Maximum Impact!

July 14, 2013                   THESE NOTES ARE UNEDITED

Maximum Impact

Luke 10:25-37

SIS—Living a life with “Maximum Impact” require a commitment to sacrificially serve others.

A couple of years ago I watched a clip on YouTube in which a popular young preacher by the name of Francis Chan demonstrated what it means to live for eternity, not this world.

He took a length of rope, like this one.  As you see, it is long enough to stretch across the stage.  Imagine, that it never ended, but it just kept going forever.  Then, look at this end of the rope.  Notice that the very tip is painted red.  The red part is less than a half inch.  Some of you in the back can probably not even see the red part.  That little, tiny speck of red represents the typical 70 to 80 years we will spend on this world.  The rest of the rope represents eternity. Compared to the rest of the rope, it is nothing.  It is insignificant.

Most people live only for that tiny, insignificant little part of existence we call “life.”  This is a great tragedy.  What we should be living for is “eternity.”  I call this living for “Maximum Impact.”  Living for Maximum Impact means living with a commitment to sacrificially serve others.  One of the best descriptions of living with Maximum Impact comes from an award-winning song by one of the greatest voices in country music, Randy Travis.  Sadly, Randy is struggling both physically and spiritually at this point in life.  But, he sings a song titled, “Three Wooden Crosses,” that describes what it means to live with “Maximum Impact.”  It’s a story of a preacher and the impact he had on a prostitute’s life.  The anchor line in the chorus says this:

“It’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you,
But what you leave behind you when you go!”

Listen as Randy sings about a life of “Maximum Impact”  [VIDEO]

READING:      Luke 10:25-37

There are three realizations you need to make if you are going to live a life that matters, “a life of Maximum Impact.”  First you must realize:

1.  It’s Not About Us (v 27)

In our text we are introduced to a bright young, lawyer. This does not mean, “lawyer,” like we think of in our culture.  This young lawyer was an “expert” in the Law of God, or the Torah of the Jews.  You may be aware that lawyers in our culture must pass a grueling, multi-hour exam, called the Bar Exam, in order to be given a license to practice law.  Well, this young Jewish lawyer had to pass a test also.  Jesus asked this young lawyer who was an expert in God’s Law:

v 26 “What is written in the Law”

We have the lawyer’s answer in verse 27:

²⁷ He answered: 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.

This verse puts together two foundational verses from the O.T., Deuteronomy 6:5, and Leviticus 19:18.  These two verses represent a summation of the Ten Commandments.  Deuteronomy summarizes commandments 1-4, and Leviticus summarizes 5-10. 

Righteousness means we are living in a right relationship with both God and man.  Jesus uses this same summary of righteousness in Matthew 22:38-40.  These two commandments sum up the entirety of God’s Law.

Why are you here?  I don’t mean, why are you in church this morning.  I mean, what is your purpose in life?  What is it that gives meaning to your life?   What is it that, “stokes the fire of your life?”  What is it that sets your heart on fire each morning you wake up?  Is it a good breakfast?  Is it fame and fortune?  Is it the hope that today you will grasp the “brass ring?”  Is it family?  Is it your job?  Is it living for the weekend to be spent on the beach, in a park, in the forest, at a ball park?  What are you “here” for?

One of the greatest preachers of the 20^th century summed it up about as well as it can be summed up.  He wrote a best-selling book—a blockbuster—based upon the simple theme of, “purpose.”  His book, The Purpose-Driven Life, has sold more copies of a book than any other book besides the Bible!  He became a multi-millionaire over night.  He also gives away over 90% of his wealth.  Rick Warren wrote in the first line of chapter 1:  “It’s not about you.”

Philosophers have pondered the meaning of life for as long as there have been philosophers.  Plato wrestled with it.  Aristotle, Plato’s star pupil wrestled with it.  The stoics wrestled with it as did the Cynics.  The Epicureans wrestled with the meaning of life.  In fact, the Apostle Paul confronted a group of Stoics and Epicureans. These learned men had built an altar called, “To An Unknown God.”  They realized that life must have some ultimate meaning and to cover their bases, they had one altar that covered anything their philosophy missed.  Paul, realizing their struggle to discover “ultimate meaning in life” said this:

Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it —He is Lord of heaven and earth  and does not live in shrines made by hands.

