Who Is My Neighbor

How many of you would say that you have a difficult neighbor? Like somebody next door or somebody down the street or somebody, you share a backyard with – and it’s like, sometimes, they just do things that get under your skin. How many of you would say that you have a difficult neighbor? How many of you would say that you are the difficult neighbor? Well, that’s not what your neighbors said!

About a year ago, one afternoon, I got home from work, and I went to go take out the trash. And our house backs up to an alley, and all of the dumpsters are lined up along the alley. And so, I went through our back gate. I walked over to our dumpster. I opened it up, and it was completely filled with branches and leaves and lawn clippings. The garbage truck had come earlier that morning, so whoever had put all of this stuff in had done it earlier that day. And so, I thought, “Ok, maybe our next-door neighbors were doing some trimming and needed to use our dumpster for overflow. Ok, that happens every now in then. Not a problem.” I went back inside, and I thought nothing of it.

The very next week on the very same day, I went to go take out the trash, and again, it was filled with all sorts of branches and leaves and lawn clippings. And so, I opened up the dumpster next to ours, and it was empty. And I opened up the dumpster on the other side of ours, and it also was empty. I went back inside, and I said, “Hey, Elaine, I’m pretty sure somebody is dumping their branches and leaves and lawn clippings into our dumpster every week. And the problem with that is that they’re not leaving us any room to put our trash in our dumpster. Which means we end up having to put our trash in our neighbor’s dumpster.” And Elaine said, “Well, let’s keep track of it and see if it keeps happening.”

We kept track of it, and it kept happening. But the hard part was that we couldn’t figure out who it was because we were both at work during the day. Well, finally, one day, Elaine had come home a bit earlier than usual, and as she was passing by the alleyway, she looked down and she saw this older guy dumping a bunch of branches and leaves and lawn clippings into our dumpster. And so, she parked the car, and she went over to the guy and said, “Uh, hi. I’m Elaine. I live at this house right here, and I was wondering why you’re putting all of your branches and leaves and lawn clippings into our dumpster.” And without looking up at her, he said, “It’s not your dumpster. It’s the city’s dumpster.” And she said, “Well, yeah, I realize that. But my husband and I pay the city to use this dumpster, and really, we’re the only ones who should be using it on a regular basis.” And he said, “Well I work for the city, and you can throw your trash in whatever dumpster you want.” Now, we later found out that that’s not true and he doesn’t work for the city. But to not cause a scene and make things worse, Elaine just humored him and said, “Well, um, ok, do you live nearby?” And he said, “Yeah, I live about five or six houses down that way.” And Elaine said, “Oh, ok. So, I’m guessing you fill your dumpster first and then come and use ours?” And he said, “No, I like to keep mine empty just in case I need to use it for other stuff.” Elaine just stood there confused and said, “Wait, so you’re saying that after you trim and mow your yard, you bag it up, but you don’t put it in your dumpster because you want to keep yours empty, and then you walk by 5 other dumpsters and then come to our dumpster and fill it with your stuff?” And he said, “Yep.” Elaine said, “Well, where are we supposed to put our garbage if you’re going to fill it up with your stuff?” And he said, “Well you can walk down the alley and use my dumpster if you want.” And Elaine was thinking, “Well, that doesn’t make any sense.”   So finally, she turned to him and said, “Sir, all I’m asking is that if you see our dumpster is getting full, could you please not fill it with your stuff so we have a place to dump our trash?” And he said, “Listen, sweetie. I’m going to put my branches and leaves and lawn clippings wherever I want to.” And then, he walked back toward his home.

You know, one of the problems of living in a city or living in a place with a whole lot of people is that sometimes, we have to deal with some pretty difficult people. In fact, a friend of mine said this the other day. He said, “You know, there are a lot of things I love about this city. I love the restaurants. I love the parks. I love the beaches. I love all the things that you can do. But the people, man, they just ruin it. I mean, if there weren’t all these crazy and obnoxious people, this would truly be a great place to live.” Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to deal with difficult people? Like, wouldn’t it be great if all the nasty neighbors had to live together on the far side of town? Or wouldn’t it be great if all the crazy and aggressive drivers weren’t allowed to drive anymore? Or wouldn’t it be great if the people who like to put their phone on speakerphone and have a loud conversation in the middle of the store, wouldn’t it be great if they were banned from those stores? Or how about this? Wouldn’t it be great if we could go a whole day without getting a single phone call from a scammer? Friends, wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to deal with difficult people?

