The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Love Your Neighbor

Episode Date: November 3, 2019

We love our neighbor because Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, loved us.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Are we good? Well, how's your weekend going? Hey, I was at a great game yesterday. JP scored two touchdowns. It did. He played for Providence. And then after that, I went to another, I don't know what you call it.

It's not really a game. Reagan had gymnastics meet and meddled in two different events. And so, praise God. I didn't go to this game. I wasn't able to. But I did record it, so don't ruin it for me. I hadn't watched it. But as soon as they get home, I'll check that out.

But it is a really big, big weekend in the Kingdom of God. Not only all the festivities happening here around Jacksonville, but on Thursday, we celebrated what? Don't you say Halloween, you bunch of pagans. It was Reformation Day. 502 years ago, Martin Luther went and knocked on a door not to receive candy, but he posted his 95 thesis. He basically says, I got 95 problems in the day.

the Pope is one. And that set into motion what we know is the Protestant Reformation where Martin Luther in studying the book of Romans, which we are experts in here at 1122, when he got to about Romans chapter 5, he began to realize it's not by works of man that we are saved, but we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And we stand here today on the shoulders of faithful men and women who have gone before us and been obedient to what Christ is called. to do, which leads us to today.

It is commitment weekend. Amen? And so your campus pastors have already told you about your commitment cards, but grab them, hold them tight, get them close. In about 40 minutes, we will be dealing with this. And we have two different kind of commitment cards. So if you're at Baker or Union, you've got one that looks like this, and you received it on your way in.

Most of us, it was on our seat when we got here. So if you're still sitting on it, get it out from under you. And if you're at Fleming Island, it's in your seat back in front. front of you. You see, Fleming has like fold-down chairs, all right? It's always the baby that gets all the cool stuff, isn't it? So grab, even you in the balcony, okay? You can't hide at the balcony at Fleming. Grab these because God is going to use this tool in our life in a significant way. As you know, oh, and if you have your discipleship journal, go to page 33, there will be the text, and there's also a place for you to take notes in today's message. We're in the fifth week of a

series called Loving God with All, which is a follow-up to a two-year discipleship journey that we all began last year. We call it the One Initiative, and it's rooted in the Shemont, where Jesus is asked, what is the greatest of all commandments, and he takes us all back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 4 and 5, and he says, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. In other words, if you could get your mind around the Haid, the oneness of God, then it means that God's not just like,

first placed on your list, but God is the paper on which you would write all your lists. When you begin to see him for who he really is, then the only normative response would be to love God with all, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And then Jesus goes to Luke, I mean, excuse me, Leviticus 1918, and he grabs a passage out of Leviticus, and he hooks it to the Shema, and he says, and you will love your neighbor as yourself. And so for the last four weeks we've been talking about what it looks like to love God with all, with all of our hearts, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. And it's not like we have four different parts of our lives.

We have one and only life to give to the one true God. And when the love of God is lavish upon us, when we get run over by the grace train of God, then it should not terminate on us but flow through us and we should be able to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so if you're like a Bible person, a pastor, you know, if you know your Bible, and you began to talk about loving your neighbor, the preeminent text is the most famous parable probably on the planet. It's called the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We find it in Luke chapter 10, and that's what we're going to study in our time together today. But I want to give you a little context of the Good Samaritan. Even if you're brand new to Bible study, you've heard of the Good Samaritan.

In fact, Seinfeld ended the last episode based on the Good Samaritan, and I'm pretty sure none of those people will know the Bible, okay? So everybody has at least heard of the Good Samaritan, but for it, to make the sense that it needs to, you've got to see it in its context. So in Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 21, it says this. In that same hour, and what happened here is Jesus has sent out 72 disciples, he has equipped him, anointed him, appointed them, appointed them to cast out demons and do all kind of awesome stuff. And then these 72 come back and they're like, boss, you're not going to believe it. It worked. And he's like, I totally believe it because I commanded it.

That's kind of what's happening in that hour. In that same hour, Jesus, rejoice in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my father. and no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

Let me give you a little context of what he means here. All right, plain speak. Jesus is saying, in the power of the Holy Spirit, I thank you, Father, that the religious elite and people with religious status, those are not the people that automatically inherit eternal life because of the things that they have done. That is not how the gospel works. but I thank you that it is by your sovereign grace that you choose little nobodies like my disciples

and these children to reveal your glory and grace to. That it's not by our good works that we are saved, but it is by the sovereign will of the Father. Verse 23, then turning to his disciples, he said privately, which means he says this part publicly. We're going to find out in just a second that this conversation that he has with a religious leader is because he just said it's not your religious pedigree that matters. It's about your relationship with the father through the son, Jesus Christ, and that's the only thing that matters. And then privately, he turns to the disciples and he must whisper or something.

