April 12, 2025 • 46 mins
The Innkeeper
Welcome to Mesa Palms Seventh-day Adventist Church! We hope that you will find this sermon to be a blessing to you, as you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Woolsey (00:00):
Okay, I know you've seen a lot of me today, and I'm not your speaker that you're waiting to hear from, but I am coming to introduce you to my good friend, Elder Reggie Leach.
And I say my good friend because we have actually known each other for several years now.
We've worked on different committees, but Reggie went with me to my first interview for a district way up in Flagstaff, Arizona.
(00:26):
And so on that drive, we had a little time to talk and kind of get to know each other a little bit.
And in the years that I've known Elder Leach, there's a couple things that I could say.
One, that he has something important to say every time he opens his mouth.
It's never just frivolous talk.
(00:46):
There's always something important that you want to hear.
He has wisdom.
But two, he is also an ordained minister, which means when he comes to the pulpit, he has the word of God to say.
And three, he is a servant of the Lord.
He is one that I've watched him work in many ways for this conference.
And everything that he's done has been exceptional.
(01:09):
So Elder Leach, I would like to pray with you briefly before you speak.
Father in heaven, I thank you for my friendship with Reggie.
I thank you for the time that we've got to spend together and get to know each other.
But I especially thank you that he is here today.
We thank you for the message that you are going to speak through him.
And with that, we pray for your special blessing on our hearts and our ears that we grow to know you just a little bit more today than we did yesterday.
(01:37):
And we pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Pastor Leach (01:41):
Amen.
Thank you, Pastor Vince.
I appreciate those kind words, and I've appreciated your friendship through the years.
It's a privilege and an honor to be here with you today,
and I want to bring you greetings on behalf of our conference president, Elder Ed Keyes,
and on behalf of our executive secretary, Elder Ray Navarro,
(02:05):
both of whom, like me, tend to be preaching in a different pulpit every Sabbath.
And so I didn't get from Ed and Ray exactly where they are this Sabbath, but I know they're somewhere here in our conference sharing the word of God.
So again, it's an honor to be here with you on this Sabbath day.
And I always like to start my presentation by sharing with you a little bit about what's going on around the conference.
(02:31):
And here in the Arizona Conference, we have five core values that we like to promote and just cast the vision of here's how we can grow the kingdom in Arizona if we focus on these five core values.
And you might see that the acronym is based on our president's last name, the keys to growing the kingdom here in Arizona.
(02:55):
So the first one, the K, is for keeping our members involved in participating.
My wife and I and son, we were greeted warmly as we came in today.
Several people passed us and said, hi, happy Sabbath, welcome to our church.
So we know this is a friendly church.
But my question for you is, do you have friends at this church?
(03:19):
Do you bring your friends to church?
Are there new people here who don't have friends at this church yet?
And the way we keep members involved and participating is by making sure that everyone here has a friend.
Because if you have a friend at church, you're much more likely to come back to church and participate and be involved.
(03:47):
The E is for evangelism, having an outward focus, reaching out to our community and neighbors with the good news that Jesus loves us
and that Jesus is coming back again very, very soon.
Do you believe that?
Jesus is coming back soon?
Seems like the signs are all around us
that the last events can happen very quickly.
(04:10):
And so I know this is the year of Pentecost 2025.
Over 80 churches in our conference are participating in that.
And I believe Mesa Palms is one of those.
And so I commend you for that.
And I just encourage your board and your leadership
to make sure that you have an active cycle of evangelism
(04:30):
so that it's happening year after year after year
and that you are, again, inviting your friends
to come be part of our fellowship here
with the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Why is for our youth?
And I would say that our youth are not the future of our church.
Our youth need to be the church today.
(04:52):
And we need to have young people involved in participating,
just like Zoe up here reading the scripture.
That's wonderful.
And I just want to promote here,
we have one of the best resources in the Arizona Conference in Camp Yavapines.
How many of you have been up to Camp Yavapines?
(05:13):
If you haven't, we have a camp meeting coming up the first two weekends of June.
I invite you to at least come up for one of those two weekends
and participate in camp meeting where you can be out in nature,
get away from the heat of the valley a little bit,
and enjoy your time with God up there at camp meeting.
But we also run summer camp for our youth.
(05:36):
And do you know when young people make a decision for Jesus Christ,
just like these two young ladies today?
It's when they're between the ages of 10 and 15.
And that's the time that kids are participating in summer camp,
And they're up in God's nature.
And our camp is always focused on showing Jesus to young people so that they have an opportunity to make a decision for Jesus.
(06:01):
And while we have many evangelistic events happening throughout our conference,
and some of those evangelism events I've heard have had 20, 25, even 30 baptisms.
You know, every summer at Camp Yava Pines, we have 30 to one summer we had 80 baptisms at Camp Yava Pines.
(06:24):
That's more decisions that are made there at camp than anywhere else.
And you as a church can help sponsor young people to come to Camp Yava Pines.
The second E is for education.
Elementary schools and Thunderbird Academy.
And you can read the quote up there while I'm talking.
Thunderbird Academy is the constituent high school of every church in the Arizona Conference.
(06:50):
So we want to encourage you to pray for Thunderbird Academy, pray for the staff and the students.
We would encourage you to support Thunderbird Academy with your giving.
Our academy has many projects that they would like to accomplish,
and it's only through the generosity of our alumni and our members that some of those things can happen.
(07:12):
And there's one really easy way that you can support young people going both to elementary schools and to Thunderbird Academy.
And that's through Arizona Adventist Scholarships, Inc.
It's a state tax organization that the conference operates.
Did you know that you can redirect your Arizona state taxes to a state tax organization and get a dollar-for-dollar refund on that state tax liability?
(07:41):
So my wife and I, every year we give the maximum amount.
This year I believe it was $2,900.
We wrote a check for that.
And I've already sent my tax return in.
And just a week or so ago, I got a deposit right back into my account for most of that money.
(08:02):
So it's like I didn't even really give a very big gift to the academy or to the scholarships fund.
and those dollars go to the elementary schools and the academy
to help young people go to Seventh-day Adventist Christian education.
So if you have more questions about that,
you can still make a donation for 2024 up until April 15th.
(08:25):
So you still have a couple days here to make that happen.
If you have questions about that, you can talk to me afterwards.
You can call the conference office on Monday morning and we can help you out.
And then the last one, the S, is for stewardship.
So in addition to the treasury hat that I wear at the conference, I'm also the stewardship director.
So I'm going to say a little bit about that this morning, interspersed in my sermon.
(08:49):
And the first thing I want to say is we are doing one thing we call the 90-day tithe challenge or the Malachi tithe challenge.
And it's based on Malachi 3.8-10 where God says,
Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you won't have room enough for it.
(09:13):
We believe that your 90% will go further than your original 100% did.
And I could probably spend the whole morning up here telling you stories of testimonies of people who have come to me after my presentations and said,
Elder Leach, I just need to tell you about my story.
(09:33):
And there's some amazing stories that have happened where God has kept his promise
and stretched that 90% to be more than the 100% was before.
And so here's the challenge.
If you're a first-time tither, or maybe you have tithed in the past,
but due to the stress of the economy, your personal financial situation,
(09:56):
your debt situation, whatever the case may be,
maybe you've slipped away from being a faithful tither.
We want to encourage you to take that step of faith and try it again.
Try it for 90 days.
