Sharing a summary of one of the best sermons I have ever heard <3

My Bible reading on Thursday included the story of the Good Samaritan. This familiar story I have read, studied and heard numerous sermons and teachings on over the years will no longer be the same to me. On August 20th this year one of our young pastors, Adam Hamerlinck, spoke on this passage in a way that changed me. 

The sermon was part of a series entitled “One at a Time” and all of our teaching pastors took a week to share something. All of the sermons were good and if you are a sermon nerd like me, look up the series here https://www.firstdecatur.org/sermons/ and listen to each one. 

But I am not sure you will and this one was too good not to share, so I am going to give you the summary of this teaching from my notes. If you read it and it impacts you, I do urge and encourage you to find it on the firstdecatur.org website and listen to the entire teaching. 

The sermon, as stated above, centers on the passage in Luke 10:25-37 where Jesus answered the question of a man who, after being told the second greatest commandment was to love his neighbor, asks Jesus to clarify who his neighbor is. 

Adam started the sermon with a wonderful reminder, “You can’t neighbor everyone, but you can neighbor someone.”

It is so true.

We are flesh and blood with limited time and resources. God is not calling us to be the “neighbor” of every single person in the entire world or even our own town. But to have the heart to be willing to neighbor whoever needs us at any given time, is what I think his point was. 

From there, he talked about how when we hear this story we typically try to figure out where we are/who we are in the story. He explained to us that while we often ask the hard question of if we are the Priest or the Levite, or hopefully the Good Samaritan, that is not really who we are. 

He talked about how the man who got robbed was clearly said to be walking alone on a road that was known to be dangerous. He had made a foolish decision to travel by himself through an area where bad things happened. And yet that is exactly what he did. 

And then, Adam pointed out that who WE are is actually the victim.

We, too, have walked in ways that led to our woundings and isolation and the consequences of our sinful and foolish choices. 

 And Jesus is the Good Samaritan. 

He came down and healed us. 

He rescued us and paid for all that was owed for our redemption. 

He is the one who promised to come back for us after He went away for a while. 

We could not save ourselves. 

I could not save myself. 

He came, hated and betrayed, like a Samaritan…and He rescued me. 

And now? 

Now we are called to be inn keepers.

Now that we have been picked up from the ditch, we are commissioned to care for the battered ones that Jesus has rescued We are called to give what is needed until He returns to make all things right. 

This was one of the most impacting teachings I have heard. I finally was able to speak to Adam personally last week and tell him to his face how much this teaching meant to me and how I felt changed moving forward with the knowledge he gave us. 

He was so humble and wanted to me to know this was a teaching he had learned and was only passing on to us. 

And now, I have also passed it on to you, or reminded you of what you heard several weeks ago if you attended our services. 

I cannot shake the image of me, broken and battered and all because of my own foolishness and the sin that is so much in this world, lying helpless on the side of the road.

And then Jesus came and He picked me up and tended my wounds. He carried me to a place where I could be healed and He paid all that was necessary for that healing. 

And He’s coming back.

For me and for all those who have been rescued. 

So while we wait, we take our healed and whole selves and we minister to the incoming wounded. 

What a difference this makes in my attitude when I think on this story in this light. 

I do hope you will take time to listen to Adam. 

He does a much better job than I have. 

God bless you, friend. 

May we all fulfill the role of our calling until He returns <3