unknown: Do you see something?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: That was great.
SPEAKER_01: I'll take the guy in the chaps and the hard hat with me, and uh I'll get him ready and we'll use him.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're always looking for good volunteers, and he looks like a good one, so thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, bro, Pastor, thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to be here this morning and uh to spend some time with you, and thank you for um your emphasis on the Qualify program.
SPEAKER_01: Um I I bring greetings from uh your state convention, Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen Romans, our state executive director, treasurer, and thank you so much for your church's partnership in our ministry of the Florida Baptist Convention and in disaster relief.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm grateful uh for that.
SPEAKER_01: Um I want to share a little bit this morning before we go to the scriptures about uh uh who we are, what we do, uh a little bit of where we are at this point, if we can have our uh presentation up.
SPEAKER_01: Um things just to share with you.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit about who we are.
SPEAKER_01: We are uh just under 4,000 trained credential volunteers.
SPEAKER_01: We have training coming up.
SPEAKER_01: You have that uh training um piece in your bulletin this morning uh that gives you the location.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, uh we're just around the corner for our first training coming up uh this year, March 14th.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be over at Cornerstone.
SPEAKER_01: We were in this church five years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my first year as state director, we uh we had our training uh here at your church, and and then we're we'll be just around the corner from you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we are your disaster relief ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Everything, all of our equipment, all of our resources, all those things, because of your partnership in the cooperative program, those things belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so we're proud to be your partner uh in reaching your communities and ministering uh in your communities when disaster happens.
SPEAKER_01: Um we also are partnered with 42 other state conventions that have disaster relief ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I have uh we have teams in Mississippi uh uh now uh helping to finish up the cleanup from the ice storms and the winter storms uh from a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're partnered with uh with those uh those other state conventions.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we also partner with the Red Cross, with Salvation Army, with Florida Division of Emergency Management, and and other groups uh like us that uh that respond in disasters and help people in disasters.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're we're thankful for the many partnerships that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: This is a picture of 2025 hurricane season.
SPEAKER_01: First hurricane season in 10 years that we did not have a Gulf hurricane or a U.S.
SPEAKER_01: landfall hurricane.
SPEAKER_01: Can you say zero?
SPEAKER_01: We are thankful for that zero.
SPEAKER_01: We had 13 storms, five hurricanes, four major hurricanes.
SPEAKER_01: Three of those were category five.
SPEAKER_01: For only the second time in history did we have three Cat 5 storms formed in the Atlantic basin.
SPEAKER_01: If they would have ever hit the United States, we would have been in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we thought that we'd been in trouble before, but if those three storms would have made landfall or gotten into the Gulf uh in the warm waters of the Gulf, uh, we would have certainly uh been uh in a devastating situation.
SPEAKER_01: But uh we're grateful for uh the Lord's provision for us uh to uh to uh stay.
SPEAKER_00: But one of those storms did make landfall.
SPEAKER_01: Uh made landfall in Jamaica.
SPEAKER_01: Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as a category five storm, also East Cuba and Haiti.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've been working in Jamaica since November.
SPEAKER_01: We worked through December right up before Christmas, and then we've been uh finishing up, we'll finish up March 14th.
SPEAKER_01: We've been in Jamaica about 16 weeks, Florida and then uh some of our other partner states, and we've been repairing churches and some homes and some schools uh to put roofs back on.
SPEAKER_01: Next slides, please.
SPEAKER_01: Um this is just a picture of of uh what the devastation looks like, multiply it over.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide.
SPEAKER_01: Sharon Baptist Church, we've been working with the Jamaica Baptist Union uh and all of their churches uh across uh that western part of the island to uh to minister to them and to repair uh their buildings so that they can get back in in business uh of ministering to uh to their communities.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide.