And if God doesn't keep his promise,
the Arizona conference is going to guarantee it.
You give me a call personally at the conference office,
(10:19):
we will refund that 90 days of tithe.
So give it a try and watch God keep his promise.
Second thing I want to say here is about Arizona Advance.
It's an offering we take once a month, I believe on the fourth Sabbath of the month,
if I'm remembering correctly.
And it goes to support all of the ministries I just talked about.
(10:42):
Evangelism, Elementary Education, Thunderbird Academy, and Camp Yava Pines.
And what we would like to encourage you to be is a growing giver.
Last year, we were hoping we would break the $300,000 mark in the Arizona Advance Giving.
Didn't quite get there.
We got to $285,000.
(11:02):
But here's the thing.
Praise God, we had a great year for tithing last year.
It was down a little bit.
But we had over $18 million come in from our Arizona Conference members.
So thank you for your faithfulness here in Mesa Palms.
That's 10% of your income.
(11:22):
we also want to encourage you to support your local church with three to five percent of your
income and then beyond that if you gave just one more percent of your income to support Arizona
advance these ministries here in our conference that one more percent of your income would be
1.8 million dollars rather than the 300,000 that we had last year it would be six times as much
(11:50):
and so the green part of the bars is what represents that six times as much.
We would have over 800,000 more for evangelism.
We would have over 300,000 more for our elementary schools
and almost 250,000 more for Camp Yava Pines and Thunderbird Academy
if everybody grew to be a growing giver
(12:13):
and gave just one more percent of their income for Arizona Advance.
So we invite you to pray about that, think about that,
consider whether you can be a growing giver in 2025.
I have a short video I'd like to share with you here this morning
(12:34):
as we begin the sermon part of the service here.
Why do
we give?
We give because it reminds us that all we have belongs to God in the first place.
(12:54):
We give because it moves the mission of God forward and upward in this world.
We give because an investment in the kingdom of God will never return void.
We give because it breaks the temptation toward greed and materialism.
We give because radical generosity leads to radical change in our lives, our churches, our communities, and in our world.
(13:23):
We give because giving is a gift.
Not just for those who receive something, but giving is a gift for those who give.
For Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
So what would it look like for you, this year, to be generous?
To not just ask, what can I spare?
(13:44):
But instead to ask, what will it take?
When God's blessing comes to us, it must also go through us.
Because generosity isn't just something God wants from us.
Generosity is something God wants for us.
That is the gift of giving.
(14:15):
as we open God's word this morning let's have another prayer father in heaven lord we thank
you for the freedom we have to join here together on this sabbath day to come to worship you to
fellowship and to hear words from your book of the Bible, the truth and the blessing that
we can live a generous life.
(14:36):
And so today, Lord, we just ask as we open your word that your spirit will be here, that
you will give us open hearts and open minds.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
An Arizona man's simple act of kindness sounds like a story coming right out of the Bible.
(14:56):
David Lee Witherspoon was leaving his job at a food pantry in Phoenix, Arizona
when as he came out of the building he saw somebody crawling on their all fours on the blazing pavement.
Now it's just starting to get hot here, but we all know how hot it gets in the middle of the summer.
He immediately ran to the man and asked him, what's wrong?
(15:18):
The man explained that he had become homeless and didn't have any shoes to protect his feet.
from the asphalt and the searing ground.
Witherspoon quickly went to his car and grabbed a pair of shoes and a bottle of water
and ran back to the man and bent down and carefully washed his feet
(15:39):
before slipping on a new pair of shoes.
Witherspoon says he keeps multiple pairs of shoes in his car so he can switch them out
between his office job at Phoenix Veterans Affairs and his volunteer job at the food pantry.
While many are quick to call Weatherspoon's act something heroic, he says that what he did was simple.
(16:05):
A lot of people give up on people now.
That's the biggest problem, Weatherspoon explained.
I mean, you don't have to empty your wallet or anything like that.
Just a simple act of kindness.
In our text this morning again, this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life.
(16:29):
Our world is filled with disturbing news stories.
Here we are early in the year, and I've read that there have already been multiple mass shootings here in America in 2025.
We also regularly hear about other disasters, shootings, fires, wrong way drivers,
(16:52):
as well as natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
Our world is old. It's straining and dying.
It's at least in part why Jesus says in Matthew 6, 19 to 21,
He says, do not lay up for yourself treasure here on earth.
Why not? Because we're not supposed to have any treasure on earth?
(17:16):
Well, no, it's just not a smart place to put your investment.
Jesus explains it. He says, because moth and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal.
All these natural disasters destroy what we accumulate.
So why would we invest in a place where it's not going to last?
(17:38):
So then we think, well, maybe it's foolish to have an investment at all.
Maybe Jesus doesn't want us to have any treasure.
But then he flips it around and he says, lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.
Why?
Because that's the smart place to put your investment.
Neither moth nor rust destroy.
(18:01):
Thieves do not break in and steal.
And there's not natural disasters up in heaven.
So it's a smart place to put your investment.
Would any of us invest or deposit our money in a bank
if we knew that bank was going to go belly up next week?
Would we buy stock in a company that we knew was going to go bankrupt soon?
(18:24):
No, we wouldn't.
But here we are on this earth that we know is straining and dying and falling apart.
And many of us are building our kingdom here on earth
and amassing treasure here on earth that is soon going to be destroyed.
And so Jesus finishes it up by saying,
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(18:47):
It's smart to invest our treasure where it's going to last forever for eternity.
So despite the bad news surrounding us,
it's good to occasionally get some good news, right?
So we occasionally hear a Good Samaritan story about people helping others in extenuating circumstances.
Stories like the one I opened with.
(19:10):
As I was researching this sermon, I googled Good Samaritan.
And I invite you to do that this afternoon or tomorrow and see how many stories you find about Good Samaritans.
But what does Good Samaritan have to do with stewardship?
Well, Christian giving is a way that we worship God.
(19:32):
It shows our love for him and expresses our stewardship over all our material things and resources that God has entrusted to us.
Because who is the owner of everything?
Who's the owner of everything?
Why is he the owner?
Because he's the creator.
(19:54):
That's right.
God's the owner because he's the creator.
So our growth in giving, though, is more than just about money.
It's first about people.
And people serving people is what is illustrated in Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan.
It's about character more than cash.
(20:16):
It's about people doing the right thing.
People serving other people.
So let's look at that story this morning.
It's in Luke 10.
You can open your Bible to Luke 10.
It starts in verses 25 to 29.
The verses will also be up here on the screen if you would like to follow along.
(20:36):
And it starts out this way.
Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying,
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Now, our standard perception of lawyers,
and there may be some lawyers here in the congregation this morning,
But our standard perception of lawyers is somewhat colored by our current perception of what lawyers do in our society today.
(21:02):
So maybe we take off down the wrong path here when we are looking to understand this story.
The NIV says this lawyer was an expert in the law.
The law he was an expert in was the total religious and civil statutes of the Jewish kingdom of the time.
613 laws in the Old Testament.
(21:24):
While lawyers we know today tend to specialize in a certain area of the law, personal injury law, corporate law, family law, labor law, tax law, maybe they're into criminal prosecution or criminal defense, this lawyer who confronted Jesus was evidently an expert in all of the religious Jewish laws.
(21:48):
Lawyers today, for the most part, keep out of religious law, for which we're very thankful.
