Poor Vs. Rich Series

Series: Practical Proverbs

Thesis: The primary message of Proverbs is “Get wisdom or act and look like a fool!”

Sermon 1 & 2: Wise vs. foolish

We learned that wisdom is God given not manmade but foolishness is manmade not God given. We learned that wisdom is given by God to us so that we use knowledge rightly and correctly and if we don’t have God then we don’t have wisdom and therefore we are unable to use knowledge correctly or rightly.

Sermon 3: Wickedness vs. godliness

We need to be able to recognize and avoid wickedness in our lives and instead embrace godliness.

Sermon 4: Laziness vs. diligence

The writers of this ancient wisdom literature inspired by God try to convey the message to us of “Don’t be lazy - be diligent!” In other words “Make a commitment to work hard at being all God wants you to be!”

Sermon 5: Pride vs. humility

Pride is very subtle and crafty and loves to work or weave its way through our lives, our hearts and our minds. It wants to convince us that all the blessings come from our work, our talent our pride tells us that God did not help or intervene – you did it all yourself – it’s your gifting – it’s your insight – it’s your knowledge. God had nothing to do with it --- you did it all! Humility is the opposite of pride because it knows it needs God! Humility knows it cannot do anything in life without Him and His assistance. Humility recognizes what Jesus did for them! It sees the sacrifice and it sees the love!

Sermon 6: Poor versus Rich

Thesis: Proverbs reminds us that wisdom from God looks at what is poor and rich different than the world does. A person with money can be called poor and a poor man with no money can be called rich in the eyes of God.

Scriptures:

Proverbs 10:4, 15:

4Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth… 15The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

Proverbs 13:7-8:

7One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. 8The rich may be able to ransom their lives, but the poor cannot respond to threatening rebukes.

Proverbs 14:20:

20The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.

Proverbs 18:23:

23The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

Proverbs 19:1, 4, 7, 22:

1Better the poor whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse…4Wealth attracts many friends, but even the closest friends of the poor desert them…7The poor are shunned by all their relatives—how much more do their friends avoid them! Though they pursue them with pleading, they are nowhere to be found…22What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar.

Proverbs 21:17:

17Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.

Proverbs 22:2, 7:

2Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all…7The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 28:6, 11:

6Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse…11The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.

Proverbs 29:7, 13:

7The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern…13The poor and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives sight to the eyes of both.

Proverbs 30:7-9:

7“Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die:

8Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

9Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

Total Proverbs verses which deal with our comparison today - 19.

Introduction:

Once again as we are reading through the book of Proverbs we notice another comparison rising up from the words of this ancient book on wisdom. The comparison is poor versus rich and again we see God redefining what is considered poor in his eyes and what is considered rich in His eyes. Wisdom from God which is godly, diligent, and humble redefines what each of these terms or words represent!

This time of the year we have the famous “A Christmas Carol” story being told and retold in different settings – we see Christmas movies with this theme. The original story compared two lives at Christmas time and helps us get a grasp of our comparison today of poor versus rich: