Igloos, Polar Bears, and Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

And by the way, I just experienced what my deepest fear is to come up too early in the song. And I even looked back to see if there’s a verse coming up. No, there’s not. And it’s winding down and I better get up there. So I come up here and here I am.

And I’m sitting and they’re still singing. And what do I do? What do I do? So I just sing. What can I do?

Anyway. Ah, yes. I don’t know. John, do you ever have that fear? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, Kelly said it was going to be a short song and it felt short to me and it was unwinding. But here you go. I want to welcome some visitors we have today. And Brittany and Mark and Jennifer, right?

Can I get that right? Mike, not Mark. Mike. I got that right. Anyway, welcome guys.

Thank you. When you brought your kids, I hope they have a good time this morning. I had the chance to meet with a friend and we had some coffee and talk and everything else. And we were sharing some favorite comics that we had. And I love the far side.

I mean, I don’t know what the far side is. Yeah. Well, this guy grew up next to that. That guy in Washington DC and he knew him and he knew his sense of humor and so forth. Anyway, one of my favorites is of two polar bears and they’re standing over in the glue.

And this glue has a broken hole in the top and one of them leaning over that hole and his mouth is full and he says, I just love these things. Cold and crunchy on the outside and warm and chewy on the inside. That’s Gary Larson’s humor. I love it. But that comes to my mind because we as people were like that.

There’s people like that. We’re cold and hard on the outside. But we’re soft and warm on the inside. Getting in there is kind of tough sometimes. So some people are like that igloo and we are.

So today we’re talking about the second commandment. Last week we talked about the first and the greatest because Jesus was asked that question and he gave that answer. And so today we’re going to move on to the second one. The second is like unto it. And it’s different from the first one.

I mentioned last week that love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, all their mind. I said at the end, that’s not something you can do. It’s something you have to grow into. It’s not a command you’re going to obey. It’s a command you have to grow spiritually into.

But this one’s different because you can’t do this one mechanically if you’re inclined to do that. You can show love to someone else. See that in the world all the time. Of course, it’s much easier if we do it in the power of God’s spirit. And of course, that’s what we’re going to be looking at.

But even so, it can still be a challenge because people, people like me and people like you sometimes are not that easy to get along with or get to know. That’s just how we are, I guess. Well, let’s look at that verse. Matthew 22 is where we see it. We talked about this last week because we want to know what the greatest one was because there’s over 600 of them and surely we can’t do them all.

So which ones do we need to focus on? And Jesus answered, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second, where we are today, is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Here’s the bonus that Jesus gave them. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. It’s the bonus because they really wanted to know how to please God fully and they knew they couldn’t uphold all 613 or 30 laws that are whatever they were. So which ones are going to achieve that objective? And Jesus said, these are the two that will achieve that objective for you.

They didn’t ask for that last piece, but he gave it to them because he knew their dilemma and he resolved their debate for them. So my first thoughts about, since I knew I was going here today, is what I focus on. I mean, we’ve talked about, you’ve heard this, a lot of you have been in churches for a long time and you’ve heard about loving your neighbor as yourself. What that means. Well, love, yeah, we can go there and talk about it, but it’s agape love.

Okay, we understand what that means. And who’s our name? There’s another question to get to. Is this coming in and out? When I do this, do you lose me?

No, something else. I don’t know what it is. Anyway, I’ll just keep talking. So I thought, who’s my neighbor? I could focus on that a little bit.

And the answer is, well, everybody is your neighbor. Nobody is not your neighbor and you’re a neighbor to everybody. So leave that one beside. So I thought some about, you know, what does love as you love yourself? And we’ve heard some sermons on that.

And there’s some impressions or some assumptions that we love ourselves and there’s some depth of there because not everybody does love themselves. And there’s some things about you that you don’t like about yourself and so forth. So there’s some intricacies there. And we’ll look a little bit at that. But I’m not gonna spend a lot of time this morning looking on what this command says.

I’m gonna spend all of our time on how to obey this command, how we can practically get into it. ‘Cause if you’ve heard me teach before, it’s all about the how to, and I’m actually gonna give you step one, step two, step three, step four, five today. So we’ll get into that. We see in Paul’s writing in Romans 3, 10, an overarching principle about this. And it’s interesting.

He says, love does no harm to a neighbor, Romans 3, 10. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Is doing no harm really the fulfillment of the law? Is the fulfillment of the agape love that Jesus was commanding up there? And I’m thinking perhaps not.

