Unexpected Sources

Introduce My Family

Married for 16 years to the love of my life Kayla…, 3 Beautiful Kids (Weston (14), Easton (12), Blakelyn (6))

Planted Awaken church in 2022

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Honor Pastor Nick and Leslie

Voice of mentorship…

Been a friend…

They are leading a move of God…(THIS IS NOT NORMAL)

_________ RECAP

Over the last few weeks you guys have been exploring the parables

Last week pastor Nick preached a powerful message on the value of STAYING READY!

Today I want to talk to you about one of the most notable parables in scripture…The parable of the good Samaritan.

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke 10.

I'm preaching today on: Unexpected Sources.

Let’s Pray

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OPENING

There’s a big idea that I need you to have as the foundational concept of our conversation today….

GOD’S PLAN ALMOST NEVER PLAYS OUT THE WAY I EXPECT IT TO.

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I want to quickly setup some context for this parable…

Luke 10 opens with Jesus presenting the primary issue that faced the disciples and their mission…and it’s still the primary issue facing the church today.

Luke 10:2 NLT

These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.

It’s not hard to identify the primary limiting factor for the disciples ministry then…and it’s not hard to find the parallel for us now…

We need more people to accomplish the mission.

The needs of our world are prevalent.

Our churches don’t have available seats because of a lack of hurting and hopeless people in our communities.

The problem is not the abundance of harvest. The problem is the availability of workers.

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The walk of the workers

So Jesus starts handing out instructions to anyone willing to work the field.

Don’t take extra money.

Don’t get consumed with your own provision.

Bless the homes that receive you.

Bless the cities you enter.

There is one overarching truth that Jesus lets lie implicit in these objectives of harvest minded believers…

There is not room for consideration of the concept of: What about me?” in the life of the harvest minded believer…

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“The wiles of what about me?”

I’m convinced this one question keeps many tithe dollars in the believers bank account

I’m convinced this one question keeps many serve team members off the roster

I’m convinced this one question keeps many people without roots because they jump from church to church

What about me?"

Who will provide for me?

Who will care for me?

Who makes sure my needs get met?

The tension of discipleship has always been the same.

A life that follows Jesus is a life that is called away from self-preservation and into self-sacrifice.

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The conversation with the Religious Leader

So it is within this literary context that we arrive at the conversation where the parable of the good Samaritan is communicated…

Jesus finds himself engulfed in a conversation with an expert on religious law.

This conversation brings to the forefront two primary laws of God…love God love people.

Luke 10:26–27 NLT

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

This religious leader gives us a mirror of the way many of us approach surrender to God…

Luke 10:29 NLT

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

This leader says “yeah, I ‘ll love…but I”m going to find a loophole”

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Loophole Obedience

Have you ever operated in loophole obedience?

I’ll do what you said God…as long as it’s in a way I like

I’ll serve on the team Lord…as long as they notice me

I’ll give in the offering…as long as I get a raise.

If that is our posture…then we have fallen prey to the “what about me?” narrative.

A life focused on me will always look for a loophole in my obedience

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Transition to Substance

This religious leader says who’s my neighbor but he is in essence asking…

Who do I have to love?

Who can I ignore?

Where does my responsibility end

Instead of answering the lawyer, Jesus tells a story. The story of the good Samaritan

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Perspective Shift

We usually preach this story from the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan.

Today I want us to see it through the eyes of the man in the ditch.

Because everybody in this room has been the traveler.

Broken. Wounded. Disappointed. Wondering who would stop.

And the traveler shows us three things on the road to restoration.

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Luke 10:30–35 NLT

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

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1. Religion Is Not The Solution

Luke 10:31 NLT

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.

If I’m gonna get beat up and I get to choose who I hope might happen to pass by…a priest is gonna make it into top 5 of who I’m hoping for.

But there is a primary phrase in verse 30 that gives us some context to this moment.

The man was left “half dead”…meaning it probably wasn’t incredibly evident if he was dead or alive.

The priest could not touch a dead body and still be eligible to serve as priest until he had completed the time of purification.

So when we see that the priest passed to the other side of the road we don’t see the apathy of a priest…we see the constraints of a system.

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The inadequacy of religion

I believe that when we look at the priest in Jesus narrative we can identify Jesus calling out the inadequacy of religion.

A lot of people go to religion thinking it will heal their brokenness only to find it doesn’t even come close.

I’m a local church pastor so I am not anti religion…I believe it has it’s place…

But here’s the qualifyer…

Religion is only effective if it is infused with Jesus.

Religion without Jesus is like a car without an engine…it may look good but it can accomplish nothing.

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Church hurt = Religion Disappointment

Maybe you’ve been disappointed by church in the past…

That is one of the great disappointments of life.

