 I want you to open up with me Luke 10 and we will read a story and we'll get couple things out of that story for ourselves we will encourage ourselves encourage ourselves towards the vision towards the miracle cast that's coming up next Wednesday and we will once again pray because prayer moves the hand of God in our lives amen amen amen so Luke chapter 10 I will read verse 25 let's start we're gonna I'm just gonna skip couple verses here and there to just follow along one day an expert I'm reading an LT version one day an expert in religious loss to dub to test Jesus by asking him this question teacher what should I do to inherit the eternal life Jesus replied what does the law Moses say how do you read it the man answered you must love your Lord you must love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and all of your mind and love your neighbor as yourself 28 verse says this right Jesus told him do this and you will live verse 33 then Jesus is telling a parable to this man to answer the question who is my neighbor so Jesus says that there was a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho he felt into the hands of the robbers thieves he got beaten he got stripped of his clothes he all his possessions were taken away and he was left to die and then Levite went by priest one by they ignored him and verse 33 says this then a despised Samaritan came alone and then when he saw the man he felt compassionate for him going over to him the Samaritan soothed his wounds with oil and wine and bandaged them then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to to an inn where he took care of him the next day he handed an innkeeper two silver coins telling him take care of this man if his bill will runs higher than this I will pay the next time I am here so this story is a very known story in in the Christian world this story is taught in starting from Sunday schools everybody knows the story but this story has two very key components that that shows us first of all we'll start with this is man the teacher of the law he tests Jesus and he comes and says Jesus what should I do to inherit the kingdom of God and he knows his own answer he answers to Jesus as love God with all your heart all your soul all your mind and Jesus confirms these things that he said and so I want us to pay attention to the first thing that he said was to love God with all our strength number number one thing the first thing in our lives in a Christian walk is we must love God our priority before we do anything for God before we go even witness before we even go invite people to church before we go do any good deed before we behave the way we're supposed to behave or follow the Ten Commandments Bible says that we should love God we should love him with all of our heart and everything that we have in ourselves the main our main priority in our life is to maintain the relationship with God and everything else in our life will come out of the relationship with God you say how do I love God I'll give you couple quick points in order to love God the more you have to realize how much God loves you first you have to understand that we as human beings we only take we have no ability to give only God is a giver and if we receive his love if we realize how much God loves us if we realize how much he cares for us if we realize we if we get a revelation of how much we mean to God and how much God loves us we will be able to in return respond to his love we're like the moon and he is like the Sun the moon in itself has no light it has nothing to offer to us at the in the night but what moon has to offer is just a reflection of the light that comes from the Sun and so in our in our lives in a Christian walk the first thing that we have to realize the first thing that we have to recognize and the first thing that we have to live by is the love that comes from my Heavenly Father Bible says that for God so loved the world that he gave his only son he given everything that he had under the Sun and well anywhere anything he gave his best he gave his son for us and so our love for God needs to be founded on a revelation of how much he loves us because outside of that revelation we that we cannot master up enough love to love him we have nothing to offer him and so I know in my personal life every time every time I when I feel like God is not near anytime I try to pray and I don't feel God's presence or I don't feel like I love God enough and as I used to be younger I used to try to do things to show God that I love him more to stir up that feeling of love in my heart but as I grew older I began to understand and realize that by doing all these things I I did not love God more but by realizing how by just coming to God coming to the cross coming to a realization how much God loves me it helped me to love God more and more and more and the more that I realized how much he loves me the more I was able to respond back to his love and so number one thing if you want to love God more you have to come to a realization and meditate and contemplate on the fact how much God loves you first number two is you have to spend time in his word you have to spend time in prayer this is where how relationship is developed if you say you love somebody but that you don't spend time with them it's just empty words the words if you say if you have somebody in your life significant other husband or wife you have parents and you say that you love them but you never put time into talking with them you never put time hearing what they have to say then the words are cheap the one mean the