Welcome. Hello, everyone. We're excited that you are here. My name is Blake. I have the honor and the privilege of being on the team here at Venture.

If we haven't had the pleasure of meeting wherever you are you could have picked anywhere in the world to be today. But you chose to be here in my prayer is that you would be encouraged through today that the Lord would speak to you in a new and in a fresh way. Hey, do me a favor real quick at all of our locations and Church online. I want you to turn and find three neighbors around you and say it's fall y'all. It's fall y'all if you're online right now, go ahead and put it in the chat, maybe like a little like a fall Emoji, you know, like the the leaf or something falling leaves or maybe a dolphin if you live somewhere nice.

I don't know you can put that in. I want I want us to do that because you see I'm wearing flannel today. I am forcing this thing to happen. It will be fall. I'm about to go back to Gulfport where it's gonna be 85 degrees.

But I want you to know that I'm up here sweating it for you. So that you will know that it is indeed fall and we're gonna make it so amen. It's gonna be together. So then I'm so excited about what the Lord is doing in the life of our church. Can I just share with you guys for a couple of minutes something that's really been speaking to my heart that our team here at venture has done through man.

Just do your generosity and your connection and engagement with the church and you guys know that may know that we have a little four year old little girl and she's in. Kxp. It probably right now in fact and khp. She runs the roots that I'm sorry to our kxp leaders on the Gulf Coast right now because I know that she like runs that classroom. I apologize but one thing that I'm really connected in right now is the curriculum that our kxp team is going through you guys know that our church has written its own curriculum for our kids and kxp.

I think that's so cool. And here's the deal. It's a two year. I think it's for celebrating. Yeah.

Here's the deal. It's a two-year curriculum in the first year as they go to. Kxp. Each and every week. They are going to learn every major story chronologically Through.

The Bible says they come to venture for a year every child each year will be able to learn the entire Bible because we believe that the Bible is a unified story of redemption that leads back to Jesus and we want our kids. So by the time that they go from the kxp age all the way through they will have gone through the Bible three times in. Kxp. I think that's amazing. And then the second year.

It's a two year curriculum in the second year. They are going to be learning topical things where they take stories about virtues and like the fruit of the spirit and all of those different things and start to apply them into the story. I just think that's incredible and what God is doing in the intentionality through our kids because we believe firmly that this is not just babysitting over there, right? We are leading the next generation of people to come to know love and follow Jesus. Now you may have missed that and I I certainly did like the past four months of our life for me.

Lauren it's just been a whirlwind. I don't know about for you guys, but I have just felt busier than I have ever felt in my life. Anybody else feel like they've just been shot out of a cannon like since the summer it's like August hit and it's just like we hit like a treadmill and I don't like treadmills and so I don't know just something about like this season. It might be the fact that we have like my wife is nine months pregnant and any day now we're gonna have baby number two. We are excited, but we are not ready.

Like we've been telling people they're saying how are you excited about? Yeah the answers. Yes, but we've used this phrase. We are pumped but not prepared. For baby number two and it's kind of coming through this way, baby.

Number one in the grace are four year old like when she was about to be born months in advance. We had her room ready. I mean, it just looked good the crib the matching sheets match the you know, we had like even a little piggy bank. That was the same shade of pink as her curtains, you know, everything was just pristine Hatcher's coming along and we're just thankful to have a crib in the room. Like I'm looking around say I think we have some sheets.

They don't match. There's maybe some stuff on the wall. I still have to paint some letters or something like that. Nothing is ready. It just feels like we've been going on in just this hurried pace and all the sudden.

He's here. He's about to be here and I just feel like I'm so hurried and busy in this season of my life. And if I'm not careful I can see this also kind of moving into my spiritual life as well. I can feel that the the difficulty of my life. You may be feeling the same thing.