SPEAKER_01: The mission of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief is making a difference in times of disaster, and we do that by connecting Florida Baptist churches to people who uh who are impacted by disasters and demonstrating and sharing the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I like to say we are built for disaster, but we have the heart of compassion because that's what drives us uh to do what we do and to to reach into communities and partner with our churches is the love of Christ that compels us to meet the needs when people are hurting and to make a difference, not just in their today, but make a difference in their eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Um we are the modern day version of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at that uh that uh passage here shortly.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please, because I'm gonna talk about those.
SPEAKER_01: These are just some of the texts that we look at that that remind us of the scriptural mandate to minister to people in times of need and in crisis, uh to reach them, to share with them, to love them, uh, to put our faith into action the way that God demonstrated his love to us.
SPEAKER_01: He calls us to demonstrate our love for others as we demonstrate our love for him.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: We do that through several different ministry areas.
SPEAKER_01: We do mass care feeding, which means we feed large numbers of people, up to 20,000 people a day.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we can uh we can feed uh hot meals until power comes back on and they can get back on their feet.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of just looks at the picture of the multiple ways that we can do mass feeding.
SPEAKER_01: We can do large, large numbers all the way down to uh just a few hundred if necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: We also cook out of church kitchens and community centers.
SPEAKER_01: So we're very flexible uh in how we do that and we're able to adapt to the situation and the circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, we do cleanup recovery, chainsaw work, uh flood recovery, temporary roofing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, all of those, many of you probably were involved in in some of that uh because you were inundated in the the last hurricane season that we had in this area, and so I know that uh this area was hit as well.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: That center picture is a group of 56 Hispanics that we hosted back in November at Lake Yale.
SPEAKER_01: We had our first ever all Hispanic chaplain school.
SPEAKER_01: We trained 56 Hispanic leaders in the hit from the Hispanic community and migrant community for chaplaincy as part of Florida Baptist Disaster Relief.
SPEAKER_01: That was something that we've been praying for for a number of years, and God brought that to fruition, and now we have uh those chaplains that we can utilize and and have access into the Hispanic community.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when before we were we struggled and we we we dealt with some real challenges of ministering.
SPEAKER_00: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: We've just taken delivery on our new communication unit, and uh in Hurricane Michael, we found out that cell phones are great until the hurricane eats all of the infrastructure.
SPEAKER_01: Um I live in the panhandle and we had no cell service.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so we depend on our communication teams to keep us in communication with all the people that we need to stay in communication with through ham radio and through other means uh so that we can continue our work and not be uh not be hampered by lack of of communication.
SPEAKER_01: We've we've gotten very dependent on quick access, quick communication, and uh when that's not there, um you have to figure out what to do.
SPEAKER_01: We we make sure that we we're not in that place any longer.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Our on-site management team protects our assets, they protect our site, they watch over us, that's our safety team.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and they greet the public, administer to the public when uh when they come looking for help.
SPEAKER_01: They're some of the first folks that uh that coordinate uh the the work that we do with the public uh and uh and and are there to greet them and to meet them.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: We're led by a a great group of folks who are our state task force leaders.
SPEAKER_01: They coordinate the work all across the state, all volunteers uh who really work uh throughout the year in blue skies and gray skies to help us do all of the work that we do in all of these ministry areas so that we can meet the needs of people uh when the opportunity arises.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: And then we work with regional coordinators.
SPEAKER_01: Your region is region four.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we have regional coordinators in all of our ministry areas that reside in this region and coordinate this region and work with our volunteers in each of our region.
SPEAKER_01: Again, great people who've answered God's call, who have great gifts and skills and passions to make sure that we can do what we need to do uh when the opportunity arises.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just our contact information.
SPEAKER_01: You can find that on our website, and you can find ways to get involved.
SPEAKER_01: There's registration for the training that's on our website.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you can register for the training that's coming up uh March 14th over at Cornerstone.
SPEAKER_01: And we would love to invite all of you to be a part of what God uh is doing and what God will enable us to do when disaster, when the when the when the need arises, when when uh people are hurting, and they need to know the truth of the gospel that God loves them and God cares for them, and we are we can be the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So that's our ministry kind of in a nutshell, but we came to hear God speak to us today.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so I'd like for you to invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Very familiar story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Luke chapter 10, verse 25 through 32.
