Who's Our Neighbor? A Modern Day Good Samaritan

   Imagine you are going for a jog one day and you decide to take a new trail. You jog for a little bit then suddenly you trip. You look and see that there’s a rock that you hadn’t seen before turned up because you tripped over it. You try to stand up and realize that your ankle is at a strange angle. You cry out in pain because you cannot stand. Calling out for help will do you no good. You have not seen anyone around for miles.

   You lay there for 2 hours and realize that you are beginning to feel a new pain: the pain of hunger. You hear a noise behind you. A man is walking by. He is wearing a nice suit and carrying a book in his hand. You call out as loudly as you can. The man comes over and you begin to hope that he will help you. The man comes over and he asks what happened. You tell him. He says: “do you know Jesus as your personal savior?” You cannot believe this. You say: “right now my concern is my ankle. Can you help me?” The man nods, “I can help you. Jesus can save you. I will pray for you.” Then the man starts to walk away. Your shock stops you from calling out for a little then you yell at him to help you, but he’s gone.

   A little bit later someone else comes along. She is wearing a Doctor’s coat. You think that she will definitely help you and call for help. She looks over and says, “Hello.” Then she starts to look at your body. You say “can you fix my ankle? You are a doctor, right?” She says, “no, I’m sorry. I am an injury monitor. I only tell people when they are injured…...You are injured. It looks like a broken ankle and some hunger pains. You should get that fixed immediately.” Then she starts to walk away. You call out asking her to at least help you up. Then yell at her to tell someone you are there.

   Some more time passes and you are about to give up hope. A younger person comes along. She is on her phone and wearing some workout clothes. You are not sure if she will help you but you call out anyhow. She comes right over, “are you okay? What happened?” You tell her and she says “well, I don’t know first aid but I can try to help you.” Then she helps you up, lets you lean on her, and she takes you to get help.

   Sometimes we have a busy schedule and we don’t do what God calls us to do. We are to love others. That means helping them when they need it. If a homeless person asks for food and you give that person a Bible do you think they are going to want to read it? Probably not, because all that person can think about is eating food. The person will not be ready to learn until some basic needs are met. And, if you don’t care about those needs why would that person care about what you have to say?

   Other times we help people get saved then we forget about them. It is important that we help young believers grow in Christ. That way they can help others then too. We cannot be like an injury monitor and just tell people they need saved then leave them. That doesn’t exactly help spread the gospel in the right way. We need to make sure those people have someone who can help them grow.

We should be like the last person who came along and helped. She dropped what she was doing. It didn’t matter if she had a meeting or another event to get to. She stopped to help. She was being a good neighbor.

   So, are you evangelizing in the right way? Do you help others when they need it? What can you do to help your neighbors today?

   John 13:34 and Luke 10:25-37

   Image from here.
   This is a snip from a message I preached at Maytown Church of God. Here is the link to the sermon titled Do Something (scroll down the messages to find the title).