Jonah and the City of Nineveh. –You remember the prophet, Jonah? Remember Jonah was supposed to go to the city of Nineveh and tell the crazy and obnoxious and difficult people there to stop doing terrible things? But then he didn’t. He ran from God. But eventually, God forced him to go to Nineveh. And so, Jonah stood before all these crazy and obnoxious and difficult people, and he said, “Hey guys, you need to stop doing all these bad things and sinning against the Lord, or he’s going to destroy you.” And remember, the people – they listened. They stopped doing bad things and God had compassion on them and did not destroy their city. And, friends, you would think that would be the end of the story. Except Jonah – he was angry. He was frustrated. God said, “Jonah, what’s your problem?” And Jonah said, “God, those crazy and obnoxious and difficult people in Nineveh, you shouldn’t have had compassion on them. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if we just didn’t have to deal with them anymore?”

Do you remember how God responded to Jonah’s frustration? He said, Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left. God brings up a really good question here for you and I to think about today. And the question is this – should we be concerned for the people in our city? In other words, should we care about the people who live in our neighborhoods, including the ones we think are crazy and obnoxious and difficult?

This was a question that God posed to Jonah thousands of years ago, but it was also a question that people were trying to figure out during the time of Jesus. In fact, one day, as we see in Luke chapter 10, one of the teachers of the law stands up and says, “Hey, Jesus, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus says, “Well, what does the law say?” And the guy says, “Love the Lord your God with all heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus says, “You have answered correctly. Go and do likewise.” And, friends, you would think that that would be the end of the story.

But it’s not. Because the man then asks a clarifying question. Do you remember the question he asked? Take a look. He said, “Who is my neighbor?” In other words, who are the people that I have to love in the same way that I would love myself? You can imagine what this man is thinking. Like, “Ok, Jesus, by neighbor, you mean like my parents and my friends and the nice little lady who lives next door. I mean those are the people I have to love, right? I mean, you’re not also talking about the crazy people. Or the obnoxious people. Or the difficult people. I mean, I don’t have to love the guy who cuts me off in traffic, right? I don’t have to love the coworker that gets under my skin, right? I don’t have to love the guy who fills my dumpster with his lawn clippings, right? I mean, Jesus, tell me, who exactly is my neighbor?”

Do you remember how Jesus responds to this guy’s question? He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. One day, a man gets robbed and he’s left for dead on the side of the road. And a priest walks by, sees him, but doesn’t help him. And then a Levite walks by, and he too sees him, but he doesn’t help him either. And then, finally, a Samaritan walks by, and he goes above and beyond to help this man in his time of need.

And so, in answering this man’s question – who is my neighbor? – Jesus’ parable shows us that a neighbor is essentially anybody who gets your attention. Or a neighbor is anybody who is in need. Which, when you think about it, that means that a neighbor could be anybody. And if a neighbor could be anybody, then who is our neighbor? Well…it’s everybody.

This has huge implications for you and I today. Because when we think about living in a city or living in a place with a whole lot of people, as followers of Jesus, we’re not just called to love the people we want to love, but we’re also called to love the people we don’t want to love. In other words, we’re called to be like the Samaritan, not like the priest or the Levite.

In light of the fact that we are called to love our neighbors, here’s the question that we’re going to be looking at this morning: How can we better live out the Gospel in our city? In other words, what are some practical ways that we can better follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as we would ourselves?

To help us answer this question, we’re going to look at a passage from the book of Jeremiah. If you remember – we talked a little bit about this in our last message series – a group of people called the Babylonians came to Jerusalem around 597 BC and destroyed the city and then ripped the Israelites from their land and brought them back to Babylon and essentially held them as prisoners. When the Israelites got to Babylon, there were some among them who said, “Hey guys, we are under no obligation to try and play nice with these Babylonians. Because after all, they’re the ones who ripped us from our land, so we just need to stick together and stay away from them and not interact with them at all.”

