The Children in the Road

, also, we're very happy to have Dustin Smetona with us, this morning. To open up God's word and God's heart to us, Dustin. essentially, his role is to find and support adoptive families for a local agency called Child Share. Maybe you have heard of it.

This is a ministry or a program that was developed back in the 80s, designed to address the lack of stable and loving housing for abused and neglected. children and the program essentially puts them in homes where they can, be cared for in a stable and loving environment. This is the program, the ministry that ought to catch our eye as a church, as we are seeking to embody the grace of the gospel and the love of the gospel and the sacrifice and self-giving of the gospel, towards the neediest and the most vulnerable among us.

And Dustin's role is to find families and support those families and, and setting up children in some of these loving and stable environments in, in these homes.

Dustin also, holds a BA. He graduated from, of all places, Cal Baptist. And he is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Kristen, his wife, who runs their wedding photography business, and they are active members of Sovereign Grace Church in Pasadena.

So there is much to commend this brother to us this morning. He has a real heart for God and a real heart for the hurting and for abused and neglected children. And Dustin, we are happy to have you here to come and just open up your heart and the heart of God to us this morning. So why don't you come and let's give our brother a warm cornerstone welcome.

Thanks, Pastor Milton. Well, it is, it is a pleasure and an honor, to get to share with you all this morning and man, this is a, this is a commanding pulpit. So I feel, I feel good about that, at least. No, I'm really excited to get to, to get to to share with you all this morning and, as Pastor Milton noted, I'm a graduate of CBU right down the street.

that right there. The longer blonde-haired gal sitting down there in the front is my beautiful wife, Kristen. We've been married just, about a year and a half, year and a half, August 26th. So we're newlyweds, loving it.

she is definitely the greatest joy, other than my sweet salvation that Jesus is. Brought to me, but love you, Kristen. And I do work for ChildShare, a Christian nonprofit organization that's centered here in Southern California. And as Pastor Milton so, so well described, my job is to find and support families for children in the foster care system.

Now, I know that this church is involved in, in adoption, in a number of ways. And so, my expertise is with foster care, and I'm going to relate my message to foster care and adoption, but I hope that for those of you serving children in capacities outside of that, you're still refreshed by this message. You're still engaged by it, and you still feel affirmed as well, because there's many ways to serve children. What I'm expressing to you is one of them.

as I just mentioned, and I want to set the tone for, for what I'm about to tell you this morning. This message that I'm about to give you is, is not a correction to this church. It's easy to have somebody come in from outside who's involved in mercy ministry, and they come and slap you on the wrist like you're not doing enough. And that's actually not my intent this morning.

the, the first thing I want to do is just affirm how the desire to serve children is already in this church and God's grace is already manifest among you all in families who've adopted. The families who are pursuing foster care, other ways that you're serving children, even just having me here is an evidence of what God's doing in your hearts. And so this, this message is an encouragement to you to keep doing what you're already doing, and to go farther than you've already gone in serving kids.

And so I hope that you're inspired and your hearts are warmed by this message, but that you're also strengthened and challenged to go farther than you have previously.

So as I mentioned, my role is in the foster care system here in Riverside County. Just to give you a quick snapshot, there's about 4000 children in the system here in Riverside County. So there's about 423,000 in the whole nation, about 50,000 here in Southern California, and then About 4000 right here in Riverside County, so kids come into the foster care system mainly due to abuse and neglect, so physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or just severe neglect. neglect to the point of their lives are in jeopardy.

So that's all big numbers, vague. Let me tell you guys, let me tell you guys a story. So on a summer day right down the road here in Lake Elsinore in 2009, there was a gal named Vicky, and she was at home with her, they were then 4 year old and 18-month-old daughters. The younger one, the 18 month old, began to cry.

And Vicky couldn't figure out what was getting, what was causing the little girl to cry, and so she began to become frustrated. now, any of you who have children, have you ever had your child start crying in a way that was frustrating to you? You couldn't figure out what was wrong with them and And even though the kid really didn't do anything wrong, they were just upset. You couldn't figure out why, you began to get frustrated, you began to get angry.

