Wednesday 7/22/26 - The Call To Samaria - Pastor Bria

Thank you so much. Before you're seated, turn to maybe two people, three people, shake their hands, tell them you're glad they're here. We won't do the fullon wander around thing, but just find a couple people near nearish and as they as they disperse anyway.

It's okay. It's fine. It's okay.

Lost them that fast. Children's church, please be dismissed. Children's church, you may be dismissed.

Amen. It was it it feels like it's been a while since I've been here in the pull pit. So, if I'm rusty tonight, uh, an amen doeth good like a can of WD40 to help knock off the rust.

So, an amen will help me maybe and maybe help you, too. Amen. Thank y'all for coming tonight.

You can go ahead and be seated. I'll I'll be reading some scriptures, but a little bit little bit later on after a bit of a opening here. So, thank you for coming.

So glad you can you can be seated. Thank you for being here tonight. And again, thank you pastor and pastor for the opportunity to speak.

Uh tonight I want to talk about a topic that can be I guess heavy depending on how you take it. Shouldn't be anything really new. Maybe a different angle to it.

The title I want to give it is called just watching. Just watching. I got a couple few questions at for you at the beginning here though.

So, what would you rather do? Would you rather eat your favorite food or watch somebody else eat your favorite food? Which one would be more interesting for you?

Eating your favorite food, of course. Would you rather watch a masterpiece be painted or would you rather be the one to paint the masterpiece? Which one's going to make you more money?

painting the masterpiece, right? What would be more intriguing? Watching the eagle soar or if you had the ability to soar with the eagles.

Clearly, just watching isn't all that exciting, right? So, what about when you're in a store and you don't want to be bothered by that salesperson that walks up? What do you always say?

No thanks. I'm just looking. I'm just walking around.

I'm browsing. I'm In other words, I'm watching what I can see, watching what what's here. But no, I don't want to talk to you.

As you're past those people in the mall, you want a sample? No, thank you. Because I know that sample comes with, "Hey, so let me tell you whatever the thing is that they're trying to to rope you in with.

No thanks. I'm just looking. I'm just watching." Now, there are some times that I would rather just watch.

for example, at the zoo. I don't want to get in the cage. I don't want to be with the animals, right?

I don't want to also I don't want to be the the zookeeper that has to clean up after said animals. Um I don't want to have to worry about their feeding schedules and all all the bathing, all the medicines, all those things. I just want to go watch some animals for a while and leave.

But an experience like going to the zoo offers very little opportunity to become involved and really to make an impact or a difference. As you walk into that animal or walk towards that animal enclosure, the animal might see you, might not might be sleeping, might might not even be there. I've ever stared in front of stood in front of one of those exhibits that after a while you realize, oh, that animal must not be in here.

And then you kind of feel silly and you move on to the next one. And then you kind of watch the people behind you to see are they going to do the same thing and look at that empty exhibit for about five minutes before they realize no animal. Anyway, what my point is on this is that you can be in the zoo and leave the zoo and that animal's life has not been really impacted or affected by your presence because you were just watching.

We might learn a lot from watching, but we make little to no contribution to society or to the kingdom of God if we are just watching. And that's the point of the message. I I'm I probably, if I was a better preacher, would save my big point for the end.

I just like to lay it out right there and give you a few examples and we'll go home. Does that sound good? All right, cool.

That's the point. We're not going to make a contribution or an impact in the kingdom of God if we are just watching. In Matthew, we find an instance of some just watching happening.

Matthew chapter 27:es 27-36. I will read a little bit, talk a little bit. So stay with me.

If you want to turn there, you can or otherwise just look up and listen. 27:27 starts out says, "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers." I'm keep reading. And they stripped him and put him on him a scarlet robe.

And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his hand, right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews." And they spit on him and took the reed and smoteed him on the head. And after that they had mocked him.

They took off the robe from off of him off from him and put his own raignment on him and led him away to crucify him. Nice uh casual reading for a Wednesday night, huh? Pretty heavy stuff.

Verse 32. And as they came out, they found a man ofSirene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to bear his cross. And when they were come to a place called Goltha, that is to say, a place of the skull.