In Jeremiah chapter 29, God didn’t agree with this advice. Instead, He gave His people specific instructions on how they were to be a neighbor to these crazy and obnoxious and difficult people.  And so, what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a look at these instructions that God gave to the Israelites, and we’re going to see how you and I can apply them today as a way of better living out the Gospel in our city.

#1 – Engage with your Neighbors- Take a look at how this passage begins. Verse 4. It says, ⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

Some of the Israelites were saying, “Hey, let’s stay away from the Babylonians.” What did God say? He said, “Hey, Israelites, I want you to move into the city and live amongst the people. Build houses. Plant gardens. Marry. Have kids. In other words, I want you to interact and engage with the people in the city of Babylon.”

You see, here’s the first way that we can better live out the Gospel in our city – we need to be willing to engage with our neighbors. In other words, we need to be willing to get out there and interact with the people in our communities.

You know, I am really glad that Elaine was the one who had dealt with that difficult neighbor. Because you know what I probably would have done once I figured out that that guy was filling up our dumpster? I probably would have called code enforcement. Or I probably would have called the community police officer. Or I probably would have put up some passive aggressive signs right on the dumpster.

You know what Elaine did? She simply went out and engaged with our neighbor. She introduced herself. She asked him questions. She tried to understand where he was coming from. And even though he was rude and obnoxious, it didn’t stop her from trying to work out this issue with him. And you know what? After that conversation, he stopped putting his lawn clippings in our dumpster. And what’s more, when we see him now, we wave and say ‘hello’ and he says ‘hello’ back. Now, he’s still not the friendliest guy out there, but there’s a connection now all because Elaine chose to engage and interact with him.

And so, you know what? We want to challenge you with two ways that you can better engage with your neighbors. And of course, we’re not just talking about the people who live next to you, but we’re talking about everyone who lives in your city.

• The first one is to engage with people at places you frequent. For example, if you get your coffee from the same barista every morning, take some time to interact and engage with that person. Or if you go to a gym and you see the same people working out in your area, take some time to interact and engage with those people.

I think about my mom, as an example. She does a really good job at this. When my brother and I were growing up, my mom would take us with her to Publix. And every single time we got to the checkout line, my mom would just start talking with the cashier. And before you knew it, the cashier would be talking about their day and what they’re worried about and what they’re going to have for dinner that night and what they’re studying in school and how they have a cat that’s named Mr. Squiggles and he likes wet food but not dry food. And my brother and I would just stand there flabbergasted. Like we were watching an episode of Dr. Phil or something. But you know what? After seeing this happen for many years, I began to realize that these cashiers really appreciated my mom because she took the time to get to know them and take an interest in their lives. And when you’re scanning groceries all day, that can mean a lot. And so, friends, much like my mom, we want to encourage you to engage with people at places you frequent.

• And the second is to engage with people more than you normally do. You know, in our culture, we have many scripts that we repeat all the time. And one of those scripts goes a little something like this. You see somebody you know, and you say, “Hi, how are you?” And they say what? “Good, how are you?” And what do you say? “Good.” And that’s the extent of the conversation. Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Good.

We want to encourage you to go beyond the script. “Hi, how are you?” “Good, how are you?” “Good. Hey, how’s your mom doing?” Or, “Hey, how was the first day of school for your kids?” Or, “Hey, how did that job interview go?” And before you know it, the two of you find yourself engaged in a conversation about all sorts of things. All it took was engaging with that person more than you normally do.

We can’t tell the people in our city about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ unless we first interact and engage with them on a regular basis. And so, the first way that we can better live out the Gospel in our city is simply by engaging with our neighbors.

#2 – Serve your Neighbors- Take a look at the second instruction that God gives to the Israelites in Jeremiah 29. He says, ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

You can imagine that this would have been a difficult thing for the Israelites to hear. Because after all, the Babylonians had come and destroyed their city. And yet, here is God saying, “Hey guys, I want you to do whatever you can to seek the peace and prosperity of the people who destroyed your city. In other words, I want you to make yourself useful and serve the Babylonians.”

The second way that we can better live out the Gospel in our city is by serving our neighbors. Remember what the Gospel writer Mark said? He said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Friends, when Jesus walked on this earth, He dedicated His entire ministry to serving others. Because at the end of the day, He knew that dying on the cross wasn’t about Him. It was about saving people from their sin, and He did that by laying down His life for us.