It may be the lowest common denominator, kind of like the physician’s oath of doing no harm. The goal is you wanna do good, right? It’s more than just not doing any harm. So it’s simply more than that. And Jesus actually went further than that in Matthew 7, 12.

He said, So if this is a law in the prophets and loving your neighbor as yourself as yourself is a law of the prophets, treating them as you want them to treat you and loving your neighbor as yourself. Those are kind of two sides of the same coin, if you will. So doing no harm is the bottom line or is the common denominator, lowest common denominator. By the way, do you know what WWE JD stands for? You all say, yes, I do know what that, what would Jesus do?

Well, he didn’t give us that standard, did he? Do unto others as you could imagine Jesus would do unto them? No. Do unto others as you would imagine Jesus would do unto them. And the reason for that probably is because you have no idea what God would do unto them.

None, okay? He holds good and not so good for each of us. And we can’t pretend to even know what that would be, but we know what we would want. And that’s a standard he gives us, why? It’s something we can know and understand and actually do.

We have how many homes do we have? We have how many homes got burned this week? 10,000. Did God allow that? Would you have?

So we can’t know, but we can know what we want, okay? And that’s a standard that he gives us. But Jesus goes even further than that. And he gives us a good example of what this agape love looks like. It’s in Luke 10, 25 to 37, it’s gonna be about the good Samaritan.

Behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test. And this isn’t an honest lawyer. This is the one who’s trying to trap him. Not like the one who’s saying, this is someone who’s just trying to lay a trap for Jesus. A lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And he said to him, what? Answered, you shall 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 your neighbor as yourself. This is the lawyer’s answer. And Jesus said to him, you’ve answered correctly. Do this and you’ll live.

But one thing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? The lawyer probably thought, ah, got him. He walked right into my trap. Cause here’s the question. They’ll trip him up.

Who’s my neighbor? He replied and said, and here we go. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he encountered robbers and they stripped him and went away leaving him half dead. Is it when I back up? Thank you.

Okay. I’m anchored. Okay. Man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he encountered robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half dead. And by coincidence, a priest was going down on that road.

And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also when he came to the palace or the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him. Pause a Samaritan on a journey. Well, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is not Samaria.

So obviously this person is on a journey. But note, he is outside of the area of his comfort. He doesn’t have resources. This Samaritan doesn’t have resources. He doesn’t have people or friends he can call.

He’s away from home. Okay. He’s on a journey and he’s a Samaritan and people in the Jerusalem and Jericho area did not like Samaritans. They held them in distaste. Did not like them.

Okay. But the Samaritan who was on a journey came to him, came upon him. When he saw him, he felt compassion. Note that. And came to him and bandaged up his wounds pouring oil and wine on them.

And he put him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, he took out to a diary and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you. So Jesus asks, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber’s hands? And he answered the one who showed compassion to him.

Jesus said to him, go and do the same. So if you were that person in the ditch, what would you want someone to do for you? Okay. So Jesus’ standard here is far greater than simply do no harm. And to be honest, for me, it’s a step or two beyond what I would expect or want for someone else to do for me.

But Jesus took it that far. Took money, it took time, it was inconvenient. It botched up the Samaritan’s itinerary. It was just all kinds of stuff that a lot of us don’t embrace. But anyway, at the heart of it, it was Jesus’ phrase that the Samaritan number one felt compassion.

He felt compassion. And he meaningfully acted on it. And that’s what Jesus said, go and do likewise. Feel compassion. And act on it.

But he said then, would one of them proved to be a neighbor? His idea of neighbor went to both sides of the equation. Because in the prior example, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself. By a strict application of that, the neighbor is in the ditch beaten up by the robbers.

But Jesus said, which of the three proved to be a neighbor? So Jesus sees the neighbor as having to be on both sides of this equation. It’s not just the receiver of the gape love. It’s the giver of that love has to be neighborly. See the difference?

Maybe not. Whatever. Anyway, what difference? Both sides have to be a neighbor. We have to be neighbors and receiving and neighbors in giving.

So the commandment for us is to do no harm. Do it as we love ourselves, as we wish others to treat us and to show compassion in our actions. We’re to show compassion and meet the needs of other people. I’m sorry, I can’t not step backwards. So I’ll move forwards.

