You Are Rich

November 19, 2017 Speaker: Tara Detiveaux Series: The Parables of Jesus

Topic: Helping Scripture: Luke 10:30– :37

You’re Rich (What Ya Gonna Do About It)

America is 6 percent and we consume 40 percent of the resources

 

8 percent of the people in the world have a car

 

1.1 billion people don’t have clean water

 

800 million people won’t eat today

 

one billion people live on less than one dollar a day

 

50% of people live on less than $2.50 a day

 

Total number of children are dying a day because of poverty 22,000

 

There are 2.2 billion children in the world 1 billion live in poverty

 

1 in 5 children have no access to clean drinking water

 

Luke 10:30-37

 

Just before we get started with the story of the Jericho Road I do want to mention there are two other roads mentioned in the New Testament that are important to travel before we hop on the Jericho road.  Today in culture it is popular to jump on this road first, but it is not biblical.  First, we have to travel on the Damascus Road, the salvation road that Saul who became Paul encountered.  A relationship with God.  Second, we must travel on the Emmaus Road and become a disciple of Christ.  We must recognize who Christ is and come close to him through the word, worship, prayer, and scripture memory, meditation, and then we can hit the third road.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Jesus is talking to the religious in this situation.  They are asking him how to inherit eternal life and Jesus has them answer their own question.  The first answer is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor.  The religious wanted to make themselves look right so they asked him who is your neighbor?  The Jericho road is the answer that Jesus gives.  This story very well could have happened because Jesus mentions the two places.  This was a Samaritan that helped him.  That nation which of all others the Jews most despised and detested and would have no dealings with. (it is almost as if Jesus is picking with the culture of that day and the mindset that was in the religious community and what if he would do that today in America) The Samaritan has learned to honor all men; he knows that soon this poor man’s case may be his own and therefore pities him, as he himself would desire and expect to be pitied.

 

You Gonna Have to Stray

 

Sometimes breaking out of the comfort zone puts us into an unfamiliar social stratum.  For many reasons, it is easier to associate with the people with whom we feel comfortable.  White people hang out with white people.  Hispanics hang out with Hispanics.  Rich hang out with the rich and the poor hang out with the poor.  That’s why most people have friends who are just like them. 

 

The sad part is that we begin to think everyone is just like us-when nothing could be further from the truth even here in your group, in your school, in your job, in your community.  If Jesus was born in a stable and lived amongst people from “the gutter” of life, why is that we, his church are so far removed from that today? 

 

His church is the very group that has been rightly accused of largely abandoning the same type of people that Jesus walked among.  Have we forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God? 

 

Straying is Intentional.  The good Samaritan was intentional…“He went to Him”

 

You Gonna Have to Slay

 

For all of my non-urban people here what the urban dictionary has to say about slaying it

 

The act of doing something with great skill. 

Doing it extremely well. 

To be one of the greatest in that particular area. 

“you are slaying it.”

 

 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’

 

That is “slaying it.”

 

Ex. The lady with the underwear…I don’t think she was listening to the same Holy Spirit.

 

You Gonna Have to Stay

 

35 And the next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’

 

That my friends is staying, maybe not physically but in word and deed absolutely.

 

And the same is true of my friend Marles Healy. 

 

Her father was an evangelist and traveling through the island of the Philippines sharing the good news of Jesus and many walked the Damascus road and got plugged into churches that helped them walk out the Emmaus road, but she was saddened by the abandoned kids all throughout the streets of a certain island called Cebu.  So, she went back to her college and bought a couple of friends back with her to the Philippines and they rented out a little house and took in 15 to 20 kids and started something called the Cebu Shelter of Hope.

 

Where 30 yearsish later we found our family.  And we fly, arriving on a Monday morning to pick up our kiddos that are living in a beautiful home, attending an English-speaking Christian school, surrounded by Godly people because not only did she stray, she slayed, and stayed.

 

On Wednesday as we were pulling out to fly back home (already finding two new abandoned girls to fill the spots of my girls) they had a farewell led by her husband and herself and here is what they sang to us.

 

How does God take care of us, sometimes through the good Samaritan?

 

Application

 

But how do I do this cause I’m only 13 and have five years of school left?  Here you go because this kind of life starts small and grows tall.  It’s taking the intentional walk of “straying across the school cafeteria and having the loner sit by you.”  It’s “slaying it” and finding someone or something to bless this Christmas season and being over the top generous.  Wouldn’t it be cool to have a water well in the name of Hope Community somewhere in Africa or support some orphans in the Philippines or do a snack drive for Hope Extreme and “Slay It.”  And then you are going to have to stay.  And that is the hard part.  Staying. 

 

We are people that are motivated by a message but often times not moved to stay and make this a way of life for the rest of your life.

 

And the Samaritan stayed.  Whatever else he needs, I got that.

 

And Jesus stayed. 

And we need to stay and love our neighbor.

More in The Parables of Jesus

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November 12, 2017

How To Have Rock Solid Faith

November 5, 2017

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