Speaker 1: We're in the series better together.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about the value of those around us.
Speaker 1: We need people around us.
Speaker 1: We are built to do life together with people around us and Frank, frankly.
Speaker 1: I love one of the things I love about this church is owl.
Speaker 1: We love our neighbors when we were doing love your neighbor, 4 1 9.
Speaker 1: We, we actually delivered cookies to people.
Speaker 1: All the, every property that touch this particular property of the church, we went and delivered cookies to each one of them because we love our neighbors, which was, which was cool because some of them actually, several of them actually attend this church.
Speaker 1: And so they, they got cookies on top of just being a blessing in this family.
Speaker 1: And so that was awesome.
Speaker 1: And then we reach out to schools around us as foster Benton was just talking about we, we, we reach out to our city.
Speaker 1: In fact, Sylvania area, family services are very, we're very close with them and we, we helped them on many different levels and many different moments in, in, in meet many different needs through that.
Speaker 1: Uh, the chamber of commerce.
Speaker 1: We work with them very closely.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't think they make a decision without calling Betty Bassett first, then our outreach coordinator and saying, Hey, what'd you think about this?
Speaker 1: And, and so there's just, there's a great community connection.
Speaker 1: And we're continuing to expand that and, and bless that.
Speaker 1: What is our goal?
Speaker 1: Our goal is to be a good neighbor and that's what we want to be.
Speaker 1: We want to be a good neighbor because that's what the Lord has called us to.
Speaker 1: We need neighbors.
Speaker 1: In fact, recently I read the story about O'Shea Jones.
Speaker 1: And so Shea Jones is a, uh, uh, Toledo native grew up here, born and raised here and got into boxing in a very young age.
Speaker 1: And a couple of weeks, a couple of months ago, she was wakened up at 11:00 PM and somebody was pounding on her door and she tried to, apparently she just tried to wait a mountain cause she was asleep and she, and, and, but they just kept pounding on her door.
Speaker 1: So finally she got up and she went to the door and opened the door and her neighbors were there and her neighbor said your house is on fire.
Speaker 1: And so she came out into the street and, and her nightclothes and she looked up and sure enough, there a fire had started in her attic and her house was burning.
Speaker 1: And in fact it did, it burned down.
Speaker 1: A few days later, she got a phone call.
Speaker 1: The phone call said, you've made the United States, women's Olympic boxing team.
Speaker 1: And she went and represented the United States in that capacity.
Speaker 1: But she said, how can I do this?
Speaker 1: I don't really have a place to live.
Speaker 1: And I don't have, most of my gear has been burned.
Speaker 1: How am I going to do this?
Speaker 1: And, and suddenly her neighbors stepped up and, and go fund me.
Speaker 1: Uh, efforts went out and, and people spread the word.
Speaker 1: And suddenly people started giving and she was able to, uh, receive enough in financial benefit and blessing to be able to go buy stuff.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the city, it wasn't the town.
Speaker 1: It was neighbors that stepped up and made a difference in her life.
Speaker 1: And she brought home the bronze metal to the United States.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: [inaudible] Neighbors have value.
Speaker 1: They have value.
Speaker 1: So why do we want to be a good neighbor?
Speaker 1: Here's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: Verse 15, Galatians five for the whole law can be summed up in this one.
Speaker 1: Command, love your neighbor as yourself, but here's, here's the, the contention.
Speaker 1: And Paul Paul understands the contention because he doesn't stop there.
Speaker 1: There's not a period.
Speaker 1: And then it adds the last thing he had to say, you know, he could do this, but if you're always biting and devouring, one another, watch out, be aware of destroying one another.
Speaker 1: See, Paul is pretty smart, but he's quoting someone smarter.
Speaker 1: He's quoting Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus has asked, what's the greatest commandment.
Speaker 1: And he says, love your Lord, the Lord, your God.
Speaker 1: And, and not, or not.
Speaker 1: If you like him, but, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: Love God vertical.
Speaker 1: But he said, if you're loving God, you're going to also be connected horizontally to your neighbors.
Speaker 1: Now everybody wants good neighbors.
Speaker 1: I want good neighbors.
Speaker 1: My neighbors are in this room right now.
Speaker 1: I've got great neighbors, the best neighbors.
