Love That Makes A Difference

Have you ever had somebody help you and you knew their heart just wasn't all that into the health? I remember not long ago I just played a round of golf and when I got home I realized that I had left my wallet in the golf cart. So I turned around quick, went back to the golf place, and fortunately the dude had my wallet in his hand when I got there. And I said, man, thank you for having my wallet. And he handed it back to me, and he said, no worries, man. He said, everything's still in it except $100. And I thought that was pretty funny, and I didn't check it out until I got home. I didn't want to check it in front of him, right? So I got home, and I realized he actually left the money inside of my wallet, and how many of you think I owe the guy a tip, right? But here's the issue. Most of us have a heart to help, but we don't really know how to help. And sometimes when we try to help people, it's not as easy as returning a wallet because you know what? They have deep iniquities that work in their heart. Maybe they have addictions that are going on. And sometimes it's not easy to break through, even though we have a heart that really wants to help people. And in the day that you and I live in, we can all see the challenge more clearly than ever. In fact, a man I don't believe is a believer. He is a renowned Harvard political scientist, but he wrote a book called Bowling Alone recently, and it's a best-selling book. And here's what he says about our country. He says our social capital in today's America has eroded. And I've seen it happen before in my very eyes. When I was a kid, if something happened to a neighbor, everybody in the neighborhood felt responsible to get the neighbor past the problem that happened. And even before I was born, I have looked in the house of my great-grandparents, and they had a 500-acre farm in the county where I lived. And sadly, that farm burned down one day. And all the neighbors came together. Man, they put that barn back up so fast. And it's a picture of my great-grandmother playing the piano, everybody singing hymns after church because of how good God was to get the barn back up. And all of us want that kind of relationship with people, right? We want to have relationships where we're giving, and because a bunch of us are living with the right heart, people are getting the help that they need. But it's not that easy, especially in a busy world where we feel like, man, I got to invest all my time, all my energy, all my money, just in trying to survive the week and trying to meet all the demands that are around me. Well, it might encourage you, first of all, to know that this isn't a problem that just our generation is facing, but Paul talked about it 2,000 years ago. He said in 2 Timothy 3, verse 1, he said, I want you to mark this. There are going to be terrible times in the last days. Now, biblically, the last days are the time period where after Jesus ascended into heaven, that the last days began. And the last days are going to end when Jesus comes back from heaven, and he receives us as his church. And Paul said, I want you to mark this. I want you to be aware of this, that there are going to be terrible times in the last days. And then he tells us why. He says, it's because people are going to be lovers of themselves. And anytime people are willing to love themselves so much that their personal preferences are going to be what they pursue, even if it brings pain to other people's lives, there are going to be a lot of terrible times that somebody has to go through. And Paul talked about 18 different behaviors. Some of them affect a family. They're like, you know, my kids are rebellious. And then they have these difficulties that come up in their life. And Pastor, I don't know what to do. do? Well, Jesus is going to help us understand what to do today. Or maybe, you know, you're in a situation with your spouse or your in-laws, or maybe people at work are just so concerned about their own life that they lie and they cheat to get position. Well, Jesus is going to teach us exactly what we need to do today. And we're going to understand why the gospel writer Matthew, who was an apostle, loved Jesus so much. He loved Him so much that He first became a disciple, but after he was a disciple, he was such an outstanding disciple that he became an apostle. And then he not only became an apostle, but he became a martyr because his love for Jesus was so great, and he wanted to be a part of this love revolution so bad that he didn't care what it cost him. And his starting point was, even though he was Jewish, he was a tax collector, and tax collectors were the most hated people in all of Jewish society. And I'll tell you why. To be a tax collector, you had to pay the Romans for the right to collect taxes. And the Romans charged the same amount of tax to everybody, but a tax collector, what they did was they put as much charge on top of that tax as they could, because all the profits went to the tax collector that were above what the Romans made them charge. And Matthew was a church kid, and so he probably knew exactly what he was doing. He was like, you know what, I'm not into church, I'm not into what I've seen church become. And the truth is, there's There's a lot of us who felt like that at times in our life. I did a series years ago about why I almost left the church for good. And I talked about the things that Jesus pointed out about the Pharisees back in the day. And I don't know what happened