Financial Wisdom & Folly (2) Cheapness & Poverty

Poverty, Charity, and the Gospel

So, last week, we covered some basics about financing or financial wisdom and folly, and how to wisely manage our finances and things like that. And I wanted to make a few clarifications from what I said last time, and one thing was that it was really helpful for me, and I'm going to highly recommend that you all check out some of the lectures by, in the Trinity Foundation, there's a lot of good stuff about economics and about politics, but there was, I think, a couple in particular by E. Calvin Beisner.

He talks about poverty and about justice and things like that. It's extremely useful and very practical as well for how do we deal, how do we approach the issue of charity and poverty. And so, that kind of brought it to my attention that there's a certain order of how to deal with poverty, because poverty, it can be for different reasons or causes.

It could be because you brought it onto yourself because of some kind of sin, whatever that may be, whether it's drunkenness or whatever it is. It could have been brought on yourself. It could have also been just acts of God or circumstances that were beyond your control.

So that could also be the case, and it could be for, it could just be like the Lord did to Joe. It may not have been provoked necessarily by anything, but it's the Lord's reproof and chastisement on our lives to draw us closer to him.

So there's a number of different reasons why we could end up in those circumstances. So it is good, it is good to ask questions when there are people that, when people come to us or ask us for money. We want to ask certain questions, and one of the first things is, well, like, you know, what happened?

Like, what happened? And that doesn't mean necessarily that just because they did something, you know, they did something wrong, like they were drunkards and they ended up on the street and stuff like that.

That doesn't mean that we don't help them. It just means that whenever we give people money, we should never just give them money,.

Right?

We should always give them the gospel with it. Something like that, attract, we need, they need the good news. That's what's really going to help them. It's like, yeah, sure. You give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but you teach a man a fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

That's how the saying goes, right? And what they really need is, yeah, sure, they need financial help. They may need some kind of financial. What they really need is Christ. And the money that they have, in some cases, they might just be using it for drugs or alcohol.

So we have to just try to be a little bit more, when there's a chance, to at the very least give them the gospel, attract, or something like that, so that it's not just money. Because that's, that's not really ultimately what they need in a lot of these cases.

Yeah?

Yeah, we can, we can, we can turn to that one if you find, if you find the scripture, but, but yeah, and that's why I'm saying like, it's important to, it's important to still try to help when there's an opportunity to help.

But really, it should never, we should always try to couple that with the gospel. Otherwise, it's just sort of like social justice work, or not social justice work. It's sort of like, true charity is sharing the love of Christ.

So that's ultimately what makes it. And that's how we differ from other people who give money, is that there's a difference between even how we give money. And because the Bible also talks about how we shouldn't cast pearl before swine, and certain situations like that, where, like if somebody is, you know, say somebody's under church discipline or whatever, then in those circumstances, we are explicitly commanded to not have anything to do with them, right, unless they repent.

So there are, in certain cases, conditions that we have to, or that apply, that we have to take into consideration. But generally speaking, the principle is that it's good to give the gospel when you give money, especially to a stranger, right, somebody you don't know.

Yeah, I was really conflicted about that, because I know how many times people who do give for, you know, alcohol, drugs, that say, I remember that first, but you know, we're saying, if you have it, give it.

And in other cases, it might be better to just get them some food. Like, just buy them some food. Because I know I've heard stories where somebody tried to offer, they bought them some food and they didn't want it, because they wanted something else.

They wanted alcohol or drugs or whatever. And so that could be another helpful way, a wise way to try to help. And I've done different things like that before. I've bought, you know, a homeless guy a hot dog, and I gave him a Bible.

And we talked a little bit about the gospel and stuff. And so that's, but there's also something, and there's also been times where I've tried to help folks for an extended period of time. And I started to realize, learn, at least learn a little bit better about how these situations need to work.

When somebody is stricken by poverty for whatever reason, usually the first thing that they need to do is, the family needs to take them in. So the first person to, that should take up the, how do you say it, their support is the.

Family.

So their parents or, you know, whatever. If there's somebody that can help, a relative of some kind that can help them, that would, it would fall on them first to take care of the person. And I remember when I was, we were helping a homeless couple.

They were having, they had drug problems, or at least the husband did. And the wife, she didn't really want to go home because she didn't like her dad's rules. And it's like, well, but you, so you do have somebody that can take care of you.

You just don't want to, you just don't want it.

