“Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.” Matthew 22:39
WHAT IS IT TO
TRULY LOVE
YOUR NEIGHBOUR?
M
March 23rd
In the Gospel of Matthew 22:39, Jesus told His audience, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." What an amazing command!
We've set aside 8 days in March, 2014
to devote special effort as Christians to living out these instructions.
We are calling it our “Love My Neighbour Week!” We will be
introducing the Love My Neighbour concept on Sunday, March 16th,
challenging our church family to powerfully and visibly show the love of
God to those around us.
Love Your Neighbour Week will run from
Sunday, March 16th through Sunday, March 23rd! For
eight days, every Christian associated with
The Bible tells us that "faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." But some
won’t hear unless they SEE some compassion. As our acts of kindness
demonstrate God's care and love through us, we will actually be
encouraging people to hear more of God's Word.
Let's begin planning creative
activities that our families can do together, or that we can do as
individuals. And let's begin praying for those who will receive
these acts of kindness, that the seeds of the Gospel will be planted in
their hearts, and will bring forth much fruit.
During this special Week, you're not
only going to be touching people's lives for eternity, you're going to
have a great time doing it!
We will have a contest
to see who does the most Random Acts of Kindness during the eight days!
The top three will be well rewarded! To actually accomplish an effective
Act of Kindness, you will need to:
1) Actually DO something listed in this brochure
2) Tell the person WHY you are doing it for them
3) Give them the Tract, and
4) Invite them to Church on Sunday, March 23.
The final test of all our efforts will be measured by how many new people come out to Church on Sunday March 23 to find out more about WHY our church is different than all the rest! Let’s go make the difference!
An example Gospel presentation would be as follows...
Hi! I am your neighbour!
I wish I could say that it is in my nature to be kind, helpful, and
considerate all the time. Truthfully, that is not the case! I am more
likely to think of myself and maybe my own family first. But God gave us
two commands in the Bible to remind us of what is most important. The
first and greatest commandment is not found in the Ten Commandments, but
in the Gospel of Mark 12:30 where Jesus says, “And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.”
Jesus then said, the second commandment is just like the first, “Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these.” According to Jesus, we should strive
to love God foremost in our lives, and then love our neighbours as much
as we love ourselves. But, in fact you probably are like me and would
have to admit we don’t love God like we should, and we certainly don’t
love each other as we should.
In Jesus’ parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ we find many people walked
past a man who was assaulted by thieves and left to die. He was visibly
bruised and bleeding. Not even the religious and self-righteous stopped
to help him, but a hated and shunned man from Samaria did.
“But a
certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw
him, he had compassion on him,
and went to him, and
bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own
beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
Though you may
not be bruised, bleeding and in need of physical help right now, you
probably are in need of some compassion. At least this has often been
true in my life! And it was only because someone cared enough to tell me
about Jesus, that I discovered someone cared for my soul. So today, I
want you to know, that as your neighbour, I care about where YOU will
spend eternity. The Scriptures tell us we are all in serious trouble
without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Romans 3:10 and 6:23
says, “There
is none righteous, no, not one”, and “the
wages of sin is death…”
Only GOD by His grace can forgive us and save us from our sin! Ephesians
2:8,9 says, “For by GRACE are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Your best efforts will never earn favour with God because they are never
perfect. So God sent Jesus to die in your and my place on a cross so
that we could receive the gift of eternal life! Romans 6:23 concludes, “but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
I hope you realize that what you need most of all is God’s forgiveness in your life, like I did. It is such a comfort to know that God could love a world of selfish, sinful people like you and me! But God did more than just love us – He personally paid for all our sins (all of them) when He gave us His Son to die in our place! Think about it… the Bible says in John 3:16 “For God so loved THE WORLD, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Romans 5:8 says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That death in our place was THE greatest act of love ever done. It is why I asked you to read this leaflet. And, it is why I am asking you right now to consider your soul’s condition before God. Are you still in your sins, or would you like to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today? God promises in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” All you need to do is ASK Him!