We're just feels like I'm trying to get to the next thing hurry hurry hurry and hurry that I just open my Bible for five minutes in the morning like okay God I'm with you and now I'm not I'm going to the next thing in Jesus just becomes a day on my calendar instead of a moment with my savior and I find that so often in my life. That's what I'm excited about this series that we're in called plot twist when we're talking about The Parables of Jesus and we're looking around and we're seeing what Jesus actually has to teach to us, right? We're simmering in these Parables. We're letting them speak to us in a new way because if we're not careful, we'll go to Every Parable. We'll just put a little check mark by it.

Specially the one that we're going to talk about today. It's the parable of the Good Samaritan and I know many of us know it when we look at the parable. We we see it as a story that Jesus tells that we adopt into our lives were like, okay the first guy he was not good the second guy in the story. He was not good. The third guy was good in the story be like the third guy check.

We can get that way off, and I know that I do. And I get to the parable and I'm reading I'm like, oh, yeah, I've got this one pretty down. But I think that Jesus wants to speak more to us. I think he wants to teach us something in this Parable but that there's more to the story that there's a plot twist that we can take and we can apply into our lives today and I think he wants us to battle hurry with this Parable. And so if you would if you have your Bible or if you have the Bible app, or you can check out the notes on the screen.

I'd like for you to join me in Luke chapter 10 Luke chapter 10 as we're gonna kick off today. It starts in verse 25 and let's read it together. It says this on one occasion an expert in the laws stood up to to test Jesus. He was trying to trap him in his words. He said teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life.

What is written in the law? Jesus replied? How do you read it? He answered love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. You've answered correctly.

Jesus replied to do this. And you will live but the lawyer wanted to justify himself. So we asked Jesus and who is my neighbor 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.

They beat him and they went away leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road and when he saw the man he passed by on the other side, so too a levite when he came to the place and saw him. He passed by on the other side, but a Samaritan as he traveled came to where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him he went to him and he bandaged his wounds pouring on oil and wine and then he put the man on his own donkey and he brought into an end and he took care of him the next day. He took out to Denari about a week's wages and he gave them to The Innkeeper. He said look after him.

When I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who? Fell into the hands of the robbers and the expert in the law replied the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him go and do likewise. This is our plan for today as in our time together my prayer for us is that we would learn what it looks like to go and to do likewise. Would you pray with me Father we take your word and we we receive it not just with our ears but with our hearts father, we would pray that you would speak a new and a fresh word in our lives that we wouldn't gloss over this Parable.

Like I can so easily do that. She would let it speak and in route in our hearts that it would cause effect in our hands Lord. We love you. We praise in Jesus name we pray amen. So what I want to do first is I want us to set the stage of this Parable right?

Because we see the parable often we read it, but I want to move back a little bit so that we can start to look at what what caused Jesus to tell this Parable in the first place. So Jesus is at the height of his ministry at this point. The man is going around and he's teaching the everyday person. He's helping them to see he's saying repent that For the kingdom of God is at hand and everybody's starting to come in and to hear this message and there's a group of people over here on this side the religious Elite that can't stand what Jesus is doing. They just they don't like him at all because the what Jesus is teaching is supposed to be for the upper echelon of understanding the the group of people that have owned the law.

They're supposed to be The Gatekeepers of knowing what it's all about. But Jesus is going to the side and he's going to the mountains and the valleys and he's just telling everybody about the kingdom of God and people are starting to listen. And so what do they do? They send an expert in the law. They send a lawyer over to Jesus and it starts innocuous enough.

Like it's just really chill. He comes up he says teacher What must I do to inherit eternal life you hear that word inherit? Like what about that word inherited? He's like I'm owed this. This is Doom me I'm I deserve this.

This is the way that people who started off and learning the laws is a guy called that an expert in the law. He spent literally his whole life studying the 613 Commandments in the Torah just over and over and over and memorizing to me. That sounds like a bad game a monopoly. That doesn't stop like you just keep learning this over and over and you keep going around and around and trying to own it and he thinks the lawyer does that he is now sitting on top of the law and he is sitting pretty and so he comes and he's trying to use his words to trap Jesus and you know, I love Jesus because instead of going into a war of words with the lawyer instead of debating him or attacking him back. He's simply asks the question and he turns the whole thing on his head.

