 Hey, man, keep your place there in Luke chapter 10. So the title this morning's sermon is Neighbors. The title this morning's sermon is Neighbors. We're going to talk about this term, Neighbors, and what that means this morning. Keep your place in Luke chapter 10. We're going to come back to a story in Luke chapter 10 in a few minutes. But before we begin and start talking about the story in Luke chapter 10, let's first categorize the whole world. Let's categorize the whole world as far as how Jesus did it. So the first question we need to ask, and the same question that was asked in Luke chapter 10, is who is your neighbor? We're going to talk about neighbors this morning. We first need to identify who these people are. There's some very specific commandments in the Bible about your neighbor. So we first need to identify who's our neighbor and who is not our neighbor. Turn to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19. And I'm going to read for you Matthew chapter 22 while you're turning to Leviticus chapter 19 where the Bible says in Matthew 22, 36, Master, which is the greatest great commandment in the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So Jesus is saying that loving your neighbor as yourself is the second greatest commandment. And it's saying that he says two things there. He says, first of all, that's the second most important thing. The first most important thing is loving God. And the second most important thing is loving your neighbor. So then he says kind of a big statement. He says, look, all the laws hang on these two rules. So basically, if you want to look at the hierarchy of it between loving God and loving your neighbor, every single other commandment underneath those falls under one of those two main categories, either loving God or loving your neighbor. Look at Leviticus chapter 19. So you say, oh, did Jesus just make something up new here? No, Jesus was teaching the same thing that the Old Testament teaches. Of course, same God, same word, same law. Look at verse 18 of Leviticus 19. The Bible says, Thou shalt not avenge or bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. So here we see that the neighbor here, if we look at the categories of people, it says thy people. So it's talking about the children of Israel. And then it kind of equates them to thy neighbor. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 19, love thy neighbor as thyself. Now turn to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. So we see your neighbor can be those that are saved, your church members, your brothers and sisters in Christ. That can definitely be your neighbor. Look at Exodus chapter 20. Let's look at this idea of loving God and loving your neighbor and all the commandments being under those two categories. Look at Exodus chapter 20. And I guess we'll start in verse number 12, but before verse number 12, we see the first four commandments of the 10 commandments have no other gods before me, don't have idols, you know, don't use the Lord's name in vain and then keep the Sabbath day. Then the following six, those Olas are all under that first commandment of loving God, okay? Now in the last six commandments, all have to do with loving your neighbor. Look at the Bible in verse number 12. Honor thy father and mother. Look at verse number 13. Thou shalt not kill. Look at verse 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Verse 15. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife or his manservant, maidservant. Basically don't steal or want things that aren't yours that belong to your neighbor. Don't kill your neighbor. Don't commit adultery against your neighbor. Do not steal from your neighbor. But the one thing that I wanna point out here is that when it talks about the last six commandments, the spiritual state of your neighbor is not mentioned. Look at verse, look at Galatians chapter five. The definition of your neighbor does not depend on his spiritual, his or her spiritual state. Look at Galatians chapter five. Again we see in Galatians chapter five and verse 14. The Bible says for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So this is a super important commandment that encompasses a lot of different commandments. And we see that your neighbor here could be either somebody who is your brother and sister or just somebody who has a house, somebody you shouldn't kill, somebody who shouldn't have adultery committed against them. Now go back to Luke chapter 10 and let's look at this story in Luke chapter 10. A very famous story, definitely an overused story in Sunday school, which is one of the reasons we don't have Sunday school here because the Bible just loses its meaning when you just dumb it down into cartoon stories like that. But let's look at Luke chapter 10 and look at the origin of this story. This is a very similar story to the rich young ruler by the way. If you're familiar with the rich young ruler, the young man that came up to Jesus and Matthew 19 and he's like, what must I do? And he's like, I've kept all the commandments since my youth and basically you have somebody that's coming up to Jesus saying, I'm perfect. I've never broken any laws and then Jesus of course proves him wrong in that story. This is a very similar, at least introduction. You have a lawyer coming up saying, what must I do? Jesus basically says, keep the whole law. Because remember, there's two ways to be saved. There's two ways to be saved. First of all, you can be perfect and never break the law not even one time. You know, there you go. You're not guilty, but we know that no man will ever be able to meet that standard