Sunday Service 3/9/25

*music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* *music* Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service.

We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service.

We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. We will now begin our service. Oh my son, and all that's within me praises, the stone of my soul, and forget not who he is.

As a father shows compassion to his beloved children, so the Lord shows compassion to us, to those who fear. As far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken your buses from us. And it's high as the heavens are over the earth, so great is your step of God.

As far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken your buses from us. As far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west.

As far as the east is from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west, so far have you taken your buses from the west. Let me get a few announcements before we get started. First of all, our FAM245, if you are a husband who's been married for three years or less, this ministry event is for you.

There's going to be a light hike, I'm told, from 7:30 to 7:30, and then afterwards there's going to be a teaching on biblical manhood by Pastor Sung. And so, please come and join that, and it's happening this Saturday, and the sign up today, this is the last call to sign up, so please sign up.

As you're going outside, you'll see a sign up table outside, or you could do it online, but please do it as soon as possible if you are planning to come to that. Also, the dating seminar is happening that same Saturday at 2:00 p.m. through 5:00 p.m. in the main sanctuary.

So, again, this is the last call to sign up, so if you're planning to come, please sign up for that. As you exit, there will be a sign up table outside, and there's going to be three sessions. One is on the biblical view of dating, and then second is how to choose.

What are some things that you should be looking for in your husband or wife or a possible partner? And then there's an open Q&A that we will have on the third session. So please sign up for that if you are planning to come. Today is the last call, so if you're planning to come, please sign up.

Outreach Volleyball Park Day. Our outreach team is hosting an outreach park day. So if you have family, friends, co-workers that you want to bring in the context of sharing the gospel, our team and others will be there to be able to play volleyball in a casual setting to have conversations about who Christ is.

And so it's been very fruitful in the past. So our outreach team members and Pastor Mark has been doing a great job leading this team. So if you're able to come and bring somebody to participate in that, please sign up for that. And that's happening on March 22nd. And finally, there's a band park day.

If you're part of this ministry on March 29th at 2 p.m. at Tustin Sports Park. There's going to be some group games to help with. Again, there's a growing ministry here with a lot of singles who are coming to church. And it's an opportunity to get to know other people to find a community here.

And Pastor Nate will be giving a word of encouragement. The cost of this event with all the all the things that are going on with with activities is going to be five dollars. So please sign up for that as well. OK. All right. Let me pray for our offering time.

And then if you are visiting us and you have a physical check or physical offering, we do have an offering box in the back. Then after our main pray set, our sister Irene Kim is going to come and give our testimony and be baptized this morning. So let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your mercies and your perseverance with us, knowing how easily we get distracted, how we easily covet the things of this world. Help us to see a greater and greater vision of your glory, Father God, in our lives, that all that we do would be a simple reflection of the mighty work in us.

Thank you for the privilege to be able to gather together with our community, to be able to worship you, to honor you, to sing praises to you. And I pray that it would be more than just giving of our time, but our very hearts to you. I pray that even in this offering that you would help us to give intentionally as an act of worship.

May your name be glorified and honor in our midst. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise.

Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise.

Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. Let us all rise. of crucifixion, fountains open deep and wide. Through the floodgates of God's mercy, flood of lights and gracious time.

Grace and love like mighty rivers, poured in sassum from above. Heaven's peace and perfect justice. Kiss the guilty world in love. Here is love. Here is love, the conquered evil. Christ the first born from the grave. Death has failed to be found equal to the light of Him who sings.

In the valley of darkness, dawn is everlasting love. Perfect love and glorious brilliance has repelt as selfish love. No love is higher. No love is higher. No love is wider. No love is deeper. No love is truer. No love is higher. No love is wider. No love is higher.

No love is wider. No love is deeper. No love is higher, no love is wider, no love is like your love alone. No love is higher, no love is wider, no love is deeper, no love is truer. No love is higher, no love is wider, no love is like your love alone.

Here is love, blessed as the heavens, countless as the stars above. All the souls that He has ransomed, precious are the treasured souls. We are called to feast forever, on our love beyond our tongue. Glorious Father, Son, and Spirit, now with man are entered's mind. Christ our wisdom, we are humbled, when you hide your ways from us.

You have purposes unnumbered, each one good and glorious. Help us trust when we grow weary. Free us from our anxious thoughts. Give us grace to see more clearly. You are God, and we are God. Christ our wisdom, be our gladness. When we fail to understand. You ordain all joy and sadness.

To fulfill your perfect purpose. Help us know you rule with power over every raging flood. In our most uncertain hour, you are God, and we are loved. You are God, and we are God, and we are God, and we are love, and we are God, and we are God.

