Being with “The Least of These” Kingdom Key #6 Being with “The Least of These”

Jeremiah 22: 15-16 15 “Does it make you a king     to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink?     He did what was right and just,     so all went well with him. 16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?”

Proverbs 19:17 “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,     and He will reward him for what he has done.”

“A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares Proverbs 22:9 “A generous man will himself be blessed,    for he shares his food with the poor.”

10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. Luke 3: 10-11 10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. 11 John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Luke 14: 12-14 12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

But you will not always have me.” Mark 14:7 Matthew 26:11 / John 12:8 “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.”

Deuteronomy 15: 4, 7-11 God structures and instructs Israel to be generous to the poor within their land, promising to bless them as they share with and care for “the poor among them.”

Acts 4: 32-35 32 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had… 34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”

“The greatest tragedy of the church is not that rich people do not care about the poor, but that rich people do not know the poor.” Shane Claiborne (Author & Activist)

Losing Our “Key” Giving to Charities and Missions replaces being “with” the poor. Working with and Giving to the Poor, becomes more about alleviating our guilt. People are treated as Programs or “Clients.”

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.”

“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.” “Each one of them is Jesus, in disguise.” ~ Mother Teresa