All right. So if we scroll down to the note that Lord has left, you said she sent this out on an email, right? To her fans newsletter newsletter. All right. She says basically for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It's a storm of factors. Let's start with three years worth of shows happening in this is a reference to the pandemic and it has been crazy. I cannot, cannot disagree with that. Every event that I had been going to before the pandemic when I went to it, like the first one after this year, tripled in audience, at least ridiculous. And that's not even just music, by the way, like almost any event, right? One music festival is crazy invest festival is crazy. A lot of concerts I went to. So let me see. Let's start with three years worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn and then add the totally understandable weariness of concert goers around health risk. All right. On the logistical side, though, there's things like immense crew shortages. Here's an article from something that was New Zealand. We can skip that. Extremely overbuilt trucks and tour buses and venues inflated flight accommodation costs ongoing general COVID costs and truly mind boggling freight cost to freight and stage across the world. Wait, to freight a stage across the world can cost up to three times the pre pandemic price right now.  But I do know enough to understand that no industry has profit margins that high. I'm gonna agree with you. You don't know much about money because their prices, they don't have that high profit margin. Their prices have increased too. That's why it's so high for them. But this whole pocket right here is why everything cost so much. This is what she's referencing. So the fans, like y'all are paying with y'all are paying, right? But at the same time, extremely overbooked trucks, right? Which means those people are hard to get a hang of, which means the prices have also increased because they can be far more selective with their work. You got to pay for this COVID costs and safety measures that you didn't have to pay for before, right? Which probably not only was it not fully accounted for because this is a new thing. So it's harder to account for it, but it's not as efficient as well, which means it's at the costlier side of the curve. Five years from now, COVID safety measures will probably be a lot cheaper because it's been done, you know, people have made it efficient, the plastic or whatever, you know, it goes into it just like it took a while for at home COVID tests, right? I was in the Walgreens the other day and now it's just right there. You can buy it, but before the government had to ship it. Yeah. So it's that type of thing. Things are costing more money, right? This is what the artists are dealing with on the same side. Let's skip forward. Ticket price would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this.  Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations, postponements and promises and let downs. And audience have shown such understanding and such faith that between that and the post COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain't an option. All we want to do is play for you. So what is she saying right here? Bro, our costs have gone up significantly, but we can't charge the fans no more money, which means our margins have shrank crazy. We're making way less money for the same shit, right? Because, hey, what fans, you know, any fans that are going to pay three times the cost after we just went through the pandemic? Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough, that's a little tough cookie to be in a rock and a hard place. Yeah, bro. I mean, with that part, like I always respect artists for not wanting to charge their fans more. But I feel like as fans, bro, we're smart enough to understand that, like, sometimes it is what it is, right? Like, if you have an artist you care about and you like enough, it might shrink the amount of people that focus you because of that. But like, we going to get it. You know what I'm saying? But, but, bro, I think you missing a point, though. You can respect the artists for not wanting to charge. But I think the reality is they can't charge more. They think it's a cap on where they can charge. Yeah, it's a cap to anything like an industry cap. No, I'm like, yeah, but it's something that's why I say it probably would like, let's say I don't know how much her tickets were. Let's let's say her tickets were $300. I don't know. Sounds about right, right? Let's say she bumped into five. OK. So 300. Maybe she sells 20,000 tickets at five. Maybe she sells 14,000. Yes. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I do the math my head real quick. I might have actually just proved your point in doing that math that way of breaking it down. But I don't know, man. I feel like the people that that like you enough are going to be OK with it. And I mean, to me, it makes me also think about. Taylor Swift conversation a little bit. I know we keep going back to her, but I'm pretty sure an artist of her size is probably having the same issues, right? Because all the things that Lord mentioned being a part of the expense. That's that's that's that's Richard's problem. Like, come on, bro, like that average artist ain't don't even. I didn't I didn't even think about the cost of ship of stage. So the flyer stage across the world.  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. But. Taylor did a really good job of pushing everything back to violent Microsoft, right? So she probably is taking her touring and just lumping in what her marketing costs like, OK, it's going to cost me, I don't know, a million dollars to put this tool together. I'm only going to make that 800 K. I'm down 200 K. I'm that aspect of it. But if I get all these people with a Bob Vano, Bob Merch, Bob teacher, talk about me stream, then my upside on everything else jumps up 100 percent or something. And I'm good now. You know what I'm saying? She lose to that a little bit, right? Later on in this. But I think there is multiple factors for artists and why they can't just up the prices because. We can get deeper into this as we finish it out. But. All right, yes, we know in in product sales, there is an effect where you can up the price, have less customers and sometimes make more money now, not let alone just the same. Right. So that's a real thing. All right. So she might have those people who love her so much and they can come across the money that still go. Yeah. But. One artist have this brand impression that they have to be able to uphold. All right. Yeah. Certain fans, like people don't want to look like it's a money grab. Why am I paying this much to go to your concert? And we're dealing with inflation on top of that, right? Which is also another thing I'm compressing profits. So then you have a brand like Lord Royals. Yeah, you the girl that make Royals. Yeah, we don't mess with the Royals, but we don't we don't charge this check from the peasants. Like, come on, man, like, which I always thought that she was slick. It was like she was becoming a royal by a song that was going against Royals. But, you know, whatever, I'm like, it's a finesse. Y'all are being finessed.  People it's good. It's just bad PR. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. I think that's what it comes down to. It's bad PR and should you stop your show? Should you just not go on tour at all? Or should you just make it more intimate? There's there's some arguments on multiple sides, right? And but I think as an artist, there's a good argument on why you want to break even and go ahead and do it anyway. But let me finish this before we get there, because she has a lot of a lot of stuff that she's revealing out of you. Number one, let's start in the second paragraph. Profits being down across the board is fine for an artist like me. I'm lucky. But for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt. For some touring is completely out of the question, even if they were to sell the whole thing out. Even if you sell it out, touring is out of the question. You can't do it. The math ain't math. Well, that wasn't her words. The math doesn't make sense, right? But the math ain't math. Understandably, all of this takes a toll on crews, on promoters, on artists. You'll notice a ton of artists cancelling shows citing mental health concerns in the past year, which that is been a huge thing this year. I ain't a lot. I didn't think about it till she said that, right? And I really think the stress of this stuff is a factor. We're a collection of the world's most sensitive flowers who also spent the last two years inside. It may be the task of creating a space where people's pain and grief and jubilation can be held night after night with a razor then profit margin and dozens of people to pay is feeling like a teeny bit much. All right. So she's saying they're going through it now. Now, let's let's be towards the rest of this. Me personally, I'm doing pretty good. Oh, Lord, Lord have mercy. Play on words, pun intended, God dang Lord. But I'm straight, though.  Oh, this is a while. You guys have to come to shows in such a man. And you guys have come to the shows in such mammoth numbers. She's flexing. Oh, man, she's flexing. We sold out almost 20.  I didn't even get to the end when we were when I was reading this before. We sold out almost 20,000 tickets in London.  But I'm not immune to the stress just a month ago. I was looking at a show that was pretty undersold and panicking only for it to sell only for it to still sell out the the remaining 2000 tickets in 10 days. Wild stuff.  I wanted to put out I wanted to put all of this stuff in your minds to illustrate that nothing simple when it comes to the touring at the moment.  And see, man, God leave, man. Oh, man.  