16th sermon, I think, and I think we've got, what, a couple more Sundays to go, so 18 sermons in the Proverbs, and I'm still intending, I think, to go through Ezekiel in the new year. What we've been looking at, really, in the book of Proverbs, it's a book of wisdom, and God has been showing us how to live wisely as opposed to living foolishly, This is for all those that God has graciously given salvation in Christ Jesus. So as we've been doing regularly, we're looking thematically at various subjects and then seeing what God would have for us. And tonight what I'd like to do is turn your Bibles to Proverbs 14. I think I'll read verse 20. I'll read 20 to 23, and then we have a few more texts that I'll read for us. But Proverbs 14, verse 20, God's perfect word. The poor is hated even by his neighbor, but those who love the rich are many. He who despises his neighbor's sins, but happy is he who is gracious to the poor. Will they not go astray who devise evil? but kindness and truth will be to those who devise good. In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Then the next proverb I want to read is from 17, Proverbs 17, verse five. He who mocks the poor taunts his maker. He rejoices at calamity, will not go unpunished. I've got another one in the Proverbs 22, verse one. A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, Favor is better than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all. You see the theme that we're looking at. I'm gonna read one verse from the book of Exodus. Exodus 22, verse 25. If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him. You shall not charge him interest. And what I do find interesting in that is that in the Exodus passage, God evidently feels the need to tell newly emancipated, liberated, freed slaves how to treat their brother and sister Israelite likewise newly freed slaves, how to treat them when those people may indeed become poor. You would think that if you were a slave, and there were slaves for 430 years, that the painful memory of your own crushing poverty due to slavery would make you forever humble and gracious and kind to your fellow man, and you would have a heart for those that are suffering poverty. But such is the power of indwelling sin, And our God has provided for us in Christ, he's provided for our instruction in his word. Let's go to God in prayer. Oh, Father, we love you, Lord God, and we love you because you first loved us. We love you, Almighty God, because you sent us the son of your love. We love you, Lord Jesus Christ, because you purchased our redemption at the price of your blood. Help us, Almighty God, see that everything that we are, everything that we have is pure gift. We were wretched paupers, wretched paupers. Everything, everything, everything is pure gift. It belongs to your glory, and we are called to use everything that we have and everything that we are to bring glory to your name. Forgive us, Almighty God, when we play the part of the miser, thinking that our things are truly our things. Our things are your things, given to us for your use. help us to be a very gracious people, especially to those who are in need. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Well, two weeks ago, in the book of Proverbs, we saw God's counsel to us on how to treat our enemies. And tonight, what I want us to consider, obviously, as we've been looking at in the various Proverbs, is how we should treat the poor. Remember, this is a book of wisdom. This is practically how to live for the glory of God, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a gospel-rich book. I would argue, like James, it's a law-rich book. And it's, how then shall we live now that we are found in Jesus Christ? So God has a word to say on, this is what I would like you to treat your enemies like, and this is what I would not like you to treat your enemies like. And you remember, we are to overcome the evil that people perpetrate on us, not returning evil for evil, but we are to overwhelm their evil with our good. And you'd think that's a high mark, that's very true. We are not natural people anymore. We're in Christ Jesus. We're supernatural. And God calls us to a life of holiness and a life of emulation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So God says, I want you to treat your enemies the way that Christ treated them. Turn the other cheek, and he died for that. And now God has a word for us in this wisdom book and how God, our Heavenly Father, wants us as his children to treat the poor. And when I say to treat the poor, that includes how we think about the poor people and how we speak of the poor people. and so on. So what we think and what we feel about them. And I do stress that. I mentioned this morning that what we talk about is a reflection of our hearts. It wasn't anything new. It's just the way that I put it. It's what Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 12. What's in your heart will come out of you. What you think about is gonna come out of you. So if you talk about a subject all the time, that's what you're thinking about. That's where your heart is. And very much like that, how we think about our enemies, how we feel about them, will make it out in our actions. And the same is true for poor people. What we really think about poor people will indicate what we feel about them. and it will reflect in our actions. We will or will not treat them accordingly. So again, I want to stress the idea of God is giving us a word as our Father to children. I want to use the words of Jesus Christ. I want to paraphrase from Luke chapter 6. May no one in this room ever be among