Messy lives, effective ministry
This past Sunday I preached at the opening of a missions conference at a church in the suburbs of Chicago. The passage I preached on was Luke 10:25-37, where Jesus answers an expert in the law's question about how to inherit eternal life. He taught on the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the man's question about who his neighbor was. The point Jesus was making was that to gain eternal life, one had to love God wholeheartedly (Deut. 6:5-9) and love his neighbor as himself (Lev. 19:18). They are two separate commands in the Law, yet Jesus puts them together as the two most important commands to obey! Problem was, no one could do either of those perfectly. Put them together, it seems even more impossible! That's why we needed a Savior! Jesus IS that Savior, thankfully! He fulfilled the Law's requirements on our behalf! Problem is, today we tend to either "spiritualize" our walk with God to the point that we ignore the practical needs in society, or ...