WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 For those of you visiting tonight, we are doing a series through Proverbs, a thematic series 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:09.519 through Proverbs and we've looked at different themes and so this evening the theme is wealth 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:16.559 and poverty. And the great thing about the Bible is that the Bible goes into no-go areas, 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:24.080 doesn't it? It goes into places that we would rather it didn't go, to be honest. And this is 00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:29.039 probably one of these areas but what I am going to ask of you tonight or not so much tonight but 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:35.920 moving forward is that if we are to know who God is in his character and his will for us, 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:42.799 we do have to work at that, you know. It's very important. So this sermon or indeed any sermon 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:48.480 will never really give you on a plate all you need to know on any particular subject. I know you 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:56.560 know that, you realise that. But really what we hope to do is that the sermon will stimulate you 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:04.320 and we pray that the Holy Spirit will take what is simply a taster and will encourage you and teach 00:01:04.320 --> 00:01:14.079 you and I to dig, to dig further, to find out more about who God is and what he thinks and what he 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:21.120 wants for us and from us. And so that is very much what we do and hope to do through this series. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:27.120 There are many more verses in Proverbs that speak on this theme and obviously we can't go through 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:35.520 them all. And what I am going to say this evening is almost entirely taken from not only these verses 00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:39.360 but more verses. I am not going to give you the reference for them all because we would be here 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:46.159 all night because there are nearly 80 references to this subject in Proverbs. Over 50 of them 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:51.840 refer to poverty and that always gives you an idea, doesn't it? What is important to God? What 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:58.399 matters to Him? And what is significant? In a book like Proverbs you would think, well surely 00:01:58.399 --> 00:02:04.159 if he is going to have that many verses it is going to be on something that really matters. And 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:11.159 that is absolutely the case here. And we are reminded throughout Proverbs and very much what 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:16.199 we have seen throughout going through this book is that God's wisdom is God's book of wisdom, 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:23.400 isn't it? And God's wisdom is in ours because in our hearts we know that sin and selfishness 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:30.439 diseases everything. It diseases all our attitudes and all our thinking so that selfishness just 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:35.319 wells up within us and it is difficult for us to see things the way God wants us to see. 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:43.560 In Jesus Christ we are healed and being healed. It is an ongoing work. It is a finished work, 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:49.319 one level as God looks as He sees the finished work of Jesus. We are covered in Jesus' righteousness 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:56.840 but it is an ongoing work in our own hearts and lives. We are continually striving to serve and 00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:03.959 follow the Lord Jesus out of gratitude and love. And the Bible says something very significant. It 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:14.280 says where your treasure is there your heart will be also. In other words what matters to us in our 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:22.439 hearts will be what we treasure. And the longing of our lives and hearts is that Holy Spirit will 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:31.480 enable us to see Christ as our treasure rather than wealth or materialism or relationships or 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:38.439 careers or whatever it might be that we put in its place. So He exposes in His wisdom what is 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:44.839 really important. And He wants us in our Christian lives and if you are not a Christian at least to 00:03:44.839 --> 00:03:52.679 be challenged by this that He is Lord of all we do. He is Lord of our spending, of our earnings. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:04:00.359 He is Lord of our attitudes to those in leadership and even to their policies. Now I am not going 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:06.600 to be political tonight. Well I will be. No I won't be. I will try not to be but I can't help it 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:11.880 a little bit but it will not be party politics that I will go into because we need to recognise 00:04:11.880 --> 00:04:17.480 and know that God is Lord. We don't lay aside our Christianity when we think about our politics. 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:24.439 We don't lay aside our Christianity when we think about our economics. We recognise and know and see 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:32.759 that He is Lord of all. Not just on a Sunday but Lord of everything that we are. Obviously I will 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:40.920 not speak party politics. I never would. But morality is a very big part of politics isn't it? 