The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Where's Our Neighbor? (EP 18)

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

In this episode, Bryce talks about loving our neighbor, what it looks like, and how to do it.

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I am Bryce, and today this episode was kind of like a last minute thought. This is coming out on a Saturday. Normally we upload on Mondays and Fridays, so if you guys are tuning in, sorry if you were waiting on a podcast on Friday. But we upload Mondays and Fridays 5 p.m. Eastern on YouTube, Bryce Carpher podcast, clips and everything on Instagram, Bryce Carpher podcast. We're on Spotify and Apple. It's great. But as by the title, the title of today's podcast episode, is something that I've been pondering a lot lately, and the title is, where's our neighbor?

Where's my neighbor? Where's your neighbor? And I'll get into why that's today's episode. Well, I've been struck with that really quick, because lately I've just been getting spiritually attacked like crazy. Like, I don't know what's been going on, but the past few weeks I've been having nightmares every night. And you know, like when Petty's,

stuff happens throughout your day and it's like the icing on top you know like bad stuff like decently concerning stuff has been happening to you and you like take the hit but you take it good and then just petty stuff you know like you step in dog poop and it's like oh icing on the top or like some small stuff you know and so there was there was a point this week where i was in public by myself and something happened to me and people around me saw it happen and nobody did anything and my first initial thought was where's my neighbor? And I didn't think that in the sense of entitlement as like, oh, I'm entitled for people to help me or I'm entitled for people's support when something's going wrong. That's not what I thought.

I thought, where's my neighbor? Because I'm like, people know something has happened to me and no one's even remotely tried to help. But number two, how many times have I done this to people? How many times have I been in public and somebody slips at the fast food restaurant and they drop their meal and I look at them out of embarrassment? And my first reaction is to do that instead of hit my knees and help them get their meal or maybe get them a new meal. And so I've just been really rocked by it lately. So we're just going to talk about love and our neighbor because that's important. We need to define what love is.

Okay, so in the Bible, in the Greek and Hebrew languages, they have different. words for love, different types of love. So I know in the Hebrew language, they have a few different words for love. They have like, and in the Greek too. So like, for example, they have words for like, I love pizza, you know, like you love physical things. And they have a word for like, I love my mom. Then they have like stuff like that. Then they have a romantic love word. And then you have agape, which is the Greek word for God's love. And it means unconditional love. And we're going to get into that in a little bit. And then the Hebrew word for God's love. love is a Hava, which I have it tattooed on my hand. I have the Hebrew word for God's love

tattooed on my hand because every time I shake people's hand, I want to greet them with God's love. That's just why I put it on my hand. But the Hebrew word for God's love means to lay everything down for someone, which is really interesting. So you have sacrificial love. And they had to make separate words in the Greek and Hebrew to describe God's love because none of the words they had was comparable to God's love. So they had to make a separate word for it. So when we read the Bible in Mark 12, the Pharisees and Sadducees challenge Jesus. And they say, hey brother, what's the greatest commandment? Because they're trying to trip them up. You have to follow 613 laws and 10 commandments in the Old Testament to be considered righteous. And if you mess up once, you sinned

and you've sinned really bad. And they're like, all right, Jesus, which one's the greatest? And so Jesus says something in Mark 12, verse 30. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so a lot of people will read that and go, oh, well, Jesus just totally disregarded all 613 laws and 10 commandments. No, he did it. Jesus actually summed up all 613 laws and 10 commandments into love the Lord of God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because when you do that you naturally manifest the righteousness and the commandments of God. But it's interesting how he says the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. So it's not like, oh, I love the Lord your God with all my heart. It's

not like I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then I love my neighbor as myself. No, it's an overflow. So as you're loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then your heart becomes for his people. No matter what they look like, how much money they have, who they are, middle class, upper class, lower class, you have a heart for his people because he has a heart for his people and you loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength that actually overflows into loving your neighbor as yourself. And loving your neighbor as yourself means that when you see yourself the way that God sees you, then you begin to see other people the way God sees them because they see them the way God sees you. Let me reiterate that. Your value isn't different

than the homeless guy on the side of the road. Your value isn't different than the wealthy man in your neighborhood. Your value isn't different than the girl or guy that's been bullying you at school. Your value isn't different than the person who just got a upgrade or a salary change in the company that you've been working 10 years for and they've only worked 10 months in. That kind of thing. Your value isn't different than them. And what freedom does when you're free from shame, guilt, and fear is Jesus Christ doesn't die on the cross to like unlock sin in your life. It's like Jesus Christ died and resurrected to free you from sin and unlock your potential and purpose. And so when we see people

the way God sees us, we realize that God sees everyone equally, yet he's made us different and that's what makes us unique. So there's people around you that need love. And you know what a big challenge is? I was thinking about this. We grow up in a society where we're told that homeless people are bad people. Like it's like, oh, don't talk to the homeless guy. Don't give that guy five bucks. Don't do this. Don't do that. I vividly remember that growing up. And that's from people around me, not just like parents. Like that was just like it was just a common thing. It was like don't talk to the homeless guy. Don't do this. Don't do that. That's very bad. That's very bad. But Jesus says in Matthew, 25, what you do to the least of these, you do unto me.

And so we have to be careful on how we love people because the sin of partiality isn't just about rich people and poor people. The sin of partiality is actually what translate into relationships and love. Come here, buddy. Come on. Come on. Our dog's trying to get up in my lap right now. The sin of partiality can translate into friendships and relationships. Look at Jacob and Rachel.

You know, he worked seven years for Rachel, and then he got the other daughter, and then he had to work another seven years for Rachel. But he was partial to Rachel. We don't want to be partial to people because of our circumstance. And you know what? There's a disease going around right now where we're actually showing people conditional love. It's like we only want to show people the love that we've been getting back. It's like, oh, the energy you give me, I'm going to give you that energy back.

That's not God's love. Imagine if Jesus gave you the love that you were giving him every day. You'd wake up and give him a different amount of love. It's like one day you're on fire for God and then the next day you wake up, you're in a dry and thirsty land. You can't feel him. You don't know what to do. And then you start thinking God doesn't like you because you can't feel him

and you're basing your faith off of feelings. And then all this stuff goes on and it's like, oh, well, you're not giving God 100%. So I'm just only going to give you 20% since you're giving me 20%. That's not kingdom. Jesus Christ gives unconditional love, which means it doesn't matter if you wake up and not feel. like loving him today, he's still going to love you. Or if you wake up and you feel like loving him today, he's still going to love you just

as much as you would have if you didn't feel like loving him today. That's unconditional love. And if we are not reflecting that, 1 John 4 says love is from God. And if anyone doesn't love, they don't know God. So I would argue if you're having a hard time loving people, one of two things is happening. Either you're not a born-again Christian or if you are a Christian and having a hard time to love, then the issue is you're not spending enough time. with who love is.

So you don't really know how to love people well because you're not spending enough time with it, which is a harsh reality. But Paul says in 1st Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love keeps no record or wrong. It's crazy how all those things he says love is, the complete opposite of those things, are like things that we do every day. As a matter of fact, not even things that we do every day.

That's a lot of characteristics of Christians. Isn't that crazy? Like that's like the biggest critique I hear from non-Christians is say they feel like they've been treated horribly or rude by Christians. And I said this in the first podcast we made. But if I took an orange and I cut it in half and I put it in the little orange squeeze it and I juiced it out and got all the pulp out and orange juice came out and I drank it. and it was so yummy, it'd be great.

Now, if I did that, and apple juice came out, I'd be really weird. So why is it that when tough times come or trials come or conditions hit us in the face, we hit it back with conditions, anger, frustration, arrogance, rudeness, and we keep a record of the wrong. And so when we keep the record of their wrong, it causes us to love people limited.

I don't want to limit my love to people because I have kept a record of wrong towards them. The Bible says that God, drops our sin in the sea of forgetfulness. And so if Jesus lives inside of me and I'm loving the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and that overflow has caused me to love my neighbor as myself, then I'm able to look at people with a clean slate. And you know what's hard?

It's hard to do that when you're looking at people who have done you wrong. But that's the power of the gospel. Jesus Christ can do something so big and so deep in your heart where you're able to look at those who have hurt you the most as if they never did it. And you may not be able to explain it. You may not know why. But that's the power of the gospel,

and that's how you love your neighbor. You know who Jesus' neighbor was? John, the disciple, the one whom he loved. Probably on his left, you know next door neighbor. You know who his neighbor across the street was, Barabbas. and he loved them the same. You know who Jesus' neighbor was? You?

Still is. Yours neighbor. You know who his neighbor is across the street? The girl or guy at school that's bullying you? And he visits them and loves them just as much as he visits and loves you? It's kind of crazy. You know, we live in this world where it's like conditions and partiality.

And the sin of partiality, it's interesting because the sin of partiality is just the world, bro. It's just the world. It's loving people with limits and showing partiality to people based off of status, looks, and the American dream. Like, why do we want to live that way? If Jesus Christ has transformed our heart, then partiality shouldn't be in our heart.

So I just want to clarify something again because I said it earlier, and I just want to be clear, if you're having a hard time loving, one of two things is happening. Either you're not a born-again Christian, So you don't know love at all. Or you are a Christian, but you're not spending enough intimate time with God who is love. So you don't know how to love, who to love, or what love is.

Because your view of love has been warped for a very long time. And because you haven't been spending time with them, Christianity is just a label to you and not a lifestyle. And so you're going to go through this life of sanctification. Sanctification for those that don't know what that fancy word is. It's called, it's the process of being made holy, the process of righteousness. so listen guys i get it like as we become christians we're going to be learning and growing and trying to figure things out with jesus and so there are going to be times where you you are going to be running towards jesus and trying living in a wicked world and you might if you might mess up

as long as you're chasing the king dang that hurt he just bit my heart he just bit my my thumb's so hard. My dog's biting me. I'm about to pop him on the bottom in front of all you guys. There's going to be times when you mess up. Not when, if you mess up. You might. But as long as you're chasing the king,

there's grace and mercy for you, you know? Loving your neighbor as yourself doesn't have to be this complicated thing. If you're loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, it's an overflow. So I don't want you to leave this podcast watching or listening to it going, all right, well, I have to love my neighbor today.

