Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Law of Love
This message explores what it truly means to live by the law of love, highlighting the contrast between religious legalism and the freedom found in Christ. Using the example of the Galatian church and the parable of the Good Samaritan, it reveals that salvation comes through relationship, not rules. Jesus simplified the entire law into loving God and others, showing that genuine love naturally fulfills God’s commands. The teaching also distinguishes true compassion from enabling behavior, emphasizing Spirit-led love that heals and transforms. Living this way leads to freedom, answered prayers, and a more fulfilling life in Christ.
Everybody say this together Say Lord, I love you. Jesus, you are the living word. As I receive your word tonight, jesus, I receive you. It's like I'm taking communion and Lord, you're going to give me strength to do it. Holy Spirit, you're going to breathe on it, make it come alive. I'm going to leave tonight with a clear understanding and with a call to action in Jesus name Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:Well, I do want to minister, we do. There's such an anointing here tonight and I just want to. I want to learn, I want to get the word in us and then we'll have prayer time after that so we can respond to what the Lord says. But I just welcome everybody here on a Sunday night. This is a Sunday night crowd, that means y'all are committed, extra Hallelujah.
Speaker 1:But you know, pastor talks about this all the time Teach what you take for granted, and um, and so sometimes I have heard him in the pulpit refer to the law of love, and that's the way that we live. We live by the law of love, and uh, and so I just thought it would be a good thing at exercise in the word to break out what that means. What in the world? Um, all right, what I want to talk about the law of love, because it's such a and I just want to start lay a foundation. So in Galatians 1.6, if you want to turn there, the answer to the burning question that everybody wants to know is how, how do I, how can I be saved from my sin, how can I go to heaven? And this very question is the thing that separates everybody in every religion. You've got the humanists that say well, you know, there's not really a heaven, it's just, uh, we, we become a perfect human being on earth, you know, and then we die and it all ends there. Or you have the, the Hindus, that say you're just reincarnated again and again and and I, if I, if I do enough good things, and then I can be, you know, a higher life form and then I'll come back and hopefully, if I, if I do bad things, I can come back as a roach or something. But you can learn a lot about what is the answer to that question, and I believe my Sunday night crowd knows the answer to that question what must you do to be saved? Anybody know Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior become born again. Is it by anything that you do right that you get saved. No, no, okay. So.
Speaker 1:So the Galatians knew this. Paul is talking to the Galatian church, the church in Galatia, and he is their spiritual father. And he says in verse six, chapter one, verse six I marvel that you were turning away so soon from him, who called you, in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. Everybody say a different gospel. Paul's saying I know what you, what I preached to you. I preached to you the real one and you've got some fake one that you're going after. And he said it's not another God, there is no other gospel. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. That word pervert means to twist it, to make it say something different. Y'all know there's a spirit of this age right now that their entire game is to twist every word, to make the word meaning something completely opposite of what you ever. Everybody five minutes ago understood the word to mean and now means something different. So that's the goal of the Antichrist is to twist the gospel. And Paul said if, even if we or any angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you before, let him be accursed. In other words, don't listen to another gospel. Stick with the right one, stick with the one.
Speaker 1:And so the Galatians were actually embroiled in this big controversy, and it kind of talks about it in Acts 15, because there were, there were. It was new for a Gentile to be able to get saved. Before that it was only Jewish people, jew, you know, jesus was a Jew. He ministered to the Jews and so Paul was the first preacher that preached to the Gentiles and it was just a new thing that they could get saved. And Peter Peter did actually minister to Cornelius and his family and his whole family got saved and they got baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence. They spoke in tongues, and so it was so puzzling.
Speaker 1:How could a Gentile get the same gift that we have? How could that even be? And because they're uncircumcised, they do not have a covenant. See, 1800 years prior to this, abraham the patriarch had a covenant with God. Guess what? He wasn't Jewish yet either. Nobody, there was no such thing as a Jew.
Speaker 1:Abraham was the first Jew. And how did he get to be a Jew? Well, the Bible says he believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. So he just believed. God gave him a promise hey, appear to him, I'm gonna give you a bunch of land and a bunch of kids and descendants, you know, and through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And Abraham didn't doubt God, but believed God and it was it counted to him for righteousness. So if Abraham can believe God and he can be, and he can have a relationship, a loving, awesome relationship with his creator just by believing him, then we can do the same thing, whether we're a Jew or a Gentile.
