 Heavy Lord you say please join me this morning in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Please. Luke chapter 10. It's a blessing to be here at Calvary Chapel at Chino Valley. Church has a name and we're grateful for it and our movement is grateful for it. And church has a name because it has a pastor who's remain consistent. It's held the course and continued through the word. Then through the word and to to Marie. True to his wife and true to the church family. That's no little thing. I hope you guys realize that because it's not true everywhere. A lot of churches have been through all kinds of scandals and changes and they've had to you know endure the changes of leadership and you've been blessed here at Chino Valley. So let me let me introduce you to a couple of things from a story that you're well familiar with. But first can I can I share a poem with you? Would you mind? I know I'm not particularly artsy fellow, but I do make up these poems and I can't use it. I'm the pastor at home. I got to just pick up where my bookmark is. You know that's my job. I'm not at home. So and I've got I get these poems, but they've heard them at home. So I like to you I like to try them out on people. I'm just I spend time meditating on the greatness of our King of Christ and I love the opportunity to boast of him with a poem. And I didn't set out to write a poem. I set out to write a ballad. But you know people rather hear me talk it than sing it. So let me let me tell you a story. Okay. Here we go. Maybe you've heard this one before, but let me do it anyway. All right. Picture the scene. It's it's a guy talking about a boat trip with Christ. We really thought that we knew him as we answered his call and we followed a mismatched band of men. Were we sailing off into tomorrow? I never knew a man who worked so hard and spend themself like him. And at last I saw him finally lay down as all light was growing dim. And the darkness came is did the wind and the lake became a beast that howled and roared and reached for us 13 mortals for its feast. Now everything I believed seemed like a lie. In nothing made any sense as waves of terror swept over my soul. Each one was even more intense. I felt my way to the back of that boat to where I'd seen him lay. So human was he that in his fatigue and despite the pounding waves he slept like a man unaware that there was any reason for fear. Like one who knew just where he was going and what he was doing here. And then this angry thought broke through my fear as my panic reached its peak and it erupted out as a hostile question. But I couldn't help but speak. We're going to die. I cried out loud to the one who led us there. You said let's go over but we're going under. And how is it that you don't care? And at first he said nothing. But seemed to be struggling with a mind not fully awakened. Straight out of his dream and right into our nightmare. Still he wasn't the least bit shaken. He stood up suddenly and he steadied himself with one hand he held to the ropes like holding the reins of a stallion he rode that rising and falling boat. One hand in the ropes and one hand in the air while we cowered along the sides. He confronted the beast that caused us to cower. So frightened, so terrified. And the words that he spoke they were not a request and they were not a victim's plea. His words were not louder than the howl of the wind or the roar of Galilee. But his words carried power, undeniable power that even the force of the wind had to flee. Mightier than the thunder of great waters. Mightier than the breakers of the sea. He spoke to that storm like it was a dog. And his command muzzled its jaw and it fled with its tail tucked in his legs. As we huddled in silence and awe. Everything was quiet upon hearing his words, the water, the earth and the sky. But none were as silent and speechless as we who just witnessed this with our eyes. This man who took lordship over nature to whom nature humbly complied. He then turned his gaze upon us little men just beginning to slowly rise. Why were you frightened? He asked us. How is it that you have no faith? We had no answer to give him and looking back we could only say that we were afraid of what was against us because we did not realize. What manner of man it was that we followed and trusted with our very lives. We had no answer for his question of us but we had questions of our own and one of us finally spoke those words that still echo in my soul. What manner of man is he indeed? He is still more than I can even know. And now to our text in Luke chapter 10 beginning in verse 25. Luke chapter 10 verse 25. If I may get you to join me there. It seems that behold a certain lawyer stood up and dented him saying, Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy hearts and with all thy soul with all thy strength and with all thy mind. And thy neighbor as thyself, he said unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, and him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise the Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed he came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him. And went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him on the morrow when he departed. He took out two