And he says, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see and to hear what you hear and did not hear. this Monday when I'm sitting in a tree stand and I was reading this it hit me like a ton of bricks because when I read this Jesus turns to his disciples and says you have no idea of disciples the things that you were seeing please please please don't take for granted what your eyes have seen and what your ears have heard because prophets and kings didn't get to witness this kind of stuff I felt the spirit stirring in me

because I believe Jesus Christ could rightly look at the church of 1122 and say blessed or your eyes 1122. Because there's a whole bunch of churches praying and fasting and preaching the word and singing just like we do. But for some reason, for some reason, God has breathed the breath of life onto this movement in ways that many, many people have never seen before. And the only thing I can explain it is this. When you make much of Jesus, he draws men and women unto himself. But what is happening here is not normal. Listen, since we open the doors of this place, we have baptized 3,518 people.

Amen? And that includes zero babies. That matters. These are all humans that decided to go public with their faith. Since we opened the doors, there have been 8,234 people who have raised their hand to signify that they are surrendering their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's a revival. that God has led us to take the gospel into places like Baker Correctional and Union. Because a lot of people don't want to go there, but Jesus wants to go there.

And so he calls his bride to move in, and we have campuses at both of those places. And in those prisons, we have 247 men so far who have surrendered their life to Christ, and we've baptized 67 of them. And since we opened the doors in 2012, God has called us to plant 200,000. 49 local autonomous churches all over the planet. Praise God, man. God is doing exceedingly more than we ever hoped or imagined. And yet, and yet, while all of those numbers matter,

and every number has a name and every name is somebody that Jesus died for, it's still just all about that one more. This last week, every year I leave this hunting trip. We call it encounter, and my hope is you would encounter a deer, and then you would encounter Jesus. That's what I hope. And the deer would be dead, and then you would die to yourself. I think that's what I pray, man.

Seriously. About 30-something of us go. And all I do, look, I don't preach, ever. I don't preach. I don't do a gospel invitation. Pastor Ben comes, and we do sing a little bit, and I write this journal, and I put it in these men's hand. And all I tell them, on Sunday night,

before they get in the tree saying, on money, I'm like, look here, man. You take this thing, and you take it into the tree with you, and there's a promise in the scripture in James chapter 4. God says, you draw near to me and I will draw near to you. So look here, draw near. Don't you waste your time. Don't you waste my time?

Don't you waste his time. You draw near in that tree standing you just to see what happens. And so they do, man. These guys get in here, you never see so many grown men crying. It's crazy. And I'm like, listen, you pay attention to this. It's basically an armed quiet time. Something comes by, boom, man, put it back down and get after it.

You understand? And a bunch of us did. Praise the Lord. That's a deer panties for the water. Pal, all right. So, there's a couple of guys. Steve, Sweeney, Anthony, go up to another guy early in the morning. It's like, whatever, 5 o'clock in the morning.

And they just look at this guy on our trip. They don't know him. And they say, so how long have you been saved? That's quite the intro, isn't it? Yeah, and he's had an egg yet. People asking you about your bed. And the guy just goes, I'm not. And they just go, why not?

what are you waiting for? And he's like, I don't know, maybe I'll do it today. And then those dudes got in the truck and just drove off. And then this guy is just ruined. He's like, ah, he doesn't know what to do. He says he just sits in his tree standing all morning, just reading his Bible, just weeping. He's like, where is this coming from? At lunchtime, when we get back, he walks up to Lars Peterson, one of our elders.

He's like, kind of talk to you on the porch. They go sit on the porch, and he goes, how do I get saved? Elder Pedy runs him through Romans 10, 9. and then on the porch a man named Donnie surrenders his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ no buildings

no sermons no nothing man just Jesus decided in that moment that he would reveal who he is to Donnie and one more one more came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior

blessed are your eyes 1122 that you see what you see for many prophets and kings desire to see what you see, and they didn't see it. You see, this is what he says. He whispers it over to the disciples. Don't you ever take this for granted disciples. 1122, don't you ever take it for granted when one more person comes to know Jesus. Now, we know that because he said that privately to the disciples, he said the other stuff publicly.

He says, it's not your religious pedigree that matters. It's about your relationship with Jesus. And so, verse 25, and behold, a lawyer. And when the Bible says lawyer, it doesn't mean like a litigator, like he works for Harold or Harold, or he's going to stand up and say, Did you order the code red? That's not the kind of lawyer they're talking about. It means an expert in the law. A Bible person, a seminary student, a church staff member is kind of what it means. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Now, you know, there are no inflections in the Bible. But I think based on the context, what the man is asking is in response to what Jesus said. If it's not your religious pedigree that gets in, and the guy was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I am an expert in the law. And so if what you were saying is true that it's God's sovereign grace that saves and not our religion, then he raises this question. And I think all the emphasis here is on I, teacher. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? or I hear what you're saying, Jesus, but what does that mean for me?

Now, notice, the root of this man's question is the root of religion. What must I do? And he completely misses the point. Because the root of the gospel is all about what Christ has done. Now, think about this. This man is an expert in the Bible. He knows all the words and he knows all the verses and he misses the whole point. This is the one thing I pray about more than anything else at the Church of 1122.

Because with more than 10,000 people that show up on the weekend and a bunch of you have some serious church background, my prayer is that you wouldn't miss the point of the gospel and yet get the words that are on the page. That's what this lawyer is doing. And he's all hung up on what he is supposed to do. And so Jesus is going to mess with him because that's what he does. Jesus said, well, what's written in the law? Now the next part matters even more. How do you read it?

And he answers. Now listen, the lawyer is going to answer with the verse that we have been diving into for this last year and going to be next year too. But the problem is, if you notice, he leaves out the God part and he starts with our part. There are two parts to the Shema. The beginning, Shima, or He, or He, And it doesn't just mean like here with your ears. It means like when my daddy used to be, he used to say, boy, listen to me. That doesn't just mean, do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

It means, I'm going to say something and you're going to do something about it. That's what Shumah means. Hear, oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. In Mark chapter 12, when the lawyer asked Jesus, what's the greatest commandment, that's where Jesus starts. Why? Because salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation does not begin with our part. It begins with what God has done on our behalf.

but this religious man does not start with God's part, he starts with his part. He misses the point. And so he starts it this way. When Jesus says, well, what does the Bible say? How do you read it? And he says, here's how I read it. You shall love the Lord of your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. That's our last four weeks of this series.

And your neighbor as yourself. A little speculation on my part. The Bible doesn't say it. This is just me guessing. I think this lawyer has been listening to Jesus. Every good Jewish person would have known the Shaman. but only Jesus takes Leviticus 1918 and attaches it to the shemah. So I think this guy has been listening to Jesus before.

And Jesus says to him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. Jesus is totally messing with the guy here. Why? Because what Jesus is saying is, yeah, bro, you nailed it. That's it. All you have to do to inherit eternal life is simply this. is to love God with all, with all, with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind

and all of your strength all the time and all the way. That's all you have to do. And when you get that, you've nailed it. Which is what essentially what he's saying is, what it requires of you to be saved is absolutely impossible. It's absolutely impossible. You and I cannot fulfill the great commandment. Has there ever been anybody ever that has loved God with all, all the time, ever? No. Now, let's just imagine you're awesome. Some of you are going to need a greater imagination than others. Okay, but let's just say that my incredible preaching does such a thing in your life that from this day forward, you actually pull it off. And every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every year, of every decade until you're dead, you love him with

all. I mean, you are perfect from this day forward. Well, then let me ask you this, Mr. Perfect. What are you going to do about the past? What are you going to do about last night and last week and last year and last decade when you didn't love him with all? Because if you didn't love him with all then, then is it all? No, it ain't all. Because you missed out on some. And when you miss out on some, it ain't all. And so the great commandment here, is absolutely impossible. And so, Jesus does it in our place. That at the cross of Jesus Christ, God the Son, loves God the Father with all,

with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind, with all of his strengths, and he loves his neighbor, us, as he loves himself, and he pours out all of his blood, and he pours out his life on the cross, and for anyone who would believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, then all of his righteousness is counted to us, and all of our sin is paid for by him. See, our band, they're working on an album. Now it's turned into two albums.

We're going to have a live album, and we're going to have this other thing with Shane and Shane. It's crazy. All right, it's awesome. And so they just played this track for us just a few days ago. And it says this, God deserves what he demands. You should be more impressed with that line, okay?

God demands perfection and he deserves perfection. But there's one more thing to it. They don't ask me to add lyrical content because I can't make some rhyme, but here's what, but there's one more part of this. God deserves what he demands and he delivers it. He demands perfection, he deserves perfection, and he delivers perfection on the cross with his son, Jesus Christ. You see, we can't love God with all.

