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April 06, 2023
by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Luke 10:30–37
People don't want to listen to a recording of some sermon when the bottom drops out. They want a place to cry, a person to care, someone to bind up their wounds, someone to listen, the security of a few close, intimate friends.
A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead . . . . But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, "Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you." Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?
And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same" (Luke 10:30–37).
People don't want to listen to a recording of some sermon when the bottom drops out. They want a place to cry, a person to care, someone to bind up their wounds, someone to listen, the security of a few close, intimate friends who won't blab their story all over the church—who will do more than say, "I'll pray for you." They want refuge.
Stop and think. Who and where is your refuge for bruised believers?