34 They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with Gaul. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, that they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

And then we get to this next verse 36. and sitting down. They watched him there.

of all the terrible things that happened in this passage that last line sitting down they watched him there has I I don't know if I could say equal kind of impact but a different kind of impact in a big way on me when I read this passage all of these things all of these things and then at the end of it I sat down and watched like I don't know what they were expecting. Maybe they didn't know what was going to happen next. Maybe they didn't know what they were expecting, but they just sat there and watched.

What a phrase. So many people besides the soldiers that were present, probably even people that at one point had walked side by side with Jesus, were now sitting and watching as it were from the sidelines. They're not involved.

They're just sitting and watching. disciples, folks healed of diseases, folks that had been delivered from evil spirits. All this time of the three and a half years of his ministry on this earth, people that had received miracles and blessings and deliverances potentially witnessing this spectacle and they all sat down and just watched.

I can just imagine I'm I'm you use a little bit of hypothetical with me here. I'm not trying to add to the Bible, but just imagination here. Okay, so this is JW, not King James or God.

Um, just imagine though the possibility of that little 12-year-old girl tapping her dad, Gyrus, and saying, "Hey, isn't isn't that the man that told all the people to leave the house and then raised me up from the dead? What did he do to deserve what we just watched and witnessed? Or what about the little boy who taps his mom and says, "Hey, I think that's the man who borrowed the lunch that you made for me when NO ONE ELSE BROUGHT ANY food and there WAS A HUGE CROWD AND EVERYONE was hungry and he took my five loaves and two fish and fed everyone.

Why is everyone just sitting now and just watching?" Did the man who was paralyzed and bedridden avoid eye contact with his four friends who had ripped off shingles of a building a year or so or however I don't know the timeline exactly but a while ago just to get him to Jesus's feet. And did he recognize those same feet now pierced and bleeding? As he sat and watched, we read that passage and wonder, at least I do, how could those people just sit there and watch it happen?

How could those who were at one point so changed, so healed, so blessed, and so restored, and so delivered by Jesus himself, how could they just sit there and just watch? But then I think, how many times have we just watched someone else who was struggling? How many times have we just watched someone who is in need of a savior or in need maybe of just a friend, an encouraging word?

Oh, we have our justifiable excuses, if you will. Uh we have things like, "I'm just so busy with my own problems. I don't have enough time to help them with theirs." Or maybe we say, "I'm too shy.

That's not my personality." Or maybe we say, "What if I try to help, but then it fails?" Guess what? on that one. Not your job anyway.

God didn't say you perform the miracle. God told you to pray and he would do the work. So anyways, that's that's not your job.

But we do think that sometimes. What if I look silly? If I if I embarrass myself or or we try to justify it by saying, "What if I embarrassed God?" When you're not going to really, but you're more probably thinking, "What if I embarrass myself because I prayed and it didn't happen?" Or, "What good are my efforts going to do?

What kind of impact am I going to have? It's just a drop in the bucket what I could do about this situation. Now, I do realize Jesus was going to go through all of the things that he endured regardless of whether anybody tried to assist or intervene or help or whatever because there was a price to be paid for sin and he was the only one who could do it and that was the divine plan and order for him to uh enact that plan of salvation through he had to die, he had to be buried and he had to rise again.

But did he have to be abandoned by everyone who claimed to love him in the process? I don't know. There may have been a prophecy about that or two.

I don't but but but just I got to think like you especially the disciples that the the apostles the disciples that walked with him those three and a half years of his ministry in the end Peter denied he even knew him. Are we just as guilty as now I'm gonna I'm gonna jump to another story here. Are we just as guilty as the priest and the Levite on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho who saw the man who had been beaten by robbers, beaten and left for dead on the road?

Have we ever spiritually walked away from or walked around someone who was gasping for a breath of hope? Someone who is broken and begging for help? Someone who is bleeding out in the middle of a mess?

Have we ever walked around or avoided because we didn't want to get dirty? What's our excuse then? Well, they shouldn't have been walking down that road.

Didn't they know better? This man probably knew that that was a dangerous road. Why do you go down that road?

Here we are sitting back and saying they did it to themselves. What's that? Blaming the victim.

Or what about our excuse of, "Oh, there ought to be a program to help someone like that. You think the government program is going to be the thing to fix the problem? Not being political, but you kind of sometimes can use your eyes and see government programs don't always fix it.

Oh, you're talking about a church program. Well, maybe they can't always reach everything and everybody with with the resources that they have as well. So, oh, he needs a good Samaritan like maybe maybe pastor or somebody else in a leadership position or something.