for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Look at Luke chapter 10 and verse 25, let's start there. The Bible says, and behold, a certain lawyer. It's always the lawyers. A certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying, master, what shall I do to inherit an eternal life? He said unto him, what is written in the law? How read is thou? And he answered saying, What shall I love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself? There they are. There's the whole law right there. Look at verse 29. But he willing to justify himself. See, that's really the key to this whole thing. You know, Jesus wasn't teaching works-based salvation. He was just proving to this man that this man was trying to justify himself. And this lawyer was willing to justify himself. So he's saying, okay, who is my neighbor? Which is exactly what we're talking about this morning. Then look at verse number 30. And Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down to Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now underline this three words. A certain man. This is the neighbor that needs help in this story which is interesting that Jesus never really answers, who is my neighbor? But yet he asked a different question at the end. We'll get to that at the end of the sermon. But my point is that the neighbor here, we have no idea the spiritual state. It just says a certain man. A certain man. This man was beaten up and you know, there came by a certain priest that way. Now the person that was supposed to help him, you know, we have an idea that, okay, he's a spiritual man. I don't know if he's saved or not. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite. There's somebody else who should be spiritual. When he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan. Meaning somebody that does not hold to the religion of the Jews at the time had compassion on him and he went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pants and gave them to the host and said on 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? Now, he doesn't say which one was the neighbor. He says, which one was a neighbor unto him? So he says, he doesn't say, oh, you know, this is who your neighbor is. He says, which one was a neighbor? So first of all, we have two men that did the right. We have two men here. We have a Samaritan, an unspiritual person. And then we have a certain man. A certain man. We don't know. We don't know what the spiritual state of that is. See, look, here's what I'm trying to get at. By default, by default, everyone is your neighbor. And you are to be their neighbor is what Jesus is saying here. Unless, as a matter of fact, I didn't even pick this up but I just picked it up when, this is why we read the chapter. Because every single time you hear the Bible, more things come to your mind. It's the only book that's ever like that. Look at verse five. Look at verse five of Luke chapter 10. By default, everyone is your neighbor. And it's the same when Jesus sent out the disciples and look what he told them. I'm not saying everyone is your neighbor. I'm saying by default, you start out there. By default, you start out there. Look at verse number five. And into whatsoever house you enter, first say. Look what he says. First say, peace be to this house. Whatever house we go to, out soul winning, we will first say, peace be, that's our default position. Our default position is peace. You know, in control systems design, we call that a normally open or normally closed switch. It's always closed and command tells it to open. That's where we are. By default, everyone's our neighbor until we find out otherwise. We'll talk about the people that are not our neighbors next week. But by default, if they're an enemy, that's different. We'll talk about that next week. We'll talk about personal enemies, God's enemies. The difference, should there be a difference? But the thing is, we typically think of people, and I'm not saying that this is wrong, but what I'm saying is we kind of need to reset our mentality every now and then, because we typically think of people as saved or unsaved. Do we not? That is not how Jesus looked at people. Jesus looked at people, and he taught people that you should assume everyone is your neighbor and love your neighbor. Turn to Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six. So Leviticus 19 implies that your neighbors can be saved people. Look at Galatians chapter six and verse number 10. Galatians chapter six and verse number 10. Just proof that once again, your neighbor does not mean that this person is saved. That is not the definition of saved is not mutually exclusive with your neighbor. Not even close. Look at Galatians six, 10. As we have therefore opportunity, this is the quintessential verse right here of what I'm talking about. