Seeking Glory, Finding Poverty

Seeking glory, finding poverty.

This morning, I just want to think about this issue of poverty.

And what does God say about it?

Two times in the Bible, God says, you will always have the poor with you.

And when I read that, and the reason why we had that scripture this morning, what a sad statement for God to say, you will always have the poor with you.

The first time is in Deuteronomy.

When the people of Israel come to Mount Sinai, and God is giving them the law and telling them how they are to live.

He says in Deuteronomy 15, you will always have the poor with you.

And then Jesus reiterates that in the New Testament, in this story of Mary, when she anoints him with oil.

That wasn't God's plan.

Poverty is not part of God's plan.

And yet it is a reality in our world because of the fall.

Because I'm the youth pastor, it would be remiss of me not to mention our summer missions team.

We're going downtown in a few weeks to learn about this issue of poverty in our society.

And we're going to be going to about eight different agencies that deal with homelessness and poverty amongst new Canadians with the goal of helping our youth learn about ministries that are focused on dealing with this issue.

And so here's a little summary of one of the days.

Each day we're going to be sending out teams to different areas.

Leaders go with them and they'll be learning from the people there and serving, raising money, and working hard.

Thank you for those who brought food for our monthly food drive.

Can I just say next week you'll have another opportunity, and then the week after that, we would like to be raising some food.

If you could donate, we'd appreciate it.

We'll have a table at the back over the next few weeks.

We are going to these different agencies and we want to be able to take stuff with us.

Poverty.

And when you compare us to many parts of the world, that might be true.

But there are still people living homeless and in poverty for many different reasons.

And we want to learn about that.

So this passage that we read this morning in John is actually repeated three times in the Gospels.

And we learn that this lady who came and anointed Jesus was Mary.

And she comes and she anoints Jesus with this ointment.

And then Jesus, in the passage in Mark, Mark chapter 14, verse 9, he says, Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in her memory.

Mark 14:9

Mary is joining us in this mission to prepare the way for the Lord.

I want to thank David for singing in that last song we sang.

Preparing the way for the Lord is the ministry of the gospel going out to the world.

And God has called us to be part of that mission.

Mary had listened to what Jesus had said.

And that is what led her to anoint Jesus.

We're going to get to that in a minute.

She had listened to what Jesus had said, had seen what Jesus had done.

Remember, just previous to the story, she had watched him raise her brother from the dead.

Are we listening to what Jesus is saying to us?

I just went to the Philip's table back there, and I would encourage you to go.

There's this little sticker that says, We love missionaries.

Pick one up and pray for them.

Pray for our youth.

Our goal is hopefully that one day they might know the call of God to join in this mission of preparing the way for the coming of the Lord when the gospel must be preached in every tribe and language and tongue around the world, both here at home and around the world.

So Mary listens to Jesus.

Contrast that to Moses.

In Exodus 3, verse 6, we see God shows up in the burning bush and he says, I am the God of your father Abraham, your God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

Exodus 3:6

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look.

God is here asking Moses to go and do a job for God.

And what does Moses say?

Send somebody else.

Verse 10, come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring about, bring my people and the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Verse 11, but Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go?

What is our attitude to what Jesus is asking us to do when we leave this building and go back to our neighborhoods and our families?

Do I have the attitude of Moses?

I'd rather not.

Or do I have the attitude of Mary, who recognized the glory of Jesus and gave whatever she had?

But Moses didn't stay there.

And the answer was he listened to what God said.

He saw what God had done, he remembered what God had done, and he went on to obey and do what God has asked.

In chapter 33 of Exodus, as they're preparing to leave Mount Sinai, after he had seen all the wondrous deeds that God had done, he says to God, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring me from here.

And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken, I will do.

For you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name, God says.

And then Moses says in verse 18, Show me your glory.

Show me your glory.

That is our prayer from God, that He would show us His glory through what He will do through us when we are obedient to Him.

Of course, God says to Moses, No, you can't see my glory.

You are not the one who is able to see my glory.

That is actually in the person of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1 says, Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

And after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

There is one who represents the glory of God, and only one, and that is Jesus Christ.

Mary recognized the glory of Jesus when all around her those disciples didn't.

And how did she recognize that glory?

She chose to listen to what Jesus had said.

Just quickly, what is glory?

Well, it's the manifestation of God, his omniscient, omnipotent, righteous, eternal life.

And that's not who we are.

We are sinners, limited in every part of that definition, including eternal life.

We are in desperate need of God's life.

It's described as a blinding light.

You remember at Mount Sinai when God came down on the mountain, the people were terrified about who God was and the power that came with him.

The word glory conveys a meaning of weight, of meaning, of significance.

In Latin, they use the word dignitas, dignity and weight.

And if you're not worthy, you're actually described as a lightweight.

And that's who we are.

We are lightweight.

When it comes to the issues of life and death and poverty, Jesus said, You will always have the poor with you.

Because we are weak and unable to deal with those issues that plague our world.

Glory is God's holiness revealed, made visible.

As one writer put it, glory is holiness with the lid taken off.

And we see it in his word as described by Moses in the experience of Mount Sinai.

And we see it in the actions of people who choose to listen to God's word.

So where in the Bible do we see God's glory?

Just quickly, we see it in his presence.

And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Now the appearance of the glory of God was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

When God shows up, glory shows up.

And the people were terrified at the sight.

We also see God's glory in the greatness of his works, in his work of creation.

Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God.

The sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Exodus 20, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Isn't it interesting that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and here we are, millennial years later, and we still have a seven-day week.

The glory of God is all around us.

