Followed By Mercy

Mercy's Love in Action

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 2 • Episode 19

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What does real faith look like when it meets real suffering? In this episode, we explore the deep connection between faith and love through the story of the Good Samaritan.


Paul once commended believers for their “faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints” in Ephesians 1:15. Those two always go together. Jesus taught the same truth when He said that loving God and loving our neighbor sum up everything God asks of us.


The parable of the Good Samaritan brings this to life. The religious leaders walked past a hurting man, unwilling to risk their comfort or reputation. But an outsider, the one least expected, stopped, showed compassion, and bore the cost of love. His response challenges us to consider our own. Are we too busy protecting our image, or are we willing to get messy with mercy?


True faith isn’t a performance or a checklist. It’s the kind of trust in God’s love that overflows in compassion for others. In a divided world, what if Christians were known most of all for their radical, boundary-crossing love? That kind of faith changes lives and communities.


Listen in and be encouraged to rest in God’s love, letting it flow through you to others. Share this episode with someone who needs to be reminded that faith and love always walk hand in hand.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I'd like to welcome you back to Followed by Mercy. This is your podcast where we recognize that we are surely goodness and mercy are following us, pursuing us all the days of our life. I want you to know God loves you, He cares about you, and no matter what you're going through right now, He is there for you. And so your goal in life is just to accept the gift, receive what the Lord has done, and worship him because of his goodness to you. Well, I'm joined again by Robert Canfield. We talked the last time uh quite a bit about love, and uh then we uh got off the podcast and began talking, and it was exciting, so I thought we'd come back and share that with you. But in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 15, the Bible says, wherefore I also, after I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love and all the saints, cease not to give thanks and so on. And Robert wanted to make the connection between how faith and love are connected. And when you have faith, there is love, and when you have love, there is faith. And we talked about that the last time. If you missed it, go back and catch that podcast. You want to sum up anything from yesterday before we jump into today?

Robert Canfield:

No, my mind's focused in on today.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, well, we're focused in on today.

Robert Canfield:

All right, so what'd you bring up, Brad? Well, we were talking about once again, verse 15. He says, the love that you have unto all the saints, and how you cease not to pray or cease not to give thanks for you. It's it's it's a very loving thing that Paul's talking about. He's talking about this church, how they're loving the saints, and how he's praying and thanking God for them. It's uh once again, it's just a lot of kindness that's being demonstrated to one another. And um, it just made me think. Um made me think of uh another passage that I've been going through and teaching on. And, you know, if if I was, if Jesus was live in a human form right here today, you know, I think a lot of people would have questions and asking him, you know, what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? What should I be concerned about? And I think the great thing about the scriptures is he's already told us some of the stuff that we're supposed to do. And um yesterday or the other the other podcast that we talked about, we talked about how this woman had love for for Jesus, for God. And um, when Jesus was here, he's he was presented the question, like, what's the greatest thing we could do? And he said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment. And then he says in the next verse after that, he says this, it's Matthew chapter 22, I believe verse 39. And he says, And the second is like unto it. The second is like unto it. So that means the second one is just like the first one. And then he says this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And so when you think about like the way I treat other people is like unto how I love God, how I treat people.

Austin Gardner:

That is what John said in first John. He said, How can you suddenly love God if you don't love your brother? That's I mean, that's but can I I want to interrupt here and bring us back to something. We use terms sometimes, and I think can be a little bit dangerous. And Robert has mentioned you're we won't know what we're supposed to do. And uh let me just uh help you with something. Supposed to there doesn't mean I gotta do this. If I don't do this, I'll lose my salvation. That's not true. Supposed to doesn't mean I gotta do this or you won't love me. Supposed to, when we say that, what we're really saying is, what am I gonna want to do? See, if you're born again, it's gonna happen. It's the fruit of the spirit. And in other words, it's just what the spirit produces in you. That's what the fruit of the spirit is, which is somewhere else we'll get to. So I just want to be careful. If you're listening, don't you add this another list of rules. What we're about to talk about is not like, oh brother, now there's something else I gotta do. I thought I thought I I thought it was grace. It is grace. And if you don't do what you ought to do, he'll love you anyway, because he loves you whether you ought to or ought not to, it doesn't matter. He loves you. But what's gonna happen is something is born in you. It's like a young girl getting married, who's so deeply, emotionally, romantically, from the heart, from every part of her in love with her husband, it's not what she has to do, it's what she wants to do.

