Why Not Stop-Doug Crum

Sunday's sermon presented by Doug Crum 05/17/26


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Doug Crum, Pulpit
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Austin Avenue Church of Christ
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Brownwood, TX 76801
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

The mute means you can't hear me, which is probably just fine for all of you, but I'm gonna turn it off mute and ruin your morning. Well, we're gonna do something a little different today. We're not gonna start up a 12-week series on some little uh book in the Old Testament about a fish or anything like that. In fact, we're not even going to be in the New Testament looking at a runaway slave for the next several weeks. We're gonna go a complete different direction altogether. And I warn you right now, this is probably not the most spiritual sermon that you're going to get. We're not gonna dive headfirst into the text, but I think there's something that we still can glean from the next 35 to 45 minutes that I'm up here. Nothing? That's I get nothing for that. You're like, you're already thinking, all right, I'm gonna have dry roast again. I wish you would go a little shorter. So uh this is kind of uh in honor of what's gonna be taking place uh this summer, we're going to be having a Wednesday night series that I personally am super, super excited about. I've only been here about uh 10 months or so, but in the time that I've been here, uh I've got to meet a few folks and identify with them. And I was like, you know what? There's some people here that I really would like to learn a little bit about. Uh and so I decided that we are going to have a series. It's gonna be over the parables, and I just made a list of all these people that I said I would love to hear what God has to say through them and through their life experiences and what they would do if they were to teach a class on the parables. So I made this really long list because I thought there's gonna be a lot of people who are gonna say there's no way I'll do it. Um I I called 14 people, I had 13 spots. One person said, I have obligations, I can't be there, but I'd love to do it. The other 13 said yes, and so I'm super excited. Uh we're gonna have on Wednesday nights, uh, we're gonna have a series on the parables, and you're gonna get to listen to somebody other than me. And so to kick that off uh this morning, I'm gonna just briefly uh say something uh about a parable that's gonna be discussed. Now, if you want to hear about that one in greater detail, come back on July 29th. Uh, the good doctor Curtis Stonkey is going to be presenting a lesson on the Good Samaritan. So we're gonna be talking a little bit about that passage that we're all very familiar with. Uh but to do that, we're gonna have to go back a few years. Uh but first off, let's just talk about numbers. I not not the book in the Bible. That one's a hard read, still a good one, but instead, I want to talk about literally numbers. Okay, so I want you to imagine, or you could use the screen behind me, to imagine that there's 36 individuals, right? Okay, so that there's 36 people. I've grouped them into six groups, and we'll see why in just a minute. For those of you who are kids, how many are in each group if there's six groups and there's 36 total? Can somebody tell me? Six. Okay, you're like, the kids are like, it's summertime almost. Like, please don't throw math at me now. There's there's 36 people, but now I want you to imagine uh that there is going to be a study done that's going to involve these 36 individuals. And the study uh happened to be done at the Princeton Theological Seminary. It was done back in 1973. I've heard that was a good year, but honestly, I wouldn't know. But some of you may. Some of you, that was uh great. You are in your 40s and loving life. I don't know. But um there's a survey, a study done at Princeton Theological Seminary, and they had roughly about 36 different students, and they were gonna perform a study uh, and here's how it was gonna go down. These 36 individuals all happened to be students, ministry students at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1973, and they didn't know that the study was being done for them. They were actually the guinea pigs in this study, but they were asked, they were asked to give a three to five-minute talk sermon devotional, right, that they were going to prepare. So all of this seems pretty simple. Uh what they also learned is that over the course of the of a three-day period, they were each gonna be called in individually, right? And they were going to ask to meet at a certain building. Let's pretend it's up here, right? And what's going to happen is they're assigned to come in at a certain day, at a certain time. They're going to be placed at a building, and then at some point a professor is going to come to them and say, okay, you need to go give your speech, uh, your devotional talk, and it's going to be here. You're going to exit out of the building, you're going to walk through the campus, and then you're going to end up right here. All of this seems pretty normal. The graph will come up, it's important. It's just not because I like using the laser pointer, but I do love using the laser pointer, if you must know. Everything seems pretty normal, right? But this is a study. What they're trying to do is they're trying to determine why or if a future minister is willing to heed the call of the gospel and do what Jesus calls us to do. And so this is not just a random group of people. This isn't just the occasional churchgoer. These