to Matthew. Maybe he felt more torn down than built up when people were teaching him the truth as a kid. Maybe he made some mistakes, and the way they treated him, he said, Man, I'm just done with church, and I'm out of here. Or maybe somebody abused him, when did that been said? We don't know, but what we do know is there was something in Matthew that no longer wanted to be a part of the church. And then Jesus came and everything changed in Matthew because Matthew realized that Jesus was so different than church. And you say, what's the difference? Well, I think Psalm 33 tells us what the difference is when it says that the word of the Lord is right and true. and He's faithful in all that He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice. Notice there's a difference between righteousness and justice, and this is the difference. Righteousness is when somebody knows what's right to do, and they're doing what's right, but justice means I care about how my actions are affecting your life, and so I'm going to adjust my actions because I want my actions to really bless your life too. And Matthew says in 7 verses this is what attracted his heart to Jesus I want to read these seven verses before we read the 13 that is our main text today because we're gonna find out why Jesus was so awesome and why unchurched people love Jesus who wanted nothing to do with the church of that day and Matthew starts in Matthew 12 verse 14 and he says the Pharisees were plotting how how they might kill Jesus. And how sad that was. He was blessing so many people. The crowds just kept building, and they wanted to kill Him. Why? Well, even religion can be so self-serving if it doesn't commit itself to living with the Spirit of Jesus. And then the next verse says that Jesus was aware of that. So He withdrew from that place. He prioritized protecting His own life. And it said, a large crowd followed him, and he healed everybody who was ill. And then he warned them not to tell others about him, because Jesus didn't want to pour any fire on the, or any gasoline on the Pharisees' fire, right? And then it says, and this is so important, that Matthew writes, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. See, Matthew was a gospel that was written to an audience of Jewish people, And it was written for them to honor Jesus as the Messiah like He deserved to be honored. And so here's what Matthew's saying as we get ready to read these next verses. He's saying the prophets tried to straighten this out. The prophets tried to get this right, but you kept hardening your hearts instead of letting God have your hearts whenever the prophets were trying to straighten this stuff out. And here's what Jesus did. It says, here's my servant, who I've chosen, the Messiah, Jesus. It says of him that God's going to delight in him because he'll pour out his Spirit on him and he'll proclaim justice to the nations. Notice not just righteousness, not just what's right and wrong, but when Jesus came, people could see that how we treat each other really matters and God wants us to get that right. And then he went on to to say that Jesus wouldn't quarrel or cry out. No one was going to hear Jesus' voice in the streets. In other words, Jesus didn't become popular with people because He was loud and He made everybody listen to Him. Jesus became popular because He loved loud and everybody took notice of what a blessing that He was to other people. And then this part is the most tender part to a kid who grew up, you know, with my dad hanging out in bars and seeing the brokenness of people whenever I was young. And that is, next, Matthew wrote this, that a bruised reed, Jesus would never break, and a smoldering wick he would never snuff out until he brought justice through to victory. In other words, Jesus loves it whenever people love each other, and because of how they learn to love, there's victory and blessing in life instead of pain because of how selfishness is winning in life. And I don't know how many of you, like me, have been bruised in your heart before. You know, when you're bruised, let me see your hand if you've been bruised in some way physically, right? When you're bruised, if somebody touches that, it hurts. I mean, not long ago I got up in the middle of the night, I was headed to the pantry, of course, right, and I stubbed my toe on my bed. And man, I bruised it so bad. And I forgot I was bruised until Tamara and I loved dancing in our living room with these old records from the days we were teenagers. And we started dancing. And my wife's really coordinated, y'all. She was like a 5-8 cheerleader, you know? But my feet get in the wrong place sometime. And she stepped on my foot. And I went, aye, aye, aye, aye. I am the Frito Bandito, right? Y'all remember that song? I mean, it hurts so, stinking bad because I was bruised. And for some people, whenever you talk about what's right, their ego's bruised, and they don't receive it very well. For some people, you know, it's not that they don't want to do right. They just have this smoldering fire inside of them, but it's kind of weak, and it's kind of small. And if you speak to them wrong, you may put out the fire instead of pouring gasoline on the fire that's going to cause them to give God attention. chance to really bless their life. And Jesus is going to help us learn how love operates that makes a difference in the life of people who've been villainized, in the lives of people who've been victimized. He's going to teach us how to walk