The Obnoxious Neighbor

Sunday, June 18, 2023

In Israel there’s the sea of life and the sea of death. The Galilee is alive. The Dead Sea is dead. The Galilee is always giving water. The Dead Sea only receives water, but it doesn’t give anything. The one who gives is alive but the one who only gets is dead. The sea of life is always flowing into the Sea of Death; it never stops flowing. So is the heart of life. At the heart of life you’re not limited by people who don’t give you love or who are selfish, because you’re a person of life. The more you give, the more alive you become and it doesn’t matter whether the people give back to you or not. Love those who don’t love you. Bless those who don’t bless you. Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you. Don’t let their lack of love stop you from flowing in God’s blessings. Don’t be overcome by evil. Overcome evil with good. Keep blessing, loving and giving. Because God called you to be like the ever flowing sea of life and not like the sea of death.

Then he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight.
Then he says, friend lend me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine is on a journey.
He’s come to me and I have nothing to give or set before him.
All right, the situation or the scene is you picture a first century house.
There’s not much in it. It’s basically usually a one room dwelling.
They often slept near each other or in the same bed or Matt comes a knock on the door, 12 o’clock at night saying, hey, I got company over I have company.
And now imagine this is you imagine you’re in bed.
It’s midnight, knock comes on your door at midnight and you’re, you’re thinking who’s gonna knock at your door at midnight?
It’s gotta be, gotta be a tragedy. It’s gotta be the police. It’s gotta be something.
It’s your neighbor saying I have some company. Can you get me some bread? 12 o’clock?
What would you say? Would you say? Are you crazy? You got a lot of nerve.
Are you crazy? Waking us up? We’re sleeping, you know.
Well, back then in the Middle East traveling was often done at night and, and uh it was, it was cooler at night.
And so it was a heavy emphasis on a culture of hospitality because people traveled.
So someone shows up, you entertain them.
But even in that culture to wake somebody up in the middle of the night to get some snacks for your party, get something for your, your, your uh company.
That’s not customary. That’s obnoxious. I don’t care what culture it is.
You know, Middle Eastern South, you know, sub Saharan, it’s obnoxiousness. However you put it in that language.
That’s what it is. Do you ever get, you ever get a call from somebody?
And this is probably more likely that you have some time in your life, gotten a call from somebody at one in the morning or, or very late at night.
And because, and, and it, it wasn’t for bread but it was something. And you said that wasn’t worth that.
That wasn’t justified to do that.
And, and the, the, the ultimate thing, you know, or sometimes people has anybody woken you up by the phone and, and when you’re normally sleeping and sleeping hours and they say, did I wake you?
And he said, no, I always talk like this in the middle of the night.
You know, can you get me some onion dip? We’re having company over?
Well, well, that is not, this is, this is the, the thing that, that he’s showing right now, you would not naturally do it and not naturally look kindly on somebody who did.
So basically that, you know, saying here the door is locked, you know, here he goes on, he, he speaks about that.
But if the God, the neighbor keeps pressing forward, he’s actually saying then verse eight, it says though he will not get up and give anything because he’s a friend yet Because of his boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Now, the Greek word here that is used of what Messiah said is the word or a or a which can be translated as an without, without humility.
So they’re saying this stranger, this or this neighbor is coming over without any humility.
It also means without shame. This guy has no shame. He is shameless.
Also means without reverence, no reverence to do this to your neighbor or also can be translated as audacity, Audacious insulin.
Now, this would not seem to be a good thing. You know, it’s not a good quality yet.
Messiah is gonna say, he’s gonna turn it all around and he’s gonna, he’s gonna do something here.
That is the surprising thing. He’s gonna say something very unexpected.
Messiah likes saying things unexpected that God is often the God is the God of the unexpected Gods, the God of surprises throughout the Bible.
He’s always surprising people burning bush surprise, you know, Mary you’re gonna have a baby with no man surprise.
That’s why he God doesn’t really fit in with religion.
Well, because religion is what’s expected, but God is always unexpected, the ultimate of God.
So Messiah is, you know, the incarnation is unexpected. The resurrection is unexpected. Even the crucifixion is unexpected.
The spirit is unexpected. That’s the nature of God. He likes to surprise us.
Messiah even shocks us or he gets uh he speaks out of what people are comfortable with.
Out of the familiar. Whenever he called somebody he was doing that, he was taking them out of their familiar life into something.
They were not familiar with. Drop your nets.
Follow me basically with leave the tax, the tax table behind Matthew, step out of the boat, walk on water.
He will do that with every one of his disciples, including you.
He will always call you out of what you’re comfortable with.
Hi, I’m Jonathan Cohn and I hope you are blessed with the video.
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