Like I said, I didn't I didn't finish those last lines. It just got crazy, crazy, you know, the last lines how she like turned the tide. But you basically summed it up when you're like, man, this is like rich artist problems the way she she spoke of it. Dang, man. Oh, the way she words it makes it sound like I do think it is an issue that every artist is touring is dealing with. I got some artifacts. Art is homie touring right now that like I have one that's on tour that couldn't take his whole team because just taking his DJ and his tour manager put him at break even anybody else would put him in the negative. And it's like, damn, bro, I say he really took the bare minimum of people I need my tour manager and my DJ, everybody else. Yeah, I watched the ship Instagram. You know, so I agree. I guess it's a real artist problems. And she did allude to it. So it's something we got to get into. Right. It is real artist problems. Yes. The way she said it was like a rich artist problems. You know, so because you do have these people who are not like she said, they're not able to sell what she sold. And they don't have the fan base to she's probably not making anywhere near what she normally will make, but she's taking a lower profit. And then you're profiting crazy on the back end from maybe Merch and all these additional things. Why don't you want to say the back end? Because the merchants is factored into your touring, right? A lot of times. Yeah. But she still probably has additional things to continue to upsell and make money for where you have a lot of artists that, yeah, touring is not an option. And that was your way to build your fan base, right? You're in that that phase of your career where you should be touring as much as possible to add and connect with your fans. So then you can go on that next stage where, hey, I've made a song that's and got enough awareness for it or maybe a project, a set of songs that's gotten up awareness for me to do a small tour, connect with people personally, and then I could come back and hit a bigger lick with my music. And now not only can it do well from my marketing, but we have these real people in the world that we've connected with all over that, you know, can that they can make a deeper connection with me and support me on a whole other level, right? That's that phase. And it's like, how do I make that phase happen?  We've now squeezed everything we can out of it. So I haven't seen as many artists. I haven't seen as many of the smaller artists take advantage of touring like that. Just just because, right? And I remember Troy Carter said this, I was on this Zoom. This is probably March. No, March, let's just say in the first half of the year, like the pandemic had we had only been in the pandemic and like locked down for maybe a month or two. And we did a Zoom chat and, you know, everybody was like, oh, man, the industry is going to be locked down for another month or another month or three months, right? But people were thinking it was going to be good by the end of the year. Like a lot of people are still trying to spread that noise. I wasn't believing it. But it got validated when Troy Carter, he was it was on this call. It was so funny because YG had got on. I think I sent you that, right? And he was having like new problems, like using Zoom for the first time, trying to figure it out. Watching YG try to get up, make Zoom work was hilarious, man. Yeah, I put with YG. But he, Troy Carter was talking about how Live Nation was. He had talked to some people and basically he was like, yeah, touring. It's not going to be back till like 2022.  It was basically just like not a chance. So don't even think about it. And then even alluding to like big artists will be the first ones to return because yeah, a lot of times the opportunities for the smaller artists are through bigger artists anyway. Like I'm touring everything set up around the bigger artists in the industry. And then the rest of the touring kind of funnels to that. So that's a part of it. Yeah. So if you're not one of those, you really have to finesse to make this happen. All right.  You have the top of the top and a bottom of the bottom survive. What I mean by that, if you look at clothing, because bottom of the bottom sounds bad, not exactly what I mean. But look at clothing or a provider for something, let's just say apparel. So you can go all the way to the bottom and look at a low cost provider and look at somebody like Walmart, the bottom of the bottom or city trends or something. And then you've got in the middle, right? These other providers. And then you go to Louis Vuitton, Gucci and up and up from there. Those people survive because they're the highest profit, right? Or highest costs for a specific audience. And then you have the low cost audience. But the middle class is always a part that gets squeezed out, whether it's middle class jobs or middle class companies because they aren't hard enough in an itch. You can't charge more because your customer base doesn't have that type of money and you don't have the brand to validate charging more. And you can't charge less because your operation is set up to be able to handle charging less, right? That's the issue that artists are basically figuring out right now. It's like, damn, us middle class artists are the ones that are suffering and us who are trying to become middle class artists are suffering. But you know, the artist who's still just in his bedroom like trying to make sure he can worry about tour problems, right?  But from a profit standpoint and a sustainability standpoint for my fan base, I'm good, right? I'm going to be able to weather this storm. So that's really what we're seeing here, just the sheer economics of it. And it's kind of why it's like it's always scary to be middle class, bro. You got to figure out how to like get to one side or the other, whether we have the financial side of it in terms of huge fan base and small fan base, right? Then you have the middle class as well, where it comes to branding within a niche, right? So always reference Playwood Cardi because he's like just easy, bro. And it's very clear what that fan base looks like. And he's like the top of it, right? That niche, right? He's one of those guys. Now you can start adding Yeet there and all that, right? Who are coming in that same space. Those people are going to be good, right? But that niche is going to go away in some years, right? There's always the copycats, right? Those copycats, a lot of them won't be around. But the ones who made it to that top and where that or the people are going to be good, the people who are trying to play around, I'm just going to do this kind of sound because it's popular, but never really committing to anything and building a specific fan base. They're going to find trouble, right? And that same thing goes into, let me try to think of it. We thought we saw this in a kind of sound cloud space, right? Now, there was a lot of sound cloud artists. There was only a few at the top of that specific niche. A lot of people don't necessarily look at it. You know, a lot of sound cloud rap, quote, unquote, didn't make it to full blown commercial. But as long as you were the king of that specific moment, right? That specific culture, you'll always be good. Because as, you know, people aren't involved in that part of the culture as much over the years, 10 years from now, whenever they want to dip back, they're just going to dip back to the top. They're not going to dip back for the most part to like find a new person that they barely heard and didn't connect with.  So like, that's that's what this tour reminds me of, like, again, just the economics of it. And it relates to so much of what artists are going through. But like, bringing it back to lower again, though, because I feel like we got some more. There's so many other points that we can bring out of this. Is there something what were your first thoughts, especially on the second half? Can we kind of talk about the first half? Like, when she got into how much ticket she sold, just the problems that are going on, the crew, promoters, did you have any thoughts yourself? I mean, my my first thought was, I mean, she's right. Like, I talked to clients, got artist friends on tour, citing a lot of the same issues. Yeah. Second thing I thought was like, man, this is a also a genre specific issue, I think, you know, going back to it's like, I know, let's compare, like, rap to pop, right? Like pop concerts, you expect a much higher production value than you would necessarily for even a rapper of the same size. Sometimes I like, like, if I were going to see, I don't know, Lil Baby versus Tell Us With. I'm expecting Tell Us With concert to be the more the more cinematic production value, right?  Like, nice outfit on and like, you know, we could tell us we're going to have the costume. It's going to be, I don't know, dancers and all this stuff. You're not shipping the stage out. Yeah, shipping the stage out, like all this whole stuff. So I also think part of it is a genre specific issue. Rappers and rapping in general tends to be the most lean of all the music genres. R&B, pop, anything that needs some musicality elements to it tends to be the most expensive aspect. Like I met you with my friend. My friend only had to take his DJ and his tour manager.  I don't know what he would have did. I don't know how he would have made it work, but it worked out because of the genre and type of music that he made. So that was the second thing I thought was like, man, this is a pop artist problem, you know what I'm saying? At least at the level she's talking about it. Right. Third thing I thought about is like the way she expressed the message made me feel like it was more of like a like a ploy to get fans to buy tickets to the shows coming up. Let's talk about it. Because like I mentioned earlier, this was a newsletter sent out to her fan. So email only newsletter. So this message is really only being spread to people like you and me because we send the publications. I'm assuming smiling publication got word of it. And so it's not like she made like this big deal about it. Like she's trying to like change the industry or like rally everybody together to find a solution. We've run enough email phones before I know like, you know, most email phones you have an email that specifically is meant to appeal to emotion.  Tug of their heart strange, you know what I'm saying? What it and what did this email prep for? One, like you said, empathizing with her for sales. Right. It's like, man, you know, she really struggling and she needs this because it's tough on her, maybe not as much as everybody. Right. But it's tough on her. And I think that's part of what the save face of, hey, I'm doing good though. Right. So I wasn't begging y'all. I made you empathize, but then I flipped it and I was like, I'm good though. I'm good. You know, don't worry about me. Don't worry about me. Yeah, sure. Girl was wrong. Oh no, I'm good. Shotty nah. Come on, you already know. So they playing that trick. But on the other side, what if something goes wrong? You also are preparing them for that too. Preparing you for if I decide to cancel any of these toys about it. I get it. You know, she's probably not selling a lot of tickets and she's going through mental health stuff, which are valid reasons. But yeah, like you said, like now I'm, I'm, it's not shocking. Now I don't feel a call off guard by because it's like, I'm a fan. I got this letter deep down, you know, it's a possibility.  