Speaker 1:So in the Galatian church at this time, paul's saying man, there are people trying to add to the gospel and you got to be careful of that today, because in the last days are going to be people who come in, false teachers, and they're going to lie to you and they're going to tell you, not in this church, amen. I know putting our foot down, but they're going to say Jesus plus or Jesus minus. What must you do to be saved? Well, jesus, you, yeah, he's part of the solution, but you got gotta do a whole list of other things. You gotta grow your hair out, ladies, real long, and you gotta wear skirts and no makeup, and you have to fulfill all of these requirements or you know lots of other rules that you have. There are many.
Speaker 1:Every denomination was born out of some. A good revival. Usually there was a move of God, but then people started tacking onto it Well, you have to do this and you have to do that, you have to do this, this and that. Jesus plus. And. And then there's the Jesus minus people. Well, jesus, he was a really good prophet, he was a good teacher, but he wasn't really the son of God. Or they'll say you know, and so you can listen to what he said. You know the teachings of. They'll talk about the teachings of Jesus. Well, beware of anybody who just talks about the teachings of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus will not get you to heaven, but he himself will, and dying to yourself and accepting what he did on the cross will All right. So so Jesus plus versus Jesus minus.
Speaker 1:And there was another gospel in the Galatian church, and that gospel said well, you got, if you're a Gentile and you got, saved, you also have to do what Abraham did. After Abraham got through covenant, he then he ratified it by circumcising himself. And so there was an outward sign of the covenant. Look up what that is, because I'm not going to explain it tonight in church. But what I want you to know is that because Abraham, he did that, he obeyed that and he said my generations from here on out are going to serve the Lord. And every time I even think about my generations, or every time I, I, I, I, uh, I think about you know, being with my wife, I'm going to think about the covenant that I made with God and that's going to pass down. I'm going to think about the way I love God and put him first and that's the way I'm going to love my wife and that's the way I'm going to love my kids and they're going to serve God the way I did. It was a covenant and it had a mark, a physical mark, and so it was precious and he did pass that down and 1800 years, jews, jews, men, were still following that tradition.
Speaker 1:On the eighth day they were circumcised and so and that meant they had a covenant how could a Gentile, how could a Gentile and it was heresy, oh my goodness. No, we will not be a Christian if it means that Gentiles can be saved without doing that. We had to do that. We're not gonna let them in. We are not letting them into the church. We are not gonna do it. And Paul said you're messing up, you are messing up. Then he said and he talked about the law versus the promise he talked and this is an age old battle that we have all the time in the church. Think about it. So you have the law of Moses.
Speaker 1:So after Abraham, you know, several generations later, lots of generations later, then Moses came. He brought the law. Abraham just had a covenant with God. He loved God, he served God, he put God first above his own son. He loved God more than his own son and so he loved. And then eventually God brought a way to be holy. Hey, you can't, you can't really be perfect yet, because you, you know everybody sins. Adam fell. Now you've got to sin, but I'm going to institute this, this law that will be like a teacher for you, like a lot of symbolism and stuff, and if you'll do this law, I'll cover your sins until I can send my son and wipe them out forever.
Speaker 1:And so for all those years, all those generations, 1800 years, then the Jews then they were keeping the law of Moses and they had to tithe on their mint and their cumin in their herb garden and they had to keep every little dot and tittle of it, all of it. And if they didn't eat an animal with hoofs, or an animal that had been strangled, or an animal that with it in its meat, in its own blood, or an animal, or if they couldn't, they couldn't eat shrimp or pigs. I'm sorry, men, we've been redeemed from that Been redeemed, we can eat pigs, but they had to keep all of the law and it was onerous, in fact it was impossible. And that really is, isn't it?
Speaker 1:The whole point of the whole Bible is that you can't be good enough. Really, god is perfect and you're not him. And there, in fact, you can't do anything without him. That's the whole point of the law. You can't do it, You'll never be able to meet it. You'll never be able to meet it without him. That's the whole point of the law. You can't do it, you'll never be able to meet it, you'll never be able to meet it without him. But you're not without him, are you? Everybody say I'm with him and with God. Jesus said with God, all things are possible. With God, you are redeemed. With God, you are enough. With God, you can meet face to face with your creator and be in his presence and not die. In fact, you can be in his presence and draw life from his being and become like him and be able to speak things into being, into creation, just like God. It's awesome what he's given. And so you know what Guess what Religion hates. That Religion hates and always wars against the true relationship that we can have with God.
Speaker 1:And it started way back, way back. Cain killed Abel, didn't he? Cain was the, you know, he was trying to do everything right in his own strength and Abel just had a good relationship with God, just obeyed God and loved God. And Cain was so jealous, he hated it so much. Boom killed him.