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:47.000 And so it is important that we recognise and take Christ into that. Now the first thing I want to say 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:53.079 is just that point briefly about wisdom because unless we see all of Proverbs in the light of 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:59.879 God's wisdom then it will just become moralism, moralistic teaching. It will become a set of 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.680 quick moralistic phrases that we try and put into place to make ourselves right with God. We recognise 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:13.159 that is not the case. Unless we have the cross at the centre of our understanding of God's wisdom 00:05:13.719 --> 00:05:19.000 then we will never take these Proverbs and put them in their rightful place because you remember 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:25.160 that in 1 Corinthians 1 Paul speaks about the cross of Jesus being wiser, although it is foolishness 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:33.399 to the world, that the foolishness of the cross is God's wisdom and God's foolishness is wiser 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:40.839 than men's wisdom. In other words it is only when we see ourselves as God sees us and see ourselves 00:05:40.839 --> 00:05:47.160 in need of His salvation and the cross as the great answer to our need and to our sin and to the hope 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:55.240 of forgiveness and until we cry out to God for His great work of salvation and realise grace is a gift 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:03.000 we will never understand Proverbs. We will never understand His wisdom. It isn't moralistic 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:13.480 teaching. It is teaching that flows from His great wisdom in the cross and enables us to strive to 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:22.120 live like Jesus out of gratitude for what He has done for us. And unless we understand the core of 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:28.680 grace which is that we don't earn it, that we don't deserve it but it is a free gift, we can't make 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:35.240 ourselves right with God, that it is a gift, then we will never understand the teaching of Scripture 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:44.280 which turns on its head all our philosophies of life and all our self-centred thinking. And until 00:06:44.280 --> 00:06:50.600 we understand grace then again the Proverbs will simply not make sense because the biggest thing 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:58.040 that we face in our lives and as Christians we face all the time is this need to earn favour 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:06.200 that we've earned it. We've done something that's worth God accepting us or other people accepting 00:07:06.200 --> 00:07:11.240 us. Everything in life, all the philosophies life is based on you get what you earn, 00:07:15.080 --> 00:07:20.920 that you deserve something, that we deserve something. And our fists shaking at God is 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:26.759 because we think God is not giving us what we deserve. And until we see what grace has done 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:33.719 and in this freeness and fullness that we haven't deserved it, then we will never fully understand 00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:44.599 the wisdom of Proverbs and the motivation behind living out the Proverbs. So the wisdom of the cross 00:07:44.599 --> 00:07:50.599 is fundamental to understanding the wisdom of Proverbs. And if you remember the way of love 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:58.600 is the way of the cross. And in Proverbs 1922 we have a hint towards that, what a person desires 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:05.800 is unfailing love better to be poor than a liar. See the great King, the great author of Proverbs 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:12.360 who writes to his son and speaks about the importance of all these great truths understands 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:19.960 even here that what we all desire is unfailing love. That's what we desire, that's what's important 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:26.599 to us. And that's what's offered to us in the cross, the unfailing love of the living God. 00:08:27.479 --> 00:08:34.759 That is our deepest desire. And Proverbs recognizes that. Proverbs is not a manual for moralistic 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:43.559 living. It's a manual which recognizes the way of love. And how we live that love is only when we 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:51.239 accept and know and respond to the grace of God in Christ. So wisdom is the theme of Proverbs. 00:08:52.199 --> 00:08:59.479 And we know that wealth and poverty define so much of the lives that we live. When you go out of here, 00:08:59.479 --> 00:09:05.159 wealth and poverty are absolutely crucial and important parts of the life we live. Proverbs 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:11.399 10, 15 says that, the wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:18.919 of the poor. That's true, isn't it? That wealth is so significant, it's like this great fortified 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:25.319 city that enables us to live our lives. And that poverty is just a ruination for everyone. 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:32.519 And that's so much of what people think in this broken world. Proverbs recognizes that. It's a, 00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:36.360 it notes the contrasts between wealth and poverty throughout the book. 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:42.919 And we live in a world, don't we, where money counts, where money is really important, 00:09:43.560 --> 00:09:52.519 where poverty oppresses, where money is often used as a tool of power, used to judge, used to 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:59.800 control, used to keep control and keep power in the hands of the few. Money is used to enable us 00:09:59.800 --> 00:10:05.639 to enjoy all the pleasures of life. And in the materialistic world in which we live today, 00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:13.960 that's often spiraling out of control. The deification, the worship of materialism 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:20.439 and the pursuit of pleasure, very much in the thinking and the philosophy of the day in which 00:10:20.439 --> 00:10:31.799 we live yet. 700 million people live on less than one pound, 50 a day in this world in which we live. 