Nobody Wants To Be Poor

1. Hands Across America - May 25, 1986

- 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States.

- Many participants donated ten dollars to reserve their place in line

- To fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty

- Stretched 4,152 miles – from New York City's Battery Park to the RMS Queen Mary pier in Long Beach, California

- 34 Million lives lived below poverty line in 1986

- Today 46 Million below poverty line

- Poverty effects

• Physical & mental deformities

• Drug & Alcohol abuse

• Emotional scars – Failure, Self Doubt, Hostile Behavior

• More likely to land in jail

• 70% with one parent

2. We say thank God I am not like these!!!

- But are you suffering from Sp. Poverty?

• Is there Peace?

Isaiah 26:3 (AV)

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

• Is there Joy?

Nehemiah 8:10 (AV)

…. for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

• Is there Sp. Abuendance?

John 10:10 (AV)

… I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

• Are you satisfied with your life

Psalm 107:9 (AV)

9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

3. Cause of Sp. Poverty

* Idleness, Laziness – No Goals

Proverbs 6:10–11 (AV)

10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

* Stinginess – Selfish Goals

Proverbs 11:24 (AV)

24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

* Love of Pleasure – Wrong Goals

Proverbs 21:17 (AV)

17 He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.

* Eating & Drinking – Misguided Goals

Proverbs 23:21 (AV)

21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

* Evil Associates – Poor Goals

Proverbs 28:19 (AV)

19 He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

- History of:– SOLOMON, REHOBOAM, ABIJAH, ASA

- Rooted like the dandelion

- 2 Ch. 15:3 “For a long season Israel hath been without …”

• The True God – Something to Love

• Without a teaching Priest – Something to Hope for

• Without the Law – Something to Live for

NOTE Their Poverty – 2 Ch 15:5-6

• Not knowing What to do

• Not knowing How to do

• Not being Able to do

4. Remedy For Sp. Poverty

• Knowing What To Do - 2 Ch. 15:8

* HEARING

Matthew 7:24 (AV)

24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

* COURAGE

- Courage is lacking the discipline of life

- Courage is found 28x in the Bible most often in Joshua

- 4x in the first chapter

Joshua 1:7 (AV)

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

• Knowing How To Do It – 2 Ch. 15:8

* PUT AWAY THE ABONINABLE IDOLS

2 Pe 1:4-10

* RENEW THE ALTAR

- Place of remembrance

- Place of sacrifice

* COMMITMENT -

• Being Able To Do It

- Asa gathered all – 2 Ch. 15:9

Psalm 51:12–13 (AV)

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

- Judgment – Outside wall of the graveyard of St Nicholas’s Church Galway Ireland

This memorial of the stern & unbending justice of the chief magistrate of this city, James Lynch. Elected mayor, AD 1493, who condemned & executed his own son Walter on this spot

- Killed a young Spaniard – Tried & found guilty

- Father respected the law

- Carried out the sentence when others would not

Galatians 5:24 (AV)

24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

4. Results

- 2 Ch 15:15

• Poverty causes us to struggle

• Poverty causes us to grow weak

• Poverty causes us to lose purpose

- “the Lord gave them REST round about