God, and we are God, and we are God, and we are God, and we are God, and we are God, and we are God. As we journey through the shadows, grant us faith where science stands. Help us cling to your commandments. Strengthened by your faithful word We will never be abandoned You are God and we are yours Christ of wisdom we adore you For the beauty of the grace Once in foolishness we scorned you But your blood has breathed us Help us sing thee in those mercies Of your humble heart to say Christ our wisdom, Christ our goal You are God forever praised Help us sing thee in those mercies Of your humble heart to say Christ our wisdom, Christ our glory You are God forever praised You may be seated Hello everyone my name is Irene and this is my testimony I grew up in a Christian family precisely as both a pastor's kid PK and missionary's kid MK Although I officially accepted Christ at a young age At the time I did not truly understand how much of a sinner I was Growing up I had anger and resentment towards church and God Going through some life circumstances there were many times where I felt helpless and not in control of my life I decided to build out what I believed was my own identity or my own strength I also decided that I would not only stop relying or trusting the people around me but also God I was determined to always do things on my own without God or anybody around me Whenever I was struggling or going through some difficult periods Rather than going to God I would always tell myself to just take it get over it and get through it on my own I made myself believe that if I was unable to handle things with my own strength and intelligence Then I was weak and pretty much worthless I was stubborn and refused to rely on God The combination of having the survival mindset and emphasis on self-sufficiency made me a callous and cold person It was very difficult for me to feel emotions I was very apathetic and jaded towards others Having no remorse for any hurtful things I said or did Nor did I feel empathy towards other people As I carried this mentality and endured various life challenges I continued to build walls around myself Furthering myself away from God I knew he was calling for me But I was stubborn and wanted to be my own person who could do things on her own I grew further away from God and started to go down a very dark path After I entered the military I continued to go through various life problems without turning to God My sense of identity in a military career and personal ambitions made me ignorant and foolish as I continued to defy him However, everything began to accumulate and affect my physical and mental health Eventually, I reached a breaking point in my life where I realized I had to fully surrender to God As you can tell I tend to learn lessons the hard way If I can sub up my epiphanies is First, I am weak and I'm very unworthy All those moments in my life I thought I'm on my own so I'll do this on my own But actually God was always there Second Corinthians 12:9-10 But he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness Therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me I realized God is sovereign It is only through his grace and mercy that he has provided strength and been there every step of the way Second, my identity is that I am a daughter of God I'm not defined by my failures, sins, or sufferings Despite of my brokenness, God sent his only son to die for my sins I'm unworthy and undeserving yet God chose me and brought me to him While I'm still a work in progress and definitely still a sinner I remind myself that my life is not mine And God is sovereign above all things Despite of my weakness and unworthiness and brokenness I have confidence that during my short time in this world God will continue to give me strength to live a life that is for him and his glory alone Thank you I mean, do you understand when you're going into the water, you're being united to Christ's death And when you're coming out, you're being united to Christ's death And I baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit All right, thank you Irene for that great testimony And the Kim clan and the Chu clan to come and support her If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 10 And I'll be reading from verse 30 to 37 Luke chapter 10 verse 30 through 37 Reading out of the NASB Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers And they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead And by chance a priest was going down on that road And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side Likewise the Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion And came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them And he put him on his own beasts and brought him to an inn and took care of him On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeepers and said, "Take care of him And whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that your word would be anointed And that what we hear is not man's word, but yours That your sheep may recognize that it is your voice That we may listen, we may obey and follow In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As you guys know, our theme this year, if you look in the back Devote yourself to prayer And that's a theme that we want to have and continue to push And we were at a conference this week where the speakers Like, heavily emphasized the necessity of prayer So I was really encouraged and challenged by that But part of the reason why prayer is so important Is because sometimes even in the study of the Bible It can produce pride in us And I don't know anything that Again, the years that I've been doing ministry Where you can see where this particular characteristic is going to lead And I would say probably on the top of that list is pride If you recognize pride, whether you're young or middle age or older You know that there is trials and difficulties that immediately surround them I don't even have to talk to you, I can already tell That there's probably all kinds of conflicts that you're dealing with All kinds of interpersonal relationship with your children or with your wife And so much is dedicated in the Bible about pride In Proverbs 16:18 it says pride ultimately leads to destruction In James 4:6 it says that God opposes the proud God actively opposes those who are proud And the Bible tells us that pride Separates us ultimately from God Pride gives us a critical spirit Pride keeps us from loving others And ultimately pride keeps us from our sanctification You're not teachable And so whatever you were Whatever you struggled with in the past Just gets worse as time goes by And especially if you're young You know, if you're young And you haven't achieved anything yet You're just starting out in life And you have pride You know, the destruction that's going to come upon your life Because of that pride Because you're unteachable And you can understand when somebody gets older And they've achieved success They become very wealthy And you have to fight to resist that pride But if pride is in you early on Before you achieve anything Imagine what's going to happen if you are successful The greatest thing that can happen to you If you're a young man and you're proud Is to fail Is to fail miserably Because that pride will get in the way of everything else that you're pursuing The reason why I'm pounding on this this morning is because Here's a young man, a lawyer I don't know if he's young or not But he's a lawyer that comes to Jesus And he's standing before the Son of God He's standing before the Son of God And he comes and after Jesus gives all the evidence necessary To prove that he is the Son of God He's the Messiah that they've been waiting for hundreds of years And he comes to him not to ask him question Not so to learn But he says to test him To test him To see if he can get get the answer right And then at the end after he answers the question He says he asked who's my neighbor to justify himself How can he be this blind They spent all their lives studying the Bible Studying the law And trying to obey the law At least in their perspective And yet the Son of God is standing right before him With all the evidence All of his powers All of his words Speaking with authority And everything that was prophesied about Jesus One by one he was checking off the list And then he comes to Jesus Trying to test him Justify himself How can he be so blind?