Robert Canfield:

Well, I think in the story that we're gonna talk about, because I think it demonstrates it a whole bunch. Because where does where does that love and where does that compassion come from? And it only comes from a supernaturally changed heart. Well, it comes literally and honestly, it comes from God in us. And that's something that we can't force ourselves to do. There's no moral constraint that I can tell myself I need to. It's actually impossible.

Austin Gardner:

That's what you that's what you listeners have been doing too home. You've been trying to you've been trying to get another point. You think God's like like the coach, marking off, yeah, he ran 200 laps. That's not what's happening there.

Robert Canfield:

No, not at all. Go ahead. Um, actually, to say something up to that measure, um, I believe it's Luke chapter 6, verse 32. Jesus was was saying something to his disciples. That means people that were following after him, that were that were disciplining themselves with the teachings that Christ had. And it was people who who had this strong desire and love for for God, in the sense of like they've given up everything. And he told them in Luke 6 32, he says, For if you love them which love you, what thank have ye? And I've said this before. Um, that word thank is the same Greek word for keros. That's where we get the word for grace. And um, I was wondering, like, why the why that this one verse in King James Version, why did they change it to thank? And uh because um it it's for grace. And it's I looked at the uh was it for the B Dag, whatever that that dictionary is in the Greek dictionary knows of guns, and I'm I'm reading through that dictionary, and it's like an experiential, an unmerited and spirit experiential experience, and it's like a response that we have to something that's been given to us. And so, like, all I can think of is like when someone does something that's so wonderful to you, what does that generate and create in your heart? Thanks, is it not? And so, like what Jesus was stating there, he's like, if you love those people which love you, don't sinners do that? Yeah, is that an experiential grace that you've had? But when you love your enemies, what are you demonstrating?

Austin Gardner:

That God is in you loving three because you can't do that. It's against everything in our moral code to love that your enemy.

Robert Canfield:

Well, you think about like we you just said, like, who loved his enemies?

Austin Gardner:

Nobody. That's right.

Robert Canfield:

And why did he love his enemies? Because he is love, God is love. And when when when we when we show and demonstrate love to our enemies, it is nothing more than just out of a heart that has just experienced some amazing and wonderful love. And and and you look at people and like, how in the world could could could could this God who is on Calvary and he's on a cross say a prayer and say, God, Father, forgive them, for they know not what what what they do, other than he is love.

Austin Gardner:

That's who he is. So that's exactly who he says he is. And I love it that it says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Robert Canfield:

And he's good, he is good, and he is good, and whenever he sets and resides in his and by nature, we're not good. Well, by nature, we're not good, but like when he comes in, now we got a new nature. Oh, think about the first martyr in the church that the book of Acts records. Yeah, what was his prayer?

Austin Gardner:

That's right.

Robert Canfield:

He was getting stoned.

Austin Gardner:

Don't put it, don't put this on their account.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah, he was being stoned because he was telling, hey, hey, the God that you read about in the Old Testament, how he was in temples and tabernacles and stuff like that, he now resides in us. And like when they heard that, they were grinding their teeth and they got all angry and they're like, How could you blaspheme? They're killing them, and as they're killing them, he's demonstrating love.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, and that love is a supernatural love. It's God doing that in us.

Robert Canfield:

And so that's I guess I gotta make sure I watch my terms and my phrases. That's so supposed to is not, yeah. What you said was I really do appreciate that correction. It is nothing more than it's not a constraint because we're adding another rule or another moral to our life. It is just out of a heart that's just experienced a wonderful forgiveness and grace and love.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, I know you're you're headed towards a probable son story, right?

Robert Canfield:

Uh, I'm headed towards Good Samaritan.

Austin Gardner:

Okay, Good Samaritan, right. I got confused there. Well, let me on the way to that, to remind you that do you remember the guy that got forgiven? He owned, uh, he owned uh, I can't remember how many uh he owned a thousand pence or uh whatever. He owed that amount of money and was like three months' work. You know, maybe it's a hundred pence. And uh he goes to the king and he begs him, no, excuse me, the guy owned 10,000. He could never pay that debt. It was impossible to pay that debt. And he begs off from that debt, and the king forgives him, and he walks out and grabs a guy that owes a hundred pence, and he's mad at him, and he's full of hate. You know, like so much performance-based religion is. And and the the whole point was if you've been forgiven, you forgive. The forgiven, forgive. And he wasn't forgiving. And so when you've been loved, the loved, love.