Romans 323. Paul says this, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That word falling short, it's actually an archery term. Man, God loves a bow hunter. And it means this. It means miss the mark. The point is this, if you were in an archery contest and it required three bullseyes for you to move from round one to round two,

and you missed the first bullseye, then do you get to go to round two? No, but what if you could shoot 100 bullseyes in a row from here on? It don't matter, man. Perfection was required, and you missed it, and so you don't get to move on. And in Romans 323, he goes on to say, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. In other words, Jesus shows up to the archery contest too.

He shoots the bull's eye and says, you want to trade scores. You see, this is the heart of the gospel. And check out how the man responds to all this. When Jesus says, you answer correctly, do this and you will live. Verse 29, but he, the lawyer, desiring to justify himself. This is the heart of religion. Desiring to justify ourselves. When we say to God, forget you, God, I don't need you, I got this.

Now, I'm going to tell you, just confession time, I read my Bible a lot, a lot. You pay me to do it, so I probably read it because of you even more than I normally would if I were you, but I read it a whole bunch. I have read Luke chapter 10 about, I counted up, about 100,000 times, I think. That's what I'm going to go with. And yet this week, as I'm reading it and I read these words, desiring to justify himself, I just began to think, what is wrong with me? And what is wrong with us? Anybody have this constant desire to justify yourself?

To explain yourself? I mean, I feel the need to justify myself in front of my friends. No, no, no, that's not what I meant. Like, you shouldn't be offended because I didn't mean that. Here's what I meant. You know, I feel the need to justify myself in front of you. I feel the need to justify myself in front of my family all the time. and then the worst part is I feel this need to justify myself before the Lord.

And whenever we feel this slide into self-justification, essentially it's because we're not fully believing in Christ's justification for us at the cross. It means we're totally missing the gospel. This lawyer, expert in the Bible, with this incredible religious pedigree, Like when they filled out commitment cards, his was jamming. I'm telling you, there will be a time in 22 minutes where you'll look at this card and as you begin to fill it out, there can be this thing where you feel this need to justify yourself. Or really what you're trying to justify is how I spend all my money on me,

but if I can get a little bit to God and I'll feel a little bit about spending it all on me. That's what I mean. And you see, self-justification and the justification of Christ, are mutually exclusive. This parable is a constant reminder to me that Christ is enough for me, period. And this man, letting all of his religion just show itself forth,

but he, desiring to justify himself, says to Jesus, who's my neighbor? In other words, he's trying to put qualifications on all. He's saying, all right, Jesus, when you say all, what do you mean? I mean, what's the minimum requirement for me to get in? Like, okay, I get it. When you say love my neighbor, I know this guy, because I like this guy, all right?

He literally is my neighbor. He lives next to me. We like the same teams. That's pretty cool. But you don't mean love that guy, do you? Is he my neighbor? This is his question. And his question reveals to him, it reveals to all of us, that he's not really looking to love God with all.

He's looking to justify himself. Jesus replied with a story. Of course he does. That's what he does. And Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, literally, he would be descending. Jerusalem's like the highest place in Israel. Jericho is closest to the lowest place on earth, so he literally is going down this path.

And the road to Jericho is a very small road. It's kind of on the side of these mountains. There's lots of hills and mountains and places for robbers to hide. It was a very, very dangerous place for you to go alone. And it says a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Again, this was very, very common. Verse 31. Now, by chance, a priest. Now, when Jesus said priest to the lawyer, he thought, hero. Superman, this is the holiest person. This person has God's favor. This is the kind of person that always does what's right. In his mind, in this story, Superman has shown up on the scene. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that right. road when he saw him, the half-naked, beat up, left for dead man, he passed by on the other side. Now, the reason probably that the priest would pass by is because the priest, in his mind,

that's a speculation on my part, but the priest would have these religiously justifiable reasons to pass by on the other side. Remember the heart of the question? The lawyer seeking to justify himself said, well, who's my neighbor? And so Jesus is going to give an example of self-justification. You see, if the priest is coming from Jerusalem to Jericho, probably what he had to go to Jerusalem for is he had to go through this priestly religious cleansing ceremony. There was a series of washing of hands and cleaning of clothes,

and he had to go and sacrifice a heifer. you ever sacrificed the heifer it takes a minute all right you got to burn the thing up it's a burnt offering to the Lord and you're just sitting around like seriously heifer you're going to have to get this on i got places to go and the reason he would do this to be ceremonially clean is so that when he got to his job he worked at like first baptist jericho synagogue and in order for him to do the things that he's supposed to do in jericho he had to be clean and leviticus tells us that if you touch a dead man you're not clean anymore and you got to go all the way back up to jericho and get another heifer. Who's got two heifers hanging around? Got to burn that one. Wait.

