By Pastor Elijah Mutiso
Associate Pastor, Fedha Church KAG
Matthew 25: 41-46
1. Anyone can become poor
Deuteronomy 15:7
If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.
2. We will always have poor among us
Deuteronomy 15:11
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.”
a) God expect and commands us to take care of them
b) God has thus given you what you have to meet your needs and the need of the poor
3. You are rich by the grace of God
a) God created the poor and the rich.
b) He could have opted you to be poor but by his grace, you are not
1 Samuel 2:7
The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts
To have is a privilege not a right. God decides where you fit. If you have it is not not because you deserve but it is by his grace. He can choose you to be poor
a) Be careful when dealing with the poor because you are dealing with God.
Proverbs 14:31
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
Proverbs 19:17
[17]Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
Proverbs 14:21
Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
Our faith demands we love
a) God expects us to live out our faith by loving the poor
There is no faith without love
a) Love is faith in action expressed In mercy
Isaiah 58:5-10
[5]Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
[6]“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
[7]Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
[8]Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
[9]Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
[10]and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
James 2:14-16
[14]What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
[15]Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.
[16]If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
James 1:27
[27]Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Conclusion
Proverbs 21:13
[13]Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered
Psalm 41:1 Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
Matthew 5:7
[7]Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
a) If there is something we need it is the mercies of God. We do not show the poor mercy because they deserve but like forgiveness, we do it because we need God to show mercy on us.
b) The poor are an opportunity for us to obtain mercy
The poor provides an opportunity for us to be blessed.
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