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
• Struggling ceased
• Strength gained
• Satisfaction given
Hebrews 4:3 (AV)
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, …
- God’s riches claimed by Faith & Obedience to His Word
Years ago a European left the Old Country for America
- Well stocked with a bag of Dried Herring, Cheese, & Crackers
- Breakfast – Herring, Cheese & Crackers
- Lunch – Cheese, Crackers, & Herring
- Supper - Crackers, Cheese & Herring
- Tantalizing smells from the ship Dining Room reached him
- He longed for the meals the other voyagers were enjoying
- Just before NY harbor half starved & desperate
- He went to the ships purser
- What would a good square meal cost me
- The Purser “Let me see your ticket”
- “Why man your ticket includes all meals during voyage”
- Are you are on life’s voyage half starved & living by your ways?
- Nearing the harbor to discover his salvation covers it all
- God daily spreads a feast of good things and says
Matthew 22:4 (AV)
4 ….Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
