The Not So Good Samaritan

Thanks, Garrett. Story songs are great. I love story songs. It's very beautiful. It gives us a lot to think about. We are so blessed. We have such a great God. He can do amazing things, and He's got a plan for everybody. Wonderful. Thanks. I really appreciate that. When you hear the word Samaritan, what comes to your mind? Well, maybe you think Samaria. That was the capital of Israel, the northern tribes. That was their center point, their focal point, their capital. So maybe you hear Samaria. Samaritan, you think of that. Of course, maybe you hear the word Samaritan, and you think of that woman at the well. She was a Samaritan woman that Jesus talked to. And that was an odd circumstance. Christ is not only talking to a woman, but she's also a Samaritan. That's pretty amazing when you think of that. So maybe that's one thing that comes to your mind. Of course, when you hear the word Samaritan, maybe the first word that came to your mind was good, the good Samaritan. Well, is that the way that it always has been?

When you look back in history, the Samaritans are an interesting group of people. Now, we may remember a little bit of our history of Israel, that when things started to go really bad, and they got farther and farther away from God, eventually they went into captivity.

The biggest Syrian empire came, and they were in trouble. In fact, that story is told throughout the book of 2 Kings, chapter 17. In fact, if you want to head that direction, we're going to spend a little bit of time there this afternoon. That story is told in that section of 2 Kings. And it tells the story about what happened to God's people, to Israel, why it happened, and then what was the result after they went into captivity. Once Israel was gone, what happened? And that's where we pick up the story in 2 Kings, chapter 17. And it tells us in verse 5 how Assyria came to take Israel. Notice what it says here. 2 Kings, chapter 17, verse 5.

It says, the king of Assyria went throughout all the land and went up to Samaria, that was the capital of Israel to start, and he besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshiah, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria.

So right away we get a couple of interesting facts. We're told they conquer Israel, but not only that, but the Israelites were deported. They hauled them away from Samaria.

And in fact, the story doesn't end there either. If we skip down to verse 24, there's more. It says, the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cutha, from Ava, from Hamath, from Serhiviam, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel.

And they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

So now we have a little bit more to the picture. Not only did the king of Assyria carry off the Israelites, but he brought other people from other nations, from other lands, and imported them to the land of Samaria, into the old capital, from all these other countries and other areas to live there.

And so as we begin to look at this story, we have quite an in-depth discussion of what went on throughout the rest of this chapter.

And in fact, something amazing happens that the king of Assyria must have had a very interesting perspective on these new people that he's bringing into the area.

Notice what happens in verse 27. The king of Assyria commanded, saying, Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there. So send an Israelite back there that's a priest. Let him go and dwell there, and let him teach the rituals of the God of the land.

Then one of the priests whom they carried away from Samaria came, dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

That's really weird, isn't it? They haul off God's people, people that are supposed to be God's people who weren't obeying. And then the king says, Well, let's teach these new people, all these people I brought in. Let's teach them the ways of the true God. So we'll bring somebody back to tell them exactly what they need to be doing.

What was that like? What would their religion have been like? They had already had some semblance, I guess you could say, of religion. And yet here the king is sending back a priest to teach them about the true God. So I can't help but wonder, what was that religion of the Samaritans like? How would that fit together? How did they apply the things that they were taught? Was God really working with them at that time?

Well, it actually gives us a lot of information about them. And it's not all good. It's not all about the good Samaritan. In fact, I think as we look at their story, there's a lot of information here, I think, that we can learn about history, we can learn about the worship of God, and it also has a connection to us today, that we can see ourselves in the story of the Samaritans. So I thought it might be helpful to take a little bit of time this afternoon to look at that. Now, if you had to examine the Samaritan's religion, and of course, here we are, for many of you who are students, we're at the semester break. Maybe you've gotten your grades. It's that time of the year. Uh-oh. What if we had to grade the Samaritans? What kind of grade would their religion earn them? Well, as I looked through their story, there were several courses, so I thought, okay, we'll have to grade each of those different courses. And do you know what letter grade I came up with for them?