And so, therefore, as followers of the one who came not to be served but to serve, you and I – we can seek the peace and prosperity of our city by simply serving those around us.

We want to challenge you with two ways that you can better serve your neighbors. The first is to serve people where you live. In other words, seeks the peace and prosperity of your neighborhood. For example, get together with a couple of people and clean up trash in your neighborhood. Or if you have an elderly neighbor who has a hard time doing yard work, offer to mow their yard or help trim their branches a few times a year. Although I will say if you do that, please don’t use my dumpster. You see, there are so many opportunities to serve right in your own backyard, and oftentimes, all it takes is a willingness to get out there and do it. Ok, so that’s the first one – serve people where you live.

The second is to serve people where you don’t live. Friends, notice that God didn’t tell the Israelites to seek the peace and prosperity of just their part of the city. No, what did He say? He said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city.” As in, the entire city.

• For example, maybe you get together with a couple of people and go to a neighborhood you’ve never been to before, and you clean up trash there. Or maybe your small group decides to adopt a school on the other side of the city and help to meet their needs – whatever those may be. Or how about this one?

You see, friends, when we serve the entire city, not just our part of the city, we demonstrate that the Gospel is for everybody. That Jesus did not die for some people. He died for all people. And therefore, as Christians, there is no part of our city that we’re not willing to serve. And so, the second way that we can better live out the Gospel in our city is simply by serving our neighbors as we seek the peace and prosperity of where we live.

#3 – Pray for your Neighbors- Finally, take a look at the third instruction that God gives to the Israelites in Jeremiah 29. He says, Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Imagine the Israelites listening to these instructions. Like, “God, first you wanted me to engage with the Babylonians in this city. Then, you wanted me to serve them. And now, you want me to pray for them? Like, seriously?”

Let me ask you – who do you pray for? When you’re laying down in bed and talking to God, who are you praying for? You know, I would venture to say that for almost every single one of us, the supermajority of people that we pray for are people that we know and people that we love.

But you know what? We want to challenge you to be praying for two other groups of people as well. The first is to pray for people that you don’t know. Friends, have you ever been in traffic on the interstate, and you finally get up to where the holdup is, and there’s a really bad accident? You ever prayed for those people in that accident? Yeah, right?

What if we did this sort of thing all the time? For example, the next time you go for a walk around your neighborhood, take a moment to look over at a house and pray for the people in that house. And then pray for the people in the next house and the next house and the next house. And before you know it, you’ve prayed for every single house on that block.

Or how about this? For those of you who are under the age of 30, this thing is called a newspaper. What if one morning, you opened up the local section, and you read an article, and then after reading it, what if you prayed for the people in that article and the situation they’re going through? You see, a lot of times, we’ll read an article and we’ll say, “Oh, that’s terrible,” or “Oh, I can’t believe that happened,” but what if we actually just stopped and prayed for these people. That God would bring them healing and wisdom and direction in the issue that they’re facing?

We want to encourage you to pray for people that you don’t know. And then second, we also want to encourage you to pray for people who are hard to love. In other words, pray for the crazy and obnoxious and difficult people in your life. Remember what Jesus said on this topic? He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In other words, pray for your crazy family member. Pray for your obnoxious coworker. Pray for your difficult neighbor. Pray for people who are really hard to love.

Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross and the people were hurling insults at Him – what did He do? He prayed for them. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Isn’t that the heart of our Gospel message? That when our neighbor dumps all his trash into our dumpster, what do we do? We don’t go to war. We forgive them. And we pray for them. And we try and seek peace with them. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Friends, we want to encourage you that one of the ways that you can better live out the Gospel in your city is not just to pray for the people you know and the people you love, but to also pray for the people you don’t know and the people who are hard to love.

The question that we set out to answer was How can we better live out the Gospel in our city? We’ve seen, three powerful ways that we can do that with our neighbors is to engage them, to serve them, and to pray for them.

Grace changes everything. It changes the way we live. It changes the way we love. It changes the way we interact with our neighbors. And it changes the way that we view our city. And so, friends, our prayer for you today is to live out of the grace that Jesus has freely given to you by simply sharing it with your neighbors. Engage with them. Serve them. And pray for them. Amen? Amen.

Pastor Chris Futch