Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, "True Neighbor," with which Jesus exchanged conversation with an expert in the law. An expert in the law usually teaches the law of Israel and also lives a law-centered life. This expert in the law came to Jesus and attempted to embarrass Him. He asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Then Jesus answered, "Keep the law and then you can enter heaven." Jesus said this to this expert in the law.

Jesus asked what is written in the Law and the expert in the law answered, ¡°Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.¡±
Jesus said, "Love and take care of your neighbor."
Then the expert in the law answered, "I have already practiced this. Who is my neighbor?"
Jesus answered with a parable and it is so marvelous. Whenever I read this in the Bible, I always keep reading it again and again because Jesus' answer to him is so amazing. Jesus explained who our neighbor is.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. There was much danger when people went down to Jericho because it had a great plain where a bumper crop was produced. Farmers in Jericho used to sell the farm produce to those in Jerusalem. They sold various kinds of produce in Jerusalem and took the money and went down to Jericho where they usually fell into the hands of robbers and in many cases lost their lives. Here in Jesus' parable, a man sold his produce and filled his pockets with money and went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. But he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. When the man was bloody and dying, a priest saw the man, but passed by on the other side saying, "How careless he is! He should have protected himself." The priest didn't care about taking care of the dying man but only pointing out his flaw by the Law. The law exists not to help people but to judge them. Therefore, in any society where the expert in the law lives, there is no neighbor he helps. It is because he always judges other people by the law. Even your beloved brothers and sisters and other people will judge, if one of them is the expert in the law, and then punish. Even one expert in the law makes all of them fight each other. No matter how hard we try not to sin, we are all sinners. We must pray for each other and encourage and support everyone to bring changes. If we criticize, judge, and point at others' weak points, all of us will be ruined. However, nowadays we each seem to be the expert in the law and judge others. Jesus said that the expert in the law bypassed the dying man and then who would help this expert in the law? It is the Levite.
They would help the expert in the law and also do the sacrificial rituals, too. Then the Levite saw the bleeding man on the road, but shook his head and said, "To help by sacrificial rituals is my job. To help this dying man is not my job." He passed by on the other side. Now the bleeding man was about to die helplessly. However, a Samaritan went down from Jerusalem and saw this dying man. The Jews usually called Samaritans dogs. They wouldn't accept them in their society. They treated them as miserable people and discriminated against them and did not accept them as one of the Jews. However, this Samaritan did not discriminate against this dying man by saying, "He is a Jew," or "He is one of our Samaritans." But he did his best to heal the man by treating his wounds by pouring on oil and wine as antiseptic and tore his clothes to bandage his wounds to help this dying man. He also put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn in Jerusalem and met a doctor to take care of him, saying, "Today I can help this robbed man, but I have urgent business to take care of. When I return from it, I will visit you again. So please help this patient." The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" Then he left. Jesus looked at them and asked, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The priest? The Levite? The Samaritan?" Who do you think is the neighbor to the robbed man? It is the Samaritan! A true neighbor always helps his neighbors, not judges them. When Jesus asked, "Who do you think was a neighbor to the robbed man?"
The expert in the law answered, "The Samaritan was his neighbor."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise. Then you will have eternal life."

Who can be this bleeding man who was robbed and left to die? Each one of us is this very man! While we are living in this sinful world, we fall into the hands of robbers and everything we have is stolen and we are beaten and bloody and left to die without being cared for. You and I aren't true neighbors to each other. Therefore, we do not try to help each other, but make excuses and kill each other instead. Who is a true neighbor? Who is your true neighbor? It is those who sacrifice their lives and provide what they have and help other people who did wrong and who fell into a pit of despair. Jesus comes to those who are in despair, pain, and difficulty and whispers into their ears, "Don't be in despair. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged. It is finished." Jesus says, "Don't worry. Don't be anxious. Don't suffer. Remember my cross." The cross is the burden of neighbors that Jesus took. He took all our burdens of sins, unrighteousness, filth, and being robbed and robbing others. He did this to change us. Unless Jesus took the cross in our place, we wouldn¡¯t survive. The Lord came to us who are undeserving sinners to change and take good care of us and paid all the debts for us. If we believe in Jesus, He feeds five thousand people with five breads and two fish and gives us help to feed those vast crowds even now. When we come to Jesus with our empty hands, He won't criticize or attack us, but help us and take all pain in our place and make us prosper spiritually, physically, and materially. Jesus always helps us, neither criticizes nor judges us. The devil always points a finger at us and exposes the neighbors' faults and brings pain to us. He also makes us suffer the pain of death. However, Jesus always tries to make us revive, be a true man and woman, receive life and have it to the full. When we receive this Jesus as our Savior, He will change us!

Nowadays we must listen to the Words of the Lord to become a great church. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." If we are heavily burdened, we must come before Jesus and pray to Him. He will listen to our prayer and answer to it. When two or three of us are untied in prayer, the Lord will listen to our united prayer carefully and answer to it. We need Jesus' help; He not only helps us but also already accomplishes what helps us. As Jesus already took all our weary and heavy burdens in our place, we need not stay away at all but kneel down before Him and pray. The Lord will listen to our humble prayer. "Father, I stretch my hand to Thee." When we raise our hands to the Lord, He will listen to our prayer. When we pray, we think our fluent words will make the Lord answer to our prayer much better, but it is not true. Prayer with a single purpose will make it to the end even if we keep repeating it. If you are painful in your heart, you can say, "Lord, I have a pain in my heart. Please help me. My heart aches. Please help me. I have a painful heart now. Please be with me." With this single focus, you should keep claiming your purpose before the Lord. This is your genuine prayer. Some of you may say, "I don't know how to pray." But it doesn't matter whether you know or not. If you need the Lord's help, you should keep crying out for His help. He will listen to your prayer. While we are living in this world, we must live a positive life. With a positive attitude, we should say, "I can make it. It will be done! Let us try!" Next, we must have hope in our lives. If we lose hope, we lose everything in life. You should have hope and throw away despair. And then we must become a true neighbor to come to those who lose hope and suffer pain to share hope and encouragement. We must dream a dream. To dream is the first step to receive God's grace. We should dream first to receive; without dreaming we will fail. On the foundation of a positive heart, we must dream and believe that the dream will come true and confess it with our mouths. When we come before the Lord and dream a dream and have hope and make a creative declaration, we will become those whom God uses. You can dream a positive dream when you look at the cross of Jesus, his Blood and resurrection. It is because Jesus was crucified and bled and died on the cross in our place. Through His cross He demolished all my negative things and forgave all my sins with His blood and sent the Holy Spirit by the power of His precious blood and accomplished everything we need. Thus when we look at the cross of Jesus, we can dream!
No matter how difficult and hard the things that happen, as long as we look at the cross, Blood and resurrection and stick to it without leaving it, we can receive the grace of the cross. God wants us to prosper. He never wants us to fall into the hands of robbers. They always
come to steal, kill, and destroy us. We should cast them out and look at the cross of Jesus and hold it tightly in our bosom and pray. Then the cross of Jesus becomes our foundation of faith so we can call things that are not as though they are and have hope and confess what we believe with our mouth. Then those things that are not will come to pass. When the sun, moon and stars light the earth, there is always a way before us. It is because God created the heavens and the earth with His Word. "Let there be light!" When God said this, there was a light. You are created in God's likeness. So if we dream a dream and have hope and declare with faith, it will come to pass. Let us try to become like that. Then we will live a life to be transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory.