what he's given.
And so you know what Guess whatReligion hates.
That Religion hates and alwayswars against the true
relationship that we can havewith God.
And it started way back, wayback.
Cain killed Abel, didn't he?
Cain was the, you know, he wastrying to do everything right in
(12:25):
his own strength and Abel justhad a good relationship with God
, just obeyed God and loved God.
And Cain was so jealous, hehated it so much.
Boom killed him.
And then you have Hagar versusSarah.
You know, abraham had the two.
He had one wife and he had oneconcubine and the concubine had
(12:45):
a child named Ishmael.
The concubine's name was Hagar.
Hagar was a type of the law,what we try to do ourselves to
get to God.
We know we're supposed to haveGod in our lives and we have
this promise.
Abraham had this promise fromGod.
He tried to fulfill it in hisown strength and it was a curse
to him.
Then when.
Fulfill it in his own strengthand it was a curse to him.
Then, when he just let God doit, it was a blessing.
(13:08):
And so, and Ishmael hated andwas jealous of, and still the
people groups that descendedfrom those two groups now hate
each other to this day andthere's enmity.
But God Jesus came to bringpeace, all right.
And so you know, and now you'vehad the circumcised versus the
uncircumcised people.
(13:29):
Then you had the Pharisees.
Just look at how the Phariseesrepresented the law, and every
time they questioned Jesus inpublic, they would try to be
catching him in this andcatching him in that, and they
were so jealous they hated.
Oh, he could do miracles.
He healed people on the Sabbath.
It was a scandal.
And then they hated and so muchfought against him and were so
(13:51):
jealous that what happened?
They killed him, crucified,crucified, crucify him.
It's a theme Religion attacking,they're true.
It's a theme Religion attacking, they're true.
And so what we want to do isnever fall victim to that, never
(14:13):
, never, never.
Let anybody add somerequirement on you that violates
your covenant with Jesus, yoursalvation, and so, but what?
But then?
What does your salvation evenreally mean?
How do you look at somebody'slife?
You know Jesus said you'll knowa tree by its fruit.
How can you tell if somebody'sreally going to heaven?
How can you tell if they'rereally a born again Christian?
How can you tell?
So?
(14:34):
Matthew 22, verse 35.
Here's some flipping, you canflip there.
Then one of them, a lawyerhere's a Pharisee asked him,
(14:54):
tested him, tested.
Jesus, asking him a question,saying teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the law?
You know, because, look, I'm alawyer and I'm all about the law
.
Law, law, I've studied, I knoweverything there is and I'm
going to test you.
Law law I've studied, I knoweverything there is and I'm
going to test you to see if youknow the right answer.
And that way, if you say thewrong thing hi, hannah, she's
smiling at me, she's my friend.
Anyway, if you say the wrongthing, I'm going to, you know,
(15:17):
I'm going to.
I'm going to be able to provethat you're a fraud.
And so Jesus just turned itaround on him.
He said you shall love the Lord, your God.
This is the greatestcommandment.
You shall love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind.
This is the first and greatcommandment.
And the second is likened to ityou shall love your neighbor as
(15:39):
yourself.
And on these two commandmentshang the law and the prophets.
That's awesome.
So, in other words, under Jesuswe do not have to try to
remember all of the law and theprophets.
And now Jews, modern day Jews,also have to remember not just
the Torah but the Talmud, withall the rabbinical teachings of
(16:03):
2,000, 3,000 years, 2,000 yearsof history, more than that 6,000
years maybe, goes back a longway.
And they've got all these otherthings that they've got to keep
.
And Jesus said just love theLord, your God.
If you love him, if you reallylove God, you will realize that
(16:34):
every person on the face of thisearth is created in his image.
And then you will not want, ifyou really love him, you will
never, never want to trample ordo anything to hurt or just
besmirch or wound anybody in hiscreation, because they're made
in the image of God.
But let me just also I wouldlike to get into and I will, I'm
(16:56):
going to lay it, I'm going tolay out a case in a minute,
because I don't hear this done alot.
We hear a lot about love yourneighbor, love your neighbor,
love your neighbor.
And I want to say, I want to bereally the first to tell you
that that very commandment isone of the most we talked about
how Satan likes to pervert thegospel.