those professing disciples of Jesus that Jesus will look at someday and say, why did you call me Lord? You didn't do what I told you to do. It's a super easy thing, is it not, beloved, to say, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. I'm baptized, I'm a member of the church, I'm a minister, I'm a Christian. It's a very easy thing to do. Jesus says, if we belong to him, we will labor to obey him. And the Apostle John says, and his commandments are not burdensome to us. Again, may we never be those people who say, oh yes, Jesus. And then when he says, well, this is how I want you to treat the poor. and we didn't treat the poor the way that he told us to treat them, or we treated them the opposite of the way that he told us to treat them. We would be in danger of hearing, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. This is what it means, this is in Matthew chapter seven. People that say, oh, I hear Jesus, I say yes to Jesus, but they don't build their lives on Christ. I'm not saying that our justification is based on our obedience. Our justification is based on Christ's obedience. But our obedience, our labor to be obedient to every word of God is indicative of whether we have believed or not. And so what God is teaching us in this book of wisdom, remember it's laid out, the wise dad is teaching the son how to be wise. This is our heavenly father teaching us how to be holy and wise sons and daughters of our heavenly father. And last time together, a couple times ago, God says, treat your enemies like this, and that brings honor to God. And now here, looking at the various Proverbs we've looked at, don't abuse the poor, don't taunt them. In fact, be gracious to them, lend them, that kind of an idea. God is telling us in his word, which we profess to believe, that when we treat the poor graciously and kindly and lovingly, that brings honor to God. It brings honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do that, it's helpful to the poor themselves. And I would argue this, when you have these Proverbs, and again, they're written to the church, they're written to God's people, that teaches us what Jesus says, you're always gonna have the poor. You're always gonna have the poor. I am not against political things that seek to alleviate poverty in a country. I'm not against that. I think to some degree that's good, depending on how you go about it. I'm not for stealing from one person to give to another person. But all that to say this, even among God's people, professing believers, God teaches us that they'll be poor. There will be those that have less, and there are those that have more, and I would say this. God is the one that orchestrates all this business. If you are among the class of people that have less, you're wondering, well, why did God make me this way? Well, think of it like this. In God's household of faith, God has us all knit together and we serve one another all for serving God. And so God has poor people among our midst for the very purpose of providing us platforms to serve them. read Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. Usually we read 2, 1 through 9, that God graciously gives us faith to believe in Jesus. But then there's verses like 9 and 10 that talk about not only have we been ordained to eternal life, but God has predestined us to have certain good works. God has purposed in his infinite wisdom to place poor people in our midst so that we would serve them. They exist for us, we exist for them, and we all exist for Christ. And so if you have more of the world's goods, God has given you more of the world's goods so you would serve your poor brothers and sisters. And then as we'll look about even beyond. So poor folks are a platform for those who have more of the world's goods, for us to serve them as we seek to serve Jesus Christ together. So being gracious and having high thoughts and warm affections towards the poor brings God honor. And I would say also what we're told in the Proverbs, the opposite. that when we have low thoughts of the poor, and that when we are unkind to the poor, that we do not help to alleviate their needs when we have the wherewithal, that brings dishonor to Christ, and likewise it brings dishonor to the name that we bear, which is to say Christ. Now, what we looked at in Proverbs, I mentioned, it's not gospel rich, it's law rich. So these are moral precepts. So each proverb that we read is a reflection of the moral law. And if I were to ask you a Bible quiz, a theology quiz, which half of the moral law, which table of the moral law primarily does that, do these directives come from? And if you answered, well, the second table. on man's treatment of his fellow man. You'd be correct. The first half of the moral law, verses one through four, has to do with God's obligation on man, what duty we are obliged to God. And then verses, excuse me, commandment five through ten on a mother and father to don't covet. That deals with how we are to treat our fellow man. The Proverbs are coming from that portion of the moral law, how we are to treat our fellow men. The Lord Jesus Christ would summarize what we looked at in Proverbs, being gracious to the poor and needy and not taunting them. He would summarize that aspect of the moral law in Matthew chapter 22 under the second greatest commandment of the Bible. The first is, to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You say, that's a tall order. That's a tall order. Our God is a perfect God and He requires perfect love. And the second command, the second greatest commandment is like the first. And