Right?

So that's where we have to use, kind of exercise some wisdom and encouraging people where, like, hey, well, you know, beggars can't be choosers, right? So, and, you know, it's just, we have to just be wise as serpents.

And that's the first, that's really the first step is family. The family should take them in. And the second step is that if the family is not there, then that's when goodwill steps in or the church steps in.

And the ministry of mercy and of benevolence, that's where, and the Bible exercises this principle as well.

Right?

Because when it says the younger widows, y 'all need to get married. So you can have a husband to take care of you and not be a burden on the church. Right? So it's important to seek out family so that the burden is not on everybody else or on the church.

There needs to be a family member or somebody that can take them in. Or a husband, you know, whatever. Whatever the circumstance is appropriate. And so that's when, but when that is not possible, when the family is either not there or they're simply, you know, they've been disowned or, which happens a lot in, like, Muslim countries, for example, or various religious families that drive their children out because, you know, they deny their traditional faith or whatever.

Then that's when the church becomes the refuge. And we need to help those folks and take them in. And similar to, like, abortion ministry where a lot of people turn there because they feel like they have no way, no other way.

And it's not to excuse their sin. I mean, it's ultimately they're going to an abortion clinic because they don't trust God.

Right?

And so if you, you know, the Lord will provide and that's what the church is there. If they're in a church, if you're in a church, a loving church that bears each other's burdens, the church will help you or should help you.

And the church, the church needs to step up as well and help each other out when the situation calls for it. And so there is, there is a certain order or a certain process that the Lord kind of has, he has laid out in his word.

And those are principles that we should bear in mind when, because it's a, it's a very practical issue. You know, I remember one time this, this guy was literally on the street and he was like, and he was like running, asking people for help.

Hey, you know, I'm not trying to rip you off. Our car just broke down. Like, it's right there. And, you know, can you just help out with anything? And I was like, yeah, sure. You know, and that gave me some money.

And I mean, he just, his car just broke down. So it's like, okay. But, but so that's kind of the perspective that I wanted to talk about so that we, we, we understand that there is an order to these things.

And in some of these cases, the person that we come across is when, if they're homeless, sometimes they're homeless because they, they, it's their choice. They want to stay homeless rather than get help from family or, you know, whatever.

Or even from a church because they know, hey, if you're going to get help from us, we're going to, we're going to preach you into the kingdom of God.

Right.

You're going to, we're going to, you're going to get loved on and get the gospel preached that preach to. So that's, that's what I wanted to kind of clarify. One of the things from last week, but that's the thing.

It is important that when there is a need, family needs to step in first.

Precious Metals, Junk Silver, and Smarter Spending

Okay.

Family first and then the church. So, and then there were some good questions that y 'all asked last week about how do we use, how do we buy stuff with precious metals and things like that? Another actually pretty useful thing to have is called junk silver.

And junk silver is basically 90 silver and it's like 10 other like copper or stuff like that. But junk, junk silver can be useful to have because it is still, it's real money and it's more valuable than the currency that we use.

It's actually has a store of value because it is still made of silver. And, and yeah, so those are typically like older, older coins, like the older Kennedy half dollars. I have some of those as well.

I didn't bring any, but that, that can be useful to have instead of just dollars, instead of just having like $1 ,000 or whatever saved up or outside of the bank. Some junk silver would be good. Like you can, and you can buy them in bulk from a bullion websites.

They sell like bags of junk silver in different denominations, like nickels, dimes and a half dollars and stuff like that. So that can be very useful to have because it also helps them to have in smaller amounts.

That way you can use it for paying for different kinds of things. And then, so another big thing I really wanted to emphasize, I know I talked about how sometimes we might be spending more money than we need to on insurance or medical bills or cell phone, whatever.

And that is good to take a closer look at those things and get, get better quotes or get better. Look, I know like Patriot mobile, for example, they're a pretty good cell phone company. And I think they're Christians, right?

Do you have them sister? Yeah, they're conservative, right? Or they're Christian.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I think, I don't know if they're Christian or not, but they are. They're patriotic. They're pro-America. They, some of, yeah, I got the impression that they might may have been. So it's great to support businesses like that, that are pro-America and patriotic.

And that's, that's very good. And we're actually may end up switching to them as well to Patriot mobile too. And then, but very important that because part of, part of, part of what we, us as believers is looking past the surface, right?