Then, Paul went on to elaborate the “purpose in life” is to know and to serve the One True God.  Paul declared:

^{Acts 17:  28} For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

Our entire purpose is wrapped up in our relationship with the One True God.  Living with “Maximum Impact” in this life is simply to realize that we were created to “live for God,” and to bring glory to Him.  We bring glory to Him by sacrificially serving our neighbor—that is, doing anything we can to meet the physical, emotional, and most of all, spiritual needs of others.  We cannot meet the requirements of the first law, if we neglect the second.

Living for Maximum Impact means loving God and serving others.  It means, “denying one’s self” and living for God and others.  It means dying to our self and living for God.  Jesus said,

Luke 9:23 If anyone wants to come with  Me, he must deny himself, 
take up his cross daily,  and follow Me.

How much time this past week did you spend on yourself? How much did you spend on the poor?  How many meals did you prepare, or have prepared for yourself?  How many did you prepare or help prepare for others? You see, it is actually possible to quantify and analyze just how much we “love God,” by how much of our time is spent in service to Him by sacrificially meeting the needs of others.

Now, in verse 29 the Lawyer tried to weasel out of the second great commandment, “to love others as we love ourselves.”  His question, “Who is my neighbor” is an attempt to limit his responsibility to God; that is to reduce his duty to God to a manageable level.   In other words, what the lawyer was really asking is, “how little can I do and still get into heaven?”

Does this sound like familiar question?  I wonder, have you asked this question in one form or another yourself?  I’ve had people ask me, for example, “can I drink a beer or have a glass of wine and still go to heaven?”  Or, another version of the question of limiting our responsibility is, “do I have to tithe off of my gross or my net?”  Or, some ask, “Do I have to tithe since that is in the O.T.?”  There are many, many versions of this lawyer’s question, but they all have one thing in common:  these questions seek to reduce one’s responsibility to God to a level that will not interrupt or disturb their lives.

The key component in living for “Maximum Impact” is to realize you live, move, and have your being in God.   You simply cannot live a “Maximum Life” until you realize, “It’s Not About Us.”

2.  Second, It’s Not About Religion (v 30)

Let me outline the story Jesus told to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor.”

The story begins with a man who is travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho on what has been called, “The Bloody Way.”  This road was nothing less than treacherous.  Jerusalem was about 20 miles from Jericho which was near the Dead Sea.  Jerusalem is at an altitude of about 2300 feet above sea level.  Jericho was about 1300 feet below sea level—a drop of 3600 feet.  It was a steep, twisting walk on rocky terrain.  The “Bloody Way” was also, as William Barclay put it, “the happy hunting grounds for brigands (robbers).” Bandits, brigands, would lie in wait around one of the many twists and turns and ambush unwary travelers.  This road was such a “den of thieves” that even as late as the 1800’s travelers on this road found it necessary to pay safety money to the local Sheiks, or chieftains, to travel on it.  This man in our text, is a perfect example of what often occurred. 

vs 30  “[He] fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him,

beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.

This man, lying half dead on the road, would be encountered by three other men:  a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan.  We’ll get to the Samaritan in a minute

The priest and Levite were both “religious men” probably devoutly religious men.  All priests were Levites, though not all Levites were priests.  There were 24 orders of Levitical Priests who rotated service in Jerusalem.  The priests were, by this time in Israel’s history, and elite upper class and had homes in the Valley near Jericho where they spent the other 50 weeks of the year when they were not serving. 

I will not speculate on the motive of the priest in passing by this needy stranger because Luke does not give a motive.  The point is, the priest and Levite both represent “religious people.”  And, my point is simple:  “Loving God and serving our neighbor IS NOT ABOUT RELIGION.”

You can be the most religious person in the world and go to church every time the doors are open, and even go by to park in the parking lot on occasion, and still not live a life with “Maximum Impact.”

In fact, religion is more likely to keep you from living a life of “Maximum Impact” than to assist you in doing so.  Religion can give you a false sense of “righteousness” by punching your religious ticket once a week.  This will not lead to living with “Maximum Impact.”   We live in a “consumer culture” and one of the commodities we consume is “religion.” Religion is simply one compartment in a person’s life among many other compartments.  Just like a person has a job, or a hobby, they have a religion—a spiritual activity on their weekly calendar.  Religion is more likely to aid you in living a life of “Minimum Impact,” rather than “Maximum Impact.”

And . . . this is assuming that you are actually devout and committed to your religion.  Most people who “have a religion” are like people who have a “stair-climber or treadmill.”  Having a treadmill and using that treadmill are two different things.  Having a religion, and practicing that religion are likewise, two different things.  I recently read on my FaceBook page that a woman got excited about exercise so she named her dog, “Five Miles.”  Now, she walks her dog to the end of the driveway and tells everyone she walks Five Miles every day.