the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. That's the Proverbs. So we are to look at our poor brother or sister, poor unbeliever, neighbor. We are to consider them as our neighbor and we are to love them as ourselves. And I will say that we all fall short in this. We all fall short in loving God perfectly, and we all fall short in loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, and that includes the poor. We simply do not love them as we love ourselves, but God is calling us to do that. And I would say this, The Bible says, the book of James I'm thinking of, certainly James chapter 2, I think, James calls the second half of the summary, to love your neighbor, he calls that the royal law. And Paul also says in the book of Romans, in the book of Galatians, that loving our neighbor is the fulfillment of the moral law as regards to God's duty that he requires of us for our our fellow man. And again, just looking at a few things, considering the treatment of the poor. Remember the golden rule? What's the golden rule? Remember the golden rule? Again, I suppose we're doing ABCs again, but I don't know why, but we are. Matthew 7, 11. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who's in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him? You see the standard. People that need something, they ask a good and loving Heavenly Father and He gives it to them because they need it, because He's good and He has it. Now, here's the golden rule. In everything, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. for this is the law and the prophets. So when we are looking at a poor individual, or God brings them to us for some reason, the Bible says, that we are to treat them as we ourselves would like to be treated. So one way to do that is put yourself in their position. I don't know if you've ever been poor or having less money than you have now. Put yourself in that person's position. What if you had little of the world's goods? You couldn't pay rent, you couldn't buy groceries, you couldn't pay a medical bill. How would you like to be treated and then treat them? Now, that's what we're looking at. We're looking at the subject of how God wants us to treat the poor, again, as his professing children. Let's define the poor, the poor person. Let me say what the proverb is not speaking to. The proverb is not speaking to the kind of poor person that Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five. Many of us know that. Blessed are the what? Blessed are the poor. But there, blessed are the poor, is the poor in spirit. He's not talking about the same kind of poor folks that Solomon is talking about in the Proverbs. What Jesus is referring to is those people who are poor in spirit, they're meek, they're humble, they're contrite, they're brokenhearted. They are those people, as I prayed earlier, that they know that they are utterly destitute of any righteousness before God. There's no goodness in them. those are the people that are blessed. Those spiritually poor people are blessed because they're filled up in Jesus, because there's nothing in themselves that they are resting on. I'm reading a series of sermons by Jeremiah Burroughs, and he speaks about those people that are not able to be filled up with the riches of Jesus, because those are the same people that are consumed with thinking that they themselves are filled with moral riches, that they're good people. If you think that you inherently are a good person, you don't need Jesus. Jesus Christ has only come to save bad people, to save sinners. Jesus Christ didn't come to call the righteous. He came to seek and to save sinners. So if you say, I am morally bankrupt, the only thing I give to God is my ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly sin. Be of good cheer. Those are the folks that Christ came to save. Now, I will say that, though the Proverbs here are not speaking about spiritual poor people, I will say this. I would argue the people that truly recognize, and I mean truly recognize, that we really are utterly, wretchedly poor, morally poor, righteously poor, apart from the riches that we find in Jesus. and that we find everything that we have and everything that we are by pure gift, by the virtue of Christ's blood, I would argue that those people are the most liberal with their money and with their material wealth. I would say it would be a bad sign for a professing Christian to be a miser and to have a closed hand to those who are needy. Now, so not only are the poor not the spiritually poor that Christ speaks about, I also want to say something, and perhaps I wouldn't need to in another day or an age. Our country is, we have a capitalistic country. To some extent, socialism is here, but it's making somewhat of advances in our country. And I say that for this reason. When the Bible speaks about helping the poor and being gracious to the poor and not taunting the poor, I don't mean, the Bible's not meaning the poor as understood by liberation theology. My sister is somewhat of a Unitarian minister, and I think the fellow's name is Cone, C-O-N-E, I believe. She's a liberation theologian. She believes liberation theology. And liberation theology imbibes a form of Marxism. It says something like that. It says many things, but it says something like this as regards to the poor. God is on the side of the poor because the poor are just, they're good, they're morally better. And so they are, the materially poor, also are the spiritually poor, meaning they're blessed, and God is on their side. And then conversely, those who are materially rich, they are evil, they're bad, and God is against them. That's