Speaker 1:And then you have Hagar versus Sarah. You know, abraham had the two. He had one wife and he had one concubine and the concubine had a child named Ishmael. The concubine's name was Hagar. Hagar was a type of the law, what we try to do ourselves to get to God. We know we're supposed to have God in our lives and we have this promise. Abraham had this promise from God. He tried to fulfill it in his own strength and it was a curse to him. Then when. Fulfill it in his own strength and it was a curse to him. Then, when he just let God do it, it was a blessing. And so, and Ishmael hated and was jealous of, and still the people groups that descended from those two groups now hate each other to this day and there's enmity. But God Jesus came to bring peace, all right. And so you know, and now you've had the circumcised versus the uncircumcised people.
Speaker 1:Then you had the Pharisees. Just look at how the Pharisees represented the law, and every time they questioned Jesus in public, they would try to be catching him in this and catching him in that, and they were so jealous they hated. Oh, he could do miracles. He healed people on the Sabbath. It was a scandal. And then they hated and so much fought against him and were so jealous that what happened? They killed him, crucified, crucified, crucify him.
Speaker 1:It's a theme Religion attacking, they're true. It's a theme Religion attacking, they're true. And so what we want to do is never fall victim to that, never, never, never. Let anybody add some requirement on you that violates your covenant with Jesus, your salvation, and so, but what? But then? What does your salvation even really mean? How do you look at somebody's life? You know Jesus said you'll know a tree by its fruit. How can you tell if somebody's really going to heaven? How can you tell if they're really a born again Christian? How can you tell? So? Matthew 22, verse 35. Here's some flipping, you can flip there.
Speaker 1:Then one of them, a lawyer here's a Pharisee asked him, tested him, tested. Jesus, asking him a question, saying teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? You know, because, look, I'm a lawyer and I'm all about the law. Law, law, I've studied, I know everything there is and I'm going to test you. Law law I've studied, I know everything there is and I'm going to test you to see if you know the right answer. And that way, if you say the wrong thing hi, hannah, she's smiling at me, she's my friend. Anyway, if you say the wrong thing, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to. I'm going to be able to prove that you're a fraud.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus just turned it around on him. He said you shall love the Lord, your God. This is the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is likened to it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments hang the law and the prophets. That's awesome. So, in other words, under Jesus we do not have to try to remember all of the law and the prophets. And now Jews, modern day Jews, also have to remember not just the Torah but the Talmud, with all the rabbinical teachings of 2,000, 3,000 years, 2,000 years of history, more than that 6,000 years maybe, goes back a long way. And they've got all these other things that they've got to keep.
Speaker 1:And Jesus said just love the Lord, your God. If you love him, if you really love God, you will realize that every person on the face of this earth is created in his image. And then you will not want, if you really love him, you will never, never want to trample or do anything to hurt or just besmirch or wound anybody in his creation, because they're made in the image of God. But let me just also I would like to get into and I will, I'm going to lay it, I'm going to lay out a case in a minute, because I don't hear this done a lot. We hear a lot about love your neighbor, love your neighbor, love your neighbor. And I want to say, I want to be really the first to tell you that that very commandment is one of the most we talked about how Satan likes to pervert the gospel. That is one of the most. That was one of the most co-opted scriptures by the left, by the communists, by the progressive movement, and I really do think there.
Speaker 1:I think we're seeing right now and I cannot stand up here before you and I mean this church prays over events that are going on in our country and we're at a pivotal time and I do believe there have been people that have been crossing our border for the last four and five years that have an ill intent. I believe there are military age sleeper cells right now. I believe they've been activated and that's some of what we're seeing in Los Angeles and New York. We've got to pray because I know that the devil would like to bring that to a lot of cities across the United States and the people in the streets that are fighting are many of them are military age men that are not necessarily from Mexico, but they may be part of Hamas, they may be part of other organizations and terrorist groups in the world and they would like to just divide our nation against itself and that has been a long time stated goal and plan of theirs going back a long, long time, and I'm not going to rehearse that part of the history. But this is something I've looked into for a long time and I know that the devil has a plan, but greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
Speaker 1:Guess what? We can love our neighbor. We can love our neighbor, but I'm going to talk about how we can apply that not only in our personal lives but as a society. So y'all can't leave yet, but we're free now. We're free because we're under the law of love and we're not under this other crazy, all of this other stuff. And if you read in David, we will not go to Deuteronomy 28 tonight.
