Episode Transcript
Proverbs 14.
20.
The title of the message tonight is Money Trouble.
Money Trouble.
And start out with the words, the poor.
The poor.
The Hebrew word translated poor here literally means to be destitute.
And that means to lack what you reasonably need.
And for that reason, the word is sometimes also translated as needy or lack.
And when you understand the word poor in this sense and you realize there really aren't too many poor people in America.
Because most people have what they need.
They may not have what they want, but being poor isn't lacking what you want.
It's lacking what you need.
And if that was the case, then I'd be poor, brother, because I want a whole house generator.
I'd like to.
Do you have one?
Boy I take but would you wouldn't that be nice when the electricity goes out, just brrrr rabbit kick on like that.
Well, that's a lot of money.
So I'll let the Jereminis and some of the bigger bigger financial people have those things.
But uh but that doesn't mean I'm poor because I don't have one.
By God's grace I have everything I need.
I have more than I need.
And I'm very thankful for that.
So being poor isn't lacking what you want.
It's lacking what you need.
I was listening to someone speak the other day on television about poverty in America.
And the statistics say there's 35. 9 million people who live at the poverty level in the United States, and that's a little over ten percent of our population in the United States.
But what wasn't told in those statistics was how much financial assistance those people get.
And the man who was speaking was giving an idea on how much financial assistance they get.
And by the time you added up all the taxpayer benefits, those folks weren't poor at all.
So they may have earned under a certain amount, but they did not receive uh that amount.
They received much more.
And so uh the poor person are those who are destitute of what they need, and the Bible here tonight is telling us that the poor person, look back in your text, is hated.
It's is hated.
Now, I don't think that necessarily means that people are angry.
Don't get those two words confused between anger and hatred.
So I don't think people are going around angry at poor people, but it says that they're hated, and that means they're repulsed.
They're repulsive to people And people who are destitute, they're greatly disliked, they're repulsed by certain people And often we consider the people we hate to be our enemies.
Uh in Deuteronomy chapter thirty, verse seven, Moses said, And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies.
And on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
Some poor people have enemies.
They have people who hate them.
But they're not hated because they're unkind to people.
They're not hated because they pose some kind of threat or public danger.
They're hated simply because they're poor.
So the question we have to ask ourselves is why are poor people hated Why do some people look down on poor people and despise them and are repulsed by them simply because They are poor.
Well, I believe the reason is explained to us elsewhere in God's Word, and it's simply this.
The reason some people hate poor people is because people tend to value what a person has above who a person is.
They tend to value what a person has above who a person is.
Now, Jesus spoke on the core of this issue in Luke chapter 12.
Listen to Luke chapter 12.
And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness.
For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth A man's life does not consist of the abundance of things that he possesses.
Now, the only reason that Jesus would have to make a statement like that is because there are indeed some people who think that the value of who a person is is directly connected to what a person has.
In other words, they think that a man's life does consist of the abundance of things that he possesses.
When I grew up, I remember uh people that I knew speaking about the social status of certain people.
And they would see someone and oftentimes I would hear them say, See that man right there?
He's worth several million dollars.
See that man right there?
He's worth this much, that much.
Y'all ever heard people talk like that?
Listen.
Nobody is worth any more than anybody.
Nobody.
But the truth is Jesus paid the same price for all of us And our value as people that God created doesn't consist of dollars and cents.
It consists of the fact that we were created in the image of God and that God loves us and that gives us our value.
People who don't value a man Because of what he doesn't possess, do so because they don't value God If they valued God, then they would value the people that God loves, that God sent his son to die for. and uh that God made in his image.
It's quite simple uh to me.
And uh if if they value the Lord, they'd value the people the Lord created.
1 John chapter 4 1 John chapter 4, verse 20.
If a man say, I love God, And hateth his brother.
Now, look what we're talking about tonight.
We're talking about people hating other people in the book of Proverbs, particularly people who don't have a lot.
People who don't possess a lot of things.
And the Bible says if a man says he loves God and he hates his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
So if you say you love God, But then you you despise people that God made, not for any evil conduct they do, but because they haven't accumulated a certain amount of earthly treasure. then then uh you don't love God at all.
Not not not in the sense that the scriptures talking about tonight.
People hate the poor because they place value on the wrong things.
It's that simple.
People love the poor if they place value on the right things.
The Bible says the poor is hated, look back in your text, even of his own neighbor.
Now, that means his own acquaintances.
That means people who know him.
And people who know him should value him even more.
When we think about how we treat other people.
Sometimes when we talk about doing something nice for someone, we speak more highly of someone Who does something for a perfect stranger, don't we?
Why, he'd go out of his way for a perfect stranger Well, why would we speak that way?
That stranger just as much a person as another person.
Well, it's because when you know someone you tend to value that person a little more than someone you you don't know.
And so the scripture here is showing us that people who are even acquainted with poor folks Sometimes they despise them, and even knowing them on an intimate level doesn't make that any better.
They still despise them.
So The poor is often hated even by those who know him, and perhaps even more so because they know him as being poor.
Uh my dad was telling a story to me this week.
I love hearing his stories.
He when he talks about the good old days and things, I love hearing his stories.
I don't know how he remembers all of them.
I I think I've told the same highway patrol stories over and over again, and uh uh I just can't remember all of them, but he seems to remember all these stories And he was telling me a story this week about a man that he knew years ago in Athens that owned an apartment complex in Athens.
And uh the man had a lot of money But the man was like Brother Shepherd, he was cheap.
