Serve Others
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Intro:
Intro:
AG: Wesley’s Wealth
The modern Australian way is to spend, spend, spend, to the very limits of your income and then some more!
A few hundred years ago the great preacher and evangelist John Wesley showed us another way. Wesley lived in economically uncertain times, yet from humble beginnings he became so well known that his income eventually reached 1400 pounds per year. Today, this would be the equivalent of earning over $300,000.
So what did he do with all this wealth? Did he tithe it? No. Wesley went way beyond tithing. He disciplined himself to live on just 30 pounds of the 1400 pounds he earned every year. He gave away 98% of all he earned and lived on just 2%!
Wesley once preached a sermon on . In it he spelled out his philosophy:
money is a tool that can be used for great good or great ill. “It is an excellent gift of God” he claimed, “answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked:
It gives to the traveller and the stranger where to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless. We maybe a defence for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death!
It is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent; that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree.”
He went on to spell out three simple rules which can guide us:
gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
Source: information about Wesley reported in Christian History Newsletter, November 30, 2001. Wesley’s sermon on can be accessed at http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/serm-050.stm
TS: In , Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem where there is a cross awaiting Him.
In , Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem where there is a cross awaiting Him.
At the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus sent out 72 of His disciples into the countryside to prepare the towns and villages to receive Him as He made His way to that cross. As the disciples return to Jesus, many of the people from the towns and villages that the disciples visited followed them back to Jesus. Jesus was speaking and teaching a crowd of these people when a lawyer stood up and put him to the test.
The Test
The Test
Let’s Read that:
Let’s Read that:
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
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.”
The Lawyer was a scribe who was supposedly an expert in the law.
He asked about the requirements to receive eternal life.
Trying to catch Jesus in an error.
Jesus turned the table and asked the expert.
his answer:
1st Love God with all you have
2nd Love your neighbor as yourself
Who is Our Neighbor?
Who is Our Neighbor?
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.’
This story featured the Wrong good guy
The Wrong good guy
Priest and Levite pass the man without helping
Priest
Priest, Levite, &
We don’t know how or why the priest was walking, also alone, on that same road that day and we don’t honestly know what his thinking was or his motivation for avoiding the injured, possibly dead, man on the side of the road. I don’t think that was germane or relevant to Jesus’ point or He would have told us.
I think what is significant is simply the fact that he’s a priest and priests are to fulfill the law by … you guessed it … loving God by serving Him at the Temple and loving their neighbors by teaching them about the law and serving them as God’s intermediary at the Temple. They, like modern day preachers, were called or chosen by God to serve Him and serve His people.
The priest also reflected the attitude that most priests and Jewish people would have had towards “foreigners” or gentiles, like a Samaritan.
Think about it. Most Jews would walk all the way around Samaria, literally go days out of their way, then set foot in Samaria or get Samaritan dust on their sandals. Help them? Why, they wouldn’t even ask a Samaritan for a glass of water if they were dying of thirst.
Perhaps the priest’s concern was simply “religious.”
In order to find out if the man were dead or alive, he would have to go over to the man and possibly shake him or touch him … and that would render him religiously or ritually impure … and he would be inconvenienced by having to isolate himself and go through a series of ritual purifications before he could return to work or home.
Levite- members of the tribe of Levi, but not Aaron's descendants so not priests.
Levite- members of the tribe of Levi, but not Aaron's descendants so not priests.
Levite- members of the tribe of Levi, but not Aaron's descendants so not priests.
A Levite, who serves the priest who serves the people, came along, alone, and gives the injured man a wide berth. And, again, we don’t know what he was thinking or why he would do that … what’s important is that he did it.
They assisted the priests at the temple
They “got their hands dirty” as part of their service.
Yet he too passed the man in need without hesitation.
The Samaritan helped
Not only did the Samaritan stop and help this poor stranger in need, he did so at his own peril.
The stranger lying there could have been a trap. It was common for thieves to pretend they were wounded … much like a person putting up their car hood today to get victims to stop and help … or they would attack someone and leave their body there to attract the next kindly traveler. The Samaritan could have ended up like the man on the side of the road … or worse … because he stopped and helped.
Unlike the priest, the Samaritan touched the traveler with hands of kindness and compassion.
No ceremonial reason restrained him. He didn’t even hesitate. He bandaged the stranger’s wounds. He bathed his sores. He helped him to get to a safe place where he could recover.
This was a beautiful picture of true compassion. This was a poignant illustration of compassion at work. ().
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
What was Jesus’ Point?
What was Jesus’ Point?
Everyone is our neighbor!
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.”
Everyone is our neighbor!
Everyone is our neighbor!
We have a responsibility to love our neighbor
Thus, we must love and serve everyone!
How?
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Treat people the way you want to be treated
Be the first to start the kindness
God is commanding that our inborn self-seeking, which has now been transposed into God-seeking, overflow and extend itself to our neighbor.
Jesus’ listeners would have gone to to the requirements of the Torah:
9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.
10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.
12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
9 And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar.
10 But the fat and the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses.
11 The flesh and the skin he burned up with fire outside the camp.
12 Then he killed the burnt offering, and Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar.
13 And they handed the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head, and he burned them on the altar.
14 And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.
15 Then he presented the people’s offering and took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people and killed it and offered it as a sin offering, like the first one.
16 And he presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the rule.
17 And he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning.
18 Then he killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people. And Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar.
Lev 19:9-18
Notice:
Live generously towards the poor and alien ().
Do not steal from anyone ().
Do not be deceptive in dealings with people ().
Do not swear in God’s name ().
Do not oppress, rob, or exploit the poor by paying unfair wages ().
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind ().
Do not be partial to the poor or show favor to the great but judge honestly ()
Do not commit financial fraud. ().
Do not hate your brother ().
Do not seek revenge or hold a grudge but extend forgiveness ().
That is how Jesus could say loving our neighbor’s as ourselves and loving God fulfills the whole law and prophets.
If you are longing to see more of God's bounty and liberality through the supply of food and rent and clothing, then seek to show others the greatness of this divine bounty by the generosity you have found in him.
If you want to enjoy more of God's compassion through the consolations he gives you in sorrow, then seek to show others more of God's compassion through the consolations you extend to them in sorrow.
If you long to savor more of God's wisdom through the counsel he gives in stressful relationships, then seek to extend more of God's wisdom to others in their stressful relationships.
If you delight in seeing God's goodness in relaxed times of leisure, then extend that goodness to others by helping them have relaxed, healthy times of leisure.
If you want to see more of God's saving grace powerfully manifested in your life, then stretch out that grace into the li
If you want to enjoy more of the riches of God's personal friendship through thick and thin, then extend that friendship to the lonely through thick and thin.
How we treat other people displays the love of God.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
works put our faith on display
Remember, everyone is our neighbor
Picture it as the circle of influence
Start with your immediate family
care for them, meet their needs first
Expand to your church
Then your community
Then the world at large
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
In conclusion, remember that we must always be alert to see and responsive to meet the needs of those around us.