Speaker 1:But how many of y'all know that Deuteronomy 28 lists all the covenant blessings of the people who keep the law. And now you've been stamped with approved. If you have the blood of Jesus covering your heart, if you have accepted his sacrifice for your sins, I have good news for you. God has looked over Deuteronomy 28 and all the covenant blessings. You'll be blessed coming in and blessed going out. Blessed in the city, in the field. Blessed in your basket, in your store. Blessed in the increase of your cattle and the fruit of your body, blessed, blessed, blessed. Your enemy comes against you one way and flees before you seven ways. All of those things you said. Oh, I didn't qualify. I sinned one time. Jesus's blood is over your, over your application, it's over your heart and he marks you approved, approved, approved. And then those blessings.
Speaker 1:For every one of those blessings, there's like a really long list over here of curses in Deuteronomy 28. That list all of the bad stuff that happens when you don't serve the Lord, when you don't meet up with every jot and tittle of the law. And Jesus has taken all of that handwriting of requirements and he has nailed it to the cross. It was contrary to us Colossians says, but he took that and all the guilt and shame that you've ever done, everything that you've ever done, every thought you ever had, every way. You didn't measure up and Jesus took all of that and he nailed that to the cross with his own suffering, with his own body. He took that away from you, bore that away from you, so that now you are exempt from all the curses of the law. And that's even more exciting. Then, if we go back and read all of those okay, I said we wouldn't go, but I just have, because we're talking about loving our neighbor.
Speaker 1:I'm going to just lay this right here, right now the stated issue and it's never the issue that people are demonstrating about and rioting in the streets how many of y'all know what the issue, the stated issue, is? Immigration. That is what people will say that the stated issue is. But I and I know that there are good, sweet people caught up in the crossfire of that. But there are also communists, literal communists. We thought it could never happen in America, but there are literal people trying to co-opt this movement to hurt our country and to take away our freedom in our Constitution, and we can't let them.
Speaker 1:But one of the curses listed is in here in the curses in Deuteronomy 28 is that the stranger among you is going to take over and they're going to take all the land away from you. And I don't. If I have my glasses, I can find it. If somebody sees it, they can look at it. But that's one of the curses that they shall besiege you. Shall besiege you. There's a verse 52. They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land and they shall besiege you at all your gates, throughout all your land, which the Lord, your God, has given you. So besieging from the enemy, wartime in your streets, war and rioting in your streets, that's a curse of the law. We are delivered from that.
Speaker 1:Jesus said we were redeemed from the curse of the law.
Speaker 1:We are exempted from that. We will not have that in our land. We can turn that back, amen. But we have to be careful as a nation that we honor God first as individuals and that we spread the love of Jesus to as many people in our land so that we can become a land that walks in the blessings and not just our own families. Praise God, we can have it for our family. Praise God, we can have it for our church. But we've got to have the promises of God across our nation once again, and that's the way we were founded. But we've let other ideas, we've let other religions, we've let other false gods and idols and debauchery creep into our land and we've got to pray it and evangelize it and bless it out of our land, amen. And so we can be a Christian and lovingly also say look, there are borders, there are borders. What if some of the countries where people are fleeing are so, so bad and messed up because the Christians there, they just all fled and the Christians there didn't rise up and throw off the bonds of oppression of the enemy in their own nation? What if God desires to populate their nation again with a revival, but all the good people left and ran away to America? What if that? And so we have to be careful what we enable and what we just blindly accept. Right, all right.
Speaker 1:So Galatians 5, 13,. Back to Galatians. He said now you're under the law of love, but for you, brethren, verse 13,. You have been called to liberty. Only, don't use your liberty as an opportunity to the flesh, but through love, serve one another for all the laws fulfilled. In one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour one another, beware lest you can be consumed by one another. And then, um. And then in romans 13 says oh, no one, anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. So that's the way we fulfill the law today is by loving first God with all our heart and then actually loving, in word and in deed, our neighbor, and so we're going to talk a little bit about what that looks like and I'm going to read an uncomfortable scripture and then I think I'm going to bring it home.
Speaker 1:I don't hear a lot of word of faith People teach on the Good Samaritan because, honestly, toxic empathy I'm going to use that word from Allie. Beth Stuckey is a person I like to follow anyway, but there's such a thing as compassion from the Holy Ghost and then there's another such thing over here, like I'm going to call it toxic empathy. It's where you just, you know, you just coddle what is evil and what is wrong, because it's easy. It's when your child, when your toddler, throws a tantrum in the grocery store because they want all the candy bars on the aisle, and you say, no, See, isn't that love sometimes to say no? But if we just give them all the candy bars because, well, that's what they wanted, is that love? No, that's toxic empathy. Well, they were crying and they'll look, her little eyes just welled up with tears and I just couldn't look at that sweet little face and say no. Toxic empathy, right? So we have that sometimes in our lives and we have that as a society. But I want to look at real Bible compassion, and we'll go to Luke 10.