We may look at that and say Well that's hard to understand How they could have missed him How can you be so blind? Could this happen to us? If you're sitting here thinking like That would never happen to me If Jesus showed up And I was in front of him And I saw the miracles and the power I would never be that blind Are you sure?

That at the end of our life He says Everything that you've done You call me Lord, Lord But your heart was far from me How many people who are in the church Actively serving Actively worshiping Actively participating Maybe even leaders in the church When Christ comes This had nothing to do with me What made him so blind?

Well, Jesus is telling this story Because he's trying to help this man To see his blind spot And hopefully by His revelation of trying to reveal the blind spot That it may be to help us to see Certain blind spots that we have So there's three things that I want to show you That Jesus is trying to help this man see One is Sometimes our religious pursuit can blind us from the ministry That is right in front of us Sometimes we have a rubric of understanding of how I want to serve God And that rubric, that vision or that thought, that heart, that passion that you have Sometimes can blind us to the ministry that is right in front of us Jesus begins this story Again, this is a He's trying to answer this question Who is my neighbor to justify himself?

And Jesus tells the story Again, this is a parable He's not describing a particular scene He's not describing history This is a made up story And so we have to pay attention Because he deliberately exaggerates certain things to make a point He begins by saying that this man is coming back from his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho Now this road is about 20 some miles from Jerusalem to Jericho And it's known to be a very windy road through the desert to the wilderness And there's parts of it where there's caves that are hidden inside And typically a lot of business people would travel this road with a lot of money that they made when they were in the big city And so it was a prime target of robbers to come and jump And so Jesus is using what was already known at that time To illustrate that here's this man And he doesn't tell us who he is or what he's done But we're just assuming that he may have some wealth and these robbers jumped him And Jesus describes the scene where he is jumped And it almost exaggerates He was robbed, stripped naked, beaten, and left for dead Now again, this is a parable This is a parable So he's describing for us, not just somebody who was hungry or was in need This guy was left half dead He was desperate So he's picturing a person that if you don't help him, he may die And Jesus deliberately describes him that way In order to set up for what he's trying to convey Now here's this man who was robbed, stripped naked, beaten, left for dead And then there's two people that come on the scene that just ignores him The first one is the priest Now priests, as you guys know, are the people who are serving at the temple Typically at that time, they were divided into groups, 24 groups So every six months, no matter what group that you were a part of You served there for one week at a time And so you would serve, and then you would go back home for a period Until there was a big festival, then all the priests were required But typically throughout the Jewish calendar, you would be there every six months for one week But again, this was common knowledge of all the Jews So when Jesus says, here's a priest coming back from Jerusalem We're already assuming that he spent the week serving at the temple Which was the religious highlight for the priests This is when he probably felt the most, you know, most holy And typically with pastors, you know, you speak at a big conference, you come back, you did something great And you know, you have things to tell your people when you come back And that's probably, he's describing an individual who's coming back from a big event in his life Coming back and people are probably asking him, what was it like at the temple?

How many people did you serve? What kind of sacrifices? So Jesus deliberately chooses a man that people looked up And that man was a righteous, righteous man Because not anybody can be at the temple and serve And then the second man, he describes a Levite Levite didn't necessarily serve directly like the priest But they were doing the support work So all priests were from the Levite tribe But not all Levites were priests But he describes another group of people A person that probably served for a period To do support work for the priest And they're coming back But both groups are coming back from their religious activity From Jerusalem, possibly back home to Jericho And Jesus describes them this way He sees this man who's desperate, left for dead, naked There's no way to miss this man He's not just sitting on the side, sulking He's not just sad, he's not just hungry He's beaten, he's naked And he's left for dead They see him, and it says He passed him by on the other side And that's how he describes both of them But this was not just like They were just walking by and they didn't stop They actually crossed the other side So they don't have to encounter him And so they just ignored him And keep on going Now, like I said Jesus made up this story To make a point Because this lawyer asked "Well, who's my neighbor?" To justify himself And he said, "Here's these guys That all the Jews look up to And here's a clear encounter with this man Who was desperately in need But in the context of their religious pursuit They were completely blind And they just pass him by Sometimes In our pursuit Of wanting to serve God That we're completely blind to the needs Right in front of us Every once in a while Somebody would come to church and say You know what?