Does that work? Okay. Order show compassion and meeting their needs. We’re to take action and meeting their needs. So my end then goes to what are the needs around me?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. How many of you studied that? How many of you see how many I’m gonna have to talk to here? Okay, so a lot of you have not. That’s what I wanted to see.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 1943’s been taught, developed, taught, discussed, debated, improved upon, whatever, since then. But it’s basically the idea that we have fundamental needs as human beings. And as that fundamental need is met, we can go up to the next level of life and get the other one. So let’s start from the bottom. There are physiological needs that we have, air, food, water, things that keep us basically alive.

When those are met, then we can think about, okay, I need to be safe. I need to look for security, stability, freedom from fear, that’s the next level of need up. Then there’s a third level of need that once my physiological needs are met and once I feel safe and secure and I’m sheltered and so forth, then I begin to think about the need for love and belonging, the need for friendship, for intimacy, for acceptance. Okay, there’s that. And once that’s fulfilled in my life, then perhaps there’s a need for some esteem, some respect, some recognition or some status and I can work towards meeting those needs.

And then if those needs are met, then there’s this fifth tier in this pyramid as he built it, of self-actualization, need to achieve one’s full potential and to be productive. So if these are human needs, to be honest, I don’t know how I can meet those top two tiers for their self-esteem and for their recognition and status and for their, achieving their personal potential. That’s on them. For air, food, water, warmth, shelter, safety and so forth, security, I can meet those needs. And in Jesus’s day, a lot of people were living at those lower two levels.

Their time and their energies were focused because they weren’t far from dropping down to one below. And so perhaps it was not uncommon for them to see someone lying at a dinner which having been hit by robbers, okay? It wasn’t uncommon for them to see someone begging on the streets needing some food. We don’t have that in our society here in the United States. There are places in the world where that exists, but perhaps, but for us, no, we don’t.

We live in a wealthy nation. We have safety nets in place. Our taxes pay for a lot of those. We have a volunteer organization, so we just don’t see people begging for crusts of bread on our streets. We see people begging, but they may not be at that lower tier and there’s a social safety net for them if they want to go there.

So we don’t see that as much. It’s not in our face as it was in Jesus’s day and in his place. So if I can’t help someone at the top two and in my society, I don’t often encounter people with real legitimate needs that weren’t across my path or that I, what’s the word that Jesus has used? By coincidence that I come across. By coincidence, I don’t come across a lot of people who have needs at those first two lower levels.

But there’s a middle one for love and belonging. That social familial social need. That is there everywhere, all around me, in church, in work, in family, at home. Every one of us continually has needs at that tier. The need for friendship, the need for intimacy, the need for acceptance.

So let’s talk about those needs and that’s what I’m going to spend the rest of our morning, is what those things are, what they look like and how we can address them. Because that’s where people get left out in a church. That’s where people get left out in their family, that’s where people get left out all the time. So how do we get these needs? Where do they come from?

So I had some of these thoughts. We have some of these needs that are connected on us by others. But our love, their love and inclusion of us is withheld for some reason. We are kept outside of some social circle for a certain reason. And here’s some of those reasons.

We are physically unattractive, either by injury, deformity, appearance, grooming, odor, whatever. We are physically unwelcome. Unattractive. Some of these are not our fault. Many of them are not.

For the ones that are, take care of them. But some of these are not our fault. The fault of the person who has them, maybe they were born this way. Maybe an accident put them this way. But nonetheless, human beings tend to isolate those folks and keep them out of their circles.

Why do we do that? That’s a different topic. But we do, just embrace that. People do that. It could be that we are excluded out from social circles because of some spiritual or moral failure on our part.

We deserved it, perhaps, but we are excluded, shunned for that. People give us what I like to call the two-point plan, shun, and avoid when we screw up. We do that. People exclude us from their social circle when we differ from the norm or when we differ from the crowd, even, or when we have to be in a place where we differ a little bit. We see those things.

They incur, because of race, they occur because they occur because of political differences. Those are divisive. People feel excluded because they’re different. This need is inflicted on us by others, perhaps because of our behavior failures that we have. We make people uncomfortable when we’re in their presence because perhaps we’re obnoxious.

We’re embarrassed, so we’re bearing, we’re competitive, we’re allowed, we’re just a talker, or whatever. People don’t like to be around us, so they exclude us. Bottom line, we have these needs. Some of them are put on us by others for these kinds of reasons. And some of them, we inflict on ourselves.