(17:17):
That is one of the most.
That was one of the mostco-opted scriptures by the left,
by the communists, by theprogressive movement, and I
really do think there.
I think we're seeing right nowand I cannot stand up here
before you and I mean thischurch prays over events that
are going on in our country andwe're at a pivotal time and I do
(17:38):
believe there have been peoplethat have been crossing our
border for the last four andfive years that have an ill
intent.
I believe there are militaryage sleeper cells right now.
I believe they've beenactivated and that's some of
what we're seeing in Los Angelesand New York.
We've got to pray because Iknow that the devil would like
(17:59):
to bring that to a lot of citiesacross the United States and
the people in the streets thatare fighting are many of them
are military age men that arenot necessarily from Mexico, but
they may be part of Hamas, theymay be part of other
organizations and terroristgroups in the world and they
would like to just divide ournation against itself and that
(18:23):
has been a long time stated goaland plan of theirs going back a
long, long time, and I'm notgoing to rehearse that part of
the history.
But this is something I'velooked into for a long time and
I know that the devil has a plan, but greater is he who is in us
than he who is in the world.
Guess what?
We can love our neighbor.
We can love our neighbor, butI'm going to talk about how we
(18:46):
can apply that not only in ourpersonal lives but as a society.
So y'all can't leave yet, butwe're free now.
We're free because we're underthe law of love and we're not
under this other crazy, all ofthis other stuff.
And if you read in David, wewill not go to Deuteronomy 28
(19:06):
tonight.
But how many of y'all know thatDeuteronomy 28 lists all the
covenant blessings of the peoplewho keep the law.
And now you've been stampedwith approved.
If you have the blood of Jesuscovering your heart, if you have
accepted his sacrifice for yoursins, I have good news for you.
God has looked over Deuteronomy28 and all the covenant
(19:29):
blessings.
You'll be blessed coming in andblessed going out.
Blessed in the city, in thefield.
Blessed in your basket, in yourstore.
Blessed in the increase of yourcattle and the fruit of your
body, blessed, blessed, blessed.
Your enemy comes against youone way and flees before you
seven ways.
All of those things you said.
Oh, I didn't qualify.
I sinned one time.
Jesus's blood is over your,over your application, it's over
(19:53):
your heart and he marks youapproved, approved, approved.
And then those blessings.
For every one of those blessings, there's like a really long
list over here of curses inDeuteronomy 28.
That list all of the bad stuffthat happens when you don't
serve the Lord, when you don'tmeet up with every jot and
(20:14):
tittle of the law.
And Jesus has taken all of thathandwriting of requirements and
he has nailed it to the cross.
It was contrary to usColossians says, but he took
that and all the guilt and shamethat you've ever done,
everything that you've ever done, every thought you ever had,
every way.
You didn't measure up and Jesustook all of that and he nailed
(20:35):
that to the cross with his ownsuffering, with his own body.
He took that away from you,bore that away from you, so that
now you are exempt from all thecurses of the law.
And that's even more exciting.
Then, if we go back and readall of those okay, I said we
wouldn't go, but I just have,because we're talking about
(20:57):
loving our neighbor.
I'm going to just lay this righthere, right now the stated
issue and it's never the issuethat people are demonstrating
about and rioting in the streetshow many of y'all know what the
issue, the stated issue, is?
Immigration.
That is what people will saythat the stated issue is.
(21:18):
But I and I know that there aregood, sweet people caught up in
the crossfire of that.
But there are also communists,literal communists.
We thought it could neverhappen in America, but there are
literal people trying to co-optthis movement to hurt our
country and to take away ourfreedom in our Constitution, and
(21:39):
we can't let them.
But one of the curses listed isin here in the curses in
Deuteronomy 28 is that thestranger among you is going to
take over and they're going totake all the land away from you.
And I don't.
If I have my glasses, I canfind it.
If somebody sees it, they canlook at it.
(22:00):
But that's one of the cursesthat they shall besiege you.
Shall besiege you.
There's a verse 52.
They shall besiege you at allyour gates until your high and
fortified walls, in which youtrust, come down throughout all
your land and they shall besiegeyou at all your gates,
throughout all your land, whichthe Lord, your God, has given
you.