You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, they're going to do it, bros. It's coming. Like they about to pull the rug out from underneath all of us. So that was what made it weird to me is I felt like, OK, she can't be trying to make it an industry conversation because I felt like a video or something that could have went viral a lot quicker. Would have hit harder. Like our clothes is only going like, I've really only seen this talk about like a handful of Instagram pages, all the blogs. She didn't really move like that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Um, now outside, like the industry, right? Industry people having this conversation. But consumers aren't having this conversation. And then they also made me think, like, what do we do to fix it? Are we saying that crews shouldn't be, you know, deserve to be paid more? Are we saying that, you know, like you were saying earlier, like these tour bus companies that now know, hey, bro, these motherfuckers really want to go on tour. I got all the buses. I can have the leverage here. What person in their right mind wouldn't charge more in that situation? You know what I'm saying? What business wouldn't? Wouldn't start to go up on their prices. So that's why I was saying earlier to me, the only only maybe it's a couple of different solutions. I see either brands are probably going to have to start being a lot more involved with touring, right?   Right. So that to me is probably like one of the more natural first steps. Second, the funnel is going to have to be optimized for something else. And I think tours are going to start getting looked at more as it's a necessary marketing cost, right? Like the same way, like your ads and your influences are going to your tour isn't maybe necessarily going to be the cash machine that it was five, 10, 15 years ago. Now this is just another marketing cost to put you on the road, to push these people to something else that we know we're going to make more money off of. All right, down right there as a digital market, especially digital first marketer, I can really, really resonate with a funnel that you might break even with, maybe even take a little loss, maybe not trying to, but you take a small profit or you break even to set people up for up sales, right? Get it, do it through and through day after day. Cool. My problem with that when it comes to music, I don't think they can take that, right? And the reason I say that is many people, most of the industry already look at the music itself as a loss leader, right? Which means we ain't really making money off of this music. That's our advertising, but we're going to make money from other routes, largely touring. That's why it hurts so much. So now you're talking about our plan B is now going to be to break even again. So I got to take them through two hoops just to get the hoop now, man. I need the money as fast as possible because production, create creative work is already capital intensive, especially at that scale. So I think that's really tough, man. Like I'm all for, again, yeah, doing that, but it got to figure out a way to not, not to just break even for sure. Yeah, not that. I just want to take a quick second and say thanks for watching. And if you want to learn more about marketing and branding and blowing music up in the music industry from people who have done it and continue to do it, go ahead and hit that subscribe button before you click to the next video. Hit that subscribe button now.


This video was taken Wednesday in a Home Depot parking lot in La Habra after a Brea police officer tried to pull over a driver for a traffic violation. When the ex-football player cop eventually caught up to the running driver, things quickly escalated. Lieutenant Chris Harvey says the suspect even asked this woman who was in the car with him to help him get the officer's gun. It may sound extreme to say the officer was fighting for his life, but under the circumstances, you have to consider what is the suspect's intention in grabbing the officer's gun. I don't think the suspect was trying to steal the officer's gun.  So yeah, that's absolutely a fight for your life. Thankfully, the woman never intervened, but this Good Samaritan did. And now Brea police want to know who he is so they can thank him. One Good Samaritan came over. We don't know who the guy is. He left before we could get his name. We'd really like to talk to him and recognize him for what he did, but he came and helped the officers to do the suspect. Without him, who knows what would have happened. An officer down video moments after he took a hard fall, but don't worry, he's okay. And before help arrived, he had someone else by his side keeping watch. Sergeant Greg Baldwin is on desk duty and he hates it. Hopefully I'll have good news from the doctor next month. He got in the business to lock up criminals. That's exactly what he was trying to do in October of last year. When I went to put cuffs on him, he took off running. That's Baldwin in full strength. All right. Pacing a man wanted on warrants, Baldwin goes down hard. I first thought I'd been shot because of the pain and the feeling in my leg. Watch again. Baldwin tore a ligament in his leg. His hip popped out of socket. Stay still. Try to stay still. Important because of the good that came out of a terrible injury. I grew up in a medical home. My mom is a orthopedic nurse. The same body camera video captures a mom of two, Elizabeth Neore, coming to the officer's help. I just, I just wanted to just make him stop being in pain. Neore is a massage therapist. She comforted Baldwin until paramedics arrived. I just thought about he's in pain. Just tried to calm him down. I'm scared of officers. I'm not going to lie to you, but I had to look past that to help him, you know? Two months after the injury, it's clear how much this moment impacted both of them.  And here in this screaming, the fighting of the sirens, for you to have the courage to not lock your doors and come out to help me, it says a lot. It also means a lot to the woman who is scared of cops. Maybe not so much anyway. We shouldn't be scared of police officers. The humans like us, we should be able to help them when they're in need. Welcome to the BCV channel. I'm your host, Pastor Seco Woods. Please do the following. Please like, subscribe, share, hit the notification bell at the bottom of this video, that way whenever I go live or post any content, you'll be one of the first to view it. Also, if you'd like to support this ministry financially, you can do so as well. First and foremost, thank you so much to those of you who have supported this channel, this broadcast, and also love life and marriage with the Woods. Well, my wife Sharon and I co-host the channel together. We definitely appreciate that. But if you would like to support this ministry, financial it through your love gifts and tokens of appreciation. We definitely appreciate that. You can do that by clicking any of the donation links below the bottom of this video. 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All right. Thank you so, so much. We appreciate that. Today's Bible study, we're going to basically, I'm going to address a topic as we have been discussing and I believe this passage of scripture is very appropriate to convey, I believe the thoughts that I have and I would also say anyone or any Christian who has a heart for those who are, who don't have a voice, for those who are abused, those who are not able to defend or speak for themselves. I think that this is something that will resonate with you as it did with me. The Lord put this on my heart early this morning and so I have been here in my office aka studio to prepare what I pray and I believe it will be a blessing to you. So thank you. Those of you who are, who are joining here in the, in the chat, YouTube family, Facebook family. I see you. Welcome, Nathan. Hey, that'sгляд Mann and you know that latest in a good yES thing.com or Pinterest and Facebooks. Resilience. Brother Fred, what's going on brother Tmica? How are you doing, sister? Coby Draper, Tony Metz, Raymond, Dale, Richard Mer dwinn. Hey, sister, Tyler, how are you doing? Good to see you, Sister Natasha 있고, a good to see you appreciate that. Of course YouTube family can't forget it about you all. I lead energy. Hello sister Sheila Good to see you brother Jackson. Yeah, he says I'm gonna be careful you If y'all saw the live yesterday, y'all know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I was kind of turned last night I hopefully all understood my my passion and my me being kind of kind of lit regarding this subject This is just something that's dead to my heart But it's all good brother. Good to see you man Sister Bobby, how are you? Sister Amanda good to see you Of course my wife The lovely one herself. Everybody say what's up to the Mrs. I Think I already said let me see because it how many she knows the same she'll okay Well, make sure I had the right one sister Tyra. Thank you so much. Thank you for holding it down Moderators. Thank you. Good to see you all. Thank you holding it down. Tommy sister Monica Good to see you Veronica RSF good to see you as well. Welcome. I'm not sure if I be are you if are your first Time viewer. I'm not sure if I may have forgotten and not recognize you before and my apologies if I have not If you're if you are a regular viewer and attendee The word with Raymond. It was going on my brother. Good to see you man Serpent right am as what's going on my brother Good to see you as well Let's see sister Lisa Jesus loves you what's going on All right, I think we got everyone here all present in the counter for so far and again if you're just jumping in Yeah, if you just jump it in Please hit that like button Wipe your feet off when you walk in and hit that like button confection Turner What's going on my brother? Good to see you man. Long time no see brother X But the Xerix good to see you all man. Good to see y'all. 