Overcoming Apathy

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in southwest Florida. For more info visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's good to have you here today. I am excited, of course, about this week. You know, every year we come up to the celebration of both the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and it's like, just, I'm just amazed. I just cannot fathom what he went through and why he went through it. And it's all for you, for me. You know, it's just amazing. So I don't know what best to do, you know, than to celebrate that. I'm looking forward to it again. And even today, as we are in this series called Overcomer, we're looking at the victory that Jesus Christ has given us and we're going to be looking at overcoming the epidemic of apathy. You think we've got one going on? I think so. We're looking at Luke chapter 10, is our text today. You can look this up on the Bible app if you've got it and you can get all the notes for this message as well. But Luke 10, verses 25 to 37. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? He replied, how do you read it? He answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. A priest happened to go along down the same road and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So to a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, go and do likewise. So today we're in a part two of a four-part series. Next week is Easter, and so we're going to have a special message. I hope you're excited about it. I think it's going to be especially a good message. I'm hoping, I'm praying, a good message on Easter. But for those who might be skeptics or doubters or, you know, the people that you elbow into coming to church, you know, some people, especially on Easter and Christmas, get here because, well, it's the family thing to do or whatever. I'm trying to really work on that, okay? So just bring somebody along with you. I think it's going to be a good message that really touches just all of that going on. But today we're going to be looking at this epidemic of apathy. And as some of you nodded, we are, or people consider us the apathetic generation or culture. Of all the people I think that probably summed it up well, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, probably encapsulated with these words from Smells Like Teen Spirit, with the lights out, it's less dangerous. We are here now. Entertain us. I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are now. Entertain us. Half of you are going like, who? And the other half are going like, you know, but I understand. That song is probably going to be in your head for the rest of the message. Okay, you'll have to listen to it afterwards. It's much better than, you know, the lyrics go really well with the music, right? But I think he's basically saying, I'm bored. You got to entertain me. You got to thrill me. You got to excite me. You got to do something because I'm just here. I'm not planning on doing much. I don't really care. There's no much hope. There's not much anything going on. Entertain me. Thrill me. Chill me. Do something to get me to feel something. At least that's my interpretation of that. And I think that's kind of that jaded, cynical look I see from a lot of people these days. And here's the problem. I can try to entertain you. I can amuse you for a while, but kind of like almost an addiction, you're going to need a little bigger hit every week. Something more outrageous, something more exciting, something more thrilling. And guess what? It will not get rid of your apathy. It might actually even numb you more because one of the problems with apathy is why it's there in the first place. So how do you overcome the epidemic of apathy? That's what we're kind of focusing on today. And first of all, what is apathy, right? I don't know and I don't care. That might be your response. Jimmy Buffett said...