Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What's up? It is Fall Fest Eve today. That's right. It is, yeah. Which means tomorrow's Fall Fest and four to 7:00 PM at the church. I know a lot of you are serving and some of you're gonna be on setup. I think setup has taken place at two o'clock. I think we've got other people working on balloon arches and stuff like that before that. There's a lot going on, but it's probably helpful for us to revisit why we're doing this in the, why are we doing this in the first place? That's a great question People have been asking. Everybody wants to know. We're doing this because part of our job as the church is to make an impact in our community. Part of our job as the church is to have a presence in our community. And while that is not event driven, it certainly does not exclude us doing events like this. This is a way for us to bless our community through having a free event, a safe event for parents and families to bring their kids to that they're not having to walk through and see a bunch of scary stuff. I dunno about you, but my neighborhood man has some pretty gnarly goly stuff that are in people's yards. My neighbor. Directly behind me. Put up their Christmas tree there. I don't know what neighbors you got. They're blessed mine. Or celebrating Christmas already. Well, good on them. Neighbor. Similar line. Seriously what though? That was October 22nd when I first saw their tree. That's insane. They beat everybody. That's crazy. You should give them an award. You know what? They don't open the door to us, so we might have. You should just get a trophy. Just put it on their door and just put it on their door, their door, their door, stop and attach a note door front. But we're doing this to bless our community, but we're also doing this as a witness. And so as you're there know that this is for you and it's not for you at the same time, this is for you in the sense that, hey, we want your kids to be there. We want to you to have a great time. We want you to grab a pumpkin, grab candy, play some games, send your kids through the inflatables. But it's not for you in the sense that we also want you there on mission. We want you there ready to have conversations and to greet people and to talk to them. And so as you're talking with people, some questions that you can have in your mind and questions to ask are, Hey, so and so Nice to meet you. I'm such and such. You know, we go to church here. Do you go to church anywhere? And maybe you're gonna run into somebody who is of a different religion that's gonna say no. And a follow up question that you could ask that I think is really helpful is, oh, why not? Yeah, exactly. Why not? No, but you can ask the question. Ha have you ever been to church? I found that on college campuses, we used to go out and do evangelism back in California on college campuses. And a lot of times we'd lead with the question, have you ever been to church? And sometimes they would say no. And or do you go to church? No, I don't. Well, have you ever been to church? And that's a great question. 'cause some of 'em will say, yeah, I've been a couple times. Oh, well what did you think about it? There's ways for us to get into these conversations with people to invite their and they're disarmed there because they're, you're not saying, Hey, why don't you go to church? Why don't you like church? What's wrong with you? Or. You know, if you got somebody from another religion, maybe they're gonna say, I've never been to church. Would you ever consider coming? Would you be interested to know what it's like, what we do there and what we're all about? We'd love for you to come and visit and come see what we're about. That's a non-threatening way for you to engage somebody who maybe a part of a different religion, to invite them to come and see what our church is like. Just like if they were to say, Hey, would you be interested in finding out what we're about? That might not be a bad idea either. Not in the sense that you're gonna be con converted to a different religion, but to say, Hey what is this about? So that I have some knowledge and awareness of that. But there's questions that you can ask and you can get into other questions too. The question, those questions can lead to questions about God. Hey, do you believe in God? And you might think, wow, these are really intense questions to talk about. But if you start small with a question like, Hey. Have you ever been to church? Then you can quickly get to those questions and people are willing to talk. I think that's the thing that we need to remember is people are willing to talk if we approach them with a winsome attitude. Yeah. When I learned the way the master method years ago, I really appreciated the starting question, which is, would you consider yourself to be a good person? And because, yeah, most people do. Say yes to that. It's a really great starting place to say, okay, well let's talk about that. Let's define that. And I know a couple of our evangelism team people will be on the premises and they'll be talking to different people, probably using that method or some combination thereof. But don't look down on opportunities like this. Now, one of the most