Second place wins

Announcements:

Missions trip info meeting Sunday Following the 11 O’clock gathering

HS All-Nighter Registration is open

thy Kingdom come night is next Sunday we will have a van available for you if you cant make it with your parents

prayer:

Dear Lord i ask that you would be with all of us tonight that we would be able to focus on you and trust you tonight. Each of us need you and ask that you would be deeply involved in tonight's lesson and Growth community. in your Holy son’s name amen...

Intro:

Matthew 7:12 ESV

12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

What do you think Jesus is talking about here?

What do most people call this saying ?

Pastor Chuck talked about how the wisdom of the world says if you don't want someone to hurt you you should not hurt someone

And I think that's good advice right if I punch someone in the face I should expect them to punch me back

So that wisdom is good but what Jesus points to is what's better

Jesus talks about doing good to others instead of just trying not to do bad

And a problem that we may see with this is that we might not be repaid and that's true

But the reality is Jesus isn't saying that if you treat others well you will definitely one 100 percent of the time be treated well back

But what he is saying that we should love our neighbor the same way we love ourselves to follow in the footprints of Jesus we must treat others as well as we wish they treated us even if they do or don't

The thing about this passage is that it isn't easy

It isn't convenient and oftentimes to treat someone as well as we wish we were treated can cost us

Go ahead and turn to Luke 10 27-37.

In this passage Jesus is talking to a man who asks what he must do to enter the Kingdom of heaven

And what Jesus says is look at the law what does it say and the man reads back in verse 27

main passage:

Luke 10:27–37 (ESV)

27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Here we see Jesus take the man's own words and bring conviction

Jesus didn't go to him and say you're a sinner why aren't you doing this he says well then do that and you will live

And the man in his heart most definitely realizes that he doesn't do that perfectly so he desires to justify himself

And oftentimes I think we do the same thing we try to justify ourselves

We say things like well it was my sister or my brother and I don't I don't want to love them like I want to love myself or I don't have to

Or it could be a friend that you tend to be pretty harsh and sarcastic with and you're like well it's just so and so I can treat them however I want they don't count

So the man asks in verse 29

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’

In Genesis the Bible says we were all made in the image of God

In this passage we see several people who should have helped their fellow neighbor

A priest a pastor a Levite someone who was in the temple and served God

All three of these men were Jewish they were brothers but they did not care for each other

They saw the inconvenience and the cost of helping their neighbor instead never mind

But the man who was racially marginalized at that day as Samaritan was the one who stepped up to help the man

And this man didn't just bring him to an inn and leave him he paid for his care with his own wine oil and Money

So Jesus asks the man from the beginning in verse 26

36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

The golden rule isn't something that we're supposed to follow just because we feel like it

Jesus showed you and I Mercy when he died on the cross for our sins paying the penalty

You and I were like the man who were dead in our trespasses and sins unable to care for ourselves and Jesus stepped in to save us

And because of that we should walk in the way that he walked

1 John 2:5–11 ESV

5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

So my question for us tonight is are we characterized by a pattern of love or indifference

Are we walking the same way Jesus walked i'm not saying that we're perfect in this but is there a pattern is there fruit of Jesus's mercy in our life

And as we go to growth communities it wants you to remember two things

Jesus died for the sins of the world he carries for every single person extremely deeply

And if the people in our lives are valuable enough to Jesus for him to die for their sins and give him away to salvation

Do we see them as just as valuable

Will we treat them the way we wish we were treated

Remember this is about how we respond to Jesus how we respond to a relationship with him

Because the Christian life is a response to what Christ did

We aren't trying to earn our way to heaven we're just trying to become more and more like Jesus so that other people may come to know him

Let's pray