Robert Canfield:

That's right. That's I mean, that's I mean, you need to put that in your house somewhere.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, not just the forgiven, forgive, but the love, the loved, love. And that is untrue of us. So now that's leading us to what what we're what passing.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah, so we're talking about you know, loving God. And every it is easy for me to say I love God. It's easy for me to say I believe in God. The devil believes in trouble. Yeah, he does. He has an emotional response, they have emotional responses to to the to the their belief. But like when you look, like, how do I treat people? How do I treat people? And Jesus says it's the it's the greatest. And and the if you look at the law, people like to bring up laws and do's and don'ts. The whole thing is it can hang on this one thing. What you love God first, and you love other people. And if you just start doing that, then you'll treat people right. But the but there is no love without first experiencing demonstration, having love now reside in you. There is no love without that. And and I was reading through in Luke chapter 10. Jesus was there, and and there was a there was a lawyer, the Bible says, verse 25, and Luke draws our attention. He's like, Behold, look, he says this, look, look, look here. That's the stop. Yeah, stop, be quiet, pay attention. Everyone, draw your attention, listen, start listening. He says there was a there was a certain lawyer. So that this man, he's obviously an expert in the law.

Austin Gardner:

He he now when we say the law there, we're talking about Moses' law. We're talking about Genesis to Generality.

Robert Canfield:

We're not talking about American law or Jewish law. Yeah, we are talking the law of the scriptures. So Moses' law. This man, if you had questions concerning legal matters in the Jewish system, you would go to him. He was an expert. He disciplined himself in his life to get to the point where people could now go to this man and ask questions and get knowledge. And so this man, he stands up, and his his point of doing and asking Jesus' question is nothing more than temptation. He was trying to trip up Jesus. And he asks him the question, and he says, What shall I do to inter to inherit eternal life? And Jesus, who is in the embodiment of wisdom, he doesn't answer it, but he asks a question that that guy now needs to answer. So he's basically like showing that he's a little smarter than this guy. He's like, What's written in the law? And he says, How do you read it? How do you interpret it, sir? And then the man now has the obligation to answer his question. And he says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And Jesus answers him and says, You answered right. Go for it.

Austin Gardner:

Now you're in what book when you're reading there. Luke chapter 10. Well, in Matthew chapter 22, he ends up by saying, On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So he's saying that the entire Torah, yeah, the Old Testament, the entire Old Testament is dependent upon, built upon, summarized by loving God and loving people. And so if you want to summarize everything in 39 books, love God. Love people.

Robert Canfield:

Go ahead. That's exactly what Jesus was saying. And and Jesus says, you answered this right. He said, Now do it. And you'll live. Yep. Problem is we can't do it. Say again? Problem is we can't do it.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

I can't live a life that just always loves God and always loves other people.

Austin Gardner:

And the fact is, it's a lot easier, quote unquote, to love God than it is some people. Oh. Oh, there it is, I'm able. Very much. They have done us wrong. I mean, Stephen being stoned, Joseph being thrown in prison by his brothers, falsely accused by a woman, Jesus being crucified, David being chased by his own son to kill him.

Robert Canfield:

It's hard to demonstrate love. And some people out there. It's almost impossible outside. And I think some people, even though listening, they might say it's no, it's a harder thing to love God because when I look at God, I see all the junk that's going on in the world.

Austin Gardner:

You know, what happens is we are serving. Many people serve a caricature of God. They serve God who is harsh and mean and ugly, not a father. Go ahead.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah, and they they think that he's just this guy that's like, I'm just gonna bring evil into this world.

Austin Gardner:

And that was never his intention. Ever. His intention was to destroy evil. Oh, you know, right there in Ephesians chapter one. Can I remind you he made the world perfect? And in Ephesians chapter one, we've already talked about a little bit, then we'll get to it more. He is going to reunite everything, rejoin everything. He's going to put everything back together in Christ, all the things of heaven, all the things on earth. From the very beginning, God was had a perfect environment for man. And until man chose to say, God, I don't love you. I don't believe in you. God wants to do my own thing, and I don't want you telling me what to do. It was a perfect environment. And guess what? We're headed back to it's going to be a perfect environment.