Well, that's what was happening to Vicky, she was just getting frustrated. unfortunately, her frustration manifested in an ugly way, and she drew a scalding hot bath and she dipped the 18 month old's legs in the water. She was burned, the little girl was burned so bad that her feet turned black. And so in the article that I was reading this in, it says both girls are now in foster care, and Vicky took them to the hospital and of course CPS got involved.

So that's one girl that came into foster care. The reason the little girl was crying, just as a side note, was that she had a dirty diaper. Unfortunate. Now, your gut reaction to that story is probably Anger at Vicky.

And that's, if you read the comments on this article that I read, that was what I saw. I saw people say we should just take her, that lady, and burn her legs, eye for an eye, retribution, right? We need to punish her for what she's done wrong. She needs to be, she needs to be punished.

And reality is, yes, that's a part of justice. Punishing criminals is a is a part of justice. Punishing people who've done something wrong, that's, that's healthy for our society. But what, what, nobody said who commented on the article?

None of them said, what happens to the kids now? Nobody was concerned about the girls who were made to suffer. They were concerned about the one who was already going to be punished by law enforcement, and law enforcement was involved. She, she's, she's got a 14 year sentence.

But what about the girls? And nobody, nobody asked that question. And The passage that we're going to look at this morning addresses that question. The passage that we're going to read says, you need to be the people that when you see somebody who's suffering innocently, you jump at the opportunity to help them.

That's the people that the gospel is creating, people whose hearts are so warmed by God's mercy, that when we see people suffering, we will inconvenience ourselves for their sake. So let me read our passage this morning. Would you open your Bibles to Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25. We're going to read the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan.

And The parable of the Good Samaritan, I hope you won't tune out because this parable well, right? It's well known, but I think it's rich and it has a lot to teach us and so I hope that you'll re-engage this passage with me, really see what God would teach us this morning. So let me begin reading in verse 25, chapter 10 of Luke. And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And he said to him, what's written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, You shall 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. And he said to him, you've answered correctly, do this and you will live.

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers. They stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. By chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion. And came to him, bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I return, I will repay you.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands, and he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said, go and do the same. Let's pray. God of grace, we come to you this morning.

Realizing how short we fall of the Good Samaritan. But that that doesn't keep us from being loved by you. You love us because of who you are. And we know that because you gave your only Son for us, Jesus.

And so we rest in that truth today. God, I pray that this parable would teach us the gospel, that we would be so warmed by what the good news is, what Jesus has done. And that out of that we would become the people who serve those who are vulnerable, who are innocent. Namely, children who are orphaned.

So come God, work in our hearts for your glory and to build this church, to be more like Christ. We thank you and pray in Christ's name. Amen. So before I address the actual substance of the parable, there's some dialogue that happens between Jesus and this lawyer that's very compelling.

It sets up the, it sets up the substance of the parable for us. So as you've seen, Jesus is confronted by this law expert. He was a scribe who's making an attempt to expose Jesus' low view of the law. That's really what he's interested in.

You see that in verse 25 by Luke's comment. It says the lawyer was attempting to put Jesus to the test by asking him, how do you really get eternal life? Because every good Jew would know that eternal life came through strict observance of the law, and his assumption was that Jesus thought differently. It's this attempt to expose Jesus, the renegade rabbi, this rabbi who's stirring up all these issues.

He's trying to expose Jesus for his unorthodox views. Now Jesus, knowing the man's heart and the man's expertise, puts the ball back into the court. He says, well, what, you tell me, you're the expert. What's the, what's the law say?

It's sarcastic. And the man gives what I'm calling the Pat Sunday school answer. Love God with everything that you are and love others. And he's right, that's exactly what the law requires.

That you're supposed to, you and I are supposed to love God with absolutely everything that we are, our hearts, our wills, our mind, our hands, our strength. We're supposed to love God with absolutely everything that we are. And we're supposed to love our neighbors, which now we're going to see that define what that is. We're supposed to love our neighbors with just as much energy, just as much joy, and just as much speed that you love yourself.