We need to, we need to look past the surface and look at the bigger picture. So just because you'll find something cheaper at Walmart or at the dollar store, is it, is that the best choice? Just because it's cheaper.

And that's where we get into the larger issue of like macroeconomics and even of justice. Because we, we, for example, we, we, we, we try not to get stuff that's made in China. And so we, we try to avoid in general buying stuff from China because the Chinese Communist Party is a very corrupt nation.

And they constantly try to rip us off. And you'll see a lot of stuff that's made in China. And then we all know this is a commonly understood, understood about Chinese stuff that's made in China. It's usually cheaper.

It doesn't last as long. It's poor quality. It's toxic. It's got all sorts of problems. And it's funding a very overtly communist, corrupt, evil nation. And I'm not talking about Chinese people. Chinese people are great.

They're, they're fine. We love them just like anybody else. But the Chinese Communist Party, the leaders of that country are destroying their own nation with their corrupt practices or corrupt laws. They are tyrannical.

They're very dictatorial. And they also constantly rip off the U .S. And so we have to be, we need to be informed on these issues and look at the big picture because this does have an impact on our lives and on how we see the rest of the world.

And also when we vote, when, when we vote for politicians, we want to see, well, what, what kind of relationships do these politicians have with countries like China? You know, because Biden, you know, we all need, Biden loves China.

And that's a problem because China is not a good, they don't have a good leadership. And so we've made the conscious decision to avoid getting stuff from China and from, you know, just in general. And, you know, and it's sad because Walmart, I remember when Walmart was founded, they were a lot more, from what I understand, they were, they started off as a real genuine company, patriotic company.

And then sadly, the, they just kind of speak, they became very, very predatorial and they would open up Walmarts everywhere. And pretty much all the small businesses around them would shut down because they would engage in stuff like predatory pricing where they intentionally decrease prices so that they could get people to come in.

And then they gradually raise them back up again. And then they get everybody else to go out of business because they lowered them, whereas smaller business can't handle something like that because they have to provide or they can't take those initial hits as easily as they can.

So these are all things that happen in our, in the economy. And we need to be aware of these things. And also just even stuff like, generally speaking, where a company, what values does a company promote?

And this is where we actually did a podcast episode on Target because Target is one of the companies that is blatantly, overtly pro-transgender, pro-LGBT. And so we have not stepped foot really in Target, hardly ever, ever since we found out about their decision to allow men to use the women's restroom and vice versa.

That's evil. That is wicked. That's corrupt. And we Christians should not, we should not be participating in or giving money to companies that are blatantly immoral like that. It's different from like, say, a Costco where, okay, well, they may not be saved or their leadership might not be saved, but at least they don't blatantly, like overtly defy God and say, you can use whatever bathroom you feel like.

It doesn't matter to us. And trying to promote perversion, ungodly values. That's not something that we should participate in. Because like the Bible says, have no fellowship in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Don't give them your money. Take your money somewhere else. Somebody who will have at least some respect for our God, right? And our values. And this is part of, you know, people talk about the end times and the mark of the beast and things like that.

That's really where a lot of this comes from. The mark of the beast is really, it's a mark of allegiance and where you stand as an individual. Where are you spiritually? Are you on God's side or are you on the devil's side?

And obviously those who embrace the homosexual agenda, really any of the democratic agenda. That is the mark of the beast. That is the mark of the beast, because the mark of the beast denies that Jesus has come in the flesh.

It denies who Jesus is and it denies what he stands for. Because Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments, right? Respect my words and my love. So we have to be careful and intentional about where we who we give our dollars to, where we put our money.

It's just something that we we want to, you know, and I've heard such really horrible excuses for why you should we should. It's OK to go to those places. And it's like, well, because some people say like, well, look, they they're actually doing extremely well.

So whether I whether I give whether I go there or not, it doesn't matter. They're still going to do really well. And it's like, who cares? It's almost like that the moral scenario. Sometimes it helps to heighten the scenario for people to get the point.

Say we're in the Holocaust. Right. And you're a German soldier and you're you're you're you're there. There's a bunch of Jews that are getting ready to get mowed down by a bulldozer or something. And they task you to do it.

Say, hey, go, go drive that thing and go mow it down. Mow these mow these Jews down. We need to bury them, whatever. And so what do you do? Right. What do you do in that situation? Because if you say no, they'll probably kill you or they'll probably throw you there first and mow you down with them.