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men. Unto all men. And then look what he says, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So look, your brother and sister in Christ are your neighbor. They're especially your neighbor. They're your special neighbor is what the Bible is saying. But you are to do good and to love all men. The Bible says. So basically anyone who's not an enemy is by default your neighbor. That's how Jesus categorized people. We'll focus on that, the enemy's part next week. But look, and even since the saved, the saved when you look at the pie of your neighbor, the saved are actually a very small portion of that population group of your neighbor. So it makes sense to categorize people as Jesus did as your neighbor. And not just categorizing them along the spiritual lines of saved versus unsaved. So let's talk about how we should deal and how we should look at our unsaved neighbor. Which is most of our neighbors by the way. Most of your neighbors as Jesus would categorize that term are not saved in this world. Okay, turn to Zechariah chapter eight. Zechariah chapter eight. So how should we relate? What does the Bible say about relating to our neighbor? It says we should love our neighbor. That means that we're to love unsaved people. That's what the Bible says. Look at verse 16 of Zechariah chapter eight. Zechariah chapter eight. And look at verse number 16. The Bible says this. The Bible says these are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. Now you see how we're supposed to speak the truth to our neighbor. Now go to Ephesians chapter one. Go to Ephesians chapter one. What exactly does that mean? You know am I supposed to go up to my neighbor and say hey two plus two equals four. Cause that's the truth. What am I supposed to do with my neighbor? Well look what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one and look at verse number 13. Look at verse number 13. This is a great verse for soul winning. So is Zechariah 816. We're supposed to speak the truth to our neighbor. What is the truth? Look at verse 13 of Ephesians chapter one. The Bible says in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the what? The word of truth. So here we see two synonyms defined. First of all we see that belief means to trust. When we say when we're giving, look when we're giving the gospel, we're giving the gospel like when we say you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That means you must trust him. That means you must totally trust Jesus Christ to be saved. That's what that means. But here we see that the word of truth is what? It's the gospel. The word of truth is used interchangeably with this word the gospel of your salvation in whom also that ye have believed. So that's just a great verse right there. There's a lot of truth in that verse. So Zechariah 8 is saying that we should be telling the truth to our neighbor. The Bible here is telling us we should be preaching the gospel to our neighbor. That's what the Bible is telling us. And look, that's what we do. We go out soul winning. We go out knocking doors. However, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter five in verse number 10. And I alluded to this last week and yes in Sunday morning's sermon, but we go out and we knock doors and we find out what? We find out that 98, because we're like we're in saved versus unsaved mode when we're out soul winning, right? We go out and we find out that 99% of the world is unsaved. That's what we find out. If you don't believe me, come soul winning with us and you'll find out the same thing. And then you will find out then you will find out that 99% of those people, maybe that's not, maybe that's too high, but 90% of those people have no interest in being saved. So you'll see that there's this vast majority of people out there that are unsaved and they don't really care to get saved. That is the reality that we're in. So what do we do? So what do we do in these situations? So we go out soul winning. So we can find that 1%. So we can give that 1% a chance, that 2% a chance. But Luke 631, I'll just read for you says, And as you would also that men should do unto you, do ye also to them likewise? This is what we do. No matter whether people wanna hear the word of truth or not, I mean this is the golden rule right here. You ever heard of the golden rule? They stole that from the Bible. Jesus invented that. And frankly, as far as doing unto others as in loving your neighbor, there's just too much Bible on it to even go into it. There's so much Bible on how we should treat our neighbor. But this is what we're gonna explore this morning. All this was purpose of introduction. Who your neighbor is, it's everybody. That's not defined as an enemy. And we'll talk about that definition next week. 1 Corinthians chapter five, look down at verse number 10. First ground, look, I started verse number nine. The Bible says this. The Bible says this, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. Yet, not altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or the extortioners or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. The Bible here is saying is that, you know, look, there's certain things in verse number 11 that comes along. We'll talk about that this evening. There's certain things in verse number 11 that just can't be allowed in the church. And that's gonna be a difference that you're gonna see in this church. Is that, you know, and you've all seen it for the last two years. But I mean the point is we, there's just certain things that the Bible says are to be allowed and not allowed in the church. It's very simple. But that's in the church. That's why it says in verse 11, if any man be called a brother and do these things. But the Bible here is saying that if we had to make this rule for everybody, meaning all of our neighbors, we couldn't even go outside. We couldn't even go out in the world. The point the Bible is trying to make here is it's saying we are going to deal and work and interact with unsaved people that are still your neighbor on a regular basis. And that is the focus. And look, it's gonna be heavily focused on the men this morning. I'm sorry, ladies, you get sort of a pass here. But it's gonna be heavily focused on the men this morning. As a matter of fact, next week we'll be heavily focused on the ladies. You say why? Because we're gonna talk about enemies. People that are after you, people that