Let’s Get Engaged
Pt. 4 – Two Sides of the Coin
We have talked about assuming the position. We are called to be gap standers between the living and the dead and stop the plague. We have been challenged to examine our priorities . . . pigs or people? Money or men? And finally I told you last week that in order for us to get engaged we would have to deal with the giants in our lives. Those giants were prim, proper, formal, apathy or indifference, and fear. We cannot possess territory, we cannot reach out, and we cannot fulfill our mission until we are ready to take on those 3 things. So this morning I want to conclude this series by taking you to one of the most familiar texts in the Bible and dealing with the two sides of the coin.
Text: Luke 10:1-3, 7, 17, 25-37
Later the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he intended to go. 2He gave them this charge: “What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands. 3“On your way! But be careful—this is hazardous work.
7And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give.
17And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.
25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and made trial of him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26And he said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 30Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, 34and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35And on the morrow he took out two shillings, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee. 36Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers? 37And he said, He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
There are two sides to every coin (unless it is a trick coin). The sides are forever and always joined. You cannot have one without the other. It is not an either or proposition. In this dialogue with the Scribe Jesus manages to forever link both sides of the coin loving God requires and results in loving man and vice versa. One is not complete without the other. They cannot be separated. They cannot be full without the complement of the other. If we truly love God we will truly love man. If we truly love men we will truly love God.
He does however, put the command in the order of importance. First and foremost we should love God. We should honor God. That is the most important. But consequently that love will produce a love for others.
Before we get into the points that I want to drive home to you this week let’s do a little foundational work. Did the men that Jesus was addressing love God? Yes, in fact they were radical about their commitment to Him. They were radical about keeping the commandments. In fact, they were so radical about it that they had interpreted and added to the commandments until they had proliferated to 613, 248 positive and 365 negative. You didn’t have to wonder if they would be at church each week they were there like clockwork. You didn’t have to wonder if they would pay their tithes. They were automatic. You didn’t have to wonder if they would live pure. They were squeaky clean. They were model church members. These were the poster boys for church folks. (Sound like anyone you know? Sound like anyone you saw this morning in the mirror?) And yet with their commitment to God, church, rules, regulations and the letter of the law they didn’t have the heart of God. They forgot the other side of the coin. Their love for God should have resulted in love for their neighbor.
Jesus’ parable forces these men to take care of both sides of the coin! One without the other is incomplete. According to 1 John 4:20-21 which says, “20If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? 21The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.” The truth isn’t in us. We can’t love one without the other.
Likewise we can love everybody, but unless we love God we are unable to truly help those we love. We might be able to feed them, clothe them, doctor them but unable to offer them real answers or hope!
So this account teaches us that both sides of the coin are important and absolutely essential to live a godly, Christ-like life.
So I want to look at both sides for just a moment. However, before I point out the lessons I want to back up a little to verse 2.
Lesson #1: We pray for the wrong thing!
We don’t have to pray about the harvest. It is ready. It is ripe. We can’t spend all of our time praying for the harvest. We need to spend our time praying for the harvesters. We don’t even need to pray that God will prepare a harvest for this church or for you individually. He has already done that. We just need to begin to pray that you will get actively involved in harvesting and that God will send us more harvesters. Too many of us spend all of our time praying, “Oh, God prepare my husband to get saved, prepare my children to get saved, prepare my friends, my neighbors, my city, my world.” When according to Jesus our prayer should be “Prepare me to win my husband, my children, my friends, my neighbors, my city, my world.” Our prayer should be God send us more people who are bold enough, brave enough, radical enough to witness.” The harvest is ready. We just need to pray for more people to get busy reaping!
Lesson #2: We must love God wholly
The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” I like the way the Message Bible puts it because it brings it down to our level it says, “love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence.”
My concern is that too many of us love at 1/4th the level at worst and 3/4th the level at best of what we are called to. God is asking and demanding that we love Him with the complete package (heart, soul, strength, and mind).
With all of our heart. Not a divided heart. Not with part of our heart. Who has your heart? With all your passion! Does someone or something have part of your heart?
We are to love God with all of our soul. Here the idea of soul means loving God with all of our life. Are we ready to lay our entire life at His feet? Holding nothing back. Nothing off limits to Him. No area that He doesn’t have access to and can lay claim to. Our soul is that part of us from which we derive our sense of who we are and where we are going. It is that combination of mental and emotional awareness which determines our desires and our intentions. We must love Him to the point of finding our identity in Him, our purpose in Him. Our desires become Him.
With our strength – all of our energy, all of our abilities, talents.