Not one F. Three Fs. They had a clean slate all across the board, but they ended up earning all Fs. And so it's not so good a Samaritan. Let's notice why. Why would that be the case when it seems like, wow, they had an opportunity here, maybe to learn about the true God? Well, what about them? Well, let's notice, verse 32, 2 Kings 17, 32. It says, Well, that doesn't sound so bad, does it? They feared the Lord. Well, that's a positive thing, isn't it? But then we've got this other part that says, they appointed themselves priests of the high places. Well, we know that's not good. We know the priests are supposed to come from the priestly tribe, the Levites, and then they're sacrificing not in the right places. They're sacrificing on these high places, which oftentimes in Scripture represents pagan places of worship. But then you've got this interesting paradox here.

Verse 33 says, So it was almost like a hamburger helper kind of religion. I've got my gods that I used to worship, and boy, if I add this eternal God, that would be that much better off. It would be like a nice tasty religion. I'll have a little bit of everything, a little smorgasbord kind of a thing.

But is that what God wants? What kind of...what was the focus of their religion? If you read through those couple of passages, skip down to verse 41, here it is again. See if you pick it out. It says, So I don't know if you noticed it. Verse 32 said, Verse 33, they feared the Lord. Verse 41, they feared the Lord.

But what kind of fear was that? It was a fear that motivated them to teach their children and their grandchildren. They passed down this heritage of fear.

But this isn't a good kind of a fear. This isn't an awe kind of a fear. If you were to dissect those Hebrew words for fear there, this is implying a wrong kind of a fear. A wrong kind of a fear. This is a shaking in your boots, look out, the lightning is going to strike me if I make a wrong move kind of fear. I better add this other God into the mixture so I don't get it. So I don't get wiped out or killed or bad things happen or the rains don't stop or the earthquakes are going to come. So just in case, I'll add this other God into the mix. And that was their perspective. So they earned the grade F. The Samaritan religion became a religion of fear, the wrong kind of fear. So their initial grade on their first report card is an F, fear. Not the kind of fear that we're supposed to have, that God's people are supposed to have. In fact, there's an interesting circumstance, I think, that better illustrates the kind of perspective that we're to have, that God's people are to have, that they should have had, maybe even had an opportunity to have. And Christ illustrates that kind of fear over in Luke 7, verse 12. So if you want to hold your place here in 2 Kings 17, we're coming back. But over in Luke 7, we'll see it's really a phenomenal incident that occurred during Christ's ministry. Luke 7, verse 12 illustrates the kind of fear that God expects us to have. So it's not like God doesn't say we should be fearful, but when we think of that, what exactly does that mean? There's a different kind of fear than the Samaritans have, and I think Christ points out that right kind of perspective. Luke 7, verse 12. Here Christ is coming near the gate of the city. Behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So you paint the picture. You've got a lady whose husband has died. She has one son. Now he's dead. That's horrible. It's a horrible situation. Well, there's a large crowd from the city that was with her. When the Lord saw her, what does he do? He had compassion on her, and he said to her, Do not weep. Then he came, this is Christ coming, and he touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still.

And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. Just imagine this, verse 15. So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. That would freak you out, wouldn't it? Wow! Here's the guy laid out in the coffin, and he sits up, and he starts talking. Christ says it's presentative to his mother. Now the reaction was interesting. The reaction is, verse 16, fear came upon all. Now is that like, uh-oh, look out, we're going to get it. Lightning is going to strike us. Watch out. That's the Samaritan kind of fear, but it wasn't that way at all. Look at this kind of fear. It says, fear came upon them all, and they glorified God. They said, a great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited his people.

And this report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. Now that's the kind of fear that God loves, because these were people who were respecting Christ. They were honoring him. They recognized a deep sense of awe and reverence toward Christ because of this monumental blessing, this amazing miracle that took place. In fact, this kind of fear didn't cause them to shake in their boots or anything like that. It actually motivated them, I think we could say, to preach the gospel. They sent out a report. They talked about this. They were excited about this. It went out everywhere. Now what would have been the impact of something like that? Everybody's talking about it. Did you hear what this man did? He raised a dead guy. I mean, you know, it's like, come on, you've got to be crazy. Oh, this really happened! I was there! You get a picture of people talking about this, being excited about this, and giving the credit to God. It's just an amazing circumstance that it shows the kind of perspective we're supposed to have. Does the fear that we have toward God lead us to awe and honor and respect? There's a beautiful proverb that talks about those who fear the Lord. It talks about them being secure, that there's safety. There's a place of refuge. That's over in Proverbs 14, 26. That's the kind of fear that develops a deep relationship with God, that loves God, cares about God, obeys God. It's the kind of fear, in fact, it says in verse 27, it says, that fear is a life-giving fountain. Now, normally you think of fear as like, oh, whoa, I'm going to get it. But the kind of fear and awe we should have to God is that kind, that kind of fear that brings us into a closer relationship with God as we understand how great, how awesome He really is, what wonderful things He does, what a wonderful plan He has about, like we heard in the song. That He has a wonderful opportunity for us to share eternity with Him. And so, as you think about that kind of fear, that motivates us to do what's right. Just like it motivated these people to talk about God's ways, amazing miracles, everywhere, we have that opportunity today. But it's not the kind of fear that ignores God when things are going well. Sometimes, I think the Samaritans were probably like that. Things are going well. I don't have to worry about that, God. That's fine. It's not a deal. But this kind of fear motivates us to turn away from sin and draw closer to God. It's the kind of fear that thinks about God even when things are great, when everything's going well. It's not the kind of fear that only thinks of God when it's bad, when there's worries, when there's difficulties, when there's challenges and trials. That's the kind that trembles and shivers and worries about the prospect of facing God. That's the kind of fear the Samaritans had. They had that perspective of God. In fact, they probably wouldn't even have thought about God, about the true God, if it hadn't been for the lions.

Go back to 2 Kings 17. 2 Kings 17 fills in a little bit of the details. We just happened to skip over this part, so we'll go back just a little bit. But 2 Kings 17 points to the fact that they were fearful of God, and there were lions involved in that as well.

2 Kings 17, 25, we'll pick it up.

It says, "...and it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord." Oh boy, they did come to fear Him, though. But initially, no. What happens?

Well, therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Well, yeah, that would certainly put you in a state of mind. We didn't have the right kind of fear. If we didn't learn anything from this possible priest that maybe knew what he was talking about, we're not giving him any details, so we don't really know. Instead of turning to the true God, God sends these lions among them. Now, what would you think? The lions are after you. That's frightening. I'm sure they panicked. I'm sure they were afraid. Yeah, no doubt they're going to be fearful before God. But that's not ultimately God's intent. I think even though it brought that kind of fear, it should have moved them to a place to recognize God's got power over the lions. He's got power over our lives. He's the Creator. I actually draw them closer so that they could have learned the right kind of honor, the right kind of awe, and the right kind of respect for God. I think it's a difficult thing sometimes to sort through. In fact, I heard a true story about a fellow who I think had a difficult time with this as well.

This man, a number of years ago, was a prominent kind of anti-religion character. He was a media activist. He used to be all over the news all the time. He was a guy that was based out of Chicago. And he became known as the atheist guy. So you'd hear him on the radio. They'd interview him on TV. Anytime he could criticize religion, you know, all that kind of thing. So he became known as that, the atheist guy.

And the situation came up in his life. He was charged with a misdemeanor. It was domestic battery. And you know what he was charged for, or what he was charged for doing? They took him to jail for punching, repeatedly punching, his 16-year-old son. Well, they took him to court, and he was trying to plea it down, but they ended up appearing in court.

And he had to testify. So he had to testify, you know, what were you doing? So he testified that he was merely disciplining his son for not doing his chores. I guess that's why you'd punch him, right? He said, well, you know, that's pretty harsh for not doing his chores. So the judge asked him a little more about it. He said, I don't understand. What were you trying to do by punching your son?

You know what the atheist guy said?

I was trying to put the fear of the Lord in him.