Speaker 1: But when we were buying our house here in Sylvania, before we moved from Texas, we, we, we came up and we were touring homes and, and looked in this house and we really liked it.
Speaker 1: And, and I saw the guy next door, cutting his grass.
Speaker 1: And so I, I was like, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1: Because I mean, if you know me at all, you know, I'm not going to let that opportunity pass me by.
Speaker 1: So I jumped out of my car, out of the car and I walked over and I said, Hey, I'm Micah.
Speaker 1: And he said, Hey, I'm Brandon.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm looking at this house.
Speaker 1: I said, how's the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: He says, it's a great neighborhood.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, that's really awesome.
Speaker 1: And so, and so we, uh, you know, what a testimony, he said, we were one of the first houses in this, on this street, whenever the neighborhood was being built.
Speaker 1: And he told me all about it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: And this is a really cool guy.
Speaker 1: And so I thought, you know, it'd be nice to be able to get to know him.
Speaker 1: And, and he might be a good neighbor.
Speaker 1: So we moved in and, and things going along.
Speaker 1: And then one day he looked at me and he said, Hey, are you, uh, are you the pastor at McCord road, Christian Church at the time?
Speaker 1: And I said, I said, uh, yes, I am.
Speaker 1: He said, I thought, so we are, that's our church.
Speaker 1: I was like, thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: I went inside and told Christie, we can not have any fights in the yard.
Speaker 1: No fighting, no fighting in the yard.
Speaker 1: Not that we ever fight.
Speaker 1: We just have very strong debates where she's wrong and I'm right.
Speaker 1: And we've worked through it.
Speaker 1: The, um, y'all pray for me.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm going to need a neighbor so I can sleep on a couch.
Speaker 1: Anyway, we want good neighbors.
Speaker 1: But here's what the Lord says to us concerning our neighborly actions.
Speaker 1: Our big idea today, God commands.
Speaker 1: I love my neighbor in the same way.
Speaker 1: I love myself.
Speaker 1: This is clear, but it's not always easy.
Speaker 1: We know that God's good.
Speaker 1: So anything he commands us to do is going to be for our good, it's going to elevate us.
Speaker 1: It's going to uplift us.
Speaker 1: It's going to be good for us, but it's not always the easiest thing to deal with, to go through.
Speaker 1: And so we know if God wants it for us, then us having good neighbors and us being good neighbors is going to be ultimately for our corporate ultimate good.
Speaker 1: We are better together.
Speaker 1: But too often, we end up using the excuses like the, the lawyer that was talking to Jesus.
Speaker 1: And he said, Hey, how do I have eternal life?
Speaker 1: And this is what Jesus said.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, what does the law say?
Speaker 1: And the lawyer understanding the law said in Luke 10, he said, the man answered.
Speaker 1: You must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just answered fast.
Speaker 1: He under, he knew what the law said.
Speaker 1: He understood what the situation was.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said right now, isn't that cool when Jesus says you are right.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 1: He tells me I'm wrong a lot.
Speaker 1: But when he says I'm right, man, I I'm, I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1: I put that date in my calendar.
Speaker 1: He says, right, Jesus told him do this and you will live.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, we're good.
Speaker 1: Everything seems proper.
Speaker 1: Everything seems right.
Speaker 1: The lawyers seemed knowledgeable.
Speaker 1: Everything's copacetic, everything's working together.
Speaker 1: Verse 39 then says the man wanted to justify his actions.
Speaker 1: So he asked Jesus and who is my neighbor?
Speaker 1: He didn't say who's God.
Speaker 1: It didn't say, how do I love God with all my heart?
Speaker 1: Mind, soul strength.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's a pretty big question, but he wasn't concerned about this relationship in order to justify his actions.
Speaker 1: He said, who's my neighbor.
Speaker 1: I want to know who, who do I have to love like that?
Speaker 1: Who do I have to reach out to like that he answered correctly, but now he's trying to justify actions and, and he knows his actions doesn't equal the commandment.
Speaker 1: So he now is covering.
Speaker 1: He's trying to parse things.
Speaker 1: You know, when somebody doesn't take the actual words that are coming out of your mouth and they start saying, well, what's the definition of that word.
