I’m Down Will You Help Me Get Up?

I want to ask a question this morning and that question is do you ever think about how your life could be parallel to the unfortunate destiny of this brother who is lying in the streets of this particular scripture. If I were to speculate, there are countless of us that would admit, acknowledge, confess, and raise our hands and say I was on the brink of falling into the same snare, the same trap, and the same ruse as this man. It could have been me, it should’ve been me, and in fact in some instances it was me.

As I look cruise the neighbor of this scripture, our text concentrations implements four people to make up the narrative of this story. Here we’ll find a man that is in trouble, a priest that is running late, the Levite seems not to care and the Samaritan who cares.

In this parable Jesus is teaching and showing us that God is a God that requires us, teaches us, mandates us, to love and have kindheartedness towards one another, regardless if we know them or not.

As we investigate this parable, Jesus says, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell”. When I first read this outline I thought this that this man was a victim who were out taking a stroll or just enjoying himself as he is passing through the neighborhood of the hood, I thought that this man was a target, and a mark that was scoped out, setup, and looked upon as an easy target just right for the pickings, but this is not the case, as I read and reread the story this man knew, and was cognizant of his surrounding and of those whom he encountered. He knew the people that jumped him, turned on him, and assaulted him. He knew these people that abused him and left him for dead. Now that’s a sermon all by itself they left me for dead. And some people will wonder why is it that the people who I thought were my friends all of a sudden turn on me, why now all of a sudden have they changed and turned on

me?

But, baby let me tell you something, those people that you thought were so nice and kind, they didn’t all of a sudden just change, they just stop pretending. They stop pretending to like you, they stop pretending to care about you, and they just stop pretending to be your friend and showed you their true colors, they showed you who they were from the beginning, a raving wolf in sheep clothing.

Let’s look again, “a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell (among thieves)”. Jesus suggests in this parable that this man was not a thief himself. He goes as far as suggesting that the experience of being with people of such low character was new to this man. Listen again, “a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell”. It’s been my experience that one cannot fall into something that he or she is already doing. You didn’t just fall into the drug house you were participating. You don’t just fall into the gambling house; you show up there trying to hit a little Joe. The scripture said that he went down to Jericho and fell among thieves.

Now I was wondering, how is it that some people that I know or has met. They look sweet, they talk sweet, they might even walk sweet but after you get to know them for a little bit you would find out that they hearts are like the city dump.

Watch me now because I’m going somewhere with this. I wonder how is it that this sweet church going person. Bible believing, bible toting, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, tongue talking, toe tapping, hip slapping, hand clapping, foot patting Christian becomes so hateful, so mean and such a lair? And it’s amazing that you can talk to God in tongues, but can’t speak to me in English.

Is it maybe because they fell among! I mean just lie all of the time, and we call our self their friend and you won’t even tell them that they are lying.

I wonder how is it that we know that some of our churchgoers are good people, we know that they would help in any of the capacity of the church that you may need them in, but they are such a hell raiser. They wasn’t raised like that, but maybe, just perhaps they wasn’t originally a not hell raiser but they fell among some other hell raisers.

Pastor God knows I don’t means to be on the phone gossiping but every time that I pick it up it seems just like that I have fell among the gossiping crowd, I try to stay out of the arms of that married man, I try to keep from clubbing down at the Tigers Den, and Lounge 114 but it seems like when every I try to distance myself from them, I fall among them.