Robert Canfield:

I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, I am too. Um, but in that and in the story, it was impossible for this guy to do those two things. There's impossible. Yeah. And the scripture says in verse 29 that the lawyer states, and he says this, this is what happens. We see what the lawyer's trying to do. He says this, but where are we located? Uh Luke chapter 10 and verse 29.

Austin Gardner:

Go ahead.

Robert Canfield:

The lawyer, the certain lawyer willing to justify himself. I I I've studied this several months ago, and that this term, this phrase, seems like it's always popping back up in my mind.

Austin Gardner:

Justify himself.

Robert Canfield:

Oh, yeah. I think of people and their their response to me, or they say something, and I'm like, they're just trying to make themselves right.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I think, I think we're all guilty of that. I think I think I'm guilty of it. I think I I I you know I want to judge you by your actions and me by my intentions.

Robert Canfield:

Is that not true? I just want, I don't want, I don't want to lose face in front of people.

Austin Gardner:

Yep.

Robert Canfield:

I don't want people to think that I was wrong.

Austin Gardner:

And I don't, yeah. Don't want to look bad. Yep.

Robert Canfield:

But mind you, who's he speaking to? God in human flesh. And he's willing, and you look at the word justify. If we just define terms, what does justify mean? Declaring oneself righteous. Or declaring righteous. Declaring righteous, right?

Austin Gardner:

Justify himself would be declaring himself righteous. Uh, and that's another thing I challenge everybody to listen to and learn. That is uh, you you know, you can't make yourself righteous. It's impossible for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. There's none good, no doubt what. And there's only one way to be justified, and that's God doing it.

Robert Canfield:

I think it's in Romans chapter 3, is it 21? He says, Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no man justify himself. Nothing that we can do can make us right before God. There is no law that we can keep in order to make us ours right.

Austin Gardner:

That's right. And I think everybody ought to listen to that. See, and here's the beautiful beautiful thing. You are helpless, and you are hopeless, and you are undone, and you're totally finished, and you can't get it right. But God loves you, and he doesn't love you because of what you do, because there's nothing you can do. He loves you because he is love and because you belong to him. You know, he came to seek and save that which was lost. That means it was his, and it was lost when we turned away from him, and now he's bringing us home. And so I want you to know you can't justify yourself, but God is justifying you. Go ahead.

Robert Canfield:

We're going for you. And so he's justifying, and he says to Jesus, he asks the question, he brings up Jesus, he says, Then who's my neighbor? If I'm supposed to love my neighbor as myself, who's my neighbor? And then Jesus answers this question with a story. He loves stories. Oh man, it's it's maybe for another podcast talking about parables and stuff like that. I love that stuff I've learned about that too. But he goes and he tells about, he answers the man because the man's trying to determine, trying to show that he's he's he's doing right.

Austin Gardner:

And Jesus is. Because no, no, no, the last thing I want to admit is I need help.

Robert Canfield:

And love's standing right there before him, and he would give him eternal life. All he had to do is just one thing. Just realize who love is, realize what love's doing. Accept. Accept it.

Austin Gardner:

Receive the gift.

Robert Canfield:

No works, not by works. It's only by grace. If it's by works, then it's no longer grace. And Jesus says this there's a certain man that went down from Jerusalem and he was going to Jericho. Now, this is during a time when these people live in a they're occupied country, right? They have another nation that's inside their nation, and there's a lot of turmoil going on. If you remember the story in Luke, I mean, I believe it was in Luke that the occupying nation, Rome, actually killed all the babies. And so there's a lot of distress. There's a lot of people that's either lost money or lost houses, lost their, they're trying to lose their tradition, their lifestyle, and and there's a lot of frustrated people, and there's people that that that that that have conquered this nation, and and their whole system is flipped upside down. So there's a lot of turmoil. That's what happens when there's turmoil. And so this guy is coming from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and then he falls. I think the scripture says he fell among thieves, and then he was stripped of his raiment. He's naked, he was wounded, and those people departed and leaving him. They left the scripture says in verse, was it verse number, verse 30, they left him half dead, leaving him half dead. So that means this man that was from Jerusalem, going to Jericho, was literally in critical condition. He was in critical condition. He's half dead. And Jesus says in verse 31, and by chance there came a certain priest that way. By chance there came a certain priest down that road. And when he saw him, when that priest saw him, this person that was supposed to be a servant, a mediator, a go-between between God and man there in Israel, when that mediator saw him, you know what he does? The scripture says he passed by on the other side. So he gets out of the way. He makes, he sees the guy that's half dead, a guy that's in critical condition.