That's what the atheist guy said. True story.

Totally misunderstanding, for an atheist either. But you see this connection. The Samaritans were in the same boat. Well, just in case that might work, maybe we better do that.

Now the question, though, for us, I think, is what about us?

What about those that only think about God when we're sick, when we're not well?

What about when we're faced with problems? That's when we really turn to God. That's when we really become diligent in our prayer, in our study.

Or maybe we only pray when we need something.

Is that our perspective? Or if we only turn to God when things go wrong, how can we say that our religion is that much different than the Samaritans? Do we really have the proper kind of fear, the right motivation? Is our fear the kind of godly fear that he really wants us to have so we can love and honor and respect and keep him in awe?

That's what God wants for us. In fact, if you hold your place here, we see the kind of perspective we should have over in 1 John 4, verse 15.

So if we turn over to John's epistles, 1 John 4, 15, I think we get some insight from the apostle about the kind of fear that moves us in the right direction. And what underlies that kind of relationship that we should have? So let's notice that. 1 John 4, verse 15. It's a familiar section of Scripture. Let's see if we can glean a little bit about this Samaritan kind of fear or the right kind of fear from this particular passage.

1 John 4 says, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

So we see a relationship that's based on love. Now where does fear fit into all of this sort of thing? Well, he says this, verse 17.

So we have such a close, tight relationship with God that we're thinking alike. We're in the same mindset. We have the mind of Christ. We have His perspective. And when that comes, look what he says in verse 18.

It's not there, because he says, Because fear involves torment. But he who fears in that way, he's talking about, has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

And so here we have that connection then. If we're going to get rid of the wrong kind of Samaritan kind of fear, we have to have God in us. We have to have a close relationship with God. We abide with Him is what it says. That means we're close. We're tight with God.

We're together. We're remaining, that word can mean. We're remaining together with God. And he says, The shaking in your boots is gone. We can actually turn that around and have boldness. We don't have to worry about what's going to happen at the judgment. What's going to happen when Christ returns. He says, We're going to cast that right out. God's going to get rid of that out of our minds because we can have boldness. Because of that relationship, because of that awe, because of that respect and deep reverence and honor that we have for God. Because we know Him. And we care about Him. And we follow Him.

And we put His ways into practice. And so that kind of fear of God, that love and respect and awe, places this loving motivation within us. That's a totally different grade than that F that the Samaritans earned. Now, if we go on with their report card, there was another grade that they earned. I already tipped you off on it. It was also an F. They failed again. If we want to go back to 2 Kings 17.

We remember we talked about the fact that they appointed themselves priests. They didn't do that right. They sacrificed in the wrong places. Yeah, they feared the Lord, but not exactly the right kind of fear. They added God to the other recipe of all these other pagan gods that they worshipped and they feared. Down in verse 34 gives us a little bit more information. Verse 34, 2 Kings 17, it says, So even though the king sent a priest that may have taught them some of the right things, we'd rather do it our way.

We don't want to really follow that. We want our own statue. We'll do our own ordinances. That's fine for them, but we'll take the parts we like and the rest. Let's leave that alone. So the Samaritans earn an F for their form. The Samaritan religion was a religion of form. What do I mean by that? Well, what was behind it? Not much. There was no real godly substance behind the things that they did. Their heart was not in it. Their heart and their mind was not dedicated to serve the living God. And so, boy, they look pretty good on the outside. Well, it appears that they're doing the right things.

Look at their sacrificing. They're fearing God. It looks pretty good. It can't be that bad, can it? Maybe you've never had that experience in your life. Has that ever happened to you, where you buy something and it looks, wow, this is really amazing product. And you get it home and you use it the first time and it falls apart. You ever have that experience? You order something off the Internet and it's not exactly the way that they described it.

It's amazing how things can look pretty good. There's some form there, but when you get it, not very good. I got carried away the other day thinking about this thing. I got an email about a travel thing and I get these little updates once in a while, and dream about some of the different things you can do. I got totally sidetracked. I started looking at this travel advisor website, and it talks about all these wonderful places around the world. Then I got farther sidetracked and I started reading some of the reviews of places that people have visited that were advertised on the Internet.

