| A 40 Day Experience - Extreme Love Message
Six: “Love Your Neighbor”
A 40 Day Experience Sermon by C. Gene Wilkes
Remember that silly little song by Fred Rogers on “Mr.
Roger’s Neighborhood,” “Who are the people
in your neighborhood?” I bet you’re humming it
now if you are 30 or older. That’s the question a religious
scholar who knew the rules asked Jesus some 2,000 years ago.
He wanted Jesus to define for him and the group the law that
said to love your neighbor. He wanted the Rabbi’s take
on the situation. Jesus knew what the guy was up to, and He
answered him with the story we know as the parable of the
Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35).
“Who is my neighbor?” is still a valid question
for those seeking to follow Jesus’ command to love him
or her like yourself. “Neighbor” in the past was
the family or person who lived next door or down the street
from you. But, today, your neighbor may be your co-worker,
another parent of a player on your son’s soccer team,
or it could even be someone you never met face to face.
Chat rooms and “Weblogs,” or “blogging”
have provided places to meet, share ideas, and create some
sort of neighborhood without necessarily meeting face-to-face.
My mother-in-law (She’s in her 70’s) is part of
a Christian chat group that began meeting together in a central
location in the nation after they had chatted on-line for
over a year. They have met in Dallas for face-to-face “reunions”
the last five years—community, neighbors, created over
the Internet.
God has always guided His people to care for their neighbors
(Ex. 12:4).
When God began to tutor His people, Israel, in how He wanted
them to live among the other people of the world, He instructed
them to model His love and care for them by sharing with their
neighbors. When He instructed them in the Passover, He told
them, “If any household is too small for a whole lamb,
they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken
into account the number of people there are” (Ex. 12:4,
NIV). One of the “Big Ten” shows the importance
of respect for our neighbors. “You shall not give false
testimony against your neighbor” (Ex. 20:16, NIV).
God even wanted the “aliens,” or outsiders, who
lived among His people to be blessed by their obedience to
Him. The tenth of the crops that would be brought to God was
to be used to feed the Levites, aliens, and the fatherless
among the people (Lev. 14:28-29). These were the neighbors
God desired His people to care for and to whom they would
model His love.
Of course, caring for our neighbors means we must know who
they are. On the second anniversary of 9/11, I told a story
in our electronic newsletter, The Pastor’s Posting,
of meeting a neighbor whom I had lived down the street from
for seven years. I challenged my readers to not let another
event like 9/11 force them to meet those God had put around
them. Here is an email I received from one of our members.
The Pastor’s Posting reminded me of the first time I
met my neighbors at our old house. We had [all] lived next
door and down the street from [each other]for 9 years and
had never met or shaken hands until 9/11. We had a prayer
circle on our street and people came out of the woodwork to
pray. I was saved a few weeks before that. I had been
living among all these Christians for 9 years
and never knew it. Why had they never introduced themselves?
Why hadn't I? And it wasn’t just me. NO ONE knew each
other until we all met in the street to pray. I was shocked
when people were telling me how long they had lived there.
Can you imagine the impact that our neighborhood would have
had on the unchurched if we had all just said hello when someone
moved in? Maybe if I stopped to talk to someone
as I walked our dog and they were outside watering their
lawn? Perhaps it wouldn't have taken me so long to give my
life to Christ if I had known my Christian neighbors.
Did you hear her last question? “Perhaps it wouldn't
have taken me so long to give my life to Christ if I
had known my Christian neighbors.” How many people do
you live around that God may be waiting for you to just talk
to them so they can be drawn to his love?
She continued with this story: The Pastor’s Posting
also reminded me of this story that I ran across a few
weeks ago: “When my wife, Diana, and I met a new couple
at church one Sunday, we stopped to introduce ourselves and
to exchange pleasantries. We described the friendly neighborhood
we lived in and listened sympathetically as they lamented
that theirs was just the opposite. Saying our good-byes, we
got in our cars and drove home. As we approached our house,
we were horrified to see that our new-found friends were pulling
into the driveway next to ours.”
Your neighbors are those Jesus died to save and for you to
love. Do you know who they are? Will you take time to go to
them? Be an example to them of God’s love.
To live out the second greatest commandment will challenge
who really is your neighbor (Mark 12:31).
This commandment is hard when your neighbor may be someone
who is nothing like you, but God has put them in your path
to love like Jesus loves them. Reverend Taylor Field has been
ministering in inner city New York since 1986. He tells the
story of one day as he passed some drug dealers. He confessed
that, “What they did disgusted me. I was a little afraid
of them, too.” As he sped up to get away from them,
he said a nagging question kept coming to his heart, “Do
you really love this neighborhood? Do you really love these
people?” When he made eye contact with one of the dealers,
he latched himself to Taylor’s arm. After a brief conversation
which included the pastor refusing what the man had to offer,
he said,
“You don’t have to do this, friend,” I
said. “There’s another way, you know.”
He looked me in the eyes again and said, “Man, my father
is a preacher.” . . . “Yes, but what about you?”
I said. We introduced ourselves, shook hands, and talked for
a long time. He did not ask Christ into his life. . . . After
I had walked another block, I looked back at him, still standing
there in indecision, a very miserable young man. On that day,
my heart changed. I began to look at what frightened me, or
disgusted me, more clearly. I saw that young man, not just
as the enemy, but as part of my neighborhood, too.
Loving your neighbor as yourself means caring for those who
may scare you and even be living a life completely opposed
to yours. But Jesus calls us to love them.
Sam Shoemaker, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous,
spoke to a gathering of the organization. He said, “As
I looked out over that crowd of five thousand in Kiel Auditorium
in St. Louis, I said to myself, “Would that the Church
were like this—ordinary men and women with great need
who have found a great Answer, and do not hesitate to make
it known wherever they can—a trained army of enthusiastic,
humble, human workers whose efforts make life a different
thing for other people!”
“Ordinary men and women with great need who have found
a great Answer, and do not hesitate to make it known wherever
they can,” is one of the best descriptions of the church
I have heard or read in a long time. If you would simply be
a neighbor like this description, our neighborhoods, cities,
counties, states, and nation would soon know what being loved
by Jesus felt like.
Loving your neighbor as yourself means showing them the grace
of God in your actions (Luke 10:25-37).
The Samaritan was called good by Jesus because he actually
did something in response to the man who had been robbed and
beaten. The others who passed by were good in the category
of keeping rules. They failed the test of acting out their
goodness toward others. Some people will never know the love
of God until you or I act it out for them. Here’s a
story of a college student’s encounter with the grace
of God in a classroom.
In the spring of 2002, I left work early so I could have
some uninterrupted study time before my final exam in the
Youth Ministry class at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri.
When I got to class, everybody was doing their last-minute
studying. The teacher came in and said he would review with
us before the test. Most of his review came right from the
study guide, but there were some things he was reviewing that
I had never heard. When questioned about it, he said they
were in the book and we were responsible for everything in
the book. We couldn't argue with that.
Finally it was time to take the test. “Leave them face
down on the desk until everyone has one, and I’ll tell
you to start,” our professor, Dr. Tom Hufty, instructed.
When we turned them over, to my astonishment every answer
on the test was filled in. My name was even written on the
exam in red ink. The bottom of the last page said: “This
is the end of the exam. All the answers on your test are correct.
You will receive an A on the final exam. The reason you passed
the test is because the creator of the test took it for you.
All the work you did in preparation for this test did not
help you get the A. You have just experienced . . . grace.”
Dr. Hufty then went around the room and asked each student
individually, “What is your grade? Do you deserve the
grade you are receiving? How much did all your studying for
this exam help you achieve your final grade?”
Then he said, “Some things you learn from lectures,
some things you learn from research, but some things you can
only learn from experience. You’ve just experienced
grace. One hundred years from now, if you know Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior, your name will be written down in
a book, and you will have had nothing to do with writing it
there. That will be the ultimate grace experience.”
Nothing more needs to be said. What will you do to love your
neighbor this week?
C. Gene Wilkes is the pastor of Legacy Drive Baptist Church
in Plano, Texas. He is the author of Jesus on Leadership:
Becomming a Servant Leader, My Identity in Christ, and With
All My Soul: God's Design for Spiritual Wellness, A Fit 4
Continuing Study.
www.lifeway.com/a40dayexperience
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