I don't want to come to Berean Because there's no opportunity to serve You know? And I know what they mean by that When they say there's no opportunity to serve Meaning like, oh, you know I want to go to a church where they can preach And teach and lead And typically when they ask me that And I said, "Oh, our bathrooms are dirty You know what I mean?

Did you see the trash on the ground? I want to get people to support and help out And, you know, cook and clean And there's plenty of opportunity to serve And because the church is growing The need is growing also But I know that that's not what they mean They want an opportunity to stand And do something significant And in the context of wanting what they think is significant They don't realize there's people sitting next to them They may not be Christians There's people even in this room Who are suffering today There's some people who've lost their loved ones There's some people who are grieving Some people who are having financial problems There are people who are grieving There's ministry all around you constantly But because we get so fixated on what we think ministry is Until that happens Until I get a title Until I get an invitation to do something What we think is significant We're not engaged in the ministry that is right around us And that's what Jesus is trying to point out Here's these guys who spent the whole week serving God And then here's a real need that was sitting right in front of them That they encounter And they deliberately cross the street to avoid Him Sometimes our pursuits can blind us And Jesus was constantly pointing this out to the Jews In Matthew Mark 7:5-13 It says You blind guides You hypocrites So you dedicate a certain amount of money To Corban Meaning it was dedicated to the temple And because it was dedicated to the temple We don't have enough money to take care of our mom and dad And so you ignore the weightier law To honor your father and mother In other words You obey one law And then you dismiss the other law Because this is more convenient for you You know as you guys know My younger brother who's an elder at our church And he's a lawyer And then one of the phrase that he would use Not to say that he does that But he said that the lawyers use is We massage the law Because laws cannot be broken If it's there I mean the whole profession of lawyers Is to find what the law is And to apply and you argue the law Which is legal, which is not legal Sometimes you have to massage the law You can't break the law You can't change the law You can't change the law They don't have that power But you can massage the law Emphasize certain laws And kind of go through the background And excuse yourself And he says so A good lawyer is a good massage therapist Because they're constantly massaging They're using the law for their benefit Jesus was constantly rebuking the Jews for massaging the law They emphasize what is convenient to them And then they kind of sweep under the rug The things that bothered them That they didn't want to do He says the same thing in Matthew 23, 23, 24 I'm not going to read the whole thing for the sake of time He says you're so concerned about tithing mint and dill and cumin But when it comes to weightier laws of justice, mercy and faithfulness You completely neglect it In other words, you hold on to, as a badge of honor The things that come easy to you But things that are difficult, you completely ignore You blind guide You strain out the gnat and swallow the camel James says the same thing in 2:15-17 You brothers or sisters without clothing and need of daily food And one of you says to him, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body And it reduces that Even so, faith without works is dead Being by itself So you can talk Anybody can talk Anybody can talk But this is the heart of God Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything But faith working through what?

Love Faith working through love Ephesians 4:15 After telling us that God has given us apostles Evangelists Teachers Pastors To the equipping of the saints So that we may have the truth So that the church of God will not be tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine So he says fight for the truth But make sure in that fighting that you fight for truth in love In love How do you get that?

In 1 Timothy 1:5 He tells Timothy Fight these men who are bringing false doctrine Never compromise the truth Preach the truth in season and out of season Don't be like these men who are surrounding themselves to tickle their ears Don't be one of those ear ticklers But he reminds Timothy in the context of fighting for truth And he says the goal of our instruction is love Which comes from a pure heart good conscience and sincere faith You know in the context of looking for opportunity to serve God Sometimes we completely miss that you have ministry all around you all the time All the time Who's my neighbor?

What he's saying is whoever is in need Whoever is in need You don't target and say you know what I have a heart for these people When God calls us to serve him he doesn't say who do you have a heart for? Who do you have a heart for?

I have a heart for the young That's great But I have a heart for the young and the old I have a heart for North America I have a heart for this That's great you have a heart for that But our service to God can't be limited by our heart Because God didn't call us to do what we feel like You know one of the things that I was really encouraged by In H.P.