I mean, he's got all of these justifications in his mind why it is okay for him to see a need and pass by on the other side. And so then Jesus keeps going with his story. And so Lachael has a Levite. Now a Levite's not a priest. He's like an intern. He's like JV priest. And they are a there are a tribe in Israel, and their job was to do a bunch of religious stuff.

So they had a bunch of the same kind of religious requirements as the priest. It says, so likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Verse 33, but a Samaritan. Now here's the problem with reading the word Samaritan today. When we hear the word Samaritan, what is the modifier? that we always put in front of Samaritan. Good. If I called you, if I was like, you're Samaritan, you'd be like, well, thank you.

Okay. But in the first century to a bunch of Jewish people, the Jews and the Samaritans hated one another. Hated. It was racial. There was prejudice. It was religious. It was theological. It was socioeconomic.

I mean, it goes, it was layer upon layer upon layer. And so when Jesus says this, when he's like, but a Samaritan, I mean, if there's a soundtrack, here, it gets all like eerie, spooky. I mean, people are like, not a Samaritan. Think about the worst person you can think of. That's what it would be like. All right, don't say it out loud. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, he came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

I want to teach you a Greek word. Splogitzaimai. That's what it is. Say it. Splegitzaa. Do it again. Don't say it like you're a robot. Say it like a human.

Splogizumai. Okay, come on. Spalgetzami. It means from the gut or from the bowels. That's what it means. It means like he was moved from the inside out. It's not just cognitively he recognized that there could be a problem here and maybe he could do something about it. He was moved from the inside out.

Like a couple of decent translations would be like heartbroken. It's like some of you super soft people, when Sarah Evans is that her name, when the arms of the angel come, I'm like, with your arms, and they show the puppy, and you're like, and you want to give money? By the way, you know they're starving humans. Anyway, I don't have time for that. It's a different sermon. Okay, that's what it is.

That's what it is. If you're a millennial, passion, that's what this is. Not that you love scarves. That's not your passion, okay? It's like this sphizumai. Like this thing in here that you know is from the Lord, and the emotions are more than just the circumstances. because it's almost like an overreaction from the inside out to what you see. Jesus uses this word a ton.

Like at one point Jesus sees a crowd, and it says he's moved to compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Or when Jesus feeds the 5,000, he sees them and he has spligitsomai. They've been following them all day, and he's moved it. They would have some food, and then he does something about it. This is what the Samaritan experience is. He saw him, and he had compassion. And he went to him, and he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine,

and then he set him on his own animal, and he brought him to an end, and he took care of him. He saw a need, he was moved, and he acted. And the next day, he took out two denari. This would be a pretty significant amount of money. He took out two deniery, and he gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. This is a great definition of biblical love, putting others' needs above your own at great expense to yourself. Now, that's the end of the story, and Jesus looks at the man and says,

so which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? And notice the man's response. He can't even say Samaritan. He says it this way, the one who showed him mercy. He can't even say Samaritan. You see, and I still don't think we can get our minds around like how, this would be for this guy. All right? So in modern day context, it would be as if.

Imagine. Just imagine. Imagine I went to Gainesville. And somebody said, who is my neighbor? And I said, it would be like a man who was traveling down the road, some drunk fraternity guy. And he passed out with some little shorty's chubbies on. And he fell over. He's half naked.

It looks half dead. Needing help. which is most Florida students, needing help. Okay, so. And then by chance, over the hill comes Steve Spurrier, the old ball coach. And all of you gators would think, oh, finally, he's back.

And Steve Spurrier looked at him and passed by on the other side. And you start to feel uneasy. What must this story mean? But then, straight out of Ben Hill Griffin, is that what it's called, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, with French horns playing, an angel singing the Savior himself. Tebow in jean shorts, straight from the gym, sees the young frat boy, and he too passes by on the other side.

And in your heart, you go, say it ain't so, Joe. But then, out of nowhere, from between the hedges, here comes Kirby Smart. and you're like, what? And Kirby takes off his visor, helps the boy up, takes him to UF, whatever hospital you have there, and uses money that they were going to build another practice facility for to tend to the wounds of this man. Do you see?

And then I would say, so who is the neighbor? And you'd have to say Kirby. It works too. Like if I would go to Athens and then there was a Georgia student coming home from a Bible study because that's probably what they do there and they tripped and fell. Right. And along comes Herschel passing it on the other side.

Dooley passed it on the other side. And then from Florida, who would it be? Not Tebow, he would probably help. Urban Meyer. You'd be like, what? Not urban. Nobody likes urban. That's what, it'd be like this, okay?