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:39.799 10% of the world's population living in grinding poverty. It's an everyday reality. 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:52.039 Half of the world's wealth in the hands of 1% of the world's population. Inequality, injustice, 00:10:52.919 --> 00:11:00.759 great wealth, grinding poverty. That's the world in which we live. That's the world in which we 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:07.799 rise up as Christians. That's the reality. Wealth is the thing that gives us friends and influence 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:14.439 and freedom and security. Poverty leads to oppression and isolation and loneliness and oppression, 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:23.720 law-breaking and escapism into drugs and drink to forget the misery of life. That's the world in 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:28.840 which we live. That's what we see every day in our newspapers. That's what we see all around us, 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:36.440 the driving pursuit for wealth and the grinding oppression of poverty. Now, Jesus Himself said 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:41.560 there will always be poverty. And I guess the opposite of that is there will always be riches. 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:46.920 But as Christians, do we just then shrug our shoulders and say, well, that's the world we live 00:11:46.920 --> 00:11:53.800 in? Does the wisdom of Christ have anything to say to us into this world of inequality 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:59.879 and into this world in which our hearts reflect very often these same imbalances and inequalities? 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:07.240 Well, I think clearly it does. And there are one or two principles I just want to pick out from here 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:16.199 this evening as we think about this theme. The first is Proverbs meets clear, we are all equal 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:25.080 before God. Very important Christ-centered principle. Proverbs 22 verse 2, rich and poor of this in 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:32.840 common, the Lord is maker of them all. Okay? That's His first principle. It's a fundamental 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:41.720 equality that we recognize as believers. When God is our Creator, God is the Creator of rich and 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:50.200 poor. I think generally unrecognized by a world that rejects God and His Lordship. We are all 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:58.840 created by God, and we are all equal in God's sight. He gifts life to all. He gifts the ability to 00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:06.920 make wealth to those who have wealth. There's a basic dignity that God's word reminds us of when He 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:14.279 says that the rich and poor have this in common. Our tendency, isn't it, always to categorize, 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:21.959 to make enemies, to reject people often on the basis of their wealth or their poverty, 00:13:22.599 --> 00:13:31.079 maybe politically, maybe socially, maybe religiously or economically. And often that stems from pride. 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:40.280 But we are all equal before God. We remember that as we go out into our world without making judgments 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:47.800 on what we see in front of our eyes. The second thing, the second principle, is that God is not 00:13:47.800 --> 00:13:56.280 impressed by wealth. Proverbs 22 verse 4, wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, 00:13:56.279 --> 00:14:03.879 but righteousness delivers from death. See, God is interested not in our pockets, but in our hearts. 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:12.279 He's not going to take account of our bank balance when we meet Him on that great day. He 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:22.199 recognizes that these things are not impressive. His gifts to us are His gifts. He wants us rather 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:29.240 to recognize the importance of humility and a thankful heart for all He has given to us. 00:14:29.800 --> 00:14:34.680 He knows that wealth doesn't last. We read that in one or two of the Proverbs. We can't take it 00:14:34.680 --> 00:14:41.000 with us. We hoard up wealth. We make sure we get great amounts of interest on what we have, 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:48.200 but we can't take it with us. Naked we came from the womb and naked we return. There is only one 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:57.320 currency beyond the grave. There are no savings accounts there. Even in this life, the Proverbs 00:14:57.320 --> 00:15:05.960 say wealth can sprout wings. We all know that, don't we? It flies away. It can sprout wings. 00:15:07.160 --> 00:15:16.440 And it's a disaster to put money and the pursuit of that before Jesus Christ, before being righteous 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:23.640 and righteous comes only in one place from the great gift of salvation through Jesus. 