See next thing it says, he set him on his animal. What he did then was, he adjusted his priorities around his mission. Jesus continually adjusted His time, and His scale of doing things, around mission. When people came to Him in need, He made adjustments, and met the needs. When people came to Him with faith, He stopped to listen to them, and meet their needs. People with needs come at the most inconvenient times, so one of the things about the Samaritan was, he was willing to reprioritise his life. It's incredibly inconvenient if you're riding a horse to get off and put someone on, and start to walk. To be engaged with the needs of people is inconvenient. It requires we adjust what we do. I found every time anyone's come with a need or I've spotted a need, it never was at a good time. You notice people don't even die at a good time, they just die at a most inconvenient time. [Laughs] Yet you've got to step off on whatever you're doing, and get involved with that. It's part of what ministry is like.
Let's have a look at the next thing. It said he brought him to an inn. One of the things we need to learn how to do is how to bring people into the house of God, into the body of Christ, to begin to connect with them. None of us has all the answers, not one of us, but together, we can actually provide healing, and hope, and help for people. So he didn't just fix him up on his own, he just did what he could. So another thing he did was, he knew his limits. When you're working with people you need to know your limits. You can help to a certain extent, then it needs others to help. Sometimes we recognise the needs are beyond what we can do, then we have to refer to someone else who can do the job, but we can at least reprioritise our life, connect with the person, help them actually make the next step.
The next thing he did was he took care of him. When you bring someone to church, there's a way of actually drawing people in. Many times we try to invite someone to church who's hurting and needing, and they desperately need the touch of God, but we haven't sown into their life. We haven't invested kindness in their life long enough, for them to be willing to make a response. Notice this man invested healing and invested energy and time into him, and that then laid the way for him to respond. He was able to bring him into the inn, bring him to the house of God - but there's a way of bringing people into the church, there's a way of linking people into the church. He brought him to where others were, brought him to a place where there was vitality and life. Notice there he took care of him, he followed him up. If you bring someone here on a Sunday, then look after them, follow them up, check out how they're being looked after. You look after them, make them a priority, and if you didn't bring anyone, and someone else did, well then you as a part of the general people that are in the inn, go to them, and make them welcome, make them feel like they're very special, feel like they're very important. Make them very welcome.
Finally the last thing is, he released finances to do what he couldn't do, the on-going care. One of the things we're all called to do, is to release what resources we have. For some it may be just a little - well a little is just very big, if it's in God's eyes see? Or it may be a lot more, it doesn't really matter. The key principle here is, that resources are released so that God's work of ministering to people, and bringing them to wholeness and activating them again, can take place. This is what Jesus did. This is what love looks like. That's what love looks like. That's what it looks like. Let's have a look at it again. Love, love embraces the calling, as a sent person to the community. Have you embraced your calling as a sent person? Love is sensitive to the heart of God, and manifests the compassion of God. Do you feel that sometimes, and let that rise up when you see people with needs?