Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning and welcome to Community Church

Welcome all those watching online

If you are new to here, new to the faith, questioning sit back relax and enjoy what God wants to speak into your life today.

Talk about worship as a family

Take mic to dan

Today we are in week 4 of a 5 part sermon series.

Last week we talked about Gods rescue plan for the Orphans and how Gods plan A for the orphans is his church.

And we all are part of the plan weather we adopt, foster, pray, or whatever level god calls us but we are part of the plan.

This week We are talking about “Empowering the poor”

First I want you to understand what is empowering the poor?

To give somebody the ability to serve their interest in a responsible self determined way.

You see often in times that we want to help others with good intentions but very often we actually hurt more than help.

But to be a good neighbor we are to help others with the gifts and talents that we have been given.

We all may have differnt opinions of what poor really means.

If you have ever been on a mission trip you may see homes where many people live in one home with mud as a roof a bucket in the corner for a toilet and having to walk for some time for water.

Some of you may think that poverty is when you lost your Job and have no idea how your going to get by.

Some people may think they are poor because they cant afford the latest i phone.

The point is we all view poverty differnt but all poverty is real and important to me its important to the Church.

There is a very familiar part of the bible that Jesus talks about when he returns for the final judgment.

It can be found in Mathew chapter 25

And Jesus talks about he will separate the people

He will divide them by who are his and who is against him.

And he asks his people, for when i was hungry you fed me

when was thirsty you gave me a drink

when i was a stranger you welcomed me

naked you clothed me

And his people will respond lord when did we ever do this

When did we ever cloth you, or give you a drink, when did we ever give you a place to stay?

And Jesus responded with this

matt

When we serve others with what they do not have we are serving Jesus!

How amazing is that!

When we are able to help people with what God has given us we get to serve and minister to Jesus!

Proverbs

You are lending to the lord.

You are literally serving the lord when you help people in need!

I want to read another verse that may sting to the core but its the truth of God!

1 john

What does this say to us today.

If you have plenty and your brother has a need but you dont care are you really a child of God.

Then it goes on to say.

Gods people are not going to just talk about it say somebody should help them, we might get around to that.

No we are not going to just talk about it we are going to do something about it.

The Church is the hope for the world.

We are called to take our resources and reach the needs of other people.

Im not sure how you feel about meeting the needs of other people but to Erin and I their really is not much more satisfying than being able to be used by God to help others.

We give a large amount of our money not just to support the church thats just a form of obedient worship to the lord but then we set aside a large amount of money to ask God who he would have us bless with that.

Its not my money or my talent or my resources they are his he have them to erin and I and expects us to use them for his purpose.

If i were to ask you all if you want to help people most of you would say yes what do you need.

But the problem is many have a poor view of how to really neighbor well and get it right.

How to really empower poverty.

We first need a foundation to build on of what really is poverty.

There is a great book called toxic charity.

Read it its great!

It talks about how to really help others help themselves?

How to truly empower the poor.

Another great book is “When helping hurts”

It speaks at great link on many times we hurt more than help.

They surveyed over 60,000 people and asked people in poverty what they thought poverty is.

In very poor countries they would talk about

In America they called poverty lose of a job

bad health care

need a better home

better car

new i phone

food

When asked what poverty was to them in very poor countries this is what they heard.

The truly poor in very poor countries over and over again said this.

Poverty is a mindset.

On America over and over people refere to poverty as a lack of material things.

In the poor of the poor say things like

is shame of not being able to provide

guilt

in the 60,000 interviews they never said poverty was something material.

It trully is a mindset

and we need to give in a way that helps not hurt.

many times with good intentions we want to help but it often hurts

like when we go into 3 world countries giving away hundreds of t shirts trying to spread the love of Jesus thinking we are helping only to find out the village lady made shirts from scratch was the only form of income and that just completely undermined here business.

Or when we love coffee but by from companies that put their factory in there town and take away the local income.

Instead of buying far trade coffee trying to help out the local businesses.

Empowering people freinds helping people have the power to help themselves.

Or when we go to our neighbors asking them if we can clean there yard up for them.

But really did we just insult the new home owners that are so proud of their first home.

Instead of asking the question, is there anything i can do to help you.

what can we do to make this neighborhood safer and better for you.

Same as just giving away hundreds of gifts free to families at Christmas.

It very well could cause families to one just expect it.

or two actually make a husband or wife feel like they have failed there children by not providing the gifts.

And here we come saying well you couldn't provide but we can so will take care of it.

You see the difference.

Get to know people.

The root of poverty is brokenness.

We are all broken in something.

There are other forms of poverty.

Some go to a nation that maybe dont have the amenities that we have and it would be easy to say they have nothing.

In material things maybe so but in relations we would say wow they have nothing but the way they love one another i want that.

Some of you in relationship ship are in poverty

Some of you in your brokenness are living in a state of spiritual poverty.

At the center of any brokenness and poverty stems from a broken relationship with Jesus Christ.

Only Jesus Christ can heal brokenness.