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All right, so Let's get into the into the the study on tonight Again, I have If you've been following this channel, you know for quite some time I have been addressing the issue of abuse and addressing the the situations regarding John MacArthur grace to you and so forth and this this topic or this issue I Believe as Christians we should take serious because God takes it serious We are his image bearers, but we are also his children if we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ Therefore when we see injustice of any kind, I'm not talking about the injustice that the world tries to manufacture and concoct I am talking about legit Factual actual justice when we see these types of behaviors occur Unfortunately, it occurs even in the church. Well because you have people who still have a signature in the church It's because a person is saved does not mean they're not they're not going to sin That's where accountability That's what we hold each other to the standard of God's word and when we find those standards diminished when we find those standards to be Push back or the goal posts of those standards to be moved then it is our Responsibility as brothers and sisters in Christ and I want to say particularly to us as men It is your responsibility in mind to protect our women to protect our children To protect our sisters To protect our mothers our aunts our cousins The elderly it is our responsibility those two clips that you saw Regarding these good Samaritans these people assisted Those who needed help Even without them asking for it And how much more for us you and I as brothers and sisters in Christ when we see wrong when we see injustice when we see abuse and For us to just walk on by It says something about our love for our neighbor It says something about our love for our brothers and sisters It says something about our testimony It says something about who we represent And who we represent it's supposed to be Christ his kingdom And so as Kingdom ambassadors as Kingdom representatives, we are to represent him well Not perfectly because we're not gonna do that on this side of the of the cross on this side of eternity But we should strive We should do everything we can To ensure that when we see wrong we speak up and speak out regardless of who it is So if you saw the thumbnail the text that I'm going to be Coming from would be Luke chapter 10 Versus 30 through 37 Luke chapter 10 versus 30 through 37 So let's jump right into the text And if you have your Bibles, hopefully you have them if not you can read along here on the screen Jesus replied and said a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and Went away leaving him half dead And by chance a priest was going down on that road and when he saw him He passed by on the other side Likewise a Levite also when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him he felt compassion and Came to him and bandaged up his wounds pouring oil and wine on them and He put him on his own beast and brought him to an end and took care of him on The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said Take care of him and whatever more unit you spend when I return. I will repay you Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? And he said the one who showed mercy Then Jesus said to him go and do the same One of the read that past is a scripture because in its context Jesus is having a conversation with the lawyer and This lawyer is basically inquiring if you want to use that term But the lawyer was asking Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life and we know that he was asking him to test him It wasn't from a place of sincerity and so Jesus told him what was written in what is written in law? What I mean, how does it read to you? In fact, let's just go there so that way you can see the context yourself. You don't have to take my word for it Verse 25 and a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying teacher. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him what is written in the law? How does it read to you? And he answered you should 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 And he said to him you have answered correctly Do this and you will live but wishing to justify himself He said to Jesus and who is my neighbor and there you have the story that Jesus gives The parable of the story of the good Samaritan, which we will be spending our time here this evening And so what I would like to do is cover this and and four points Five we add verses thirty six or thirty seven But I want to cover this in four points first thing I want to cover is the assailants you find that in verse 30 The eight claws of verse 30 The second thing I want to cover is the abuse you find that in the B clause of verse 30 Then in verse 31 through 32 You find the apathetic the apathetic and Then in verses 33 to 35 you find the attentive and then like I said in verses 36 to 37 You can we can basically add that the answer and application. So again Number one. We're gonna talk about the assailants the abused the apathetic The attentive and then lastly you can add the fifth one The answer and the application. So let's jump right in Let's jump right in First thing we want to talk about is the assailants the assailants We know the assailants are the ones that if we find in verse 30 and in verse 30 it reads a Man was going down from Jerich from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers Notice is more than one It's more than one and they stripped him and Beat him and went away Leaving him have dead. So this wasn't just a one-time Assault they were beating this man almost to death and you see here verse 30 again it says He was going down to Jerusalem to Jerusalem, excuse me To Jericho and fell among robbers. He wasn't looking for trouble trouble found him Let me just say this to all of you None of us are exempt from abuse. None of us are exempt from Tragedy none of us are exempt from misfortune none of us are exempt from bad things happening to us You and I could be going about our very own business and people get out of nowhere Try to harm you. This is why it is important and this is why I always try to teach my wife and my children To always look in and be aware of your surroundings always When I go somewhere, I'm always making sure that I leave myself and out I always make sure by God's grace as much as I possibly can that if something jump off or something happens That I'm able to respond and ill and try to be on the alert When I'm sitting in places of or establishments of business I'm always trying to sit facing the window or facing the door With my back to a wall When I'm walking in the parking lot and I'm walking with my family and what I'm looking at cars Looking between cars looking under cars Always keeping my eyes moving Doing everything I can and also making sure that my my children are doing everything they can to protect themselves And we know how sometimes women can be They can be focusing on things looking at the phone, you know fixing their face and all that kind of stuff, but nonetheless It doesn't exempt us From evil doesn't exempt us from bad things happening This man was going about his business. This man was going about his own way and He was assaulted by a sailor. Let's look again at the text again He fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him have naked So the first thing we notice about assailants is this Assailants they prey on the unsuspecting and unaware They pray on the unsuspecting and unaware they always try to get somebody that's not looking Somebody that that's going to trust them even sometimes as well because most abusers They abuse those who don't expect for them to be abused They're not aware of it It's the little things. It's the subtle things that could happen But nonetheless they prey on the unsuspecting and the unaware and most abuse happens From those that are family or close friends of family. These are the things that happen So that's the first thing we see that they prey on the unsuspecting and unaware the second thing We did that we see in his text is that they possess? No, I'm sorry. That's not the right one. Where am I girl? Here we go. Yes, they possess a lack of compassion and concern of those they accost They possess lack of compassion and concern of those that they accost. Let's look again at the text again These robbers they came and fellow month they fell among he fell among robbers. They stripped him Beat him and went away leaving him half naked. They don't care. They didn't care about this man's Well-being They humiliated this man by stripping him They assaulted this man by repeatedly beating him. You see here in the text in verse 30 They beat him and then left him half dead They did not care whether he lived or died the guy whatever they wanted from him and left him half dead almost devoid of life and That is what abusers do as well too.  They lack concern.  They're gone and on to the next one These people are heartless. These people are godless These people don't have a love For their neighbor let alone Their own brothers and sisters and sometimes in the body of Christ brothers and sisters in the body of Christ So that is that is the the first thing we see the second one we want to talk about is the abused verse 30 Again the B clause of verse 30. Let's look at it again. Who are the abused? the abused are De victimized This person fell among Robbers he didn't go looking for it. It happened at a particular point in time He fell among robbers And they Plural stripped him beat him and went away leaving him half naked of those who are abused those who are abused These are the ones that are the victimized These are the ones that are victimized these are the ones that are Victims these are the ones that are Mistreated these are the individuals That are innocent They're not the victimizer They're the victimized They're the ones that are assaulted and there are the ones that are supposed to be protected But they become victimized they become prey they become a person's source of sadistic pleasure This man was stripped probably almost naked if not Taken for everything that he had And not only that they beat this man almost half to death and then leave him To die this is what abusers and assailants do so the abused are not those That are Or should not be those that are Mistreated Not that not the abused not the victimized They're the ones that should be cared for not the victimizer The victimizer's should not be covered and protected the victimizer's should not have ministries paying for their books and their Commissary and having churches still support them while they are still Pleading innocence although they are guilty That's how the mentality has been inverted Those who