He says well, you're the lawyer. What do you think it says? You see how he switches this back onto the expert in the law. And so the expert I can just imagine he's on the side of the mountain. He puts his arms out and says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself and Jesus is like you got it.

Go and do that. Immediately In This Moment the expert in the law feels For the First Time The Wait and the pressure of the law is now on him. Right this area for the whole time. He thought he was on top that he had learned the law and it was going to propel him into being able to inherit eternal life. But in one question, Jesus says, well, how do you read it?

The law has now been placed on top of him. And so the lawyer starts looking for a way out. He starts looking for a loophole. He starts trying to find a way to say that I don't have to own the weight of the law of what it commands me to do. And so he says, okay.

Okay. Well, let me qualify this a little bit. Let me kind of bring some identification some explanation. So who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor?

You see what he's trying to do here in the tradition of the Jewish Scholars at this time. The neighbor was defined. For him the neighbor was defined as someone who was also in the Jewish Community who believed like he did who looked like he did who acted like he did that was my neighbor and then asking the question he's trying to get Jesus to bring all of this that he's been saying to everyone. He's trying to bring it back into the Jewish Elite. He's trying to trick him.

And so Jesus is like oh, let's talk. Let's tell a story for a second. Let's go into this Peril now Parable now before we start saying to ourselves man that that lawyer that that expert in the law. He's really terrible. He's a terrible person.

How often do we do the same thing? When Christ speaks to us? I know that I do this all the time. Or I say Jesus. I know what you're telling me but I know what you've called me to do, but I know that I'm supposed to go in this direction.

But can I add this little loophole? Can I add this? So before we get to all high and mighty about the story we have to recognize that there's sometimes in our lives where Jesus looks at us and he calls us to something that Scripture calls us to something and we look for loopholes. That's the setting of the stages. So there's so much more in this Parable than just then just what's on the surface.

So we begin to unpack it Jesus looks at the lawyer and he says okay. That's what you think and you're looking for who's your neighbor? Let's go into the story a little bit. And so when he starts to unpack this Parable where he says there's a man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. He's trying to get home trying to get some pot pie or whatever it is.

He's trying to get a hot meal. And he gets attacked by some robbers. They completely decimate his life. They take everything from him. They rip him of his clothes and his belongings.

They leave him for dead on the side of the road. And then there's two people that come up. There's a priest and there's a levite. Now these two men they were keepers of the law. Just like the expert in the law.

They were the the ones that you would think would be the ones to to use what their knowledge and use what they have to begin to to show mercy and compassion to this person. But that's the whole point of the story with these two men. They only knew faith in their heads. But what Jesus wants us to see is that it's not just about having faith in our hands. Our faith is about what we do with our hands.

There's an active piece in this it's not just about knowing the law. It's not just about knowing Faith. It's about doing something with the faith that we have received a love what James chapter 1 those verse 22 says it says don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourself do what it says be doers of the word as well. Not just hearers. He's already starting to separate this out a little bit and say it's not just about what you've heard.

It's about what you do with what you've heard. So the priest and the levite they come in and they see the man the preseason there, but then he goes to the other side and he keeps walking. Then the levite comes up. He was a scholar in the law and he comes up to the man and he sees the man he moves to the other side and he keeps walking. Now before we go on.

This is the part in the story where we normally say, okay, these two guys, they were losers. They didn't know what was going on. There's keeping going but I want to empathize with these guys a little bit and recognize that their stories a lot similar to ours the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was not an easy one. In fact, when you think of Road, you're probably thinking of like a wide thoroughfare with some dotted lines. It's really easy to go to and from to the city.

No. No, this place was a goat path. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was tough. It was up mountains and down valleys and in nooks and crannies.

There were caves everywhere was the perfect place for robbers to hide and to besiege someone to jump out at him and to attack him on the side of the road. It was very difficult to get from Jerusalem to Jericho. And so you have the priest and you have the levite who at the end of a hard week. The priest was just ready to get home. He was just trying to get back home to Jericho.