Right. And if you say, OK, well, now you mow them down, you kill them. And this is where we have to exercise wisdom and be careful, because if you do it, their blood, to an extent, is still on your hands because you could have said no.

You could have said no, but you still did it anyway out of fear for your life or whatever. But if you say no, obviously you will almost certainly face death. But the point being is that where you where you cast your vote or you put your decision or you put your dollar in, you are supporting.

You are you are, in a sense, supporting that that enterprise. So putting your money in a target or in like Walmart or places that have most of the stuff comes from China, that's supporting. And then there's a there's a documentary.

I think it's called The High Cost of Low Prices. It's a very interesting documentary about Walmart, Walmart and how they've basically gone from starting out pretty well and now just getting worse. And they have very, man, they treat they treat people over there like trash.

They treat them like like rats, like it's pretty horrible. But that's something that we want to be just mindful of. And that there's more to it than just finding something that's nearby or that's cheap.

We have to be responsible in making these decisions because they are moral decisions. These are moral decisions, voting and buying stuff where we're buying it from. Those are decisions that are moral.

Now, I'm not saying even if you are a German soldier and you decide to go ahead and mow down the Jews, does that mean that you're going to hell? It's like, well, no, not necessarily. But you still have to recognize that what you did was wrong.

You know, that's still sin. Even if you even if a gun was being held to your head, well, obviously you were compelled to do it. You may have been compelled to do it. And that that, in a sense, does does have a that that has an effect on on it because you may not have wanted to do it.

But you were compelled because you were held at gunpoint. But it doesn't make it right to do it. It still doesn't make it right. So and then, you know, it's funny because this actually ties into the lordship salvation issue and and martyrdom.

Because there were people in the early church called the traitors. And these traitors were people that offered incense to Caesar because they were they feared for their life, obviously, because if you didn't, you would be crucified.

They would execute you. And there were people in the early church. I think it was Valen Valencia's or Valentinian. I think his name was Valencia's. No, no. I'm sorry. It was novation. Novation was a pastor, one of the leaders in the church, and he refused the traitors entrance back into the church because they denied Christ.

And say, so what what what's the right thing to do there? Somebody denies Christ by offering incense. And then they repent and they want to come back to the church. Should we deny them admission because they, hey, you betrayed your savior.

You can't come back in. Novation. I'm not sure. No, no. Novation was the leader who would deny them. He was the pastor that was denying them entrance. I'm coming back. Yeah, this was a big issue because.

Churches were kind of conflicted about what to do with these what these these people who. They they they offered up the incense instead of saying that Christ is Lord, instead of Kurios, Kurios, Christos, Christ is Lord, instead of Caesar, Kaiser Christos.

I mean, Kaiser Kurios, Kaiser Kurios. And so the issue here is that the right thing to do, obviously, is to take them in. Because we all have moments of weakness. We don't know how we're going to respond.

We would like to think that, hey, we're going to be bold and try to do the right thing, but we don't know. We might pull a Peter.

Yeah.

I mean, so we need to exercise wisdom, mercy and grace, because when people do want to come back, even if they do deny Christ like Peter did thrice, three times, not just once. We need to exercise mercy, wisdom and grace in those situations.

There's balance. There has to be balance. So that's something that is just important to have a big picture perspective of. And to just be aware that cheaper is not always better. And because this even has consequences on us as a nation, because now so many of the things that we depend on for like medicine and so many things come from China.

So now we're sort of like being mastered by China because so much of our of our stuff, we're not we're not self-sufficient anymore. We don't manufacture a lot of our own materials and products and medicines.

And so much of it comes from China. And that's dangerous. That's dangerous because then they can they can try to use it against us to sabotage us and and things like that. So we have to be very careful with as individuals and as a nation and as our politicians who are governing the nation.

They need we need to support politicians that are not going to betray us or sell us out to foreign nations that hate us, that don't they don't like us. So that those are all just things to have a have a good look past the surface on and a big picture perspective of.

Persecution, Family Protection, and Wisdom

So another. Does that make sense? Any other questions? Did anybody find the passage? Matthew five. Let's turn there. Matthew five and six. Oh, well, that's that's the different. That's blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yes, this is this is talking about the context of persecution. So do not. So verse 39 says, oh, there are verse 38. You have heard that it was said, I for I, I for I tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person.