In fact, we as Seventh-day Adventists are on the forefront of maintaining religious liberty,
a separation of church and state.
And next month, keep your eyes open for the announcements.
(22:10):
Next month at Camelback Church, there's going to be a Sabbath on religious liberty.
He might say this lawyer was the consummate church bureaucrat.
He was on a mission to discredit, entrap, or at the very least embarrass Jesus.
But with his own question, he embarrasses himself.
(22:31):
Think it through.
He asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Do we do anything to receive an inheritance?
Do we earn an inheritance by what we do?
No, an inheritance is based on who you are related to, not based on your actions.
(22:53):
So his question reflects the legalistic society and the religious culture that he represented back in that time.
The same applies to legalism throughout the ages of church history.
We assume that salvation is a matter of what can I do to save myself?
And I think that's kind of in American culture, we kind of make sure that that's the way we think because, you know, we want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
(23:27):
We want to make sure we're self-sufficient.
We want to make sure we're not relying on anybody else.
And that bleeds over into our understanding of grace and salvation.
How can I earn enough merit to be valuable enough for God to save me?
These questions use the same self-centered, insecure perception as this expert lawyer.
(23:51):
So Jesus answered in verse 26, and he turned the question around.
He says, what is written in the law?
What is your reading of it?
So this lawyer, he's an expert.
He should know this, right?
So Jesus puts it back on him and says, what do you read?
what's in the law?
Well, the lawyer responded in verse 27.
(24:14):
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength,
and with all your mind.
That came from Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5.
And then he concluded by saying,
and love your neighbor as yourself,
from Leviticus 19, 18.
Nothing wrong there.
Good texts, good intentions.
(24:36):
And Jesus recognizes the validity and answers in verse 28.
He says, you have answered rightly.
Do this and you will live.
But the lawyer still wanted to entrap Jesus or get him to mess up somehow.
He wanted to also justify himself.
So he says, and who is my neighbor?
(25:00):
As fully as he knew the law, after all, he was an expert.
He knew the legalistic performance of self-serving religious rituals.
And he realized that that did not answer the gracious requirements of service to a loving God and to his fellow man.
(25:22):
So he sought to justify himself.
And in wanting to justify himself, he gave testimony to his own unjust state, even as an expert in the law.
You see, there's no assurance of salvation in his legalistic way of looking at things.
And Jesus knew that there was no stewardship in his service to God,
(25:46):
nor in his relationship with his neighbors.
So Jesus responds, do this and you will live.
It's interesting to note here that Jesus doesn't refer to eternal life as a distant reward.
he says do this and you will live.
For Jesus eternal life is a matter of quality not quantity.
(26:12):
For the followers of Christ eternal life begins the moment they accept Jesus.
Just as we witnessed this morning with the baptisms eternal life begins today for those two young ladies.
It's a quality of life that's worth living forever.
And no other lifestyle is worth living at all, either now or for eternity.
(26:39):
But the expert, sensing the bankrupt state of his own religious life and feeling the inadequacy of his stewardship, wanted to justify himself.
So he asks, somewhat sarcastically, I imagine, and who is my neighbor?
After all, he was an expert in the law.
He would need to know exactly how far he needed to take this neighbor thing.
(27:05):
Didn't want to take that idea of loving kindness too far.
Let's just get over the bar, right?
We don't want to do too much, just enough.
Reminds me when I was in college.
In high school, I had been kind of the jock athlete guy and kind of messed around a little bit.
(27:26):
Didn't always get the best grades, and I went to college,
and I realized how much my parents were investing in that.
And I said to myself, okay, now I've got to take studying seriously, right?
I'm going to do really well.
I'm going to get myself a 4.0.
So my first quarter at Walla Walla, I did just that.
I studied and I studied and I studied.
(27:47):
And at the end of the quarter, I had three A's and one C.
And I thought to myself, okay, wait a minute.
All four of these grades are passing grades, right?
I'm still passing my classes.
Now I know exactly what it takes to get a C.
(28:08):
I think I'll have fun in college, too.
You know, I know just enough.
I can get just above the bar.
And I think that's what this lawyer was asking, too.
How much is enough to get just above the bar?
Don't want to take it too far.
Just far enough.
So Jesus launches into his story of the Good Samaritan that we're all so familiar with.
(28:31):
In fact, the title Good Samaritan has kind of taken on a life of its own
as a description of helpful people who give assistance to others,
sometimes even at great risk to themselves or maybe at great expense to themselves.
And rightly so.
Altruism on the part of the Samaritan is placed in stark contrast
(28:52):
to the other characters in the plot, the priest and the Levite.
But often our titles for these parables focus our attention so narrowly
that we overlook the rich imagery in the other portions of the story.
So let's apply a rule for interpreting the story this morning.
(29:17):
Let's put ourselves, put yourself in the place of each character.
Put yourself in the place of everyone in the story.
The Good Samaritan story seems to be a standalone story,
because as soon as Jesus finishes this,
(29:38):
he launches into another story about Mary and Martha,
a total different take on stewardship and service.
But for this story, perhaps it was one of the local disturbing news stories that had been recently heard from the town crier
about robbers in the area attacking helpless travelers.
(29:59):
But that didn't really get to the rest of the story until Jesus told his version of it, his account of it.
And he starts out in verse 30.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
(30:23):
Indeed, it was a trip down from the mountain of Jerusalem to the river valley of the Jordan where Jericho was.
It was a winding wilderness trip fraught with hazards for the traveler, not the least of which was roving bands of lawless thieves,
who hid behind the rocks and in the arroyos near the road.
(30:46):
And it was this poor traveler's misfortune to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
And he fell into the hands of these robbers.
Their work was quick and ruthless.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and left him half dead.
What is half dead?
(31:08):
Aren't you either dead or alive?
Well, I'm guessing that this means that they beat him so severely that without some medical assistance or rescue quite soon, he would be completely dead.
Think about it. It's the same with us here in our journey here on earth.
(31:32):
We've been stripped of the righteous dignity which with the creator created us.
We were created in the image of God, after all.
And look at us now.
We've been left doomed to die, if not for rescue, quite soon.
(31:52):
Yet remember that one of the rules for the story is interpretation
is to put ourselves in the place of each character in the story.
So have you put yourself in the place of the victim?
Have you been beaten up and robbed and left half dead?
Have you put yourself in the place of the robbers?
(32:17):
And you might say, I've never been a thief.
I've never mugged anybody.
I wouldn't physically beat up an innocent person.
Yet have we ever, even by legal means, defrauded our fellow man or the government on our taxes?
Have we ever beaten others up without mercy, with unkind words, or with posts on social media?
(32:45):
The methodology might not be as physically severe, but the results may be just as devastating,
leaving our victims battered, half dead, while we selfishly pursue our personal gain or advantage.
However, there's more lessons in the parable, and it continues on in verse 31.
(33:07):
Now by chance, a certain priest came down the road,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Really?
A priest?
A religious leader?
How could he be so heartless?
How could he be so insensitive?
Isn't it the job of the priest or the pastor, Pastor Vince?
(33:29):
Isn't it the job of the pastor in our modern day to save the lost?
Of course, there's the possibility that he had feared the same fate if he lingered on the scene.
He had heard about these robbers as well, so he's thinking,
I better just scurry on to Jericho so I don't get robbed and beaten and left half dead.