are attacking you. And guess what? When somebody comes and they want to attack your family, they don't go for the strong one, they go for the weaker vessel. Nine times out of 10, that's what's gonna happen. So we're gonna focus especially on the men. How do we deal with our unsaved neighbor? The Bible says we're to be around them, we're to be there. I mean, look, we believe in separation. Don't get me wrong, but you're gonna go to work. You're gonna go to work. You're gonna be in the world. How do we act? How do we act? First of all, in general, you need to kind of learn to get along. And until you have a feel for what I'm saying here, you know, I would default to this. First of all, look, you need to get along but be loving to your neighbor. That doesn't mean join him in sin, anything like that. But look, here's a rule for you guys at work. Here's a rule. I would just make this a rule for you guys at work. I would not go to work and talk politics, religion, or anything like that. This is a sermon, by the way, that I didn't, I've had for a long time and I wouldn't preach this until I was a pastor. But I would not go to work and I would not talk politics, I would not talk religion at work. Why? Well, first of all, at work, you should be working. You should be working at work because if you're at work and you're getting paid $17 an hour and you're being an evangelist at work, you know what you're doing? You're stealing, you are stealing. Unless they hired you to be an evangelist. Caveat there. If they hired you to be an evangelist and you go to work and you're evangelizing people, never mind what I'm saying. I don't know anybody in this church that's hired to be an evangelist. And here's another thing, here's another thing. Just use your head. You're all soul owners here. Use your head. The majority of people are not gonna like it. And that means they're not gonna like you. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. You say, can't I get people at work saved? What are you trying to say to me? All I'm trying to do is get people saved. Just listen. Look what Paul said. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine and look at verse 19. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine and verse 19. I have a feeling that this is a huge problem here. What I'm bringing up to you this morning. And I'll get more in depth in it in a few minutes. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine and verse number 19. Look what the Bible says. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant to all? That I might gain the more. This is Christianity 300 level stuff, folks. Just pay attention to what Paul is saying. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without the law as without the law. He's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles here, okay? He's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles. Being not without the law to God but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without the law. So the week I became as weak that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men that I might be, by all means, save some." This is Christianity 300 plus right here, what Paul is doing. And I don't know if I'll be able to get it across to everybody this morning, but basically what Paul is saying here, you ever heard the saying, went in Rome, do as the Romans? Look, that's just a simplified, stupid down version of this. What Paul is saying is that, when I went to the Gentiles, I became as the Gentiles. That doesn't mean that he entered into all their sins. This is why Paul rebuked Peter, and Peter was told to slay and eat. So look, what it's saying is Paul didn't walk into the Gentiles, and when they had the potluck with the dead raccoons, remember that sermon? When they had the dead raccoon potluck, he didn't say, that's disgusting. I'm a religious Pharisee, and I could not touch such unclean things, and then everyone would what? Everyone would just hate him. He went there, and he just, he fit in with their culture to the point where it wasn't sin. Does that make sense? Now look, the reason I said this is Christianity 300 level stuff is because this is an art, mastering this. This is an art. Look, Paul was not partaking in sin, but he was becoming non-offensive to these people. Why? So that he could gain them, so he could win them to Christ. He was not just going in there, you heathens, look what the Bible says. Look, they would just hate him immediately. He would get nowhere. Paul is telling you here that when he went to the Gentiles, he ate what they ate. It's like, oh, it's roadkill raccoon Wednesday? Okay. That he might gain the more. That's just one example. I don't typically eat lunch, and I typically keep a separation to a degree at work, but if I'm invited to lunch, I will go at times because I'm trying to be loving to the people that I work with and trying to be interested in what they're interested in, and I'm trying to, look, imagine him going to the Gentiles to have a message to say, yet he wouldn't even sit down with them because he was too good, or he was rebuking them for their idolatry constantly, treating them just like pagans right off the beginning, arguing with them every single day and just telling them how wrong they were on everything. He wasn't partaking in sin, but he went where they went, and here's the thing. If you care about the people that you work with, here's what you do. Be a good example. Be a good example. Care for them. Be a person that is likable. You should not be confrontational soul-winning at work. Are you saying that you can't get your co-workers saved? That's not what I'm saying. It's a different method, is what I'm saying. Go to Colossians chapter 3. Here's the method. Here's the method on getting your co-workers saved. First of all, you're not being paid to preach the gospel at work. You're stealing if that's what you're getting paid to do, if your boss is paying. Your boss is right. If he walks up and sees you on the company dime preaching to people that your boss is right to be mad at you, because that is not what he hired you to do. Go to Colossians chapter 3 and look at verse 23. Here's what you should do. Here's the method. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Saying that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, that's why it doesn't matter who you work for. That's why you can go to work and you can have a great attitude when nobody else can. That's what you should do. You should have a great attitude when nobody else does. You should be respectful when nobody else is, because your boss is Jesus Christ, is what Colossians chapter 3 is saying. People that go and argue religion at work will not only get nowhere, I mean, you say, look, you're not going to get anybody saved that way anyway. You're just going to make people mad. You say, oh, you were a satellite here for two years. You went to, you were a leader at Verity Baptist Church for a couple of years. You were an usher there and then you were a satellite leader here and now you're the pastor here. You say, but how many religious arguments do you get in every week? Here's the answer. I don't get in religious arguments. Like ever. Yeah, I might toy with somebody outsolding every now and then. Every now and then it's rare, though. And it's more to just get information so I can learn what stupid things are out there. But look, I don't argue religion with people as a rule. Look, you have to come to, folks, you have to come to the terms with the fact. You have to come to terms with the fact that most people aren't saved. Please listen very closely here. Most people aren't saved and most people are not going to get saved. Look, that doesn't make me happy to say that. But that's the case. You have to come to reality and look, the best chance that you have to get those people saved is to just be a good testimony to them. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Work hard. Be nice. Be appropriate. And here's the thing, if you do those things, people are just going to like you. If you go to work and you just work hard, you just have a great attitude and you're just appropriate. You know how people can tell you're appropriate, by the way? The first thing that people can tell is by what you say and by what you don't say. You can set yourself apart from other people the first half an hour of your job. Look, it's a hard thing to walk back though. If you come into work, some foul mouth, you know, jerk, that's hard to walk back. So you start out that way. You'll be appropriate. Because you know what? You know what? All the stuff going on in the workplaces today and all that, you know people actually like being treated with respect. They're going to like that about you. If you successfully show people that you're genuine, you're hardworking, you're polite, you're reliable, they will appreciate you. And they will begin to like you. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3. Look at verse number 7. Now, this is qualifications for a pastor. But look, qualifications for a pastor, all these qualifications are saying is that if I don't have these things, I'm not qualified to be a pastor. But it doesn't say that you shouldn't be like these things. These are all things that you should be too. It just means that for me, look, if you just stop doing one of these things, it's like, okay, you're just going to be under God's chastisement, you're going to have some consequences. Look, I could, I lose my job or I'm not qualified to get the job. That's what the Bible is saying. But look, it applies to you too. So don't just, you know, blank out 1 Timothy chapter 3 when you read through this. It applies to you as well. Look at verse number 7. It says, moreover, he wants to have a good report of them that are of them which are without. Once they fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. And look, like I said, your language is your strongest weapon here. Just how, you must, look, you must sound different. You must sound different, especially today. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. This will distinguish you right away. And guess what? I don't care what everybody else sounds like, people will like it. People will like it because it's a relief to people. Otherwise, you will make a joke of yourself. You go out and you sound like everybody else and you're like, oh yeah, I'm a Christian. Let me show you the Bible. Give me a break. Give me a break. Look, here's a problem that I see. Here's a problem that I see and I hate to narrow it down to younger people. But I see this with under 30 people, under 30 year old people. Look, here's the thing. Sometimes people get this attitude, especially younger people that because people aren't saved, they are your enemy. And that is not, look, this attitude will cause you to miss so much in your life. If you just look at people and you're just like, he's not saved. It'll turn, first of all, it'll turn you into a jerk. It'll turn you into a jerk. Everybody will think you're a jerk and you will miss so much about people. Look, people in this world, they have a lot to contribute. I don't know how many times I've said to you guys, but I appreciate experts. Every time I meet a mechanic that's an expert on something, I