There was this one beautiful place. It was one of these fancy, luxury, beautiful hotels, and it happened to be down by Rio de Janeiro. You see it on the side. Look at this beautiful water, fancy place. Just amazing! It just looks perfect. It would just be a thrill to walk in the doors of this place just to experience the extravagance there.

It's just amazing. Then I started reading some of the actual comments that people made about that hotel. Here's a couple of the actual comments about people who went there, saw it on the Internet, went down, stayed there, and what they experienced. Here's one person who wrote this. It won't give you the name of the place, but it says, This place looks like a million dollars online. It's in a great location! But the reality is nothing works.

None of the staff speak English. Apart from the French boss, and unless you speak the Brazilian version of Portuguese, you're snookered. I like that word. You're snookered. They said, when we arrived, they served tipiniras, which I had to look up at some kind of a Brazilian cocktail. And so they served them these drinks when they arrived. They said, we thought they were complementary, but they were actually $15 apiece. Breakfast is also a bit of an ordeal. My wife asked for toast. Half an hour later, we got it.

It arrived, and then we were charged $10 extra for toast. Then he goes on. There were no TVs in the room, as advertised on the web. So when it rained, nonstop for four days, even the books we found to read were limp with moisture. Boy, it sounds luxurious, doesn't it? The hotel is full of tall Amazonian models, passing through for glamour shots. He said, while it may be pleasing on the eye, it gave the air of a sleazy house of ill repute. This is supposed to be a fancy luxury lavish hotel. And this guy is just writing this.

He says it was way too expensive as well, completely failing to live up to expectations. Then he said something interesting as he closed out. He said about this place. He said, it's all form and no substance. Looks great online, but awful in reality. That really struck me, especially when I was thinking about the Samaritans in this. That was them. They would be this luxury hotel that looks so great on the outside, so wonderful. But on the inside, reality? It's a mess. Absolute mess. They were all form, but no substance in the true worship of God.

Now, then, the challenge for us is where do we fit in when we think about these kinds of things? God has given us some wonderful things. He has given us amazing blessings. He has given us wonderful ways to express how much we care about Him, how much we love Him, how much we honor and we worship Him. And so, He's given us even these wonderful physical things. We can come together on the Sabbath. We can sit in comfortable chairs. We can have beautiful fellowship. We can sing. We can keep the Sabbath. We can pray. We can give. We have all these wonderful forms, these wonderful ways that God has given us to show our love and show our respect to Him.

But if we go through the form without the substance, what would you call that?

If you're all form and no substance, what would Christ call that?

A hypocrite. It looks good, but that's not the reality of things. When we act contrary to what we say, or we do things different than what we say we believe, that's what we are. We're a hypocrite. We're hypocritical in the things that we're doing.

Christ was pretty tough on those who did that very thing.

Remember some of those things that He said to the people? Yeah, He was pretty tough on them. In fact, maybe we should look. Hold your place here. Matthew 15, verse 7.

Here Christ quotes the prophet Isaiah and referred to the people that were around Him at that time as well.

He points to those who have form but are lacking in substance.

Matthew 15, verse 7. Yeah, He started out this section just like you might think. He says, hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you? Matthew 15, verse 8.

He said, These people draw near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Yeah, sure, that was one way. But is it possible to have the right doctrines, the truth, and still be hypocritical? And still have a vain form of worship? I think it is possible. I think it is. James certainly even used other things. He said, you know, you're having a problem. You think you're religious and you don't even control the tongue? You can't control the things that you say? You're deceived. So James wasn't talking about false doctrine or anything like that. James 1.26, he just says, the way you talk, the way you're thinking, what comes out of your mouth, he says, if that's what it is, your religion is useless. You're like the Samaritans. That's form. That's not reality. And so he gets right down to the heart of things. Now we could say, well, I love God. I care about God. I want to be close to God. And that's good, and we need to. There's no doubt.