(33:51):
You really can't blame him for a sense of self-preservation, can you?
But maybe there was a deeper reason, an even more distressing cause for his apparent callousness.
in this situation.
He was a priest after all,
and he was journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Maybe he was on his way to perform
(34:12):
some religious service in Jericho.
And you know what would have happened
if he had touched the bloody mess,
maybe even the dead body,
since he didn't even check it out carefully.
He passed by on the other side, right?
He didn't look very close.
He didn't know if the guy was dead or alive.
(34:33):
he would have been ceremonially unclean and therefore unable to perform his religious duties
due to all the required washings and days of impurity.
Perhaps his zealousness for the law actually prevented any act of kindness or charity.
That's a disturbing thought, isn't it?
(34:55):
But remember, you are everyone in the story.
So perhaps even those of us who are so zealously playing church and performing religious and
churchly rituals, maybe we find that we don't have enough time for acts of kindness and
mercy.
Maybe those things seem to interfere with our ongoing process of religious activity.
(35:22):
So put yourself in the place of the priest.
Would you have made sure you had self-preservation by hurrying on as quickly as possible?
Likewise, verse 32, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and then passed by on the other side.
(35:45):
The Levite was no better.
In fact, he was probably worse.
Rather than just hurrying by in a sense of self-preservation,
it says he came and looked before passing by.
He observed how serious the situation was.
But for whatever reason, as a religious leader,
he didn't see any work for the Lord in this wretched circumstance.
(36:09):
So put yourself in the place of the Levite.
Would you check it out?
And then say, I'm not going to get involved.
It's not for me.
I'm not going to speak up.
I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not going to make a comment for those who are less advantaged than I am.
(36:31):
Then Jesus continues in verse 33.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was,
and when he saw him, he had compassion.
So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine,
And he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn to take care of him.
(36:51):
What is Jesus saying here?
Well, for one thing, he's reporting the new account of what actually occurred.
But more than just recounting the events,
Jesus is indicating that a despised religious and social outcast
is sometimes more responsive to life in the kingdom of God
(37:13):
than the respected church leaders.
Remember, the lawyer was trying to trap Jesus
and trip him up with a hard question.
Here, Jesus identifies himself
not with the pious elite of Jewish society,
but with the outcast, the Samaritan.
(37:36):
With Jesus as our example, we should do likewise.
Indeed, identifying with everyone in the story
You know, if I would have asked you this in advance, who in this story do you identify with?
What would our response have been?
Probably 99% of us would have said, oh, I identify with the Samaritan, right?
(37:58):
I wouldn't have been hard-hearted and callous like the Levite.
I wouldn't have been cold and detached like the priest.
I would have been compassionate and caring, just like the Samaritan in the story.
but there's one more character remaining in the story that we often overlook
(38:18):
so after providing for the victim's healing from his own provisions
the Samaritan walks while putting the victim on his own animal
as transportation for the wounded man
taking him to the inn he stays with the man for the night
and on the following morning he pays for lodging and future care
(38:42):
as the wounded man heals and recovers.
So remember, you are everyone in the story.
Now Jesus addresses the innkeeper.
On the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii,
gave them to the innkeeper and said to him,
(39:02):
take care of him and whatever more you spend,
When I come again, I will repay you.
Ah, the innkeeper.
Here's the stewardship part of our story.
Our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, finds broken and bleeding along the path of life.
He brings them to us, the church, to care for as they heal from their wounds.
(39:29):
He pays the price for them, for their care, and the gifts that he gives to us, the church.
But he also reminds us that it will require the use of our own resources to give this care.
It says, whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.
(39:56):
So I want to pause here to just give a few stewardship principles as we're nearing the end.
First of all, who is the owner of everything?
God.
God is the owner of everything.
Many texts in the Bible talk about that.
But Psalms 50 verses 10 to 12 is just one example.
(40:16):
And again, it's not what God wants from you because he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
It's what God wants for you.
God wants for you to live with an abundance mindset.
He wants you to live an abundant life.
(40:38):
Now don't get confused.
This isn't health and wealth gospel here.
Those who live an abundant life with an abundant mindset rely on God's promises.
Such as the one in Philippians 4 verse 19.
where it says my God will supply all my needs, right?
(41:02):
Not every little thing I want,
but God has promised to supply all of our needs.
If you believe his promise,
you can live with an abundance mindset
because the opposite of that is living with a scarcity mindset.
A scarcity mindset is one where we live in fear of the future
(41:22):
because we never know if we have enough.
What if I don't have enough to last me until tomorrow
or next week or next month or next year?
We can all remember the scarcity mindset, right?
Just a few short years ago at the start of the pandemic,
(41:43):
could you find any toilet paper anywhere?
That's an example of scarcity mindset.
What if I don't have enough toilet paper to last till next month or next year?
But here's the problem.
No matter how much we accumulate, it's never enough.
(42:04):
We might need more tomorrow.
We might need more next month.
We might need more next year.
So we become like the rich fool in Jesus' parable in Luke 12, 18,
Just a couple of chapters later where the rich fool said what?
He said, I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns and I'll store up more stuff.
(42:27):
And then I'll have enough to sit back and enjoy life.
Did he ever accomplish that?
No, he didn't make it to his goal.
So where we place our trust shows where our heart is
because our heart always follows our treasure.
(42:49):
Matthew 6, 21.
Our heart always follows our treasure.
So again, the place to invest our treasure
is in the kingdom of God
rather than in things of the earth.
But here's the cool thing about this parable.
It doesn't leave us without the promise of restitution.
(43:11):
Jesus says, when I come again, I will repay you.
Here's the promise of the return.
It's both a stewardship parable, a service parable, and a second coming parable.
And the promise of restitution is infinitely beyond anything we could possibly spend of our own resources.
(43:32):
For the promise of return on investment brings with it a promise of eternal life in the kingdom of God.
So church, you are the innkeeper.
The Holy Spirit, through our evangelism events, brings broken and bleeding and hurt people into this place to be cared for.
(43:56):
And it's up to you to provide that care, that friendship, that love, that support.
It's up to you to use your resources to make ministry happen.
Here in our local church, in our conference,
and the cool thing about the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
we're one of only two worldwide churches
(44:18):
because we share horizontally bigger churches here in the metro area,
share with smaller churches in the rural areas so that they can have pastoral care.
We also share vertically with our division, our union, our division, and the general conference.
And that's how we've managed to become a worldwide church.
(44:43):
When I was missionary in Guam, some of my salary was paid with dollars that were shared up to the general conference.
That's how we grow the kingdom of God, both here in Arizona and around the world.
So the lawyer asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
(45:04):
And Jesus, by this story, makes it simple.
Join him in the stewardship of loving service to our fellow man, and you will live.
But not only will service make your life worth living here and now,
you will also be fully rewarded with eternal life when he comes again.
(45:26):
Isn't it beautiful that we can know now today that we have the assurance of salvation?
God's given his promise in 1 John 5, verses 11 to 13, and this is the testimony.
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life.
(45:47):
He who does not have the Son does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God
so that you may know that you have eternal life.
What a beautiful promise.
While there's nothing we can do to earn the merit,
(46:08):
nothing we can do to earn the mercy, the grace, the forgiveness that God promises us,
Jesus has given us salvation.
He's paid the price for our sins.
He died on the cross for you and for me.