He needs to find somebody like that. Let Let me Oh, I got a business card. Let me give a card.

This has got a pastor's phone number. Here you are. I know you're laying and bleeding right now, bleeding out and in and emergency situation, but let me give you a phone a phone card with a phone number on there.

And whenever you find enough breath in your body and strengthen your fingers, dial this phone number and maybe somebody else can answer and handle your problems. And I promise I'm talking to myself first because I have been as guilty of that. Oh, let pastor handle it.

Oh, let somebody else handle it. That's deflecting personal responsibility because the good Samaritan, we call him the good Samaritan. He was just a Samaritan person who now we know of as good.

But in that moment he was just a Samaritan. Matter of fact, Samaritan in that time uh was was was like the lowest of society. The Jews had a higher class level than that Samaritan.

And he was willing to stop and help a Jew who if the roles had been reversed very likely would not have helped him. But he'd stopped. He took it upon himself.

He said, "This is my responsibility. I've witnessed this situation. and I can understand the severity of the need that this man is in because I've seen it happen and I'm going to take care of him.

Not only am I going to try to bandage his wounds right now, but then I'm also going to offer some long-term care. I'm going to take him to a to an inn that has a need. Now, I got a job to do.

I got something else. I still got to be I got business to take care of, but I'm going to come back now later and say, "Hey, inkeeper, did the money that I left with you cover all of those expenses? And if not, I'll give you some more." like he had long-term plans for meeting the need that was presented right in front of him.

God put you in the path of the person that you encounter that you know has a need that's hurting. Let's go back to Matthew. I'm going to go back one chapter in Matthew.

Matthew chapter 26 starting at verse 36. I know I'm jumping story to story, but we're just kind of setting some examples here. 30 2636 it says, ' Then comes Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, sit you here while I go and pray over there.

Pray yonder. In verse 37, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. And he said unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.

Terry, that means wait here and watch with me. Literal word watch. But Jesus doesn't always speak very literally.

Sometimes there's some figurative and some implications and some expectations that you participate on your own. But I think the disciples must have missed that this time. He said, ' Watch with me.' And verse 39, he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying,"Oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And he cometh again to the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What?

Could you not watch with me one hour this time? Even just watching was obviously too much for these disciples. For uh 41, watch and pray.

Jesus tells him, "Oh, what is the second word this time? Watch and pray." So he's like, "All right, you didn't get it the first time. I thought I was clear, but let me be a little more clear." Kind of like he had to do whenever somebody else came and he's like, "Oh, they're just sleeping." And they're like, "Oh, okay.

Well, everything's fine." He's like, "No, no, no. All right. Let me be even more plain, more blunt.

He is dead. It's kind of what made me think of here. Watch.

And Jesus is like, "No." All right. So, you didn't get it the first time. Here we go.

Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit is willing, but um indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. 42.

And he went away again the second time and prayed, saying, "Oh my father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were very heavy. They didn't even eat a big old meal. But I wonder I wonder why they kept getting so sleepy.

Is it because they had to sit somewhere for an hour? Or maybe is it because they had to sit somewhere for an hour and in their mind seemingly do nothing, nothing active anyway. They weren't participating or or really emotionally invested in the need.

They didn't really know what was about to happen, right? Jesus had asked Peter, James, and John to watch with him. And they must have taken him literally because they were watching the backs of their eyelids twice.

The second time he came, he clarified and told them to watch and pray. But still, this lack of action was too much for their heavy eyes, and they fell asleep. They did not understand or feel the magnitude about of what was about to happen, the life-changing events that Jesus was fixing to have to endure in the next chapter that we just read earlier.

So, they didn't have the they didn't feel the need, the burden, and so they just watched to the point of exhaustion. Church warning. We can just watch so long and too long to the point where we get tired and sleepy, too.

I know it's kind of counterintuitive to think that if I'm active and I'm moving, that's when I get tired out. And maybe in the physical body that might be true, but in the spiritual sense, the more you sit back, the more you watch, the sleepier and sleepier spiritually you become. But the more engaged, the more active you become in the work of God, the more energy and the more faith and the more joy and the more hope and the more ability you have to impact and affect others.

So, it's a whole mind shift here. If I'm going to sit back and watch, be careful. You could be going to sleep.

I pray that we get a realization of the internal impact that our choices and actions have, as well as the actions of the people that we interact with daily have. Heaven is real, but so is hell. It's not time to sleep on Jesus.