So besieging from the enemy,wartime in your streets, war and
(22:22):
rioting in your streets, that'sa curse of the law.
We are delivered from that.
Jesus said we were redeemed fromthe curse of the law.
We are exempted from that.
We will not have that in ourland.
We can turn that back, amen.
But we have to be careful as anation that we honor God first
(22:46):
as individuals and that wespread the love of Jesus to as
many people in our land so thatwe can become a land that walks
in the blessings and not justour own families.
Praise God, we can have it forour family.
Praise God, we can have it forour church.
But we've got to have thepromises of God across our
nation once again, and that'sthe way we were founded.
(23:09):
But we've let other ideas,we've let other religions, we've
let other false gods and idolsand debauchery creep into our
land and we've got to pray itand evangelize it and bless it
out of our land, amen.
And so we can be a Christianand lovingly also say look,
there are borders, there areborders.
(23:31):
What if some of the countrieswhere people are fleeing are so,
so bad and messed up becausethe Christians there, they just
all fled and the Christiansthere didn't rise up and throw
off the bonds of oppression ofthe enemy in their own nation?
What if God desires to populatetheir nation again with a
(23:54):
revival, but all the good peopleleft and ran away to America?
What if that?
And so we have to be carefulwhat we enable and what we just
blindly accept.
Right, all right.
So Galatians 5, 13,.
Back to Galatians.
He said now you're under thelaw of love, but for you,
(24:16):
brethren, verse 13,.
You have been called to liberty.
Only, don't use your liberty asan opportunity to the flesh,
but through love, serve oneanother for all the laws
fulfilled.
In one word, even in this, youshall love your neighbor as
yourself.
If you bite and devour oneanother, beware lest you can be
consumed by one another.
And then, um.
(24:39):
And then in romans 13 says oh,no one, anything except to love
one another, for he who lovesanother has fulfilled the law.
So that's the way we fulfillthe law today is by loving first
God with all our heart and thenactually loving, in word and in
deed, our neighbor, and sowe're going to talk a little bit
(25:01):
about what that looks like andI'm going to read an
uncomfortable scripture and thenI think I'm going to bring it
home.
I don't hear a lot of word offaith People teach on the Good
Samaritan because, honestly,toxic empathy I'm going to use
that word from Allie.
Beth Stuckey is a person I liketo follow anyway, but there's
(25:25):
such a thing as compassion fromthe Holy Ghost and then there's
another such thing over here,like I'm going to call it toxic
empathy.
It's where you just, you know,you just coddle what is evil and
what is wrong, because it'seasy.
It's when your child, when yourtoddler, throws a tantrum in
(25:46):
the grocery store because theywant all the candy bars on the
aisle, and you say, no, See,isn't that love sometimes to say
no?
But if we just give them allthe candy bars because, well,
that's what they wanted, is thatlove?
No, that's toxic empathy.
Well, they were crying andthey'll look, her little eyes
(26:07):
just welled up with tears and Ijust couldn't look at that sweet
little face and say no.
Toxic empathy, right?
So we have that sometimes inour lives and we have that as a
society.
But I want to look at realBible compassion, and we'll go
to Luke 10.
(26:28):
And here's another question froma lawyer against Jesus.
Behold, certain lawyers stoodup and tested him, saying
Teacher, what shall I do toinherit eternal life?
There's a question, what shallI do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus did not answer him.
Actually, he turned thequestion on him.
Well, what is written in thelaw?
(26:53):
What is your reading of it?
How do you, how would youanswer that question?
I have learned over time.
I have finally I believe I havefinally learned this that when
people ask me what they shoulddo, what do I have?
What's my next move?
What should I do?
What should I do, claire?
What do you think I should do?
I have finally learned to saywhat did God say you should do?
What do you feel like God'stelling you?
(27:14):
I have finally finally learnedto do that.
And you know what.
Most of the time, god's alreadytold them, and they just wanted
somebody to say somethingdifferent.
But Jesus asked him well, whatdoes the law say?
And this guy rightly answeredyou shall love the Lord, your
God, with all your heart.
There it is again all yourheart, all your soul, all your
(27:36):
strength and all your mind.