He was on this path. He had probably been cleaning up from sacrifices all week long. I can imagine that that was a pretty terrible job having to do that. And so he's coming on he's trying to get to Jericho. And so the levite is as well.

And so you would think that when he sees a man on the side of the road I can empathize with him a little bit because I see in his in his story. That's like meant maybe that man is just bait for the robbers to come get me too. I don't have enough time to help this man or I can't give him what he actually needs. So I'm not even gonna try to give him any hope. I'm just gonna move to the side of the road and I'm gonna keep going because I got to get home.

I got to get to my next thing. I'm too rushed. I'm too in a hurry and the levite does the same thing. It's not until the Samaritan comes. That you see that he it says that as he traveled go back up.

To verse 33 it says but a Samaritan as he traveled came to where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him. This is the piece that Jesus wants us to see that the first step The Compassion is slowing down. The priest and the levite they were in a hurry. They were busy. They were rushed they were evil.

They didn't have hate in their hearts towards the man. They were just rushed. This is what the Lord wants us to see is that sometimes the opposite of Love isn't hate. The opposite of Love is hurry. The opposite of Love is when we don't stop and give ourselves enough time to take a breath much less care about someone else.

I'll tell you a story about one time several years ago. I still in high school. This is my before Lauren days. I wasn't High School about 9th or tenth grade and There was this girl had a crush home and she went to a different school and she sent me a message one day and said Blake. I really want you to come to our Haunted Trail and because we're doing a fundraiser for like show choir or something like that.

So come to this Haunted Trail with me and do this thing and I was like, okay. Now one thing you need to know about me is I can't stand scary things. I'm not about it. I don't like it. You can keep the scary movies.

I'll take all the Marvel stuff right and like I'm just not about scary things. I don't like it. But you know because I had a crush on this girl. I was like, okay girl. I got you.

I can do this. The first thing I did is I went to my best friend and I want from our eyes. Hey, buddy, you got to go to this Honda trail with me. He's like dude. I do not want to go to a haunted Trail in the middle of the woods on a Friday night as I did.

I need you to win man up right now and let's go and so we get to the Haunted Trail now for the girl that had invited me. She had already been a part of the Haunted Trail like she helped build it so she knew how the whole thing was going. So she was like boot scooting through The Haunted Trail just going and I was doing everything that I could to try to catch up with her and just be with her and try to get through the Haunted Trail. I did not like being there so there was a certain point where we had to go through this barn and you can already tell how the story is going to end. And Mr.

Texas Chainsaw over here decided to be a really good time to jump out with his chainsaw and Aaron and all the time. There was a high pitch scream. I'm not going to say it was me or was not me. I'm not going to say it was a girl that was with us. But it was somebody and I can't really seem to remember.

So I just bust out of the barn as fast as I can and then I hear another Scream It's blood curdling and I turn around and my buddy he had fallen off of the the concrete pad and it fallen down onto the ground. He was holding his foot and so me being the loving caring unhurried friends that I am I come down and I've been down I say Amen. Are you okay? He's like through tears. He's like man.

No, I'm not I'm I think I broke my foot and I looked down I say man. That sucks. You got a man up we got to go. And so I pick him up I said we got to go we got to keep up with with her. We got to stay with her and he's like no matter legitimately can't walk.

I said bro, man up. Let's go we got to do this. So he's like hobbler around like this looking like one of the zombies and the in the Haunted Trail finally we get to the end of the Haunted Trail and like we're 30 yards away from the opening the clearance out of the woods and I was like, here we go. It's game time. It's Froyo with my crush.

We're gonna make it and right at the end a clown decides to step out. From the woods big red afro hair like the tongue that comes down to your belly button. And I don't remember much about this moment. The only part that I remember was my fist connecting with his red nose. And and then I just scooted out of there.

