Mission Possible


At the Church that I attend and am a member the current sermon series that is being taught is called: Mission Possible, being the Church that God intends, but I have not yet heard this sermon.

The scriptures make it very clear about what we are to do:

Matt 22:37-40

37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
NIV

Now, what does Love your neighbor mean? That’s a good question, not uncommon to wonder that but Jesus made it very clear:
Luke 10:29-37

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
NIV

Go and do likewise, Jesus said.

Anyone you see is your neighbor. Not because they’re old or young, male or female, nice or rude, handicapped or not, just a God made human being, and especially if they’re in need.

So to me being the Church that God intends clearly in this day and age means loving ALL the people, old and young even the people who are shut-ins or in the Hospital and cannot go to services. Services are nice, but not EVERYONE can or must go to them. They may not pay your Church salary but God loves them.

We can and clearly should make sure to visit them, send them flowers, make them food, pray with them, etc. Anything to make them know that they are important both to us and to God, loved and cared for by Christians because they are Christians! It’s time NOW for the believers to step outside of the standard, age old box and get with the ticket. Now, that’s the Church that God intended! How do I know? Because Jesus said so. Go and do likewise.

Our Churches should ask those who would like to volunteer their time to care for their neighbors. Imagine how happy shut ins would be if we started caring for them? They would be unbelievably happy to know that we and God cared for them—all of the time.

We, as Christians have got to love our neighbors—period. We can’t judge them for ANY reason. We just need to LOVE them. We need to stop being too involved with ourselves and the things of this world and simply focus on God’s people and make them happy. I’ll bet the person helped by the Samaritan was.