Tall order. How quickly when you get hungry, do you feed yourself? The the law saying with that same speed that you feed yourself when you get hungry, you should serve other people. That's a tall order.

What the lawyer doesn't understand is that he's absolutely incapable of doing either of those things. Now how do you see that in the parable? How, how does that show up? 22 notes.

One, he doesn't ask Jesus about how he should love God. Notice that, that omission makes it clear that he doesn't think he's doing so bad in the area of loving God. I've got that covered. I don't need any clarification on that.

I'm doing good. What I need to know is about this neighbor business. And so his pointed question, who is my neighbor? it's meant to get him a nice clean to do list, right?

Jesus, just level with me, OK? Loving my neighbor, it's broad. Tell me what that looks like. I need some application points so that I can check it off for eternal security.

I need to make sure that I'm OK. Now Jesus' answer is funny. The parable never addresses the man's question. He never actually answered, Who is your neighbor?

He answers the question. Who is truly a neighbor? That's what the parables, that's what the parables answering. And so by extension, the parable is going to force us to answer the question, am I a neighbor?

Now let's just assume from the get-go that the answer to that question is no. I'm not a neighbor. According to this parable, I'm not even close. The real question is, How do we become true neighbors?

Really, how is God making us true neighbors? And that's going to bring me to 2 points. This is a 2-point sermon. So for those of you who grabbed clipboards, who've got the outline, point number 1, big point number 1 is consider Jesus, the Great Samaritan.

And out of experiencing His mercy, if you consider Jesus, consider your calling, become a good Samaritan. So let's look at point number 1, consider Jesus the Great Samaritan. As I've noted, this parable, it is, it's giving us an ethic, it's giving us a way to live. but we know from reading other things that Jesus has taught us, actions flow out of the condition of your heart.

So maybe the most popular place to go, out of the heart, the mouth speaks. You remember when Jesus says that? Now what's in your heart manifests in your life. And so what we need from this parable, before I tell you what you got to do about it, is we got to find out what this parable says about what Jesus has done for us, and it says a lot.

Now, there's a connecting point, there's a connecting point in this passage that gets us to the gospel. And it's a, it's a three word phrase and it's in verse 33. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, here it is, he felt compassion. Now that phrase is a is one word in Greek, and the word comes from a root that means the guts of a sacrifice.

Really nice on a Sunday morning, right? I hope you didn't eat breakfast yet. The guts of a sacrifice, the kidneys, the heart, the intestines, that's what the word was, that's what the word was used to refer to. What it literally means in this passage is to be moved in the pit of your being with compassion.

Now, what's most interesting about this word is that the New Testament writers only ever use it to describe Jesus. That word, it's pronounced roughly splagma, a funny word, but it means it's only ever used to describe our savior in the, in the Gospel accounts and then in the New Testament. Maybe the most notable one that you'll recognize, Mark 6:34. Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

He had compassion on them. He was moved in the pit of who he is with compassion. That's what it means. So Jesus is teaching us in the Good Samaritan, that when the Samaritan sees the dying man in the road, he's moved with Christ-like compassion.

He's moved with Jesus' compassion for the man. It's as if when he sees him dying, his heart cries out, No, no, you can't be made to suffer like this. This isn't right. I have to do something.

That's, that's the force that, that, that the, that the word has it gives to the Samaritan when he sees the man. Now this is Jesus' attitude. When he sees us, how many of the hymn It is well with my soul? Now there's a line in that hymn that says, Christ regarded our helpless estate.

That's what's going on in the parable. The Samaritan is considering he's regarding the helpless man's estate. Just as Jesus regards our helpless estate. So let's look, let's, let me break this down into three parts, how the Samaritan's compassion in the parable mirrors the passion and the compassion of Christ.

So first way. Showing mercy without obligation. So one of the well known aspects of this parable is that the two passersby, the priest and the Levite, they have cultural, they have religious, and they have ethnic obligations to help the dying man in the road, and they don't do anything. Their obligations are merely external.