words mean very little so our job as Christians is first to recognize how much God loves us and then spend time in his word receiving from him him talking to us and prayer is talking back to him and hearing what he has to say to us a man Paul says that I count all things as garbage in comparison and getting to know Jesus in our lives we must put God first in our life we must put everything else even doing things for God as garbage as nothing in comparison to get into know him Paul says that that knowing Christ is an infinite value you know why it's an infinite because when you pass on to glory the knowledge of God will go with you the knowledge of goodness of God the relation of him will go on with you as you go pass on to glory as you go into eternity that knowledge will stay infinite with you stay forever with you for whole eternity so as we live this life on earth our job is to fall to love God and to love people but we can't love God we can't love people unless we truly experience God's love and unless truly we love God amen how many how many of us will spend time with God in his word in prayer and meditating on what God has already done for us there is another part and Jesus in another scripture he said that on these two things the whole law and prophets based on the whole Bible is based on everything in the Bible is based on these two things first love God second second one is love your neighbor loving your neighbor and the teacher of the law he was he was trying to get himself out of the situation by asking Jesus who is my neighbor obviously he was a teacher of the law he knew the 10 commandments he knew those things were the most important is to love God and to love your neighbor but just to get out of the situation and to not to not look foolish he decided to ask another question who is my neighbor and Jesus go on to describe goes on to describe and brings a story brings a parable of who your neighbor is your neighbor is not necessarily your physical neighbor that lives right next to you next to your apartment next to your house but Jesus begins to describe that your neighbor could be anybody your neighbor could be any person that you come in contact with it's what you choose to do with that neighbor that matters and so but before we go on before we go on talking about what the Good Samaritan did I want to point out a couple things for us to take home for us to take to be aware of to be alerted is we see that this man this Jewish man he is a person is in the covenant with God he let's call it in our in our daily language he's a Christian and he decides to leave Jerusalem to go to Jericho Jerusalem represents the city of God the church people of God congregation community of believers and Jericho on the Bible always represented a city of sin a cursed city and this man decides to leave the gathering of saints community of believers to go to a city that is cursed to go into the city where there is sin anytime in our lives we leave God's territory we exchange God and here's things for sinful things in our life we will encounter encounter thieves and robbers in our life you have to understand that sin is deadly sin hurts sin steals Bible shows us that whatever whatever Satan can do in our life sin can do in our life because sin opens a door to Satan his agents his demons to operate in our lives and Bible shows us that his tactics his strategy and his thing is only threefold to come to kill steal and destroy that's why God has had to send his son to die on the cross for us to redeem from the power and the consequences of sin because without him we were under curse and we were subject to sin and its consequences and sin Bible says leads to death and so that's why it's very important in our lives that we don't mess around with sin that we don't flirt with sin regardless how attractive in my look like how innocent in my look like sin will always what how they say sin will always take more than what you willing to give and will always make you pay more than you willing to pay that's why in our lives we have to live committed to God we have to commit we have to live committed to his ways that's why we have to live not because God is out there like a police officer chasing us down that anytime we do something wrong he's gonna slap us with a ticket and punish us no it's because there's demons there's Satan like the Bible says he walks like a roaring lion seeking whom to devour and when we sin we open a door to Satan to come to kill steal and destroy that's why our lives have to be we have to be serious in our life that's why we can't flirt with sin in our lives that's why we have to be committed to God and his will in our lives so that we can walk in protection before that we can walk in protection in our lives we see that first thing that they do is they strip him of his clothes clothing first thing that sin brings is first thing that sin does in your life is strips you of your righteousness is strips you of your inner peace and your inner joy in your life it brings guilt condemnation and shame it lowers personal self-esteem and brings negative thinking in your life and when our lives is open to sin or when or when we allow certain habits certain sins recurrent sins to come into our lives and we don't deal with them we don't confess our sins like the Bible says confess them to one another and receive prayer of deliverance that sin eventually will hurt us and first thing that it takes is our righteousness the righteousness that Jesus gives us that no guilt and no condemnation and those that Bible says in Jesus Christ it takes that away