Charles he was given a message and he talked about how When Isaiah was called to the ministry He didn't say God didn't describe ministry for him and say hey Who's going to go and do this ministry? Right? He didn't God didn't say who's going to go for me to talk to these Israelites They're stiff-necked They're not going to listen and until judgment comes who will go?

He said here am I Lord send me He says no who's going to go and he said here am I send me Lord And then after he surrenders he said now this is your task Right? He surrendered before he ever knew What assignment? Because his assignment was not based upon his heart His assignment was not based upon his passion His assignment was based upon obedience So the ministry that can be right next to us But sometimes our religiousness sometimes are like this is what I desire this is how I want to serve God And we can completely miss that and be blind Secondly our own pursuits and priorities can blind us to in how we see spiritual maturity Part of the reason why they rejected Jesus is because he didn't fit their mold of what What religious elites look like Remember when he came into the scene?

Remember one of the first things that they said about Jesus? He's from Nazareth No one's going to come out of Nazareth The Messiah is going to come from a spectacular city Not from a country town that nobody knows about Nobody spectacular comes from there He's from Nazareth On top of that he comes from a poor family A young family We're blue collar workers He's not connected to any kind of royalty There's no known scholar who trained him He grew in obscurity How can the leader of our nation come from Nazareth From no notable family background He has no money In fact Isaiah tells us that even his appearance wasn't attractive You know what I mean?

Like some people look like leaders I mean they just got it together Just tall, good looking, you know, well built Particulate and, you know what I mean, athletic And they're, you know, that guy's a leader That's why people follow him Jesus didn't even have that He didn't fit the mold So they're describing These religious priests that everybody thought The Messiah might come from this group But those are the guys who are completely blind He deliberately introduces to us to the Samaritan Which Would have been the opposite of what they would have been looking for Now in order to appreciate Not just here, but where the Samaritan stood And the kind of animosity they had together The Jews and the Samaritans And why this was so shocking You kind of have to understand their history Their animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans Go over 700 years 700 years 700 years Can you think of two groups in our society In our generation That don't like each other Right?

I'm sure you do Right now we have two groups that hate each other Right? Without me even mentioning I'm assuming you already know Right? The political divide is so sharp Right? I mean it's always been sharp But I mean to the extent But I can't think of a single thing That has lasted over a hundred years 300 years 700 years 750 years to be exact They had animosity toward each other It lasted that long And the reason why This divide happened was To be seen the Assyrians come and they conquer the ten tribes of Israel And they take a majority of the people into captivity And the few that remained in Jerusalem Ended up intermarrying with the Assyrians who came And settled there So they compromised intermarrying, disobeying the law of God Intermarrying with the Gentiles And those were the Samaritans So the Samaritans basically were not Jews Nor Gentiles They were kind of a mixed group But they considered themselves to be Jews Because historically they're Jews Well a hundred and so years later The two other tribes They get taken into captivity by the Babylonians The Babylonians are conquered by the Persians And King Cyrus comes along Seventy years into their captivity And he decides to let the Jews go back home The majority of them end up staying in Babylon But about 43,000 of them end up packing their bag A small remnant of them come back to rebuild the temple In Jerusalem When they come back The Samaritans think Our brothers are coming back And so we're going to rebuild our nation And help them with the temple So that we can rebuild our nation When they come back They said Samaritans They didn't want their help Because you guys compromised That's how we got into trouble in the first place Because we weren't obeying the law You guys intermarried You're not true Jews So they wouldn't let them participate In the rebuilding of the wall in the temple And as a result Instead of helping them They become antagonists And they start throwing rocks and stones Whenever they gathered So they need to set up a guard Against the Samaritans Who were hindering them From building the temple But it doesn't end there After they rebuild the temple Obviously they're not going to let the Samaritans Come and worship there They were throwing rocks at them When they were building the temple So what they did was They changed their theology God doesn't really want us to have the temple here So they built their own temple On Mount Gerizim And they start changing their theology They start twisting the Torah To fit what they wanted And say this is where God really wanted And so that's where the divide The theological divide began to happen Between the Samaritans and the Jews And that's why Jesus says in John chapter 4 To the Samaritan woman You Jews want to You guys want to worship in this mountain We worship in that mountain Which is correct And Jesus says There's going to come a time Where it doesn't matter Whether it's this mountain or that mountain God is looking for true worshipers In spirit and in truth But he says that because of this Now hundreds of years go by And there's an animosity between the Jews And the Samaritans for hundreds of years And about 111 BC The Jews finally had enough They organized a small army They attacked this temple in Mount Gerizim And they lay it to the ground Not only the temple but the Samaritan villages So this was about a hundred plus years Before Jesus showed up And by the time Jesus is walking Doing ministry Their temple is already destroyed They never were able to rebuild it So there's this hatred toward these Jews Not only would they not allow us To participate in their worship They destroyed the only temple that they had And so they couldn't worship anymore And then Jesus and his disciples were coming through Jerusalem Or coming through Samaria And when they found out that they were going to Jerusalem They said we don't want any part of you And that's where James and John says Okay, you know, God's going to bring judgment upon them anyway So you want me to do it now?