Speaker 1:And here's another question from a lawyer against Jesus. Behold, certain lawyers stood up and tested him, saying Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? There's a question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus did not answer him. Actually, he turned the question on him. Well, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? How do you, how would you answer that question?
Speaker 1:I have learned over time. I have finally I believe I have finally learned this that when people ask me what they should do, what do I have? What's my next move? What should I do? What should I do, claire? What do you think I should do? I have finally learned to say what did God say you should do? What do you feel like God's telling you? I have finally finally learned to do that. And you know what. Most of the time, god's already told them, and they just wanted somebody to say something different.
Speaker 1:But Jesus asked him well, what does the law say? And this guy rightly answered you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart. There it is again all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind. First love God, and then you love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him you've answered rightly, do this and you will live, but he wanting to justify himself because that's hard to do, right, it's hard to really do that when you really think about loving and always preferring that word agape. Love, it means to consider the wellbeing of other people before yourself, and that's hard. And so he's like man. Do I have to do this to everybody on earth? Who is my neighbor? Jesus, I mean, you know who are you really talking about here? And then I can absolve myself. And Jesus told him this story.
Speaker 1:A certain man went down to Jericho. Now listen to this story. I want you to see it. It's an allegory. I do not want you to think of the traveling stranger that you passed on the way here. That is not the same thing. But I want you to see it as Jesus is our good Samaritan. Just for a minute. Let's go there. Let's go to the figurative Jesus. We are that certain man.
Speaker 1:And we went. We were making a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho and we fell among thieves. We fell among the devil. We were going through our life and the devil assaulted us. He's a thief and the father of all lies, and he stripped us and he wounded us and he left us for dead. We were roadkill to our sin and in our, with our life's problems. And you know what? A priest came by down that road and he saw him. So religion came by and looked at him but went to the other side and kept going. Religion had no answers for that man and his wounds.
Speaker 1:Likewise a Levite, again now a religious, but even more so because had to be born to a special family. And he arrived at that place and came and looked and passed on the other side. Nothing did religion do. Two times religion passed you up. Two times. There was a long list of requirements and you didn't meet them and it didn't care about you and you didn't fall on the right side of the of the equation and so you had to get left. But Jesus came left.
Speaker 1:But Jesus came A Samaritan. You know, people actually called Jesus as a way to criticize him. They said oh, you're a Samaritan, your doctrine is so crazy, you're like one of those Samaritans. But Jesus, he came and he journeyed and he came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion. Everybody say compassion, compassion, not only like, feels the heart of the and feels that that person wears their, but takes it on and sees the way out.
Speaker 1:And he went to him and he bandaged his wounds and he poured on the oil and the wine To bandage the wounds. He probably had to break up his own garments. He probably had to. Who carries a bunch of bandages around with him, I don't know, but he, you know, cloth had to be woven by hand out of flax that was grown in a field. It wasn't like you could go to Walmart and buy an eighth bandage, so it was a great sacrifice even to do that.
Speaker 1:And then he poured on the oil Everybody say the oil. And he poured on the wine Everybody say the wine. And he set him on his own animal, thereby choosing to gave him a vehicle whereby the Samaritan himself walked on foot and sacrificed in that way, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day, when he departed, so he spent the whole night with the guy making sure he was going to be okay. And when he departed he spent I mean, jesus has spent some nights with us, has he not? Has he not spent some nights?
Speaker 1:And then on the next day he departed and he took out two denarii, which I believe is a year's one denarii. Is that a year's wages, james? I think that I've read that before a year's wages. So it's not just a little bit of money, it's a lot of money. And Jesus, our good Samaritan, he gave it to the innkeeper, so he's gonna take care of the guy through his sickness and then whatever more he needs, I'm gonna repay it later. Jesus took on all of our debt. Everything that we could possibly need, he has already supplied. He has already said paid in full, I've got it covered, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. And so which of these three do you think the neighbor was actually a neighbor? So now Jesus is coming back, he says well to the Pharisee or the lawyer, and the lawyer says, well, the neighbor was the one who showed mercy on him. And Jesus said to him go and do likewise, go and do likewise. So I believe that this call, this is actually a call to evangelism, it is a call to see people. Yes, there are times when you just there's a practical need and we should be sensitive to those things. And we're going to tease out kind of some scenarios, because I think there are some times that we enable people too much. I think sometimes we enable people's bad decisions and but then there's another time where we have to love them and the Holy Spirit can help us know the difference right and that's what we want to pray for and that's why I think it's hard to teach on this parable right here, because it would be hard to live like this every single day If we had compassion for every single person that we drove past on the freeway and that we met at the grocery store and everything. It's overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Do you know 14.1 million adults in the US? That's a lot of how many million are in Harris County, james, six million, so, if you have like. So I don't know more than two Harris counties of the population in the United States are diagnosed with serious mental illness. But do you know that the whole diagnosis of a mental illness is not a scientific diagnosis? It's just did that person say they wanted to commit suicide? There's no actual brain chemistry that they can do a test on and say oh, you know, it's an imbalance. The whole chemical imbalance theory has been completely blown. I don't know if y'all saw that, but that was groundbreaking news. That happened oh, a few years ago I saw it. Basically the whole way we've been treating mental illness since the 80s was like wrong Oops. And we say, oh, they had a mental imbalance, they need some Prozac or they need some Effexor or they need some drug with a name on it.