That's all I had left. I just remember him being and I didn't have time to say I'm sorry. I just went as fast as I could to the end trying to get my buddy through the girl and I we never went on a second day and my buddy broke his foot in three places wasn't able to be in the Tennessee season and it was all because I was in a hurry. It was all because I was rushed. How many times did we do the same thing in our own lives?

But we're so rushed to get to the next place to do the next thing to get out of the woods to get to our next business meeting to make it to the next tournament or answer the next phone call that we can't stop and see what the Lord has for us right here and we can't take the time to care for another person. I have to live with that each and every day of my life knowing that there was a moment where my friend was hurting and I took advantage of this hurt to get what I wanted. How often do we do that in our own lives or we're just so laser focused on our own trajectory on our own lives that we can't slow down and see the people in our own life. That's the crazy thing about the story is the priest and the levite they weren't evil people. They weren't out to do harm to someone else.

They were just in a hurry. And the opposite of love and the story isn't hate. It's hurry. I see it in my own life even today whenever hindley Grace is trying to put on two different socks on the wrong feet and the wrong shoes and I'm trying to get out the door the words that I'm using in those moments. They're not loving.

They're difficult. Because I'm in a rush. But what if we slow down? And we walked at the pace of the love of Jesus and we let him use us in an incredible way. That's what the Samaritan did in the story out.

So what whenever he gets to the point he slows down. He sees the man he's he's got a destination. He's going somewhere. It says as he was traveling he was trying to get to a place but then he stopped and he saw the man. He's sawing for what he was he acknowledged him, you know, there's a difference between seeing someone and recognizing them recognizing their need there's a difference between looking at someone and seeing them the priest in the levite.

They saw him. They just decided to move to the other side. But the Samaritan he saw him. Who are we not seeing in our communities? Who are we not seeing at our campuses?

Who can we serve and show capacity because we are able to slow down. And see someone that allows us ultimately to show Mercy the show compassion. This is what the Samaritan did he saw the man and he comes up to him and he starts binding up his wounds. He starts putting in them onto his donkey and taking him to the end. I love that.

It says that he stayed overnight somebody at the at the 9:30 was talking to me. He's like, I love the fact that he didn't just leave him. He didn't just turn him in and say signara but instead he said I'm gonna stay with you. I'm going to lean in on this I'm gonna be with you in your story because I see you and I'm gonna show compassion. This is a beautiful thing about the story that Jesus tells to the lawyers that as he was showing compassion.

We have to recognize that this is very hard to do. In fact, it's in pretty impossible for us to do in and of Our Own Strength to show compassion like the Samaritan did what was he doing in this moment? He was inconveniencing himself. But not only that he was putting himself In Harm's Way. He didn't know if there were more Bandits.

He didn't know if there were more robbers. He inconvenienced himself. He put himself In Harm's Way, and ultimately he gave of what he had so that the other man could be rehabilitated. And you may be asking yourself and that seems really hard. Yes it is.

But it's even harder when you recognize who the Samaritan is in the story. The Samaritan is an enemy of the man who is in the ditch. The man who is in the ditch is a Jew he is of the Jewish Heritage the Jewish faith the Jewish Community. He is laying in the ditch in a Samaritan comes by when it's two brothers the priests and the levite they left him the man that comes the third he is an enemy. He is someone that the Jew does not want to to be around.

He is a half breed to the Jewish community. That would be like me coming up here and saying all right, I'm gonna tell you guys a story and the first guys a Catholic priest the second guys and Evangelical Protestant preacher and the third guy was a member of Al Qaeda. That's the kind of hurt and difficulty with which this man who is hearing the story would have received them. They did not like the Samaritans. What is Jesus saying here?

He's saying that those who thought that they were on top of the law those that thought that they had it all together. It was the person that was the most distant the enemy it wasn't about the law. It was about the heart which with which the man served the person who was in the ditch. We have to ask ourselves the question. Are we able to do that?

Can we be the ones that stoop down and help those in need? And I would say that the point of this Parable is Jesus saying enter of Our Own Strength. Even though we may know the law in our heads and we have it and we feel like we have a check mark next to this story than in and of ourselves, we cannot do this. Because we have to ask ourselves the question who is the Good Samaritan in the story It's not us. In fact, we're the ones laying in the ditch.