You want me to bring thin thunder and destroy all these people? I mean you're going to do it in the future anyway, right? Let's do it now, let's take care of them And then we'll take care of the Romans later Tell me what the disciples were thinking So all of this to show you the context The animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans Was not simply that they had different political views Or they ate strange food They hated each other Great, great, great, great grandparents Hated each other And religiously they both saw themselves compromised So if you were to choose A group of people That they hated more than anybody else That the first, if judgment of God came The first group of people that needed to be judged Was these people It is in this context that Jesus says Here's these priests, these religious leaders of Israel They completely ignore this man Who's about to die And this is what he says in Luke chapter 10:33-36 You notice that when he describes the priests and the Levites It's like one sentence They came, they saw him, walked on the other side Levite came, saw him, walked on the other side When the description of the Samaritan Was on a journey, came upon him and saw him He felt compassion Came to him, bandaged up his wounds Pouring oil and the wine on them And put him on his own beast Brought him to an inn, took care of him On the next day He took two denarii Gave them to the innkeeper And said, take care of him And whatever more you spend When I return I will repay you Which of these three do you Do you think you proved to be a neighbor?

A whole paragraph is described About what he does First thing he says is He saw him and had compassion The word literally means deep empathy Over and over again The scripture tells us That Jesus was moved by deep empathy And he does Why he sent his only begotten son Why he fed people Why he healed them Mark chapter 1 Healing of the leper Tells us he had compassion on them Matthew 20 Healing of the two blind men It says he had compassion on them In Matthew 14 and Mark 6 Why did he feed the 5,000?

He said, oh, Jesus was so irritated Because they were constantly complaining About the food He said, no He saw them hungry And he said he had compassion on them Mark chapter 9 The demon possessed boy He said he responded Because he had compassion on them Luke chapter 15 He said when the prodigal son returns He said the father had compassion on him Luke chapter 7 He said raising of the widow's son He said he did it because he had compassion on them Over and over again He says everything Jesus did He did out of compassion Compassion in latin Is compati It basically means with suffering With passion Compassion literally just means To come alongside and suffer with the person who is suffering That's what that means I go, I don't have the answer I don't know what to say to them So no, compassion simply means you come alongside And you share the burden And he said that's exactly what the Samaritan did When he saw this man who was desperately in need He had compassion And because of his compassion He gets off Treats his wounds And he doesn't stop there He said, you know, I got to go on my journey He stops there Gets out of his way Puts his limp body on the beast that he was on Takes him to an inn Gives him two denarii He lasted maybe about a month Of care And he said And he doesn't do it I've done everything I could What can I do?

Now I'm going to go He says no, I'm going to return And if month wasn't enough Whatever you need I'm going to give to you So please take care of him So Jesus is painting a picture Of a man who completely Whatever he was doing Wherever he was going Whatever he was engaged He stopped And he went out of his way To make sure that he was taken care of And if he didn't have enough money And he didn't have enough time He said, I'm going to return To make sure Now Jesus is telling this story He's not describing an event he saw He's telling a parable To make a point The contrast between these religious leaders And this Samaritan That everybody agreed Needed to be judged Finally to do away with these people That's the guy And he turns and says Who was a good neighbor?

Not only is Jesus describing the Samaritan He's basically saying The Samaritan is closer to God than you That man that you thought That is so hideous And so detestable You think that when judgment comes Of course he's going to be the first one to be judged Actually It is you Because you're so blind You know whenever we look at the Old Testament We highlight the spectacular stories Of the judgment of God About how the fire came and consumed Adab and Abihu How the flood came and wiped out the earth How Jericho fell and he judged them And so superficially we look at the Old Testament And said oh God The Old Testament is a holy God Who doesn't tolerate evil Which is true But because we know the Old Testament by spectacular stories We don't really get a sense of God God is so tender and merciful In fact More so I would say In the Old Testament In the way he deals with Israel In Deuteronomy chapter 4 28 through 29 God required He had all these other mandatory offerings But one of the offerings that he had Was every three years that they were to give a tithe So every year it's about a third And it was called the poor tithe And it was dedicated all that money Every three years Just so that they can take care of orphans and widows Why would he care?

