Luke 10:29-37. For the longest time, I tried to figure out exactly who is my neighbor.
It finally registered with me when I saw a man in the store, and he was picking up glass off the floor. A globe he was buying had fallen out of his cart and people were just standing and watching him. I went and got a bag and helped him pick up a few pieces and he looked at me and said, “Thank you, neighbor.” That’s when this message finally came together. Your neighbor is anyone God brings into your life who has a need.
How can we do this?
The priest passed by the wounded man and the Levite passed by. How can we go to church and clap our hands, saying, “Oh, how I love Jesus!” and then leave being cold and calloused? How can we go to church, worshipping a God who was wounded for us, and live our lives day by day only caring about ‘me and my four, no less no more?’
Every pair of eyes you look into is going somewhere for eternity. Heaven is a real place, but so is Hell. We have to get a vision for the lost. People don’t care about how much we know until they know how much we care.
Half dead.
Sin will take everything you have. It doesn’t matter if a person is wearing a suit with a wallet full of money, they can still be half-dead. Sin is only fun for a season. And sooner or later that season catches up with a person. God will reach and keep on reaching until one day He draws a line and if that person crosses it, God will never deal with them again. His spirit shall not always strive with man.
God didn’t necessarily call you to witness, but to be a witness.
God told us to let our light shine before men so they can see our good works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven.
If a child is out in the yard playing and a rattlesnake is there, you don’t run over and spank them for not staying on the porch. First, you rescue them. You’ll have time later to deal with their disobedience. There’s too much correction going on in the church and not enough rescuing.
A hospital is not for those that are well, it’s for the sick. The ministry isn’t only for those that are doing good. It’s for those that are bruised and broken, who’s lost all hope and confidence. Ministry is more than a microphone or an offering or a song. Ministry is more than a service. Ministry gives somebody hope. It loves the unlovable, reaches the unreachable, and changes the unchangeable. Ministry makes a difference in a troubled world.
I remember coming across a horrible wreck and I stepped out of my car to go pray with the man who was injured. I knelt beside him while the ambulance was on its way, and I could tell by his smell that he and I had been drinking out of different fountains. But all that didn’t matter. What mattered was he was my neighbor, and I was going to help him. The man was still alive by the time the ambulance got there. Later I was washing my shoes off because I had gotten his blood on them and the Lord spoke to me. “Son, you may get a man’s blood off your shoes, but if you ever destroy someone, how can you get their blood off your hands?”
We ought not to be mean to someone that Jesus died for.
To get to Heaven, you don’t just have to stop drinking or lying. It doesn’t matter how good of a life you live, if you don’t love people, you won’t make it. The Samaritan came and bound up the man’s wounds. How long has it been since you’ve done that for someone? People all around you are going to Hell, and you have a chance to make a difference in their lives. We may not be mean or hateful, but sometimes we are so caught up in ourselves.
It costs $0.50 to reach someone a CD or a tract, then tell them Jesus loves them, and that’s all well and good. But for us to walk into someone’s life, it’s going to cost us. The oil and wine the Samaritan poured on the wounded man could have cost up to a week’s salary.
The oil represents the presence of God in your life. The oil is that healing anointing. I believe the wine represents your love and the blood of Jesus. We take the blood of Jesus into any circumstance. As for your love, you may show all of it to someone, and they just use you and mock you. The same hand that reaches to pick a rose, may get scarred from the thorns. But if you’ll just keep on reaching and loving, you can reach that one person. There was a whole crowd mocking and laughing at Jesus on the cross, but there was one thief that cried for mercy.
2 Corinthians 12:15. It doesn’t cost much to witness, but It costs a lot to be a witness. Every person, man, woman, or child, is a soul. The Master has need of you. Someone is lost. Someone needs you to care.
— Pastor Anthony Wynn