Austin Gardner:

If he goes over to him, he'll be defiled. That could be. Whoever got hurt. Uh if he touches the dead body, he's untrained for seven days. That's right. And and so he could have been worried about his own safety.

Robert Canfield:

He could be, yeah. All these things that, but in and I'm reading this story, this guy redirects his path to go away from this guy. He doesn't want to go into the uncomfortable situation.

Austin Gardner:

Well, I think I think that is really what goes on in all of Jesus' ministry. No one wanted to get close to the sinners and the wicked people. And and and and they people still, church people still criticize you if you're nice to lost people. It's weird, isn't it? You know, we're here to seek and save, along with our Savior, the lost. But if you were to go where they are, you're a bad person.

Robert Canfield:

I I don't I've never I've never understood a Christian that doesn't want to go after people that are their hurting ones. Well, we can go after messenger.

Austin Gardner:

We're so afraid of being contaminated, like the priest. We're so afraid. If I go where there's someone who doesn't love Jesus, I might not love Jesus. If I go with someone who drinks alcohol, I might drink alcohol. And I was raised to be like that, I'll be honest. I've I've been that way, and I hate that I was that way. That's who I was, not who I am now.

Robert Canfield:

Well, I think I don't know. I I my mind's on this story, and I trying to dissect all that stuff. I think that there's don't go by the practice of people here on earth.

Austin Gardner:

That's right.

Robert Canfield:

I think we gotta, we got, we got God's word and Jesus' lifestyle that we can see that we can go and model after. And that's what jumping back to what Paul stated in Ephesians, he says, your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love that you have to all saints, to all the saints. He was bringing out the fact that this church had love, had this love, this agape type love that God has, only God has, and it's being demonstrated to all saints. And in the story, this man, this lawyer, he obviously does not have this love. Because he's never been, well, he has an encounter with with the God of love in this story, but he's never accepted it. And and Jesus was trying to bring his attention that the way this priest was seeing this man that was in need was not loving. It was not loving his neighborhood, and that's why the priest goes on the other way. He goes, he he he goes by the other way.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, the priest is looking out for himself. That's all he's that's all he's concerned about. And that's what we're concerned about too much. Me and mine for some reasons we're not uh as concerned about getting the good the good news of God's love to so many places on the earth. Because what what might happen to me? Well, again, I know I'm getting you off track.

Robert Canfield:

No, this is good because I go back to what we talked about at the little at the beginning of the podcast. We talked about Jesus talking to his disciples, and he says, if you love those that love you, what thank have you? Because sinners, they love, they love their own. You look around the world and and people that don't even love God, they don't even think about God, and that they're just like they it's like the an animosity to God. They still have their kids and their family that they love, they have their circle that they're concerned about. But what the crazy thing is, is that the God of this world, he just is not concerned, he's not a respecter of persons. And he sees all people, he sees all groups, the ones that think they're righteous and the ones that know they're not righteous. And he loves them all. And he went after them all. And he's showed and displayed incredible kindness and graciousness and compassion. And then to this young man, this this this lawyer, whoever he is, this lawyer that's tempting him, he's taking time and he's showing him his air. He's taking time out of his schedule where he probably could go to the next village. He probably could, he had probably other pressing things, but he took time with this, this, this, this lawyer and showing him that he didn't have what Jesus had to offer him. And what that offer is, is a a love that comes and abides in our hearts that radically changes everything about us.

Austin Gardner:

Yep, sure it is.

Robert Canfield:

And and this priest, he didn't have that love. And that's why he goes to the other side. And then verse 32 says, and likewise a Levite, when he came to the place, he came and he looked on him. So he sees the guy. He walks up and then he sees him, he makes eye contact.