SPEAKER_01: Luke ten, verse twenty-five.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_01: How do you read it?
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, You have answered correctly, do this, and you will live.
SPEAKER_01: But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion.
SPEAKER_01: He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
SPEAKER_01: Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
SPEAKER_01: And the next day he took out two deneri and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.
SPEAKER_01: Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
SPEAKER_01: He said, The one who showed him mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, You go and do likewise.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for our time.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father, for their ministry here in this community and in this area.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father, for the opportunities that you give us to serve you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Father, for the witness that goes forth from this place in so many different ways and so many different opportunities.
SPEAKER_01: And as we look at this passage this morning, Father, remind us again and call us and challenge us about our view of others in times of need.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would make us sensitive to the needs of others, be compassionate and caring, to see the hurt that is around us, and how you might lead us and equip us to serve and to be a servant.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, I pray you would speak to our hearts now, give us open hearts and open minds and open ears to hear from you as you would lead us, and we pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a world today that's not really much difference between 21st century, our 21st century world and the first century world.
SPEAKER_01: In our world, we always are attempting to define terms, give definitions to terms that generally we do so according to our own perception or our own inclination of personal benefit or impact.
SPEAKER_01: We're pretty good at picking the terminology and the words that we use, kind of assigning their meaning based on our own personal perspective and our own personal biases and our own personal feelings.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what the lawyer was attempting to do here.
SPEAKER_01: He was attempting to define some terms.
SPEAKER_01: One, he was attempting to define eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Notice he says, Well, what do I have to do?
SPEAKER_01: What action do I have to take to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know that to have eternal life, there's not a thing that we do other than place our faith and our trust in the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He does He does the saving, He does the redeeming, He has He has purchased our sin debt and He has nailed that to His cross.
SPEAKER_01: And all He's asked us to do is by faith to place our trust in Him and to believe in Him and to follow Him.
SPEAKER_01: But the Book of James does tell us that our faith is to be lived out in action, that it's not enough just to say, I have faith, but faith results in something.
SPEAKER_01: But then also he's attempting to define the word neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: This is as much a question over legal distances as it is anything.
SPEAKER_01: Because if if it's defined in legal distances, that allowed him to be able to separate neighbors from non-neighors.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Who is close enough to me that I must respond to them?
SPEAKER_01: He's wanting to meet the bare minimum.
SPEAKER_01: The bare requirement.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying to Jesus, what's the bare minimum?
SPEAKER_01: What's the what's what's the least requirement of me that I can meet so that I can check that off on the list and have eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: Who is close enough that I must respond, but then I don't have to care about the others.
SPEAKER_01: But of course, Jesus is not going to allow that as he defines neighbor for him, not by telling him who the neighbor is and it's close enough for him to do that, but he defines neighbor from the perspective of not the one that the lawyer is looking for, but he turns it back on him.
SPEAKER_01: We do that with disaster.
SPEAKER_01: We define the term disaster often.
SPEAKER_01: We define how bad it is, we define how worthy it is of our response.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we do that based on the news cycle.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the news cycle is stays in place for a lot of different reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's political, sometimes it's monetary, some there's a there's a lot of different reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when when Hurricane Helene came ashore and we began to work that storm and out of the out of the big bend out of Perry.
SPEAKER_01: And then shortly after that, Hurricane Milton came through, and Helene was awful.
SPEAKER_01: Helene was was was devastating, not just to us, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_01: But then Hurricane Milton hit.
SPEAKER_01: Hurricane Milton barely made the news because there was a battle going on in the political arena that kept Hurricane Helene in the news cycle.
SPEAKER_01: So when I would when I would see people and we we were working Hurricane Milton, actually, we were working two storms at the same time, Helene and Milton, and responding all across the state.
SPEAKER_01: We were in 40-something counties out of the 67 counties in Florida working, either personally in our response or through our local churches that were raising up volunteers and we were supporting them.
SPEAKER_01: People in Florida would ask me, are y'all going to North Carolina?
SPEAKER_01: They didn't realize Milton had hit.
SPEAKER_01: And so oftentimes, even with the disaster, we uh we we we don't have a firm grasp.
SPEAKER_01: But here's how we define disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a textbook definition.
SPEAKER_01: An occurrence that causes human suffering or creates human needs that the survivors cannot alleviate without assistance.
SPEAKER_01: That's a mouthful.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you something better you can remember.
SPEAKER_00: Something bad has happened and people need help.
SPEAKER_01: Something bad has happened, an occurrence that causes human suffering or creates human needs.
SPEAKER_01: Something bad.
SPEAKER_01: Survivors cannot alleviate without assistance, and people need help.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that's the practical definition.
SPEAKER_01: That's the definition that I think Jesus would use because when your mama calls or your pastor calls or your deacon calls or your friends call or your coworkers call and say, something bad happened.
SPEAKER_01: We need to go help.
SPEAKER_01: That's a disaster.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter what caused the disaster, it doesn't matter how big or small, it doesn't matter how many people have been impacted.
SPEAKER_01: If we have the people and the resources and the means and the compassion, we seek ways to serve those in need.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not a that's not just a DR thing, that's not just a disaster relief thing, that's a Jesus thing.
SPEAKER_01: When people are hurting, we go help.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 25, Jesus talks about the ministry that takes place and the evidence when the judgment of The nations take place as Jesus separates the sheep and the goats.
SPEAKER_01: What does he base the judgment on?
SPEAKER_01: You visited me, you fed me, you clothed me, you gave me water, you visited me in prison, you visited me in jail, you did all these things, or you did not do these things.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 7, 21, Jesus says, Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the Father's will.
SPEAKER_01: Again, in James chapter 2, James gives examples of demonstrating and living out and practically expressing our faith in action.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, the apostle Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, and he was saying to them, Take up the offering, and when I come, I will take that to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, during that time period, there was a basically a worldwide famine in the known world.
SPEAKER_01: And the people and the believers in Judea and Jerusalem were suffering under that famine.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, You take the offering and we will deliver it to them.
SPEAKER_01: We will help them because something bad has happened and they need help.
SPEAKER_01: And so what does it mean for the church?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean for God's people who are hearing this parable and wanting to be the kind of people that love God and love our neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean for us to be a modern-day version of the Good Samaritan?
SPEAKER_01: What does it involve?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it involves several things that I want us to think through this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It involves a ministry of inconvenience.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at this story, Jesus does not define neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does what he always does.
SPEAKER_01: He uses very common language, he uses a very well-known example, something that would that came out of everyday life, that came out of everyday experiences that they would have been able to relate to.
SPEAKER_01: And here he tells a story about a man who was traveling, a man who was who was perhaps a businessman or uh we don't know, but he he probably was uh traveling a very well-traversed uh pathway.
SPEAKER_01: We see that because not only was he traveling that way, but there was a a priest and a Levite.
SPEAKER_01: We want to put that in modern-day language, there was a pastor and the chairman of the deacons who came along that way.
SPEAKER_01: And then there was another traveler who was also likely a businessman.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's traveling along.
SPEAKER_01: He even names the route, so something that they would have known from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so here are these two men that come along, the priest and the Levite, and they walk on the other side of the road.
SPEAKER_01: They can't get involved, they um they're they're not going to get involved.
SPEAKER_01: We we don't know, we can surmise all of the reasons that that maybe they didn't want to get involved, maybe they were afraid, maybe they didn't have any compassion, they didn't really care, maybe they were uh you know headed to to worship to the temple, and uh they didn't know if the man was dead or alive, so if they'd have touched him, they would have been unclean.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they were afraid if I stop, the robbers are still here and they're going to you know attack us, attack me.
