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Are you taking your faith to the streets? I am not speaking of literally going into the street and preaching, or something of that nature. I am speaking of living and sharing your faith after you leave church. I turn to the story of the Good Samaritan for help with this idea. In Luke 10 we find the record of Jesus conversation with a religious leader. The man tested Jesus by asking a question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (vs. 25) This leader sought to trap Jesus, in asking this question. Jesus turned the tables on the man and asked what was written in the law (vs. 26). The leader said “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” (vs. 27) Jesus indicated the man had answered properly. He said “You have answered rightly: do this and you will live.”(vs. 28) The Bible indicates the man wanted to justify himself so he asked another question “Who is my neighbor?” (vs. 29) With that question Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan that is recorded in Lk. 10:30-37. It is as if Jesus was challenging the religious leader to put his faith into action. He wanted him to live his faith. Jesus wanted him to carry his faith into the streets.
That is the need in our church and many other churches. We know the Great Commandment. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” We know the Great Commission. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is sound theology. However, Jesus wants us to put our theology into practice. He wants us to put feet to our faith. In the story of the Good Samaritan there were two religious leaders who left their faith at church. Jesus told this parable to illustrate the irrelevance of such behavior. Faith that does not leave church on Sunday is really not faith at all.
Faith Baptist, like other churches, has many issues to address. We have budgets to meet, workers to recruit, buildings to maintain, and programs to organize. However, the Lord wants us to keep our priorities in order. He wants us to carry our theology into the streets. How do we do this? Join me in studying the story of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan went into the street. The Good Samaritan cared for a hurting man. The Good Samaritan put his theology into practice. Notice three ways he did this. You and I can follow his example.
1. Identify a need and meet it! The Good Samaritan saw a hurting man. He identified a need and responded to it. About a year ago I read Bill Hybel’s new book, “Just Walk Across the Room.” Bill Hybel’s shares practical ways to enhance your ability to share your faith. Hybels encourages you to see yourself as a resource provider. As you meet people’s needs it will open the door for you to share your faith in easy and natural ways. This requires that we open our eyes and identify the needs of the people we meet.
This is the way Jesus ministered. In each of these passages Jesus saw a need and responded to the need. The response to the need opened the door for sharing the truth.
- John 1:47
- John 5:6
- John 6:5
- John 9:1
It is imperative that we see people as a person rather than a prospect. This will revolutionize our relationship with people.
* My most successful ministry opportunities have come when I exercised this principle. About five years ago Judy and I sold a house in Northport and moved into a rental home. When we moved into the rental we noticed that a young couple lived next door. We found out they were unmarried, she was pregnant, and he had recently been released from prison. Shortly after we moved in the young man went back to prison, leaving a pregnant girl friend to fend for herself. One day I noticed this “very” pregnant lady riding a lawn mower and mowing her yard. I lectured her about the importance of caring for the unborn baby and told her I would mow her yard for the remaining term of the pregnancy. I met a need. That simple act opened the door for me to visit her boy friend in prison and share the love of Jesus with him.
I have shared the story of Robert with you. We once moved into a home next door to Robert. On the day of our move Robert told me to keep my religion to myself and stay on my side of the fence. He was closed to the gospel. I was there the night Robert’s daddy died. I was there the night Robert’s mother died. I met a need. Robert later gave his heart to Christ.
Identify a person and a need, respond to the need, and God will open huge doors to you.
Illustration: Stephen Covey tells of an unusual experience on the New York subway. While people were sitting quietly in the car, a man entered with his noisy and rambunctious children. The man sat down and closed his eyes as though he was oblivious to his rowdy children. The once quiet subway car was now a disturbing place of chaos. The children’s inappropriate behavior was obvious to everyone except their father. Finally, Covey confronted the man about his children. The man opened his eyes and evaluated the situation as if he were unaware of all that had transpired: “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital, where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.” Compassion starts when we begin to understand the hurts of others.
(Illustration 156 in “Something to Think About”. Edited by Raymond McHenry. P. 51)
2. Get involved! The Good Samaritan got involved. When you get involved there are three elements to be considered.
A. It takes time. That seems to have been the problem with the religious leaders that passed by. John Darley and Daniel Batson are two Princeton University psychologists. Some years ago they decided to conduct a study, inspired by the story of the Good Samaritan. They conducted the study at Princeton Theological Seminary. They met with a group of seminarians and asked each one to prepare a short talk on a given theme. Then they would walk individually to a nearby building to make their presentation. Along the way to the presentation each student would run into a man who was planted in an alley. He would lie there, moaning and groaning in pain. The question was who would stop to help the man. Darley and Batson asked half of the seminarians to give their talk on ministry opportunities available for students after graduation. The other half were asked to prepare a short devotional on the story of the Good Samaritan. Also, the researchers wanted to determine if being in a hurry made any difference in the behavior of the students. So they told one third of the group that they had plenty of time to get to the building to make their presentation. Another third was told they would make it if they left immediately and did not stop along the way. The last third was told that they were already late! In other words, the experimenters put a third of their subjects in a “low hurry” situation; a third in a “intermediate hurry” situation; and a third in a “high hurry” situation. So, which ones offered to help the man? It turned out that it made no significant difference whether the student was giving a talk on job opportunities or the Good Samaritan. The difference maker was the time factor. Of the “low hurry” subjects, 63% offered help; of the “intermediate hurry” subjects, 45% offered help; and of the “high hurry” students, only 10% offered help. The experimenters concluded that bystander apathy is encouraged by time factors.