Isn't it wonderful to know
(46:29):
that we have the opportunity to invest in the kingdom of God?
Okay, I know you've seen a lot of me today, and I'm not your speaker that you're waiting to hear from, but I am coming to introduce you to my good friend, Elder Reggie Leach.
And I say my good friend because we have actually known each other for several years now.
We've worked on different committees, but Reggie went with me to my first interview for a district way up in Flagstaff, Arizona.
(00:26):
And so on that drive, we had a little time to talk and kind of get to know each other a little bit.
And in the years that I've known Elder Leach, there's a couple things that I could say.
One, that he has something important to say every time he opens his mouth.
It's never just frivolous talk.
(00:46):
There's always something important that you want to hear.
He has wisdom.
But two, he is also an ordained minister, which means when he comes to the pulpit, he has the word of God to say.
And three, he is a servant of the Lord.
He is one that I've watched him work in many ways for this conference.
And everything that he's done has been exceptional.
(01:09):
So Elder Leach, I would like to pray with you briefly before you speak.
Father in heaven, I thank you for my friendship with Reggie.
I thank you for the time that we've got to spend together and get to know each other.
But I especially thank you that he is here today.
We thank you for the message that you are going to speak through him.
And with that, we pray for your special blessing on our hearts and our ears that we grow to know you just a little bit more today than we did yesterday.
(01:37):
And we pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Pastor Leach (01:41):
Amen.
Thank you, Pastor Vince.
I appreciate those kind words, and I've appreciated your friendship through the years.
It's a privilege and an honor to be here with you today,
and I want to bring you greetings on behalf of our conference president, Elder Ed Keyes,
and on behalf of our executive secretary, Elder Ray Navarro,
(02:05):
both of whom, like me, tend to be preaching in a different pulpit every Sabbath.
And so I didn't get from Ed and Ray exactly where they are this Sabbath, but I know they're somewhere here in our conference sharing the word of God.
So again, it's an honor to be here with you on this Sabbath day.
And I always like to start my presentation by sharing with you a little bit about what's going on around the conference.
(02:31):
And here in the Arizona Conference, we have five core values that we like to promote and just cast the vision of here's how we can grow the kingdom in Arizona if we focus on these five core values.
And you might see that the acronym is based on our president's last name, the keys to growing the kingdom here in Arizona.
(02:55):
So the first one, the K, is for keeping our members involved in participating.
My wife and I and son, we were greeted warmly as we came in today.
Several people passed us and said, hi, happy Sabbath, welcome to our church.
So we know this is a friendly church.
But my question for you is, do you have friends at this church?
(03:19):
Do you bring your friends to church?
Are there new people here who don't have friends at this church yet?
And the way we keep members involved and participating is by making sure that everyone here has a friend.
Because if you have a friend at church, you're much more likely to come back to church and participate and be involved.
(03:47):
The E is for evangelism, having an outward focus, reaching out to our community and neighbors with the good news that Jesus loves us
and that Jesus is coming back again very, very soon.
Do you believe that?
Jesus is coming back soon?
Seems like the signs are all around us
that the last events can happen very quickly.
(04:10):
And so I know this is the year of Pentecost 2025.
Over 80 churches in our conference are participating in that.
And I believe Mesa Palms is one of those.
And so I commend you for that.
And I just encourage your board and your leadership
to make sure that you have an active cycle of evangelism
(04:30):
so that it's happening year after year after year
and that you are, again, inviting your friends
to come be part of our fellowship here
with the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Why is for our youth?
And I would say that our youth are not the future of our church.
Our youth need to be the church today.
(04:52):
And we need to have young people involved in participating,
just like Zoe up here reading the scripture.
That's wonderful.
And I just want to promote here,
we have one of the best resources in the Arizona Conference in Camp Yavapines.
How many of you have been up to Camp Yavapines?
(05:13):
If you haven't, we have a camp meeting coming up the first two weekends of June.
I invite you to at least come up for one of those two weekends
and participate in camp meeting where you can be out in nature,
get away from the heat of the valley a little bit,
and enjoy your time with God up there at camp meeting.
But we also run summer camp for our youth.
(05:36):
And do you know when young people make a decision for Jesus Christ,
just like these two young ladies today?
It's when they're between the ages of 10 and 15.
And that's the time that kids are participating in summer camp,
And they're up in God's nature.
And our camp is always focused on showing Jesus to young people so that they have an opportunity to make a decision for Jesus.
(06:01):
And while we have many evangelistic events happening throughout our conference,
and some of those evangelism events I've heard have had 20, 25, even 30 baptisms.
You know, every summer at Camp Yava Pines, we have 30 to one summer we had 80 baptisms at Camp Yava Pines.
(06:24):
That's more decisions that are made there at camp than anywhere else.
And you as a church can help sponsor young people to come to Camp Yava Pines.
The second E is for education.
Elementary schools and Thunderbird Academy.
And you can read the quote up there while I'm talking.
Thunderbird Academy is the constituent high school of every church in the Arizona Conference.
(06:50):
So we want to encourage you to pray for Thunderbird Academy, pray for the staff and the students.
We would encourage you to support Thunderbird Academy with your giving.
Our academy has many projects that they would like to accomplish,
and it's only through the generosity of our alumni and our members that some of those things can happen.
(07:12):
And there's one really easy way that you can support young people going both to elementary schools and to Thunderbird Academy.
And that's through Arizona Adventist Scholarships, Inc.
It's a state tax organization that the conference operates.
Did you know that you can redirect your Arizona state taxes to a state tax organization and get a dollar-for-dollar refund on that state tax liability?
(07:41):
So my wife and I, every year we give the maximum amount.
This year I believe it was $2,900.
We wrote a check for that.
And I've already sent my tax return in.
And just a week or so ago, I got a deposit right back into my account for most of that money.
(08:02):
So it's like I didn't even really give a very big gift to the academy or to the scholarships fund.
and those dollars go to the elementary schools and the academy
to help young people go to Seventh-day Adventist Christian education.
So if you have more questions about that,
you can still make a donation for 2024 up until April 15th.
(08:25):
So you still have a couple days here to make that happen.
If you have questions about that, you can talk to me afterwards.
You can call the conference office on Monday morning and we can help you out.
And then the last one, the S, is for stewardship.
So in addition to the treasury hat that I wear at the conference, I'm also the stewardship director.
So I'm going to say a little bit about that this morning, interspersed in my sermon.
(08:49):
And the first thing I want to say is we are doing one thing we call the 90-day tithe challenge or the Malachi tithe challenge.
And it's based on Malachi 3.8-10 where God says,
Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you won't have room enough for it.
(09:13):
We believe that your 90% will go further than your original 100% did.
And I could probably spend the whole morning up here telling you stories of testimonies of people who have come to me after my presentations and said,
Elder Leach, I just need to tell you about my story.
(09:33):
And there's some amazing stories that have happened where God has kept his promise
and stretched that 90% to be more than the 100% was before.
And so here's the challenge.
If you're a first-time tither, or maybe you have tithed in the past,
but due to the stress of the economy, your personal financial situation,
(09:56):
your debt situation, whatever the case may be,
maybe you've slipped away from being a faithful tither.
We want to encourage you to take that step of faith and try it again.
Try it for 90 days.
And if God doesn't keep his promise,
the Arizona conference is going to guarantee it.
You give me a call personally at the conference office,
(10:19):
we will refund that 90 days of tithe.