SPEAKER_01: So they kept going and they went on the other side and hurried along, and then here comes this other individual, a Samaritan.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has a way of just kind of every once in a while digging in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: So the the two Jewish fellows that they would have celebrated and they would have applauded didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: The Samaritan, whom they hated, was the hero of the story.
SPEAKER_01: So he just kind of has a way to prod them a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I think he had a great sense of humor.
SPEAKER_01: And his storytelling kind of unpacks that for us a little bit at times.
SPEAKER_01: So here comes the Samaritan, and he's journeying along, and he came to where he was.
SPEAKER_01: When he saw him, he had compassion.
SPEAKER_01: He went to him, he bound up his wounds, he poured on oil and wine, and then he set him on his own animal, and he brought him to an inn, and he took care of him, and the next day he took out two deneri and he gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him, whatever more you spend, then I'll pay you when I get back.
SPEAKER_01: So he went about his way.
SPEAKER_01: This man again was likely a business person who was traveling.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, even if he was not a businessman, he was on a journey, he was going somewhere, he he had he had a deadline, perhaps, or he had an appointment, or he had a time when he needed to be somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he could have walked right by and he could have just passed along on the other side, just like the other two.
SPEAKER_01: But he took the time.
SPEAKER_01: He saw him.
SPEAKER_01: And he saw a need, and he responded to that need.
SPEAKER_01: When we respond to God's direction to help others, it's going to be inconvenient for us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all the things, look how much he was inconvenienced.
SPEAKER_01: He was inconvenienced because he had to stop.
SPEAKER_01: He was inconvenienced because he had to take time out of his schedule, out of his time.
SPEAKER_01: He was inconvenienced because he had to pay more or had to pay to help this man.
SPEAKER_01: He was inconvenienced because it slowed down uh his business trip, perhaps.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do trainings, I I talk about the fact that uh and kind of joke with our folks in training, and uh I tell them to take out their calendars because I'm going to give them the dates of all of the hurricanes that are going to hit the next year.
SPEAKER_01: Because I've been praying that God would tell us when those were in advance so we can plan better.
SPEAKER_01: So far that hasn't happened.
SPEAKER_01: And the other thing I pray is, Lord, move hurricane season to the winter because it's a lot cooler in January, February than it is in August and September.
SPEAKER_01: But he has not done that.
SPEAKER_01: And may I submit to you that I believe one of the reasons he has not done that, other than that it's not I'm I'm it's not my business, it's his business.
SPEAKER_01: He wants this to be a matter of the heart and not a matter of the calendar.
SPEAKER_01: See, compassion is not a matter of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Responding to people in need is not a matter of the heart, not a matter of the calendar.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a matter of our schedule, it's not a matter of our finances, it's not a matter of our checkbook, it's not a matter of our fear or anxieties.
SPEAKER_01: Responding to needs is a ministry of inconvenience that God says, I'm gonna take you outside of your comfort zone, I'm gonna take you outside of your schedule, I'm going to call you and give you opportunity to step into a place where people are hurting and people are in need, and people need someone to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and that's gonna put you in a place of inconvenience.
SPEAKER_01: If God gives us that opportunity, if He if He causes us to walk by a man laying on the side of the road in need, and you say, Well, Lord, my calendar will not allow me to take the time to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, my my checkbook won't allow me to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, my my other commitments won't allow me to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We find ourselves in the place of the priest and the Levite and the lawyer.
SPEAKER_01: Because to be involved in a ministry of compassion and meeting the need when something bad has happened and people need help is a ministry of inconvenience.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, it not only involves a ministry of inconvenience, it involves costliness.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all the costs that are involved here.
SPEAKER_01: Time.
SPEAKER_01: They say that the currency of the 21st century is time.
SPEAKER_01: How much extra time did he have to give to help this man in need?
SPEAKER_01: He had an agenda, he was on a trip, he was on a journey, he had appointments, he had a schedule to keep, he had meetings to attend to, he had clients to deal with, he had business that he had to transact.