are people who said that they they are going to give their life serving and sharing Jesus, and they are in a very prestigious program in order to accomplish that goal. So once again, once they get to the building, they are going to be instructed to walk down through uh the campus to make their way into a certain building. And this is all very important, right? Because here's what's going to happen, right? At some point, there's going to be an actor. Oh, I just love that. Oh, I love power. I want to do that again. Can we just do that one more time? Guys, for those of you who don't know, I'm old. PowerPoint came to me like in my late 20s, and the fact that I could figure out how to make a stick figure fall down is just, it's just, I it brings such a joy to my life. So, so there's a guy who's going to be placed here. He's an actor, right? And he's going to be placed here in between where they are and where they're going, right? And what they're trying to figure out is will this theological ministry student stop to help the person who's in trouble? Right? That's what they're trying to figure out. None of these 36 students know anything about this. But they decided to make it a little more interesting. And for half of the group, they assigned them a text and said, your three to five minute talk is going to be over Luke chapter 25, verse 37. Does anybody know what that is? That is the story of the Good Samaritan. Uh, the parable of the Good Samaritan. And so this is what half of them are studying. They are preparing for this, they've read this through. We know all about this. You know, it it all started off with a question well, well, who is my neighbor? And then Jesus is going to tell this story, and of course, we're going to have a priest in there, a Levite in here, and we're going to have the Good Samaritan. We all know this story. And I don't want to take Curtis's thunder. So if you don't know this story, go read Luke chapter 10. In fact, you can just stop paying attention to me and just start reading Luke 10. If the worst thing that happens is you're reading the Bible while I'm talking, that's the best thing that could happen. So you have my permission. But for the rest of us, we know the story of Luke chapter 10. And for those who are in this seminary, they should know it well too. But there's half of them who now have been engrossed in what is the Good Samaritan and what is the call that Jesus has for all of us. So this first group is given the Good Samaritan. The second one is talk about what job opportunities are available to you in ministry and why would you like to do this? Right? And so the control group, of course, is the Good Samaritans. The other group, they can just talk about anything that they would like to talk about. But the researchers being maniacal, because the researchers didn't want to stop there, they also created some subgroups for each of these two groups. Alright? So here's how it worked. They said for this first group, when the individual was called in, say he was his time was to show up at that building at the top at 3 p.m. They said, show up at this building, right? And then they would get there, they would talk for a minute, and then they would say, Hey, just to let you know, you're a little early. Okay, but go ahead and start walking over to the building across campus. You have about 15 minutes to get there. It'll take you less than five, but go ahead and start heading that way. Okay, so both the control group, the Good Samaritans, and the ones that top group, whenever they showed up, they were told, hey, guess what? You're early, you got plenty of time. For the second group of people, when they showed up for their time at that building, they were told, hey, let you know, um, it you what it's time for you to go to give your talk. You need to get across campus. It's gonna take you about five minutes to get there, and uh you have five minutes to be there. So you're about on time, but you probably should get going. And then you can imagine what that last group was, right? They're the ones that were told you're late. Like, man, the person before you got done quick, and we need you there right now. I need you to get across campus as quickly as you can so you can talk about the Good Samaritan, Samaritan, or you can talk about, did I say Samaritan? That was, wow, I didn't mean that. The good Samaritan or whatever job opportunity, ministry opportunity that you may have. And so here's the deal. Okay, this is what's really crazy. Okay. Afterwards, uh again, remember what the test is. They're trying to figure out who's going to stop to help the person on the side of the campus on the sidewalk. Right? Here's what they learned. That whether you were teaching about the Good Samaritan, whether you studied it, you knew about it, or you're talking about some other random topic, neither one of those had any bearing on whether or not you stopped. Let that sink in for just a second. This is really important. Knowledge is not everything. Just because we know doesn't mean that we do. In preparing for this, of course, I've I quizzed and prodded the guys on Tuesday morning, and we talked about Romans chapter 7, and it's when Paul says, Man, the things that I want to do, those are the things that I don't do, and the things that I hate to do, those are the things that I end up doing. And he has this struggle because Paul knows that there's right and wrong, but he doesn't always do what's right, and sometimes he does what's wrong, and that's life, and that's what we're dealing with. And that's what plays out in this study is that you can know what's right, but for