Post Sunday August 30

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5


I’m not laughing right now, really, I’m not, only smiling…because as I listened to many of you leave service yesterday I could sense that there was a good dose of that feeling of being unsure of yourselves as we continued our exploration of the parable of the Good Samaritan. I’m glad many of you now feel my pain that I experienced a couple of weeks ago. I’m glad because as confused and possibly unsure as you are right now just the fact that you are struggling so greatly with it means that you have opened up the door to the great possibility of coming to a confident conclusion to the whole matter. The more you wrestle the more you get to know your opponent, both the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent and the more you recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. You will see that in your weakness you have to have wisdom to understand how to deal with what you are wrestling with. Good news…we have the perfect place to go for that wisdom.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God….” You’ll ask God for wisdom. And our God, our incredibly gracious God gives liberally! I know many of you are deeply struggling with this passage and yesterday’s message really was gut wrenching. Listening to reasons why we have “passed by” in the past and actually creating an environment in which we can see ourselves doing it! Seeing the individual in need and deciding to pass by. Wow, that is painful emotionally and some of us probably bowed our heads in shame because of past events in which we know full well we passed by.

Many are still struggling with the pull between helping and pulling back from helping. Don’t give up, first…Let’s quickly review the last two weeks and allow what we’ve talked about to be put into order for us.

Week One of the Test – Most of the focus was on the fact that we know the right answer, we know we are to love God and love People. We know that is the right answer, Jesus told us it was. The real question that week was not so much flushing out the right answer, but rather are we like that lawyer? Are we simply looking for a way to justify our behavior and “earn points” with God or do we actually live out our right answer when the situations in life present themselves (i.e. what Jesus brought to life for the lawyer and for us)

Week Two of the Test (yesterday) – Most of the focus was on our responsibilities in life. We have clear cut responsibilities with Family members, Friends, Church Members and Employees/Co-Workers. These individuals are not who this parable is describing. If our struggle is with those individuals there are other places in scripture that we must move to in order to seek proper guidance and counsel from God. The real question is and was: Why do we pass by? What is causing us to pass by? Before we deal with the Who we help, when we help, how often do we help questions, we must first determine what is causing us to pass by.

Thus we have yet to arrive at the core of the practicality of helping yet, thus worry less that your questions about helping have not been answered yet and place more concern on what your heart is communicating to you about who you are, why you think what you think and what the who of who you are and what of what you think cause you to actually do (say that 10 times fast!). The past two weeks have been heart issues. They have been penetrating into the depth of our hearts and searching out the motives of our heart. If our hearts aren’t right we are going to greatly struggle with helping ourselves, let alone helping others. Remember what God has told us:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

And one of the reasons Jesus spoke in parables is because….

Matthew 13:13-15 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.' (Emphasis mine)

Part of this wrestling with this parable is an awakening of areas of our hearts which have grown dull. If our hearts awake and we turn to God He will heal our hearts and life will flow more freely from us. Helping and knowing when and when not to help will come more naturally and without regrets.

The healing of our hearts is not an overnight event. Helping others is not a clear cut, easy thing. But if you’ve allowed these past two weeks to drive you deeper into God’s Word and deeper into prayer, even if you are still confused you are all further along and headed deeper into the core of God’s Kingdom.

“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” Romans 14:17-19

Look at that verse in Romans again…..As we move deeper into the heart of God’s Kingdom we will find righteousness (right living toward God and for God), peace and joy. We will be found in God’s favor and in favor with men! But we must PURSUE peace and the things which edify (build up, encourage) others.

Pursuit means during this struggle we continue on. Which means we are realizing we lack the wisdom, so ask for it, every day ask God for it. I need it, you need it. Satan knows that we are moving deeper into the heart of God’s Kingdom and thus the roadblocks will come more frequently and with more hatred and violence because if we reach a deeper, depth of God’s Kingdom the gates of hell will be shaken and the odds for life will continue to increase while the odds for death will decrease. Continue to wrestle with what you are thinking! Continue bringing your life to the One who gives life so you can in turn bring other lives to the One who gives life! You can do this New Heights because it is God’s desire for you to!

Don’t pass by, continue to pursue and go to God right now and ask for wisdom as you continue to wrestle with the issues of your heart.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. What pieces of the parable have I struggled the most with over the past two weeks? Why exactly am I struggling? What am I having trouble understanding?
2. Do I remember to ask God for wisdom in my struggle?
3. Have I gone to my spouse, my close friend, my pastor and shared my struggle with them and sought their counsel and accountability?

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