But are there areas of our life that in this sense we can take it up a spiritual notch? I think we can. I think it's possible. I think we at least need to think about it. I mean, one of the forms that we have that really must have substance, and it's a simple one. It's kind of a little minor example, and it's just that you can probably think of more serious examples.

But one of the things that came to my mind is our song service.

We start services, and it's time to finish my coffee and then come and sit down, I guess. And they're singing and everything. Well, we come. We know we're supposed to sing. We know we're supposed to worship God. We know we're supposed to honor Him in songs. How many times does it say, you know, Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Let's sing His praises. All the earth sings wonderful praise to the Lord. Over and over and over again we sing that.

I can't help but think of some of the songs that we sing. You know, page 72. You probably don't know which song that is off the top of your head. But it's, Oh, How Love Thy Thy Law. Right? We know that. Oh, How Love Thy Thy Law. That's right. Okay. It's ever with me. Right. You know it.

Are we thinking of those words when we sing it? Or are we thinking of those words later on? We sing that. That's our form. What's the substance behind it?

You know, Oh, How Love Thy Thy Law. I left my Bible in my car for the whole week, but I got there next Sabbath and there it was and I pulled it out and I walked into church. That's not ever with me. It's my meditation all the day in my thoughts. You know, that's the Word of God. That's the form. But what's our substance behind it? Do we really mean those words? Are we living those words? Are they a part of our thinking? Are they our life? Or are we lacking a little bit in the substance? I love that song. God speaks to us. But am I really listening? You know, form. But where's the substance? Or if you've ever song led, Blessed and happy is the man who does. Well, if you've song led, you can look out at people and it doesn't look so blessed and happy out there. Now, we all have bad days, no doubt about that. But when you look at the form, and especially the substance that should be behind us, what blessings we have. You know, for even from my youth, O Lord, our children have the most wonderful opportunities. And they look to us as parents and grandparents and a church family. Are we really living the things that we say we believe?

You know, Lord, I will praise You with my whole heart! Well, some days, like, don't do that well. And so just the things that we sing and we say we believe and we, you know, are lyric about, sometimes, I think, are just form and they need a whole lot more substance behind it. And so if you had to give yourself a grade, where would you fall on the scale when it comes to even just that little thing? Let's think about the last grade for the Samaritans for a moment. They also earned another F. The Samaritans, well, maybe they had a bit of the true God in their religion. They liked their own gods just as much, maybe even a little bit better. We read certainly about the fact they feared God, but they still serve idols and images, and taught it to their children and grandchildren. They gave a kind of a lip service to God, but who really got their true service? You see, sometimes we might think, well, we can add these things together and that'll make it better, which I'm sure they thought, well, we'll throw the true God in and that'll make the true God happy. But who were they really serving when they did that? Yeah, they're serving the idols, right? They think they're serving the true God, but the pagan gods, the false gods, were the ones that got their true service. And so what happened is the Samaritans forfeited the truth. So they gained another F on their report card. They were too willing to compromise. They were too willing to turn their back on bothering to learn the truth and actually putting it into practice completely in their lives. And by doing that and just thinking they could add some truth into the mix, really put them in the category of serving the wrong gods altogether. I mean, can you serve the true God and serve the world? Can you have one foot in the world and one foot in God's way? Is that possible? Christ says, no, you can't do that. You can't serve two masters. Remember that section of Matthew 6? You can't serve two masters. You're going to hate one and love the other one. Or you'll be loyal to one and despise the other one. It doesn't work that way. And so when you try to do both, try to be a part of what seems to be kind of cool and kind of interesting and fun out there that isn't right, and still try to have a foot in the church, who wins? The world wins, because that's really where we're at then.

We're really over on that side. It just doesn't work with both ways. And it does show up in our lives then. It shows up in different ways, in different means, in different situations. Sometimes it can get away from us. It can just be a matter of perspective sometimes. What is our perspective when it comes to our job? Our job can steal us away from more important things, like loving our family, spending time with our children, being right with our mate.

