63% of the students that were in no hurry stopped to help
45% of the students in a moderate hurry stopped
10% of the students that were in a great hurry stopped.
Conclusion: Pace of life has a significant impact on how clearly we see the needs of others.
53% of those speaking on the Good Samaritan stopped. (It was on their mind)
29% of those speaking on random topics stopped.
Conclusion: If we do not continually remind ourselves to see like Jesus, our “awareness” radar gets broken.
Jesus noticed the needs and opportunities around Him.
“Jesus had the ability to read the room.”
Why is it important that we see the needs around us?
- People need Jesus, whether they know it or not.
John 3:16-18 (Msg)
This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has [already] done so, on Calvary.”
Every person has an eternal destination.
- People want Jesus, whether they realize it or not.
John 10:10 (NLT)
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
Spiritual problems require spiritual solutions.
Most of our problems are spiritual problems and human solutions can only do so much.
- People need something different, whether they realize it or not.
Simply put: What the world is offering isn’t working.
Cyril Richardson, Early Christian Fathers
Letter written to Diognetus (Between 2nd and 3rd Centuries)
“For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life…Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike… and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are “in the flesh,” but they do not live “according to the flesh.” They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require. They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance… They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect… To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.”
We want our lives to be so attractive that people who know us but don’t know Jesus, will want to know Jesus because they know us.
We must live the difference and share the difference.
Imagine what God could do over this next month if we see like Jesus and invite people to find real hope!