a form of Marxism covered with Christian words. And so that's not what we're looking at either. There are rich people who love the Lord Jesus Christ, Abraham loved the Lord Jesus Christ and he was wealthy. And I'm quite sure that there are poor people that hate the Lord Jesus Christ. So they're poor in the world's goods and they're poor in God. So we're not saying that God is on the side of the materially poor simply because they are poor and their material poverty shows that they are morally better. That's not true. But our Proverbs do deal with materially poor people. And I'm including more than just money. It is money, but materially poor people. Let me read a couple of scripture passages that talk about the situation of being materially poor. Again, if you've ever been poor, I'm preaching to the choir, if you've never been poor, you only know it as you come in contact with poor people. But here's what the Bible says. 1 John 3.17, whoever has the world's goods, now this is important for us, whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against them, how does the love of God abide in him? Boy, we see our brother or sister in Christ in need. and close our heart. What do we do? We look away. Oh, I didn't see him. I don't even know. And then he says, how does the love of God abide in him? They're in need. James 2.15. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, now we're getting at what poverty is. The first pair of texts said they're in need. Now we're told what they need. Is without clothing, in need of daily food. And one of you says to them, go in peace and be warm and be filled. And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body. What use is that? That's dead faith. You can say you have faith in Jesus all day long. And God, the Holy Spirit says through James, you have dead faith. If they need a shirt and you have two shirts, and you say, be warm and well-fed, God bless you for Christ's sake, and you don't give them the shirt, where's the faith? Matthew 25, and this is the picture of when we stand before King Christ in judgment. Verse 35, we're getting at poverty. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger you invited me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. The righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see a stranger invite you in naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? You ready? King Jesus, will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. Remember what I said? In the body of Jesus Christ, he has poor folks and he has those with more than they need. And he has the poor folks that we would serve them for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And so we're to love them and consider them our neighbor because God says so, because we're the recipients of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ. And now God here is telling us on the last day, Jesus will say, when you did it to my brothers, when you gave them a cup of cold water, they didn't have any water. And as we said, they didn't have proper clothing and you had extra clothing. You had an extra meal. and they were in prison and they had no freedom, and you went and cheered them up. That's having kindness to the poor and not taunting the poor. Jesus Christ said, you did it to me. And as you sought to honor me, I will honor you. We'll hear, well done. Now, so that's getting at the poor. The poor are people in privation, they're in lack, and they're in lack of, their basic necessities, their needs. James says your needs. And I'm going to make a distinction between needs and wants. They don't have proper food. They don't have proper clothing, adequate clothing, adequate food, that kind of things. And I'm making a distinction between desires or luxuries. This is You don't have enough calories to eat during the day, not that you don't have the type of food that you find especially tasty, that kind of a thing. And sometimes it's hard to pinpoint, well, Sue, who are these poor so that I would know how to help them? Our country has, the government has, if you make below X and you're a family of X, then you fall under the poverty line, right? And so it's somewhat subjective. But the idea is they don't have enough for their needs. And that's a person in poverty. And it comes with pain, it comes with anxiety and all of those things. And God says, it honors me if you have more and if you would help them. So this is daily needs. So if a person says, well, listen, I'm a poor person and I want you to give me a BMW. That's not what God is requiring of us. We are not required to give a poor person a BMW. What God is telling us, if there's a brother or sister that doesn't have any food, and we have extra food to give it to them. I will say this. Many years ago, I listened to a sociologist, not a Christian, on NPR. Sorry, I was listening to NPR. I used to drive from South Carolina back and forth, and I would listen to any talk radio at night to keep me awake. It was NPR. and it was a sociologist, and he specialized in poverty. And he made this statement, this was like 15 years ago, it stuck with me. He said, in Africa, in China, in India, there are no fat, poor people. And then he said, whereas in America, there are a lot of fat, poor people. And I'm just gonna say this. Poverty in Africa, China, and India, radically different kind of poverty. So when we meet folks here who say, I'm poor, and they're rotund, they're clearly not starving. I'm not picking on anyone. They're not the kind of poor that the Bible is talking about poor. You don't have any clothes. If someone says, I'm poor, and they have $150 