First love God, and then youlove your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus said to him you'veanswered rightly, do this and
you will live, but he wanting tojustify himself because that's
hard to do, right, it's hard toreally do that when you really
think about loving and alwayspreferring that word agape.
(28:00):
Love, it means to consider thewellbeing of other people before
yourself, and that's hard.
And so he's like man.
Do I have to do this toeverybody on earth?
Who is my neighbor?
Jesus, I mean, you know who areyou really talking about here?
And then I can absolve myself.
And Jesus told him this story.
A certain man went down toJericho.
Now listen to this story.
(28:26):
I want you to see it.
It's an allegory.
I do not want you to think ofthe traveling stranger that you
passed on the way here.
That is not the same thing.
But I want you to see it asJesus is our good Samaritan.
Just for a minute.
Let's go there.
Let's go to the figurativeJesus.
We are that certain man.
(28:49):
And we went.
We were making a trip fromJerusalem to Jericho and we fell
among thieves.
We fell among the devil.
We were going through our lifeand the devil assaulted us.
He's a thief and the father ofall lies, and he stripped us and
he wounded us and he left usfor dead.
We were roadkill to our sin andin our, with our life's
(29:12):
problems.
And you know what?
A priest came by down that roadand he saw him.
So religion came by and lookedat him but went to the other
side and kept going.
Religion had no answers forthat man and his wounds.
Likewise a Levite, again now areligious, but even more so
(29:34):
because had to be born to aspecial family.
And he arrived at that placeand came and looked and passed
on the other side.
Nothing did religion do.
Two times religion passed youup.
Two times.
There was a long list ofrequirements and you didn't meet
them and it didn't care aboutyou and you didn't fall on the
right side of the of theequation and so you had to get
(29:58):
left.
But Jesus came left.
But Jesus came A Samaritan.
You know, people actuallycalled Jesus as a way to
criticize him.
They said oh, you're aSamaritan, your doctrine is so
crazy, you're like one of thoseSamaritans.
But Jesus, he came and hejourneyed and he came to where
(30:20):
he was and when he saw him hehad compassion.
Everybody say compassion,compassion, not only like, feels
the heart of the and feels thatthat person wears their, but
takes it on and sees the way out.
And he went to him and hebandaged his wounds and he
(30:43):
poured on the oil and the wineTo bandage the wounds.
He probably had to break up hisown garments.
He probably had to.
Who carries a bunch of bandagesaround with him, I don't know,
but he, you know, cloth had tobe woven by hand out of flax
that was grown in a field.
It wasn't like you could go toWalmart and buy an eighth
(31:04):
bandage, so it was a greatsacrifice even to do that.
And then he poured on the oilEverybody say the oil.
And he poured on the wineEverybody say the wine.
And he set him on his ownanimal, thereby choosing to gave
him a vehicle whereby theSamaritan himself walked on foot
(31:25):
and sacrificed in that way, andbrought him to an inn and took
care of him.
And on the next day, when hedeparted, so he spent the whole
night with the guy making surehe was going to be okay.
And when he departed he spent Imean, jesus has spent some
nights with us, has he not?
Has he not spent some nights?
(31:45):
And then on the next day hedeparted and he took out two
denarii, which I believe is ayear's one denarii.
Is that a year's wages, james?
I think that I've read thatbefore a year's wages.
So it's not just a little bitof money, it's a lot of money.
And Jesus, our good Samaritan,he gave it to the innkeeper, so
(32:07):
he's gonna take care of the guythrough his sickness and then
whatever more he needs, I'mgonna repay it later.
Jesus took on all of our debt.
Everything that we couldpossibly need, he has already
supplied.
He has already said paid infull, I've got it covered, don't
worry about it.
(32:29):
No-transcript.
And so which of these three doyou think the neighbor was
actually a neighbor?
So now Jesus is coming back, hesays well to the Pharisee or
the lawyer, and the lawyer says,well, the neighbor was the one
who showed mercy on him.
And Jesus said to him go and dolikewise, go and do likewise.
(32:50):
So I believe that this call,this is actually a call to
evangelism, it is a call to seepeople.
Yes, there are times when youjust there's a practical need
and we should be sensitive tothose things.
And we're going to tease outkind of some scenarios, because
(33:11):
I think there are some timesthat we enable people too much.