We often just choose to ignore it.

You know, when the French Revolution happened, the first thing they did is they killed all the priests and preachers, they shut down all the churches, and they tried to change this fabric of society and made a 10-day week.

They changed the clocks.

They changed everything they could to try and get rid of this fact that God's glory rests on this creation.

It lasted about three or four years.

And here we are, with a seven-day week.

Because God created it, and his glory is revealed in it.

We also see God's glory in his salvation, the acts of his salvation, Isaiah 43, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

We see God's glory in his righteous and just dealings with humanity.

Jesus said, You will always have the poor among you.

But that is not God's fault.

It was never his design.

But sin has plunged our world into one of need and tragedy.

And we see it all around us: the violence, the poverty, and the need.

And there is only one answer.

We'll get to that in a minute.

Psalm 145, the Lord is righteous in all his ways.

And finally, we see God's glory in our resurrected state.

1 Corinthians 15.

It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory.

That is our future as those who listen to Jesus.

Raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power.

What a tremendous hope we have.

And it is a hope for the poor as well.

Quickly, what is poverty?

Well, it's the absolute opposite of glory.

It is powerless, lacking, lacking the ability to sustain life, and ultimately facing death.

We're taking our youth downtown.

And we see lots of incidences, and I know some of you are involved in homeless ministries.

The decisions, this is, pretend I'm speaking to youth now.

The decisions that you make as a young person determine the course of your life.

And it is no more illustrated than in some of these situations of homelessness that we see in our society.

I don't want to listen to mom and dad.

I don't want to listen to my teacher.

I don't want to listen to my boss.

I want to do whatever I want to do.

I don't want to listen to Jesus.

I don't want any authority in my life.

Do you know what the natural outcome of that attitude towards ultimate authority is?

It's homelessness.

It's homelessness.

Adam and Eve said, Well, we don't really need to listen to what God said.

Guess what happened?

They were evicted from their home and became homeless.

The story of Cain and the fear of being homeless.

Is because of their fault.

We've had young people in our youth group who've come over from Ukraine.

War makes people homeless and affects innocent people.

But as we go downtown, we will see the result of not listening to Jesus Christ ultimately will leave you homeless.

An eternity without God is an eternity of loneliness and homelessness and namelessness and suffering.

And it's illustrated in our society when you go to Oshawa or Toronto, people who are slaves to addictions, often because I don't want to listen to what you have to say.

I want to do what I want to do.

What does God say about the poor?

Well, in Deuteronomy 15, where that other instance of you will always have the poor with you, just quickly, in the first verse, 11 verses, God says, you need to be generous to the poor.

And so those who have found themselves in financial difficulty in the nation of Israel, God's command to his people is you are to be generous to those who are in need.

Do not withhold something if somebody needs it.

And at the end of seven years, you are to release that debt.

Because he actually says in Deuteronomy 15, verse 4, but there will be no poor among you.

Deuteronomy 15:4

Verse 11, he says, There will always be poor among you.

But before that he says, it is my intention that there is no poor among you.

As a part of the family of God, God has said, there will be no poor among you.

Now that doesn't mean you're going to be rich.

It's not what God's saying.

But God will take care of us, and it is his intention that his family, the family of God, takes care of each other and brings the love of Jesus to one another.

In verse 18, 12 to 18, he goes on to say, you need to be generous to the desperately poor.

Those who had become so impoverished they actually had to sell themselves or lend themselves out to become a servant of somebody else.

And there are many in our world who are desperately poor.

God says to his people, at the end of seven years, you are to release that person from your employment.

You are to release his debt completely and you are to be generous with it.

And so we are to be generous with what God has given us.

And if you look at this from a spiritual angle, if there is a debt that you think somebody owes you, if there is some way that we've offended each other, it may be legitimate.

But the generosity of God says, forgive one another.

And if that takes time, that's okay.

But at some point, God says, release it.

Release it.

We need to be generous with each other in our finances, but we also need to be generous with our forgiveness.

Because God has been generous with us.

7 verse 12 says, And because you listen to these rules and keep them, this was what he gave them at Mount Sinai.

The Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.

Verse 13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you.

He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of the ground, your grain and your wine and your oil and the increase of your herds, and so on.

God has promised to care for us.

But we need to be on mission for what Jesus has said.

Mary listened to Jesus.

Just to close, Matthew 26, the parallel passage to John.

Jesus said, in the hearing of the disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

That's what Jesus said.

How did the disciples react?

No, you don't really mean that, Jesus.

We're gonna stop that from happening.

The only one who seemed to listen to him was Mary.

And she showed up with a pound of fragrant nard used in embalming the dead because Jesus said, I'm going to be crucified.

The disciples mocked her.

They ridiculed her.

They said, You're foolish.

What are you doing?

Why are you listening to that?

None of them listened to what Jesus was saying, except Mary.

Why did she have a pound of embalming nard?

It had only been a few weeks before that her brother had died.

But she put her trust in Jesus, that he would raise him from the dead.

And I guess she didn't use it.

Our God is powerful to overcome our spiritual poverty.

He is also able to overcome poverty.

When we get on mission, when we determine to prepare the way of the coming of the Lord, please pray for our youth as we go downtown.

I just want to close with Colossians 3.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things of this earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Seeking glory, finding poverty.

Mary found poverty first and then saw glory in Jesus.

Let's humble our hearts and listen to what Jesus is saying to us.

Is he asking me to go?

Is he asking me to serve in some way?

Is he asking me to forgive someone?

The glory of Jesus can be part of our lives.

Let's get on mission and prepare the way of the Lord.