Speaker 1:And there's no measurable brain chemistry that if you ask that person, basically it just strips their soul. They can't feel anything now, they're numb and they can't really. It's hard for them, many of them, most of them. If you ask them, do you feel better? Maybe they do for a minute, but then they have to go to a different treatment and a different treatment. It's just a drug, it's just another drug, it's another street drug and by the time they're done stripping out all of their feelings, they've got their actual relationships in their life. Their actual relationship to God or their ability to hear his voice or connect with him has actually been. Has it been improved? Probably not. But did they really feel pain? Yes, yes, they did, and you can take that issue times a million. Did the medical industry really help that person with their problem or were they nothing better but rather grew worse? People have real pain and guess what? Jesus is still the answer. He is still the answer. And you still have the oil and the wine the oil of the Holy Ghost and the wine of the new covenant. You still have the answer for them, and guess what Many times.
Speaker 1:So they, they see, you know, if you're mentally ill, well, what do you need? You need a psychologist, you need a shrink to talk to you. You need to go meet with a psychotherapist. And you know what you can pay somebody. Your insurance will pay somebody to talk to you for an hour a week, or two hours a week, and now nobody would have talked to you before. But if you pay them enough money, they'll talk to you and you'll hear all about.
Speaker 1:Now. You can talk to them about what's bothering you today and what your mom did or didn't do, what your dad did to mess you up or what you know that your dog died or why you're. I'm not trivializing any of it. It's awful, it hurts, but we don't have real relationships anymore in our society where we can just talk to our friend about it and get down the road. And so then what happens? You go down and then you get diagnosed.
Speaker 1:Now you have a serious mental illness and you'll always this is what they say. It's the same way about alcoholism. Well now, you'll always be an alcoholic. Say it with me I. You know the 12-step program. It's helped a lot of people, but that's a bad confession. And guess what? There is no, actually. There's nothing actually wrong with you. You're just going through a dark time and Jesus is the answer and he has a way out for you, and the people of God ought to be able to find you and reach out and slap the devil off of your mind and love you back, and we ought to be able to do that. The church of the living God is the answer. The church having a community of believers, following the word of God and saying it over your mind every day, having peace with God and righteousness that didn't come by your own works, feeling loved by God and by other people. That is the way out for all of these people. And the church has such a big opportunity. We are on the biggest opportunity with this mental health crisis.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine if churches responded by, instead of just shuffling people off to the next medication and the next? What if the church stood up and answered? What if we saw and didn't pass by on the other side but talk to that person and invited them into our lives. I believe it's a call. I believe that Samaritan call is a call to evangelism and to put people first and to take time out of our busy schedule when they need to talk and to take time out of our busy schedule when they need to talk.
Speaker 1:But and I want to say that Psalm 147, 2 and 3, it says God, he gathers the outcasts of Israel. Isn't that awesome, I know. I mean, I think a lot of people could relate to this, but there's always a time when we look back in our lives and we felt like an outcast. We looked around and we didn't have that support system. And it looks like, especially on social media. If you start comparing this person you know 932 people liked her post about her morning coffee and only two people like my posts about my morning coffee and it doesn't look like we have a support system. It looks like everybody else has a bigger support system than I and I didn't have this. I didn't have you know what. God gathers us together. And then it says in verse three that he heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds. He heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds and when he heals you, you are healed forever. It can't ever come back. Whom the son sets free is free, indeed, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:So we shouldn't have a mental health crisis in the church. We should have. We should have the joy and love of Jesus. So if we will really walk in love, if we'll love God first and that's the, that's the standard We've got to love him first and we've got to put on our own oxygen mask before we help other people. And so I think, whenever we're living our life according to the law of love, we're just going down in the world and we want to say Lord, how can I, what is the fruit that I've really been saved? Well, it's my love. And Jesus said as I have loved you, that's the way I want you to love other people. Well, you know how Jesus loved us. He died, he gave everything. So I might not be able to give everything to one person, but I can give everything to God and be obedient to him. That's all I have to do. So it takes the pressure off. I do not have to sucker the wounds of every homeless person on 249, but I do have to be obedient to God. I have to be willing to do what he tells me to do and I'll do my part.
Speaker 1:So true compassion versus toxic empathy. I made a little chart right here. I'm going to go through my little chart. So true, compassion is inspired by the Holy Spirit. But toxic empathy is inspired by the flesh and the desire to please other people, or is coerced by just you know, guilt or shame or some need. No, be inspired by the Holy Ghost. Know the difference. True compassion you feel led by God, you feel pulled in a direction. Toxic empathy is pushing you from behind.
Speaker 1:True compassion doesn't take on the burden of the result. You're just obedient to what God told you to do and then the result is up to that person. Will they receive the word that you gave them? Will they receive the love? Will they? And if they won't, then it's not on you. You cannot carry that burden. Jesus already carried it. Don't you do it. But toxic empathy will feel responsible for the other person's continual happiness at every minute. And then we make ourselves a doormat and we don't wanna do that. That's toxic. Don't be a doormat. Be meek, not weak. Meekness to obey God's very gentle command, but not weak to be stepped on and used by people's whim. True compassion leads to redemption and healing, not only for the other person but for you.
Speaker 1:Toxic empathy leads to enabling unhealthy behavior. Do not enable other people's unhealthy behavior. True compassion acknowledges the truth. If there's an elephant in the room, if the person is begging on the side of the road, that's the elephant in the room. They're begging you. Will they use the money for drugs or alcohol? The likelihood is probably a yes. I would have to have a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day to give money to the person on the side of the road. I mostly won't do it. I would have to because I feel like I would be high, like I would, unless I could share truth with them.
Speaker 1:Now there's one time. I'll give you an example, james. I've been with James at gas stations a few times in our lives. James at gas stations a few times in our lives, and so one time, when we were first married, we lived near the bus station downtown. We lived in the lofts at the ballpark. It was a really fun time in our lives, but it was right by the bus station and there was a homeless encampment underneath the like. We could out our window and so one time we didn't usually get gas in that part of town but we had to get gasoline and there was a homeless person that really accosted the truck and I was in there and James felt threatened and he had to have that person get away and he had to and that person felt very threatened. I think James was kind of menacing to that person. You know what? I was very comforted because James I mean the priority here is James loves God and um, and then we've got to love the people to whom we have a covenant with.
Speaker 1:Are you married? Love that person. Do you have children? They are your dependents. Love them. Love them first. Put them first before any homeless person. Make sure, before you do something, that it honors God and that you have honored your family and the people that you're in covenant with. And then the word says be good to all, especially those of the household of faith. So do they go to your church, be good to those people first. Do they go to your? Are they a believer? Are they at least a believer? Be, be, make sure that you're obeying God in those areas. And then um, and then, and then just be obedient to God, in, in for areas of evangelism, so that one, that person. They did not get any money from us that night, they did not get to clean our windshield, they got to go away.
Speaker 1:But then there was another time at a gas station where there was a guy in a beat up truck kind of sputtered in there, pulled up to the and he had his wife. She was haggardly, she was tired, they had a couple of kids in the back you could tell that they were living in their truck and or something like that and James had compassion on him and he didn't ask for a dime. That guy didn't ask for anything but James offered to fill up his truck for him and while he was there the whole time, and whatever long, however long it took, james got to preach the gospel to him, love on him and share with him. And you know, one man waters, another another plants and another waters and God yields the increase. James isn't responsible to make sure that that guy personally, he doesn't usher him into the pearly gates. I don't know that we, we led him to the Lord that exact day, but he sure did get a witness of the gospel that day. Amen, because James followed the Holy Ghost and it was nice that the guy didn't ask. I'm just saying that's my personal opinion.
Speaker 1:There was a lady in this week that was in the tire store and I needed new tires. I needed four new tires on my Explorer. Hallelujah, we have an abundant supply. Did we like buying tires? No, we didn't want to have to buy the tires. And while we were there, while James was there, there was another little lady and and he overheard her and she just sounded very distraught because they told her well, man, these last two, yeah, we're going to replace your other tire that you came in here for, but those other two, and that you really need to replace them. They're, they're bald, they're on the, they're showing the metal in there and the the steel is, is shining through. And she said, oh, I'm going to have to wait, I'm going to have to wait on that. And so James found a way to secretly walk up and arrange where he could buy those two tires for her. And it was really I'm bragging on him, not me. I didn't have anything to do with it because he did not ask me, he just told me later.
