Redacted | Week 4 - The Church is God's Answer | Message - Audio

Pastor Jake read through a number of Proverbs, as well as a passage in Isaiah 58 and one in Matthew 25 that clearly show God’s people are called to not sit by and ignore those who are hurting and in need. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live without such struggles may be in danger of redacting God’s clear commands to help those around us who are struggling—the poor, the abused, the orphans, the homeless, the widows and those who are alone. It is not enough for us to live a life that does not oppress others who are struggling, those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ are clearly called by God’s word to step up and help. Pastor Jake shared some statistics of the number of people both nationally and closer to home who are in desperate need. Nationwide, there are 400,000 and 550,000 homeless people. In Illinois, 18,000 kids are living in a foster home, over 3,000 of them are waiting to be adopted today, and over 10,000 people are homeless. 360 people are living in homeless shelters in Peoria alone. In the Peoria area, there are 1,242 kids in foster homes and 168 of them are ready to be adopted right now. And yet the most heartbreaking statistics are these: 350,000 protestant churches exist in our nation, 6,400 Evangelical churches are in our state, and 250 churches call the Peoria Area their home!