from us and it gives us guilt shame and lowers us lowers us down second thing that that these thieves did to this man is they robbed him any time you leave and door open to sin in your life any time you decide to joke around with sin on the week on Wednesdays I'm here on the weekends I'm in the club you know leave a door for for an addiction to to weed to drugs to alcohol to to gambling or other things on any other sins lying stealing anytime we don't deal with those sins and they linger in our lives they will open a door and they will steal from us they will steal from your marriage they will steal from your relationship they will steal from your family they will steal your finances sin does not have a capacity or ability to give it only takes it might look like it's giving you something with the right hand but with the left hand it will take everything that you left depends on we must not we must live our life committed and be serious minded life of victory belongs to those that are serious a serious minded amen say I'm serious minded amen amen another thing that sin does is leaves you hurt every time you allow sin in your life sin will hurt you sin will leave you disappointed it will leave you alone it will leave you desperate it will leave you in despair it will leave you depressed Satan did not comfort anybody sin did not comfort and give peace to nobody it only takes that's why our life has to be once again committed to God because when we walk with God we walk under his grace we walk under his covering we will be people that are saved healed walk in God's blessing and God's deliverance amen that's why we have to understand that people that live without God they fall in these three categories either live in guilt and shame and condemnation leave live their life robbed of things constantly in lack constantly disappointed and or leave live in hurt and pain and this is where good Samaritan comes you have to understand that the world is full of sin and sins consequences that's why God calls us to be those good Samaritans and like Pastor Vlad already shared today during prayer is that Samaritan this man Bible strictly in my version at least underlies that he's a despite Samaritan he was not the reason why he's despised as Jews to look down on Samir on Samaritans Samaritans were not highly esteemed or thought well of but we see that this man when a person is half dead like the Bible says when a person is hurt and and dying they don't care who's gonna come and help them when you are stuck in a house that is on fire you don't care if the fireman that's gonna come rescue you if he is nice and clean if he took a shower if he's wearing deodorant if he got his you know if he got his life together if he has a good family all you care about it who can come and rescue me and this is what the Bible shows us to us as Christians is that we don't have to achieve certain point in our life would I have to achieve this pre-sleep status or a person on the stage with the microphone singing to be a person that can help somebody you might be a person that just got saved last Wednesday or two Wednesdays ago or you might be a person that that God saved just a month or two ago you Bibles here from here says that you are qualified to help somebody you are qualified to share the good news with somebody maybe you still gotta still working things out in you maybe God is still delivering you setting you free maybe God is still taking you through the process you you can share your testimony or somebody else's testimony or what you've seen God has done for you for for for somebody the job of Samaritan of a good Samaritan is to help the hurting and every person is qualified a real Christian must be more like Jesus and Jesus always reached out to people Jesus always always reached out to people our goal as Christians is none other than to reach out to the dying world Jesus left us on this earth not to enjoy just to enjoy a salvation Jesus left us on this world and when he was leaving he was make sure the disciples knew the reason why he left them behind why he didn't take him with him to heaven is he said therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit he was to make sure that disciples would continue on his work of diminishing to the hurting see if God could save people he would do it because he said I want all the corners of the earth to be saved but God right from the beginning from the Garden of Eden he partnered up with men he did not create this world and he decided to put men and dominate over the man the will of man the desires of men he created this world and he gave it to the man as it as the man's dominion and he come he came to as a partner with man and when man fallen in the Garden of Eden they've given their dominion to to Satan they give up in the and even then God did not come and intervene and decided to make things on his own even then he decided to send his only son to become a fully man so that through humanity he can partner up with the whole the Jesus came he partnered up with the Holy Spirit he brought salvation on the cross and then he gave that mission to his disciples to man to continue on that mission and so God is looking today for partners God is looking for people that will answer his call God is looking for those Samaritans that say God I will go to those dying world and I'll reach out to the hurting tell rich out to those that are Satan and his demons stole everything from people that been hurt beat down and in shame and guilt and I will lift them up I want you to I want you to notice couple things that this Samaritan