pens, gave them to the host and said unto him, Take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him then said, Jesus unto him, Go and do thou likewise. So are you familiar with the story? And all of us here that concluding words from the Son of God, Go and do thou likewise. Go and love your neighbor as yourself. Go and do thou likewise. Now surely you already know the point of the story. It's the story about somebody doing the outrageously self-sacrificing actions to somebody who was ethnically and religiously different from them. But there's way more to the story. First I'd like you to take note that probably even most of your Bible publishers had placed near the top of the page the Good Samaritan. So you can know what's on that page. There's no Good Samaritans. Let's clear that one up right now. There are no Good Samaritans. There are no Good Jews. There's no Good Gentiles. There's no Good Caucasians. All the descendants of Adam are sinners and only God is good. We're all varying degrees of bad. There's no Good one among us. That clarification was given by the Son of God in another exchange with another lawyer. Only God is good. We are messed up. We're so messed up that we think that last bad is good because our standards are low. We could be three days into sobriety and find ourselves going, I'm doing good. I'm good. The outrageous thoughts of humanity. I've been robbed of bank and weeks. I'm doing good. And there's a subtle expectation with us. If I'm doing good, then good is supposed to happen in our core. Everybody believes in some kind of works-based thing. Suddenly we all believe some kind of karma. I'm doing good, therefore good should be happening to me. I've reformed from my cannibalism and I haven't eaten a person in this year. I'm doing good. Can't I get a break? And we've all had these stupid thoughts. Because we're stupid. We're sinners. We're all bearing degrees of bad. There's only two kinds of bread in the sense... The bread that we had to remember the Lord with is unleavened. You only get two kinds of bread. You've got unleavened or leavened. Right? There's no such thing as like little leavened. Or a little unleavened. There's no such thing. Either you got the yeast in the bread or you don't. There's only two kinds of humans. Sinful versus sinless. There's only one of them. And he's the guy telling the story. So we're all clear on that. We can move on. Okay, good. There is no good Samaritan. So here's the story. And the story came because there's a lawyer and he's trying to justify himself. He rightly says there's two tables of the law. Our vertical obligation to God and the first four commands followed by the second table of the law. Our horizontal obligation to our fellow man. And the intersection of the vertical and the horizontal. Two tables of the law. Is where the only sinless man that ever lived died on the intersection. On a cross. With a vertical and the horizontal meat. He was impaled, spiked to a tree. For all of us who fall short. And human depravity. Listen, depravity. Well, depraved, but depraved doesn't mean. Some people think depraved doesn't mean we're as bad as we could be because we all know we could be worse. We know us well enough to know we're bad, but we could be worse. Human depravity doesn't mean we're as bad as we could be. It just means we are never as good as we should be. We fall short. Even on our best efforts. Right? So this lawyer. You'd like to think he's kept the law. You'd like to think that. So he summarized the law. The Lord said, good one, you got that right. Do that and you'll live. And the lawyer said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Exactly who are you saying is my neighbor that I'm supposed to love as myself? So to answer the story, the Lord tells us to answer the question he tells the story. But listen to me. There's a potential here. That what we hear from the Lord is a parable. Or maybe it was a headline. Maybe it was a story. Maybe it was something that actually happened. It may well be that he's actually referencing something that everybody knew about. Interesting thing about parables. They accomplish two things at the exact same time, just like prophecy. It's amazing to me that the genius of God makes it possible that two things can be accomplished with one little story. That a parable, just like prophecy, does two things. It conceals a truth and reveals a truth at the same time. It makes it possible for somebody to not get the truth, the spiritual truth. But it also makes it possible for somebody to get the truth. It conceals to one person, it reveals to another. Even as it is in Mark chapter four, when the Lord gave the parable of the sower and ended the parable with, you know, he who has ears to hear, let him hear and everybody left, except for a few. They came back with the twelve and those that were with them and said, what did that parable mean? And the Lord goes, to you it's given no the mysteries of the kingdom. But to the outsiders, I speak in parables so that they cannot get it if they don't want to get it. Maybe what we have is a parable, maybe it's a story, but either one, the Lord told it. He started in verse 30, with a certain man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You probably