are abused are victimized and not only are they victimized But they're violated voiceless and Vulnerable They're the violated ones. They're the voiceless ones and they're the vulnerable These are the individuals that don't have a platform like you and I may have these are individuals Where no one wants to believe them nor hear them when their stories are trying to be told these are the Victimized these are the Violated the voiceless and the vulnerable again. Let's look at the text again verse 30 the B clause they stripped him beat him and Left or leaving him half dead. They left him in a vulnerable position No one can hear him. He's been violated. He's been stripped He's been beat down Probably to without strength. He's voiceless and he's left Vulnerable this is what happens to those who are abused it happens to them Physically and it also can happen in the spiritual sense as well if you remember reading and listening to the story that I read to you last night just briefly from Karen Caldwell the humiliation and the shame and the dehumiliation and the outright disrespect of A woman by men who are supposed to protect her This woman went through and you would think again Those that are supposed to protect are those that are ones that take and make prey out of the innocent so again You see the assailants in verse 30 You see the abused in the B clause of verse 30 That's the second one. The third one we want to talk about are the apathetic the apathetic Versus 31 through 32 the apathetic Versus 31 through 32. Let's look at the text and by chance a Priest was going down on that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side verse 32 Likewise a Levite also When he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side notice these people The apathetic ones a Priest and a Levite Let's just bring the cookies down from the top shelf shall we these are the religious folk These are the church folk. These are the ones that you would think That would be caring and concerned About us and about those that are abused those that are voiceless those who are Violated those who have been left in vulnerable situations You see them you hear them You read their stories You've seen their photos and you see their Their image fellow image bearers their dignity and self-worth Have been basically spiritually emaciated but these these individuals the priest and the Levite You know a priest is a person who are supposed to represent God to the people and also represent the people to God Levites were responsible for the ceremony Activities and the in the constructs of the of the temple basically they were the ones that would be and Involved in how we worship God So basically you have leaders of High position Having a posture of apathy They don't care the text says they see this man And a vulnerable position they see this man Have been violated he's been stripped Pretty much of everything that he probably has a value has been gone and taken away He has no one to hear his side of the story and he would think that The priest and the Levite that represents God and and shows us how we are to worship and approach God would care Just enough to be able to remove this individual from a violent dangerous vulnerable situation and what do they do look at the text Verse 31 when he saw when the priest saw him he passed by on the other side likewise Levite also When he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side these people the apathetic these individuals The first thing we see about the apathetic is this they lack love for the abused They lack love for the abused They can sing I love you Jesus. I love you more than anything, but what about your brother? What about your sister?   Or do you have this attitude of apathy and You are so insuciant that you don't care. Why because it's not your toothache. It's not your daughter.  It's not your granddaughter It's not sure aren't It's not your wife.  So why would I care? the The apathetic people are nonchalant again. They are insuciant. That means they don't care. They just like a egg.  That's how you know when a person is apathetic. They are indifferent They don't they don't see themselves as One who could be in that situation So what do they do they keep scrolling Keep moving to the next post Keep moving to the next article Keep moving to the next situation because again after all It's not my issue. It's not my toothache. So why should I say ouch? So again, they lack love for the abused Also, they lack sympathy and empathy for the abused They lack sympathy and empathy for the abused again Let's just take a peek at the text again because I want you to see this Both of these men both of these leaders see the same thing and You would think at least one of them would stop at least one of them Would not worry about being inconvenienced and now involve themselves in A situation that they too could be in themselves No, no They they lack sympathy And and for the record, I wanted to put the definitions up here for those who may because sometimes we get them confused sometimes we Confused the terms here. And so what I want to do is give you the definitions of the Of the two sympathy is to feel someone's sorrow And or pain that is what sympathy means or to be sympathetic you you you not only do you Understand that's what empathy means empathy means I understand but sympathy now Do we understand but you've experienced that so you you know how it feels to be? Violated you know how it feels to be in a vulnerable situation You know how it feels to lose a loved one You know how it feels to lose a job, you know, you know how it feels so when someone else Experiences it you too have now put yourself in that same persons shoes that's sympathy and I pray God's people would practice that for those who have gone through empathy means to understand Someone sorrow and or pain you may not you may not have experienced it But at least you can understand you can imagine why you know what I can I can only imagine how you how this makes you feel I can only imagine how this has caused you pain you you may not have gone through it But at least you can understand at least You can understand some of us actors though. We can't we can't relate to either one We lack sympathy And we lack empathy or We've gone through it But because we don't want anyone to see us and how it made us look We don't want to tell our story Because how it may look make us appear to see and what it make us appear to be before other people Not knowing that your story your trial your experience could be a blessing for someone else To be encouraged and I tell people this all the time what you and I go through is not always for us It's for someone else It's for someone else Any and everything we go through It is for someone else You may not ever see it But God does not waste trials God is not Waste suffering To make us more and more like him and his son for nothing trust and believe Everything that we you and I go through it is a message to communicate to someone else That if we have gotten through it and if God has brought us through it, then you and I can go through it as well By the grace power and spirit of God and this is why I tell us this is why I tell people all the time This is why it is important for us to be able to have at least one person at least somebody that you and I can go to Praise god if you have at least one friend one confidant that you can Share and have your burdens bearing with born with and they can bear Your burdens too and vice versa This is why my wife and I we talk about body life Because it's more than a concept It should be the christian's culture It should be how we live it should be how we carry ourselves When we see our brothers and sisters go through We should want to do something about it and sometimes it's just being there That would do more of a world of good to that individual or individuals Than us thinking that nobody wants to hear my story. Nobody wants to know what I've gone through nobody. It's not about you It's not about you. It's not about me It's about our brothers and sisters The reason why we can talk about the eileen gray situation is because eileen gray talked about it And by her now sharing her story other people have shared their story So that number one people don't feel like they're the only ones going through They don't feel like they're the only ones that's been left for dead In vulnerable situations that they don't have a voice And so now when you speak or when I speak about what god has done and the things that he has brought us through It brings encouragement and hope to our fellow brothers and sisters Please do not hide The candle of your suffering under a bushel Don't do that Because you're not helping anyone if anything you're hurting them more because you don't know what god can do And what god will do if you step out in faith and share what god has helped and is helping you Go through and be deliberate from and have delivered you from but these people here The apathetic they can't sympathize because they haven't been in it And since they haven't been in it they don't understand But there's somebody here that is watching this live and somebody that will be watching this replay That know exactly what i'm talking about And so this lesson is for you this teaching is for people like yourself You may have people around you That that don't care but god cares And there are people that god is is waiting to bring in your life To show you that they care These priests or this priest and this Levite they saw a man suffering In the throes of death and they kept passing by And it's unfortunate that is what our church and churches have become we become like the priest and the Levites That jesus is talking about where they can see clears day Suffering and injustice and say nothing about it. And not only do you listen if you look at the text let's look at the text again Not only did they see this man, but they did nothing they didn't even get anyone else to help this man Do y'all see this? it's one thing To know that you're not helping me But then it's another thing to walk by me and go and go on the other side of the road and not call anyone else to help me How cold hearted can a person be? again, the apathetic They like love for the abused They like love for them They like sympathy and empathy for them How can you be a priest and not act like or not practice what the great high priest jesus christ did Hebrews chapter four and verse 15 See jesus is not like us. He says the writer says For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize Who can't feel what we feel Who can't experience what we experience no no no the writer says no, we don't we don't have that kind of high priest But we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses But one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. That's who we have We have jesus The great high priest the ultimate high priest The priest of all priests jesus to christ Now does he have sympathy for us because he's been he's been through what we've gone through. He's experienced it But he also understands What we go through He understands if you have been abused What it's like to be abused What it's like to be mistreated what it's like to be humiliated publicly shamed outcast dehumanized mocked Oh, he understands he's not like the priest in the In the Levite so the the priests and the pastors and the and the elders of our day No, sir. No, ma'am.  