We withdraw socially. It could be because we are cripplingly shy. It could be because we are socially unaware. We’re incapable, socially inept. I’m not saying these are good or bad, I’m saying these are.

It could be that we are unskilled or we are unpracticed or we are untaught in good social skills. Incorrect. That’s a lot of us, by the way. Or it could be, like the one above, where there was a spiritual or a moral failure that was known as a spiritual or a moral failure that was unknown. We know it, and we’re holding back and excluding ourselves from others because of some shame or embarrassment we carry or some fear of exposure that we carry.

But nonetheless, we’re outside of a social circle. We feel and accept it or whatever for things that we can control. Now, the consequences of these needs going unmet can be pretty severe if they go on, if they’re continually unmet, okay? And they run deep. They develop roots of dysfunction in people.

There’s emotional distress, social isolation, feelings of loneliness, sadness, anger, low self-esteem. People begin to spiral in their difficulty in forming relationships. It could, in the ultimate extreme, become a mental health crisis for someone. So people with these needs, guess what? They are our neighbors.

And we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves. We’re to treat them as we would want others to treat us. So to answer the question about how we meet people’s needs at that level. How to love our neighbor at ourselves, as ourselves at that level. We want us to ask ourselves if I was that person.

‘Cause we don’t often see ourselves that way. We may feel it, but we don’t often say, you know, I’m there. I’m outside that circle. I don’t feel welcome here. People aren’t treating me like they want me around, okay?

So we’re gonna go through step one, two, three, four, and five on dealing with this issue, this matter. And we love people who have these needs. Now here’s the deal. I just said that we all have these needs. So for me, who’s my neighbor?

Oh, I’m gonna start over there and count all of you as my neighbor. And you did the same because we are all each other’s neighbors and we all have each other’s needs. And everybody has these needs to some degree or another at one time or another more than another, okay? Always, everywhere. At all times.

So, we’re gonna play a game. It’s gonna be mental exercise. We’re gonna go through this here. So step one, if I was in a situation where I was outside the circle and I would wish I wanted someone to notice me and I was outside. That’s what I would want.

I would want someone to notice me, to pay attention, okay? So what’s our application? Notice others. Step one. Read the room.

Look around. Who is left out? Is anybody sitting alone? Are people clicked up in groups? There’s one person sitting over there?

Be aware. Spidey senses. Come up to other people, okay? Who’s left out? My challenge is apply yourself to that.

Make that a standard operating procedure. Look around. Number two, if I was left up, I’d find out I would want someone to come over and reach out to me. Wouldn’t you? You’d want someone to come over and say, “Hi, I’m Rob.”

Not Rob. Anyway, you’d want someone to reach out and express interest. So that’s the application. Get over there. Simple.

So in cafe after church, that should be your goal. Look around. Who’s left out? That’s where I’m going. Some of us are gonna watch and observe.

That’ll be very interesting. Everybody will be mingling. Anyway, mingling around. Look around for someone who could use some company. A lone person, a lone couple, a lone family.

Make that your routine. But importantly, when you do this, be someone that others would welcome to come over and greet you. Be a person that other people want around. Hi, I’m Rob. I’m undressed, unkempt, whatever.

No. Be someone. People like having around. Step three, okay? You’ve noticed somebody, step one, step two.

You’ve gone over to reach out, love them as you would want to be loved yourself. Step three, I would want someone to express interest in me. I don’t want this person noticing me coming over here and spending all her time talking to me about them. I would be annoying. I’d want them to ask questions about me and sincerely want to know about me.

I don’t need it to be all about me, just maybe a little bit, you know? Ask questions. So what’s our application? This is a great commission. Go into all the world and ask sincere questions.

Go into all the world and ask questions sincerely. All the above. You go there not because I got to obey this commandment. I got to go include them. I got to go talk to them.

No. I want to get to know who this person is. What makes them tick? Are they interesting? Are they boring?

I don’t know. Let’s go find out. So I’m going to stop right here because I’ve been saying, you know, I would want someone to notice me. I would want someone to come over. I would want someone to ask questions and express interest.

Now, if you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, yeah, that’s what I need. That’s what I want. I want to be noticed. I want someone to come over. Then you might just have, not just be the maker of your own problem if you’re thinking that way.

I’m the one who has the need. I’m the one who people should come over. Yes, you may be. But I’m focusing on your thinking. You may be that person.