already know enough about the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and it goes from the Central Highlands to the lowest place on the surface of the earth and it's treacherous through the Judean deserts. But it's a road that was known, everybody knows that road, because it was a shortcut from Jerusalem down to the big highway, the big Roman highway that connected three continents and there's all kinds of trade and all kinds of money and caravans passing that big road. So there's a pretty decent chance that somebody on the road from Jerusalem down to that highway might be carrying wealth that could be robbed. And so there were dens of thieves, a certain man fell among thieves. Then jaged in three actions, we see it here, they stripped him, that was Raymond, they wounded him in that order because they didn't want to get blood on the garments they'd stolen and they left him. They stripped him, they wounded him and they left him. Three verbs, they stripped him, they wounded him and they left him. Then along came religion that did the same with three verbs. Religion came along, the priests and the Levite both come along, though they didn't strip the guy, they left him, they didn't get it, it's the same. They didn't wound him, they left his wounds untreated. They didn't do the things that needed to be done to save his life, but they left him. They went by and the other side of the road, they engaged in the three same three verbs. Listen, everybody in this room, everybody in this room, because it's a sin-cursed world, I can say this with confidence, everybody here has been stripped, wounded and left. At some point or another in your sojourn and particularly when you were small, when you were a child and you were very vulnerable, you experienced some degree of being stripped, wounded and left. Some of you, if not most of you, had an expectation that religion might help. You likewise were again exploited, stripped, wounded and left. Some of you went through the trauma of some degree of abuse, the unnatural, unbiblical practice of the confessional and a man trying to draw out the sins of a child or a teen. It's a mess. It wasn't God's idea. Certainly there are good priests with good intentions. There are good priests who are just trying to help you get your conscience clean. There are many that are not good. There are many in religion who will in fact exploit you. So maybe you've had that experience and you can relate to our victim here. But let me draw your attention to this. At the end of verse 30 it says, when the thieves had stripped and wounded and departed, they left him half-dead. That's what the song of God said. Half-dead. Interesting expression, wouldn't you say? They left him half-dead. Not all the way dead, but half-dead. There's no way you can put a positive spin on it. I don't care if you're a K-love DJ, positive and encouraging. You can't put a positive spin on the dude who's half-dead. Half-dead. That's what the song of God said. He goes, well, at least he's half-alive. They left him half-alive. He said he was left half-dead. Which means there's a window of opportunity that somebody could help him and keep him from going from half-dead to three-quarters-dead to seven-eighths-dead to dead. The Lord said they left him half-dead. So if he's half-dead, there's a chance. You're saying there's a chance. There's a chance. He could live through this if somebody would help him. Everyone of us should be able to relate to this because we were all born half-dead. That is, we are spirit and we're matter. We were materially alive, conscious that we were spiritually dead. Half of us was estranged from God. I'm talking about we were all the way dead spiritually. But so we were physically alive, but spiritually dead. Were we not half-dead? The gospel came alive spiritually. Now we're all the way alive. Look at this. Certain Samaritan. This is when the original audience probably gasped. A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. When he saw him, he had compassion on him and he went to him. The certain Samaritan, the one that, you know, if our victim is conscious at all, and he saw the priest in Levi, he would have thought, oh, there's hope. But that hope was torn from him as they left him. Then he sees his Samaritan and probably had low expectations. Samaritan came. Now what is it that Samaritan did? He had compassion on him and what does compassion look like? Compassion caused him to take action. I'm going to throw something out to you. Consider this. Our English translation gives it to us in reverse. You know, the guy bound up the fellow's wounds pouring in oil and wine. Well, you don't bind up the wounds of bandages until you first pour it in the wine, cleanse the wine, and then soothe and seal the wine with oil, then bandage it. So our English translation reverses it. What is the greatest threat to our victim? The greatest threat to our victim, ladies and gentlemen, is one that you cannot see. Now, maybe it's blood loss. Maybe it's shock trauma. Maybe it's, you know, the vulnerability to the elements. He's out there under the sky being scorched by day and frozen at night, right? Maybe. But the real danger to our victim is invisible. It's the infection. Because you know those