meet, you know, somebody, some great engineer, I meet some great technician, whatever, I appreciate those people. I appreciate those people. I mean, you know, just in your life, in your work life, people that you cross paths with, that you're doing business with, look, if you're just like, they're not saved, you'll miss so much in your life. A great example of this actually is the Founding Fathers. A great example of this is the Founding Fathers. People are like, they weren't all saved. Yeah, they weren't all saved. Some of them were. A lot of them weren't. But look, that doesn't mean they didn't do great things. That didn't mean that they didn't write great things. I mean, people will dismiss them. They'll watch YouTube videos of the conspiracies and all this, and they'll dismiss them, and they'll never read anything that they wrote. Well, that's a lot. You're missing a lot there. You're missing a lot there. And the irony of that one is that you're sitting here and you're enjoying this country. And the freedoms that we have left. And you're just like, look, it's just lazy. It's lazy. Hey, go read about the things that they did. Go read about the words that they wrote. Maybe men throughout history have not written so much as these men. Look, they wrote a lot. You want to know what they thought. And they wrote a lot. They contributed much to this world, these men. And look, and it's sad that they're not in heaven. That's how I look at it. I'm like, OK, you know, they didn't believe in the deity of Christ. And they didn't believe in this. And this guy didn't believe in this. And it's like, that's sad. That's sad. You know, I wish they were. But that's another topic altogether. But the point is we should not ostracize the unsaved. Whether it be historically or in your life in general, because you're going to miss out on a lot. I bet that expert at work isn't going to take the time to take you under his wing and teach you how to be an expert if you're some pompous jerk that's trying to just, I mean, you can't show up on time. You can't keep a job for more than two months. And you're going to come start showing the expert at work who's paid his dues and put his time in. I don't know what is the disease and why we can't stay at a job for more than a couple of months. It's a weird disease. It's a bad one, though. I bet this has something to do with it what I'm talking about this morning. Look, if he has no respect for you, because he's the expert and you know nothing, that's in his mind, that's what he's seeing. I'm an expert at this, you know nothing. You just started here. He's like, what are you contributing? That's what he's thinking about you. Look, so the people you work with, Jesus is just saying, he's like, hey, he's like, be a blessing, be a blessing. They're still your neighbor. Look, there's a guy that I worked with a year ago. He came and he worked for me, he's from Afghanistan. He came here, he helped the United States while we were over there. He's a civil engineer, he helped the Army Corps of Engineers. And the Corps of Engineers brought him and his family over here and he came and he worked for me for almost a year. And he's a Muslim. He's a Muslim and I worked with him every single day. And great guy, super friendly guy. We talked about different things and then he saw that I had some things about my life that, this is really ironic too, by the way. He saw that I had a lot of things about my life that he had in common with his life. Guys would, hey, you wanna go out and get a beer after work? And I am like, I don't drink. And I'm like, I don't drink either. And so we're not doing the same things for different reasons, obviously. But that gave me kind of an end to when we're going out and visiting job sites and we're in the car for a long time. It's like, yeah, you don't do this and I don't do this, but he was really interested, he started to become really interested in my life. So I just start kind of talking to him. My last day of work, I came, brought him by the church and I gave him the gospel. He understood everything, he didn't get saved. But he's thinking about it, doesn't mean he's not a nice guy, doesn't mean he's not my neighbor. I was like, oh, he didn't get saved, rapper of eight. No, I texted him three weeks ago when everything started going crazy in Afghanistan, I just said, hey, I'll just call him Joe for a purpose of the sermon. I was like, hey, Joe, I'm sure I'm glad that you and your family are here and that you're safe. And then I hope that everyone that you know in Afghanistan is also safe. It looks like a terrible situation. I also learned a lot from him, by the way. He would tell me about what, look, you don't know anything about what's going on in Afghanistan until you talk to somebody who's from there. CNN doesn't know anything. Fox News doesn't know anything. They don't know anything about what's actually happening. The president sure doesn't know anything. But I would ask him all the time, what was life like over there when he worked for me? What was life? I would just listen to him for just, when we're working, he would just tell me about, what about this? What about this? What about this? I learned so much from him. Cause he lived there his whole life. But I just, you know what? And he wrote back to me and he said, and I told him, I was like, come to the church anytime. And I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I hope he does come to the church. Like you and your family are welcome here anytime. If I can do anything for you, let me know. And I meant every single word of that. And he just, he wrote back and he just said, you know