You know what I mean? He's got a larger picture of Saving the world His only begotten son Is going to come And take away the sin of the world The world! And yet in his law He said Make sure that you take care of the people Who can't take care of themselves And then in Leviticus 19:9-10 He said when you When you harvest Make sure that you leave the corner of the harvest For the homeless And the needy And the strangers When they come into town And they don't have anywhere to go And they don't have money to eat Leave a portion of that And it was embedded into the law I mean this is in the context of Trying to display his glory to the world Setting up the temple Establishing his people People dealing with Stiff-necked people Who wouldn't obey him I mean Think about the restraint That God must have To just not wipe us out Right?

I mean think about it When somebody cuts us off on the freeway You know You're a good Christian So you're going to You know You're going to suppress your anger But if you gave full You know Full fruit to your anger He's like How dare you Cut me off?

You're tempted Tempted to cut him off At least Imagine the restraint That you need to show Even not to give full vent to your anger Even just somebody accidentally cut you off Can you imagine The restraint of our God After everything he's done And people keep rebelling against him Not only is he restraining his anger He said Remember the needy people So strangers they can't eat Leave that portion just for them To take care of them He gave the Ten Commandments He said All of the law is summarized by two laws Love God and love your neighbor All of it But he gave teeth He gave details So that we know how to apply this So that we don't use that as an excuse It's like Oh I feel love for them So then you fulfilled it But this is what love looks like If you love me you will obey my commandments But the end product He says ultimately is love In fact he goes Further than that in Matthew 25 And he said You know If you have done it unto the least of my brethren You have done it unto me You saw the needs of people who are desperate People who are in dire need Those who are in prison Those who are sick Those who are orphaned and widows He has done it unto the least of my brethren The least of the people are people who can't pay you back These of the people are people who cannot respond The way you've given Oftentimes we give and we love people who are lovable Or If you're more righteous than that At least the potential A potential Of paying you back in somehow Maybe they're going to grow And they're going to become great evangelists Or maybe they're going to become wealthy one day Who knows One of the qualifications of an elder in the scripture is that He needs to be hospitable But hospitality literally means the love of strangers So it's not just having your friends over You know, you just love to throw parties at your home So you're a very hospitable person That's not what the Bible describes as hospitable Hospitable is somebody that you love, care for, invite That you would never involve Because you're doing it for them You're doing it for them That was a qualification of an elder Not somebody that can pay you back Not somebody who That you think has potential But simply because they are in need And so After he tells us the story He says Which of these do you think proved to be neighbor To this man Who fell into the Barber's hand And the lawyer says The one who showed mercy toward him He says go and do likewise Can you imagine how difficult it must have been for him to say this?

Right? When God called Jonah to go and tell the Ninevites that Judgment is going to come unless they repent And how reluctant he was to say that I don't think he was preaching with passion Like I said, I think I imagine Jonah just kind of quietly walking and whispering Because he didn't want them to repent Judgment is coming If you don't repent, judgment is coming I assume that that's kind of like what he was doing He was just doing his job Because he didn't want them to hear He didn't want them to repent Can you imagine this lawyer who spent all of his life Not only him, but all of his friends Everybody at the temple Every priest Every Levite Every Jew If the Messiah comes Who's going to be judged first?

Samaritans And then to ask him Who is the righteous one here? Can you imagine him? Okay, Jesus Clearly it's the Samaritans I mean, I don't like it, but you know In fact, not only does Jesus say it here He repeats this over and over again In Luke chapter 17 We're told the story about the ten lepers who gets healed And only one return To thank him And then you know what it says?

He was a Samaritan All the other nine Jews who should have known better They say, "Oh, I'm healed!" And they just go off And the only one that returns And recognizes the gift that he has Was a Samaritan There's one instance where Jesus is amazed by their faith You know who that was?

In Matthew 8? A Roman centurion An enemy of Romans He said he was amazed by his faith In fact, just in case you don't get it Matthew 21:31 Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes Will get into the kingdom of God before you Imagine how shocking of a statement that is To a Jew The tax collectors and the prostitutes In their mind are more righteous than you You spent all your life at the temple Giving, serving, even proselytizing Memorizing scripture, praying Paying tithe And then Jesus comes on the scene And he says the prostitutes The prostitutes and the tax collectors Are going to be entering the kingdom before you So imagine that If you're hearing this as a Jew Either He just He just destroyed Everything that you live for Everything that you are holding on to All the honor that you've created That you're the religious leader And it says you are not You are more blind than they are Because the tax collector knows his sin The prostitute knows that he's in desperate need Of salvation You do not because of your self-righteousness You are blind And that's what he kept on calling You are blind guides You are blind guides You don't really know who I am He says And we don't know what the response was We don't know after he says that If he actually went and he said You know what, I repent So when we are confronted by this truth Because what Jesus is saying is so shocking Either We repent Like everything that I thought was wrong Jesus doesn't just come and helps us with our pursuit That's why this health and wealth gospel is so dangerous Because all health and wealth gospel do is help you with your sinful pursuit Help you so that you can gain more honor Help you for what everything else Everybody else is pursuing in this world But you are just doing it in Jesus' name And it's a false gospel It's a dangerous gospel But Jesus comes and confronts them Either You believe what he is saying And you repent You deny yourself And you pick up your cross And you basically start a new life Or You got to get rid of this guy Because the more popular he gets More difficult he comes for you More people honor him More people are not going to honor you And that's why they crucified him Those who wouldn't repent Because their understanding of righteousness They would not give up Because they wouldn't They didn't want to give up themselves But let me conclude with this The third and final point When we're blinded by our own pride We can easily miss God's ultimate will for us You know, we're constantly concerned about will God's will Should I marry this person or that person?

