Someone Needs You Today Series

“Someone Needs You Today!”

Luke 10:30-37

David P. Nolte

What would you list as your greatest needs? There are some universal needs like air, food, sleep, covering and so on. Many times, however, we confuse wants with needs. We convince ourselves that anything we really want, we also really need.

We need to beware of allowing our wants, and even real needs, to blind us to, or make us indifferent to, the needs of others.

During this 28 Days of Love, we will be challenged to do love – love is not something you feel, it is something you do. We will not be considering romantic, erotic love but the kind of love that is the very nature of God called Agape. Agape is the Greek word we translate as love but it is more an aspect of our will than it is of our emotions. We perform Agape more than we feel it.

The song said, “Someone Needs You Today.” For starters, let’s begin in a very familiar passage. Jesus said, “‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion ,and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.” Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?’ And he said, ‘The one who showed mercy toward him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’” Luke 10:30-37 (NASB).

There are four words I want you to memorize, and to repeat every morning for the next 18 days. Those words are, “Someone Needs Me Today!” Then ask the Lord to show you who, why and how. Who needs you? Why do they need you? How can you help?

Let’s look at this from four angles and not just for 28 days but from now on let us remember that:

I. SOMEONE NEEDS YOU TODAY!

A. In the text today the individual was a man who was accosted by robbers who beat him and left him half dead. He was a someone who needed help.

B. Neither the Priest, the Levite, nor the Samaritan expected to meet someone in such need. But when they did

1. The Priest and the Levite passed by not helping this someone. They may have

a. Feared a set up for ambush.

b. Thought he got what he deserved for some sin.

c. Refused to become unclean for Temple service by touching a dead body.

d. Feared being late for serving in the temple.

e. Felt that it was not their problem.

2. The Samaritan alone helped. He didn’t know the victim but he knew that it was someone who needed him and notice

a. He endangered himself and took a risk of being ambushed.

b. He inconvenienced himself and put the victim on his donkey while he walked.

c. He indebted himself.

C. Through which set of eyes do you see the “Someone’s” who we encounter?

1. The unhelpful religious leaders, who did not regard him as worthy of their help?

2. The helpful Samaritan, who saw this man as someone who needed care – his care?

D. Always remember that whoever it is, that other individual is a someone, not a number, or a thing to be abhorred. Status, or riches, or comeliness, or power, or fame, or popularity cannot make a person a Someone. Look at this family Circus cartoon: “When I grow up will I be a person or a somebody?”

Every person is already somebody!! Nobody is a nobody. None of us is a mere pile of chemicals – everyone is a significant someone! And Someone in that group of individuals needs you.

E. We need to remember that everyone is Someone to God. Dr. Karl Menninger, a world-famous psychiatrist, was answering questions after giving a lecture on mental health when one person asked, “What would you advice someone to do if he felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” Most people expected the doctor to say, “Consult a psychiatrist.” Instead he said, “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need, and do something to help that person.”