So give it a try and watch God keep his promise.
Second thing I want to say here is about Arizona Advance.
It's an offering we take once a month, I believe on the fourth Sabbath of the month,
if I'm remembering correctly.
And it goes to support all of the ministries I just talked about.
(10:42):
Evangelism, Elementary Education, Thunderbird Academy, and Camp Yava Pines.
And what we would like to encourage you to be is a growing giver.
Last year, we were hoping we would break the $300,000 mark in the Arizona Advance Giving.
Didn't quite get there.
We got to $285,000.
(11:02):
But here's the thing.
Praise God, we had a great year for tithing last year.
It was down a little bit.
But we had over $18 million come in from our Arizona Conference members.
So thank you for your faithfulness here in Mesa Palms.
That's 10% of your income.
(11:22):
we also want to encourage you to support your local church with three to five percent of your
income and then beyond that if you gave just one more percent of your income to support Arizona
advance these ministries here in our conference that one more percent of your income would be
1.8 million dollars rather than the 300,000 that we had last year it would be six times as much
(11:50):
and so the green part of the bars is what represents that six times as much.
We would have over 800,000 more for evangelism.
We would have over 300,000 more for our elementary schools
and almost 250,000 more for Camp Yava Pines and Thunderbird Academy
if everybody grew to be a growing giver
(12:13):
and gave just one more percent of their income for Arizona Advance.
So we invite you to pray about that, think about that,
consider whether you can be a growing giver in 2025.
I have a short video I'd like to share with you here this morning
(12:34):
as we begin the sermon part of the service here.
Why do
we give?
We give because it reminds us that all we have belongs to God in the first place.
(12:54):
We give because it moves the mission of God forward and upward in this world.
We give because an investment in the kingdom of God will never return void.
We give because it breaks the temptation toward greed and materialism.
We give because radical generosity leads to radical change in our lives, our churches, our communities, and in our world.
(13:23):
We give because giving is a gift.
Not just for those who receive something, but giving is a gift for those who give.
For Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
So what would it look like for you, this year, to be generous?
To not just ask, what can I spare?
(13:44):
But instead to ask, what will it take?
When God's blessing comes to us, it must also go through us.
Because generosity isn't just something God wants from us.
Generosity is something God wants for us.
That is the gift of giving.
(14:15):
as we open God's word this morning let's have another prayer father in heaven lord we thank
you for the freedom we have to join here together on this sabbath day to come to worship you to
fellowship and to hear words from your book of the Bible, the truth and the blessing that
we can live a generous life.
(14:36):
And so today, Lord, we just ask as we open your word that your spirit will be here, that
you will give us open hearts and open minds.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
An Arizona man's simple act of kindness sounds like a story coming right out of the Bible.
(14:56):
David Lee Witherspoon was leaving his job at a food pantry in Phoenix, Arizona
when as he came out of the building he saw somebody crawling on their all fours on the blazing pavement.
Now it's just starting to get hot here, but we all know how hot it gets in the middle of the summer.
He immediately ran to the man and asked him, what's wrong?
(15:18):
The man explained that he had become homeless and didn't have any shoes to protect his feet.
from the asphalt and the searing ground.
Witherspoon quickly went to his car and grabbed a pair of shoes and a bottle of water
and ran back to the man and bent down and carefully washed his feet
(15:39):
before slipping on a new pair of shoes.
Witherspoon says he keeps multiple pairs of shoes in his car so he can switch them out
between his office job at Phoenix Veterans Affairs and his volunteer job at the food pantry.
While many are quick to call Weatherspoon's act something heroic, he says that what he did was simple.
(16:05):
A lot of people give up on people now.
That's the biggest problem, Weatherspoon explained.
I mean, you don't have to empty your wallet or anything like that.
Just a simple act of kindness.
In our text this morning again, this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life.
(16:29):
Our world is filled with disturbing news stories.
Here we are early in the year, and I've read that there have already been multiple mass shootings here in America in 2025.
We also regularly hear about other disasters, shootings, fires, wrong way drivers,
(16:52):
as well as natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
Our world is old. It's straining and dying.
It's at least in part why Jesus says in Matthew 6, 19 to 21,
He says, do not lay up for yourself treasure here on earth.
Why not? Because we're not supposed to have any treasure on earth?
(17:16):
Well, no, it's just not a smart place to put your investment.
Jesus explains it. He says, because moth and rust destroy, thieves break in and steal.
All these natural disasters destroy what we accumulate.
So why would we invest in a place where it's not going to last?
(17:38):
So then we think, well, maybe it's foolish to have an investment at all.
Maybe Jesus doesn't want us to have any treasure.
But then he flips it around and he says, lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.
Why?
Because that's the smart place to put your investment.
Neither moth nor rust destroy.
(18:01):
Thieves do not break in and steal.
And there's not natural disasters up in heaven.
So it's a smart place to put your investment.
Would any of us invest or deposit our money in a bank
if we knew that bank was going to go belly up next week?
Would we buy stock in a company that we knew was going to go bankrupt soon?
(18:24):
No, we wouldn't.
But here we are on this earth that we know is straining and dying and falling apart.
And many of us are building our kingdom here on earth
and amassing treasure here on earth that is soon going to be destroyed.
And so Jesus finishes it up by saying,
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(18:47):
It's smart to invest our treasure where it's going to last forever for eternity.
So despite the bad news surrounding us,
it's good to occasionally get some good news, right?
So we occasionally hear a Good Samaritan story about people helping others in extenuating circumstances.
Stories like the one I opened with.
(19:10):
As I was researching this sermon, I googled Good Samaritan.
And I invite you to do that this afternoon or tomorrow and see how many stories you find about Good Samaritans.
But what does Good Samaritan have to do with stewardship?
Well, Christian giving is a way that we worship God.
(19:32):
It shows our love for him and expresses our stewardship over all our material things and resources that God has entrusted to us.
Because who is the owner of everything?
Who's the owner of everything?
Why is he the owner?
Because he's the creator.
(19:54):
That's right.
God's the owner because he's the creator.
So our growth in giving, though, is more than just about money.
It's first about people.
And people serving people is what is illustrated in Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan.
It's about character more than cash.
(20:16):
It's about people doing the right thing.
People serving other people.
So let's look at that story this morning.
It's in Luke 10.
You can open your Bible to Luke 10.
It starts in verses 25 to 29.
The verses will also be up here on the screen if you would like to follow along.
(20:36):
And it starts out this way.
Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying,
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Now, our standard perception of lawyers,
and there may be some lawyers here in the congregation this morning,
But our standard perception of lawyers is somewhat colored by our current perception of what lawyers do in our society today.
(21:02):
So maybe we take off down the wrong path here when we are looking to understand this story.
The NIV says this lawyer was an expert in the law.
The law he was an expert in was the total religious and civil statutes of the Jewish kingdom of the time.
613 laws in the Old Testament.
(21:24):
While lawyers we know today tend to specialize in a certain area of the law, personal injury law, corporate law, family law, labor law, tax law, maybe they're into criminal prosecution or criminal defense, this lawyer who confronted Jesus was evidently an expert in all of the religious Jewish laws.
(21:48):
Lawyers today, for the most part, keep out of religious law, for which we're very thankful.
In fact, we as Seventh-day Adventists are on the forefront of maintaining religious liberty,
a separation of church and state.