So what Jesus is saying here, Jesus is like, hey, bro, your question's flawed. The question is not who is my neighbor. In fact, what your question reveals, is evidence that you don't love God with all because you're trying to limit all to some. Yeah, the question is not who is my neighbor. The implication of the Lord our God, the Lord is one, therefore I should love the Lord of my God with all my heart and soul and mine and shrink, and I should love anybody I come in contact with the way God has loved me.

The implication is here is not trying to figure out who your neighbor is. Just be neighborly wherever you go. Now, at this point, I want you to get out your commitment card. Get out your commitment card, right? Because there are, there's kind of a couple of ways that the Good Samaritan can be taught. They're legit. Both are legit. But a way to look at this, a way to look at this is, is to look at the half-dead man as the needs of this world. And is to look at yourself as the Good Samaritan.

And Jesus says it, he says, you go and do likewise. He says, you want to love God with all? you act like the Good Samaritan. So a way to look at it is to look at the half-dead man as the needs of this world, to look at yourself as the Good Samaritan, and essentially to look at the church, the church is like the end. And so maybe you are moved by compassion, Spragutzomi, when you see your one more. Like when you see your friend, your neighbor, whoever your one more is, and you are moved

by compassion, or maybe you see the people of North Jacks, because that's where our next campus is going. Sometime in the next two years, we're going to put another campus. I think it's number eight, seven, I don't know, we're not counting anymore. The next campus is going in North Jax because there's people up there that need Jesus. Or maybe you see the need of like Fleming Island, which through the one initiative we just launched, you know, a couple months ago and now it's already full and we've got to go to more services at Fleming Island, praise God. Or maybe you see the men in Union and the men in Baker Correctional. And not a lot of churches, actually so far, zero churches other than us are moving into those two places and you see that need and you're moved

or you see the need of one more generation. Remember last year we talked about this a ton? At the end of Joshua chapter 24, Joshua gathers all the people of Israel together and says, choose for this day whom you will serve. Ask for me in my house. We will serve the Lord and all of Israel said, yep, us too. And then you turn a page over to judges chapter two. And it said in all that generation that made that promise, they all went to be with their fathers. That means they died and another generation rose up and they neither knew the Lord or the works of his mighty hand and you look at the thousands of children and students under our roofs here and you say not on my watch maybe you see that need or maybe you see the need of the special needs community

in and around Jacksonville in the world and it moves you to compassion and you say I need to be like the good Samaritan and I take my two denary and I bring it to the end I bring it to the church Because what can I do individually for the special needs community? Or what could I do individually for an entire another generation? What could I do individually to reach people in Fleming and reach people in North Jackson and to reach people with church plants all over the world? I can't really do that. But what I can do is I can see a need and I can respond and I can come and give it to God

because the church is set up to do those things. Listen. And when we see those needs, and God moves in us with that sphigitza, my, that compassion, and we have a choice. We have a choice. Do we pass by, or do we participate? And listen, I think the movement of God through 1122, I think it's a worthy investment. In fact, I want to take just a second and celebrate and celebrate what God has been doing in us and through us and to us just over the past.

year. Check out what God has been doing in this video. Here, 1122, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It's a command, and you shall love God with all. Church family, this is Richard. This is my buddy Rick. Richard walks in the tub and Rick, Rick looks at me and says, that's my one more. It's our joy to baptize. you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we approach the midpoint of this two-year discipleship journey, God has done and is continuing to do incredible things, like calling us to continue being one church. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't need it from you. But if you're obedient enough to listen to him and to follow, then it's just amazing. It's not as if we've won any type of lottery or that, you know, we've had. had any additional riches dumped into our life. It's just a level of peace around our finances that he's provided for us. And it's, it's been an amazing eight months. What we have is because of him and through him already. So for us, it's just returning a portion back to him. He is also calling

us to continue reaching one more. We started with 1122. honestly because we have four special needs kids and we needed to make sure that they were safe. So we had to find a church that was going to be able to take care of them and keep them safe while we were worshipping. And when we heard about the special needs ministry here, like that that was going to be there. One more, like, was to reach this community. I mean, that touched our heart because if you're going to love my kids and the way they are and with their challenges, then we're walking through the door.

and God still wants us to ensure that one more generation will know him. I've always had a big heart for students and one more generation because that is our future. It's such an important time in life for them to have the opportunity to have somebody pour into their lives and kind of always pointing them back to the Lord. It's a command. The crazy thing is, is that the greatest commandment is it possible. that none of us can love God with all. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ

is that the way that we are able to draw near to this Lord, who is one, is because Jesus did for us what we can never do for ourselves. He loved God with all. And he took it all the way to the cross, and he pushed up on his nail-pierced feet, and he says these words, it is finished.