what, thank you for being my friend. I sure am glad that I know you. Look, that's a testimony that he's my neighbor. And guess what? I'm his neighbor. Because it worked both ways in Luke chapter 10. If you, look, all you have to do is go to work, guys. Show people that you care about them. Help them at work. Show them that you wanna be part of the team. Part of the solution. You say, and then how do I get that expert saved? You know, how do I get that expert saved? Look, I've gotten people that I work with saved. Turn to 1 Peter chapter three. Because as you, look, as you build a testimony of your life, as you build a testimony of your life, people will start to be interested in that. This is where that lifestyle evangelism comes in. And this, look, it actually works. Look at 1 Peter chapter three. Look at verse number 15. Look what the Bible says here. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Look, get your heart right. Get your actions right. Get your words right. Show people that, that that can last for you for a year or two years and not six weeks. And then be ready to always give an answer because someone's gonna ask you. An answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Look, if you do this thing right, if you do this thing right, maybe someday somebody will ask you. About why is it that you do the things that you do? Why is that you live the life that you live? Because what they will see is they will see your witness. They will see your testimony. They will see that maybe you're not struggling with the same things that their children are struggling with. You know, the homeschool group is a good example of that. If you do that right, you're just gonna have a lot less problems than people that don't get that right. And if you work with people for one year, two years, five years, 10 years, well, guess what? You're gonna watch each other's kids grow up together. And you're gonna see the consequences of decisions that people make. And, you know, at some point people will ask you. It's the, you know, the whole like, oh, people would tell me when my kids were nine, 10, eight, six years old, oh, wait till they get to be 13. They're gonna go crazy, it just never happened. It doesn't have to happen that way. But show yourself an example, be a good testimony, and then you have a possibility of having somebody ask you about the hope that's in you. And guess what? We'll talk about this more tonight, but you represent this church as well. Right, and then, all right. You know, you go out and just make a complete jerky yourself to everybody. You're like, hey, you wanna come to church? Here's an invite. Just put the invite in your pocket. If that's what you're gonna do, that's why we push the culture that we push here soul winning. We're uninvited guests at somebody's door. They don't wanna hear it. We don't fight with people. We don't argue with people. You know, turn back to 1 Timothy chapter three. Because guess what? That expert, look, that expert at work, that expert at work, this applies to you too. This part of 1 Timothy chapter three. Look at verse number four. This is another qualification for a pastor. One that ruleeth well his own house. Having his children in subjection with all gravity. For a man not know how to rule his house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Look, I'm not perfect. My marriage isn't perfect. My kids aren't perfect. But if you looked at me and you're like, this guy's a train wreck. And you know, my kids were, you know, Garrett had black fingernails and wore like, you know, these big, you know, goth boots or something. I don't know. What do they do now? I'm sorry. But I mean, you would look at me and you'd be like, what's the point of listening to a sermon from this guy? I don't want this result. You know? I don't want that. You know? Sorry. But look, it's the same thing with you at work. If people see you can't hold a job, you're lazy, you can't show up. You're a jerk when you do show up. You're just making everybody mad all the time. It's like, they don't want it. They don't want to be like that. They wouldn't want to hear anything from you about anything. But look, Jesus is saying you can't, and Jesus equates that to taking care of his own house. It's like, you can't take care of your house. You're not taking care of mine, buddy. That's exactly how people look at you. That's why your testimony is so important. They need to be able to look at you over a long period of time. Not a month, two months, three months, four months. They need to be able to look at you over a year. Over two years, that's the goal. That's the goal I'd like to see somebody hit here. Work somewhere for two years. Make me proud. Work somewhere for two years. Look, it's possible, I've seen it happen. It can be done. They need to be able to look at you over two years and say, I would like to be like that. I would like my teenager to be like you. And then they'll ask you. They need to say, that's appealing to me. Instead of people looking at the Christian and saying, this person's terrible. He knows how to do nothing. He's late all the time. Different job every two months and then he's like, let me show you why you're wrong from the Bible. People are crazy. Ladies, ladies soul winning is your main application here. To treat people with respect, to show people that you care for them. Look, people can tell if you're just going through the motions out soul winning. You know, other areas for ladies. Here's the thing, ladies are gonna deal with this, not in the workforce so much in our groups that we run into. They're gonna deal with this with family and friends. Is what they're gonna deal with this. And so, turn to 1 Peter chapter three. 