It's time to wake up and pray and do the work while we still can. The vi the verse that says, "Work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work." The last example that I'll that I'll leave with you, I'll share here is kind of the ending of a very very familiar probably one of the most familiar passages at least of parables anyways that Jesus ever taught. And it's the one of the prodigal son.

And I'll skip to the end because you most of us here I'm pretty sure know the story. So I'll skip to it's in Luke chapter 15 starting at verse 18. This is the point where uh the prodigal son comes to his senses.

He's in the bottom of a pig pin chewing on muddy corn cobs trying to get any kind of nutrients that he can. And he comes to his senses and realizes, you know, even the servants in my father's house are living better than I am right now. I do not well.

I need to get back home. I will arise. Verse 18 says, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.

make me as one of the hired servants." And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. What does that mean?

His father must have been doing watching and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Father saw him from a great way off. Obviously, he was watching.

But what but notice I'm going to say the watch. Watch. Notice what kind of watching the father was doing.

Keep reading verse 21. And the son said unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." But the father said to his servants, he kind of paused the son, "Hey, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold that thought. Wait, turned to the servants and said, "Bring forth the best robe." And put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.

And then I love this verse and y'all y'all probably heard me say it before and you're probably sick of me pointing this out, but this is a really cool fact that I learned a long time ago and I keep saying it anyway. Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. Why did I emphasize fatted calf?

What had been going on in the lands? a famine. And you're telling me in the middle of a famine where food and resources are scarce and precious, this father had a fatted calf.

Not just a regular or even starving calf, a fatted calf. He was he was spending resources and the food to keep this calf ready and fatted and prepared for the moment that his son walked back. It wasn't an afterthought, but rather an indicator of continuous faith and expectation.

He knew one day my son's coming home, and I'm going to be ready. And so, I'm not only watching, but I'm actively watching, actively preparing, keeping the fatted calf ready. That robe was probably hanging just on the back side of the door.

It It was ready. That ring, he probably had it greased up. so he can slip it off fast.

He was ready to welcome this son home. It's likely that that father was watching daily because he saw his son from a great distance, a great way off. That wouldn't have been noticed with just an accidental glance over his shoulder on a random Tuesday.

This was a a constant look. Maybe he would go about his day and do something else, but then Oh, I got to go check. Let me make sure there's no dust cloud.

All right, I got to I got something else to do. I got to go take care of this. But let me go look see if that son's he's still doing the work.

He's still maintaining the the farm, maintaining the land, but he's also actively watching and waiting for when that son finally comes home. But he didn't and and then once the son does show up, he sees him. He didn't just stand there watching until his son finally dragged himself all the way up to the doorstep or if we if you will, all the way up to the altar.

If we're want to maybe apply this to ourselves, he didn't wait for the son to make his own way by himself all the way. But what did he do? He ran.

He ran out to his son. He met him. He I'm sure helped him like the son was probably raggled and and thirsty and and and stumbling and he probably because he didn't have much good food to eat recently.

All he was eating is muddy corn cobs. So yeah, the father, I'm sure, had to kind of help him along along the way. He welcomed him home, dressed him up, and even had a feast for him.

So what does this mean, Brother JW? What are you trying to tell us tonight? Hopefully it's clear.

I don't know, but if not, I'll I'll go ahead and make the points anyway. We need to watch for lost and needy souls to come into our lives. First point, we need to be noticing everywhere that we go, anybody that we interact with.

I think it was sister Laura that said it so beautifully. Uh Sunday night, this past Sunday night, she asked God, "Who do you want me to encounter today?" She prays that during the before the day starts, what she the way she worded it was, "What adventure do you want to take me on today?" And I thought that was so cool because living for God is an adventure. Sometimes highs, sometimes lows, but it's never boring.

But who can I impact today? Who can I help today? We also need to be prepared to feed them spiritually.

Once we get them here, we got to get them fed. We got to nurse them back to health. The church is going to be a hospital, more like triage.

It's going to be an emergency room kind of setting when God sends uh the the the needy, the lost. They're not going to look like you. Maybe they're not going to smell like you.

Maybe they're not going to act like you and use the same language and words as you, but they belong here. And they don't need to be here by themselves because you know what it's like to be in the middle of a crowd and still feel lonely. And and I know I'm preaching to the the Wednesday night choir.

