Sermon Tone Analysis

Go and Do: The Jesus Side of the Street

intro - talk about Gospel for year is John.

We will begin to go through that next week.

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Pray

[picofgoodsamaratin]

Our yearlong search for the work of Christ around us can only begin here, in this text.

It begins here, not because we all know it, or because it is so understandable; we begin here, because in this moment of scripture, Jesus speaks through two millennia directly to us.

He hits us right between the eyes with a truth that we confront seemingly daily.

I say that as a way to continue this idea from last week.

You see, we all wake up, seemingly every day, and wonder - either to ourselves or even to others - what do I need to do to follow Christ?

We all get to that point.

We all ask ourselves that question.

And really, if you aren’t taking stock, and asking yourself that question AT LEAST weekly, then you need to resolve to start now.

I say that because it is only when we analyze and asses our spiritual condition and our response to the Holy Spirit that we can see if we are on the right track.

That means that we need to constantly look at our lives and ask God what lies at the heart of this mans question.

What do I need to do to be more like you?

[read]

That is what the man, likely a Pharisee, is really asking.

And that is what we need to be asking!

Whether we are, like this man, frustrated or testing Jesus, or we are genuinely lost and in need of His guidance, we need to daily seek out opportunities to sit and ask God, what do I need to do to be more like you?

As we said last week, that is where we as a church stand right now.

Y’all, I can’t express to you the importance of this year, and our theme for it.

For me, this is everything we need to be about.

This is the way we need to live.

We must look into our lives, and our church lives, and find those places when we don’t love God and love Neighbor because we aren’t paying attention, or are more concerned with trivial things.

That single commandment of Jesus, that little piece of scripture that lays at the heart of this introduction to the parable and at the center of our own church identity, it should guide us to far bigger things than ourselves.

Bigger things than social groups and corporate worship and power struggles.

But just like this man in our text, all too often, we get lost in the weeds of our own comfort.

We get lost and then when we see need, or see our purpose, we ask some form of this same question:

Who is my neighbor?

Who am I supposed to love like I love God? Who am I supposed to offer myself to, just as I offer myself to God? Who am I supposed to serve?

[picofamirror]

All too often, our answer is someone who looks like us, or thinks like us, or are even our friends, or people who run in our own social circles, right?

People who live on our side of town, and our side of the street.

At the very least, they are people who we feel have cleared some invisible set of protocols that we have in our heads!

Maybe we don’t help people who we think might drink, or are on drugs.

Maybe we don’t help people who have other habits we don’t like.

Or people who have tattoos, or piercings.

Maybe we need to make sure they at least have a job before we will help them.

Whatever our set of rules, I can see us all - myself included - occasionally forgetting just what we are called to think and do in this life, choosing instead to pass by those who need us the most just because they don’t live on Jeff’s side of town, or on your side of the street.

I mean, it’s OK though right?

We give to Lottie Moon, and Annie Armstrong, and here at church!

We sacrifice a little to tithe, or we sacrifice our Sundays and maybe even our Wednesdays.

We offer those things to God as a way to show Him that we are on His side!

We are obedient!

And right there, in the middle of all those things that we think qualify us as the ‘elect’ or the ‘righteous’, God reminds us all of our real job.

He demands mercy.

He demands grace.

He demands that we stop thinking that we can give our way into obedience with money alone.

Church, just like this Pharisee in our text, we sometimes think we are justified by our obedience in one aspect of faith.

But y’all, tithing is just tithing.

It is our response of obedience and love for what we have been given by God.

It is not, however, something that checks off a box that would allow us to go live unmerciful and unloving lives!

And in fact, it isn’t even what God is ultimately after!

God demands mercy!

But God knows that the only way to teach us to be merciful is to get us to love money less and people more!

And more than just that, we have to love people more than our time, our station, our situations - more than anything apart from God!

[picofgoodsamaritan]

That is what this story is all about.

That is why it is so valuable for us.

Church we are all just like this Pharisee.

We treat our ways, our customs and traditions, as being just as precious as God’s word and call in our lives.

What is worse, we treat them as being more important than God’s people!

We are so busy walking along on our side of the street - following our own made up ways - that we rarely care to think about those on the other side, let alone try to reach out and help them!

I mean after all, we gave at the office!

We’re good!

We are just like these men passing on their own side of the street...

[summarize story]

[move everything towards the end of the story-]

[move everything towards the end of the story-]

I feel like all of us, at some point, face the tug of God’s Spirit in our souls.

We face the unapologetic truth of what God expects from us.

The obvious question of our Savior to this man, and in fact, to each and every one of us!

Here in this text we get this picture, this reflection of our own situations and thoughts, and through that we get to hear our Savior ask us the same questions!

I feel like all of us, at some point, face the tug of God’s Spirit in our souls.

We face the unapologetic truth of what God expects from us.

The obvious question of our Savior to this man, and in fact, to each and every one of us!

Here in this text we get this picture, this reflection of our own situations and thoughts, and through that we get to hear our Savior ask us the same questions!

Which one lived the right way? Which one thought like Jesus?

Which one had God’s plan on the forefront of His mind?

Which one should you try to live like?

THE ONE WHO HAD MERCY!

THE ONE WHO HAD GRACE!

THE ONE WHO THOUGHT ABOUT THE NEEDS OF SOMEONE ELSE FIRST!

THE ONE THAT WAS WILLING TO SACRIFICE SOMETHING - IF NOT EVERYTHING - FOR SOMEONE ELSE! THE ONE WHO WALKED ON THE JESUS SIDE OF THE STREET, AND FOLLOWED IN HIS FOOTSTEPS!

NOT QUESTIONING WHY THE TRAVELER WAS ROBBED, OR WHY HE WOULD GET IN THAT POSITION TO BEGIN WITH, BUT INSTEAD TO START THE RELATIONSHIP FROM THAT MOMENT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO POUR LOVE AND HOPE AND LIFE INTO THIS MAN, IN THE HOPES THAT HE WOULD SEE GOD! AND AFTER SEEING GOD, CHURCH, HE WOULD DO JUST WHAT YOU AND I ARE TOLD BY JESUS IN THIS VERY TEXT TO DO!

The one who just did his job.

Go and do that.

Jesus tells us to go and do likewise.

Have mercy on others.

Go and talk.

Go and listen.

Go and empathize.

Go and comfort.

Go and help.

Go and heal.

Go and love.

Go and be the very image of Jesus for someone!

Go and invest everything you have in those fields, in those pearls of God’s creation!

Go and do that, church, and you will be rich indeed!