Biblical Hope for Christians Facing Poverty

00:00:05.000 | A faithful daily podcast listener named Joe writes in to say this,

00:00:08.700 | "Dear friends, thank you for the gift of your ministry through these short reflections.

00:00:11.900 | They have been an encouragement and a blessing and a spur to see God and rejoice in Him more in my life."

00:00:17.300 | Here is my question. Pastor John, do you have any encouragement for those who by sin or by circumstances

00:00:23.700 | face a lifetime in unrewarding, insecure, and low-paid work,

00:00:28.200 | or who foresee a lifetime of poverty ahead of them, perhaps particularly for those of us who are over the age of 30?

00:00:35.300 | Yes, massive encouragement. I mean, frankly, once upon a time and probably in most places in the world today,

00:00:46.800 | that's normal Christianity. In the West, we're wealthy, many of us.

00:00:55.300 | That is, food is on our table, roof is over our head, there may be a car in the driveway, there's a refrigerator,

00:01:04.300 | there's medical help, good night. We, the middle-class America people are wealthy by all historical standards,

00:01:16.300 | but it has not been that way. And so the Bible is written with massive encouragements to the poor.

00:01:24.300 | And so let me give you some encouragements.

00:01:26.300 | Christ became poor, and he identified with the poor. 2 Corinthians 8, 9.

00:01:33.300 | He did it so that we might become rich, but he means rich in spiritual resources there first, and wealth at the end of the age.

00:01:44.300 | "Blessed are you poor." That's Luke's version of the beatitude, not just "Blessed are you who are poor in spirit."

00:01:51.300 | Luke said, "Blessed are you who are poor," and he meant that God comes in alongside the poor.

00:01:58.300 | There's special help for the poor. There's grace for the poor.

00:02:02.300 | "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6, 20.

00:02:07.300 | Then there's this unbelievably important warning about how dangerous it is to be rich in 1 Timothy 6, 6.

00:02:17.300 | "Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything out of the world.

00:02:24.300 | If we have food and clothing, with these we'll be content.

00:02:27.300 | But those who desire to be rich, they fall into temptation, into a snare,

00:02:33.300 | into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

00:02:38.300 | For the love of money is the root of all evils.

00:02:41.300 | Through this craving, people have wandered away into acts that pierce themselves with many pangs."

00:02:50.300 | So Paul does not regard riches as a great benefit there, but a great danger.

00:02:57.300 | And Jesus said in Luke 18, 24, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

00:03:05.300 | It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to get into heaven.

00:03:10.300 | And therefore, the way the Bible views things, money is a much greater danger than poverty.

00:03:17.300 | But now here's the real kicker. This is wonderful. 1 Corinthians 3, 21.

00:03:23.300 | "So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.

00:03:35.300 | All are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God's.

00:03:39.300 | And the reason it says that to the poor, the poor will inherit the whole earth, they will inherit the earth, is because we are heirs of God."

00:03:54.300 | Romans 8, 17. Fellow heirs with Christ. We're going to inherit with him everything he owns.

00:04:00.300 | And in the meantime, Paul says, "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

00:04:08.300 | Everything I count as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus."

00:04:15.300 | If you're a Christian and you know Christ, Christ is your treasure, your savior, your Lord, your friend, your king, your future.

00:04:24.300 | You are richer than the richest billionaire on the planet.

00:04:28.300 | That is literally true spiritually now and it's literally true physically, materially later.

00:04:36.300 | And in the meantime, Paul says, "My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

00:04:43.300 | That doesn't mean you'll get rich. It does mean everything he wants you to do, you will have the resources to do.

00:04:51.300 | You're going to be supplied. Seek his kingdom first. All these things will be added to you.

00:04:56.300 | Which implies the achievements that count in heaven, that are going to be rewarded by God,

00:05:04.300 | the achievements that are going to be rewarded, are not financial.

00:05:08.300 | The poor person is at no disadvantage in increasing his reward in heaven. None.

00:05:19.300 | Because what's rewarded in heaven is godliness and faithfulness and love and joy and peace and kindness and meekness and faithfulness and self-control.

00:05:31.300 | And the poor are at no disadvantage and perhaps at an advantage.

00:05:37.300 | Here's one last thing. When you cast about in the New Testament for an example of who did Paul really find to be amazing in generosity and love and worthy of emulation,

00:05:56.300 | his answer is the poor. He said in 2 Corinthians 8, 1 that he wanted the Corinthians to know about the grace of God that was given among the churches of Macedonia

00:06:10.300 | because in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.

00:06:22.300 | In other words, when he chose to motivate the Corinthians to be generous people, he looked to the poorest church, extreme poverty,

00:06:33.300 | and he said, "These people are so happy, their abundance of joy is so full that it is spilling over in generosity."

00:06:44.300 | So take heart. If you're in a situation where your financial resources are pinched, and it looks like they're going to be pinched till the day you die,

00:06:56.300 | you are in a position of extraordinary possibility of blessing people and of enjoying Christ.

00:07:07.300 | Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the question, Joe.

00:07:10.300 | I'll interject one thought here in that poverty is no theoretical issue for you, Pastor John, having lived for decades in the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis.

00:07:18.300 | I think at one point you said about half of the population in your neighborhood was living in poverty, and that's not to mention the homeless that often came to your doorstep.

00:07:26.300 | So this hits close to home for you. And for more on this topic, see Pastor John's sermon, "Good News to the Poor," which was preached back on December 10, 1995.

00:07:35.300 | Of course, you can find that sermon free of charge on the website DesiringGod.org.

00:07:40.300 | Go there and then search for the title, "Good News to the Poor."

00:07:43.300 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll be back tomorrow.

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Biblical Hope for Christians Facing Poverty

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