Austin Gardner:

He's a little bit more inquisitive, but he's like, Well, my my priest didn't stop. I'm like a deacon, I'm like a worker in a church, and I you know, I better not get involved. What happens when Jesus sees the multitudes? He's moved with compassion. What happens when they when they see them? They be like, I am not gonna sacrifice.

Robert Canfield:

They see the inconvenience, they see all this this is not good for my religious setting, this is not good for my whatever. I'm I'm on my way to a meeting, I'm on my way for this or that, whatever it is. They see and they just I'm busy. It's selfishness. It's selfishness. And when he sees, he sees on him, he came looking on him, and then he passes on the other side. But the Bible says in verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, he came where this man that was half dead was, and when he saw him, it's very interesting, he had what compassion on him.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, I really believe the Samaritan in the story is a believer. Jesus is telling the story on purpose to say, I want to shock you because your religious people, all your people that do the right thing, all your super separated saints, they're not the believer in this story. They don't, they're not out there. The low down, no good Samaritan that everybody would look down on, he's the good guy here.

Robert Canfield:

The dog, the ones that Jesus', even Jesus' own disciples wanted to pray fire and come down and consume.

Austin Gardner:

They are the half Jewish, half Gentile people. They're impured, they're outsiders, they're heretical, and there's no dealings between the two. And so if the Samaritan Mystery and Jews, Samaritans threw rocks and Jews, Jews threw rocks and Samaritans, they hated each other.

Robert Canfield:

That's very true. And and in this story, what's the difference? Each person, the priest, Levite, Samaritan, they all were in the same path. They all went down the same road, they all saw both the same thing. But what was the difference? One had compassion and the others didn't.

Austin Gardner:

Faith and love are hooked together in Ephesians 1:15, as we which is why you know it's where we're working our way through Ephesians, but it just goes all over the Bible.

Robert Canfield:

It does. And like when you look at scriptures and you look at God's people, those that believe in him have love. Those that believe in in God, they have this supernatural love.

Austin Gardner:

Let's stop for just a second, because I think that what what we're saying could be harsh. Because here's what you're thinking. Well, I'm a Christian, and I've got to stay right with God, and I've got to stay uh clean, and I can't associate with sin, and unknowingly, you have fallen into performance-based Christianity or religion, and you are acting like the Pharisee and the Levite in the story. Because I let me say this when you say believers love, well, they believers love, but we have we have been taught all our lives those are dirty people.

Robert Canfield:

And we've been taught that those are dirty people, or like my love is I'm gonna tell them truth.

Austin Gardner:

Right. And it's a condemning truth when we tell it. Nothing more. The fact is, uh, I see it all over Facebook, you know, that's God. And they don't tell about their sin. It's right.

Robert Canfield:

They know about their sin already. Yeah. They already know they're beat up and land on the side of the road. Their truth does nothing to help the person that's half dead.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, but this the good Samaritan, man, he's got love in action. And let me just say this I I think Christian people, religious people say, no, we do love them, but they won't put it in action. The Samaritan, it cost him.

unknown:

Yeah.

Austin Gardner:

It cost him. Well, he he risked his life because somebody could have come along and said he beat the guy up. I mean, don't listen, you're talking about racism today. Oh, yeah. If some Jews had come walking by and caught him over there, they decided what'd you do to him? They'd beat me about. But he was risking his he stuck his neck out. Sir?

Robert Canfield:

He stuck his neck out.

Austin Gardner:

And he also used the money.

unknown:

Oh.

Robert Canfield:

It says that he binds up his wounds. So he finds he risked infection. He risked infection. He found out where the guy's going on in the guy's life.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

It wasn't, hey bud, shouldn't have drove down this road. Here's the truth. But like he found out where look here. So you went down the journey. I can see that you went down. Look at what you didn't belong on this road. You got what you're coming to. No, but like he looked and saw where the where there was where there was need of healing. Then he uses his oil. It says pouring oil and wine. Both expensive. He sent him on his own beast. That means he had to get off his beast.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah. He goes walking down the road carrying the Jew on the on his donkey. Yes.