And we're not pleasing God when we're not taking care of our responsibilities. Sometimes our... boy, this time of the year? Materialism, things, stuff, get all what you want, get everything. Now, please yourself! And we can get caught up in the good old U.S. of A, right? That's a good old American way. And we can get caught up in that. Oh, are we Americans or are we Christians? Where is our true home? Where is our true loyalty? Where is our true citizenship? And of course, we live in a world of entertainment. What is our entertainment? How do we entertain ourselves? Sometimes it's just hard not to be wanting to be constantly entertained. Something's got to be on all the time, every day, every minute. They go stir-crazy otherwise. But is that what's best? Is entertainment, is it possible it could be an indication of whether or not I'm really hanging on to the truth, or maybe forfeiting not the whole thing, not saying that we don't love God, but are we giving up little bits and pieces that could get away from us, that could start to pull us in the wrong direction? Or maybe things that we... boy, it's a tough one. Maybe we justify ourselves. I have a tendency to do that all the time. Well, here's why I did this. Okay, it was not the best thing, I know, but there was good reason behind doing the wrong thing. Is that the way we're supposed... I mean, that kind of thinking comes, and we rationalize things. We justify things. We make excuses for our conduct. And in a way, we see we forfeit our priorities, God's priorities for us. And God says, you shouldn't be giving in. You shouldn't be compromising in that way. You shouldn't surrender any part of the truth and compromise with the wrong kind of values. And he's really specific about it. He becomes very specific about his perspective when it comes to any little bit of giving a piece of the truth away, sacrificing what's right in our lives for something that's just not as good, not as helpful, not as right for us as what God intends. Christ told us very clearly. If you go to the book of Luke, Luke 10, look at verse 27. Luke 10, verse 27, Christ lays it out very clearly. He gives it to us straight out. He doesn't hold back. He doesn't pull any punches. He gives it to us directly and specifically. In fact, he summarizes basically the whole package.

The whole package of God's way, he summarizes in two thoughts. Luke 10, verse 27, he gives us his opinion about surrendering, giving in, compromising, forfeiting. He says, here's what you need to do. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And so he summarizes the Big Ten in two thoughts. That's what we need to do. And boy, did he use the word all a lot, didn't he? All heart, all soul, all strength, all your mind. And oh yeah, you've got to like the guy that lives next to you, too. That's part of it. So he's talking about a whole package, total commitment. Don't tell me about the reasons why you don't. Don't justify it. Don't make excuses. Don't rationalize. Be ready to step up, no matter the price, and give it your all. Oh, and by the way, God says, I'll give you the help so you can. I'll give you my spirit so it's possible. And you think, well, is it just a little bit? Is it really that serious? Is it really that big of a deal? Well, a couple of pages over. If we flip over to Chapter 14. Here Christ again talks about those who follow. What would they be like? How different would they be than the Samaritans? Luke 14.33. He just lays it out. He says, whoever of you that does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. So Luke certainly points out the inspiration from Christ where he says, he's got to be number one. He's got to be first in our life. Even parents and brothers and sisters and wives and husbands should be second to God. If you don't put it in that priority, we're forfeiting a piece of the truth. And so it is that big of a deal. In fact, the Israelites got a feel for that. When those Samaritans moved in and they started distorting the truth, the Jews got really upset about it. And that's how eventually they became to just look at those Samaritans as dogs. And that's why Christ could use that story and say this was a good Samaritan. Everybody's like, what do you mean? They're awful. They've perverted the truth. They're far from you. So it would be shocking that there could even be a good Samaritan. But they recognized they couldn't have a part of that. If they were going to survive, if Judah was going to survive, they better get their act together. And some of the rabbis said some amazing things about the Samaritans. One of the rabbis said this about the seriousness of forfeiting the truth.

He wrote, let no Israelite eat one mouthful of anything that is a Samaritan's. For even if he eats a little mouthful, it's as if he would eat swine's flesh. Of course, we know how bad that would be, especially for the Jews at that time, especially. And so they looked at it like that. They recognized even just the smallest, not a whole meal, but just even the smallest little mouthful, the smallest little bit of compromise, the smallest little bit of forfeiting what's right in relaxing our priorities puts us out of the category of giving our all, striving with our whole heart, all our soul, all our strength, depending on God, putting Him in honor and love and awe and respect.