The second commandment that Jesus gave to love your neighbor as yourself is not to expect your neighbor to love you as they love themselves. I mean, that’s not unreasonable, but that’s not what you seek. You’re supposed to love me. No. It’s to give to someone who needs it and expect nothing in return.

If you feel these needs, it could be because of something that happened to you. And not because of, you know, if you feel this need, if you feel yourself left out, you may be, but be there because of what has happened to you, not because of what you are doing on your own. I’m stumbling through this section because it’s kind of difficult to communicate. Don’t be self-inflicted in that need. Make an effort.

And by the way, if someone makes an effort, those of you who are in a group, embrace them. How many of you have been in that situation where you say, “I want to go join this group over here.” And you go over there and there’s an entire little group and you go join them and their shoulders never part. There’s no space made for you. Spidey senses.

If you see that, turn your shoulders, open this circle, grab them and pull them in. Okay? Neighbors on both sides. You’re getting up because you feel that need. You see an opportunity, you go up there and the neighbors inside there say, “Hey, come on in.

Do that.” Okay? Be inclusive. My daughter was young. 85, 6, 7, I guess it was 6, 86, 87.

We used to live in the Portland area. Went to City Bible Church and she could sing them. I was in the choir and we were in this little children’s musical called “Mr. Rainbow.” I think when I was Mr.

Rainbow, of course. Anyway, I’ll remember from that. I wore this goopy little rainbow colored jacket and a hat. My daughter and I sang songs and all kinds of fun stuff. And there was a silly little bear in there, but he had a saying, a phrase that he would mention a couple of times in there to visit that they were working with and helping and so forth.

And he said, “If you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend.” And I liked that. And I embraced that. So this adult learned something from the children’s musical. And that’s something we should all do is to strive to be a friend, put ourselves out there.

Okay? Anyway, there was also a movie called “We Bought a Zoo.” It never got big. Anybody here about that movie? Oh, there’s a couple of hands.

Okay. And there’s a principle in that movie that I embraced because I loved it. And the father’s coaching his son and his son was nervous about approaching a girl about a dancer, some junior high thing. Anyway, and he raised that concept of 20 seconds of insane courage. And he said, “Yeah, it’s a scary thing, but you can do anything for 20 seconds.”

In other words, you can go up and you could be brave. Brave for 20 seconds and approach this girl. 20 seconds is a long time. If you think about it, don’t think about it. Let me tell you this.

I counted him out. And that is a long time. But five seconds is not. So I changed it for myself as five seconds because you can do anything brave for five seconds. Okay?

Hi, I’m Rob. Welcome. Or back me up 50 years. Hi, I’m Rob. I’ll take you to the dance.

When you want to come with me? Five seconds. There’s all that kind of stuff takes. Or I screwed up. I’m sorry.

All you have to be is brave for five seconds. And then you be that brave when you do that. And generally, things will take care of themselves from that point in the conversation forward. All you need is those five seconds of boldness. Five seconds is easy.

So if you’re outside the group, five seconds. If you’re in that group and you see someone sitting outside, five seconds. And then things will generally roll on their own. Or am I? That’s three.

Okay. Step four. And when you take those five seconds and when you do that thing, you know what you’re going to find? That people are warm and soft on the inside. And often it takes only those five seconds to get past that cold and crunchy outside.

Okay? Step four. If they ask me questions because they noticed me and they came over and they began expressing interest in me and I began answering their questions, I would want them to focus on me, at least for a little while, with a genuine interest. And here’s the purpose. Here’s the goal.

Keep the focus on them. If there’s someone outside you your circle and you take that five seconds and you make that break and you get in there, you want to talk to them? Keep the focus on them. Don’t talk about you. If they ask you, then talk about you and then get it back onto them.

In this meeting with my friend this week, I was thinking about that in relation to what we’re talking about here. And I thought, what made that so healthy? Because we had this ball of attention. I’d pass it to him and he focused it beyond him and he could share something deep and sincere. We could discuss that a little bit and he would pass it back to me.

And we would share, he’d give me his full attention. I’d pass it back to him and I went back and forth and forth. But there’s a lot of times where I’m in conversations and people just talk about themselves and they never ask a question about me. And if you’re a person who needs to be included, that’s the last thing you want. So that’s our application and our challenge.