I think sometimes we enablepeople's bad decisions and but
then there's another time wherewe have to love them and the
Holy Spirit can help us know thedifference right and that's
what we want to pray for andthat's why I think it's hard to
teach on this parable right here, because it would be hard to
live like this every single dayIf we had compassion for every
(33:35):
single person that we drove paston the freeway and that we met
at the grocery store andeverything.
It's overwhelming.
Do you know 14.1 million adultsin the US?
That's a lot of how manymillion are in Harris County,
james, six million, so, if youhave like.
(33:56):
So I don't know more than twoHarris counties of the
population in the United Statesare diagnosed with serious
mental illness.
But do you know that the wholediagnosis of a mental illness is
not a scientific diagnosis?
It's just did that person saythey wanted to commit suicide?
There's no actual brainchemistry that they can do a
(34:18):
test on and say oh, you know,it's an imbalance.
The whole chemical imbalancetheory has been completely blown
.
I don't know if y'all saw that,but that was groundbreaking
news.
That happened oh, a few yearsago I saw it.
Basically the whole way we'vebeen treating mental illness
since the 80s was like wrongOops.
(34:38):
And we say, oh, they had amental imbalance, they need some
Prozac or they need someEffexor or they need some drug
with a name on it.
And there's no measurable brainchemistry that if you ask that
person, basically it just stripstheir soul.
They can't feel anything now,they're numb and they can't
(35:02):
really.
It's hard for them, many ofthem, most of them.
If you ask them, do you feelbetter?
Maybe they do for a minute, butthen they have to go to a
different treatment and adifferent treatment.
It's just a drug, it's justanother drug, it's another
street drug and by the timethey're done stripping out all
of their feelings, they've gottheir actual relationships in
their life.
Their actual relationship toGod or their ability to hear his
(35:24):
voice or connect with him hasactually been.
Has it been improved?
Probably not.
But did they really feel pain?
Yes, yes, they did, and you cantake that issue times a million
.
Did the medical industry reallyhelp that person with their
problem or were they nothingbetter but rather grew worse?
(35:46):
People have real pain and guesswhat?
Jesus is still the answer.
He is still the answer.
And you still have the oil andthe wine the oil of the Holy
Ghost and the wine of the newcovenant.
You still have the answer forthem, and guess what Many times.
(36:08):
So they, they see, you know, ifyou're mentally ill, well, what
do you need?
You need a psychologist, youneed a shrink to talk to you.
You need to go meet with apsychotherapist.
And you know what you can paysomebody.
Your insurance will paysomebody to talk to you for an
hour a week, or two hours a week, and now nobody would have
talked to you before.
But if you pay them enoughmoney, they'll talk to you and
you'll hear all about.
(36:28):
Now.
You can talk to them aboutwhat's bothering you today and
what your mom did or didn't do,what your dad did to mess you up
or what you know that your dogdied or why you're.
I'm not trivializing any of it.
It's awful, it hurts, but wedon't have real relationships
anymore in our society where wecan just talk to our friend
about it and get down the road.
(36:49):
And so then what happens?
You go down and then you getdiagnosed.
Now you have a serious mentalillness and you'll always this
is what they say.
It's the same way aboutalcoholism.
Well now, you'll always be analcoholic.
Say it with me I.
You know the 12-step program.
It's helped a lot of people,but that's a bad confession.
(37:11):
And guess what?
There is no, actually.
There's nothing actually wrongwith you.
You're just going through adark time and Jesus is the
answer and he has a way out foryou, and the people of God ought
to be able to find you andreach out and slap the devil off
of your mind and love you back,and we ought to be able to do
(37:31):
that.
The church of the living God isthe answer.
The church having a communityof believers, following the word
of God and saying it over yourmind every day, having peace
with God and righteousness thatdidn't come by your own works,
feeling loved by God and byother people.
That is the way out for all ofthese people.
(37:53):
And the church has such a bigopportunity.
We are on the biggestopportunity with this mental
health crisis.
Can you imagine if churchesresponded by, instead of just
shuffling people off to the nextmedication and the next?
What if the church stood up andanswered?
What if we saw and didn't passby on the other side but talk to
(38:17):
that person and invited theminto our lives.
I believe it's a call.
I believe that Samaritan callis a call to evangelism and to
put people first and to taketime out of our busy schedule
when they need to talk and totake time out of our busy
schedule when they need to talk.
(38:49):
But and I want to say that Psalm147, 2 and 3, it says God, he
gathers the outcasts of Israel.
Isn't that awesome, I know.
I mean, I think a lot of peoplecould relate to this, but
there's always a time when welook back in our lives and we
felt like an outcast.
We looked around and we didn'thave that support system.
And it looks like, especiallyon social media.
(39:09):
If you start comparing thisperson you know 932 people liked
her post about her morningcoffee and only two people like
my posts about my morning coffeeand it doesn't look like we
have a support system.
It looks like everybody elsehas a bigger support system than
I and I didn't have this.
(39:30):
I didn't have you know what.
God gathers us together.
And then it says in verse threethat he heals the brokenhearted
and he binds up their wounds.
He heals the brokenhearted andhe binds up their wounds and
when he heals you, you arehealed forever.
(39:51):
It can't ever come back.
Whom the son sets free is free,indeed, hallelujah.
So we shouldn't have a mentalhealth crisis in the church.
We should have.
We should have the joy and loveof Jesus.
So if we will really walk inlove, if we'll love God first
(40:13):
and that's the, that's thestandard We've got to love him
first and we've got to put onour own oxygen mask before we
help other people.
And so I think, whenever we'reliving our life according to the
law of love, we're just goingdown in the world and we want to
(40:33):
say Lord, how can I, what isthe fruit that I've really been
saved?
Well, it's my love.
And Jesus said as I have lovedyou, that's the way I want you
to love other people.
Well, you know how Jesus lovedus.
He died, he gave everything.
So I might not be able to giveeverything to one person, but I
(40:59):
can give everything to God andbe obedient to him.
That's all I have to do.
So it takes the pressure off.
I do not have to sucker thewounds of every homeless person
on 249, but I do have to beobedient to God.
I have to be willing to do whathe tells me to do and I'll do
my part.
So true compassion versus toxicempathy.
(41:22):
I made a little chart righthere.
I'm going to go through mylittle chart.
So true, compassion is inspiredby the Holy Spirit.
But toxic empathy is inspiredby the flesh and the desire to
please other people, or iscoerced by just you know, guilt
(41:45):
or shame or some need.
No, be inspired by the HolyGhost.
Know the difference.
True compassion you feel led byGod, you feel pulled in a
direction.
Toxic empathy is pushing youfrom behind.
True compassion doesn't take onthe burden of the result.
(42:07):
You're just obedient to whatGod told you to do and then the
result is up to that person.
Will they receive the word thatyou gave them?
Will they receive the love?
Will they?
And if they won't, then it'snot on you.
You cannot carry that burden.
Jesus already carried it.
Don't you do it.
But toxic empathy will feelresponsible for the other
(42:29):
person's continual happiness atevery minute.
And then we make ourselves adoormat and we don't wanna do
that.
That's toxic.
Don't be a doormat.
Be meek, not weak.
Meekness to obey God's verygentle command, but not weak to
be stepped on and used bypeople's whim.
(42:51):
True compassion leads toredemption and healing, not only
for the other person but foryou.
Toxic empathy leads to enablingunhealthy behavior.
Do not enable other people'sunhealthy behavior.
(43:11):
True compassion acknowledgesthe truth.
If there's an elephant in theroom, if the person is begging
on the side of the road, that'sthe elephant in the room.
They're begging you.
Will they use the money fordrugs or alcohol?
The likelihood is probably ayes.
I would have to have a pillarof fire by night and a cloud by
(43:33):
day to give money to the personon the side of the road.
I mostly won't do it.
I would have to because I feellike I would be high, like I
would, unless I could sharetruth with them.
Now there's one time.
I'll give you an example, james.
I've been with James at gasstations a few times in our
lives.
James at gas stations a fewtimes in our lives, and so one
(43:58):
time, when we were first married, we lived near the bus station
downtown.
We lived in the lofts at theballpark.
It was a really fun time in ourlives, but it was right by the
bus station and there was ahomeless encampment underneath
the like.