people through to victory who've had some really great pain in their life. And he says there's three things. Everybody shout three. Three. Number one, he says, you've got to get to the root of the problem. And when you read this text, it doesn't even seem like what, you know, the beginning has anything to do with the story. But once you understand what Jesus is talking about, it all starts making sense. And it begins by saying, on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Now, the Greek word test means he stood up to make Jesus do something that would prove that Jesus was wrong, and he wasn't really the Messiah. Now, how many of you know he didn't succeed, right? I mean, you might as well get in a boat and try to cross a lake in a canoe with one paddle. Do that, because if you do that, in fact, if you've never done it, you just keep going in circles, and that's what's going to happen to this dude. You're not going to prove Jesus wrong. But then it says that he wanted to test Jesus, so he asked this question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, that's a big question, right? Because that's one thing I don't want to mess up. Where I'm going to live forever, if I get any question right in my life, I want to get that question right. And Jesus, I love this, and we're going to talk about it next week, that over 300 times in scripture, Jesus asks people questions. And here's why Jesus asks people questions over 300 times in scripture. And that is he knows if you think for people, you're going to have very little influence in their life. But if you can love people and if you can think with them and help them think better about their lives, then you're going to have a lot of influence in people's lives. So Jesus modeled that and He asked this expert who wanted to prove him wrong. He said, What's written in the law? How do you read it? And the expert answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength, your mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now, Protestant scholars will point out how this man would have been a works-righteousness person theologically. And so all of us Protestants, we're going to have Jesus mess with us a little bit this morning. So let me just ask you to stick with me, all right? So when we get to the end, it's all going to make sense. But you would expect Jesus to straighten out this works righteousness theology. But instead, Jesus, in verse 28, says, you've answered correctly, if you do this, that you'll live. And we Protestants are like, hold it a minute, Jesus. Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9 says, it's by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's not by works so nobody can boast. Is anybody glad this morning that you're going to heaven, not because of what you did because you're imperfect, but you're going to heaven because of what Jesus did? And He made a way for you. And that's pretty awesome, right? And so we know that works don't get us to heaven, but this is going to help us today because Jesus was speaking about eternal life whenever He talked to us about what the Scripture talks to us about. And Martin Luther said this, and he was the leader of the Protestant Reformation. So he knew what it meant to live under a works righteousness that wasn't scriptural. And he taught what it meant to live justification by faith. But he also taught that when you read the Bible, you have to understand that there are some books in the Bible and passages in the Bible that bring us primary understanding. And then there are other books in the Bible and passages in the Bible that give us secondary understanding. So with that in mind, listen to this scripture in James 2.14. It says, what good is it, brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith, but they have no deeds? Can such a faith save a person like that? And what he's saying is that faith or your works don't save you, but if you're truly saved as a person, then your works are evidence that you truly have made Jesus Christ Lord of your life. And people don't just see it in your creed, but people see it in your conduct. Can you say amen? So here's the first question I want us to ask ourselves is do our choices and our conduct make it plain? that we've received the salvation offered to all mankind by the Lord God, because this is one of the most serious and sober scriptures in all the Bible. Matthew 7.21, it says, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. So it might be secondary to our belief, but it's very, very important that we understand that we aren't saved because we understand the right things to do. We're saved because we've done the right thing and made Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And I don't want to preach anybody insecure about heaven, but listen, it's the biggest decision you're ever going to make in your life. So I don't want to preach you insecure, but I sure as blazes don't want to preach you oversecure, because how many of you know this is really important, right? Now let me tell you why it was important to Jesus. It was important because have you ever heard the phrase, hurt people, hurt people? Jesus is trying to switch it and he's saying, I want my church to understand that just like hurt people are hurting people and causing so much pain in the world. Man, I desperately want saved people to save people and bring about so much good in the world. And so Jesus shifts from helping us see the root of our problem And then he begins to talk about our