Speaker 1:But he had compassion and I'm glad he followed the Holy Ghost. I'm glad he did that. He followed the Holy Ghost. He just had compassion on a random person, but I think we do, and you know what. So the tire salesman came back to him later when he picked up my car and got to tell him the story. James just told the guy hey, tell her, god bought your tires today. And so the guy told her that and she cried. She cried, well, she knew that she felt the love of God that day. And so, Lord, we pray for her, and we're, but we're just doing our little part. We're doing our little part. Now, the good Samaritan did all of the parts, didn't he? He did all of the parts, but if you try to do all the parts for all the people, you can't. It's not enough, is it? That's why I have to have the Holy Ghost, and together all things are possible. Amen.
Speaker 1:By the way, oh, true, compassion uses your own resources and does not use the resources of the taxpayers. So put that right there. Because the taxpayers guess what? When the government gives the money, when you vote it out of the government treasury, you think you're being kind and loving your neighbor by voting something that didn't really cost you. It just cost the whole government in general. So it's an amorphous blob, right, just voted it in. But that's not our money to give away. That belongs to all of your neighbors. That's not just and fair In my opinion. Entitlements are not just and fair because and there's no blessing of the Lord or love. So the answer to society's ills is for churches to rise up and be churches again where we dispense resources with love and care and accountability. Government requires no accountability. Government has no mechanism for loving, it can only just write checks. And is money ever the problem? Money is never the problem. Money is never. There's a spiritual the problem. Money is never the problem. Money is never there's a spiritual problem that's causing that need. Amen.
Speaker 1:So the quickly the benefits of love if we walk in this way. John 15, nine says if we'll do that, then we'll bear much fruit. Well, our prayers will be answered. If we ask anything, we'll get it answered. If we ask anything we'll get it. 1. John 4, 17 says if we walk in love, that love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment and he who fears has not been made perfect in love. If we can work on our love walk, it'll cast out fear for the person. It'll cast out fear in your own life. It casts out fear. Guess what Luke 6, 38, give and it shall be given unto we. Apply that all the time in our money and our finances and our offering times. Yes, give and it shall be given unto you. Guess what it works with love.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like the outcast of Israel? Do you feel like the person always on the outside looking in? Find somebody worse off than you and love them and be their good Samaritan and pour the oil in the wine and see if, when you water somebody else, see if you do not feel watered. Also, it is a concept that will net the law of sowing and reaping. Do you are you? You know we, we teach this all the time. When we have a need financially, we sow a seed. But if you have a need emotionally, sow a seed. I could. Oh, I'm going to. I'm going to quick, quick story.
Speaker 1:When I was, I had just graduated from college my whole life, I felt like my whole life fell apart, and that's dramatic because I still had my family and I still could move home and be supported and eat and have a roof over my head and I wasn't homeless, hallelujah. But I graduated from college and I didn't. I didn't like the job that I chose. I lasted about three months as a reporter. I was a journalism major and and the person I thought I was going to marry that didn't God said no. I mean, it was very clear to me I could not do that, and so I was really stuck and I felt, I honestly just felt like the outcast of Israel. I just felt like I lost every, all of my friends. I lost all. Everything had changed. I had graduated, I moved out of College Station and now I'm home. My dad just started this new weird church and I just didn't.
Speaker 1:My whole life was just had moved on and I didn't know what to do. I was struggling and, um, and our youth pastor quit. We had a youth pastor lined up and he quit at the last minute, with no notice, and there was nobody to do the youth service that Sunday and I felt like the least qualified person to walk the face of the ever earth. And my dad said Claire, I don't have anybody to do the youth. You're going to do the youth for me. You're going to do that Just just till we find somebody. I said, ok, just see if I'm somebody. But you know what? The law of sowing and reaping worked, because, even though I was heartbroken and lonely and miserable or whatever, I can feel sorry for myself and sit around. That would have been really stupid, by the way, because that's still again first world problems. You know, I had a roof over my head, I had some things going for me, but whatever, I didn't choose to do that, I had to go.
Speaker 1:I had to find some kids that were worse off than I was and that didn't know. I mean, I didn't feel like I knew anything, but they knew even less than I did. So I got to pour into them and I got to. And all the church people if, if their kid had a choir concert, I went to it. If and if it was boring, if they had a baby shower or a wedding or whatever, I I went to. That I made. The church family was my family and I poured into them. And guess what? I was so fulfilled. I'm still fulfilled and God brought me my own family. But for me, giving emotionally was the way out of depression, and I know that that can be the case for everybody when we give, it shall be given unto us. When we water, we will be watered. So it's the law of love and it works. It always works, and I hope that helps you tonight. Amen.