Loving Your Neighbors

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Loving Your Neighbors

I. Introduction

A. Luke 10:25-28 (NAS) ²⁵And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” ²⁷And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

1. To “love” someone is to will their —as God defines good!

2. To really “love myself” means to want myself to to all those things in my life that cheapen myself—or ruin myself.

B. Luke 10:28 (NAS) And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

1. It’s possible to give the right answer—and the wrong way.

2. The main thing to God is that you actually !

C. Luke 10:29 (NAS) But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

1. The “ought of ”

2. The “ought of ”

D. For Jesus, is our greatest opportunity!

1. The more you love—the more you !

E. Luke 10:30 (NAS) Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.”

1. “What kind of person do you need to be in order to be able to ?”

F. Luke 10:31-32 (NAS) ³¹“And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

G. Luke 10:33 (NAS) “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion.”

H. “The priest and the Levite asked, ‘If I stop to help him, what will happen to me?’ But the Samaritan asked, ‘If I don’t stop and help him, what will happen to him?’” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

I. Luke 10:34-36 (NAS) ³⁴”And came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ ³⁶Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

1. “What kind of is able to offer love?”

J. Luke 10:37 (NAS) And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

1. We want to be the kind of people who the right things!

2. You start by trying to get to know the of your neighbors.

K. Proverbs 27:14 (NLT) A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse!

1. Go on a walk around your neighborhood—and begin to pray for your neighbors as you pass their house or apartment.

2. Don’t make your experience at church all about !

L. Luke 23:43 (NLT) “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

II. Conclusion