wounds were the entry point of microbes and nobody knows about microbes yet. Think about this from the introduction of sand and death by sand from Eden all the way through human history to the 1860s. Nobody knew about microbes. Nobody knew about germs and viruses and bacteria. Nobody knew that, in fact, the first guys, the first scientists, people like Dr. Joseph Lester and Louis Pasteur, the people that actually said, we think there are these little animals and they're so tiny you can't see them. They will laugh all the way to the mental institution. Joseph Lester's life ended that way. They might have been talking about fairies and goblins. Little tiny animals, their life's really small. You can't see them, that's how small they are, but they'll get in your bloodstream. Turns out they were right, right? But from all the way from, oh, listen, the genius of God, in case you don't know this, the creator, the author of scripture, the author of the law given to the covenant people, not only does he know about microbes and uncleanness versus cleanness, he demonstrates that he is the God of creation who knows millenniums before humanity will know by giving them the law, not just the dietary restrictions that would prevent them from microbial infections, but all of the laws of cleanliness, all the laws with regard to how to deal with infectious disease or how to deal with a dead body, everything. In the law reveals God, the creator knows and he calls them to just trust him. They didn't know what made a wound clean versus unclean, but what they had discovered through trial and error for all of the centuries leading up to this was that wounds cleansed with salt or wounds cleansed with wine healed better, didn't get infected. So they didn't know that they're killing bacteria, they're killing microbes, they didn't know that, they just knew from experience. The problem, however, is that when you cleanse a wound with wine, what happens? It hurts people's feelings. It burns, it bites, does it not? Well, maybe you don't know from experience, but I bet you, I bet you there are people in this room that are old enough to remember when moms would come at you with this orange wand of iodine or mercuricone. You remember when we were tougher people and moms would come after you with this orange stain and light you up. You remember, I can tell by your response, was mom trying to hurt you, was she trying to abuse you? Not on that occasion. Trying to do you good, but it stung, it hurt your feelings. Compassion for our victim involved hurting his healings and stinging him with a wine, but he did him no wrong. He did him no wrong, paid for all the wounds of a friend, but he didn't just sting him like some kind of weird sadistic Samaritan. I got something for your wound. And then, you know, just laugh or the guy arrives. He followed the sting with the soothing, sealing oil, that virgin olive oil. But the fire out, sealed that, soothed and sealed. Bound him up with bandages, bound up his wounds. Listen, this is important. It is very important that we are willing to receive the sting of God's word on our own infection, our own wounds. It is important that we're willing to receive it. It's also important that our ministers are faithful to deliver it, but they're not just a bunch of sadists who like stinging you. Just lighten you up with Mechiracome. But they really enjoy the soothing of the gospel. One means little without the other. In the ministry of the pastor, it does reluctant to speak the truth to offend you is not your friend. But the one who only wants to offend you is not your friend either. Would you bless to have a faithful minister here who will give you both the sting and the soothing. The indictment that we're all sinners and nobody's going to get in on their own merit. Words won't save you. That stings when you first hear it, doesn't it? That you're a sinner and you're never going to be good enough ever. That hurts your feelings. It hurts my feelings. It was true. You're the good news. The wages of sin is death. That stings. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, that soothes. So the two together. Listen, the good news doesn't even appear to be the good news until it's said against the black backdrop of the bad news. We all got to have it. But listen, you also got to be willing to deliver it. You have to be willing to deliver it. Yeah. You got to be willing to sting the people that you love. Now, we've become a pretty pitiful snowflake, fragile culture that just doesn't want to appear. You know, the lost world is like, you're offending me constantly. Everything offends them. So since everything offends them, there's no reason to bother avoiding the offence. You'll be offended anyway. Speak the truth of God. I don't care if you're loved one, the stranger you're sharing with is homosexual or heterosexual center. It doesn't matter if they're conservative or liberal center. Light them up. Sting them. Wear the truth that they clearly don't know or are not applying. In the name of love. They're really their friend if you don't sting them. You got to sting them. But don't just enjoy the stinging. Soothe them with the follow up. Soothe them. Listen, sting, soothe, seal, bind, bear, carry, share. I mean, think of all the verbs involved in the Samaritan head compassion. I'm going to try to wrap this up and make the bigger points I want to suggest to everybody here in this room. We've all been wounded. Some of us have scars. There are ladies in this room and your scars are invisible to us. But you got scarred up just in the process of making life happen. Scars. You got other scars in your heart. Nobody can see. There are men in this room probably that. I want to make generalizations. I bet you there's some bullet scars in the room. There's some knife scars in the room. There's some scars that indicate where we've been. I got chainsaw scars. I had a hundred stitches. 