TAOBAN: Neighbor 101

I’ve only been here a couple months, but I can honestly say that you all have made us feel at home. I mean if it weren’t for the fact that I wasn’t born here…I would say this was my home town. I guess I could adopt yall, I’m not sure that’s allowed. But why not.

So today is a major milestone here in Rock Hall. Let me proclaim today that Rock Hall is my home town. You may disagree, but I didn’t put this to a vote.

Now that that is settled and we are officially Rock Hallers. I want to say, it’s no accident that we share the same home town. As a matter of fact, if you don’t like it, you can blame God; it’s his fault. The Bible says so.

Acts 17:26 NIV84

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

God put us here, in fact he put you here too.

Acts 17:27 NIV84

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

God put us here so that you and I who love Jesus could make sure that others knew him.

You know it’s true about where we live that you can’t get lost here. All the roads lead to dead ends if you go far enough…except hwy 20 and a couple of others. You would be hard pressed to get lost here, honestly.

Spiritually speaking, that’s what God planned for you and me being here, so that no one would get lost here spiritually; or rather that we would all find our way with Jesus. We should add that to our town sign…nice people live here and they won’t let you go to hell. Maybe they won’t let you stay lost would sound better? Anyway, that’s what we are here for.

This is exactly the inspiration behind our new website:

YourRockHall.Church

I want people to know that we are the place for them to experience life in Jesus. That here with us, regardless of what a charge is…no one knows what that is except a few of the leaders here…we are the church here - for them. We may worship in three buildings, but we are the body of Christ. I want them to know they experience a relationship with God here. That this is God’s church for them.

I also want us to realize that we are Rock Hall’s church. That we exist SO the people of Rock Hall know Jesus. It’s a proclamation that we are Rock Hall’s church. We are taking responsibility for Rock Hall. This is our town…and we are it’s church; and we taking responsibility for it.

I believe that’s what Jesus would have for us, in fact I believe that is what we have been charged with. That’s why I wanted to have this series of messages focused on Jesus’s 2nd commandment.

Matthew 22:37–39 NIV84

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I’ve titled it: the art of being a neighbor, because sometimes it doesn’t come naturally to all of us. It’s awkward, it’s difficult. Some of them don’t seem friendly, and those are the ones you do know.

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The fact is, most people don’t do this well. But we aren’t most people, we are the people of God and we can all learn the art of being a neighbor. It’s important to Jesus, it’s important to us.

the art of being a neighbor

This week we are focusing on Neighboring 101…the basics.

I’ve been able to get together with many of you to talk about our town over the last couple of months. Those of you who have been here longer than I have been have told me stories of how our town has changed over the years.

Yall have told me about the bowling alley on the corner. The movie theatre that had the latest 6 month old movies showing every week. You told me about how you stopped at the store after school to get candy. You told me about how you would leave the store when the fire alarm went out. I wasn’t here back then, I may not have been born for some of it, but our town has sure changed over the years.

That’s not all, we have changed too. Think about it, this church used to be filled with people who worked right here, not driving an hour or more to the office. Most mom’s didn’t have to work or they were able to chose not to so that someone was always at home. Kids didn’t have to spend 2 hours a day on the bus back then like they do now, high school kids getting home at 6 or 7, later if they work like many do. People we able to look out for one another, because we were around one another. Sure there were people who struggled with life’s hurts habits and hangups, but it was harder to slip to the cracks than it is today. In fact people today are completely forgotten because we spend so much of our lives focused on places other than those who live around us.

Sure out town has changed, but so have we. WE the church tend to do more for us, than we do for our neighbors. Think about it. When was the last church business meeting that you talked about the problems people in our town were struggling with? The simple fact is, we focus on us and our needs most of the time…what the church needs, what we need fixed, what we would like to plan, you get my point.

It’s not just the church and our town that has changed, families have changed. our kids are moving away because there aren’t enough jobs. When people die or move, someone from another state buys their house only to come every other weekend. So we naturally start to talk more about us…because there are fewer of them to worry about.

Since we got here, we have felt your love and compassion. I believe yall really care about us. That’s either true or yall are some great actors. Either way, you convinced me to make you my new home town. I know you are loving people, I’m not questioning that.

But the trap we fall into, because we are good loving people, is we get used to loving us. So when someone like Jesus comes along and says love your neighbor as yourself, we say…I do, and we can all point to people we love. In fact we are just like the man in the story today, if someone points someone out to you, you would be willing to go and love them. That’s who you are. That’s why I love my new home town.

That’s what Jesus was teaching in today’s text as we start this series on the art of being a neighbor.

If you brought your bible today, please open it up to Luke 10.