They're factors, forces from outside of themselves that are trying to push them to do something, but they don't have enough strength. And so the two men pass, pass the man in the road. On the other hand, the Samaritan, whose people were hated by the Jews, were haters of the Jews, showed mercy to the suffering Jew, even though he had no obligation. Nobody would have faulted the Samaritan for just kicking his donkey and, and passing by.

Nobody would have faulted him for that. But his obligation, the reason he stopped was because his obligation was internal. It wasn't an external force. He felt compassion in his guts, right?

It was deep seated, and he acted on it. That's Christ-like compassion, that's mercy like Jesus. Our Savior, he, he didn't have any external obligation to save us from death. If we were dying in the road, we were suffering guilty.

So God's justice would have been well served to leave us in our pitiful spiritual condition. But God Being rich in mercy Because of the great love with which he loved us, Ephesians 2:45, even when we were dead in our trespasses, Made us alive together with Christ. You see, in that passage, how Jesus' love for us isn't forced on him. It says, the great love with which he loved us.

It's an extension of his character, it's an extension of his nature to be merciful. And so when he sees us in trouble, he reacts who he is. God is a merciful God, he's loving. And his love reaches out to the weary and the broken.

Even the guilty Sinners You and I are loved so richly and deeply by a God who's abounding and steadfast love as you read so many times in the Psalms. So just as the Samaritan shows mercy to the man when he has no obligation, so Jesus has shown us mercy when he was without obligation. The second way we see Jesus in the gospel, excuse me, in this parable. Is the great cost of mercy.

That's point number 2 under point number 1. It's tempting, it's really tempting to become critical of the priest and the Levite. But before we do that, we have to consider that they may have had a few legitimate reasons for passing the man in the road. Here's a few to consider.

Touching a dead corpse would have made those two men ceremonially unclean, which means they could not have performed their temple duties. So if the man was dead and they touched him, they couldn't have done what they were supposed to do in Jerusalem, which is their job. So, There's a little bit of a risk for their livelihood and their work. Another thing, the robbers might still be nearby, and if they stopped to help him, they might get mugged, and then there'd be 2 or 3 people dying in the road, and what good would that do?

If the man really was dead, it'd be pointless to take the risks associated with helping him. And lastly, they may have had time constraints that demanded their haste, and they may not have had the resources to help him. They may have looked at him and said, there's nothing really I can do, and so I'd better just keep going. Now, the Good Samaritan would have had plenty of reasons to leave the man as well.

And yet out of that storehouse of compassion that he's got deep within him, with all the risks breathing down his neck. He helps the exploited man. It cost him safety, money, energy, his mule, cloth for bandages, oil, wine, 2 weeks of room and board. That's what 2 denari would have got him at the end, 2 weeks of room and board and a trip back there to check on the man, make sure all his expenses were paid in full.

It was a costly philanthropic move on the part of the Good Samaritan, but the Samaritan, he does it without hesitation. He jumps right into it. Now Jesus is better than the Good Samaritan. Jesus is the Great Samaritan, as I've been calling him.

And he counted the cost of securing mercy for you and I, and then he spent himself. Jesus didn't only risk his life for us like the Samaritan, he gave it up completely. He laid down his status, his relationship with the Father, his comfort, his riches, and supremely his life so that you and I could be lifted up out of the pit. That's good news.

There's a modern hymn called The Power of the Cross. Perhaps you've you've sung it here. Judging by the song selection this morning, I would imagine you've sung the song. There's a line, What a love, what a cost.

We stand forgiven at the cross. And so we do. Because of the costly sacrifice that our sinless Savior freely made and that we have apprehended by grace through faith, Jesus paid a great Price to save us. The third point Under number one is comprehensive mercy.

Note in the parable how the Good Samaritan cares for all of the man's. Immediate needs medical care, security, transportation, food, shelter basic needs that all of us have in common. Any human needs those basic things. He didn't give the man any luxuries.

He didn't give him a Rolex. He didn't give him a BMW. He didn't do anything fancy for him. He just gave the man what he needed to survive and to live.