60 here, 40 here. The first year some crazy person put a chainsaw in my hand at 18. We got scars that tell where we've been. But there are others whose wounds are not scars. There are still wounds because they haven't healed. They haven't healed because they're infected. And the infection is bitterness and unforgiveness that runs the risk of turning you into the very thing that bit you. I'll talk some more about that. I'll wrap this up. The next thing we read is this surgeon Samaritan took that guy, set him on his own beast and took him to an inn. Now the question is, why did he take him to a hospital? Why did he take him to an inn? Simple answer. Because Christians hadn't invented hospitals yet. When the story was told, there's no such thing as a hospital. You know that? It was Christian monks that invented hospitals. The very first hospitals in the history of the world were built by Christians demonstrating Christian compassion and being obedient to this very command from the Lord. So in the absence of hospitals, all they had was hospitality. This victim needs a place where he can heal. He needs a roof where the rain will not soak in. The sun will not scorch him. He needs walls where he will not be further victimized. All of that, of the inn, is only possible if there's an inn keeper, a host. And that's the other character I want you to consider this morning. What is a structure without a keeper? Man, even Eden had a keeper. Entropy happens. A structure without a keeper would quickly become just another dinner feed. It seems like a derelict building. Everything about the inn is dependent upon the inn keeper, the host. So I want to draw your attention to the trust relationship that is really quite profound between this certain Samaritan and this host. That trust relationship is kind of a big deal. Because our hero in the story takes the victim in the story to an inn, takes care of him, but on the morrow, the next day, he's got an agenda. He's got to go, but he offers the cash. With the promise that if this guy, he said, take care of him, and he cost you more, I'll go good on his bill when I come back. So it's clear that they're acquainted with each other. It is clear to me that there is trust between them. Trust like that is generally earned through experience. So here's the point of all of that. Perhaps you've heard me make this point before, but I'm going to make it here this morning to remind you. I'll make it this morning to inform some of you who've never heard before. First, every one of us have been the victim in this story. We've all been that victim. And my question is, are you healed, or do you still have open wounds and the infection of bitterness and unforgiveness that threatens you? Say again, we're all called to be like the Samaritan, to go and do likewise. We're called to go to them to have compassion. We're called to sting them. We're called to soothe them and we're called to bind them and bear them and care for them. But also, consider this, that all of us together, as the church, is not this kind of travel, Chino Valley, to be that hospital, that inn, where normally can we heal, but we can bring people and have confidence that they too will receive the nourishment, the cleansing, the stinging and the soothing that we did. That we can bring them here with the confidence that they will not be further exploited because there's this trust, very important trust relationship between us and the innkeeper and his crew. The pastoral staff here, the men and women who served together, guaranteeing that this is a place where people will not be exploited. You don't have a pastor who has a publicist and a massive social media presence. Yes, I mark that. I have contempt for that. You have a pastor who's concerned himself with the preparation of the word of God and the care of the flock of God, not trying to be a celebrity pastor. Though I think he's pretty enough to be one. He is certainly funny enough to be one. You know that. The comedy is something he just does. He can't resist it, but he's so good at it. But it's on the way to feeding and making a point. My point, my point to this morning is that that trust relationship between you and I, who are to be out there on our highway, on our journey, stinging, soothing, binding, bearing, caring and bringing them, we should be bringing them. And we can bring them with the confidence that they'll receive what we have. That trust relationship is vital. Too many. Far too many. Modern church folk, especially here in California where you've got so many options, treat the church as if they were