But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn also turn up, turn the other toward him also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him to give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him.

Who wants to borrow from you? So, yeah, do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Yeah.

Turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. So this is expressing a principle of it's it's it's relating specifically to like persecution. When you're being persecuted, just go ahead and endure it and the Lord will see you through it.

He'll take care of you and your testimony will will be a of will will will shine, shine the light of truth on them. But at the same time, we still have to balance this out with the other passages like.

If any man neglects his own, especially those of his own house, he's worse than an unbeliever. So we have to be careful not to just allow somebody to step all over our family and try to attack our family and and us in that sense.

We have to be careful and have balance and saying, OK, but. We have we have the we have the authority and the right to bear arms in this country for those reasons against corrupt governments and against people.

Obviously, trying to take our own lives. And so we have to be mindful of exercising that balance wisely and not. You know, there was a story that there was a story, very interesting story that really provoked.

It got me thinking because there was a man in India somewhere in India and he had a he had a family. He had a wife and a younger son, I think. And these Muslims, he became a believer. And then at some point, these Muslims started to harass him like every day, every day they would go visit him and just beat him up.

They would beat him up and beat him up every day. And then one time, one time they turned on his wife, I think, or on his son. And they started to go after go after them. And when he saw he turned, he saw red and he was like he got a knife and he started to chase them away.

And he he like he almost he practically lost it because he was so provoked that they were going after his family. And that's a good instinct to have. Like, that's not a bad instinct. That's that's a good instinct because you're supposed to protect your your family.

But then he got real convicted about it. And apparently he got convicted about it because he wanted to kill them. And so then he was like he he got convicted. So then he basically started to let them beat him up again.

It was really weird. And then eventually, I guess they got saved at some point. But it's like, OK, I don't know if I would have done the same thing. You know, there's we have to exercise wisdom now. He didn't need to like obviously he didn't have to like go and kill them because that is sort of like that's a little too far.

But you you don't mess with you. Don't mess with my family. You know, like don't mess with family. You go after my wife and my kids. I'm going after you. You know, we don't we don't just step aside and let them let them mess with our our wife and kids.

We do need to stand up for them because that's part of what we are called to do as parents and as husbands, as leaders is to provide for them in that sense and providing protection as well as part of that.

What the scripture talks about. So and not to cause these little ones to stumble. So we need to protect them. That that in large part means to protect our little ones from these kinds of things. So we have to be careful with not not wavering into or not going to extremes of this martyrdom, martyrdom complex or this pietist pietism or lordship salvation where we're like, well, surrender or die.

Right. Surrender or die. And it's like, no, that's that's not that's not necessarily how it works. You don't have to give your life up because Jesus already gave it up for you. It doesn't mean that you have to die, that you have to die in order to get right with God.

That's not how it works. That's how that's how Islam works. That's how in Islam, your only real assurance is if you die for it in the for the cause of Allah and Jihad and holy war. That's the only real assurance that a Muslim can have.

And but we are not we are not we don't need to do that. We don't need to prove anything to God because Jesus has already proved it all for us. He gave his life so we don't have to. Now, that doesn't mean obviously we're saved so that we can live for God.

We give our lives to him in service to God and in an honor to him as in whatever capacity we've been called and gifts and our circumstance, our situation. But that doesn't mean that we need to go and become martyrs.

And because the early church, unfortunately, had this imbalance where they were practically begging to be thrown into the lion's den. Go, go, go, go, go, put me in there. I'm ready to die for my savior.

Go throw me in there. They like they were asking for it. And there's just we have to be careful to draw to draw the proper line and to have balance. We shouldn't just recklessly lose our lives or do allow harm on ourselves.

We need to exercise wisdom. There is wisdom in those things in walking those things out. OK, so that's kind of what I wanted to touch on today. Were there any other questions?

Economics, Beisner, and Closing Exhortation

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Calvin Beisner. Calvin Beisner. B-E-I-S-N-E-R. And I'll post the links. I'll post the links on the on the group. They're really good. Very good lectures there. I mean, just anything, everything from the Trinity Foundation, their articles or lectures, they're really worth listening to.

But the ones by Beisner in particular are relevant to this subject, to economics, economics and justice and poverty and those kinds of things. They're very, very, very edifying, very thorough and careful.

Yeah.

Anything else before we close out? Any other questions? Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life.

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And may the mercy, peace and love of our Triune God be multiplied to you.