Poverty Test
The Poverty Test
SIGNS YOU ARE BROKE
1. American Express calls and says: "Leave home without it!"
2. Your idea of a 7-course meal is taking a deep breath outside a restaurant.
3. You're formulating a plan to rob the food bank.
5. Long distance companies don't call you to switch.
6. You look at your roommate and see a large fried chicken in tennis shoes.
7. Your rob Peter...and then rob Paul.
8. You finally clean your house, hoping to find change.
9. You think of a lottery ticket as an investment.
10. Your bologna has no first name.
11. You give blood everyday...just for the orange juice.
12. Sally Struthers sends you food.
13. McDonalds supplies you with all your kitchen condiments.
14. At communion you go back for seconds.
3 John 1:2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
2 Cor. 8:9 (NKJV)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
People believe that God wants you to save stuff.
There is a difference between being purposefully wasteful and having a poverty mentality.
Poverty thinking is Fear of running out.
God never condemned the rich men because of money but because of the way they conducted themselves and treated people.
Lazarus didn’t go to the bosom of Abraham because he was poor but because of his heart for The Lord.
1. Do you hold on to things you should let go of?
2. Do you always have to use it all?
How many bananas fall off the trees that the monkeys never eat?
Do you have to clean your plate completely, use the last drop of ketchup, toothpaste etc.?
Do you feel guilty if you don’t?
They make that stuff every day and God has plenty.
If you get mad at talk like this – why?
3. Are you constantly complaining about how much things cost? Do you know what these sold for back in 1963? Listen to yourself. These things are above where I am at. Marvel not for you will do greater things.
Don’t ever say I can’t afford this. I can’t afford to be able to bear the cost of.
You are looking to you or your job to do it the question is what can God afford? You become the source and you can’t afford it but God can.
Don’t teach your children to think that way either.
Teach them to exercise faith and believe God for themselves.
Get them a picture of what they want and pray the prayer of faith. Tell them God has lots of those things and we get by giving.
Don’t
Worry
Waste
Worship money
2 Chron. 25:7-9
But a man of God came to him, saying, "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel--not with any of the children of Ephraim. 8But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to overthrow." 9Then Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what shall we do about the hundred talents ($1,000,000) which I have given to the troops of Israel?" And the man of God answered, "The Lord is able to give you much more than this."
Does it grieve you if you get taken on a deal?
Learn from your mistakes don’t worship money.
If you have a fear of losing money you are bait for the devil who will get you conned by telling you you can’t lose on this deal.
Don’t cry about money it’s a tool. Some folks make a money mistake and don’t ever recover because they love money so much and the fear of losing money is so strong in them that they become paralyzed at the though of losing any of it.
The word will always shine the light on the root of our problems and we will either harden our hearts and become offended or we will open our hearts and grow.
We need to identify the spirit of fear and get it out.
Do you have to use the last drop of toothpaste in order to please God? When you get irritated about this it shows up as problem in you.
Prosperity and poverty are first of all spiritual.
Money does not fix poverty.
Jesus took poverty upon Himself so we didn’t have to be poor.
4. Are you always trying to get it for less or for free?
Isaiah 1:19
If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;
says you will get the best but not necessarily the best deal.
God will sometimes have you pay more – up the price in their favor because He wants to bless them.
Many folks pride themselves on being cheap and getting a deal on everything. Sometimes God will have you pay the person more than what they are asking. But we don’t ask for a “Christian” deal or a “Ministry” deal. That is poverty thinking and you misrepresent God by telling them God owns the cattle on a thousand hills but I need a deal.
If all you are looking for is the best deal you will miss God.
It’s not necessarily wasting money to pay the asking price for something. God will bring deals but He won’t hurt someone else to bless you.
Don’t advertise yourself as poor and in need to get a deal.
Every transaction should leave a good taste in the other person’s mouth.
Guilt is a key to not squeezing or not complaining about prices.
5. Are you bothered, angered by what other people spend or have?
Folks who don’t have the money will lie about why they don’t have the best one and why other people do.
You are saying the best is not for us.
Who is the best stuff for the sinner or the saint?
James 4:11-12
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?