Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 62

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:10 

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose in the Word of God.It's Monday, October 28 and this is Jeff Klein with your weekly reminder to take your following of Jesus and move it Beyond Sunday.

Jeff Klein 0:20 

At the church I planted (back in the day) we use to go out and take the idea of serving the least ofthese very seriously. Ideas like: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking care of the least of these. Every second Sunday of the month, we'd go out and serve the world. One second Sunday had us arrive at a local refugees apartment to help her clean it up. When we got there, we discovered a disturbing reality: her house was filled with secondhand clothes. Well-meaning people had dropped these off to help her and her son and she literally had garbage bags full of clothes stuffed in closets, under beds and everywhere we looked. And the reality was that she didn't have the money, time and energy to actually sort through these clothes, bring them to the laundromat, wash them and figure out which ones fit her and her son. So 20 of us spent 8 hours taking these to the laundromat, sorting through them, figuring out which ones fit her, and then setting her and her sonup  to use some of these clothes.

Jeff Klein  1:15 

When we think about helping people, we don't often think about what they actually need. For this lady, another bag of clothes simply wasn't any help at all. So how can we actually help those in need? Well, I've learned a lot from the book, "When Helping Hurts." It's a practical encouragement towards our good intentions while we direct people and empower people to become all that they're meant to be. This book encourages us to actually get to know the people we're trying to help - know their situation and their uniqueneeds. The book encourages us to ask some questions: "What do you actually need us to do for you? Help me understand your situation? Is what I'm going to do, actually going to help you, or is it going to make it more difficult?" Wouldn't it be great if the church of Jesus went out in this way? Actually discerning the needs of the world, asking people this question? I love when Jesus asked the guy at the pool, "Do you want to get better?",before he actually healed them. Maybe that needs to be our question too.

Jeff Klein  2:15  

Let's pray. Jesus, we want to follow your instructions. We want to help the leastof these. We want to help those in need around us. But Lord, we want to do it in a way that is like how you did it. We want to do it in a way that actually empowers these people to become all that you intended them and created them to be. So Jesus, teach us how to ask the right questions. Teach us how to discern where your Holy Spirit would have us enter in so that we can enter in away that actually helps. In your name we pray, Amen.