To focus on the other person. Not in a weird or interrogating way, but in a healthy, I want to get to know you kind of way. Step five. When asked questions, I would want to be able to be open and honest in my answer. That seems reasonable.

Can I trust you? It’s a piece of information. Jesus had the parable, is that the right word? I don’t know, about casting pearls before swine. You know what the pearls are?

Things that are valuable to you. You know what the swine is? People who don’t value those. If you’re going to someone who’s outside the circle, they have pearls they would love to share and our goal is to value those. As they value those.

Treat them with respect. Can I trust you? How will I know? How much do I share? These are critical questions that people feel.

They don’t ask, they feel them, okay? Turn it around. Are you a person that I can be open and honest with? Am I a person? Someone can be open and honest with.

I had a person challenge, I was in a group once, I had a person challenge a group and he said, do you think you’re a leader? Turn around. Who’s following you? Well that was good. Do you think you’re a person people can trust you with?

Who’s trusting you with our people trusting you with things that are value sensitive to them? If they’re not, perhaps themselves evaluations in order on that. Anyway, do people open up to you with their deep personal challenges? How often do you find yourself being the recipient of a healthy person’s trust? Interesting.

I find myself often in conversations with folks where they ask a question and I’m in the process of giving a sincere honest answer and in the middle of that, something I said remind them of something in their life and they bring that up and share whatever and often goes, they steal the ball from me. That’s what they do. And I’m left and I’m thinking, I guess I really didn’t care about what I was thinking or feeling about that question answer. Anyway, that happens a lot and I see a lot of heads nodding because it happens a lot. So what’s the application?

It’s not about you, keep the conversation on them. They’ll give it back to you when they’re ready, if they’re ready, if they’re healthy. They’ll give it, but give it to them. Be someone that other people can be open with. If you’re the kind of person who wants to look for every opportunity to bring in your own experiences or circumstances, then that’s going to communicate to them that you really don’t care about what they’re saying.

The bottom line, to be a good neighbor, we have to be a person that other people want to be around and we have to include them to bring them in. To be a good neighbor, we have to be a person of empathy and compassion. To be a person of empathy and compassion, we have to understand their perspective, see the world as they see it. We have to share their burdens, offer support in difficult times, whether it’s emotional or practical or financial or whatever. To be a person of empathy and compassion, we need to celebrate their joy.

We need to realize and feel their sorrows with them. To be a good neighbor, to be a person others want to be around, we want to be a person of respect and kindness. To be a person of respect and kindness, we need to treat other people with dignity. Always be polite, always considerate, always respectful of other people’s feelings and beliefs. Something in this circumstance or this situation that might alienate somebody who believes differently than me.

Is it my intention to alienate them or am I just being myself? Because who cares about what they think? To be a person of respect and kindness, avoid judgment. We refrain from criticizing and never gossip about them. To be a person of respect and kindness, we offer practical help.

If it’s in our capacity to do so, we do so. That’s our application. If you want to be a good neighbor and want to be a person others want to be around, you must be a person of justice and fairness. We stand up for people’s rights, protect them from harm, protect their well-being, advocate for them when it’s appropriate to do so. When their rights are being trampled on, we treat them equally.

We ensure everyone has the same opportunities and is treated fairly, regardless of their background. Jesus was great at this. I think we should be too. To be a person of other people want to be around, we need to be a person of forgiveness and reconciliation. To be such a person, we let go of grudges.

Is that person of your group or someone you hold something against? Get over it. Grow above it. To be a person of forgiveness and reconciliation, we should be seeking that reconciliation. We should be making amends or any harms that we might have done.

We are all stupid. Things. Thoughtless things. It’s not because we don’t care. It’s because we’re human and we’re not perfect.

We all do that. We seek reconciliation a lot, frequently, all the time. We should be. More importantly, if someone comes to seek reconciliation for you, we offer second chances. Neighbor upon neighbor.

That way, meeting those needs in the middle. Really, how can I be such a person? You can’t. But guess who can? Which is why everything we do in this life, we do when we are filled with his spirit, when we are walking in his spirit, knowingly and intentionally.

Knowledge and that knowing, we can take those five seconds of insane courage and do something. And God will do amazing things when we do it. Because in Christ, we can do those things. Let’s pray. Father, we want to be good neighbors.

Open our eyes to see where that needs to be applied. Help us to understand the needs of people around us. As yours are. We really do want that. And we’ll trust you to work to meet people’s needs.

In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,399 words.