Having a religion and living for Maximum Impact are two different things.  Even if you are as devout as a priest and a Levite, living for “Maximum Impact” is not about religion.  It’s about something else altogether.  “Living for Maximum Impact” is all about

3. Compassion (v 33)

Let’s look at that third man who comes along,

³³ But a Samaritan  on his journey came up to him,
and when he saw the man, he had compassion.

Now, I want to make it very clear what “compassion” is NOT!  It is not sympathy.  Sympathy is merely seeing someone in need and “feeling sorry for them.”  We can assume that both the priest and the Levite, felt sorry for the beaten man.  For all three men the text says the same thing, “He SAW” the man.  The priest saw the man.  The Levite saw the man; and the Samaritan saw the man.  Simply seeing needy people in our world is not the same as having “compassion” for the needy people of our world.

I love the word, “compassion,” in the N.T.  It is my favorite Greek word.  It is “splanknon (splagchnon).”  The Samaritan had “splanknon” for the man.  Literally, it means, “He saw the man and loved him with all his bowels!” Do you remember that first time you met the “love of your life?”  Do you remember how you wanted nothing more than to make her, or him, happy?  Do you remember how you determined to do whatever it takes, pay whatever it cost to serve him or her?  Do you remember that feeling in the pit of your stomach that felt like a “rumbling” or like “butterflies?” That was deep, devoted love.  That’s what “splanknon” means.

“Compassion” drives us to action.  The only kind of love that qualifies as God’s kind of love is “love in action.”  Compassion drives us to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of others.  Compassion is the fuel that fires up the engine of righteousness.  Compassion is the power that launches us on a life of “Maximum Impact.”

Make no mistake about it:  if you choose to live for “Maximum Impact,” it will cost you something—in fact, it will cost you everything.  The story of this Samaritan, though we do not know his name, has endured for over 2000 years, so much so that to “Be a Good Samaritan” has become a common phrase in English.  This Samaritan lived with “Maximum Impact” and his legacy extends even to this day two millennia later.  But, notice what it cost him

(A)  It cost him his time (v33).  Just like the traveler, the priest, and the Levite, the Samaritan was “on a journey.”  He was going somewhere and had something he needed to do.  Picking up a beaten, bloody stranger was not on his “Things To Do List” for that day. Living for “Maximum Impact” means expecting interruptions in your day—in fact, you begin to long for these types of “Divine Encounters.”  If you are going to live for “Maximum Impact,” expect to pay a premium of your time.

(B)  It cost him his talents (v34a).   He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil  and wine.  The wording in this first half of verse 34 suggests the man knew a little about “first aid.”  He was able to form bandages, which meant he may have even ripped apart his own clothing. He also knew the healing properties of “oil and wine.”  Olive oil was commonly used as a soothing balm for injuries, much like aloevera is used today.  Wine, had antiseptic properties and was commonly used in first aid.  It is significant to point out the hero of our story is a Samaritan.  This would have caused the Jewish lawyer’s skin to crawl because they hated Samaritans.  In fact, in some Jewish communities it was against the law to receive oil and wine from a Samaritan.

So, the Samaritan’s compassion, cost him the use of his talents.  Everybody in the church has talents and abilities that they can apply to meeting the needs of others.  Everybody.

(C)  Living for Maximum Impact cost his TREASURES (vv 34b-35)

Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day  he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

There is no “cheap path” to living for Maximum Impact.  I know it makes people very nervous when the preacher talks about giving money in the church.  But, this is as important as giving our time or talents, and perhaps even moreso.  It takes money to meet needs.  It takes money to buy food for the hungry.  It takes money to provide shelter for the homeless.  It takes money to buy clothes for poor children.  It takes money to provide the church programs that preach the gospel to a lost community.  Living for Maximum Impact is going to cost you money.

Living for Maximum Impact will cost you greatly:  your time, your talents, and your treasures must be sacrificed in service to others.

Living for Maximum Impact is fueled by a God-sized compassion for the lost and hurting in our world.  Living for Maximum Impact means putting our love for God in action through sacrificial service to those in need.

CLOSE:  I have shared this little ditty that I first learned in Primary Sunday School.  It sums up what it means to live with “Maximum Impact” in a simply, yet profound way:

“’tis one life will soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I think Randy Travis’ song sums it up quite nicely.  Living for Maximum Impact is not about “What you take when you leave this world behind you, but what you leave behind you when you go!”

Jesus ended His talk with the devout Lawyer by saying:

“Go and do likewise”

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