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:33.080 And in saying that, there's also no virtue in poverty. Life is not just about what we see and 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:38.680 experience on the day. So that's the second principle. The third principle we're going to look at 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:46.679 briefly is that wealth can be a blessing. Proverbs 10, 22, the blessing of the Lord brings wealth 00:15:47.319 --> 00:15:53.239 without painful toil for it. And many of the Proverbs speak about that. There's nothing in the 00:15:53.239 --> 00:16:00.439 Bible to say that wealth is evil or wrong or that we should get rid of all that we have or 00:16:00.439 --> 00:16:05.879 anything like that. It speaks about the importance of diligence, the importance of wanting, the 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:12.200 rightness of wanting to provide for your family. It speaks about recognizing that God gives us gifts, 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:20.039 gives us gifts to be productive, to make money, to do well. It can be seen as a source of great joy 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:27.080 both to you and to other people around you. It can be and is the springboard for generosity 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:33.720 in our Christian lives used to reflect our understanding of God's kindness. As He's been 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:41.560 kind to me, so am I kind to others. It's a great way in which we can multiply gospel churches. We've 00:16:41.560 --> 00:16:47.480 seen it here. The great blessedness of seeing church plants grow and people coming to faith. 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:54.200 It's a wonderful counterbalance to injustice and the selfishness when it's used wisely. 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:58.440 So wealth can be a blessing, and we need to remember that. 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:09.640 The fourth principle is that the poor need protected. The poor need protected. Proverbs 29 verse 7. 00:17:10.360 --> 00:17:14.440 The righteous care about justice, and this kind of moves into the justice theme that we looked at 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:22.519 before, care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. It's a great and a 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:31.879 powerful theme in Proverbs. Many of the references to poverty speak about justice, speak about leadership, 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:40.599 speak about governments and kings in their leadership, protecting those under their care 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:46.519 who are poor, who are oppressed, who don't have wealth and who don't have a voice. 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:53.879 Generally speaking, in the world in which we live, we see that the pursuit of wealth leads to 00:17:54.440 --> 00:18:02.599 inequality, and along with wealth goes power and influence. We can't really deny that. Money talks, 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:09.639 doesn't it? Money talks. And we see that danger even in the church. God recognizes that danger in 00:18:09.639 --> 00:18:15.879 the church. When in James 2, chapter 2, he says to the church that James is speaking to the church, 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:20.120 that he's writing to him, he says, listen, if you show favoritism to some big shot that comes into 00:18:20.120 --> 00:18:24.760 the church, and he's rich in wealth, he says, oh, come down, sit at the best seat we have at the front, 00:18:24.760 --> 00:18:29.080 and then some poor guy comes in, you say, you're smelling a little bit and you don't look so good. 00:18:29.080 --> 00:18:33.800 Go sit at the back somewhere in the AV booth or something. Go up there where no one else will see 00:18:33.800 --> 00:18:40.040 you. Then, you know, James says, don't do that. Don't show that kind of favoritism. Is it a very 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:47.399 stark and very eminent expression of not showing favoritism? And it's a fulfillment of much of 00:18:47.399 --> 00:18:54.200 the proverbs that speak about these things. And it can be the same in families, can't it? It can be 00:18:54.200 --> 00:19:03.159 the same as individuals. You can use money and wealth to dictate or to control or to be subversive 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:09.800 in the way we live. It can be oppressing. And the society in which we live, in the world in which 00:19:09.800 --> 00:19:18.040 we live, we see often that those who are poorest don't have a voice. Democracy doesn't really work 00:19:18.040 --> 00:19:26.519 for them. They don't have rights. Their rights are not so significantly valued, and they have no 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:38.920 power to change things. That's been quite a significant kind of commentary over these last 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:44.759 few days and weeks in our own country. And Proverbs speaks much about the behavior of those, 00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:52.680 particularly in power, towards the poor, recognizing their need for a voice. 00:19:52.680 --> 00:20:04.120 Poverty can be the result of many disasters. Proverbs 17.5, if you've got that one up, Scott, 00:20:05.640 --> 00:20:10.920 yeah, whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker. Whoever glots over disaster will 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:16.519 not go unpunished. And I was just saying a link between poverty and disaster and not poverty and 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:24.599 being a result of being indolent or lazy or careless or abusive in any way. And it's a recognition 00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:32.279 that in this world people can be poor for no reason, no culpable reason themselves. They are not 00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:38.039 guilty for becoming poor. They can be born into poverty, vast swathes of the world are born into 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:47.399 that grinding poverty. And if we mock that, we show contempt for their maker. If we're careless in 00:20:47.399 --> 00:20:56.519 our wealth, because we are relatively so, then we don't understand grace or God or God's word. 