For that forfeiting and compromise, especially for us, not just talking about, you know, pork or anything like that, but for us, you know, that kind of a perspective is really a spiritual adultery. We're turning our backs on the only perfect relationship that we could have, that relationship with God. And so, no wonder, he said, if you don't forsake all, you can't be my disciple. So, as we think about the grading system for the Samaritans, I think it's kind of easy to see, yeah, they earn F's all across the board. They were a religion of the wrong kind of fear.

They had form. Some of it was good, some of it was right, but not much substance, and they sure compromised with the truth. But is it possible we could fall into that way of thinking? I think that's the challenge for us. Maybe we could take some time this week as we think about the Samaritans. Could we step back a little bit and just really take an honest look at ourselves? Look at our own life. Maybe we can ask ourselves, is it possible that my worship, the way that I honor God, is it a little bit too much like the Samaritans once in a while? Do I sometimes find myself a little bit leaning that way?

Maybe we could think about that a little bit. Are there any areas in my life that I've kind of given up some of the truth, that I've kind of relaxed, just kind of taken things a little too easy, that maybe I have compromised? Because I know He says I can't go between two opinions. I can't be in any area of my life.

I can't be back and forth. He says I just can't do that. And so do I find myself sometimes just putting on a show? I've got to look good. I've got to look right. I've got to have the form. But is there really true substance behind it? There are some amazing passages. It talks about the end time. When we look at 2 Timothy 3, it talks about perilous, difficult times. And one of those things gets right down to the heart of that, that people have a form of godliness, but they deny its power.

Boy, we don't want to be in that. Is there anything in my approach to God that I'm just trying to look good, rather than really do what's right? Is there anything that's kind of a counterfeit, that's just an outward form of religion? I don't want to be in that category.

We don't want to be there. So maybe this week I can begin to think about that and really get down to the truth about who I am. Because I want to root out any hypocrisy, any ways that are sliding away or moving away from the reality of the truth of God. Are there any areas like that in our lives?

Because I know with God's help, with His assurance, we can abandon that influence and that power that sometimes seems to take over our thinking, take over our heart, and take over our mind. So perhaps this week we could step back and every day, maybe even a couple of times a day, we could determine to get God more into our thinking.

Can I determine that I'm going to honor and reverence God, put that proper fear in my life? Do I recognize? Wow, I'm sitting in a nice heated room and it's freezing out there. Well, it's really crowded and I can't get back to the snacks and this isn't very convenient. But wait a second, what a blessing! What a wonderful blessing that God gives us. Can I determine that whatever the circumstances, I can honor God, I can thank Him, even sometimes for the littlest things. It is so cool! I can get on the Internet and look up something and I can get an answer like, now! What a wonderful thing that... Can I just step back and say, thanks for that, God!

That's awesome! What a wonderful blessing! Or just, nah, I should be able to do this stupid thing, it doesn't work sometimes. Sometimes we can forget and we just miss sometimes. And so I wonder if we can't just step back and allow God to be that much more of a part of our lives. Because we know He delivers us and He's our provider. He's an awesome God who wants the best for us.

He is the deliverer. He is the high tower. He is the Lord of Lord and King of Kings. And more than that, He's our God. He's our God. And He's given us the truth. And He gives us the opportunity to have a right relationship with Him. And so I think we can make it our determination to have the right motivation, to be motivated out of a right love and deep respect. And really recognize God and esteem Him for who He really is and the amazing things that He's doing in our lives. How we have this wonderful opportunity to make His way our way. And He gives us the choice. We can do it. And He helps us. And He guides us and He says, here is the best way. And can we step back this week and make it that choice? So in that way we're kind of bump up the scale a little bit because we certainly don't want the grade the Samaritans got. That we don't want. We are striving to avoid those three F's. And God gives us the promise that He will lead us in truth. So this week, let's be sure we're moving farther and farther away from the dreadful example of the not-so-good Samaritans.