B. It requires self-giving.
A fascinating study on the principle of the Golden Rule was conducted by Bernard Rimland, director of the Institute for Child Behavior Research. Rimland found that "The happiest people are those who help others." Each person involved in the study was asked to list ten people he knew best and to label them as happy or not happy. Then they were to go through the list again and label each one as selfish or unselfish, using the following definition of selfishness: a stable tendency to devote one’s time and resources to one’s own interests and welfare--an unwillingness to inconvenience one’s self for others." In categorizing the results, Rimland found that all of the people labeled happy were also labeled unselfish. He wrote that those "whose activities are devoted to bringing themselves happiness...are far less likely to be happy than those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy" Rimland concluded: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
(SOURCE: Martin & Diedre Bobgan, How To Counsel From Scripture, Moody Press, 1985, p. 123. CITATION: Rimland, ’The Altruism Paradox,’ Psychological Reports 51 [1982]: 521,522.) (Contributed to Sermon Central by David Yarbrough)
C. It has a certain element of risk. Last Tuesday night Donnie and I were out visiting, at Spanish Fort. As we headed back to Fairhope, down 181, we noticed a young lady walking along the side of 181. I told Donnie, this does not look right. We turned around and went back. We were both a little nervous. Any time you get involved there is risk involved.
Consider our text. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a notoriously dangerous road. Jerusalem is 2,300 feet above sea-level; the Dead Sea, near which Jericho stood, is 1,300 feet below sea-level. So then, in somewhat less than 20 miles, this road dropped 3,600 feet. It was narrow, rocky, and had sudden turns which made it the happy hunting-ground of robbers. In the fifth century it was still called "The Red, or Bloody Way." In the 19th century it was necessary to pay safety money to the local Sheiks before one could travel on it. The bandits used decays. One of their members would act the part of a wounded man; and when some unsuspecting traveller stopped over him, the others would rush upon him and overpower him. The Levite, in our text, was a man whose motto was, "Safety first." He would take no risks to help anyone else.
3. Invest in people. The Bible tells us the Good Samaritan “took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again I will repay you.” (vs. 35) He literally made an investment in the wounded man. We have been hearing much talk about good investments and bad investments. There is no greater investment than to invest in people. There is an epitaph on a tombstone that reads: “What I SPENT, I LOST. What I SAVED, I LEFT. What I GAVE, I HAVE.”
Investing in people is never a gamble. 88% of Americans gamble in some form. 95% lose more than they bet. Winners get back less than half of what they bet. No one in his or her right mind would invest in anything with such a loss record. Statisticians have shown that a person is more likely to survive 88 rounds of Russian roulette than to win a typical state lottery! A person is seven times more likely to be hit by lightning and one half million times more likely to die in a plane crash. The typical odds against winning a state lottery are five to ten million to one. If a person buys fifty lottery tickets every week, he will win on the average once in every 5000 years. In short, statisticians conclude that the chances of winning the lottery are about the same if you don’t play! Mark Twain was right when he said, “The best toss of the dice is to toss them away!” Remember, those who never gamble have a l00% chance to never lose! (John Fonville, “The Lottery: A Good or Bad Bet For North Carolina?” from Truth Talk Live (336) 896-0830,web site address (www.830wtru.com)
A man in Salina, Kansas learned the importance of investing in people. His name was Ralph Heatwole. He was a cranky crochety old man who was always griping about the bratty little kids running around church. One Sunday the Pastor announced that it was about time for church camp and several children wanted to go but didn’t have the money to pay for it. One of those kids was a rambunctious boy named Randy. Randy was the brattiest of the brats that rode the bus to church. Ralph’s wife suggested that they pay Randy’s way to camp. Ralph hit the ceiling at the very thought of throwing his hard earned money away on Randy, of all kids. But his wife kept working on him until he finally gave in. The Sunday after camp all the kids went to the front of the church to tell about camp and to thank those who paid their way and Randy testified to accepting Christ as his savior that week. That was all Ralph needed to hear – after that, he paid to send at least one kid to camp every year. That’s not the end of the story though. God called Randy to preach. Years later Ralph was there when Randy was Ordained an Elder in the Church of the Nazarene. Randy quickly credited Ralph, “There’s the man who paid my way to camp when I got saved.” Ralph learned that when you invest in people, you invest in eternity.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Timothy Cole)
Let me encourage you to remember an important principle. The greatest investments we make will be made one by one. In our world we tend to focus on mass production. We want everything and we want it fast. However, the greatest human impact is made one person at a time. Jesus greatest impact was done one on one. He did speak to crowds but his greatest impact involved individuals. When he called his twelve disciples he spent three years teaching, training, and mentoring them.
Let’s take our faith to the streets. Identify a need! Get involved! Invest in people! Jesus wants to use you to make a difference!