some reason you don't do it. I think we all feel that way. We always go to bed at night thinking, man, I wish I had done this and this and this, and you wake up in the morning, you're like, well, I'm gonna do this, and then and then at night it's the same thing over again. Man, I wish I had done that. We know, but it just doesn't sink into the heart. Or maybe we're passionate about what we want to do, but other things get in the way. But this is where it gets really interesting. Instead of it being the good Samaritan speakers who tended to be more willing to stop, it really just broke down on these three different groups. The people who stopped to help, it didn't have anything to do with whether or not they had just studied about the Good Samaritan. It had to do with these three factors. Were they did they perceive to be early? Were they on time or were they late? And so here's the statistics for this. Of that rather small group of people, about 63% of those who were told that they were early, regardless of whether it was the Good Samaritan talk or not, 63% of them had the time, they were early, they saw somebody who was on the sidewalk, he was bleeding, he was moaning, he was calling out, 63%, almost two-thirds of them said, I'm gonna stop and I'm going to help that person. I mean, I'm not trying to be picky here, but why wasn't that in the triple digits? Why didn't a hundred percent of those people stop? But we're at 63. That's not bad numbers, especially if you're a baseball player. You're never gonna get to that percentage right there. 63% of the people stop. But how about this? For those who were told, remember, they're going from one building to the next, and the professor says, you need to get on the uh to the other side of the campus, you're on time. 45%. That's it, that's a pretty significant drop. We're now less than half of the people are going to stop and help a person who is bleeding and beat up and moaning and crying out. Over half of them said, I'd love to, but man, I'm I'm I I gotta get there. A little under half said, you know what, it's gonna be pushing it, but I think I can stop and help this person, and then I can get on my way and I can go give my talk about the Good Samaritan. Oh, there's such irony in that. But then here's this last group right here 10%. 10% of theology students. Students who are going to be ministers or missionaries or work uh uh on a on uh uh some kind of academic level uh in a theology institute, a seminar, uh a seminary, a university, ten percent. One out of ten people would have stopped to help. Ten percent was it because they didn't know what they were supposed to do? What's going on here? How come sixty-three percent stopped to help Christians, believers, ministry students? The opportunity was right there. Nearly two-thirds stopped if they're on time less than half, if they're late, ten percent of people stopped to help. So what can we get from this? Well, the first thing is this, and it still bothers me, but only 40% of seminary students overall stop to help. Total, only 40% stop to help. The number is much lower than it ought to be. But there's another thing that we must consider, and this is where we're gonna land on today for our last few minutes, is this in the story of the Good Samaritan and of the study, followers who are early are six times more likely than to help those who are late. I want to say that again. You take the exact same person, and if they are early, they are six times more likely to help, to minister, to render aid, to stop and listen, to have a conversation, to do good, six times more likely. Now, some of you mothers in here are like, I've been preaching this my whole life. Some of you mothers and fathers this morning were screaming at your kids, the car is leaving, you better get in it now. That happened 20 minutes ago. You come in, you're wild-eyed and disheveled, and you're dragging your kid along who only has one shoe on, and everything is crazy, and you're panicked, and you're just barely getting by. And I know that, I get that. I've I have three kids. There was one time they were all small, and it was crazy and difficult, to say the least. And my wife was like, you have no idea. Right? It's it's really difficult. I told you from the get-go, this is not a super spiritual therm sermon right here. I'm not trying to give you this talk on if you just you just here's what I believe. Here's what I really think. And and maybe I'm being presumptuous, but I don't think so. Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking you're a good person. I mean, I think I could look around this room and identify a lot of really good people in here. I think there's a lot of people in here who absolutely love Jesus. I think there's a lot of people in here who know the story of the Good Samaritan well. And I also know that there's a lot of people in here who are just worn out and running by. It's hard to walk with Jesus when you're always running by. And you're thinking, but shouldn't this be like a TED talk that I watch on the computer, not a sermon that I hear on Sunday? Well, because Christianity is not what you think or what you believe, it's also how you live your life. If there's 300 people in this room and you walk out of here and you perceive to be early to wherever you have extra time. Every single one of us sees someone on the side of the road out of 300 of us, nearly 200 will stop and help. 200 people in Brownwood and Early and Comanche and Blinkett or wherever you live and go and work. If you are, if you not only have the passion and the love for Jesus, but you perceive yourself to have time, nearly