We could out our window and soone time we didn't usually get
gas in that part of town but wehad to get gasoline and there
(44:21):
was a homeless person thatreally accosted the truck and I
was in there and James feltthreatened and he had to have
that person get away and he hadto and that person felt very
threatened.
I think James was kind ofmenacing to that person.
You know what?
I was very comforted becauseJames I mean the priority here
is James loves God and um, andthen we've got to love the
(44:45):
people to whom we have acovenant with.
Are you married?
Love that person.
Do you have children?
They are your dependents.
Love them.
Love them first.
Put them first before anyhomeless person.
Make sure, before you dosomething, that it honors God
and that you have honored yourfamily and the people that
you're in covenant with.
And then the word says be goodto all, especially those of the
(45:08):
household of faith.
So do they go to your church,be good to those people first.
Do they go to your?
Are they a believer?
Are they at least a believer?
Be, be, make sure that you'reobeying God in those areas.
And then um, and then, and thenjust be obedient to God, in, in
for areas of evangelism, sothat one, that person.
They did not get any money fromus that night, they did not get
(45:30):
to clean our windshield, theygot to go away.
But then there was another timeat a gas station where there was
a guy in a beat up truck kindof sputtered in there, pulled up
to the and he had his wife.
She was haggardly, she wastired, they had a couple of kids
in the back you could tell thatthey were living in their truck
(45:51):
and or something like that andJames had compassion on him and
he didn't ask for a dime.
That guy didn't ask foranything but James offered to
fill up his truck for him andwhile he was there the whole
time, and whatever long, howeverlong it took, james got to
preach the gospel to him, loveon him and share with him.
And you know, one man waters,another another plants and
(46:13):
another waters and God yieldsthe increase.
James isn't responsible to makesure that that guy personally,
he doesn't usher him into thepearly gates.
I don't know that we, we ledhim to the Lord that exact day,
but he sure did get a witness ofthe gospel that day.
Amen, because James followedthe Holy Ghost and it was nice
that the guy didn't ask.
I'm just saying that's mypersonal opinion.
(46:35):
There was a lady in this weekthat was in the tire store and I
needed new tires.
I needed four new tires on myExplorer.
Hallelujah, we have an abundantsupply.
Did we like buying tires?
No, we didn't want to have tobuy the tires.
And while we were there, whileJames was there, there was
another little lady and and heoverheard her and she just
(46:57):
sounded very distraught becausethey told her well, man, these
last two, yeah, we're going toreplace your other tire that you
came in here for, but thoseother two, and that you really
need to replace them.
They're, they're bald, they'reon the, they're showing the
metal in there and the the steelis, is shining through.
And she said, oh, I'm going tohave to wait, I'm going to have
to wait on that.
(47:17):
And so James found a way tosecretly walk up and arrange
where he could buy those twotires for her.
And it was really I'm braggingon him, not me.
I didn't have anything to dowith it because he did not ask
me, he just told me later.
But he had compassion and I'mglad he followed the Holy Ghost.
(47:39):
I'm glad he did that.
He followed the Holy Ghost.
He just had compassion on arandom person, but I think we do
, and you know what.
So the tire salesman came backto him later when he picked up
my car and got to tell him thestory.
James just told the guy hey,tell her, god bought your tires
today.
And so the guy told her thatand she cried.
(48:01):
She cried, well, she knew thatshe felt the love of God that
day.
And so, Lord, we pray for her,and we're, but we're just doing
our little part.
We're doing our little part.
Now, the good Samaritan did allof the parts, didn't he?
He did all of the parts, but ifyou try to do all the parts for
all the people, you can't.
It's not enough, is it?
(48:22):
That's why I have to have theHoly Ghost, and together all
things are possible.
Amen.
By the way, oh, true, compassionuses your own resources and
does not use the resources ofthe taxpayers.
So put that right there.
Because the taxpayers guesswhat?
(48:42):
When the government gives themoney, when you vote it out of
the government treasury, youthink you're being kind and
loving your neighbor by votingsomething that didn't really
cost you.
It just cost the wholegovernment in general.
So it's an amorphous blob,right, just voted it in.
But that's not our money togive away.
That belongs to all of yourneighbors.
That's not just and fair In myopinion.
