Go and Do Likewise: Loving God and Neighbor

I'm curious. I'm curious. Who here has been helped by a young person recently? Yeah. Once in a while, one of our girls have to help us with our phones. I'm sure that applies to a lot of you parents and grandparents. We were looking at how Jesus had a conversation with a teacher of the law, the Jewish religious law. And this this man came to him and they they had a bit of a conversation about how to receive eternal life. [00:57:51] (35 seconds)  #CuriousAboutEternalLife

On one occasion, an expert in the law, that's not like a lawyer in the sense of we think of lawyers, going to court and that sort of thing, but this was about the Jewish religious law, all of the religious commandments that, the Lord required his people to keep. And so, this very religious man who had studied, the Jewish faith and scriptures, he had a question for Jesus. [00:58:31] (24 seconds)  #LawExpertSeeksAnswers

he asks a very important question. He says to Jesus, what must I do to inherit to receive eternal life? And that's a good question that all of us should look at in our own living. What was what must we do to receive eternal life, to live forever, to go to heaven, to be with God, to be with God's people? Now Jesus, as he often does when somebody asks him a very complex question, especially if they're trying to trick him or trap him, [00:59:21] (34 seconds)  #HowToInheritEternalLife

How does Jesus respond to that? Verse 28. You have answered correctly, Jesus said to him. Do this and you will live. Now can anyone love God with all of their heart, with all of their soul, with all of their strength, with all of their mind? And can someone love their neighbors just as much all the time as they love themselves? Can anyone do those things all the time, [01:00:56] (33 seconds)  #DoThisAndYouWillLive

all the time, 100%? Anyone have an answer? It is difficult. Exactly. I think it's all pretty much impossible for anyone to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, all their strength, all their mind. And on top of all of that, about loving God thoroughly and 100% loving everyone else fully and completely 100 of this percent of the time as well. But Jesus says, if you can do this, you will live. [01:01:27] (43 seconds)  #LoveFullyIsAChallenge

And the lawyer realizes that he hasn't been able to do that, that no one is able to fully keep this command. And so, verse 29, he's wanting to try to justify himself a bit. And so he says to Jesus, who exactly is my neighbor? Who am I supposed to love as much as I love myself? Did Yes. Everybody. Everybody. Exactly. That's the point Jesus is gonna make but the lawyer isn't sure he wants that answer to the question. [01:02:10] (40 seconds)  #WhoIsMyNeighbor

And so again, he asked Jesus this question, who is my neighbor? And that's when Jesus tells him a story. Do you like stories? Yeah. Do you like hearing bedtime stories? I read books by myself. You read books by yourself. Awesome. Yeah. What about campfire stories? How many of you heard some good campfire stories? Yeah. Sometimes those are a little scary. But we we like stories, especially if they're good stories and not too scary. [01:02:50] (29 seconds)  #ParableTime

Alright. So Jesus tells this story. He it's a it's a fictional story. He's making it up. He says, a man was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in between these two cities when he was attacked by rob keep coming. When he was attacked by robbers who beat him up And they took off his clothes, and they took all of his money. We we won't be doing that. And they took everything that he had, and they ran off. [01:04:44] (33 seconds)  #RobbedAndLeftForDead