I'm not speaking psychobab. I'm speaking scripture The fact that you and I are still here means that there's there's work for us to be done And there's work for us to do so no matter what has happened to you God allowed you to make it to encourage others and let them know that they can make it as well, too But these two guys in this text The apathetic unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we have it in our churches today right now Oh, they'll say that they care Until it's time to show that they care Oh, they'll say that they care Until it's time To live out what they claim To have been saying with their lips Yes First John chapter 3 verse 17 And 18 says this first John 3 versus 17 and 18 But whoever has the world's goods And sees his brother in need You know Violated victimized voiceless and vulnerable those people They're brother you see notice and sees his brother they they intently see and know that this person has a need And closes his heart against him. How does the love of God abide in him answer? It does not Little children let us not love with the word or with tongue Like David rector just said yeah, I'll pray for you When you can do more than just pray for a person He says let us not love with word or with tongue but indeed And truth these two men that represents leadership church leadership Should have known that But they didn't care because it was not it was not their toothache. It wasn't their relative It wasn't their struggle. It wasn't them laying on the side of the road half dead first John 4 verse 20 to 21 If someone says I love God and hates his brother He is a liar for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen And this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also These people were apathetic brothers and sisters they were they were It didn't care. They were nonchalant Again, these are the ensucian ones. These are the individuals that Don't see themselves You know in the shoes of other individuals or have not experienced anything. They're carefree They could care less about what another person has gone through Answer and how do you know that because of how they responded when help was needed When it was a life and death situation these two men went the other way They went the other way and you know how how else you can go the other way. You can go the other way by not talking about it You can go the other way by not telling anybody else About it. That's going that's going another way Going another way is it is acting as though you didn't see the abuse That's going another way Going other way is minimizing what you did see Going the other way could be blaming the individual who has gone through that What you're doing on this Jericho road in the first place, you know, you should be on this Jericho road You must have done something to be abused You must have done something Those men wouldn't have jumped on you for no reason That's apathy That's callous That's loveless That is a display of lack of love for one's brother or sister or neighbor So it's more than just you Uh spatially or geographically going in a different direction It's also the position and disposition of one's heart where you can go in a different direction in your mind And in your heart toward the individual So again, you see the assailants. You see the abuse. You see the apathetic But we also see the fourth thing We see the attentive We see the attentive thank god for The attentive ones those who care And I don't do they care But they show it Because again You can tell me that you love me you can tell me that you care about me all you want But if you don't show it It's all talk verse 33 through 35 But a Samaritan who was on a journey notice A Samaritan who that was on who was on a journey came upon him And when he saw him He felt compassion man Same journey as the other two men Same place as the other two men The the attentive ones The individuals who care Is on that same road And can I just say this to you Those of you who are who have been abused And people have passed you by God has a way of bringing those who will attend to you God has a way of bringing people who would care about you God has a way of bringing people that's not just going to just See what's happening, but they're going to do something about what has happened That's what we see in this text Because not only did he see this man But he felt compassion He felt compassion But but we got we got to focus on this first this first thing that we see about this this individual again in verse 33 notice The kind of person who it was A Samaritan Jesus is trying to make a point here Jesus is making a point Who should have helped the who should have helped this abused person who should have helped this person that was accosted and violated And taken for everything that he had It should have been The jewish people His own people didn't help His own people didn't even help him But notice This Samaritan the bible says Who was on a journey Came upon him Just like the other two did Just like the priest in the levi did came upon him And when he saw him he felt compassion. The first thing I want us to see is this Here's the first thing I want us to see About those who are attentive Number one They are incognizant of one's gender ethnicity Social political spiritual socioeconomic status when they see someone in need they don't care They don't they don't they don't Think about Whether or not this person Is male or female they don't think about whether this person is white or black or or whether this person is Is from this side of the of the of the tracks or whether this person is a democrat or republican Whether this person voted for trump or voted for biden they don't think I worry about whether or not this person could afford to Pay for their own Health care or or pay for their own well-being. No, no, no the attendant Their focus is on those that have been abused those who need help. That is what you see right here in the text Again verse 33 But a Samaritan man But a Samaritan Who was on a journey Came upon him, you know, he had somewhere to go to But this but this man stopped This man stopped he came upon him and when he saw him He saw him. He put himself in the same place Where this man was We don't know. Maybe he had been beaten up before we don't know but nonetheless the man did something about it He saw him felt compassion for him verse 34 says And came to him and bandaged up his wounds Pouring oil and wine in them And he put him on his own beast. Do you see that? So not only do we find the attentive that they are incognizant of one's gender Ethnic social political and so forth, right? They're not they don't concern themselves with that. They're not they're not thinking about that What they're thinking about is how can I help this person which brings me to the second point? Those are those who are attentive Are intentionally involved. Do you see that in verse 34? They are intentionally involved They know they can do something about it and they do They don't put it off on someone else Or somebody else can probably be able to do it when they can do it themselves. No They are intentionally involved He saw him felt compassion but he also came to him Didn't care about how he looked didn't care about whether or not the individual may have been Bladed and beaten to a pulp. He didn't care about that. He came to him the text says bandaged up his wounds pouring oil and wine notice Oil and wine is used as a medicinal agent oil soothes And wine can be is used to cleanse brings healing and help Just pouring oil and wine on his wounds And notice And put him on his own beast Yes, he's he's intentionally involving himself in the care Of this Wounded and left for dead man This is what Jesus is showing you or not How do we respond? How do we respond when we see and hear? The abused how do we respond when we could help Those who need our help without them asking this man could not ask for help He was in a position where he had no strength to get help for himself Help had to come to him And I'll just say this. This is for free When there are situations in our lives and we know we can do something about it and we don't we're going to have a given account for that to God Because there's an opportunity That we may have squandered because we value the god of convenience More than we value the god of creation I mean we we we act as though What we do is more important what god wants us to do this man Was traveling down the same road in the same path of those other two as the priest in the Levite Pretty sure he had some way to go as well too but love for his neighbor Would not let him go Any further and so he did what he needed to do To make sure that this fellow image bearer Was taken care of which brings me To the third point which brings me to the third point the attentive They are invested personally in the welfare of others They are invested personally in the welfare of others again, let's look at the text verse 34 is for to recap in the context he came to him That is the Samaritan came to him bandaged up his wounds Pouring oil and wine on them put him on his own beast and notice brought him to an end This man is personally investing in the welfare of his neighbor He brought him to an end and took care of him verse 35 on the next day He took out two denarii two days worth of wages and gave them to the end keeper and said Notice and said take care of him so not only Let me just say this to you as well I just was thinking about this one I don't know this man personally invest In the welfare of someone he did not know but he entrusted the care of someone else That he did not know for someone who he did not know Look