responses to people's pain. And the Bible says that this expert in the law wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, and who's my neighbor? And scholars say he tried to justify two things. One was the terrible prejudice that the religious world lived with. I don't know if you ever heard the story about a guy who was a black guy and he was taking a drive in the country back in the days when our country was even more prejudiced. And when he got to church, he tried to go in and they wouldn't let him in the church and it broke his heart. And he got back in his car and he was driving away and he said, Lord, it breaks my heart. I can't even be in this house. And he said, the Lord said back to him, Don't worry, they don't let me in that house either, right? And that's really true. There was deep prejudice. There was also a desire in this guy to justify himself somehow because we can't love everybody. And we all have a tendency to do this, you know? I don't have enough money. I mean, I'd bless people if I had money. I would bless people if I had more time. I would bless people if I had more, whatever. And the reality is we all have time and money and talents that God's given us. And it's not about how much you have, it's about how you portion it. Do you spend all of it just on yourself, or do you notice the hurting people who are right in front of you? And Jesus next talks about three people. He says first, He said as this man was going down from Jerusalem into Jericho, Jericho's 2,600 feet lower, sea level wise from Jerusalem. He said this man was four things. He was first attacked by robbers, stripped of his clothes. He ended up being beaten and they left him half dead. And the Bible says that when this man was in this state, three people came. First, a priest came, everybody say a priest. A priest had the highest authority within the religious system. He's going to talk about priests and Levites. And in Israel, every priest was a Levite, but not every Levite was a priest. So Jesus started with the people most responsible. That's the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who were called to lead the church. And he said, first this priest went by, and he said when he saw the man, he passed by to the other side of the road. Now, that was pretty difficult to do because if you go there, it was called the Way of Blood, and I've walked it. And it was just a little snake trail. It wasn't like this big road. And this priest walked by, saw this man who was stripped and naked and half dead, and instead of helping him, he intentionally walked across to the other side of the road to get away from him. Now, why would the priest do that? Well, he did it because a priest wasn't allowed to touch a dead body. And that's why Jesus said the man was half dead. He wasn't fully dead. But it shows us something, and that is sometimes in the church, we think that being holy is our biggest job. And if we don't smoke or drink or chew or run with girls who do, then we're living a good life. But listen, that is a secondary doctrine. We are supposed to live a good life, but if we aren't helping the hurting, who's going to help the hurting? We are called to live the Great Commission, right? And we're called to bless and help people. So Jesus called out the priest. Then He called out the Levite who was under the priest, and He said He did the same thing. And then Jesus came to to the Good Samaritan. And it says, when the Samaritans, who the Jews despised, by the way, more than any other race, when he came, he saw the man and he took pity. And that word pity means he felt intense compassion very deeply inside of him. And that's my second question. Do our choices and our conduct show we understand our call to live compassionately and redemptively instead of merely honoring religious rules? Because here's what Jesus is saying. Love that makes a difference does three things. It understands the root of a problem. The root of the problem isn't the people who are committing the sins around us. The root of the problem is the way that sins at work in the world. And what does a root do, y'all? A root goes down in the soil, and it takes nutrients from the soil, and it causes things to grow out of what it gets from the soil. Well, Jesus said in Matthew 12, he said, a good man out of the good soil of his heart brings forth good things. But an evil person, out of the evil that's down there in their heart, ends up bringing forth evil things. How many of you are glad that the evil around you can all change into the blessing of God if we can just get Jesus big enough in the hearts of people, right? So Jesus helped us understand the root. Everybody say the root. The root. He helped us understand right and wrong responses to people's pain. And then he helped us understand God's redemptive plan. He said the Samaritan went and he bandaged his wounds. See, we can do that. We can bandage people. We can encourage people. We can help somebody pay their rent. We can help people do things. But how many of you know so many times, if the iniquities in people's hearts aren't dealt with, and if there's not spiritual growth, we bandage them and they keep ending up back in the same place, right? And that's why Jesus, the master storyteller, said he not only banished the wounds, but he poured on those wounds, the oil and the wine. Oil represents the blood of, or the power of the Holy Spirit. Wine represents the blood of Jesus Christ. And so many times there's a phrase called Good Samaritan, and