SPEAKER_01: He was on a time schedule because that was his life.
SPEAKER_01: If he was a business person, if he was a businessman, then time was essential to him to be able to stay on that schedule.
SPEAKER_01: It cost him time.
SPEAKER_01: It cost him financially.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know all that it cost him because he says, When I come back, I'll pay you.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus does tell us that he gave two denera two days' wages.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what else he paid when he returned.
SPEAKER_01: Did he lose business while he was caring for the man?
SPEAKER_01: Did the appointments that he had, did those get canceled?
SPEAKER_01: Did the folks that were waiting on him say, Well, he's not coming, so I'm gonna trade with somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: Or I've got to be about my own business.
SPEAKER_01: Did he lose business when he was caring?
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed by God to be able to share with others.
SPEAKER_01: Because God has given to us and blessed us in an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: And what God has given to us financially and resource-wise is not for our hoarding.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, that God called the children of Israel to not be closed-fisted, not to be closed-handed to the foreigner in their midst, but to live with open hands.
SPEAKER_01: And God has given us resources, and God has given us opportunities to meet the needs of others because he has blessed us financially.
SPEAKER_01: It cost him not only time and finances, it cost him in perception and influence.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine what others may have thought or said about him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why are you why are you spending your time?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you worried about this guy who's fell among thieves?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he was a thief himself and his his partners decided they would take all of the the good for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was we don't know what he was.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was ridiculed.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he lost opportunities or work.
SPEAKER_01: We never know what people are seeing or thinking and how it will affect them.
SPEAKER_01: When they see us responding to the needs and the hurts of others, when they see us living out a compassionate life for others.
SPEAKER_01: But it it's going to cost us in perception, it's going to cost us in influence oftentimes.
SPEAKER_01: Because people not will not always understand why we minister to the people that we do in times of need.
SPEAKER_01: It involves costliness.
SPEAKER_01: It costs us to do the work of ministry that God has called us to.
SPEAKER_01: But He is always faithful and always generous and always giving to us so that we can be faithful to Him to meet the needs of others.
SPEAKER_01: But then the third thing, and this is really where I want us to think about, these other two are we might say are negative aspects.
SPEAKER_01: It involves if we're going to be the modern day version of the Good Samaritan, it involves opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: It involves opportunity for God to work through us for the good of others.
SPEAKER_01: If this man had not stopped to help, what would have been the outcome?
SPEAKER_01: You notice something in the text that Jesus says?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says they left him half dead.
SPEAKER_01: Is he dying?
SPEAKER_01: If he is half dead, he's also half alive.
SPEAKER_01: So what does half dead mean?
SPEAKER_01: How much longer would he have been able to hold on to that?
SPEAKER_01: How much longer would he have been able to live?
SPEAKER_01: And then someone came along to help.
SPEAKER_01: Something bad has happened, and people need help.
SPEAKER_01: We hear this over and over and over again when we talk to people who've been impacted by storms and disasters.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what I was going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Someone came along and gave me a price.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to use an exorbitant number.
SPEAKER_01: $25,000 to cut that tree.
SPEAKER_01: And you're telling me that you're going to give it and do it for free.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have$25,000.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have$5,000.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have$2,000.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have$100.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what I was going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Every time we take the time, every time we pay the cost, every time we allow God to inconvenience us with opportunity, it gives us the opportunity for Him to work through us to minister to the needs of others.
SPEAKER_01: The process that I go through when hurricanes are coming and the way that we prepare and we get ready is usually about five to seven days, generally about five days, the state division of emergency management goes to what we call level one, which is the highest level of readiness at the State Emergency Operations Center, Tallahassee.
SPEAKER_01: When the state activates to level one, Florida Badness Disaster Relief activates to level one, and I go to the Stadio C because we have a place there in the building in the Stadio C and start making preparations, talking to the emergency management folks, talking to Salvation Army, kind of getting ready for where we're going to go.