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:02.759 So the poor need protected, and the Proverbs speaks a great deal about judging fairly, 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:09.799 speaking up for them, acting justly towards them, not oppressing or exploiting or crushing them. 00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:18.519 There's righteous anger and good anger when the poor are oppressed and when those who govern 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:27.160 only have profit or the economy as their moral parameters. And that's where in a sense we do, 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:34.200 we do stray into the political in a sense, but it crosses every political divide, doesn't it? 00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:41.240 It's not about party politics ultimately, but it's recognizing that when our leaders lose their 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:53.480 moral compass and where only money is what drives them, then they forget their role and they forget 00:21:53.480 --> 00:22:00.839 the primacy of protecting those who don't have a voice as part of their role. And we as Christians 00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:07.160 fail when we just glibly swallow the political presuppositions of the day in which we live. 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:14.120 We need to be better than that. We need to be more significant as Christians in our thought 00:22:14.120 --> 00:22:23.240 processes for those who we pray for in leadership, and they are accountable to protect those who need 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:31.720 most protecting. We should be restless about our political leaders and their thinking and about 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:37.480 the moral compass that drives them. It's not just about sexuality, which is the one I think the 00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:50.920 church often picks up on, on the way that society and the world has abandoned God's model and pattern 00:22:50.920 --> 00:22:59.640 of sexuality. And we maybe do that, but reject or forget that the Bible has far more to say about 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:07.000 poverty and wealth than it does about sexuality, and that we sometimes push that reality aside 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:13.640 and think that, well, it's not really significant for us so to do. The Bible is a great deal to say 00:23:13.640 --> 00:23:21.640 about justice, a great deal to say about oppression, a great deal to say about protecting the poor. 00:23:22.040 --> 00:23:29.640 However, also we recognize as a principle, we're nearly finished, that poverty is not always amoral, 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:36.280 amoral. In other words, it's not simply that people can be born into poverty. Proverbs makes 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:46.359 clear that poverty can be as a result of our own moral ineptitude. Proverbs 23, 21, drunkards and 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:53.720 glutton's become poor, and drowsiness close them in rags. So it's reminding us of responsibility 00:23:54.359 --> 00:24:01.720 to act in certain ways to avoid poverty in our lives. Sometimes our behavior can lead to that. 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:09.640 We're responsible for how we live if we love sleep, if we are lazy, if we just live for pleasure 00:24:10.279 --> 00:24:17.559 and for drunkenness, if we're careless about discipline, if we don't listen to advice, 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:24.519 if we spend our lives chasing fantasies, these are all proverbs. If we love to drink and love 00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:33.400 expensive taste at all costs, it leads to poverty. And maybe taking a little bit of a liberty here, 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:38.279 but maybe it leads not only to physical poverty in many cases, but spiritual poverty. 00:24:39.879 --> 00:24:47.000 As we turn aside from the great lover of our soul, Jesus Christ, and focus on simply material things. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:58.119 So that's one. One more principle, and we're done. Generosity is not an option. Generosity is not 00:24:58.119 --> 00:25:04.039 an option. Proverbs 3, verse 9, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:11.480 crops. That takes us right back to the beginning, doesn't it? It takes us right back to understanding 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:19.960 the wisdom of the Lord. And the wisdom of the Lord has generosity at its very key, 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:28.039 because of His generosity and because of grace. And that, therefore, grace, therefore, 00:25:29.079 --> 00:25:37.319 reflects how we live. And the way we live reflects our understanding of grace and His 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:44.119 incredible generosity to us. So, you know, if someone's been really generous to you in this life, 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:51.879 I think generally it doesn't make us stingy. If someone's really generous to us, someone gives us 00:25:51.879 --> 00:25:58.679 great gifts, we love that so much, and we think it's an amazing, it's actually quite hard to accept 00:25:58.679 --> 00:26:03.720 sometimes someone being generous to us, because we feel we need to earn everything. But when someone 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:10.039 is generous, and then we have an opportunity to be generous, I think we're more inclined to be 00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:16.519 generous, because we know what a great thing it was to receive, and what a great thing it is to give. 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:24.279 And so we give generously, because the Lord has gifted so much to Him. It's an honor to Him. 00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:32.120 It's to honor Him that we are not stingy. It's to honor Him that we give to those, 00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:38.119 that we recognize. We think it might be a drop in the ocean, we think, to the poverty in this world, 00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:45.719 or the realities. But if we can change one person's life by our generosity, if we can help someone in 00:26:45.719 --> 00:26:51.000 poverty, maybe in our family, maybe in the church community, maybe through compassion, or maybe 00:26:51.879 --> 00:26:58.519 through any number of church Christian organizations, or otherwise, that help those who don't have, 00:26:58.519 --> 00:27:06.680 then we are recognizing grace, and we are reflecting grace. Being kind to the poor, 