Be a Good Neighbor
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During the last few months of Pandemic, we have been put into isolation which is not healthy for long periods of time.
We also are faced with protest and even riots over racism and prejudice --- we stand against racism, but we also stand against unlawful riots and looting or lawlessness. WE are a nation of laws … even when those laws need to be changed.
These prolonged events have show a need that we have to rebuild relationships within our own neighborhoods.
37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Right now we need to model this verse… we need to model what it means and looks like to be a good neighbor.
Get to know your neighbors
Get to know your neighbors
We can’t love people we don’t know, so get to know your neighbors. We have met more than ever before during this pandemic as we walked around our neighborhood almost nightly.
One of the weaknesses in our modern and mobile culture is that we can live on the same street with people and never get to know them. I am glad that’s changed … at least somewhat during this pandemic.
To get to know our neighbors and become friends with them begins with us being friendly.
24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
To have friends, you have to be a friend!
Try to get to know your neighbors. Eat at home more… invite some over for barbecue...
Encourage your neighbors
Encourage your neighbors
Everyone needs encouragement especially in times of uncertainty and strife.
25 Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.
People are worried and weighed down right now and Everyone needs encouragement.
Where can we find words of encouragement? We can draw our words of encouragement from God’s word.
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
Everyone… our entire nation needs hope right now and we have the source of the hope our neighbors need.
Offer to say a prayer with a neighbor … invite them to church… to your house for crawfish, shrimp or barbecue.
Serve your neighbors
Serve your neighbors
Serving is love in action.
17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
Look for possible needs your neighbors have and seek to help them. Maybe an elderly person or sick person needs some yard work done. Maybe someone needs someone to go get groceries...
Share Jesus with your neighbors
Share Jesus with your neighbors
You don’t have to be a Bible Scholar, just share what Jesus is doing in your life with your neighbors. Jesus died for everyone. God never created a person He didn’t love and care for. so the greatest thing we can do is to introduce our neighbors to the God who loves them more than they can possibly imagine.
Jesus promised that he would give us the power to witness for him.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Sharing Christ isn’t difficult but it does require that we talk with our neighbors.
15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
It’s not enough to be a living witness, we have to explain why we do what we do. Maybe you cut someone’s grass while they are sick and they ask, why would you do that? Answer, because Jesus loves you and asked me to do it.
We have built up a reputation for caring about our church building’s neighborhood. We need to continue that, but let’s be know in our neighborhoods also…
Prayer