SPEAKER_01: So one of the things that I do is I start looking at the projected path, where the where hurricanes are projected to make landfall, and I start looking for locations where that churches where we can set up and where we can begin to do ministry once the landfall has been made and storms have passed through.
SPEAKER_01: So we look, I start looking for all those things and talking to Salvation Army and about delivery routes for food and all those kind of things that we need to know.
SPEAKER_01: But then there's something else I'm looking at that I don't talk to anybody else in that building about.
SPEAKER_01: There are wonderful folks there.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm praying about.
SPEAKER_01: Something bad is about to happen, and these people are going to need help.
SPEAKER_01: But more than that, they're going to need to know that you love them and you care about them.
SPEAKER_01: And they need to know that there is a Savior who died for them.
SPEAKER_01: I just came from the collegiate conference over at Lake Hill.
SPEAKER_01: And last night a young lady came up to my the table where I was and she said to me, uh, freshman in college, very astute, and she said, What do you what do you say to people when when disaster happens, when storms happen, and they're angry at God and they think God did this to them?
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of started giving her the general um way that we answer that question.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, What do you say?
SPEAKER_01: And I thought she said she was saying you in the plural sense.
SPEAKER_01: What do y'all say?
SPEAKER_01: No, she wanted to know what I say.
SPEAKER_01: She said, What do you say to people?
SPEAKER_01: What do you tell people?
SPEAKER_00: How do you talk to people when that happens?
SPEAKER_01: And so I told her how that God did not send the storm, God is not angry at them, God does not hate them because this happened.
SPEAKER_01: This is part of nature, it's part of the sinful world that we live in and the broken world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: And storms are part of that brokenness that happened all the way back at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: But that God loves them, and the very evidence that God loves them is that when something bad happened to them, when this storm happened to them, God sent someone to love them and care for them and help them in a time of need.
SPEAKER_01: But more than anything, God wants to remind them that he demonstrated his love for us and that while we were a mess, while something bad had happened to us called sin, we were living in that condition.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his son to die for us.
SPEAKER_01: Not just simply to say, I love you and go and be filled and go and be happy or go and and do whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, he sent his son to die for us, to give evidence of his love.
SPEAKER_01: And we're here, I'm here standing in front of you talking to you as evidence that God loves you, and he didn't just send anybody to come and help you and talk to you, he sent me to love you and to care for you and to help you in the process.
SPEAKER_01: You see, compassion is not a feeling, compassion is not an emotion, compassion is an action.
SPEAKER_01: And to be the modern-day version of the Good Samaritan, it involves opportunity for us to take those opportunities, every cup of cold water, every ounce of food, every kind word, every tree we cut, every listening ear, every you fill in the blank, every time we do something and show and demonstrate the love of God, we are showing God's love in action.
SPEAKER_01: And God is giving us opportunities to do that.
SPEAKER_01: But the same is true on the other side of the road.
SPEAKER_01: Because this man who was half dead and two men walked past him, if the third man, the Samaritan, had not come, how long before half dead becomes all dead?
SPEAKER_01: And the world in which we operate, how long is it because we see the hopelessness all the time of people who are hurting?
SPEAKER_01: When something bad has happened, how long is it before half hope turns to no hope?
SPEAKER_01: Because we are not being who God calls us to be, and we're not walking through those doors of opportunity that He has given to us.
SPEAKER_01: We're not in a place where we as the church have the luxury to define the term neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't define the term who is my neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus did was who proved to be a neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was not concerned about the neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was concerned that we would have the heart of a neighbor, that we would be the one who would uh would worry less about who a neighbor is and start being.
SPEAKER_01: A good neighbor and letting compassion not drive our emotions, but let compassion drive our actions.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says that Jesus felt compassion for us, and what what was the outcome of that compassion that he felt when he looked over the city and he looked at the world and he looked at humanity?
SPEAKER_01: What when Jesus felt compassion for us?
SPEAKER_01: We were lost in the same somebody needed help.
SPEAKER_01: He did what he was said to do.