Speaker 1: When everybody in the world knows the definition of that word, you know, there's something off about that.
Speaker 1: And, and here's, what's happening.
Speaker 1: Foolish arguments are often used to excuse bad behavior.
Speaker 1: Anytime you find yourself making a foolish argument, you might want to back up and check your behavior.
Speaker 1: What are you trying to cover in your life?
Speaker 1: And when sometimes we'd rather argue the point than just the lineup properly, I'll argue poorly instead of aligned properly.
Speaker 1: And I have three, three truths about the being a good neighbor.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to have to say them faster.
Speaker 1: You're going to have to write them fast.
Speaker 1: Truth.
Speaker 1: Number one is this love is a choice that elevates everyone.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people say, well, you know, I don't, I, I want to avoid loving self, but self-love is not always bad.
Speaker 1: Having some sense of who you are.
Speaker 1: The scripture tells us to not think more of ourselves than we should.
Speaker 1: It does not say that we should not think of ourselves exactly.
Speaker 1: As we should says, don't mean lifted up in pride.
Speaker 1: But it does say that we should appreciate what we bring to the table.
Speaker 1: There should be some appreciation.
Speaker 1: So love for ourselves.
Speaker 1: In fact, he, he inexorably connects it to being able to love other people, because I cannot give out of myself what I'm going to have within myself.
Speaker 1: If I don't have it, I can't give it.
Speaker 1: And it's a, it's a clear biblical principle all throughout the God never asks us to give what we do not have, what he has not already provided us.
Speaker 1: So if we're struggling to love ourselves, it's going to be a struggle to love others.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a struggle to put love out into the world.
Speaker 1: And so we must love ourselves, but the truth is most of us do.
Speaker 1: We do love ourselves to one extent or another.
Speaker 1: And so we have to define what exactly is love.
Speaker 1: What does he mean by love?
Speaker 1: I'm going to summarize it by saying love is choosing to behave in a particular way towards yourself or toward others.
Speaker 1: Now let's look at first Corinthians here.
Speaker 1: Here's the love chapter that now I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: We use this passage of scripture in weddings and it has nothing to do with marriage.
Speaker 1: The entire context of this passage of scripture is about how people who are fellow believers in Christ are supposed to treat one another.
Speaker 1: And how people that are operating in love with their faith community or what their community at large are acting, how they're displaying.
Speaker 1: That.
Speaker 1: Here's what it says.
Speaker 1: First Corinthians 13 love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast.
Speaker 1: It's not arrogant or rude.
Speaker 1: It does not insist on its own way.
Speaker 1: It is not irritable or resentful.
Speaker 1: Anybody feeling like, man, I really, that just describes me to a T.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: How about it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Speaker 1: Love, bears.
Speaker 1: All things believes, all things, hopes, all things, endures.
Speaker 1: All things love, never ends.
Speaker 1: This is how he describes love, but I, you to recognize never one time in that description, in that definition of love, does the scripture say and love is feeling like butterflies are in your stomach.
Speaker 1: And love is feeling like you can't live.
Speaker 1: I can't live if living is without you.
Speaker 1: No, that's not what it says.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 1: By the way.
Speaker 1: Not every service got that.
Speaker 1: It's just special.
Speaker 1: And so love is not about a feeling that you have.
Speaker 1: It's about the attitude and behaviors that come from your life.
Speaker 1: And you might be saying, well, you don't even know me.
Speaker 1: And you certainly don't know my neighbor.
Speaker 1: How long can I possibly love them?
Speaker 1: They're not worthy of my love.
Speaker 1: And here's what I would say.
Speaker 1: Love isn't dependent on.
Speaker 1: There were worthiness.
Speaker 1: God loved you and me.
Speaker 1: When we were not worthy, he loved the world.
Speaker 1: He loved the world so much that he gave his only son.
Speaker 1: And so Paul says, Hey, if you keep fighting with your neighbor, it's all about mutual destruction.
Speaker 1: You're going to blow each other up.
Speaker 1: It's going to be bad.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be positive in your life.
Speaker 1: And, and that, that concept of mutual destruction might work great for nuclear proliferation strategies in the world, but it doesn't work well for good neighboring.
Speaker 1: I've got weeds in my yard.