sneakers on, they're not poor. So let's understand the poverty that, I'm not saying that there are not poor folks in America, there are, but turn on the television, turn on the computer. What does poverty look like in India, China, Africa? What does it look like? My wife is a marathoner and I've watched documentaries on marathoners and there were some brothers from Kenya If you know marathoners, you need certain calories, you need all sorts of this. And these brothers really wanted to be good marathoners. They lived on like a bowl of rice or two bowls of rice. I'm thinking, a day, how do you marathon? How do you train for a marathon? You're not even getting 1,000 calories a day. How do you do this? Why were they eating so little? Because they had so little. And so brothers, we're looking at helping those people who don't have enough to get by. And God calls us to help them if we have what they need. Now, let's talk about some reasons why folks are poor. This is, we're just looking at treatment of the poor as a theme. And there are two reasons why folks can be poor. And I probably shouldn't, well, the two reasons I would classify as this. There are sinful reasons why folks are poor. There are non-sinful reasons why folks are poor. Let's talk about some sinful reasons why folks are poor. And this won't sound nice, but it's in the Bible, and I'm not saying it with any malice. One of the reasons that folks are poor, verse 23 of chapter 14, in all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to what? So that person who says, you know, oh man, oh, I'm gonna, I'm in the morning, I'm going to work and I'm going to do, oh boy, what am I going to do? But they don't actually go to work. We would say that that person is poor because they're lazy. And so there is a person that the Bible says, look to the end, you sluggard. They just won't work or they won't work enough. And so they're poor. And that's a sinful reason why that person is. It's not the person that doesn't have any opportunity, doesn't have the ability. This is the person that says, I can work. I'm not going to work. And the Bible says, rather than us giving them the food, we are to let that gnawing in their belly do what? Cause them to work. The Bible says if a man won't work, he should not what? He should not eat. And I know from my own personal experience, coming out of college, getting married, having children, my own personal lack, I didn't have money, drove me to work to support my wife and my family out of fear and out of obligation. So that gnawing is not always a bad thing. It can make a man or a woman do what God requires, which is to say work if we can. The Bible says this, I just paraphrased it, Proverbs 6. Prepare her food in the summer and gather us her provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O sluggard? God doesn't have anything to say about the lazy man. When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man. There have been folks that have been in a pinch that I've tried to help a little bit. And I'm thinking of not widows in need and so on. Many, many, many, many years ago, I was dealing with a person who said, I'm in a pinch. I said, how old are you? He said, I'm 24. How much are you in a pinch for? I need such and so money. I said, what do you need this money for? He said, I'm poor. What do you need the money for? I want to go on vacation. And I said, how many hours a week do you work? He said 37. I said, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself. 37 hours a week is part-time work for a 24 year old man. And you're not begging bread or clothed. You want a free vacation. And my counsel to you brother is repent and get a second job. And then you can take your wife on a vacation. So when God says, I want you to be kind and gracious to the poor, we are to understand who it is we're looking at and how it is they got there. Now, some other, let's look at some non-sinful reasons why folks could be poor. There is a class of people that for the calling of Christ upon their life, not in a Catholic, monastic kind of a way. But because they have a call of Christ on their life, and I'm usually thinking in some kind of ministry context, that they willingly give their things away, or they willingly embrace material privation. Jesus says, Paul, Peter says to Jesus, we left houses and homes and everything to follow you. There are people in our presbytery, in our presbytery, One of my brothers in the Lord has a tiny, tiny church. Tiny church. Makes next to nothing. And he willingly embraces that because he feels Christ has called him to those particular people in that particular church. And the idea there is the people that willingly embrace having a little of the world's goods They are content with Christ and to live off what the flock will provide for them. So that would be a non... You may say, well, that person's poor. Yes, they are poor. They're content with Christ's calling on their life for that particular situation. Another way that people are non-sinfully poor, I'm thinking of Job. Job was very, very wealthy, and then Job became exceedingly poor. And he became poor through, I would say, the providence of Almighty God. God permitted Job to have all his wealth taken away. He went to bed rich and he woke up poor. And it was not, Job wasn't a lazy man, Job wasn't a bad man, Job was a righteous man. It was God's government in his life. So beloved, if you find yourself in destitute or you look at another person, the first thing that you shouldn't conclude is you lazy person, I'm not helping you, I don't have to help lazy people. Don't immediately conclude that. Perhaps