And so he, instead of hire having a a yard crew out there mowing the apartment complex, He pulled his own pickup and trailer and lawnmower and he he went out there and mowed his own grass at the apartment complex And my dad was telling me that one day there was a a man out there and he was trying to make conversation with him when he was loading up his lawnmowers to go home and he didn't know who the man was and he said I guess you you probably make pretty good money cutting grass, do you?
And the man said, well, between this and Social Security, I make it okay.
You know, don't do too bad.
And the man did not know that he was a millionaire, you know.
And uh he had he had his hand in all kinds of financial things uh across Athens.
But uh but I respect people Who are just as comfortable being known as the yard man as they are the landlord.
You know?
I respect people like that And uh I tell you, I like my nice vehicles.
I like I I got that Buick out there.
It rides so smooth.
I like it.
But you know what?
If I had an old pickup truck that uh that smelled like gasoline when you get in, you know, it was an old 60-something model pickup truck.
I'd be just as comfortable in that pickup truck.
I sure would.
And uh I had a man tell me once that if you want to know what a person is really like, at the office, then you watch how that person treats the janitor.
So don't don't watch how they treat the bigwigs, the people with the money and the people with the power that can do something for them.
Watch how they treat the people who can't really do anything for them and don't have the money and don't have the power.
And that's the kind of person They really are, however they treat the janitor.
And we need to learn to value people based on the fact that they are people. based on the fact that they have a soul, based on the fact that that uh that uh God created them.
Every single person you see is a person made in the image of God with needs and dreams and fears and ambitions in life.
Just like us.
Just like us.
The poor is hated even of his neighbors.
Look back in your text.
But the rich. hath many friends.
The rich, those who have an abundance of possessions of earthly things.
But Rich has many friends.
Why?
Because his friends value him for what he has, not for who he is.
And in that sense, I'd rather be a poor man with a few friends than a rich man with a lot of friends, wouldn't you?
I sure would.
If you have friends like that, then your friends are going to run out as soon as your money does.
The prodigal son found that out the hard way, didn't he?
Boy, when that money ran out, next thing you know, he's all by himself feeding those hogs.
There's a man I went to high school with. who used to manage a restaurant in Athens, and I don't know what happened, but something in the recent past happened in that man's life.
And he ended up being homeless for a little bit.
And he just announced that on Facebook just a few weeks ago.
I noticed that he was posting money on Facebook.
He he he he had several $20 bills, not that many, but several $20 bills fanned out And he took a picture of it and he posted it on Facebook.
And he said, here, for all you people who keep talking bad about me, he wanted them to see that he had some money.
And then come to find out a little bit later after that, he posted and he said he wanted to share his story.
He said he'd been homeless for a little bit and he'd been finding abandoned cars to spend the night in, is wherever he could sleep And I felt sorry for him.
I sat next to him in class in high school.
And uh but he's trying his best to work hard and and dig himself back out of of poverty, whatever happened to him, I don't know.
But he's uh I I'm proud he's trying to dig himself out of poverty.
But what I really appreciated The fact that he was talking about how people were talking bad about him because of his situation.
You know why?
Because people hate the poor.
Some people hate the poor.
And so they found a a reason to talk about him.
But what I really appreciated was some of my high school classmates who were on there encouraging him. encouraging him.
Tell him they're proud of him for doing what he's doing and trying to dig himself out.
They didn't care about what the man had.
They cared about who the man was.
He was a person, he was a man.
And that's how God cares about us, isn't it?
Aren't you glad God doesn't like us or dislike us based on what all we have and we don't have.
Man, I tell you what, there's nothing we have that He didn't make and didn't give us anyway.
So so I'm glad that God's that way.
Uh God cares about us no matter how rich we are, no matter how poor we are.
And in the scripture, he's more sympathetic toward the poor than he is the rich He cautions the rich.
But the Bible says, and we're going to close with this verse tonight, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9, now you listen to the love of God, and you will see.
The way that we are supposed to love our fellow man in this verse.
2 Corinthians 8. 9, for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Isn't that good?
Man, if you know Jesus You are rich.
You have all you need.
You have more than you need if you have the Lord Jesus Christ.
And even if you don't have a cent in your pocket, The Bible says that we are those who possess nothing yet have everything.
And possessing nothing yet having all things is how the Apostle Paul described us.
And so for your sakes, Jesus became poor.
The Bible says that Son of Man, Jesus said the Son of Man doesn't have a place to lay his head.
He said that one time.
So he became poor for us. so that he could die for our sins and that in turn give us everlasting life give us a brand new world, a brand new body, an eternal relationship with God, and that in the end we, being the meek, would inherit the whole earth.
Through his poverty, we became rich.
Aren't you glad Jesus loved these poor people?
Man, at the heart of everything.
However much money we've got in our pockets, we're just poor folks.
That little boy, I'm poor ain't I.
You see him on Facebook, I'm poor ain't I.
That's what we are.
We're just poor folks made rich through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, for setting our minds straight tonight.
And reminding us, dear Lord God, of where we are, where we came from, and that Father, apart from the grace of God, we're all poor.
Because Jesus cautioned those who are rich in the things of this world but are not rich toward God.
And Father, we thank you that true value comes from the Lord.
And if we have the Lord, then we're rich.
And Father, help us to see and to love and to care for people. no matter what financial position they're in, to not view people according to what they have, but according to who they are.
The people that you love made in your image.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Give everyone a safe trip back home tonight.
And bring us back safely, I pray, Sunday morning, in Christ's precious name.
And we pray once again for all the requests made tonight.
Amen.