(49:04):
Entitlements are not just andfair because and there's no
blessing of the Lord or love.
So the answer to society's illsis for churches to rise up and
be churches again where wedispense resources with love and
care and accountability.
Government requires noaccountability.
(49:25):
Government has no mechanism forloving, it can only just write
checks.
And is money ever the problem?
Money is never the problem.
Money is never.
There's a spiritual the problem.
Money is never the problem.
Money is never there's aspiritual problem that's causing
that need.
Amen.
So the quickly the benefits oflove if we walk in this way.
John 15, nine says if we'll dothat, then we'll bear much fruit
(49:49):
.
Well, our prayers will beanswered.
If we ask anything, we'll getit answered.
If we ask anything we'll get it.
1.
John 4, 17 says if we walk inlove, that love has been
perfected among us in this, thatwe may have boldness in the day
of judgment.
There is no fear in love, butperfect love casts out fear,
(50:10):
because fear involves tormentand he who fears has not been
made perfect in love.
If we can work on our love walk, it'll cast out fear for the
person.
It'll cast out fear in your ownlife.
It casts out fear.
Guess what Luke 6, 38, give andit shall be given unto we.
Apply that all the time in ourmoney and our finances and our
(50:32):
offering times.
Yes, give and it shall be givenunto you.
Guess what it works with love.
Do you feel like the outcast ofIsrael?
Do you feel like the personalways on the outside looking in
?
Find somebody worse off thanyou and love them and be their
good Samaritan and pour the oilin the wine and see if, when you
(50:56):
water somebody else, see if youdo not feel watered.
Also, it is a concept that willnet the law of sowing and
reaping.
Do you are you?
You know we, we teach this allthe time.
When we have a need financially, we sow a seed.
But if you have a needemotionally, sow a seed.
I could.
Oh, I'm going to.
(51:17):
I'm going to quick, quick story.
When I was, I had just graduatedfrom college my whole life, I
felt like my whole life fellapart, and that's dramatic
because I still had my familyand I still could move home and
be supported and eat and have aroof over my head and I wasn't
homeless, hallelujah.
But I graduated from collegeand I didn't.
I didn't like the job that Ichose.
(51:37):
I lasted about three months asa reporter.
I was a journalism major andand the person I thought I was
going to marry that didn't Godsaid no.
I mean, it was very clear to meI could not do that, and so I
was really stuck and I felt, Ihonestly just felt like the
(51:58):
outcast of Israel.
I just felt like I lost every,all of my friends.
I lost all.
Everything had changed.
I had graduated, I moved out ofCollege Station and now I'm
home.
My dad just started this newweird church and I just didn't.
My whole life was just had movedon and I didn't know what to do
(52:18):
.
I was struggling and, um, andour youth pastor quit.
We had a youth pastor lined upand he quit at the last minute,
with no notice, and there wasnobody to do the youth service
that Sunday and I felt like theleast qualified person to walk
the face of the ever earth.
And my dad said Claire, I don'thave anybody to do the youth.
You're going to do the youthfor me.
(52:39):
You're going to do that Justjust till we find somebody.
I said, ok, just see if I'msomebody.
But you know what?
The law of sowing and reapingworked, because, even though I
was heartbroken and lonely andmiserable or whatever, I can
feel sorry for myself and sitaround.
That would have been reallystupid, by the way, because
(53:01):
that's still again first worldproblems.
You know, I had a roof over myhead, I had some things going
for me, but whatever, I didn'tchoose to do that, I had to go.
I had to find some kids thatwere worse off than I was and
that didn't know.
I mean, I didn't feel like Iknew anything, but they knew
even less than I did.
So I got to pour into them andI got to.
(53:21):
And all the church people if,if their kid had a choir concert
, I went to it.
If and if it was boring, ifthey had a baby shower or a
wedding or whatever, I I went to.
That I made.
The church family was my familyand I poured into them.
And guess what?
I was so fulfilled.
I'm still fulfilled and Godbrought me my own family.
But for me, giving emotionallywas the way out of depression,
(53:48):
and I know that that can be thecase for everybody when we give,
it shall be given unto us.
When we water, we will bewatered.
So it's the law of love and itworks.
It always works, and I hopethat helps you tonight.
Amen.
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