did is first of all he felt compassion for this man we as a church we must have compassion for people this is why every time we pray one of the first things we pray before even praying for revival before even praying for people we ask God God give us the compassion for people because we don't want our words to be just an empty words we don't want our prayers to be just an empty prayer we want our prayers to be filled with emotion with compassion with love for people and so number one thing that this good Samaritan had the quality that he had that we must possess as Christians we must possess compassion for the lost number two he bandage bandage their wounds and poured oil and wine to suit him we must speak hope and life into people as a good Samaritan we must bring a good news to them the good news of the gospel does not condemn the good news that the gospel says you've been hurt you've been beaten things been stolen from you but God can restore everything and God can make you whole once again when we come to people as a good Samaritan another quality we have to have is we must carry hope is we must carry positivity as we must carry the good news of the cross is that the sin and its consequences been dealt on the cross and that you don't have to carry it anymore you can come and freely receive the gift of God you can come and freely receive that righteousness you can come freely receive the healing and freedom that you've been longing for and seeking for as a good Samaritans we must be people of hope and people of good news amen how many of us gonna be people of hope and good news come on let's put our hands together for Jesus another thing that this good Samaritan did as he brought this man to an inn he brought him to a hotel he brought him to a clinic or or a place that he this man was gonna be looked afterwards we as good Samaritans another quality that we must possess is we must when we talk to people we must bring them to our home groups we must bring people in a place where they're gonna be taking care of what they're gonna be surrounded with positivity what they're gonna be surrounded with good people with good friends with good console and where they will be surrounded in a good atmosphere where they can recover and they can grow see a lot of times is that many Christians from what I've seen and I'm thankful that in our church we're we're we're avoiding this trap is that they would invite people but for the sake of inviting them but they have no place for them when they come to church they just become another number in the crowd nobody attends to their wounds nobody attends to their hurts and pains nobody attends to the things that are struggling with and a person even by coming and receiving a gospel soon after realizes that they got the wounds that are not dealt with and they fall away because they don't receive proper care and attention the spirit dies and so we as church we as a good Samaritans we must create an atmosphere in our home groups and in our church where people are being attended to on each and on a personal level where their wounds being taken care of where their generational curses over the lives being broken where those bad habits that they're struggling with we help them to overcome and teach them how to live a life of victory and how to grow in Jesus Christ and our home groups is the best place for this our home group leaders are being trained our home group leaders being accountable and our home group leaders are equipped well to minister to people and minister to their hurts and this is our job as good Samaritans in man church and another last thing that that you stood out to me is he paid for him now it also there's two falls that I want to bring up is that we have to minister to people with with our finances we have to help them we have to take care of them sometimes it might be something as little as taking out taking them out for a coffee and just getting to know them it might be just inviting them to your house and and just being hospital hospitable and then and sharing a meal with them and sharing your life with them apostle Paul says that when I brought you good news I did not even spare my own life I shared everything I shared even my own life with you guys and so our life as Christians number one is we must be people that we are willing to share our life hood our finances our efforts our smile our energy our love everything that has to do with us that we share our life with people but another thing that I see here is is that we must pray for people I think prayer is like that heavenly I remember I believe it's Dr. Ian Bichaud said that that prayer is like that heavenly currency that that that you can begin to pray for somebody begin to intercede for somebody a person that just got saved they need a lot of prayers they need to be covered in prayer so that they can grow in Jesus so the bondage is over the lives their mindsets could be changed the bondages could be broken so they can be healed within from from the inside so we as as church we must be people that pray for others and that's why you see that starting from beginning of the service in the middle of the service and we will do right now at the end of the service is we're gonna pray for people because we really realize our efforts are our strength even our niceness and our hospitality he can go to a certain point we can make people feel welcomed we can make people feel loved but only Jesus can truly change a person on an inside and the way that change happens is when we begin to pray for them genuinely as when we begin to exercise