Speaker 1: You put, you got weeds in my yard.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put all the weeds in your yard.
Speaker 1: Oh, you, you hit my, you hit all.
Speaker 1: You hit my fence.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna blow up your lawn.
Speaker 1: Watch yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put holes in your sprinkler system.
Speaker 1: You won't find them for years.
Speaker 1: Your water bill, just go up and up and up and up and up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I'm giving people ideas, you need to forget them right now.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 1: That's not going to make good neighboring possible.
Speaker 1: It brings everybody down.
Speaker 1: Love lifts.
Speaker 1: Everybody up love, elevates things and elevates everyone by maintaining stewardship and everybody say, and, and giving the opportunity for redemption.
Speaker 1: So yes, be a steward.
Speaker 1: If every time you loaned them something, they break it.
Speaker 1: Quit loaning the stuff to them.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 1: And who can not borrow my weed eater?
Speaker 1: Not gonna happen, saved up.
Speaker 1: We were poor, but our carpets were dirty.
Speaker 1: And so we saved up.
Speaker 1: We couldn't afford to have carpet cleaners come in all the time.
Speaker 1: So we saved the save and save and save.
Speaker 1: And finally, we got our own carpet cleaner.
Speaker 1: We went and picked it out.
Speaker 1: We did all the research.
Speaker 1: We got the best one that we could afford at the time.
Speaker 1: And so we got it and we've shampooed our carpets and our house was whew.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 1: And, and I like clean floors.
Speaker 1: I don't like dirty floors.
Speaker 1: And so, and so I get really excited about that.
Speaker 1: Uh, we, and so a little while later, some people heard that we had the, a shampooer and they said, Hey, can we, uh, can we borrow that?
Speaker 1: And we were like, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1: It never worked the same again, stop loaning it to him.
Speaker 1: How about this?
Speaker 1: They take advantage of you every time you offer to help.
Speaker 1: Every, if they're constantly taking advantage of you, draw better boundaries in your life.
Speaker 1: So let those things be the case and give them opportunities D for redemption, don't just cut them off and act like they're dead.
Speaker 1: Allow them.
Speaker 1: Then the opportunity for redemption, it's important because you and I are going to need that opportunity at some point as well.
Speaker 1: We need grace, even as we give grace and truth.
Speaker 1: Number two is this neighbor is inclusive.
Speaker 1: Not exclusive.
Speaker 1: You see the lawyer was trying to figure out who isn't my neighbor.
Speaker 1: I mean, who can I cut off here?
Speaker 1: Who can I say no, no, them not.
Speaker 1: Now Jesus blows up his exclusivity argument with the story of the good Samaritan.
Speaker 1: He said, there's, there's a guy walking down the road and he gets mugged and he's left on the side of the road for dead.
Speaker 1: And when this happens, a priest walks by now, priest was a Jewish holy man.
Speaker 1: And this was a very exclusive group of people.
Speaker 1: Not everybody could be priests and, and, and, you know, to, to be in connection with a priest at the time would have been a really big deal, exclusive situation.
Speaker 1: And the priest looked at him and walked on.
Speaker 1: And then a Levi came along where the Levi's where the tribe from which the priest came.
Speaker 1: And so this Levi is someone who also serves in the temple.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're not a priest, but they are of the Levitical line.
Speaker 1: And so, again, they're very, it's an exclusive thing.
Speaker 1: It's not just anybody and everybody he's walking by.
Speaker 1: He looks at the gentlemen and he walks on.
Speaker 1: He ignores him.
Speaker 1: Now the truth is for both of these, for both of these people to help this guy on the side of the road would have caused them a lot of issue because they would not have been able to serve in the temple for awhile.
Speaker 1: They'd have had to gone through a cleansing ceremony and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: It was going to be a real negative thing for them.
Speaker 1: It was, it was going to cause them some, some, uh, well, their time and energy.
Speaker 1: And it was going to change their course from where they were trying to go.
Speaker 1: But when the good Samaritan, when the Samaritan comes along, he looks at the guy and decides he's worth the trouble.
Speaker 1: And so he bandages him, he cleans him off.
Speaker 1: He bandages him.
Speaker 1: He puts him on his own don't own donkey and any walks to an end.
Speaker 1: And there, he pays for the guy to stay there until he gets back.