at the text the next day He took out two denarii gave them to the end keeper and said Take care of him. He's entrusting this man to make sure that he takes care of the stranger The text doesn't show that he'd know this man He's an end keeper Possibly did but we don't know Well, let's just say that he didn't nonetheless. He entrusted the he entrusted this man to take care of someone that was abused and not only that not only did he invest personally in the welfare of this abused image bear but the other thing he did Which shows and which proves that this man was a good Samaritan Let's look at his character This man's character This man was a person of integrity see those who are Those who are attentive are people of integrity Yeah The people of integrity They say what they mean and mean what they say. Look at the text again He says gave him to denarii told the end keeper take care of him And whatever you spend when I return listen when I return I will repay you I will repay you. That's a person of integrity That's the person whose word is their bond That's the person whose character Who knows this person say yeah that man. Oh, yeah, he good for if he tell you gonna do it. He's gonna do it If he says he's gonna protect you he's gonna protect you If he says he's gonna he got your back or she got your back You can count on it. You can take that to the bank They word ain't gonna bounce God give us people of integrity in the body of Christ who protect the innocent who protect the violated Who protect the voiceless and the vulnerable and the victimized God give us more people like that Because lord knows those who are abused need to know that there are people who are A man and woman of their word and and displays and shows integrity Remember we're supposed to be ambassadors for christ We're supposed to be people of truth. This man said Take care of him Whatever you spend while i'm gone when I come back. I got you I got you I'll make good on my word But you take care of him You make sure whatever this man needs you you do it for me and when I get back I'll take care of it. Oh, yeah Let me let me let me make it practical for you for some of us Who have god entrusted in our care? And told us to take care of them until I get back Hmm You notice what he told us right there is a day When he returns we're going to have to give him back what he has entrusted to us Yes, there is a day when The ultimate good shepherd the one who gave his life he is going to Demand an accounting for what we have been entrusted with Our spouses our children Our ministries there is a day what god says take care of this I'm entrusting this to you. I'm entrusting him to you. I'm entrusting her to you I'm entrusting those children to you. They're all on loan I've already given you my spirit as a deposit. I already put something on you But when I get back I'm going to expect What I've inspected I'm going to expect good From what I've given to you What does you do To that person who needed your help How did you treat them? How did you respond to them? Did you just shrug them off? You put it on someone else to do it when you could have done it yourself What did you do? God says when I when I return I'm going to expect Good on what I've given you There are a lot of pastors That's going to have to give an account For the people that god has entrusted to their care And they have not made good with what god entrusted to them The John McArthur's of the world The SBC's of the world There's a day of reckoning There's a day of an accountability And none of us will miss that date None of us But this man in the text Says take care of him Take care of him Take care of him the same way I would Do for him provide for him Treat him the same way I treat you Give him whatever he needs and when I get back I'll take care of it. I got you Those who are attentive Are not like the apathetic They're not like the assailants The attentive Are people of integrity They make good on their word And if it's something they can't do and they know they can't do it They're not going to tell you they can do it when they know they can't do it Proverbs chapter 3 verse 27 And 28 Proverbs chapter 3 Verse 27 to 28 The bible says do not withhold good From those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it Do not say to your neighbor go and come back and tomorrow I would give it when you have it with you That's not integrity It says do not withhold good from those to whom it is due When you know you can help somebody When you know you can help the abuse when you know you can help those who have been abandoned those have been mistreated by the church And you have the means or the resources or the ability or the skills Or the counseling or the words to say god says don't withhold that from these people Don't do that Whatever it is Do not withhold good From those to whom it is due listen. We're all old to love each other That's a debt that we would never pay off We're to love each other. We have to treat each other the same way. We want to be treated We don't put it off on someone else And we don't put off taking care of somebody else till later the text says verse 28 Do not say to your neighbor go and come back and tomorrow I would give it when you have it with you First of all, we don't know tomorrow's promise to us. Hello James He says do not boast of tomorrow for you and I do not know What the day may bring for how many people have told Someone that you're going to do something for them and they're still waiting for you to do it And we're Christians and you know that person could need and and need your help and you have Acted as though they never asked you and you owe them You at least owe them An explanation You at least owe them something so they don't they don't assume well, dang I mean did I not ask them for help or whatever? far too many Christians Claim that they are men and women of integrity when it's time to show it This is what they do verse 27 and 28 of Proverbs 3 they withhold good Knowing that they have the ability to help somebody know they have the ability to to bless somebody's ministry Know they have the ability ability to bless somebody's marriage bless somebody's relationships Maybe bring someone into their home Maybe take time out of their quote unquote busy schedule to talk to someone listen I'm not I'm not saying that we have to be that we can't be there for everybody But we know we know when the spirit of God is it's telling us yeah, you need you need to do this you need to do this You need to do this And isn't it something when we do it we feel much better when we do it? That's the spirit of God that's the spirit of God but Those who are attentive and verses 33 to 35 Of Luke 10 these people They don't they don't concern themselves about How a person looks They are intentionally involved. They don't they don't concern themselves about how a person looks They have no problem personally investing and giving up themselves for others And they have integrity ladies and gentlemen They have integrity They don't they don't write emails to people saying they're gonna do something and they don't do it When they know they have the power to help someone This is this is this is serious y'all This is not a game Lives and souls Are affected by what we do to others So again just to review The assailants the abused the apathetic and the attentive Again, let's look at the last portion Look at the last portion remember I say we probably can cover it just the last two verses here Um The answer in the application The answer in the application but look at verses 35 I mean 36 and 37 Verse 36 and 37 Which of these three Jesus says do you think proved to be A neighbor to the man Who fell into the robber's hands? He's asking a question. Jesus knows the answer But he's testing the so-called smart alecky lawyer who tried to test Jesus So which of these three you think proved notice not pronounced to be Loving their neighbor. Mm-hmm. No Jesus says which of these three do you think proved To be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands Verse 37 You see the answer The one who showed mercy the one who showed mercy toward them Jesus said to him Exactly go and do likewise. See remember. I told you all Remember, I told you That the gospel is more than an event Remember I said that the gospel is more than an event the gospel is about The effects. How does it change your life? How does it cause you and I to think? How does it cause you and I to treat our neighbor? And our neighbor is anyone we come in contact with Thank you, my brother. David. Thank you for the super chat That's who our neighbor is It is anyone Who by God's providence and sovereignty we And our paths Intersect with There's a need and we know we can meet it. God expects for us to meet it There are so many people who need our help And we can do it the question is which one are we? Are we like the priest? Are we like to leave these these church leaders? Don't want to get themselves dirty don't want to involve themselves in the mess Of abuse because you know after all, you know, it's just it just you know I'm just here on one side. Okay. We'll get both sides. Let's let's let's let's let's get out to the mud Let's get into the mess of this. Let's work this stuff out You're supposed to be for the people, right? You're supposed to represent God to the people and represent the people to God, right? So that means you're supposed to be a people person Mr. Levi, you're supposed to be the one that's in charge of how we are to come before God Well kind of hard to do that if you're not coming for God correctly by treating his fellow uh image bearers Less than dirt Kind of a bad witness. Don't you think? And so we need to ask ourselves Which one are we? What do we fall into this? I had put up a poll question in the chat on youtube And I said when you hear stories of abuse or domestic abuse in the church Which of the individuals or which one do you find yourself? That describes you The priest or the Levite Or the the good Samaritan I mean you have to be honest with yourself. I can't I can't discern your heart only you can But this this situation with Eileen gray and wendy gray and with elder honcho it has shown me That there's three kinds of people in God's kingdom Three That when we see abuse and injustice We follow one of those three categories This there's not a fourth. There's only three Either we love God Love our neighbor Or we don't Simple as that. Are we going to get it perfect? Absolutely not. Can we strive for it? We better We should Because we