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:14.359 being kind to those who don't have, being generous to the point of sacrifice, 00:27:16.359 --> 00:27:23.639 God honors. And God never leaves us lacking when we have a spirit of generosity, 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:31.560 to share our food, to share our homes, to share our ears, so that we will listen, to share our time, 00:27:32.360 --> 00:27:39.320 the measure that we use, it will be given back to us double, triple fold, because of the grace 00:27:39.320 --> 00:27:48.360 and mercy of God. Stingy is what stingy does, and gets back stingy. And the opposite is true, 00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:55.319 by God's grace and by God's goodness. So generosity and proverbs is just a given, 00:27:55.959 --> 00:28:02.439 because of who he is. So in conclusion, I think it's important that we recognize that 00:28:02.439 --> 00:28:10.599 proverbs encourages, discourages extremes, proverbs 30, 8 and 9. Give me neither 00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:17.719 falsehood or lies, keep lies from, give me neither poverty nor riches, 00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:23.559 but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:28.680 who's the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of our God. 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:33.559 So isn't that great? And the Bible speaks of balance. Don't be too rich, so they just think, 00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:39.000 well, I don't need God, not important. Don't be too poor, so they say, what's the point of this God? 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:48.440 The miserable dishonor Him by stealing or whatever, but recognize this great balance of just He 00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:54.359 will give us what we need. Now, I think there are people who have great wealth, and there are people 00:28:54.359 --> 00:29:01.319 who are very poor. And I think you need special grace for both. I think you need special grace to be 00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:09.720 rich and generous for Christ's sake. And you need special grace to be poor and accept it in Christ's 00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:16.759 name. But most of us, if we have our daily bread, that's good, because most of us aren't 00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:27.480 able to deal with the extremities of riches or poverty. What we need to do is fix our eyes on 00:29:27.480 --> 00:29:34.519 Jesus. Colossians 1 verse 27, make known the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in 00:29:34.519 --> 00:29:43.960 you, the hope of glory. That's where our riches lie, Christ in us. That is what sets us apart. 00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:50.120 We have a glorious inheritance. We have this great riches of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 00:29:50.119 --> 00:29:56.919 And we have a great future of heavenly riches in His presence and in the new heavens and the new 00:29:56.919 --> 00:30:04.839 earth. The Bible has lots to say about wealth and poverty. But the greatest riches that it speaks of 00:30:04.839 --> 00:30:12.119 is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I'd like to pray briefly in intercession before we sing 00:30:12.119 --> 00:30:20.519 our parting song. Lord God, we thank You for Your riches. We thank You that the Bible remains, 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:27.399 because it's Your living Word, searingly relevant to everything that we are and everything that we 00:30:27.399 --> 00:30:36.199 do, that we don't have the option of opting out of Your truth with regard to wealth or poverty, 00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:47.080 or even our attitude to leaders and politics and those who govern, that we strive for justice 00:30:47.080 --> 00:30:55.559 and we strive for equality in life and in all that we are. May we reflect that in the way we live? 00:30:55.559 --> 00:31:02.200 We may feel powerless and small and insignificant. What difference would us being generous make 00:31:02.200 --> 00:31:10.200 in the wider scheme of things? May we find that our generosity changes people's lives and our life 00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:18.200 one person at a time? Lord, we thank You, as was noted in the bulletin sheet today, the offering that 00:31:18.200 --> 00:31:27.240 we took up for Suraj in Nepal last week, and for the generosity of folk in the church, that we can see 00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:35.000 that being used to employ gospel workers in Nepal and in Kathmandu. Bless that we pray and may it 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:42.200 be a great blessing to Suraj and a great encouragement for him. We thank You for what we've heard of 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:49.400 Cornerstone and Esk Valley today and the generosity of Your people in enabling us to employ gospel 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:58.920 workers in these congregations and see fruit, spiritual fruit from the material generosity 00:31:58.920 --> 00:32:05.400 of Your people. Bless these churches we pray in our own. Bless us with generous hearts, we ask, 00:32:06.600 --> 00:32:14.840 in time, in energy, in our homes, in all that we are. We thank You for Shardak McKenzie and for 00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:21.480 her experience of our generosity of time and of care and prayer for her and her family in these 00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:34.039 days and her own recognition that Ian is now in a better place and that she will meet him on that 00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:45.399 beautiful shore before too long. Place of great, glorious, perfect wealth and riches in him. And 00:32:45.399 --> 00:32:52.519 we rejoice what we have by faith, the amazing inheritance that can never perish or spoil or 00:32:52.519 --> 00:33:00.920 fade. Give us the right, holding loosely onto the material things of this world. Help us rather to 00:33:00.920 --> 00:33:10.360 focus and fix our eyes on Jesus. So bless us and help us and guide us and keep us and be Lord of 00:33:10.359 --> 00:33:31.799 our lives. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.