I Couldn’t Care Less!
My wife, two daughters, a boyfriend and myself flew to the great state of Oregon. After we landed in Oregon, we rented a van and went on a driving trip around the state. We saw the beautiful coast, we saw Crater lake, we saw Mount Hood, Jefferson Mountain, The three sisters mountains. We drove along the Columbia River Gorge and saw a ton of beautiful waterfalls such as Multnomah Falls which Wiki says is over 600 foot tall and we saw many other falls such as Bridal Veil and Latlaural falls and many beautiful hikes to all of those falls. We saw a Lavender farm and we saw the beautiful Rose Garden - Portland is known as the city of roses.
I hope no one is offended about what I’m about to say about the great state of Oregon but I found it to be a state of fantastic beauty right beside tragic ugly. Some things were “awfully pretty” (oxymoron?) and some things were “pretty ugly” (oxymoron?) if you know what I mean.
We had brought with us care packages to take to the homeless and handed out some while we were there. These care packages had things like a granola bar, some tuna, cheese crackers, bottled water, a pocket bible, a tract, a $5 McDonald’s gift card, and a few other small things in a big gallon sized ziplock bag. So some food for the body and food for the spirit and hopefully the packages will make some small difference. We noticed that in some of the parks there were a lot of homeless around, but also we noticed that there were church groups handing out free bibles and other things to try and help them. That was awesome, inspiring, and encouraging! Our hotel for the first night was in the city of Gresham which is a suburb of Portland like Garland is to Dallas. While there, we noticed they had fireworks stands in the Kroger parking lot. I went in and talked to some of the people there as it was early and no one else was around. They told me the people are allowed to shoot off fireworks in Gresham even right there in the parking lot. That was strange for me since that’s not allowed here. Also, they told me they were part of a church and the fireworks sales was to raise money to help the homeless and do good in the community. I was happy to hear that.
So there were really sad things to see, and also really hopeful and inspiring things to see! On the one hand it seemed so pretty that surely it was God’s country, and then other times it seemed so godless that it must be Satan’s country. I really didn’t always know what to make of Oregon, to love it or hate it. For the most part Oregon was a wonderful sightseeing trip but also sobering things to see where Oregon could use a bit of work, but encouraging things too that God was working thru His people there!
Really, tho, probably if someone from Oregon came here to Texas or Garland, they likely might say the same things about us, I’m supposing. It’s easy to look at others and point out everything wrong with them and not see the things wrong with ourselves or things of need in our area. We sort of become blind by what’s around us. But by nature we are fault finders in others. We see the faults in others but rarely see the faults with ourselves. But sometimes we see the good too and that’s really what we should focus on.
Matthew 7:3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
We are going to look at the story of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10. It is a great lesson told by Jesus himself to illustrate how we as God’s children should be. We will see one of our higher callings that Jesus expects of us!
Luke 10:25-37 The good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
From the story, we see that there were some people who should have cared but did not and others that weren’t expected to care but did. The good Samaritan went above and beyond the call of duty in caring for the injured man - he set the bar high! Sometimes you have to figure out that some people really do care about people and some others do not. How do you know who is who? It’s very hard. One way is to look at their fruit to get some sort of clue as to the person they are. But, be careful, don’t judge a person by your expectations, either.
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
John 13:34,35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
In this, loving is evidence of salvation, but is not what saves a person. We are saved by faith in Jesus and after we are saved we are to do good works.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I could care less?” or rather it is “I couldn’t care less?” Either way, you know the sentiment. But I say, as a christian, we should care, and we shouldn’t care less, we should care more and a lot more. It’s expected that we will be very caring.
1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Proverbs 29:7 The righteous considers the cause of the poor,
But the wicked does not understand such knowledge.
Proverbs 28:27 He who gives to the poor will not lack,
But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.
Do you know what it takes to care? Love. If you care about the world around you, it’s because there’s love welling up in your heart and poking you in the brain that, hey, that’s sad or that should bother you, and maybe you should care. Some people turn off that message in their brain and others listen to that message and do something about what they see. Careful, when it comes to feelings, as they can steer you wrong too, but hopefully, if you see someone around you in need, you will care, and that you will be moved enough to do something when it’s warranted. That should be one of the traits of a Christian! If you think yourself a Christian but do not have love and caring, doesn’t that seem odd and not right?
1 John 4:20,21 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
Philippians 2:1-4 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
The good Samaritan story is a great illustration about caring for a person’s physical needs. But have you considered caring for a person’s spiritual needs also?
Jesus didn’t just care for a person’s physical needs, but God knew we also had a spiritual problem. We are all sinners and sinners do not go to heaven.
How can we remedy that sin problem when we can not fix that problem in and of ourselves?
If we could solve the sin problem ourselves and do enough good works to get to heaven, God would have just let us do that… but obviously we couldn’t. Our good works are as filthy rags.
The penalty for sin is death, so we deserve to die physically and spiritually! Eek!
Jesus, was the only perfect person, had to be our substitute and die on a cross to pay our sin penalty.
When you put your faith aka trust in Jesus He will redeem you and save you from both the physical and spiritual death.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
Paul cared deeply for his countrymen and wished that he could be punished instead of them if it were possible - but that’s not possible. Each person must accept Christ for themself. No one can do it for you!
Romans 9:2-4a 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel.
God Himself wishes that none should perish in a devil’s hell but it’s up to you to decide, He will force no one to be saved.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
We too stand before you today because we love and care about you. We are here to share the good news of Jesus that He loved you so much that He did all He could do to save you by going to the cross to pay for your sin debt. Will you accept His free gift of salvation? It’s free, here it is, you just have to take it. But behold, here’s the greatest gift ever and it is free, you wouldn’t leave that on the table would you? If you do, you will regret it for eternity.
Jesus said, go and do likewise. So…:
1. Set out to do good - purpose to do good
2. Sorrow for those who need care, and do something about it
3. Supply all the care you can - set the bar high - give your best not your minimum.
4. Not just physical care but both physical and spiritual care also - the fields are white for harvest - Jesus expects us to care for the physical and the spiritual
James 2:16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
John 4:34,35 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
1 John 3:16,17 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
I’m glad we have a caring God that cares for our physical well being as well as our spiritual well being. Could you imagine if God couldn’t care less about us how we would be? We too should be loving and caring about others just like God loves and cares for us. Imagine how fantastic it is to be called an heir of the King! Imagine how wonderful it is to be loved by God and that He cares for us!
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.
Other verses:
Ezekiel 16:49 (besides their perversion - Jude 1:7 - another of their sins was…)
“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