challenging, I think, opportunities that we have is because we have so many Hindus and Muslims in our neck of the woods you're starting from less than zero. Zero would be they don't know about the Christian Church. They don't know about the gospel. Great. Let me tell you about that. Less than zero is someone who has a framework of thinking about the world around us that is so contrary to what we think. We have to start by building common vernacular ways to talk about God. And sin and righteousness and judgment. That's gonna take time. And perhaps you don't have a good six hours to develop a framework with your Hindu or Muslim friend where you can develop those ideas. That's okay. Put a rock in the shoe as as some apologists have said before. I know Great Coco in his book, what was that? Tactics? Tactic. He says something to that effect. You're not gonna be able to do. All the salvation that you want to accomplish. Sometimes you're the beginning person, sometimes you're the last person, you're the one who harvest the soul. Other times you're just a contributor to what God is doing in that person's life. And I'd say just be okay with whatever part God has for you. Be friendly, be welcoming, be kind. Talk to people. Show them kindness and love. Don't see them as projects. They're people care about their lives and not just the fact that you want to share the gospel with them. That's an important part of that. But don't see that as an end in and of itself. You're trying to build relationships with our community. These are people that maybe some of them are Christians and they do know exactly what the gospel is, and they're just here enjoying the premises and enjoying the candy. Fantastic. That's okay. But our job at this point with a situation like this is to give you opportunities to talk to people in a way that's productive, in a way that's intentional. And I know that you're not gonna do this at the grocery store. You're not gonna go to Kroger and say, Hey, would you consider yourself to be a good person? Probably, but you could do it here. And it makes perfect sense because we're a church hosting an event, and this is part of the territory, part of the process. So take advantage of it's dress in something that you know isn't super scary and have some fun with their kids and talk to your neighbors. It'll be a great experience for you. We'll be there too. Our goal just as, just so you know, as the pastors, we wanna talk to lots of strangers. So if you don't see us talking to you, it's not 'cause we don't like you, we're trying to talk to everybody really. But we do want to have some conversations with unbelievers, if at all possible. So if you see that, you see us talking to someone you don't recognize, pray for them. Mm-hmm. It's very likely that we're having a spiritual conversation. That is our intention. And if you can. Come ready with that in mind, that'll do you a lot of good, and I dare say, it'll be one of the best nights of your life. Yeah. Yeah. Also, just be praying for the practical things. Pray for the weather, number one. We're recording this on Thursday. We're supposed to get some pretty bad weather. We're Friday night into Saturday. Not to have this true, but we're planning to have this on a field, on the athletic field. So if that field turns into a cesspool. That's not a good thing. So bring your waterproof boots. There you go. Yeah. So pray for that. Pray for safety. That's another big thing. And we don't wanna take that for granted. Yeah. That is something that, that is on our minds. I know we've got gatekeepers and I know it's on their minds and I'm thankful for them. There have been a lot of bad things happening in different areas and we don't wanna be. Sinfully anxious about things like that taking place. But we also do wanna be prepared. We wanna be shrewd, we wanna be wise as serpents, and so pray for safety at this event as well. And yeah, pray for people to get saved. Pray for those gospel conversations to happen and for God to save people. How cool would it be at our next baptism to have somebody say, well, I showed up at Fall Fest and I had a conversation with this person, and God opened my eyes. That would be pretty awesome. Let's jump into our DBR. We are in Luke chapter 10 today. So just one chapter today, and that chapter begins with the sending out of the 72. So this is similar to when Jesus sent out the 12 back in Mark six. In Matthew 10. Similar instructions are given but one of the interesting things was that these 72 are. Sent out to, to prepare these towns for Jesus himself to follow. So they're going kind of as the forerunners and Jesus is gonna come after them, and Jesus is gonna preach and teach in these same towns so that these towns have a foundation under them before Jesus gets there. But they're also sent out and they're giving these instructions to pray earnestly to the Lord of Harvest, to send out labors into his harvest. And so Jesus is already sending them out and at the same time telling them to pray, that more will be raised up to be sent out as well. And so just that evangelistic mindset, something that's good for us, sometimes we'll read that and be like, oh, good, I don't have to be sent. I can be one of the people that prays for more people to be sent. And here it's Jesus. Saying, no it's both. And go and be the person that's having the conversation, be the person that's sharing the gospel and at the same time pray for more people to be sent out. I feel that as we were just talking about this we live in an area with a lot of people that need Jesus. And we need to be pursuing them and we need to pray that God will bring others to pursue them as well. That's right. The 72 are given. Again the authority and the power to do some pretty miraculous things. And we look at that and we say should we expect the same thing? And we would say no. As cessationists, we would say, this is unique to this time period. In part because remember, they're not going out with the New Testament in their hands. They're not going out with the church the canon of scripture. At their disposal. They're not even going out with the Old Testament, which certainly was available to them. They had it memorized, probably a lot of them did, or large portions of it. But they're not going out with it tactically in their hands to be able to preach from. And so as they're going out and calling for repentance some of the question is gonna be asked by those that they're talking to, Hey, who gives you the authority to be able to do these things? And so the, these miracles that were done, part of the purpose of them being able to cast out demons and other things was that they, the miracle would validate the message and the messenger. And so as they then proclaimed it, people would say, okay, I'm gonna listen to what they have to say because of what I just saw them do. There's something beyond just mere human wisdom in what these guys are saying and yet then Jesus tells them when they come back and they're telling Jesus, how great is this Jesus look, here's everything that's able to happen. I love what he says in verse 20. He says, do not rejoice in this. In other words that the, he says that the spirits are subject to you. But instead, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice. That's the biggest thing. That's the most significant thing that you have is not the power to cast out demons, but the fact that you are saved, that you are a child of God. And he says that's where you should really find true joy There. End of chapter 10, he prays a, again, one of those difficult things where he addresses his father, or I guess not the end of chapter 10, but about halfway through here, and he just prays and he says I'm thankful that you've not revealed these to the wise of the world, but to those that are. More of the children, the childlike faith there, which we've talked about a couple times, but this is similar I think to one Corinthians chapter one as well, where Paul talks about the wisdom of God as foolishness to the world. And so Jesus is saying it's a good thing that God has exalted that his name is exalted because he's revealing these things to the people that you would least expect. From here, we get one of the more. Well-known parables that Jesus tells throughout his ministry. And that is the parable of the Good Samaritan because a teacher approaches him, an expert in the law and says, teacher, what? What do I have to do to be saved? And Jesus tells him, well, you should do what's written in the law. How do you read it? And the main answer is, love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. This is Deuteronomy six, the Shema. And Jesus said to him, you've answered correctly. Do this and you will live. And then the man it says in the text, wishing to justify himself. He wants to know how little he has to do here, says, well, who's my neighbor? And Jesus then tells the parable and the Samaritan is the hero or the parable. And that would've caused. This man, in fact, this man at the end when Jesus says, which of these three was the neighbor? The man can't even say the words Samaritan. He can only say the man who showed him mercy. And Jesus said, you go and do likewise and you will live. This is, this would've been shocking and it loses his impact for us because we. Have heard the story from the time that we were little, but the Samaritan would've been the vile one in the eyes of the Jewish people. And that's Jesus' point there. The one that you least think is the person worthy of being a good neighbor is the good neighbor here. And as we read this we're not the Samaritan. We're the guy beaten and bloodied on the side of the road. Jesus is the good Samaritan. Jesus is the one that loved us to this full extent and at such a great cost to himself. And he's calling us essentially to go and love as we've been loved. Does someone qualify as a neighbor? Any, anywhere at any time. Jesus is not speaking to us in the 2025 year of the Lord Ad, and yet I, I do think that there's a serious question in many people's minds about, am I responsible, for instance, for the Nigerian Christians, and if so, to what degree they're my neighbor and they're more than my neighbor, they're my brother or my sister, presumably, what is my responsibility then? To people across the globe. What's my responsibility to Ukraine? Mm-hmm. What's my responsibility to Russians, especially those who are Christian Russians? What is my responsibility to the Uyghurs? Is there a responsibility? Does the fact that I know about a need mm-hmm mean that I should meet the need? And if so, where do I draw the line, if anywhere? I mean, I don't wanna violate what Jesus is saying here. 'cause he's trying to overcome this teacher's justification of himself by saying, look, let me give you a story. Mm-hmm. And the story's supposed to illustrate, there's the guy that came across the road and this guy was a good dude. What is our expectation as Christians in 2025 when we have access to every part of the world? Basically, almost instantaneously. What is the expectation of a Christian who's trying to love their neighbor? Well, I think we have to admit our finitude and the finitude of our resources. And so when you're thinking about. Financial needs. Right. You have a stewardship that's been given to you by God, that if you love your neighbors so well, that you empty your bank account to be able to financially support, people that need that across the world. And yet doing so has put your family in need and been detrimental to your family and not wise as far as you being able to steward the responsibilities that you have here. You're trading one wrong for another mm-hmm. In that instance. But one of the resources that we have in abundance is our ability to pray. And I think we do have. The obligation to do that when we're aware of the needs and even that we've got a limited amount of time in our day as far as how much time you've got responsibilities that you need to do, even as pastors, right? Like we have to spend time doing things like sermon prep. We have to spend time doing things like having meetings about planning for Fall Fest to make sure it's a good event and things like that. So we can't say, I'm gonna spend 24 hours a day praying for all the needs that I know that are out there, but. You can be intentional to say, okay, maybe on Thursday I'm gonna pray for international needs that I have. Maybe on Friday I'm gonna pray for local needs that I know of. Maybe on Saturday I'm gonna pray for my neighbors and my neighborhood. And so you can begin to methodically pray through things that's good, that I think are helpful. And yet at the same time recognize the finitude of our resources and our ability to love everybody to the extent that maybe we would want to. And maybe that's even a problem too. I think maybe our prayer begins with, Lord, give me a greater compassion for people as my neighbor. Help me to see people as my neighbor that I'm not naturally inclined to see as my neighbor. Yeah. In fact, I was gonna say, that's a great point. If you even feel that, if you feel the impulse to say, I wanna love my neighbor, that's a really great place to start. I think God can use that. And would that more of our people feel that impulse to say, I wanna love people. Well, mm-hmm. Let me encourage you to take responsibility by using concentric circles of responsibility. The smallest concentric circle that you have responsibility for is you. You need to take care of yourself. You can't take care of others if you're not taking care of yourself. And that's gonna look like you being a good neighbor to yourself. And I know this is not the point of the text, just hear me out here. You should be spending time with the Lord in the morning or afternoon, whenever it is that you spend time with him praying, seeking his face, studying his word, learning about that because you need to be able to do that to make the decisions that you're gonna need down the road here. So concentric circle number one, you concentric. Circle number two, your family. This is the. The closest neighbors that you have, they are physically next to you. Most of the time they see you at your best and your worst. You have a responsibility to them. So the second circle is your family. The third circle, I would argue, even though you have physical neighbors, I would say your church is there and whether sometimes it's two for or three or three and two, I think the church family is. Meant to be a significant part of your consideration when you think about what God has for you to do in the world. Mm-hmm. So concentric circle three, just for the sake of clarity here, let's just call that your church. Four. I'd put your neighbors, five, your city, six, your state, and on and on it goes. The greater the concentric circle, the larger and further it goes out, the less responsibility you have. I would argue from this text here. The Good Samaritan shows us that the person nearest to you is the one that God gives you to care for. Yeah. And he does it by providence. People that are next to you, people that are near your vicinity, your neighbor is nearby. They're the people that you're to give priority of care for. And again, again, I would start with yourself and the Lord. That's the first place that's gonna control and help you understand the rest of it. But I would use concentric circles of responsibility to help you make some of these determinations. Well, and even to that point, even as Lieutenant ends with the story of Martha and Mary, you've got Martha who's. Busy. She's doing things. Yeah. She's caring for her neighbors. Yeah. You could argue. And yet Mary is there sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha is indignant about this, saying, Lord, help, she needs to help me. And Jesus says she's chosen the better thing, not because what Martha was doing was wrong, but because to your point, if we're not being filled up, then we've gotten nothing from which to pour out of. If we're gonna pour out into the lives of other people, starting with our family and then those exec concentric circles, but we're not filling up our tank with. Time with Christ. Yeah. Then we're not gonna be effective in what we're doing. Right. 