1 Peter chapter three. So ladies, I'm gonna give you just two simple rules here on how you can handle family and friends in your life. Here's the rule. By default, you treat all family and friends as your neighbor unless these two criteria are met. And men, if you look at 1 Peter chapter three in verse number seven, you need to protect here. You need to protect. Look at verse number seven. Likewise, he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife. Notice how this is talking to the husbands about the wives as unto the weaker vessel. Now look, you know I don't believe that women are weak or should be weak. It's saying that the women as compared to the man, they're the weaker vessel. They're the weaker vessel. And it's warning the husbands this. It's saying, listen, your wife is weaker than you. Be knowledgeable about that. As being heirs together of grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. Talking to the husbands. So, with two exceptions, be friendly and loving to your family, your friends, people that you've come across with. And look, we believe in separation here. And the separation should be along these lines, these two rules. Avoid any influence from people that would push you towards the way of the unsaved. Paul did not go into the sin with the Gentiles. Separate to the degree that people can't influence your wife and children. And ladies, you need to watch out for this with your children, because guess what? They will try. They will try. That's rule number one. Avoid influence. Many times those will be in social situations. We have to draw lines. And then number two, and we'll talk about this one specifically next week, is that anyone actively attacking needs to be separated from. So look, be nice. Treat your friends and family as your neighbor, be loving. This is why we were big advocates of people coming to our house. That was one way we controlled things. When people come to our house, my rules, it's my standards. I can control the situation in my own house. I can't control the situation in other people's house. They're gonna have alcohol or standards that we don't agree with. We avoid those situations. If people won't accept your standards, by the way, even at your home, they're not really in the neighbor category. Again, next week. In short, folks, the normal everyday unsaved person is someone you don't wanna be socializing with because that influence will be there, but there will be cases, especially for men in the workforce, and you need to have people not hate you. They'll know you're a Christian by the way you handle yourself. That's the ideal situation. That means you're nice, you're loving to your neighbor. You're helpful, respectful, hardworking, professional, appropriate. People will appreciate that about you. I guarantee it, just try it. It's becoming rare that people are appropriate. I hate to say that. Because look, if you just go to work and you just start shoving the Bible in people's face, here's the bottom line, you're gonna get fired. I've seen it several times. And then you can claim, I was persecuted. No, you're wrong is what's going on. And look, if you find a problem with every person you work with and every boss that you've ever had and you're just making an enemy out of all unsaved people, you are not following what Jesus said to do. You're getting in the flesh and you're doing what you want to do. You know, that's the thing, you know, I mean, we are so, that's the thing that we have to control here, folks, because we are so right. We're right. When it comes to the Bible, when it comes to the gospel, look, we're correct. We have the right gospel. 99% of the other churches out there are teaching workspace salvation. They're wrong. They're wrong. It's why, you know, it's just, we gotta control it and still do what Jesus told us to do and just love our neighbor, even though they're not right. Just don't be arrogant about it. You know, do the best that you can and look, if you have an overall disdain for the unsaved, that's something that you need to fix. You know, whenever you veer from the Bible, things are gonna go wrong. And we're gonna talk about that a lot tonight. It's just, whenever, it's just the Bible way. You're like, ah, but I wanna do it like this and I really wanna, the guy just keeps talking about how kind of costals are better in the lunch room and I just wanna go in there and just argue with him and all this kind of stuff and, you know, but here's the thing, that's not what the Bible said to do. You know, the Bible says that you're to be an example and you're to be loving to your neighbor. And whenever we veer from the Bible in whatever area it is, things are gonna go bad quickly. So even, I mean, there's a lot of things in my life that I can think about where I'm just like, yeah, I just, I didn't really wanna do it that way, but that's what the Bible said to do. And, you know, maybe I didn't do it the way the Bible said for a long time or for a little bit or whatever. It's like, you gotta do it the Bible way or it's not gonna work out. You know, we're to love our neighbor. And John, in Luke chapter 10, Jesus said, He answers the question this way. The guy says, Who is my neighbor? And we know that it's everybody. But then he says, at the end about the Samaritan, he says, Who was the neighbor? So the question is, the question to you to close this morning is who is your neighbor, everybody? But the question really is, are you a neighbor? As Jesus said, Are you a neighbor? Think about it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.