The very things you expected to fulfill you leave you empty.

The systems you trusted…The positions you admired…The titles you respected.

Church hurt is real…but often we experience church hurt because we expect the church to accomplish for us something only Jesus can.

Any hurt you’ve received in church was either the limitations of religion or the failures of the people…because Jesus will never hurt you…He will restore you.

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2. Those Close to Me Are Not The Solution

Luke 10:32 NLT

A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Now we see a bit of a progression in this narrative…The priest passes on the other side of the street…’

The temple assistant gets close enough to see the wounds and evaluate the damage.

He notices the wounds. He sees the hurt. He understands the problem.

BUT HE KEEPS ON MOVING.

I believe as we look at the temple assistant we see the inadequacy of those we let close to fix what’s broken. ________

When we’re hurt by someone close

The inadequacy of religion hurts…but somehow that one hurts more.

Because some disappointments don’t come from strangers.

They come from people who were close enough to know better.

Relationships that got close enough to see the wounds.

Friends who understood the struggle.

People who knew your story and still left you wanting.

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Recency Bias

Our hurts create a recency bias.

We had close friends who betrayed us in a very severe way the week after my mom passed away

When you get hurt deeply like that it becomes very difficult to trust.

When it’s hard to trust…finding community is exponentially more difficult.

Many of us are facing an epidemic of hopelessness because very simply we feel isolated and alone.

I want to name this tension because often we can come to a church like Redemption and not engage because we feel like we don’t belong…

We feel like we don’t belong because we were disappointed by friendships inability to rectify our problems…

YOU NEED COMMUNITY….BUT YOU WILL ONLY FIND COMMUNITY WHEN YOU STOP LOOKING FOR COMMUNITY TO SAVE YOU.

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TR: He has had two seemingly good sources prove to be inadequate to rectify his broken situation…

So now he is lying there with every reasonable hope gone…

Which is exactly where God does His best work.

Keys Out

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3. The Solution Is Not What We Expect

Luke 10:33 NLT

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.

Jesus introduces the most shocking character in the story.

A Samaritan.

To this crowd, that is unthinkable.

The hero was supposed to be the priest. The rescuer was supposed to be the Levite.

Instead Jesus picks the person everybody wrote off.

The outsider. The overlooked. The one they counted as less than…THE THING THEY WOULDN’T HAVE CHOSEN

And it is the Samaritan who offers what nobody else would. Compassion

He kneels down. He gets close. He pours out oil and wine.

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What I thought religion and relationships would offer is found in the least expected place

Oil and wine were the contents of the temple…tools the priest would have been familiar with and the temple assistant probably would have had.

The resources he expected from religion….the care he expected from those close…were present in the place he least expected…

Could it be that Jesus is showing us something?

Again, this isn’t as much a smear of religion as it is a call to understand that sometimes the solutions we need don’t come in the packages we expect.

The truth we takeaway from this story is this…

When the things you expected to satisfy you leave you empty, God has a way of bringing restoration from a place you never expected?

POTENTIAL STORY OF PASTORING IN ILLINOIS (CALLED TO PLANT BUT HAD NO RESOURCES)

God specializes in unlikely sources.

He used ravens to feed Elijah.

He used a shepherd boy to drop a giant.

He used fishermen to change the world.

He used a manger to introduce a King.

And He used a Samaritan to heal a wounded traveler.

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CLOSING

You may be in this room today dealing with some severe brokenness in areas of your life…

You’ve gone to sources you thought would fix it.

Relationships, Success, Net Worth, Substances, ETC… (But they leave you wanting)

You’ve thought friends, or family, or a spouse would fix it…(But maybe they walked away when they saw how broken you were)

This place that feels hopeless might be the most beneficial place you ever reach… Sometimes we have to prove the inadequacy of other sources before we full surrender to God.

I know you expected the job to fix it…it didn’t. You expected the relationship to fix it…it didn’t. Your outcome has not lived up to your expetations.

God has never once been limited by your expectations.

He has always been able to bring healing unlikely places.

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Jesus, The Samaritan

If you’ve been disappointed and disillusioned by sources that didn’t offer any relief…

the Samaritan is not just a good example. He is a picture.

Jesus was the One they called a Samaritan to insult Him.

Jesus was the One despised and rejected, the outsider they wrote off.

And He is the One who came down our road, into our ditch, to a people half dead in sin.

He got close. He was moved in His gut. He poured out His own blood like oil and wine.

He carried us when we could not carry ourselves.

He covered the cost and said, I will settle the rest when I come again.

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GOD’S PLAN ALMOST NEVER PLAYS OUT THE WAY I EXPECT IT TO. BUT IT’S ALWAYS BETTER.