Beyond These Walls: Generosity Lived In Faith

Minister: Rev. Olon M. Lindemood

January 22, 2012

Good Samaritan is the core of Chapter 10 of Luke…. “Go and do likewise!” Thus we started a few weeks ago with being “GROUNDED IN GRATITUDE!”  … Yeah… Count your many blessings, name them one by one…

Last week we checked out the surrounding verses in Chapter 10 of Luke’s gospel and discovered that we are to GO!  … and we are to SIT and listen… “WHICH WORD IS YOUR WORD?”  Go or Sit?  And we knew that our spirituality is REVEALED IN PRAYER (GO AND DO OR SIT AND LISTEN?)

TODAY … we expand our view of Luke’s gospel even more…   Today our spiritual walk is LIVED IN FAITH!

(“What must we do … to be spiritual people?”      Verse 1 … The seventy were sent out … GO and DO…     Verse 38 … Mary sat at and Listened at Jesus feet “SIT and LISTEN”                   

TO LIVE IN FAITH is to step back another chapter 9 … the twelve disciples were sent out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal.

And WHO DO people say that I am … A prophet … john the Baptist? (a miracle guy?) Jesus asks his disciples…  BUT who do you say that I am?  PETER Says … “The Messiah of God!”    noun

The promised and expected deliverer of the Jewish people.

Jesus Christ, regarded by Christians as fulfilling this promise and expectation. John 4:25, 26. Jesus says… I am he!

Peter … Check out 2 Peter 1: 16 and after…

Peter witnessed this glory moment … Back to Luke 9… the transfiguration… In a few weeks… we will visit this mountain again… “THE HIKERS GUIDE TO EASTER WILL START IN FEBRUARY!” The mount of Transfiguration is a special place … it is the place of Jesus Christ’s glory!

The disciples and Jesus were encountering demons that were tormenting people… one man brought his son… Jesus help?  My son has a demon… This is serious … But    (all kids?)

Wait … there is no sliding by this… who has not felt that a child has a demon… oh my … this is no laughing matter but it is critical to ask Jesus for help!  The help comes from Jesus… the Man in scripture approached Jesus … the demon could not leave with the disciples… but only Jesus… And when … Jesus … got rid of the demon… the  religious law keepers… said … wait … he has power of demons…maybe his power comes from satan rather than God…. Jesus …

Jesus says … you gotta become like a child … “WHOEVER WELCOMES THIS CHILD in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest!”

THAT is a moment when we are ready to jump and say… “I am ready to follow Jesus … Wherever you go! … VERSE 57 … I have an errand to run before I can jump on … Bury my father… Say good bye to my family… No… Jesus says …if you put your hand on this plow … no looking back…

To live in faith is to stay focused in the ways of the Lord… Staying focused on the Glory of the Lord.

GOLF OUTING… Occasionally, I will go to a golf course and walk on … and I will be paired with another person or three… and there is a moment often about the sixth hole or so … we have been playing for an hour… one man will ask … So … what do you do?  … I get to smile in that moment and say, “well, I am the senior pastor at Sunrise Church!” … The man will often go pale in that moment… I know that he is running through his vocabulary for the past hour… his stories and behavior…  it is precious… I CONFESS… I, too, run through my vocabulary for the last hour…   I pray I have lived faithfully… and without regret…

1 Peter 2 THE LIVING STONE…
Ours is to live in faith …

You see … once we have offered to Follow Jesus… once we have offered our lives to Christ… Once we have seen the Glory of the Lord! Then our lives are transformed into the living witness… we live in faith … we find that we need not follow the LAW … instead … we believe in the Living power of CHRIST!

Expand our gospel now… go the part after GO and DO … and the SIT AND LISTEN ….

Chapter 11 …  Jesus was praying in a certain place… the disciples ask  “Lord, teach us to pray…”

And do not bring us to the time of trial.”  Luke … 11:2
Today … we are back to the place where Jesus and … yes… Peter … are saying … Live in faith …
Friends are you a Christian?   … Then act like it … then talk like it!  Then live like you are a Christian!

You gonna follow this Jesus Christ?  You gonna surrender your life to Him? 

1. Act like it!
2. Talk like it!
3. Live like it!

Luke 10: 25 -37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.* ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 30Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii,* gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

2 Peter 1

Eyewitnesses of Christ’s Glory

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved,^* [3] with whom I am well pleased.’ ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

1 Peter 2

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

2Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built^* [3] into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture:
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him^* [3] will not be put to shame.’
⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner’,
⁸and
‘A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.’
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,^* [3] in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.