I just have to do it. And then that you hyper fixate on loving your neighbor. And then you're like trying to strategize. How do I love my neighbor? And then it's like, I don't have strategy to love my neighbor. And I feel overwhelmed and I can't do it. And it's like, well, actually, the strategy to loving your neighbor is just loving God. It's like love God, love people.

That's what people say. It's like, oh, Jesus, greatest commandment, love God, love people. And by loving God, you love his people because he has a heart for his people. And I was listening to a podcast clip. the other day on Instagram. A friend of ours, Jimmy Darts, I don't know if you guys, you guys have definitely seen his videos.

He, like, does those videos where he walks up to people and he's like, hey, I need two bucks for a drink at the gas station. Like, can you get me a snack? And people will be like, oh, here's five bucks. Or, oh, I have a snack right now. And then because of their generosity, he'll give them, like, 500 bucks, take them to an NBA game, NFL game, or, like, bless him.

And then he raises money for them. And, like, really, God uses him to radically transform people's lives. And I saw a podcast clip on a podcast. on a podcast where he was like, yeah, I was talking to this homeless guy. And the homeless guy said, yeah, rich people hate me all the time. They do not like me. And he was like, but during the day, when I'm out in the street and I see parking meters run out of money, I fill the parking meter back up so these rich people don't get a ticket.

And he said, I do that even though I know that they don't like me. He's like, rich people hate me the most because he's like, they think that, oh, I'm not trying to get a job. I'm not trying to do this. I'm trying to do that. He's like, he's like, that's not true. He's like, I try really hard every day. He's like, I don't have an address. I don't have a mailbox. He's like, I'm just trying, but rich people hate me. They look at me like a scumb bag. And he's like, but I love filling up their pocket meter because I don't want them to get a ticket and I don't care if they know I'm doing it. I just love them. And it rocked my world because I'm like, where's our neighbor? So I want to pray for you guys. I want to pray

that God really uses you to love your neighbor, love your bullies, love your enemies, because Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and our enemies are our neighbor. You know, so I actually want to challenge you guys this week to think of three people that you really have a hard time loving. And I just want you to ask God, and I'm going to pray for it as well, but ask God to give you the strength to love them well this week. Because when you radically love people, like that's been my God. greatest testimony when we're sharing our faith with people like people that get angry they it's the

love that surpasses everything it surpasses all of the knowledge in their mind of what they think christians are like whether they're true or false it surpasses everything because love like touches the heart it offends the brain and gets to the heart that's what love does so there have been countless times where i've been at a restaurant i've tried to share jesus and the waiter a waitress gets frustrated angry upset and they bring the food out cold and they do this and they do that and then when we tip them the bill they freak out because they know they treated us awfully. They were rude to us. They were mean and they brought the food out cold.

It's happened so many times, but that's grace, giving something that people don't deserve. And so sometimes you guys are like, yeah, but grace isn't needed in this situation. You know, sometimes you guys try to find an excuse not to give grace. But that's not what Jesus does. Jesus went to the cross willingly and knowing that Barabbas wasn't going to turn around

and look at him and get on his hands and knees and go, I owe you my life. Jesus went to the cross knowing that. As a matter of fact, some historians say that Barabbas was preparing his cross, and then when Jesus took the punishment instead, Jesus took the cross that Barabbas was preparing for himself, because people that got crucified prepared their own cross. Really powerful. So I'm going to pray that God gives you the strength and boldness to love people well,

love your neighbors, love your enemies. But I really want to challenge you not to view them as enemies, because there are people at the end of the day with the heart, and oftentimes hurting people hurt people. So before you jump to arrogance and rudeness and frustration, let kindness and love and gentleness flow out of you. Jesus, I just pray for anyone watching to listen to this. God, will you just give them love, joy, peace, patience, kindness right now, Jesus.

Thank you that your spirit gives us strength when our flesh is weak. So God, any time this coming week or every day that our flesh is weak and we want to act out in anger or frustration, God, just remind us to take a deep breath in. and release one out and say, God, give me the strength of love today. God, let me and let everyone listening to this or watching this love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, God, so that we are able to love our neighbor and be the neighbor for those when a neighbor isn't there for others. God, I just pray right now for an increase of your spirit and a sharpening of your voice,

God, that you will give us and speak to us to people that need you today. God, that we're able to love people while I meet people at. God, I want to be able to hear your voice, and I want these guys to be able to hear your voice so sharp that you will highlight someone to us that has been crying out for a sign from you. And we're able to go over there and hug them and embrace them and allow you to embrace them through us. God, so we just love you and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Guys, I love you so much.

If you guys have been to join the podcast, subscribe to us on YouTube, you know, follow us on Spotify, Apple Music. I really don't know how the audio stuff works. So if you follow us, follow us. That'll be cool. We're going to keep posting on Mondays and Fridays. Guys, love you guys so much. Stay tuned and thank you guys for listening. This one's been really big on my heart.

So love you guys. See you guys next time.