our heavenly currency and we begin to deposit into their bank account that heavenly currency of prayer we must be people that pray for others the best thing you can do for somebody is to pray for them if you truly love a person you will pray for them that person can be your family member that doesn't know Jesus the person might be a family member that struggling maybe they even know Jesus but they're struggling their sin the struggling in their in their addictions the struggling in their health the struggling with nightmares they struggle with different attacks kind of different kinds of thoughts that harassing them throughout the day this person could be your schoolmate it could be a co-worker this person can be just a random person that you come across at the gas station at the store or any other place but there are people in this world that need you they need good Samaritans they don't need qualified personnel they don't need a priest they don't need a Levite they just need a person that can love them and they can pray for them and they can bring them in making part of their family making part make them part of that of their home group can pray for them and challenge them and teach them how to grow in Jesus Christ you have to understand that every person we touch is not just one person impacted every person in every person we come in contact is not just one person that we're helping we're saving we're touching masses we're touching generations we're touching people that they can touch the one example that always gets to me and we've shared that example many times it's two people that lived about the same time I don't have the year that they lived in Barbaq a hundred years or so back and one one man was Max Duke he was an anti an atheist he lived a godless life he married and I'm not an ungodly girl and from the Union there were 310 who died as poppers meaning beggars living on government subsidies and support 150 were criminals seven were murderers a hundred were drunkards and more than half of the women were prostitutes his 540 descendants cost the state one and a quarter million dollars that's just paying for their incarceration prison or jail time we're not talking about how many disease were spread through prostitution how much money had to be spent on medical support and all of these things and any other things and crimes they committed they cost private and government damages but there was another man somebody that reached out to him he got saved he married his name was Jonathan Edward he lived at the same time as Max Duke he married a godly girl and then investigation shows that his descendants was a hundred one thousand three hundred ninety four descendants of Jonathan Edwards which 13 became college presidents 65 college 65 college professors three United States senators 30 judges a hundred lawyers 60 physicians 75 army and Navy officers a hundred preachers and missionaries 60 authors of prime of prominence one vice president of United States AD became public officials and and other public officials in other capacities 295 were college graduates among who were governors and states ministries and foreign ministries and foreign countries his descendants did not cost a state a single penny but on the other hand brought a lot of money this is what happens when one person gets saved a whole tree family tree gets changed this is what happens one person in a case of jet max juke what happens is when one person does not get saved and we're today as a hungry generation as goodness church we're today as people who believe in the word of God we can't afford to see that a hundred years later somebody's gonna read a stat from our city and say yes this was a person that did not get saved and this is what happened to them and their destiny we want to be a generation that is remembered that said there was many Jonathan Edwards there was many people in tri-cities that got saved and their generations got changed their family tree got changed they produced many people that brought many changes in their city many changes in their state many changes in the country and even in the world today we as believers that believe the word of God we can't make a decision we can sit in our church comfortably and say you know what I'm saved my family saved I'm good or we can make a decision say you know my family said I am saved I'm gonna go and save somebody else's family I'm gonna go change somebody else's destiny I'm gonna bring masses to Jesus in a mighty name amen Jesus always minister to masses and he raised disciples this is our job the job is to reach out to as many people as we can is to change as many destinies as we can because when we change one destiny we never change one destiny we always impact masses that's what Jesus was always about he said even if four corners of the earth will come he said I will accept him and bring him back Jesus and God sitting in heaven he's not looking for few he's not only satisfied with one person getting saved two people getting saved he's looking at four corners of the earth he's looking at tri-cities and he's looking at four corners of tri-cities he's not looking just a pasco and small church here small church there he's looking how all of the tri-cities all four corners of tri-cities can be saved and today we can be a part of that plan of salvation that Jesus has for our city amen say I am a part of a solution say I am a part of bringing masses to Jesus amen amen amen amen amen amen did you get something tonight church amen are you gonna be the solution to our city into the people in our city amen church