I get it. So, this is just emphasizing and and maybe thoughts to to ponder on for later, but we have to be prepared to feed them spiritually. We also need to make sure that we don't have to be the they don't have to be the ones to drag themselves all the way to the altar before we reach out and offer help.

And I say altar, not specifically physically, but drag themselves all the way to the point where they're ready for repentance and they're ready to have a change in their life that when they walk in the doors, there's a reason they came. So they're they're already already ready to a degree, but maybe maybe they're still hesitant. Maybe they're still kind of sitting back.

Maybe they're sitting I remember there was a a guy that he would grip he gripped the back of the pew so hard that his knuckles turned white because he was fighting that that that um um what's the word for whenever God's pulling on you and you resisting. He was sir conviction. That's the Yeah, thank you.

Word slipped me. He was fighting that conviction so hard that his knuckles physically were turning white. And all it took was somebody else saying, "Hey, brother, I'll walk down with you." And he broke and came down and received the change in his life that he needed.

So don't make them walk by themselves. And again, I said physically along an altar situation in a church service, but also just figuratively, don't make them have to drag themselves all the way down the road before you run out and try to offer help and reach them where they are. Meet them where they are.

They don't have to have the right I've already said this. They don't have to have the right clothes, the right right uh look and physical appearance type thing before you reach to them and say, "How can I help?" Could we stand tonight? It's easy to lose interest when you're not personally involved in what's happening.

In the case of the disciples, they didn't know what was about to happen. So, they wouldn't have had a burden to pray quite like Jesus did. Now, they probably should have prayed a little bit more than just what they did, but they they didn't feel that same level of burden.

But we know the stakes. We know we've read the end of the book. We know what happens to those who are lost when that trumpet sounds.

So, we need to have that burden. Don't just watch, but get involved. Pray, actively.

seek and do what God has called us to do for his kingdom. I'll close with one more verse, sister Angela. I don't know if I gave you this one.

It says Luke, it's Luke chapter 21:36 and says, "Watch ye therefore and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all of these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man." That's a charge. That's a mandate. Watch therefore and pray so that you can escape all of these things.

And so that you can stand before the son of man. I don't want one day to me get up there and say, "Well, you didn't do this, this, and this. You you I gave you these opportunities and and he's going to ask me, so what did you do with what you had?" Kind of like he did with the talents, the 10, the five, and the and the one.

What did you do with that one? And if you didn't do anything with it, take it from him. and cast this guy out into utter darkness, nashing of teeth, weeping.

No, I don't want that to be my story. I want to be able to stand before the son of God and say, "Lord, I may not always been perfect. Matter of fact, you know, I wasn't I wasn't always perfect, but I did try to help my brother and my sister in need when the opportunity arose when you placed them in my path.

One day, we're all going to be in heaven. And I know for sure I'm not just going to want to watch there. I know there I want to be a part of that big chorus that that big heavenly choir that's singing holy holy that's throwing the crowns before his feet.

I know when I get there I'm not going to just watch. I know we're going to sing around the throne. We're going to weep joyfully.

We're going to uh dance. We're going to shout. We're going to celebrate the one who saved us by his grace.

I know when I get there I'm not going to be just sitting back and watching. So now I also need to make sure that I'm actively working so that I and everybody else that I can influence can get there. Let's pray.

Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Help me, oh God.

I pray for myself first. God, help me. Lord, help me to watch.

But more than just passively watch, God, help me to actively watch. Help me to be be active in in the the calling and the commission that you've placed on my life. God, help me to actively pursue it.

But even beyond that, Lord, help me to just actively notice. Help me to watch for opportunities to share your love, to share your peace, to share your joy. Help me to see someone who is hurting and not be the the one that walks around, but the one that walks straight to and says, "Here, I got a band-aid." Help me Lord to be the one to to reach out to my brother, to my sister, to help them to reach to the point where they are strong and then they can in turn pass that on to someone else so that all all that's possible can come to repentance and all that's possible can be saved.

Help us Lord. We ask in Jesus name. I praise you Lord.

I thank you God. Thank you Lord. Thank you God.

Hallelujah Jesus. Hallelujah. Give us a burden Lord and then give us strength and wisdom to carry out that burden.

Jesus save. Help us Lord. Help us Lord.

Help us Lord. I praise you God. Thank you Jesus.

Thank you God.