Should I start this business? Should I go to this school? And even though we say it in Like God's will But if we're honest with ourselves We're pursuing our will In the name of God Because God's will has been made clear So Our struggle with sanctification is How do I align with the will that he has already revealed?

Not going out and looking for new wills Right? Jesus was giving a preview Of the kingdom of God That the kingdom of God is going to go from the Jews to the Gentiles The remotest part of the world His ultimate plan was never just for the Jews He chose the Jews And he said through you I will bless the nation That was always his plan Salvation for the world He was only going to use the Jews to bring that about But the Jews took that and said You know since God's using me It must be about us It must be about us In Acts chapter 1:8 it says When the Holy Spirit comes upon you You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria To the remotest part of the world Because that's the plan of the gospel That his intention was always to the remotest part of the world But it's just going to start in Jerusalem So if you read the outline of the book of Acts It is the outline of Acts 1:8 being fulfilled So the first seven chapters is them in Jerusalem Preaching the gospel And then Stephen is martyred in chapter 7 by Apostle Paul And then in chapter 8 Right?

In chapter 8 The Holy Spirit comes upon them Philip goes out and he's taken into Samaria So Jerusalem Right? Judea And then to Samaria He preaches the gospel And then revival breaks out over there And then in the same chapter He runs into the Ethiopian eunuch Who is a Gentile And he gets baptized And then they come And then Paul converts in chapter 9 Chapter 10 There's a vision And he says What I declare to be clean You should not declare unclean And then he sends him to Cornelius' house And a Gentile converts to Christianity And then revival breaks out But they don't know what to do with this Because they thought it was just the Jews So they have a conference in Jerusalem in chapter 11 What are we to do with this?

How do we understand this? The kingdom of God is being open And so they come to the conclusion Jesus has been telling us this from the beginning That the gospel was always meant for Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria To the remotest part of the world So they come back And Apostle Paul and Barnabas Gets ordained in chapter 13 And they begin their missionary journey First, second, and third missionary journey From chapter 13 to chapter 28 So Acts chapter 1:8 Is the outline of the gospel Going from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria To the remotest part of the world But the Jews in their pride Could not see it They were completely blind to his will If we do not understand What God is doing in our midst We end up focusing all the attention on us We evaluate what is good and what is bad Based upon how it makes us feel My family is good, my children are good God so blessed us Apostle Paul Even as he is being imprisoned And ready to be beheaded Thank God the gospel is being preached He said, "My only hope is whether by life or death That I may glorify God That I may not be ashamed Because he knew God's will He knew that the whole reason why he was called Is not so that he can have a nice life here Is so that the gospel may reach the remotest part of the world That the greatest blessing For every Christian Is that we would be able to participate In God's plan In God's plan The whole reason why you and I are here Is not so that you can protect your children Go to Sunday school Surrounded by other Christians who love them Care for them because it's so dangerous out there That's not why we're gathered He said we are the light of the world Who sets a light and puts it under the table You are the salt of the earth And if it loses its salt What good is it other than to be thrown to the ground To be trampled When we are blinded by our own passion Blinded by our own pride We easily forget what God is doing Why am I here?

What are we doing? Everything that you are learning Everything that you are being trained All the purpose of fellowship All you are giving Is to fulfill His will That's why Jesus said When you pray, pray this way Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be your name Not my name, your name Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our debts As we forgive our debtors For God is the kingdom And the power and the glory forever and ever Amen Pray in this way That His name, His will, His glory Is what you and I submit to And live for Let's pray Father, we thank you for your mercies The things that we know Things that we are learning And many things That are hidden Help us Lord God to see a greater and greater glimpse of your glory That we may be changed from one form of sanctification to another May your name be honored Worshipped Obeyed Glorified Help us Lord God in our weakness Search us and know us and see if there's any hurtful ways in us In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise.

Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise.

Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's all stand up for the closing praise.

Sunday Service 3/9/25

Transcript