If you didn’t bring a bible, we have one for you in the pew back in front of you. While you are turning to Luke 10, let me give you some background. We are going to look at a famous parable of Jesus. A parable is a story, an allegory you might say that illustrates a spiritual truth. Jesus taught this way all the time, he was a story teller. We are starting in verse 25.

Luke 10:25-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan

There is a lot in this parable, so much so that we will be back here next Sunday, but today I want us to see the big picture, the 30,000 foot level.

Luke 10:25 NRSV

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

We read it here in vs 25 tells us that he was testing Jesus. This man wasn’t tryign to learn, he was trying to prove he was smarter than Jesus. The problem was, Jesus knew the law, so there was no test. He pushed right back.

Luke 10:26–27 NRSV

He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 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.”

Exactly. Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. This guy knew his stuff. Jesus told him so.

Luke 10:28 NRSV

And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

In fact everyone knew this. Every Jew knew this was the expectations of God. The hard part was doing it; knowing what to do was easy. Jesus always did ask us to go deeper. Deeper is usually found in obedience. Living deep with Jesus is where we find HIS heart

...but this call to devotion is also where the man’s heart is revealed.

Luke 10:29 NRSV

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

He wanted to justify himself. Of course he loved his neighbor, he was a leader in the synagogue or the temple…of course he loved his neighbor. End of the story right…he loved every one around him.

But Jesus was just getting started. He told him a parable of a man on his way to Jerusalem. On the way he was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. A while later a priest came by, one who knew the heart of the law well; but when he saw the man, not knowing him, he didn’t stop to help, he went around. Then a while later a Levite came by, he knew the letter of the law, surely he would stop right? When he saw the man, a stranger from who knows where, he too went around.

Then to increase the shock value, Jesus introduced a Samaritan. The Jews hated Samaritans. You can almost hear the Pharisees spit when Jesus talks about this guy.

Look at what Jesus says the Samaritan does, He sees the beaten stranger and instead of walking around, he helps the man, he bandages him up, puts him on his donkey and takes him to get cared for…and pays for it.

Then Jesus asks

Luke 10:36 NRSV

Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

There was really no way to avoid the answer, but he couldn’t say the Samaritan was the hero of the story…so instead he just said

Luke 10:37 NRSV

He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

He wanted to be justified, that if Jesus would point out someone he would be their neighbor…he would have loved anyone Jesus would have pointed out. But what Jesus did was say, go and be a neighbor. Advice that applies to many areas of life:

Stop waiting for one to show up, go be one.

Stop waiting for a neighbor you approve of to show up, go and be a neighbor to people in need.

Jesus was telling him to make neighbor a verb. Go do some neighboring.

Jesus calls us to make “neighbor” a verb.

We fall into this too. We know we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, but frankly, I can’t love every body, so I will love the ones closest to me, the ones I spend most of my time with. I don’t have the resources to love every stranger like I do my own household…maybe not.

But we can do for one what we should do for all.

We can even do for a few what we should do for everyone.

So where do we start? Being a neighbor starts by no longer being strangers.

On the back of your bulletin is a map intended to represent you and your neighbors. Your neighborhood may not look this simple, it probably doesn’t. But let this be an example of you and the 8 families that live near you.

Flip that over and look at it. I want to challenge us, over the next 4 weeks to be able to answer 3 questions about the 8 people who live closest to us.

Grid

1. Their name

2. Write down some relevant information about each person, some data or facts about him or her that you couldn’t see just by standing in your driveway, things you might know if you’ve spoken to the person once or twice. We don’t mean drives a red car or has yellow roses by the sidewalk, because you could see that from your driveway. We mean information you’ve gathered from actually speaking to a neighbor, such as grew up in Idaho, is a lawyer, plays golf, is from Ethiopia, had a father in World War II.

3. Write down some in-depth information you would know after connecting with people. This might include their career plans or dreams of starting a family or anything to do with the purpose of their lives. What motivates them to do what they do? What would they say about God? What do they most fear? What are their spiritual beliefs and practices? Write down anything meaningful that you’ve learned through interacting with them.

Over the next 4 weeks I am going to ask you to complete this map so you can pray for those around you. That’s where it starts, knowing their name.

Imagine if we all did this? If everyone in town knew that we were their rock hall church? What if the church wasn’t a gathering of us but an opportunity to scattering of the love of Jesus throughout town.

This is what Jesus calls us to as his hands and feet

Drive through town real slow, take a different street, see if you notice people needing to experience Jesus you have experienced?

Jesus said

John 6:44 NRSV

No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.

Perhaps, Jesus is waiting on us to be the neighbor who shows them.