Amen. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, 1122. Don't you ever take it for granted. And as amazing as all that is and as much praise as it should stir in us to give to God the only one that deserves it, that's not why we give. That's not why we give.

You see, because the fundamental point of the Good Samaritan is not the church. of the Good Samaritan. Fundamentally, we're the beaten down, broken, stripped, and left for dead guy in the gutter. And we need for someone to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And that the Good Samaritan is someone from some other place that did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, that Jesus is the ultimate Good Samaritan. And maybe the reason that the Good Samaritan looks at the man and has compassion on him,

Spragutzumai, is because Jesus would have compassion for a man that was stripped naked and beaten. Because one day he would be stripped naked, beaten, and nailed to a cross on our behalf. And this man, this good Samaritan, gave at grace expense to himself, and he said, I will repay whatever it costs. And Jesus, in the Garden of Gassimony, says to his father, okay, I'll pay whatever it costs. Not my will, but your will be done. and at the cross, Jesus paid it all.

That's why we give. That's why we bring back to God. We say it all the time, God is first, and God went first, and God loved first. Therefore, we bring back to God our first and our best, because God first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ. And so now we have an opportunity to do that. And so if you would, would you grab your commitment card? Hold it in your hand.

And listen, even if you're not going to commit, If you're new here or whatever, I get it, man. But if you're just kind of checking out at 1122, would you put this card in your hand? Would you start praying for us? Would you start praying for us if this isn't your church? And so we've got two commitment cards. I want to do the first one to our brothers at Baker and Union. Your card looks a little bit different because you're just in a different situation.

But we said from the very beginning that our number one goal is that everyone that considers 1122 to be their church, that everyone would answer this fundamental question, is he's? the one thing that drives everything, and your commitment matters just as much as anybody else's commitment at our church. And so, I want you men to start praying through this. You can commit to pray for 1122 every day, not just Mondays when we show up, but you would commit to pray for your entire church family every day. You could pray for another inmate. And I want you to think of the one, like when they said Samaritan and the person that, I want you to think of that guy. And you start praying for him every day. And you can commit to bring one more, one more, to our 1122 service. And then in regards

to one more generation, you've got some kids or you've got some family, you've got somebody in the upcoming generation, and you could commit to pray for that. And so you pray for these things. You commit to which ones you can pray for, and I'll give you instructions on that in just a minute. And then for everybody else, open up your card. And there's a couple of categories that we fall into here. if you're new to 1122, which, by the way, there's about 2,500 people that are a part of 1122 now that were not a part of 1122 when we launched the one initiative. We have grown by about 2,500 people. That's remarkable, okay?

Other services clap, but just stare at me. That's fun. Just so you know, I know a bunch of people have these different church backgrounds. We do what is called a one fund initiative, which means we don't do building campaigns, We don't do capital campaigns. There's no like over and above. At no point where we have a thermometer on stage that is growing over time with a verse from Leviticus. That's not what we do, okay?

That every dollar that we bring goes to glorify God in everything that we do at the Church of 1122. So it's just one number. And also, for those that didn't make it this weekend, if you're listening online, you can go on, you can go to our website and you can see the commitment card there. I would also like to say is that if you're listening online and you attend another church, your local church is where your primary tithe is where your tithe goes. So don't get confused about that. And so if you're new, if you're new and you look at this,

and for whatever reason last year you were not one of the over 8,000 people that made a commitment, then I want you to pray. And I want you to respond as the Holy Spirit is leading you to respond. and there is a section right here that says, I would like to make a 12-month commitment to one. And then you write down what your 12-month commitment is. So again, that will be thousands of people, and you're newly making a commitment.

And then like I mentioned, there's over 8,000 of us that made a commitment a year ago. And there are some of us, man, it was a huge stretch. And the moment you stepped out in faith towards the Lord, the target on your back got real, real big. and you need to be encouraged to catch up or keep up

but whatever you do, keep your chin up because therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And I know it was super important a year ago and all kind of other stuff gets in the way and just be reminded that his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That means that God provides us

with everything we need to accomplish everything that he has called us to. So if you made a commitment last year, then you write that number down where it says, already committed to one, just write that number down, and under it you can check, I confirm my commitment to finish strong. And then there's a group of us. I believe it's going to be thousands of us.

This is the group that Gretchen and I find ourselves in. And we made a commitment last year, and it was a stretch. But the crazy thing about faith is every time you stretch your faith, God grows your faith so that you can stretch more. And so we believe God is calling us to increase, increase our commitment. And maybe he grew your finances. maybe he grew your faith, maybe what was a huge stretch last time, now has grown comfortable and it's time to stretch again.