'cause we're gonna be serving from our own power, which we're not gonna be able to do well. Can't pour out if you haven't been poured into. Right. Yeah. That story of Martha Marriot, it's one of my favorites. I love this particular story 'cause I resonate with Martha so much. Yeah. It's like, Lord, there's things to do. Tell this buffoon to get up and help me. But as one commentator pointed out, one is being instructed by the Lord, the other one is instructing the Lord. Mm-hmm. Which one do you think is the better position to be in? That'll preach. And of course it's gonna be Mary Mary's doing the right thing. Yeah. We need to be filled up by the Lord. Yeah. We need him to teach us to help us understand life. Yeah. We can't interpret our lives properly apart from the Lord helping us to see and say even here's your priority. The church is your priority. Yeah. In fact, I know it's probably sounds controversial for us to say, but the church should be a high priority on your agenda For sure. Caring for his people. Gathering with the saints, sitting under good preaching, worshiping with the body of Christ, caring about the needs of one another, sacrificing for their good. Jesus calls us to, to prioritize the church. In fact, to the point where he says, look, my family, my physical family in the flesh, yep. Not as important to me as those who obey God's word. Yep. Oof. Yep. Like talk about a slap in the face for an honor, shame culture for Jesus to say that is making a big statement bigger than what you and I might feel because we live in a culture where individual. Identity is more important than the corporate one, but Jesus did not live in that culture. His culture was very much tied up into the tribe. They're people, and so for Jesus to say, look, who are my mother and my brothers right here, these people who were obeying the word of God, these are my mother and my brothers. Wow. Yep. Wow, what a big thing to say. So all that to say I think the good neighbor or the good Samaritan teaches us that neighbors are, I think, a concentric circle of responsibility. Your job is to discern that and as you have resources as to your point, PPJ, your limited resources as you have available, resources for the furthest the furthest neighbors use that. If you feel the compulsion, if you feel the call to do that, fantastic. Pray, give, do all the things, but make sure you're taking. Consideration and care of the earlier, smaller concentric circles around your life's responsibilities. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's good. And that may even be what he was after, at the beginning of Luke 10, when he sent out the 72 and he said, pray for more too. 'cause the harvest is white and that's it. Like the people that are in Ukraine, the Nigerian Christians we need to pray that God will raise up people there where they have the proximity and the resources to be able to help in situations like that. Right. And hopefully that the Muslims won't kill them. Right. That too, right? Yes. Yes. We should care about that man. And if it's been on your heart to pray for them or to give to that, like, yeah, do it. Yeah. Please don't tell, don't hear me saying Stop giving, stop caring. Only pray for your family or your church. I'm not saying that right. I'm just saying make sure you have those earlier places covered. Yeah. We should care about the others. But don't go and solve their problems without looking at your own backyard or your own front yard and saying, am I caring for the people that God has given me? Yeah. Who are nearby. Yeah, well, let's pray. God, we confess our finitude and the magnitude of the need that exists in this world and even the need to love our neighbors. And so help us as pastor was just saying to, to think through things in that concentric form and be able to really make sure, first and foremost, we are leaning into our relationship with you, and that we are being filled up by you so that we will be able to then pour out to others. And so, God, I pray that we would be effective in that, that you would give us Lord, families that love the Lord, neighborhoods that love the Lord, a church that has committed to you, that loves the Lord that we would be just seeing the fruit of investing in these relationships. Well, we do pray for tomorrow's event, for Fall Fest. We pray that it would go well. We pray for protection. We pray for a lot of people to come through and to interact with our people and to be able to have conversations about Christ in the gospel. And so we thank you for this. We praise you for this in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Keep new Bibles y'all tuning into tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said