SPEAKER_01: He did what he was called to do.
SPEAKER_01: He did what only he could do in that moment and in that time.
SPEAKER_01: God is called me to us to take what he has wanted to us and what he has given to us and to make a difference in any bad in the world.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful for the ministry.
SPEAKER_02: I want to remind you this morning how exciting it is that God has put all these pieces together.
SPEAKER_02: We had the children's sermon uh about the carrying the commission, and then we had the great part about the disaster relief and all the things that are involved in that.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to ask you, as we're closing this morning, I'm going to have two times of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: First time of prayer is going to be kind of an invitation slash just opportunity for reflection.
SPEAKER_02: It'll take two seconds.
SPEAKER_02: It won't be long.
SPEAKER_02: But the idea is where has God captured your heart in terms of your relationship with Him as well as how you're going to get involved?
SPEAKER_02: You see, I don't think He wants all of us to do everything.
SPEAKER_02: I think He puts the pieces together so you can be involved in translating a Bible so that people can know the gospel, so there'll be fruitfulness all from all generations till he comes back.
SPEAKER_02: I think he wants you to be involved in cutting down a tree or handing up uh out a cup of cold water.
SPEAKER_02: It could be different things for different people.
SPEAKER_02: And today could be your day that he has captured your heart and you don't want to leave the sanctuary without follow-up, with talking more with a a pastor or with one of the folks who spoke today to be able to say, this is what I want I believe God wants me to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02: And it could be that you're here this morning and you're the one who is still half dead, and you're you are still in need uh for him.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't want you to leave either without having the opp without the opportunity to share that.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna just pray for a few moments, then I'm gonna take us into a time of offering, and then we'll be closing.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but pray with me, would you would you please?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you that you are more than enough, and that your mercy, your compassion began all of this.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you for the folks who stood before us this morning, the different ministries, the different opportunities, and the way that you work.
SPEAKER_02: We don't think about that, not all the time, but you do.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, where you call us out, where you want us to be involved, what you want us to do, I pray that you give us clarity, assurance, and that your will be done, that you help us.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for the individual right now who is excited and a little timid, a little concerned.
SPEAKER_02: Is this real?
SPEAKER_02: Do you really want me to go down this road?
SPEAKER_02: And I pray that you would give he or her whatever they need to have that assurance and that confidence.
SPEAKER_02: That you would capture their heart and have the joy of serving you.
SPEAKER_02: They would arise, they would gird up their loins, they would be involved for your glory and for others' good.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for the individual who came in this room this morning, confused, a little bit dazed in terms of what the gospel is.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray that they would reach out to a pastor, to a deacon, to a friend, to just someone else in this room and say, I want to keep having this conversation.
SPEAKER_02: I want to talk.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray that you be honored in that, that you work as only you can for your glory.
SPEAKER_02: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm gonna bring us to a time of offering.
SPEAKER_02: Before I do that, I want to ask if our special guest for today, Miss Myrtle, if you would make your way to the back.
SPEAKER_02: And there's even a throne or a chair somewhere back there for you to sit.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll let you make your way while we do the offering.
SPEAKER_02: If you haven't had an offering with us before, we're gonna start at the back.
SPEAKER_02: We'll be singing, and as the offering plate passes in front of you, if you would stand, and we'll all be singing toward the end and then close in the doxology.
SPEAKER_06: How fast beyond all men to give his only star to make a breadth, bring me all the men upon the cross.
SPEAKER_06: I still want his shoulder.
SPEAKER_06: I got among the straw.
SPEAKER_06: It was my boss, but I would always try to write.
SPEAKER_06: But this I blow with all my heart.
SPEAKER_06: But this I glory with all my heart.
SPEAKER_03: Let's all sing the tautology together, giving God the glory for his gifts to us.
SPEAKER_06: Praise God from the blessing.
SPEAKER_03: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_04: You are dismissed.
SPEAKER_04: The altar is still open, we are still here.