Words of Wisdom

Good morning everyone i hope everyone is having a great day. I am so glad that we are able to join together and worship this morning. Today we are going to take a little bit of a different approach and we will be working out of Proverbs.

Preaching from proverbs is always interesting because it is a book that we can take a single verse and just role with that one idea. Yet, with the proverbs i think many of them come out of a specific situation and spark initial thoughts and can be applied in different ways. However, they are important and can bring us a lot of benefit.

Before we get into that I want to ask you a question.

Why are people Poor?

Now i know that seems like a really loaded question. However i want you to take a moment and reflect on what your first thought was.

This is a challenging question for many of us because if we are honest we may show some of our biases as a Person. Let’s talk about some of the reasons why people might or why people think that people are poor.

The first one is is a common reason that others think that people are poor even if it isn’t true...

People are poor: Because their lazy

This is a position that is particularly dangerous. It is a common one especially amongst people of wealth.

Many people in our culture have created and built their world around them and they view their hard work as the reason that they have advanced in the world. This idea though that only hard work solves the realities of poverty is not always a complete view.

There are many people you can meet that work hard every day of their lives and never get ahead. They may never see the wealth grow in their lifetime.

How many people do you hear the story of their parent who worked 2 to 3 jobs just to provide a home and food on the table so that their kids could go to school and do better. That parent or loved one may have never gained wealth not because they weren’t working hard but because the opportunities or desires for other things never came about.

There can be other things that keep people from getting there as well. We can’t deny that there are things in this world that hold people down. Some come from other humans and some are just a result of circumstance.

Injury, death, natural calamities, discrimination, and so many other factors can create barricades to people growing their wealth.

This isn’t to say that Laziness isn’t a reason that some don’t gain wealth in this world but to automatically assume that laziness is the only factor is naive.

Life happens

As we mentioned a minute ago sometimes life happens. There are things in life that prevent the ability or possibility to gain wealth in this world. I want you to take a moment and think of a time when things were not going your way. It seemed like life was just piling on a lot of hard things. Imagine for a moment that you suddenly lost the ability to walk, or you became blind, or a loved one has cancer.

The reality is that life can eliminate the ability to gain wealth. Circumstance can be a big hindrance.

We could sit here and list off so many reasons for why people don’t have wealth. I don’t want to get too bogged down with that idea. However i want to stress the importance that we need to examine or thoughts and views of why people are poor.

These are important to talk about before we read our passage of scriptures. This morning.

Proverbs 22:1–2 NIV

1 A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. 2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.

Proverbs 22:22–23 NIV

22 Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, 23 for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life.

A Good name

For many of us we don’t realize that wealth is not the end goal. At the end of the day we are not called to just make wealth. It may feel or seem like that is the sole purpose of our existence but it really isn’t. I think that is the beauty of these proverbs.

A good name is more desirable.

Think about that for a moment. Which would really want to have. All the wealth in the world but you are viewed as a terrible person. Or would you rather be a person who has a good name and may not have any wealth. At the end of the day the lasting impact will come from the one who pursues the good name.

Not only are their earthly benefits of being remembered in a way that is powerful but at the end of the day we will all stand before God one day and be held accountable for our actions. God isn’t going to care about how wealthy we were but how we treated others.

That is the beauty of verse 2

Proverbs 22:2 NIV

2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.

At the end of the day no matter what happens we are all created by him and we all will stand equal before him and be held to that. It is a sobering thought to remember and to allow us to provide grace to others each and every day.

This also leads into the next set of verses of the dangers that happen for those that gain wealth.

Proverbs 22:22–23 NIV

22 Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, 23 for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life.

Exploiting the Poor

To begin i want you to think about the very idea of exploiting the poor.

For many of us the very idea is not okay. Let’s look a this a little bit more though.

Exploitation is defined as: The action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work

The idea that we would treat someone unfairly to benefit from their work is a difficult one.

The other side of the coin is who determines what is fair. This is where we come into difficulty and have to challenge ourselves when we are in the pursuit or attempting to gain wealth or advance in this world. The idea of fairness is a difficult one we all have different views on what is fair.

We can look at so many situations and try to cast judgement if something was fair or not. However, we can quickly see when someone is trying to not be fair.

Exploiting the Poor

Remember at the end of the day we will all stand before God and can you imagine being in that situation if you have actively exploited the poor. There is something clear that can be taken from the scriptures is that God cares about the poor. I wouldn’t want to be in that situation. We need though instead ask ourselves the question on how we can help.

What do we do?

This is the question that we have to go thoguht and decide what God is leading us to do. For some of us we can be actively involved in ministries that help the poor. We can care and work to help them each and every day.

For some of us we may not be able to be physically working with the poor each day or week. Yet, we can support financially. We can be generous in our wealth to help and support ministries that are working to reach the poor. It is here that i think it is important as a Christian to make sure you know what the ministry you are supporting is doing. Do your homework so you can be confident that your money is being used properly.

Above all else we must remember to treat people in the way that we hope God will treat us. With Grace and love. Imagine for a moment that we were willing to get to know people and help them in their situations and help them strive to be the best they could be. When we gain wealth we need to be able to remember to work hard to remain humble and live our lives focused on helping those around us.

Conclusion

There are so many challenges when we talk about the financial well being of people. I never want anyone to feel like they are less because they haven’t accumulated wealth. The reality is that wealth is not and should not be the thing that defines us. Our identity should not be developed or built around our wealth.

At the same time we must always remember that we are called to be sources of help in this world. No matter what our financial worth is. The poorest person is still able to help and care for those they encounter. They can open their doors and welcome others to engage and work together to better each other.

Thats the beauty about remembering that when we all stand before God we all start at the same standing no matter where we come from. It is what we choose to do with our time that is important. It is about how we care for others and love on others that will matter at the end.

Let’s Pray