we applaud people for being good Samaritans. Maybe somebody's car broke down, they helped get it back up, or maybe somebody needed food and somebody took it by, and that's awesome. As a matter of fact, KAV, you just asked Tamara and I to give an award every single month to somebody in this region who is exemplifying generosity, exemplifying kindness. Some of you think that's pretty cool, that we have a television group who wants to celebrate people. people like that, right? But can I tell you something? With that said, it's called the Good Samaritan Project. And the only problem is that's not what a good Samaritan is, all right? Because a good Samaritan is somebody who understands that we're called to be good, but we can't be everything people need. What they need is the blood to forgive their sins. What they need is a Holy Spirit to work in their life. So the next part of the story, Jesus says that this man took him to the inn. Everybody say the inn. And he said, listen, take care of this guy. And he said, here's two denarii. That's 2 days' work, so about $600 maybe in today's wages. And he said, I'm going to give him to the innkeeper, look after him, and when I return, I'll reimburse you for any extra expense you have. And then Jesus asked the question that we started with this morning, and that is, he said, Now which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robber? And the expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. And Jesus said, I want you to do likewise. In other words, Jesus says, There is no shortage of hurting broken people in the world. They're all around us. I wanna tell you a funny story. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I told the first service, and if I tell them and not you, some of y'all let me know that. You say, Pastor, I came to second service. I want all the good stories in the second service, too. Just 'cause it's on TV, edit it out, 'cause I want all the good stories, right? Well, this is a true story. I was in Uganda, Africa. I was 23 years old. And a lot of people would come in and they would go on safari. And to go on safari, they would have to go through this primitive tribe that had nothing but loincloths that they wore. And one day, this tribe decided they wanted clothes. So these unsuspecting Europeans are all dressed up for their safari, and they get surrounded by these primitive people with spears in their hands. They stop the bus. They get on the bus. and they make all the people take their clothes off on the bus. They take all their clothes and then they make them, I'm sure the next place they went was a place that's so close, don't you think? Because that bus was filled with people that looked like a tomato with a pulse. I mean, I'm sure they were so red and embarrassed. But how many of you know we got people like that all around this church? We got people like that all around us. And how many of you don't want to be a church that just obeys a bunch of religious rules? You want to set off a revolution because, man, we're filling this area up with the justice of God and we're helping people learn how to treat each other. Can you say amen? Jesus said, Go and do likewise. And I hope this morning that this passage helped us understand what that means. We can't do everything, but listen, if we'll do the things Jesus asked us to do, we'll set off a revolution. And I wanna tell you one story that'll probably motivate you really well to do that. And that is, oh, probably 65 years ago, maybe, there's a little boy named Billy. Everybody say Billy. Billy. He grew up in Florida and his mom was a druggie. And she took him out one day and she looked at him and she said, Billy, she said, I want you to sit on this park bench and I want you to wait on me until I come back. So little Billy sat there. He sat there not one day. He sat there not two days, but for three days, little 12-year-old Billy sat on that park bench. And he says, Thousands of people pass me by. And he said they would just look at me and they'd continue on their way, as I sat on my park bench. But one day a guy named Dave Rudeness, everybody say rudeness. Rudeness. I think what's so interesting is it kind of sounds like rudeness, but he was anything but rude because he stopped. He asked that little boy what was going on in his life. He took that little boy home. The little boy had to live in the broom closet of the little church for a while because you can't just take a kid into your home. He eventually got the right to adopt this little boy. And like Jesus said, he took him to church because we can't meet everybody's needs. We can bandage wounds. But it's only when we bring people to church with us and they learn how to receive forgiveness through the blood of Jesus. And they learn to have the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their life. How many of you know it's the power of the Holy Spirit that changes everything, right, in people's lives? And little Billy, who was sitting on the park bench, got taken to a church and he learned to love the power of the Holy Spirit. And just this last year, little Billy now has Sunday school for broken, underprivileged kids. And he now has Sunday schools reaching a million people all over our world that were just like he was. Everybody say go and do likewise. Let's say it again. Let's say go and do likewise. Now if you're glad Jesus called us to go and do likewise, just give him the biggest hand clap we've ever given him right now. Let's thank him for who he is. Amen.