And next month, keep your eyes open for the announcements.
(22:10):
Next month at Camelback Church, there's going to be a Sabbath on religious liberty.
He might say this lawyer was the consummate church bureaucrat.
He was on a mission to discredit, entrap, or at the very least embarrass Jesus.
But with his own question, he embarrasses himself.
(22:31):
Think it through.
He asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Do we do anything to receive an inheritance?
Do we earn an inheritance by what we do?
No, an inheritance is based on who you are related to, not based on your actions.
(22:53):
So his question reflects the legalistic society and the religious culture that he represented back in that time.
The same applies to legalism throughout the ages of church history.
We assume that salvation is a matter of what can I do to save myself?
And I think that's kind of in American culture, we kind of make sure that that's the way we think because, you know, we want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
(23:27):
We want to make sure we're self-sufficient.
We want to make sure we're not relying on anybody else.
And that bleeds over into our understanding of grace and salvation.
How can I earn enough merit to be valuable enough for God to save me?
These questions use the same self-centered, insecure perception as this expert lawyer.
(23:51):
So Jesus answered in verse 26, and he turned the question around.
He says, what is written in the law?
What is your reading of it?
So this lawyer, he's an expert.
He should know this, right?
So Jesus puts it back on him and says, what do you read?
what's in the law?
Well, the lawyer responded in verse 27.
(24:14):
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength,
and with all your mind.
That came from Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5.
And then he concluded by saying,
and love your neighbor as yourself,
from Leviticus 19, 18.
Nothing wrong there.
Good texts, good intentions.
(24:36):
And Jesus recognizes the validity and answers in verse 28.
He says, you have answered rightly.
Do this and you will live.
But the lawyer still wanted to entrap Jesus or get him to mess up somehow.
He wanted to also justify himself.
So he says, and who is my neighbor?
(25:00):
As fully as he knew the law, after all, he was an expert.
He knew the legalistic performance of self-serving religious rituals.
And he realized that that did not answer the gracious requirements of service to a loving God and to his fellow man.
(25:22):
So he sought to justify himself.
And in wanting to justify himself, he gave testimony to his own unjust state, even as an expert in the law.
You see, there's no assurance of salvation in his legalistic way of looking at things.
And Jesus knew that there was no stewardship in his service to God,
(25:46):
nor in his relationship with his neighbors.
So Jesus responds, do this and you will live.
It's interesting to note here that Jesus doesn't refer to eternal life as a distant reward.
he says do this and you will live.
For Jesus eternal life is a matter of quality not quantity.
(26:12):
For the followers of Christ eternal life begins the moment they accept Jesus.
Just as we witnessed this morning with the baptisms eternal life begins today for those two young ladies.
It's a quality of life that's worth living forever.
And no other lifestyle is worth living at all, either now or for eternity.
(26:39):
But the expert, sensing the bankrupt state of his own religious life and feeling the inadequacy of his stewardship, wanted to justify himself.
So he asks, somewhat sarcastically, I imagine, and who is my neighbor?
After all, he was an expert in the law.
He would need to know exactly how far he needed to take this neighbor thing.
(27:05):
Didn't want to take that idea of loving kindness too far.
Let's just get over the bar, right?
We don't want to do too much, just enough.
Reminds me when I was in college.
In high school, I had been kind of the jock athlete guy and kind of messed around a little bit.
(27:26):
Didn't always get the best grades, and I went to college,
and I realized how much my parents were investing in that.
And I said to myself, okay, now I've got to take studying seriously, right?
I'm going to do really well.
I'm going to get myself a 4.0.
So my first quarter at Walla Walla, I did just that.
I studied and I studied and I studied.
(27:47):
And at the end of the quarter, I had three A's and one C.
And I thought to myself, okay, wait a minute.
All four of these grades are passing grades, right?
I'm still passing my classes.
Now I know exactly what it takes to get a C.
(28:08):
I think I'll have fun in college, too.
You know, I know just enough.
I can get just above the bar.
And I think that's what this lawyer was asking, too.
How much is enough to get just above the bar?
Don't want to take it too far.
Just far enough.
So Jesus launches into his story of the Good Samaritan that we're all so familiar with.
(28:31):
In fact, the title Good Samaritan has kind of taken on a life of its own
as a description of helpful people who give assistance to others,
sometimes even at great risk to themselves or maybe at great expense to themselves.
And rightly so.
Altruism on the part of the Samaritan is placed in stark contrast
(28:52):
to the other characters in the plot, the priest and the Levite.
But often our titles for these parables focus our attention so narrowly
that we overlook the rich imagery in the other portions of the story.
So let's apply a rule for interpreting the story this morning.
(29:17):
Let's put ourselves, put yourself in the place of each character.
Put yourself in the place of everyone in the story.
The Good Samaritan story seems to be a standalone story,
because as soon as Jesus finishes this,
(29:38):
he launches into another story about Mary and Martha,
a total different take on stewardship and service.
But for this story, perhaps it was one of the local disturbing news stories that had been recently heard from the town crier
about robbers in the area attacking helpless travelers.
(29:59):
But that didn't really get to the rest of the story until Jesus told his version of it, his account of it.
And he starts out in verse 30.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
(30:23):
Indeed, it was a trip down from the mountain of Jerusalem to the river valley of the Jordan where Jericho was.
It was a winding wilderness trip fraught with hazards for the traveler, not the least of which was roving bands of lawless thieves,
who hid behind the rocks and in the arroyos near the road.
(30:46):
And it was this poor traveler's misfortune to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
And he fell into the hands of these robbers.
Their work was quick and ruthless.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and left him half dead.
What is half dead?
(31:08):
Aren't you either dead or alive?
Well, I'm guessing that this means that they beat him so severely that without some medical assistance or rescue quite soon, he would be completely dead.
Think about it. It's the same with us here in our journey here on earth.
(31:32):
We've been stripped of the righteous dignity which with the creator created us.
We were created in the image of God, after all.
And look at us now.
We've been left doomed to die, if not for rescue, quite soon.
(31:52):
Yet remember that one of the rules for the story is interpretation
is to put ourselves in the place of each character in the story.
So have you put yourself in the place of the victim?
Have you been beaten up and robbed and left half dead?
Have you put yourself in the place of the robbers?
(32:17):
And you might say, I've never been a thief.
I've never mugged anybody.
I wouldn't physically beat up an innocent person.
Yet have we ever, even by legal means, defrauded our fellow man or the government on our taxes?
Have we ever beaten others up without mercy, with unkind words, or with posts on social media?
(32:45):
The methodology might not be as physically severe, but the results may be just as devastating,
leaving our victims battered, half dead, while we selfishly pursue our personal gain or advantage.
However, there's more lessons in the parable, and it continues on in verse 31.
(33:07):
Now by chance, a certain priest came down the road,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Really?
A priest?
A religious leader?
How could he be so heartless?
How could he be so insensitive?
Isn't it the job of the priest or the pastor, Pastor Vince?
(33:29):
Isn't it the job of the pastor in our modern day to save the lost?
Of course, there's the possibility that he had feared the same fate if he lingered on the scene.
He had heard about these robbers as well, so he's thinking,
I better just scurry on to Jericho so I don't get robbed and beaten and left half dead.
(33:51):
You really can't blame him for a sense of self-preservation, can you?