Robert Canfield:

And then it says on his own beast. He brought him to the inn and took and took care of him. So he brought him in the inn, and I don't know how long, but he took care of them. And he didn't he paid for it. Look at the guy who's born. I think one person said it was like three and a half weeks worth of stuff. So it wasn't just him taking care of him that moment. He made sure he had ample enough resources in the future. Does he know the guy? No. He doesn't know him.

Austin Gardner:

Huh? Jesus doesn't say that he knows him, right? I don't think he knows him. I don't think so either. So you might do that for your child or your grandchild or your cousin. What thank you? I'll be honest with you. Most people in the in the groups I've been in might not even do it for a family member.

Robert Canfield:

But they would want it done for them, though.

Austin Gardner:

Oh yeah. Because we are, we are, we'll cut people off. And by the way, I'll throw this in for you, Robert. Do you think on this one? You know what happens. If you touch that Samaritan and you're a Levite or a priest, you're going to get shunned like the Amish used to shun people. Oh yeah. And that happens in our group so much. If somebody's hurt, everybody run. That's messy. We don't like dealing with mess. And we don't, but see, we don't love somebody hurting. We hate them. Well, we look at if you're hurting them.

Robert Canfield:

We don't say it, we don't say we hate them. We just like, well, I've got an agenda. And this doesn't fit in my agenda. And it's nothing more than what the priest and Levite did. Exactly. They were going on their way because they had what they had to do. And and and you look at the Samaritan, he put his agenda aside and he took care of this. I mean, I wonder where he was going. I have no clue. It doesn't say, but all we know is that he stopped whatever path he was and he took him to an end and he took care of them. And then he took took him to the point where he's like, okay, next, here's here's whatever he needs. If it here's the next couple weeks in advance. Yep. And if he costs you any more, let me know. I'll be back and I'll pay for it.

Austin Gardner:

And by the way, he was obviously a known man because the guy at the end allows him to say that. Well, you the guy at the end said, okay, yeah, I know you go pay them. Oh, yeah. Because he said, I he said, here's money for this. But if you need more, you know I'm I'm good for it. I'll be back. Risk his reputation. What risks his uh but but I I really do think it's what's interesting in the story about love is Jesus is asking the question, who's your neighbor? And your neighbor is not, you see, the Pharisees liked other Pharisees, they liked Sadducees. The Pharisees only like, you always like somebody that's as separated and holy as you.

Robert Canfield:

But I think those Pharisees, I'm pretty sure there was a lot of, I like the guy that's a little bit ahead of me. A little bit. Not too much. Because it was too far. If he was higher ahead of me, then he can help me get to that point. Yeah. Isn't that what we do? You scratch my back, I scratch your back. That's the mentality, that's the love we demonstrate.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

The love I show is somebody that I could use and use and almost stepping stones to get to the point where I can get there. And that's not love.

Austin Gardner:

The Lord loves hurting people. Fact is, you know, before we end this podcast, everybody the Lord loves is a hurting person.

Robert Canfield:

You know, the crazy thing is, is Jesus loves the hurting people and he loves the people that hurt people.

Austin Gardner:

That's right. But but can I I just want everybody to listen to catch this here? Even though somebody else might not have done as much as you've done, nobody measures up. No one measures up. And what we joy in is finding someone who hasn't done as well as us. And then we can say we can say, look, they don't do as good as me. But see, charity rejoicing not in evil. Charity is not looking around. Love is not looking around to find somebody that's not as good as them. Love says, I'm not looking for somebody worse off than me. Love says, I don't care, I love you.

Robert Canfield:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

Robert Canfield:

And I love you no matter what. Well, charity says, I'm not looking myself at all.

Austin Gardner:

And so the goal here is to fall in love with others. And so I want to remind you, this is going to be the natural outflow of your life as a born-again believer. And fruit comes along at different stages in different ways in every life. I'm not wanting you to get off this podcast thinking I got to go out and love people. I've got to add something to my to-do list. That's not about it. The fruit of the Spirit. What is the fruit of the Spirit? What's the first love? Oh, excuse me. Love. Love. Love. The fruit of the see when the Holy Spirit's in us, and I know he's in you, he is going to produce love, joy, peace, long, shelter. All of these things are going to come out because that's who he is. He can't be in us without affecting us.

Robert Canfield:

And so Well, that's what the difference was in all that the Good Samaritan compared to the other guys. He saw, and there was compassion. And my my my question is where does that compassion come from? Where's that compassion come from?