And with our mind – we don’t check our brain at the door. We grow intellectually. We give Him our minds. We study to show ourselves approved. In other words, we love Him wholly. No area is off limits. It takes in everything about us. How many of us love God this way? How many of us are holding back one of those areas? We love Him with our heart and our strength, but we refuse to give him our soul – our identity rather finding our meaning in who we hang out with or what we drive. Or we refuse to give Him our intellect. Thinking that we are smarter than He is we try to direct our own path by analyzing everything. He calls for everything.
That is the first side of the coin. We must love God wholly. However, it is just one side of the coin.
Lesson #3: Our love for God must drive us to love others- we can justify nothing less
Notice if you will the people that wouldn’t help. The priest and the Levite. Most likely these men had already been to church because they were going down the road away from Jerusalem. Another indication of this is that they were alone instead in a group which is how they, by tradition, would have been travelling to church. They have already worshipped. They have already sacrificed. They have already prayed. They have already danced. They have already bucked. They have already
shouted.
Their church had no impact on their compassion. Their God activity had no impact on their social activity! Many of us (especially men) have selective hearing. However, these men were even more handicapped because they had selective sight. They looked over the obvious. They ignored the one who was hurting. According to what Jesus is saying you cannot separate loving God wholly from helping those who are not whole. We cannot pass by on the other side – selective sight – ignoring is not acceptable. How many of us ignore the obvious? We cannot separate our church life from our daily life. We cannot separate our worship from our world. Our worship should drive us to our world not past our world. Our encounter with God should create compassion for man.
If going to this church only increases your love for God, but never affects your love for men, then I give you permission to never come back. Because if that is the case then you are only viewing one side of the coin. We must be moved by compassion!
Lesson #4 – Reaching out will be inconvenient
He put him on his beast. He had to walk. He used his oil and his wine. He had to do without. He paid for the inn and the care out of his own pocket. His resources were tapped.
Let me put it in our terms. He put this bloody, dirty, hurting man in his nice, just cleaned, leather clad, polished car. He gave this man the meal he just purchased for himself. He purchased clothes for this man rather than the new suit he had eyes of for himself. The Samaritan was inconvenienced. How many of you know that having compassion will cause you to be inconvenienced? It will cause you to have to go out of your way and to use your time on someone else! You might be late for an appointment. You might have to rearrange your schedule. You might have
to do without in order to reach out. Which brings me to lesson five.
Lesson #5 – Reaching out will cost you.
It will cost you your time, effort, money. In order to love others you will find yourself in vulnerable situations. This Samaritan was in a vulnerable, exposed situation. The gang could have still been there. This 17 mile long road was often called Snake Path or The Bloody Way. It wasn’t safe to stop and help others. It was a vulnerable place.
The lesson is that we will have to go down some dangerous roads to help others. It will cost us. We will find ourselves in vulnerable positions. It is always vulnerable to love and to help. You have to know that there is a chance that you may be hurt, you may be unthanked, you may be resented, that you may be taken, that you may be tricked or used. That goes with the territory. It is the Snake Path! But it is the path we must be willing to walk.
It is irresponsible of me to challenge you to reach out without also challenging you to count the cost. There will be a cost for you to hold out a hand. There will be a cost financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Remember Jesus said this is hazardous work! You must count that cost. You must be willing to pay that cost.
Lesson #6 – There is a Snake Path or Bloody Way (Jericho Road) Near You
Go and do likewise. Find the road of pain that someone is traveling and go down it after them. Find the road of heartache that someone is on and travel it with them. Find the road of brokenness and look for those who are battered and help.
How do we help them? Using the language of the parable we offer them oil and wine. Oil is the power of the Holy Spirit. Using the example of how Jesus sent out His disciples we discover in verse 17 that they went out with power. That is why it is so imperative that you come in here an encounter God. You can’t just do your duty. You can’t just pacify your conscious. You can’t just go through the motions. You must encounter God so that you will have power.
But also wine – communion – Verse 7 - eat in the house. Relationship. We must offer them the power of God wrapped up in a relationship with us. One without the other is not effective. We are to bind up their wounds. We bind it spiritually with power and we bind it naturally with relationship.
There are two sides to the coin. Don’t brag about your love for God if you aren’t helping man. Don’t pat yourself on the back because you are volunteering and helping others if you can’t also say that you love God with your heart, soul, strength and mind. They are linked. They must both be dealt with. They are inseparable.
Which side of the coin needs your attention? Are you crazy about God and apathetic towards man? Are you knee deep in helping the less fortunate or those who are in pain, but unable to give them the power they so desperately need?