in God's providence, there's been a sickness, there's been some kind of setback, there's been a loss of job. You can multiply it, multiply it, multiply it. Medical bills, that's another one. Wow, you've been living large, you're a profligate. No, actually my daughter was sick and we spent everything that we had to pay for her medical bills. You see what I mean? And so there are sinful reasons, and then we're to respond accordingly. And then there are non-sinful reasons, and we are to respond accordingly, with grace and kindness. The way that the Bible tells us is to not taunt them, to consider their maker to be our maker. Let's look at the way that we are to think when we look at them and how we treat them and so on. We read it in one of the Proverbs, the rich and the poor have a common bond. The Lord is the maker of them all. Many years ago, I visited my son in Colorado, and he was stationed out there, and there's a place called, it's like a hippie hangout. Oh, what is it? It's next to Colorado Springs. I just had it in the tip of my, the kids smoked, well, they smoked dope everywhere, but they smoked dope in this one place. It's a hippie hangout, close to where he lives. There was a young girl in her 20s and she had a cat on a leash and she was singing for her money. She was stoned out of her mind and she was singing for money. And the people were laughing and they were joking and all sorts of things. And I just walked by and my heart was broken. Here's a young woman who has a dad or a mom. I mean, I don't know if they're in their scene, but this is a woman created in the likeness and image of Almighty God. God wants the person who has more than the world's daily necessities to look at people in need and to consider the God that created them is the God that created you. The God that governs them is the God that governs you. We're the same constitutionally. We like to think that we're better than other people. We know that we're not supposed to think that, but we do think that. I'm not as bad as you, and I'm actually a little bit better than you. And the reason you're poor is you're not very good, and the reason I'm not poor is I'm better than you. Beloved, that's not true. That's not true. Constitutionally, we're the same. They have a body, we have a body. They have a soul, we have a soul. Well, I'm in Jesus. Did you do something to earn your place in Christ? So when we, I guess what I'm arguing for is that we humanize poor people. That we, it's one of the things they teach you when you go into war, when you want to kill someone, you have to call them some kind of nasty name to dehumanize them so you can kill them. And we dehumanize the poor so we don't have to love them and be kind to them. And one of the ways to be loving and kind the way that God requires is to humanize them. That's someone's dad, that's someone's mom, that's someone's son, that's someone's daughter. That could be me, that could be my daughter, that could be my son. And that does a lot. So God is their creator, God is our creator, and so on. Also, the Bible says that the poor and the rich have a common end. We're gonna die the same way. We come into the world the same way, the poor and the rich, and we go out of the world the same way, the poor and the rich, the same exact way. And as we think of these things, when we're looking to help the poor, it will do a lot to change our hearts. It's a common creator, common God, but common beginning and common end. Have you ever seen a baby come out of your wife? I've seen two babies come out and now we're adding grandchildren by the by the barge load to my family. How do they come into the world? With lots of stuff? No. They're paupers. They're naked. They don't even have any clothes. And you give them the clothes on their backs. They have nothing. And how does everyone leave? Rich and poor alike. Well, I'm fancy schmancy this. How are you going to go? Just like a poor person. You're going to groan. What will you take with you? Just like a poor person takes. You're not taking anything. Be the richest man in the world. richest man in the world. I just watched my mom, very first person I ever saw in my life pass away. I just watched her breathe her last breath. You know, she has a house full of stuff, a car, everything. You know what she took with her? Nothing, nothing. When we start to think like that, wow, they came in with nothing, I came in with nothing. They're gonna leave with nothing, I'm gonna leave with nothing, except Christ, if you're in Christ. It does a lot to change our hearts and minds to treat them. And likewise, if we think, well, I'm redeemed, could Christ not redeem a poor person? Common Redeemer. And also, it's helpful to think when we're trying to be kind and gracious and loving to the poor, it's also helpful to think about the earthly estate of our Savior. Jesus Christ was poor. I know there are some Pentecostals that say this, not all, it's so silly. They say, well, Jesus was a carpenter. That means he's like a modern contractor. You know what contractors make now? A quarter of a million bucks a year. No, no, no. Jesus was not a general contractor. Jesus was not a home builder or a neighborhood builder. He said foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, and what? He didn't own anything. He owned nothing. He was an itinerant preacher. And a band of women used to follow him around and do what? Meet his daily needs, they gave him food. He had nothing, nothing. And why did he have nothing? He was rich, we say, he was rich. He became poor. He willingly embraced material poverty for us. And that's what Jesus is getting