Austin Gardner:

I wonder about, you know, I think when you look at it, you might think to yourself, well, the f the Pharisee represents a Christian. The Levite represents a Christian, but in all honesty, they represent performance-based religion. They represent what man can do. The certain lawyer. When he asked the question, if on those three, he would have known which wasn't saved. The one that wasn't a believer would be the fair, but would be the Samaritan. The other two would definitely be. Yeah, he does. And obeys the two great commandments.

Robert Canfield:

And I'm thinking, like, there is no law, there's nothing, no deed out there that makes us right before God. But when we do and we realize that, you know, love came down and he died on the cross and he took our sin and and he now offers us a new abundant life. When we put our faith and trust in that, that changes everything. And that he what does he say in Romans chapter 5, verse 5? He says he sheds abroad his love in our heart. And so we now have an option whether we're going to allow him to generate and work that love through us to others, or whether we're going to close it up. And this this this good Samaritan, I just thought was so incredible. And Jesus is talking about it. Then he moved to action. And it wasn't just at that moment, it was and he couldn't get anything from him. And he didn't.

Austin Gardner:

He was half dead. He didn't know if he had any money. What was he expecting out of this guy? Yeah. The guy had everything robbed from him. Everything in him was ungiving.

Robert Canfield:

And that's what, and that's what does. And at the end of the story, Jesus says, He says, which one do you think's the neighbor? Yeah. And the lawyer says, he doesn't even he doesn't even mention the Samaritan's name because he's so full of in my mind, he's so full of hate. He says, Him or he that shows mercy on. And Jesus says, Go and do likewise, which is impossible. It's impossible for that guy to do that.

Austin Gardner:

I think we want to get a hold of uh the key word is God is love. But we mean for the other key word, so are all believers. We're love because the love's love, because God lives in us, because the fruit of the Spirit's love, because the mark of a Christian, they will know we're his disciples by our love. That's right. And our love that sounds so neutral today.

Robert Canfield:

No, and nobody likes that today. Well, they people misconstrued it and they try to they try to change it, and like they're like, Well, you can't be all love, it has to be had truth. And like the you want to get down to truth. Well, the truth is that truth is love. Yeah, the truth is truth, love, and truth, truth sets people free. Truth brings in liberty and freedom, and truth changes a person. Truth, Jesus is truth. That's why he says, I am the way and the truth.

Austin Gardner:

Yeah, truth um is something that that but when you realize that God is truth and Jesus is the truth, but and they are the love. So there's no contradiction between truth and love.

Robert Canfield:

He's full of them both. Yeah. So I just thought that was so so interesting when when Paul talks about how they have faith towards Christ, faith in Christ, and then love to all the saints. It's just exactly what what Jesus came down. It's Jesus' message.

Austin Gardner:

It's unnatural state.

Robert Canfield:

It's a it's a response that we have to people. As we're out there and we're seeing saints and we love, and we and and we're not asking who's our neighbor. It's just like who people that we come in contact with. It's not like I love this group of people and I don't love this group of people, I don't love this people. This you know what I mean? It's just as God brings people into our life and our path, and we're presented with that option of am I gonna show love or I'm just gonna keep on going on my own way.

Austin Gardner:

In a day and time in America when everybody hates everybody and there's more division than I've ever seen in my 71 years, the believers acting in love would sure change things. Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be something if if we loved Republicans and we loved Democrats and we loved liberals and we loved conservative and if we just loved? Wouldn't it be wonderful? Wouldn't it change things? I think it would. Wouldn't it be risky? Because you know, believers be careful. You're gonna be known by your love. You're gonna be known by your love, not your truth, not your doctrine, not your separation, not your address standards, but by love.

Robert Canfield:

If that happens, I think we would revolutionize. I think you'd be talking about hey, who are these group of people that's turned the world upside down?

Austin Gardner:

I do believe that. I agree. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this. I hope it's been a blessing to you uh to be with us today, all of my mercy. And we are looking forward to talking to you some more. Uh now, love is produced by faith. And so get to work with it. Uh, know we're well today. Oh, Robert gets talking, man. He gets excited, don't he?

Robert Canfield:

Sorry about that.

Austin Gardner:

We're having a good time. Thank you, and God bless you, and we will see you next time.

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