see here in the text. It is what God expects of us This is what he expects of us Give one point of principle in Two questions of application And here's the overall principle those You would expect and assume to be the ones to help you in time of trouble and distress Sometimes are the very ones who inflict the most pain than the abuse and or abuse of themselves That's what I see the overarching principle in this text this man Should have expected should have received the help from The priest and the Levite, but he didn't He received it from an unlikely source he received it from someone that Was surprised any of us if we were Jewish in that culture in context and time But it's it's those who sometimes inflict the most and worst abuse When they're the ones who should be able to help us and they don't And it's not that they can't they won't The text says that these two men They saw this man and they went on the other side So it's not that they couldn't Is that they wouldn't help They had the ability to do something and they didn't they left this man to die And how many of us are guilty of that in today's church and today's Society we see people at the throes of death spiritually It can be sometimes physically And we see these people crying out for help And what do we do we go the other way? We keep scrolling We keep it moving which brings me to this question Have you closed your eyes to the ear? Have you closed your eyes and ears to the pain and cries of the abuse left for dead by the church? Have you done that? Are you are you like the the priest and the Levite Are you like John MacArthur and grace community church? Are you like his defenders? Are you like the mob? Will you see the stories you read the reports but because it's julie rois it can't be true Because it's Brent death while it it can't be true Because it's christianity today it can't be true Have you closed your eyes and your ears? To the pain and the cries of the abuse left for dead by the church And some of you who may be watching this man saying this dude is tripping It ain't that serious really it's not Tell that to those who have gone through this Tell that to those who have been left for dead tell that to those who Don't have a voice because their voice has been taken away. They've been excommunicated. They've been put out. They've been shunned Tell that to them tell that to them I'm pretty sure they have a different take on it than you We have that we have to ask ourselves that question Because I've seen a lot of cold hearted attitudes toward The individuals that I had aforementioned The island grays of the world the windy grays of the world The caring car wells of the world And there are many others recently One report that we that we that we heard having years ago, but it just came to the surface because of how Uh, eileen gray's story has has caused and a domino effect of others to come forward Anytime you have the risk of jumping out of a car and losing your life to get away from your Assailant and your abuser and yet the church does nothing about it. That is telling to me That is very telling to me And knowing that this person has had a pattern of abuse of young people And yet they're still a part Of a church whose reputation is supposed to be of sound biblical doctrine That says a lot more than what we want to believe But that's one question of application. We need to ask ourselves Have we have you have I Have we close our ears and eyes to the pain and cries of the abused Left for dead by the church I can't speak for you. You can only speak for yourself But we've seen examples of this Just a year ago and counting People are closing their eyes and ears to the cries of those who have been abused Because it's not their toothache or Have you Close your eyes and ears so that your heart can see the pain And hear the cries of the abused Left for the church. See there's a difference There's a difference The first category of people they don't want to hear anything. They don't want to they don't want to know nothing They want to act like it never happened They want to diminish it. They want to they want to minimize it. They want to they want to ignore it. They want to shoot away They want to block you if you say anything about it on social media They want to shun you they want to remove any type of influence if you open your mouth and talk about this But there are people Like this group Who have closed their eyes and ears so that they can So that they can hear That they can see and hear the pains and the cries of the abused why because they know that they are part of the body And some know what it feels like because they've experienced it and some know although they may not have experienced it that they can understand They sympathize and they empathize we have sympathizers and empathizers in god's church And these are the ones who make up the true body of christ Because they know that their high priest jesus christ Sympathizes with them and how could they not if they've gone through What their brothers or sisters or neighbors have gone through not sympathize And even if they haven't gone through how could they not have an understanding heart And have an understanding ear to at least Listen to the cries and the cares and the pains and the hurts of those who have been abused because again the bible says in first Corinthians chapter 12 in verse 26 And if one member suffers All the members suffer with it if one member is honored All the members are honored with it Now you are christ's body and individually members of it in verse 27 So i ask you Which one are you? Which one are you? Are you like the priests and the Levites? Who see it don't care and if you see it Like apostasy file said you blame the victim instead of holding the victimizer Accountable you don't put the victimized out the church you protect them The victimizer you put them out They don't repent you put them out you take them to justice So that those who have been victimized and violated Can be protected the church is supposed to be the place Where women and children Gods sheep Are protected and when the world provides more protection than the church We have a problem We have a huge problem And i'm telling you You don't want to be of the first group Because if that is your pattern of behavior where you are heartless And cold and callous to the cries of those who are abused Then god will deal And his judgment Is perfect And he has not left us here to do what we want To whoever we want And think that god is going to say well done thou good and faithful slave. No, he will not No, he will not This is serious I wasn't going to go here, but I this for a moment I want to Read Read a passage here um Luke chapter 12 verse 35 And we'll wrap it up Luke chapter 12 verse 35 I'll start there The context is about being ready Being in a state in position of readiness Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns From the wedding feast so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them Whether he comes in the second watch or even in the third And finds them so blessed are those slaves, but be sure of this That if the head of the house had not known and the head of the house had known At what hour the thief was coming he would not have allowed his house to be broken into you too Be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect Peter said lord are you addressing this parable to us or to everyone else as well? And the lord said who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his master would put in charge of the servants to give them their rations at the proper time Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions verse 45 But if that slave says in his heart My master will be a long time in coming and notice and begins to beat the slaves. Can we either say abuse? Can we just say that?  He don't do that to believers He don't do it to sheep He do it to those who claim to be sheep, but they're not she The wolves in sheep's clothing. Well, I didn't know about I didn't notice. I didn't I didn't know. Okay. Well, you're still getting something No one gets away No one You remember the example of a person where you know, if you've been in the house for a long period of time And you know the rules of the house or somebody may be new to your house They put their feet on the on the table They may be told, you know, you know, you mind putting your feet down But those of us who's been in the house, we know we've been not put our feet on on that table We know we've been I put our feet in that chair on our couch. We we know because we know the house rules Too many act like you don't know the house rules When god says you do know the house rules and i'm going to treat you as though you know the house rules and again my appeal to those of us Who are seeing what is happening before our eyes regarding abuse If you're struggling to relate to this not that you're not insensitive like Like the the first group like the The the the the priests in the the Levites You're not you're not treating it like it ain't no big deal. You you're you're struggling trying to You don't know who to believe you don't know what the thing. Okay Then close your eyes Reminded me of my brother zex was talking in the the example we were talking about in regarding this whole situation Was the movie time to kill We know the movie Samuel duck jackson's daughter was was savagely beaten and raped as a little girl Unable to have children anymore in the movie And Matthew McConaughey played the lawyer And in that movie You had a I believe an all-white jury. I believe that's what it was mostly. I think it was all white all right jury in that time In order for him to bring that case Home he had to put that situation to where they themselves can see what The father saw He told them to close your eyes And he gave in graphic description with their eyes closed How that little girl Was treated mistreated abused assaulted violated Made vulnerable And was voiceless she didn't have a voice And at the end of all of that Tears beginning to flow through some of the jurors eyes From their eyes and he said what if that Little girl was white Like I said to some of you last night in the last life What if eileen gray Was your relative What if wendy gray Was your relative What if karin cardwell Was your relative What if the young teenage girl who had to jump out of a moving vehicle? To get what get away from her rapist Was your relative What if eldehan show Was your relative What would you do? What would you do? 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