consumers or patrons of a business or a restaurant. I like the music. I like the atmosphere. I really like the food. Pastors entertaining. We must not be patrons. The Lord wants us to join His church and find our place in the body. Find our place as part of the crew. Do you hear what I'm saying to you this morning? I say as a visiting pastor and nobody asks me to say it. You got it good here. Listen, and thank you for the agreement. To whom much is given, much is expected. Yeah, one more thing, one more. I'll put this away. One more thing on the issue of bitterness and the issue of forgiveness. One thing has to be said. This really got to be said because some of you, you think you can't forgive only because you are confusing feelings with an action. Some of you have mistakenly thought that you're in trouble with God and you really can't do this forgiven thing because you keep trying to, but you can't feel differently about what they did. You don't have to feel different about what they did. As a matter of fact, you will always be outraged by what they did. And the more you grow, the older you get, the better of right and wrong you become. The more you look back at what they did and see it from even more wrong. Now, forgiveness, separated from feelings. Separate feelings from everything, if you don't mind. This whole feeling thing. All you men, listen to me, all you men, you guys hear this, it's relevant to everybody, but especially men. Feelings are irrelevant. And to just to live by faith alone, way too many modern Christians are living by feelings alone, there's a whole generation of men that can't even open a sentence. What are the words I feel like? This is not manly. When God divided, the one man he made in his own image, in his own likeness, he made the woman the one with all the big giant feelings. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't know this, men have little tiny feelings but anyway, men have big muscles, women have little muscles, women have big feelings, men have little feelings. So it is completely inappropriate for a man to go around and just talk about what I feel like. I feel like that's true. I feel like that is so true. I feel, I feel like, you know right now, I feel like you're mocking me. No, I am mocking you. But you know. Well listen, this is the result of an educational system. This is the result of a culture that denies truth. A culture that says you can't know anything. The only thing you can tell us is what you feel. What's your truth? So they've taught in education. Just say I feel like, don't dare say no. Here's some truth for you. Well I encourage you to realize who you are and especially you men. It's boys. Who always talk about how they feel. Because that's all they know. A man stops uttering his feelings and does what needs to be done. Even if he doesn't feel like it. There's a whole lot of people in their spiritual life that just go, I feel like the Lord is working. I feel like God is leading me to the mission thing. I just feel like the Lord's calling me. Stop it. Stop that. What you mean yourself is man. Don't allow another man to use the word feel or feeling. And when he does, correct him. Do you have a thought? Isn't that more of a thought? Do you know anything? I gotta do this or I know I'm gonna go over just a minute but listen to me. It's okay to feel negative about the sin that you have forgiven. Forgiveness is an act of the will. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It's forgiveness. You just canceled the debt. When the Son of God told us to love our enemies, he didn't say anything about how you fail. He said nothing about your feelings. He said you see your enemy hungry. Feed him. You see your enemy thirsty. Give him a drink. He didn't say anything about what you feel like. Pray for those who despise and use you. Bless those who curse you. Do good to them. These are all actions. This is what he called us to. I mean, I've had hate in my heart so great. I had enemies. As a boy, I just wanted to get big enough to find people to gang rape my mother and kill every one of those men, even if they were the dads of the kids I went to school with. Because it was a little town I've had hate in my heart. I've had enemies. I've had people I wanted to kill. Forgiveness is a choice to cancel the debt. It's a choice to let it go and not seek vengeance. It's a choice to not collect on the debt. To let them live and to pray good to bless. Man, we don't even know what blessing is anymore. The modern world just goes, God bless you. And I'm not saying anything wrong, but you go, hey, God bless you. Listen, you don't want to really bless? Or even consider how the ancients would curse. What is a curse? A curse is an outlawed expression of the evil that the ill happens to you. May the fleas of a thousand cameras infest your bed. That is a curse. And a blessing would be the exact opposite of that. May you know good. May you know blessing and prosperity. May God give you wisdom. May God rise to the truth. When your friend tells you of their troubles, bless them and say, may God give you provision through this. May God give you wisdom for what you're dealing with. Right now, may God come through and heal you. Do that to your enemies. Do it out loud.