Speaker 1: And then he moves on down the road.
Speaker 1: This is the story that Jesus tells to this lawyer.
Speaker 1: And then he says, who is the, to this man?
Speaker 1: Now the lawyer's not going to does.
Speaker 1: Doesn't like this story at all.
Speaker 1: Cause see, here's the problem with Samaritans.
Speaker 1: Samaritans were not loved by the Jews.
Speaker 1: They weren't Jews.
Speaker 1: And there was tons of racial tension between the two.
Speaker 1: And so the priest, right.
Speaker 1: Culture, right?
Speaker 1: Race, right.
Speaker 1: Religion, right.
Speaker 1: Everything.
Speaker 1: But ignoring the Levi right race, right.
Speaker 1: Religion, right.
Speaker 1: Culture, right.
Speaker 1: Everything walked right by him, the Samaritan, wrong race, wrong religion, wrong politics, wrong, everything stopped and helped him and bandaged him.
Speaker 1: Now Jesus says to the, to the lawyer who is the neighbor to this man, and I can hear the lawyer through gritted teeth gone, the one who showed him mercy, you actually see that in verse 37 of Luke 10, the man replied the one who showed him mercy.
Speaker 1: And then Jesus said, Hey, cool story.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: No, Jesus said, now go and do the, uh huh.
Speaker 1: But Lord, my neighbor doesn't agree with me on politics.
Speaker 1: They're not the right religion.
Speaker 1: They're not the same race that I am.
Speaker 1: They not this.
Speaker 1: They're not that here's all the reasons why I can exclude them from being my neighbor and Jesus, just with the good Samaritan story, blows that to smithereens.
Speaker 1: Do we say smithereens in Northwest Ohio?
Speaker 1: He said, this, this is who your neighbor is.
Speaker 1: The one who shows mercy is the one who made a choice to love another as himself.
Speaker 1: And that brings the thought number three, neighbors, show mercy.
Speaker 1: I need mercy from nine neighbors.
Speaker 1: We can fit all of our vehicles in our driveway, but we don't.
Speaker 1: We park them on the road.
Speaker 1: We as a loose term for my children, because nobody wants to park in front of another or behind another.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1: It's just, I've had a few people now tell me, you know, when we come around that corner, we really have to be careful when there's cars on both sides of the road.
Speaker 1: They're not all my cars, but I still ask for mercy, I need mercy.
Speaker 1: And you need mercy neighbors, show mercy.
Speaker 1: The lawyer's trying to justify himself.
Speaker 1: And he has to answer the one who shows mercy neighbors give and receive mercy.
Speaker 1: The desirable people too, this guy fell short.
Speaker 1: He was the undesirable person.
Speaker 1: The one that he maybe had everything been okay in his life.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't have even wanted to reach out to.
Speaker 1: But have you ever had a time in your world where you were, you were in such a spot where it really didn't matter who that person was.
Speaker 1: If they were willing to show mercy in your life, you were willing to connect with them.
Speaker 1: I've been in that person.
Speaker 1: I've been in that place.
Speaker 1: Could it be that the person in our neighborhood, in our community, on our street, in our school, could it be that they're just looking for somebody to reach out with them, to them and with a little bit of mercy.
Speaker 1: And that could be the way that you and I begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in their life and show them the goodness of God.
Speaker 1: Could that be how God uses you?
Speaker 1: Those who show mercy, those who we love and those who we accept love from must expand in our world.
Speaker 1: They can't be an ever decreasing circle.
Speaker 1: It must be an increasing circle.
Speaker 1: And in short exclusivity limits, potential inclusion in clusivity expands potential and proximity.
Speaker 1: For sense opportunity.
Speaker 1: When you're there with somebody and you see the need, meet the need, be the neighbor.
Speaker 1: When you see the opportunity to help somebody to lift them up, lift them up.
Speaker 1: You say, well, I don't, I don't know if you, I don't know if they are the same as me.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they liked me.
Speaker 1: I dunno if they, when somebody is down, they don't care.
Speaker 1: Who's hands reaching.
Speaker 1: Let's reach, let's reach as a church.
Speaker 1: Let's reach as individuals let's reach as a community.
Speaker 1: Let's just reach for one another.