two-thirds of you, according to that study, are gonna stop in hell. 200 people will have someone look them in the eyes and listen to them as they share their brokenness and their loss and their hurt. Maybe they're on the side of the road with a flat tire or they're beat up, or maybe they're struggling with raising kids or a job or finances, and you run into them at Walmart and you don't even know them. 200 people will hear and see Jesus talking through you as you minister to them. Imagine what would happen if 200 people in Brownwood today got to see Jesus in the way that you live and act, in the way you treat them, in the way that you stop when they're hurting. But if you allow yourself to get behind and get busy, and what is ahead seems more important than where you are now, that number shrinks from 200 people to 30 people. And you say, well, that's just a number. That's 170 people who miss out on seeing who Jesus is because someone has convinced you where you're supposed to be is more important than where you are right now. Jesus did a better job than anyone else in all of history of being exactly where he needed to be and knowing it. I've shared with you my favorite story is the story of the bleeding woman, because when everybody else said, go, go, go, Jesus stopped and he waited and he waited and he waited, and finally this woman comes up, she falls at his feet. Everybody is appalled and abhorred at this woman and who she is, and Jesus listens to her whole story. Because he wasn't convinced that where he needed to be was more important than where he was right then. I don't know what the takeaway from this lesson is. Maybe you think, well, maybe, maybe if I set my alarm 10 minutes earlier in the morning to get up, maybe if I, maybe if I went to bed 10 minutes earlier, maybe that's I I don't want it to seem so incredibly unspiritual, but I want you to know this. I think there's a lot of really good people in here, and you're just broken down and you're wore out, and you know you should do the things that you don't do, but you do the things that you hate to do, and you're like Paul, and you're like me, and you're like most of the people in this room. You're just wore out. It's not because you're a bad person, it's not because you're callous, it's not because you're apathetic, it's just because you allowed yourself become so incredibly busy that you've stopped stopping to help others. And so my prayer for you is this think about where you're going and where you are and where God wants you to be. And maybe the best thing that you can do is not to hear a sermon about how you need to read the Bible more and you need to pray more and you need to be more spiritual. Maybe you're there, but you're just overwhelmed because Satan says, as long as I can keep you busy, you won't show Jesus to others. And so this morning I just encourage you to be an early follower. Don't allow yourself to get caught up in your life, that you miss out on what God has right in front of you now. I just think that there's a bunch of people out there, and maybe a few in here who just need to be reminded who Jesus is, and what better way to do that than by loving them, even when they're broken and hurting and messy, and we get to do that today, and that's my prayer for all of us is that we will just open our eyes, see Jesus, and show him to the world. We're gonna do something a little differently rather than offering an invitation. I just want to offer a prayer for each one of you. I I didn't just come across this sermon because I thought I don't know what else to do. It's May. And for most of us, May is the new December. It is just packed full of graduations and weddings and babies being born and all this stuff is taking place, and we're just so overwhelmed right now. I just I want to pray that we can just have a time of just peace and an opportunity to show Jesus. So I'm gonna ask if you don't mind if you would stand. We're not gonna sing yet. I still have my microphone on. We I won't make that mistake. And what I want to do is I just want to offer a prayer for us that we can go out this week and we can show Jesus to this world, and that we will prepare right now whatever it takes to be ready for when he says, look right here, here's someone who needs you. So I want to offer that prayer, and at the closure of this prayer, we'll have our song of invitation. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you so much for the people in this room. They are good people. They love you, they love your son Jesus, they want to follow him, and they want to lead others to him. But many of us were just struggling with being so busy and overwhelmed with life and deadlines and schedules and graduation and baseball and vacations and retirement and all the things that we want to have. And God, you've you've placed opportunities before us, and Lord, we've just, for some of us, we've just gotten a little too busy. And so, God, I just pray that you will just allow us to slow down, that that instead of adding to our plate, that we will take off of it. And in doing so, we will see your blessing and we will be a blessing to others. God, I believe that there's people right now here in Brown County that need to see you, and you want to send us to them that we may cross their paths and show your son to them. And so, Lord, I just pray that we'll do that today. God, thank you for the opportunities that you're gonna give us and the lives that will be changed because we're willing to be like your son Jesus and stop and love and offer healing. God, may you be glorified through all this. It's in the name of your son that we pray. Amen.