We're the ones who are broken. We're the ones who are hurting we are the ones who have been left for dead. Jesus himself is the Good Samaritan that comes on our behalf and he binds up our broken wounds and he takes us and when he came and he lived on this Earth, he did not count himself equality with God as something to be taking advantage of but he sat and he came into this world and he was our Good Samaritan so that each and everything that we have ever experienced each and every hurt that we have ever had. He now has given us the power and the strength because he's picked this up he's bound us up and he's carried into US carried us through a place of hope and to a place of healing and he's given us new life. He is our Good Samaritan and it's only through recognizing that that we can also be Good Samaritans to those around us.

It's only once we realize that we've been shown Mercy. That we're able to show Mercy. It's only through the power of Christ. I want to tell you one final story. Several weeks ago I was in Rouses and if you know Rouses Rouses the lines get very long and like you can get five or six people deep.

So I'm there. I'm actually getting supplies for an event at the church. We're getting some food. We're doing a little grill out. It's gonna be a good time and I was as usual in a hurry.

I had like 30 minutes to get to the church before we need to start cooking. So I had all my stuff and I was like, all right, it's game time. Let me get my stuff and all the sudden. I'm in this line that there's six people there. And so I'm just staying in there tapping my foot looking at the People magazine, you know over here and the national inquire stuff over here and just kind of trying to keep my mind off of where a man what I'm doing, but I'm notice that there's a young man who comes into the store and I could tell that he was homeless and I could tell that he was high and he came in and he grabbed the back of chips and he grabbed a drink and he went over you know, how they have that rotisserie chicken Tower next to the chick outlines.

I know y'all looking at that because I'm looking at that too. And he comes over there and he grabs the rotisserie chicken. He looks at any kind of molds it over and he says to him and it looks so good looks so good looks so good. He sets it back. He sets the drink back sets the chips back.

He walks away a few minutes later. He comes back and he grabs the chips. He grabs the drink and he grabs the rotisserie chicken. He looks at it says the same thing man. Looks so good looks so good.

Does it another time a third time by the third time? I'm getting frustrated. I'm wanting to get into the line. I just said Lord, I'm not dealing with this. I'm trying to get and do your work.

I'm trying to do your thing, and I'm just trying to get through this line and I'm the second person away from the line and he comes about a fifth time and there's an elderly lady in front of me. And I noticed her watching all of us were watching them at the same time when it comes her time in line. She steps aside from her buggy. The man is there. He grabbed the chips and the drink and the chicken.

He's looking overseas men. It just looks so good. I'll never forget this as long as I live. She puts her frail hand on the back of his shoulder. And she says sir.

Are you hungry? And he says, yes, ma'am. I am. She said come on. I'll get your dinner.

She takes the chicken and the chips and the drinks. She puts it on the conveyor belt and all the while I'm standing right behind them convicted in my gut saying Lord. How did I not see this? Place this moment in front of me. You've put a man right here in my path where I could have helped love and serve and told him about the Gospel.

I could have told him about Jesus how he sustains us, but I was so focused on getting to my next thing that I missed the moment in front of me. How is this lady able to see it? And I saw where she opened up her checkbook. The cover of her checkbook said I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 and instead moment where Christ says something into my heart so deeply said it is only through me that you were able to see the people around you.

It is only through the strength that I have provided to you because I am the Good Samaritan because I have picked you up when you were broken when you were hurting when you had nothing left when there was nothing left in you. I picked you up I bound you up and I put you into a place of hope. So now you go do the same. That's why we were a church for the unchurch y'all it's because we want people anywhere and everywhere to experience the hope and the healing that we have found in Jesus Christ. It's because of him and him alone that we're able to go out and to do love your neighbor in the communities that we're able to have house churches and places all across south, Mississippi.