Speaker 1: Well, I may not agree with them on everything.
Speaker 1: I guarantee that you don't, you don't agree with everything that everybody that lives in your house and you're probably not kicking them out.
Speaker 1: You probably don't agree on everything.
Speaker 1: Reach Jesus didn't agree with me at all.
Speaker 1: And he said, I'm going to give my life for you so that you might be saved.
Speaker 1: How can I guarantee that?
Speaker 1: They're awesome.
Speaker 1: By the way, I just want to tell you, my neighbors are awesome.
Speaker 1: The ones that attend this church and the ones that don't, I've got great neighbors.
Speaker 1: They watch out for me.
Speaker 1: And I get the privilege of watching
Speaker 2: Out for them as well.
Speaker 2: Proximity presents opportunity to lift up one another.
Speaker 2: And I'll close with this.
Speaker 2: Parents teach your children to offer mercy and they'll never let it for friends.
Speaker 2: I didn't tell this story in the last service and I'll tell it quickly, but prayer partners get ready to come up.
Speaker 2: You don't have to move right now.
Speaker 2: Just be ready.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid in, um, I went to a bunch of different junior highs and a bunch of D 15 elementary schools and junior highs.
Speaker 2: And, but I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: I was in wood wood school in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: And there was a kid in that school who was just absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean, nobody wanted to be his friend.
Speaker 2: I was the new guy in school.
Speaker 2: We were in the same class.
Speaker 2: His name was Michael and Michael would always sit to the side.
Speaker 2: His hair was all long and straggly and always looked dirty.
Speaker 2: And he looked as a person looked, just looked dirty.
Speaker 2: He smelled a little off.
Speaker 2: And so everybody was just like sitting everywhere else.
Speaker 2: But see, I'd already been the new kid in a bunch of schools and new kids.
Speaker 2: We don't always start off with like tons of friends.
Speaker 2: And so I saw Michael sitting next to him by himself.
Speaker 2: And so I went and sat down and I'm like, Hey, what's going on?
Speaker 2: And he's like, are you talking to me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2: Um, okay.
Speaker 2: Because nobody talks to me.
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 2: You know me, I'm shy and bashful backward.
Speaker 2: I just can't.
Speaker 2: I want to know why, why, why doesn't anybody talk to you?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Couple of days later, somebody came up to me and said, Hey, were you talking to him?
Speaker 2: That kid over there, Michael, the other day?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, you don't want to talk to him.
Speaker 2: Why not slowly but surely I started becoming friends with Michael.
Speaker 2: You know what happened?
Speaker 2: Michael started getting haircuts, started cleaning up.
Speaker 2: He started coming to school dress better.
Speaker 2: He could, he was just so alone.
Speaker 2: You didn't think it mattered at all.
Speaker 2: And all he needed was somebody to reach out.
Speaker 2: I didn't stay in that school very long, but from the time that I got there to the time that I left, I watched Michael.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, I was sitting at lunch with friends and Michael was one of them.
Speaker 2: And when I wasn't there, Michael was still there with them.
Speaker 2: And suddenly this kid had connections that he didn't have before.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: I was too young, too naive to understand
Speaker 2: Anything that was going on.
Speaker 2: I was just being a friend.
Speaker 2: I was just being a neighbor.
Speaker 2: And my encouragement to you and to me is let the spirit of the Lord shine through you into the world, around you.
Speaker 2: You may not know what somebody is going through and what they're dealing with.
Speaker 2: Don't jump to the conclusion and jumped down somebody's throat.
Speaker 2: Sit back for a moment and say, why, why is may that be the case?
Speaker 1: And maybe I cannot help.
Speaker 1: And maybe you cannot help.
Speaker 1: And maybe you just should not help,
Speaker 2: But can we leave the door?
Speaker 2: Open that to be a good neighbor means showing mercy and showing mercy means that I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna have to connect with somebody who is not in the best of situations, cause that sues needs mercy.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, the man who was left on the road for daddy ended up strong and well again, and the Samaritan whose name we do not know.
Speaker 2: It's talked about thousands of years later, as an example of a neighbor God's calling you and I to neighbors.
Speaker 2: We are better together.
Speaker 2: We're better together.
Speaker 2: We drive by heads with me.