{"id":38555,"date":"2019-09-22T17:09:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/"},"modified":"2019-09-22T17:09:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T17:09:00","slug":"good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Hunter Shamatt lost his wallet, he had little hope he&rsquo;d get it back, certainly not with interest. But he did. Hunter was on the way from South Dakota to his sister&rsquo;s wedding in Las Vegas when he left his wallet on the airplane. It held the 20-year-old&rsquo;s ID and debit card, as well as $60 and a signed paycheck. Hunter was &ldquo;fearing the worst that everything was gone,&rdquo; his mother Jeannie Shamatt wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n\n<p>Luckily, Todd Brown, the man who found it, is a believer in paying it forward. He mailed everything back, and then some. Brown included a note that read: &ldquo;Hunter, found this on a Frontier flight from Omaha to Denver&mdash;wedged between the seat and wall. Thought you might want it back. All the best &hellip; PS. I rounded your cash up to an even $100 so you could celebrate getting your wallet back. Have fun!!!&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>That&rsquo;s right. While others may have snatched the cash, Brown gave the kid some more. &ldquo;I saw he was just a kid, 20 years old, he had a paycheck in there, so I figured, &lsquo;Well, he&rsquo;s doing his best to make ends meet.&rsquo; I was 20 once, and that&rsquo;s a lot of money for a kid,&rdquo; Brown reasoned. He decided not to give the wallet to the flight crew. &ldquo;I thought about it, but I just wanted to make sure he got it back,&rdquo; Brown told Yahoo Lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n<p>Jeannie posted again on Facebook to gush about Brown. &ldquo;I personally want to thank Todd Brown &hellip; for restoring faith that there are amazing people out there, the world is not as grim as it&rsquo;s being made out to be,&rdquo; she wrote. Brown never expected to get so much attention. &ldquo;I just wanted to do the right thing, it always feels good to do the right thing,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong><em>Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Grace of God; Restoration; Salvation, gift of<\/em> <\/strong> <em> &#8211; God not only restores what we&#39;ve lost through our own fault; by grace he lavishes us with more gifts than we could ever imagine (Eph. 1:7). <strong>2) Generosity; Loving others<\/strong> &ndash; As we have experienced God&rsquo;s amazing grace, His light should shine through us to others to the glory of God (Matt 5:16). <\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\"> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[4043,4051,4057,4076,4080,4089,4095,4321,4400,4461,4477,4825,4879],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-38555","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-generosity","tax_ctp_tags-gift-of-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-good-deeds","tax_ctp_tags-good-samaritan","tax_ctp_tags-grace-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-great-commandment","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-mercy-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-mission-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-restoration","tax_ctp_tags-salvation-by-grace"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Hunter Shamatt lost his wallet, he had little hope he&rsquo;d get it back, certainly not with interest. 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It held the 20-year-old&rsquo;s ID and debit card, as well as Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/\",\"name\":\"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-22T17:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-22T17:09:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-samaritan-returns-lost-wallet-and-adds-money-to-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Samaritan Returns Lost Wallet and Adds Money to It - CT Pastors","og_description":"When Hunter Shamatt lost his wallet, he had little hope he&rsquo;d get it back, certainly not with interest. 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