But maybe there was a deeper reason, an even more distressing cause for his apparent callousness.
in this situation.
He was a priest after all,
and he was journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Maybe he was on his way to perform
(34:12):
some religious service in Jericho.
And you know what would have happened
if he had touched the bloody mess,
maybe even the dead body,
since he didn't even check it out carefully.
He passed by on the other side, right?
He didn't look very close.
He didn't know if the guy was dead or alive.
(34:33):
he would have been ceremonially unclean and therefore unable to perform his religious duties
due to all the required washings and days of impurity.
Perhaps his zealousness for the law actually prevented any act of kindness or charity.
That's a disturbing thought, isn't it?
(34:55):
But remember, you are everyone in the story.
So perhaps even those of us who are so zealously playing church and performing religious and
churchly rituals, maybe we find that we don't have enough time for acts of kindness and
mercy.
Maybe those things seem to interfere with our ongoing process of religious activity.
(35:22):
So put yourself in the place of the priest.
Would you have made sure you had self-preservation by hurrying on as quickly as possible?
Likewise, verse 32, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and then passed by on the other side.
(35:45):
The Levite was no better.
In fact, he was probably worse.
Rather than just hurrying by in a sense of self-preservation,
it says he came and looked before passing by.
He observed how serious the situation was.
But for whatever reason, as a religious leader,
he didn't see any work for the Lord in this wretched circumstance.
(36:09):
So put yourself in the place of the Levite.
Would you check it out?
And then say, I'm not going to get involved.
It's not for me.
I'm not going to speak up.
I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not going to make a comment for those who are less advantaged than I am.
(36:31):
Then Jesus continues in verse 33.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was,
and when he saw him, he had compassion.
So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine,
And he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn to take care of him.
(36:51):
What is Jesus saying here?
Well, for one thing, he's reporting the new account of what actually occurred.
But more than just recounting the events,
Jesus is indicating that a despised religious and social outcast
is sometimes more responsive to life in the kingdom of God
(37:13):
than the respected church leaders.
Remember, the lawyer was trying to trap Jesus
and trip him up with a hard question.
Here, Jesus identifies himself
not with the pious elite of Jewish society,
but with the outcast, the Samaritan.
(37:36):
With Jesus as our example, we should do likewise.
Indeed, identifying with everyone in the story
You know, if I would have asked you this in advance, who in this story do you identify with?
What would our response have been?
Probably 99% of us would have said, oh, I identify with the Samaritan, right?
(37:58):
I wouldn't have been hard-hearted and callous like the Levite.
I wouldn't have been cold and detached like the priest.
I would have been compassionate and caring, just like the Samaritan in the story.
but there's one more character remaining in the story that we often overlook
(38:18):
so after providing for the victim's healing from his own provisions
the Samaritan walks while putting the victim on his own animal
as transportation for the wounded man
taking him to the inn he stays with the man for the night
and on the following morning he pays for lodging and future care
(38:42):
as the wounded man heals and recovers.
So remember, you are everyone in the story.
Now Jesus addresses the innkeeper.
On the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii,
gave them to the innkeeper and said to him,
(39:02):
take care of him and whatever more you spend,
When I come again, I will repay you.
Ah, the innkeeper.
Here's the stewardship part of our story.
Our Lord, through the Holy Spirit, finds broken and bleeding along the path of life.
He brings them to us, the church, to care for as they heal from their wounds.
(39:29):
He pays the price for them, for their care, and the gifts that he gives to us, the church.
But he also reminds us that it will require the use of our own resources to give this care.
It says, whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.
(39:56):
So I want to pause here to just give a few stewardship principles as we're nearing the end.
First of all, who is the owner of everything?
God.
God is the owner of everything.
Many texts in the Bible talk about that.
But Psalms 50 verses 10 to 12 is just one example.
(40:16):
And again, it's not what God wants from you because he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
It's what God wants for you.
God wants for you to live with an abundance mindset.
He wants you to live an abundant life.
(40:38):
Now don't get confused.
This isn't health and wealth gospel here.
Those who live an abundant life with an abundant mindset rely on God's promises.
Such as the one in Philippians 4 verse 19.
where it says my God will supply all my needs, right?
(41:02):
Not every little thing I want,
but God has promised to supply all of our needs.
If you believe his promise,
you can live with an abundance mindset
because the opposite of that is living with a scarcity mindset.
A scarcity mindset is one where we live in fear of the future
(41:22):
because we never know if we have enough.
What if I don't have enough to last me until tomorrow
or next week or next month or next year?
We can all remember the scarcity mindset, right?
Just a few short years ago at the start of the pandemic,
(41:43):
could you find any toilet paper anywhere?
That's an example of scarcity mindset.
What if I don't have enough toilet paper to last till next month or next year?
But here's the problem.
No matter how much we accumulate, it's never enough.
(42:04):
We might need more tomorrow.
We might need more next month.
We might need more next year.
So we become like the rich fool in Jesus' parable in Luke 12, 18,
Just a couple of chapters later where the rich fool said what?
He said, I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns and I'll store up more stuff.
(42:27):
And then I'll have enough to sit back and enjoy life.
Did he ever accomplish that?
No, he didn't make it to his goal.
So where we place our trust shows where our heart is
because our heart always follows our treasure.
(42:49):
Matthew 6, 21.
Our heart always follows our treasure.
So again, the place to invest our treasure
is in the kingdom of God
rather than in things of the earth.
But here's the cool thing about this parable.
It doesn't leave us without the promise of restitution.
(43:11):
Jesus says, when I come again, I will repay you.
Here's the promise of the return.
It's both a stewardship parable, a service parable, and a second coming parable.
And the promise of restitution is infinitely beyond anything we could possibly spend of our own resources.
(43:32):
For the promise of return on investment brings with it a promise of eternal life in the kingdom of God.
So church, you are the innkeeper.
The Holy Spirit, through our evangelism events, brings broken and bleeding and hurt people into this place to be cared for.
(43:56):
And it's up to you to provide that care, that friendship, that love, that support.
It's up to you to use your resources to make ministry happen.
Here in our local church, in our conference,
and the cool thing about the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
we're one of only two worldwide churches
(44:18):
because we share horizontally bigger churches here in the metro area,
share with smaller churches in the rural areas so that they can have pastoral care.
We also share vertically with our division, our union, our division, and the general conference.
And that's how we've managed to become a worldwide church.
(44:43):
When I was missionary in Guam, some of my salary was paid with dollars that were shared up to the general conference.
That's how we grow the kingdom of God, both here in Arizona and around the world.
So the lawyer asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
(45:04):
And Jesus, by this story, makes it simple.
Join him in the stewardship of loving service to our fellow man, and you will live.
But not only will service make your life worth living here and now,
you will also be fully rewarded with eternal life when he comes again.
(45:26):
Isn't it beautiful that we can know now today that we have the assurance of salvation?
God's given his promise in 1 John 5, verses 11 to 13, and this is the testimony.
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life.
(45:47):
He who does not have the Son does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God
so that you may know that you have eternal life.
What a beautiful promise.
While there's nothing we can do to earn the merit,
(46:08):
nothing we can do to earn the mercy, the grace, the forgiveness that God promises us,
Jesus has given us salvation.
He's paid the price for our sins.
He died on the cross for you and for me.
Isn't it wonderful to know
(46:29):
that we have the opportunity to invest in the kingdom of God?
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