Listen, please, whatever you do, I do not want you to respond generously to a message. I don't. I want us to live lives of radical generosity in response to the gospel. Because you and I know that we were the beaten down broken man. And that Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, came and had compassion on us, and he did for us what we could not do. And he didn't just save our soul, but he put us in an end

so that we could be healed up and whole and live an abundant life. And for many of us, now he is calling us to be that kind of innkeeper. Where God, the Good Samaritan, uses people like us to introduce them to him and to be the people that care for other people as he does that work in their life. And so get your card out. and for the next two and a half minutes, you're going to do three things. You're going to think, you're going to pray, and then you're going to write.

You're going to think, you're going to think through all that God has been stirring in you. And you're going to pray. And when you pray, you shouldn't do all the talking. You shouldn't do all the talking. You should do some listening. And what I need for you to do is I just need you to do with the Holy Spirit, the real preacher here at 1122. Don't do what I tell you to do. Do what he tells you to do.

And if you're here, if you're here with your spouse and you're going to turn in a card, then you should pray out loud. Don't worry, Baptist. It'll be all right, okay? It'll be, everybody will be into Queens English, but just everybody be praying as God leads you. We'll have a little chorus of prayer. It would be awesome. And then you write down the number.

And we'll give you two and a half minutes, and then I'm going to come back and give you some instruction. And again, man, it may seem like a long time. If it does, you may not be, you know, kind of meditating and sitting still with the Lord enough. It's going to be eerily quiet. That's what it is. And so just think. Beg God that he would speak to you very, very clearly, pray. And then write down, and I'll be back in about two, two and a half minutes to give you final instruction.

Ready? Go. If you have not written down your commitment, do so now. And church, would you please stand with me? In just a second, like 30 or 40 seconds, I'm going to instruct you to bring it down. At all of our locations, there are baptismal tubs. down front. There are giving boxes up in the balcony for you guys at Fleming. You don't get to hide up there. There's also giving boxes all over the place. But the reason that we are going to

drop these into these baptismal tubs is because we're one church to reach one more and especially one more generation. And man, when I met Jesus, there was some stuff going on in my home life that wasn't super awesome, which landed me at Camp Pine Hill. And the good time, you were Samaritan had compassion on me, and he paid it all for me, but the innkeeper that he put me under was Coach Bull Lee. And Coach Bulley, just an old JV football coach, he didn't have a lot of money. He wasn't even a great speaker. You couldn't half understand what he was saying when he talked.

It was the craziest thing ever. And yet God put me under him, and he gave all of his time and his talent and his treasure and his temple for the glory of God. and now by God's grace, I don't know why, except for the sovereign grace of God, now he uses ordinary people like me and you, like innkeepers, that he would use us to rescue and redeem the loss. And I want you to know that when you write that number down, like Gretchen and I, we felt like the Lord is leading us to a number,

and you would say, is it a lot? Honestly, that's all relative. To us it's a lot. To us, it's the first and it's the most. that more resources are coming through the martins to what is on this card than any other thing in our life. And I don't say that, all I say that is just to let you know, man, I am all in on this thing. And the reason that we're going to drop them into these baptismals is because last year when we did this, guess what? That God saved a whole bunch of people and 627 people got in either these tubs or in the ocean to the care of Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.

and I'm praying, praying, like the little boy with the fishes and the loaves, it wasn't much. But when he put it into the hands of his Savior, then his Savior did exceedingly more than that little boy could ever hope or imagine. And I'm praying like crazy. When we drop our commitment, I'm praying that my one more gets in this tub before the one initiative is over. My one more is my dad. So who is that for you? That's what this means. This means that in an act of worship and surrender, we come before the Lord, and we say, God, you are the one thing.

that drives everything. Here, have my first and my best. Not even because of all that you're doing, but because what you have already done for me. So if you've got your commitment card, would you hold them high and would you let me pray for us? Hold them up high. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God,

we love you because you first loved us. God, like that little boy with fishes and loaves, we don't have much, but what we have, we bring it to you. And God, we pray for miracles. We pray for churches to be planted all over the world. world. We pray for men and women's eternities to be changed. God, we pray for our one more

our moms and our dads, our sons and our daughters, our friends and our coworkers that they would come to the place where they surrender their life to you. But ultimately, God, ultimately, we just do this in response. We do this in response to who you are and what you have done on our behalf. By the power of the spirit, by the blood of Jesus. by the love of the Heavenly Father, God, would you help us to love you with all?

We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So as our band closes, would you take your card and come and drop it off, either in the baptismals that are up front or one of the giving boxes around?