The Church God Sees: A Church Serving Its City

Luke 10:25–37

Compassion is never random in the Kingdom of God. Real compassion always begins when someone chooses to stop!

In the 1830s, a young pastor named George Müller walked through the streets of Bristol, England and locked eyes with a little girl no one else noticed. She was hungry, dirty, and invisible to an entire city. That single moment of obedience sparked an orphan ministry that would shape thousands of children for generations. One step. One act of mercy. One decision not to walk past a wounded soul.

The question for the Church today is simple: will we stop for the people God puts in front of us?

Jesus tells a story that forces us to answer that question.

Luke 10 describes a moment where a lawyer stands up and asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus turns the question back on him, the lawyer quotes the great commandment: Love God with everything, and love your neighbor as yourself. He knows the words, but he doesn’t want the responsibility. So he narrows the definition. He looks for an escape hatch. He asks, “Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus responds with a story that destroys every excuse we use to protect our comfort.

A man is beaten, stripped, robbed, and left half dead on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite passes by. Both men are considered holy. Both men know the Scriptures. Both men can talk theology for hours. But both walk around a dying man because compassion would cost them something.

Then Jesus introduces the one character no one expected: a Samaritan. The crowd would have tensed as soon as the word left His mouth. Jews and Samaritans despised one another. They avoided each other. They insulted each other. This was the last person anyone imagined Jesus would highlight. Yet this outsider stops, bends down, and binds wounds the religious elite refused to touch. He lifts the man, sets him on his own animal, takes him to safety, covers the bill, and promises to return.

Jesus flips the entire system upside down. The priest had status. The Levite had reputation. But the Samaritan had compassion. And Jesus makes it clear which one reflects the heart of God.

The wounded are never inconveniences to God.

If you read the ministry of Jesus, you notice a pattern. He stops for the blind man on the roadside. He stops for the woman who reaches for His robe. He stops for the leper no one else will touch. He stops for the children the disciples see as interruptions. He stops for sinners everyone else condemns. Jesus never steps around the hurting. He moves toward them.

That is the heart of the Church Jesus is building. Not a church that avoids messes. Not a church obsessed with appearances. Not a church too busy, too structured, or too religious to notice the broken. A church that looks at the wounded and sees value. A church that believes no one is too far, too dirty, too complicated, or too inconvenient for the love of God.

God often brings healing through the people you least expect.

When Jesus finishes the parable, He asks the lawyer a simple question: Which man acted like a neighbor? The lawyer can’t even say the word Samaritan. Prejudice runs so deep that he can only answer, “The one who showed him mercy.”

But that’s exactly the point. God uses unlikely people to reveal His heart.

He used Abraham, a man too old to be useful.

He used Moses, a man who doubted himself.

He used Rahab, a woman with a painful past.

He used David, a boy with a sling.

He used Esther, an orphan girl.

He used fishermen with calloused hands.

Over and over again, the Lord chooses the unexpected. He works through people the world overlooks. He works through people we overlook. And He works through us when we stop making excuses and start obeying His voice.

You can’t love God deeply if you ignore people easily.

The lawyer in Luke 10 had knowledge, but he didn’t have obedience. He could quote Scripture with precision, but his heart was unmoved by suffering. Jesus makes it clear: Love for God is proven by love for people. Not love in theory. Not love on paper. Love in action.

We cannot say we love God if we close our eyes to the people He brings into our path. We cannot claim devotion to Christ while stepping around the wounded in our valley. If we want to be the Church God sees, we have to be willing to stop. We have to be willing to see. We have to be willing to care.

Jesus ends the conversation with four words that leave no wiggle room: “You go, and do likewise.”

This is the call on Mountain Valley Chapel. We are placed here in this valley for a reason. Not to build a brand. Not to collect attenders. But to serve the city God has entrusted to us. To see the people others overlook. To stop for the ones who feel invisible. To bring the compassion of Jesus into real moments with real people who need real hope.

When we do for the least of these, Jesus says we do it unto Him.

The way we serve the wounded reflects the way we love the Savior.

And when the Church steps toward the hurting, Heaven steps toward the Church.