Who Is My Neighbor?

First Church of God in Harvey

Sunday Morning – July 3rd, 2011

Let us pray….

Welcome….

Tomorrow if our lives are spared, we will be celebrating our Independence Day. Although many of us are saying that we are free, the only ones who are truly free are those who have been set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in St. John 8 verse 36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Have you been set free? or are you still bound under the burden of sin? If you are still bound, today, this day, the day which the Lord hath made, the day in which we are rejoicing, and being glad in it, it is a good day to be truly set free, and you will be able to say, He set me free, He set me free..

The 125th North American Convention came to a close on last Wednesday night. It was a Holy Spirit filled convention, and the theme was, Transforming Culture by Being the Body of Christ. For some people, camp meeting is a time of just meeting friends, and socializing. For others it is a time of hearing the word of God, and allowing the word of God to apply to their lives. Throughout the camp meeting, the word love was being expressed, Love for God; Love for self; Love for world; Love for family; and Love for church. There were two services each day, along with many conferences. The morning service was held at......................................, and the evening service at ..............................

On Tuesday night of the camp meeting we participated in Holy Communion, and on Wednesday night we had the lighting of the candles, and we were reminded to let our light shine. One of the speaker spoke from Matthew 22 verse 37. She focused on how we are to mirror God’s love. She said “we are to love God with everything we are and then love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” She asked the question, “Does what we do, say, and how we act, provide any type of reflection of God’s love for the world?”

Today, I would like to continue with the thought, Love for world. Our text will be taken from St. Luke 10 verses 25 through 37..........

Our topic for today is, Who is my neighbor? 1. Is it the priest who passed by on the other side? 2. Is it the Levite who looked, and passed by on the other side? or 3. Is it the Samaritan who showed compassion?

Most of us have been told that our neighbor is the person who lives next door, and some might extend this, to the persons who live across the street. For us, we have been given a very limited view to who is our neighbor. Today we will be able to see how Jesus expanded on a very simple question asked by a lawyer to reveal to him who really was his neighbor.

In our text it says a certain lawyer stood, and tempted him saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Teacher, what does a man need to do to live forever in heaven? Being a lawyer, he should have been aware of the verse in Deuteronomy 6 verse 16, ye shall not tempt the Lord your God. Was this lawyer sincere in the question he asked? Did he really wanted to know as to what he had to do in order to have eternal life? This lawyer asked one question, and instead of answering, Jesus asked him two questions. What is written in the law? How readest thou?

Guess what? This lawyer was smart, he had the answer. What is the answer to the question? “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” Jesus said to him, you have answered correctly, you have given the right answer, this do, and thou shalt live.

One would think that would be the end of the question and answer period, but this lawyer was not satisfied, he had a follow up question. By the way Lord, who is my neighbor? Jesus the all wise God, did not give a simple answer, but told him a parable that would receive his attention.

The question who is my neighbor, it is said has caused endless disputes among the Jews. This question our Lord answered “in the parable of the good Samaritan,” “ showed that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction.” It is said that, “our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by the adversary. Our neighbor is every one who is the property of God.