at in Matthew chapter 24. If we would begin to think these ways, we would be more gracious with the material plenty that we have. And so some things, we've been talking about how should we think. When we come to the poor and we labor to do good to them, is it just money that we should do? I think it's more than just money. One of the things that we should do is labor to love them, not just with words, but with deeds, to love them actively, as James says. He says, excuse me, when we are looking at the poor, we're to love them actively, as I've said, but when you come to someone who has privation or a paucity of the world's goods. If you've ever been that person, you know that poverty comes with a lot of troubles. You can't feed yourself, you can't feed your family adequately, house adequately, medical bills adequately, and that comes with a lot of anxiety. One of the kindnesses that we can do to the poor, even if you say, well, I don't have a lot, do you have 15 minutes to listen to them? Can you listen to their troubles? Even being kind and gracious, this is a visit to prison. There's the rescue mission. You can go see people in the rescue mission. I've met people in the rescue mission that have PhDs, they're business owners, and they've lost it all through drug addiction, through alcohol addiction, through Providence, they've lost it all. And sometimes more than just a handout, they just need just a kind ear, a gracious visit. and just to listen to them, to listen to their troubles. So you think, well, I don't want to give any of my money. Well, repent of that. Will you give a little bit of your time to listen to the troubles of your fellow man? And obviously, one of the ways that we can do good to those who are in lack is to give money. If needs be, to lend money. I will say this. If you lend money, consider it to be given. If you say, here's a loan, mainly if they're poor, mainly if they're in dire straits, don't ever expect it back. It would be much better for you to just give it. I'm just, this is no extra charge for this. The Bible does talk about lending without interest, I understand. But oftentimes the poor person is never gonna pay you back. They're poor. So if you have a little bit of extra, just give it to them. Don't expect it back. And How many times does God give us things and he doesn't expect? Now, you may say, well, I don't have extra money. Well, let me ask you a question. If we're looking at people with a lack of clothing, a lack of food, and those kind of things. Do you have extra? Do you have extra clothes? Do you have extra food? Extra. Do you have extra? I met a man the other day, and I had extra, and he was looking for extra to help poor people that come to his church. I just thought it was so wonderful. He said, well, they come, and we give, we're not a rich church, he wasn't a rich man, and we give extra, with our extra blankets, our extra beds, and he went through my garage. Do you need that? And I said, what's it? This is for poor people and they come and they get extra. One of the ways that we can help is we can give them extra material support. And so it's sharing our material resources with them. And then negatively, we don't have to spend a lot of time. It says, don't oppress the poor. He who oppresses the poor taunts his maker. He who is gracious to the needy honors him. This is back to be super careful. If you pass by folks who are begging, panhandling, be careful that the first reaction is not Bad choice, people make bad choices. Bad choices end up with bad lives. Be careful with that. Be very, very careful. God doesn't treat us like that. He really doesn't. Our whole life was a bad choice. Be careful, that's pride. In a way that's taunting the poor. Get a job. Maybe they do need a job. And I will share with you something about this as well. There was a time that I was more inclined to think, well, you just won't work. you go down to the rescue mission two, three, four times, there are people that no one's gonna hire them. They're not gonna hire them. Their minds are shot. They can't make potholders. This is not just get a job and buck up. And so when God says, don't taunt them, don't mock them, be very, very careful, God considers it to be serious business. And then to speak kindly of them, if needs be, to defend them, if needs be. If you are a civil magistrate, if you're a person of some authority, to defend them, to defend their rights. One of the things, I'll mention this and then we'll close in just a bit. There are certain institutions that exist to abuse the poor. I would argue title loans are a place like that. They charge grotesque interest. And they're praying on the poor, because they're needy. I think these are criminal, and certainly they're a sin, and no Christian should be a part of it. I want to end with this. A very simple sermon, call to God's people to be gracious to the poor. Pray about it. Pray that God would open your eyes and your heart. I do this regularly. I pray that God would open my eyes and my heart, that I have more than I need, and that I would be gracious to the poor. You pray about it. And as God leads you and guides you and direct you, don't go tell folks about it. You just open your heart, open your hand, and you help them. It's an obedience to the Lord. And I wanna close with this verse. This is the future of all poor people. 1 Samuel chapter two. God raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillar of the earth are the Lord's and he sets the world on them. May God be pleased with the preaching of his word. Our final hymn tonight is hymn number 30. Stand if you're able for hymn 30.