And his care was comprehensive though he didn't leave anything out. In the same way. Jesus' care for us is a comprehensive care. He has literally cared for all of our physical and all of our spiritual needs.

He's rescued us from death. He's given us a secure, an eternal home, and he's given us an eternal family. As Pastor Milton noted earlier, We are God's children. He didn't just throw us a few dollars as he passed by.

Jesus cared for all of our physical and spiritual needs. He's going to sustain us eternally. Perhaps Philippians 4:19. And my God will supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

His mercy to us is comprehensive. It covers all of our bases. Jesus didn't leave anything out when he gave mercy to us, and he did not pass us by. So I hope in those three ways, you're seeing the gospel emerge from this passage.

This passage is, is an ethic. It tells you how to live, but it's way more than that too. I want you to keep in mind as I, as I move on to the second portion of what I'm going to share with you this morning, point number 2, that our service to others is born out of the service that Christ has rendered to us. So let's consider point number 2, big point number 2.

Consider your calling. Become a good Samaritan. Now let's skip to the very end of the passage. Look at the end of the passage with me.

It is the 2nd point of the sermon. When Jesus asked the lawyer, which man is the true neighbor, the lawyer, so racist, he's so racist that he's unable to even mention that it's the Samaritan, says the one who showed mercy toward him. He's chastened, he's sheepish. Jesus then replies, go and do the same.

That's the second point of the sermon. Become a good Samaritan. Go and do the same as the Good Samaritan. Let me put that in 3 ways that mirror how Christ has been loving and gracious and merciful to us.

Number 1, showing Christ-like mercy to innocent sufferers. It's worth observing that in our world, there's basically two kinds of suffering. There's innocent suffering and there's guilty suffering. Some people suffer when they've done nothing wrong.

Children in foster care, orphaned children throughout the world would be one of them. They haven't done anything wrong, and yet they're made to suffer. The other kind, guilty suffering are people who suffer because they've made bad decisions. People in serving jail time in prison, they've made poor decisions, and that has manifested in suffering.

Now, in our parable, the man in the road is certainly an innocent sufferer. And Jesus is calling us to show mercy to such a person. And again, as Pastor Milton set you up for when he was up here earlier, Jesus' sense of mercy is so overwhelming. He even tells us to do good to those who hate us and to pray for our persecutors.

And since Christ was merciful to us when we were suffering. Our hearts have to ache for those who are suffering innocently. Innocent sufferers are like Christ. He suffered innocently, guilty sufferers are like us.

We're driven to act on that deep sense of compassion. Jesus is telling us in this parable, those who are suffering innocently, are worthy of your charity, more than your charity, they need your life. Secondly, we have to pay the price of mercy. The Good Samaritan gave a great deal to help this man, as I noted earlier, but noticed that he didn't give anything he didn't have.

He devoted the time, energy, and resources that he had available to him in order to help the man. Now our temptation, let's be honest for a second, is to just give enough. The question we ask, normally when we see somebody suffering in our context is, what do I have to do to not feel guilty? Have you ever asked that question?

I literally just asked myself that question this week. I was coming out of the grocery store, man standing there collecting money for the homeless. I'm like, If I don't give him a couple bucks, I'm going to feel bad later, so I better just give him a couple bucks. And that's as I'm preparing this sermon for this church.

I felt bad. I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I need to, I need to look at this opportunity and go, wait, what can I do to help this man? How can I most effectively serve him with joy and with speed and with energy?

What do I have to give that I can just give this man to serve him? That's what I should be asking when I see somebody in my road. And so this parable is helping us. To not ask the wrong question, but to ask the right question.

How much do I have in my possession to give and how can I most effectively give it for the sake of God's glory and to help others, but we must be willing to pay the price of mercy. Lastly, the third part of what is this parable teaching us to do? 3, displaying comprehensive mercy. This passage is not calling us to offer mere charity.

It's calling for a complete rescue. As I noted a few minutes ago, if Jesus had walked by and thrown $1 in our begging cup, we'd be in trouble. We were dying in the road in need of complete salvation, complete rescue. And Christ offered it, inconveniencing Himself for us.

Understand, brothers and sisters, true Christ-like mercy is comprehensive. It transforms the recipient's life. That's what's going on in this parable. And God's calling us to find ways to help suffering people that will absolutely change their fortunes, not merely allow them to continue suffering for another day.

Let me start to wrap this thing up for you. I'm hoping, I'm really hoping and praying, and this is my heart's burden that you're clearly seeing the gospel in this text. And that you're also feeling a deep sense of conviction like, I need to, I realize this, Dustin, I need to do something for other people. You're right, I need to find ways to, to help people and to do more.

And hopefully the other question resting in the front of your mind is, what does all this have to do with kids in foster care? I thought that's what you were here to talk about. That's a fair question. The answer is that this parable has everything to do with helping children in foster care.

And so let me Let me expose that. The title of this sermon is The Children Laying in Your Road. Let me explain how children in the foster care system here in Riverside County. are just like the man in the road from the parable.

Firstly, they're exploited by others. Just as the dying man in the road is exploited by the robbers, so children in foster care are made to suffer by abusive and neglectful biological parents, family members, sometimes poorly run governmental structures and social workers, and many kids are even abused by foster parents, re-abussed. They're suffering because of the sin of another. Secondly, Their only hope is the self-giving mercy of another.

The man in the road would have been dead if no one had stopped him. If no one, excuse me had stopped to help him. And if no one will help stop to help these kids that are languishing in the foster care system, there's a number of things that will happen to them that aren't good. One thing, they will die.

Children in the foster care system are dying. Some of them are becoming drug addicted, some of them are becoming incarcerated, some of them are becoming homeless. And what prevents these things from happening is a loving, a permanent family. It's people.

serving them. Lastly, You and I have the resources to help these kids. Just as I noted, the Good Samaritan offered the dying man relief through the resources that he had available to him. And so you and I are drawn.

By God's grace. To do the same for these kids, the resources, the talents, the abilities, the skills that you have that you could use to serve children. God's calling you to use. They don't need you to be an expert.

They need you to be a parent. They need a warm bed. They need clothes. They need food.

They need love. All basic things that you and I can provide. Now here's the problem with what I've just told you. I just put children in foster care in your road.

So this morning, you're walking along a road, you're coming to church like any normal Sunday. And now I've made you aware of these children. It's forcing us to make a decision. Are we going to help these innocent children?

Or are we going to pass them by? If we pass them by. What does that say about our understanding and our reception of Jesus' love, and the condition of our hearts? If we do stop, And we do lend them our mercy.

We're demonstrating our joy in Christ. And we're giving these kids in our community, a glimpse into God's love and his character. So I don't want to guilt you into helping out. I don't want you to feel like, oh, I better do what I have to, so that I don't feel bad.

I don't want that. I'm trying to resist that. And I know that's all of our temptation. It's my temptation still.

But what I'm saying is that consider all that Jesus has done for you. It's a lot. Find joy in all that he's done for you. And out of that joy, say, I want to be a person who gives.

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, this church is already showing love to suffering kids, and it's wonderful. And I want you guys to grow in that. I want to affirm it and say it's wonderful, and it's good, and it's God's grace, and God's going to do more, more than you and I can expect, more than you and I can think. But I got to ask this final question because the text and God really are asking it to all of us.

Out of joy for all that Jesus Christ has done for you. Will you be a neighbor today to abused and neglected children? Let's pray. God, we are so grateful.

For all that you have done to show us mercy. We just confess. It has cost you your life, and you gave it joyfully. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame.

It's joy that motivates our service, Lord Jesus. It's joy that we have in our salvation that motivates our service. So thank you for all that you've done for us. Help us, Lord, to learn how we can give more of ourselves, how we can give more to others.

As the ushers are going to take the offering this morning. We thank you that that is just another opportunity that we have to give. So warm our hearts, give us the joy. And glorify your name.

And lift up Christ in this church, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.