So that people will know that there is a God and he is good. Because when people look at people from Venture Church, they're gonna say there's something different about them. There's something different. What's different is that we've been saved radically by good God who gave his son and sent his son for us so that we can live a life. We're not just going out to these communities for love your neighbor for kicks and giggles.

We're going out so that people and communities and families and broken families and kids and students and children will be able to look at someone else and say why are you serving? Why are you helping us? And we can say it's because we've been served. We've been helped. Let me tell you about my great Samaritan.

But that leaves us with one final question, right? Who is our neighbor? We got to get back to that. I love the plot twist that Jesus gives at this moment. He asked the man he says which of these three do you think was the neighbor in the story?

And the man said the one who showed Mercy. And Jesus said go and do likewise Jesus flips the question. Do you see this? He flips it on the lawyer the lawyer thought the question all the time. The one that he was trying to give the question needed to be who is my neighbor.

He's trying to qualify and bring people to a standard that he creates but Jesus didn't ask who was in the if the man in the ditch was the neighbor He asked which of the three men that was traveling was the neighbor. This is what he means the question isn't who is my neighbor? The question is whose neighbor am I? In the story We're The Neighbors. We're the ones that come near to people when they're broken and hurting we're the ones that go to people when they are down.

We're the ones that come and we help bind up their wounds because Christ did it for us. I love that. It says that he used the wine and he used oil because wine signifies vitality and life and oil represents the Holy Spirit when we go into our communities, we bring life and we bring the spirit and we bind up the places where the enemy has broken because we are the neighbors. Only because Christ was a neighbor to us. So at all of our locations, we're going to ask you this time.

If you just bow your heads and close your eyes as we wrap up today. I'm gonna ask a series of questions. There's a couple of groups in all of our rooms today and online. Maybe one you've never recognized yourself as the person in the ditch. On the side of the road.

Maybe he felt it, but you've never articulated it. You've never realized your need for Christ and who he is you never recognize the love that he's given to you. I want to invite you today. To let him be the Good Samaritan in your life. Maybe for the very first time you need to receive them as your savior.

You need to receive them as your king bring him into your heart say Lord. I have nothing left. I'm broken. I'm hurting I'm bleeding out. I just need somebody to come along the side of the road.

I've tried everything else. I've tried religion. Try the moral life. I've tried to pick myself up by my own bootstraps trying to make it on my own but I can't do it. That's the beauty of this parable.

That the Samaritan didn't have to stop people. He was an enemy. But that's what Roman says is why we were enemies of God Christ still loved us. He Stoops down. He wants to rescue you today, maybe for some of us in the room and all of our locations maybe for you.

You're just in a hurry. You've been hyperliving through life and it's just been a checkbox that you needed to check. Today's your moment. Say God Slow Me Down. I don't be tearinized by the Urgent and the immediate but I want to live life in such a way that is walking at the pace of Love of the Savior.

I want to walk I love the fact that the Bible never says Jesus ran anywhere. Does he walked? He was on a purpose, but he wasn't in a hurry. We're to be the same way. So we're gonna enter into a time of response at all of our campuses maybe for you are worship teams are going to come back and They're gonna lead us in a song of response.

Maybe you just need to sit. You need to pray. Maybe you need to stand and sing at the top of your lungs. If you want to come and reflect on who Jesus is and what he has done for you, we have communion tables available at all of our locations. Maybe you need somebody to pray with you and pray for you.

Our prayer team is ready willing and available to pray with you. Do not let prayer be your last resort. It's not a spare tire. It's a steering wheel. Pray with someone today Maybe the thing that's causing you to hurry you need to to put it at the cross lay it at the feet of Jesus.

Whatever that is allow the Lord to speak into your life today. Let's pray father. We love you. We honor you. Help us to live at your rhythm.

Slow ourselves down to not be locked in on our own trajectory, but to see the people around us. See the people who are in need and lean in to them. To be a neighbor not just look for one. Because you came looking for us. You are our great neighbor.

You are our Good Samaritan. We love you Lord. We respond now to your spirit. Jesus name we pray amen.