The life changing power of friendship podcast notes

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

So Jesus did what he always did. He told the story of the good samaritan.

For literally thousands of years a Samaritan has been used to represent one thing. That person who you would most likely not want to reach out to.

A terrorist. That would be a person most likely to be our mortal enemy. Least likely to stop and help us in need.
You’re terrible boss
Drug dealer
Another person on your mortal enemy list would be.
You’re ex.
Time share salesman
Telemarketer
You knew I had to go here
Raider fan
The guy driving in front of you who’s texting

Do you know what neighbor pastors have left out for thousands of years. Our neighbors. The people who live next door. Our actual neighbors. The reason Jesus didn’t mention our actual neighbors in this story is because to him and his audience, it was obvious.

On one occasion an televangelist stood up to test Jesus and asked what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 But the televangelist, trying to justify himself asked, “And who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responded by pulling out his smart phone and bringing up google maps and said, “Dude, it’s this guy. The guy that lives next door to you. Start there.” Jack’s translation

In Matthew 22 Jesus was asked a question
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

Jesus said these are the two most important concepts in the world. Do these and you’re good. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love them as much as you love you. There is only one problem I see here. Most of us don’t even know who our neighbors are.

Do you know who your neighbors are?

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Canyon Springs is developing a reputation as a church that will literally go to the ends of the earth for our neighbors. Maybe it’s time to shorten our trip. Make the trip across the street. Over the lawn. Make the trip a couple of doors down.

About 10% of people can fill out all the names of their neighbors. 10%.
3% can tell you something significant about the people around them and only 1% can tell you something meaningful for every square.

Love your neighbor? We don’t even know our neighbors.

Now I can help you out there. I went to your neighborhoods this last week and studied your neighbors and learned their names. Are you ready. There is Beemer guy. He lives in your neighborhood. He’s married to yoga pants. They have a couple of kids. Nerd boy with the glasses and his sister screams a lot. This is how we know our neighbors, isn’t it. That’s about it. There’s walks his dog. I’m pretty sure walks his dog is also dog goes on my lawn but I’ve never caught him. Obama sticker lives on your street. Guy who doesn’t mow his lawn lives near you. He’s right next door to guy who doesn’t put his trash cans away after trash day. In my neighborhood, that’s me by the way. This is how we remember people.

For some of you if the family across the street didn’t have those stick figure stickers on the back window of their mini van you wouldn’t know how many people live there.

Names are important to God. Very important. Have you ever been reading through the bible and have gotten to a long list of names. It’s like we stumbled onto an ancient baby name book with the worst possible names. Let me give you just a couple. Dodo is a bible name. There are actually three guys named Dodo in the bible. Chalcol. Basemath is a name in the bible. A woman’s name. Three women are named Basemath, two of which were married to Esau. I think they were accountants. Aram, a guy who named his kids Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash. The all time best name in a genealogy is right here. You ready. His name is Maher-shalal-hash-baz Why does God mention these people. Because names are important to Him. People are important to him.

Not only does God know your name, he knows everything about you.

Matthew 10:30- He knows the number of hairs on your head

Psalm 139- He knows you’re every thought

Psalm 55- He knows your every care and wants to carry them for you.

So here’s the challenge. Get to know your neighbors name. Value them enough to get to know their name. And maybe as that happens, you’ll know more than their names. You’ll get to know what they do for a living. You’ll learn about their families. And then maybe, just maybe you’ll hear about their cares. What matters to them. The hard times they are going through.

Scary neighbor stories

It was a quiet mid week morning on our cul-de-sac when a couple of the neighbors witnessed a naked guy running up and down the street – he then spent some time swinging on my neighbors rope swing, which all the kids on our street play on, before he then ran off.  They never caught the guy, but the rope swing was taken down – none of us really liked the idea of our kids swinging on it after that!

In the middle of the night my door bell rings and I open the door. There’s my neighbor holding her head, blood streaming down her arms She said a “hutch” fell on her head, well ok, I’m sorry about that but why are you here. “I need a ride to the ER” ..  “Where is your husband?”“He’s in the house..” “Ok, well can’t he take you to the ER?” “He only has enough gas to make it to work tomorrow.”

To make this happen you have to have one skill. The ability to be interrupted. How good are you at being interrupted. Who are the main culprits.

A full one third of Jesus life and ministry on earth was doing the one thing that irritates you the most. Jesus made his greatest impact when he was interrupted. He’s walking and he’s interrupted by a blind man. He’s speaking and he’s interrupted by a critic. He’s traveling with his friends and he’s surrounded by a mob. Jesus made the greatest impact on our world and at least a third of the times recorded about his life happened when he was interrupted.

In this life, we can do only a few things really well; I think it’s a good idea to make certain that one of those things is what Jesus says is important. Brian Mavis

I think it’s time that we ask ourselves a question. Do I live at a pace that allows me to be available to those around me?

So here’s my challenge to you this week. I want you to plan to be interrupted this week.

The average american watches 5 hours of TV a day
The average american spends 40 minutes a day on facebook
The average time playing games on a mobile device is up 57% the last several years. Thanks candy crush

So this week her’s my challenge. Watch 4 hours and 51 minutes of TV instead. Spend 31 minutes a day on Facebook. Only play Candy Crush, don’t play Candy Crush Soda. Take that other 9 minutes a day walk outside. Take the dog for a walk. Sit out front and read. See what God does.

As irritating and annoying as this sounds, there is something cool about it too. You’re allowing God to create the opportunities. So much of our life is planned and calendared and has to fit on a to do list. Allowing time in your life to be interrupted gives God control. It gives God the opportunity to set an appointment for you. It gives God a chance to open up a door you never thought would be open. It gives God a chance to use you in a way you never thought possible. It is possible that the most irritating and annoying thing in your life could also give you the most purpose. Try it this week. Allow yourself to get interrupted. See what happens.