Helping the Least of These

We're going to pray and then we're going to want

to share with you guys. I want to rejoice with

you today on what the Lord was able to do through

our ministry in New Orleans yesterday and just

share a little with you. So let's pray and we're

going to talk about that today. God, we come

to you. We thank you for being good to us. I

thank you for this church and the love that's

in this church. I thank you for blessing us.

And I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us

to be a light. in our community and in our world,

that we would experience your love and blessing

and that we would love and bless others, dear

Lord, so that they may see you and come to you

and know your love, God. I pray that you just

bless us in these few moments as we rejoice over

what you've done. And I ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen. If you don't know, most of you probably

do, but maybe there's some listening online watching

today that don't know, every year, about this

time of year in the fall as it starts to get

cool we make a trip to new orleans we started

this ministry in 2019 the first year we went

there were only a handful of people and we took

just a few little things we could gather up not

much and we traveled to new orleans not knowing

what to expect with the goal of wanting to help

the homeless and we got there and really our

eyes were open to just how how serious the situation

was there obviously there are a lot of homeless

people in new orleans there's a lot of need and

we were blessed to get to go for a couple of

years and after going and seeing a little bit

about what that need was we began to expand what

we were taking our offerings and then we we found

a great little park area that ended up being

a great place for us to go And we've been going

there for the last three years. We've gone to

this park. And every year we take sleeping bags.

Last year we started taking food. We started

taking these little goodie bags with socks and

gloves and all these other items that people

can use. And so throughout the last six years,

God has really been good. And this little ministry

has just kind of continued to grow. And then

last year was really our biggest year. Up until

then, we would have like five people go, or even

less. One year, it wasn't but four of us that

went. And then last year, God opened the floodgates.

We had 23 people that went last year, which was

fantastic. And the park we go to, it is the perfect

location. It's easy to get to. The street is

wide open. You can park all day, no parking problems.

It's easy to get into the park and set up. Last

year we took tents. That was a huge thing because

everybody says when you go tell them, hey, we

got stuff, they say, where? That's the first

thing they ask usually. And last year we could

say right over there at those tents. And we had

a lot of people, and we had jambalaya, and we

had food, and it was perfect. And this year we

were ready to go. We had our game plan. I was

thinking, all right, we're good. God's kind of,

he's provided this for us. Everything is lined

up. We're kind of in our comfort zone now. We

know what we're doing. We're all prepared. So

yesterday, praise the Lord, we had 21 people

that showed up to go again. We had a huge crew.

And we got our game plan together. figured out

what everybody was going to do just like we did

last year. You're going to tote the tents. You're

going to set up tables. You're going to bring

the food. You're going to bring the sleeping

bags. Ten minutes tops. We're going to park.

We're going to be unloaded. We're going to be

serving people. It's going to be great. And then

we had our first roadblock. I ain't looked at

the weather all week. I looked at the weather,

and you know what it said? Rain all day in New

Orleans. I said, golly. We're going to get wet.

But that wasn't no problem. There's a lot of

brothers and sisters in Christ suffering for

the kingdom, a lot worse than getting rained

on. So nobody was worried about that. Nobody

retreated. I said, look, we're probably going

to get wet today. So we're driving down there,

and I'm talking about a beautiful day, beautiful.

And I'm thinking, man, the weatherman missed

it. It ain't no rain. And then we get there.

Boy, the wind's blowing. We start driving up

down the street. And then all of a sudden, our

little park that always has plenty of parking.

Didn't have no parking. Uh -oh. The whole street.

It's wide open. You could land a plane down it

usually. It was every parking spot just about

was took. There was one of the government buildings.

Early voting today. All the parking meters were

blocked up. Can't park here. No public parking.

Only for early voters. I said, oh, Lord, we in

trouble. We drive a little further. I look over

to our park that's wide open for the masses to

come to, and our little park ain't wide open

to the masses no more. They done built a big

fence around the park, and they got that thing

chained shut. You can't even go in the park.

There ain't a homeless person nowhere around.

And I said, oh, this is a catastrophe. I said,

it's fixing to come afloat. We got about seven

vehicles, and we ain't got nowhere to park. We

come to serve the homeless, and there ain't no

homeless. And the area where we was going to

set up, we ain't going to set up. And I was,

internally, I was in panic mode. I showed it

some, I guess. I didn't do too good a job. But

I told our group, everybody, we squeezed in where

we could. I said, everybody, hang tight. I saw

another group. It was a group of Christians doing

a little Bible study. I went up there, and I

said, hey, what's going on, y 'all? I said, we.

We come to serve folks. We've been coming for

years. I said, are we not allowed in the park?

They said, nope. They didn't shut it down. I

said, oh, this is a bad situation. So I said,

well, there ain't one thing we can do. We're

just going to set up, and we're going to do the

best we can. And my biggest concern was not to

rain or not having to tote the stuff or even

getting a parking ticket. My biggest concern

was we came to serve people. And we didn't know

if we were going to, or I didn't know. Maybe

everybody else had better faith than me. I don't

know. But I'm thinking, we came to serve people,

and I don't know if there's even going to be

people around to serve. I don't know if they've

run these people off. We've seen this trend since

we first started going. We first started going

to these underpasses, under bridges. And every

year we'd go, we would notice more and more of

these underpasses would have these same big old

fences. And so they're pushing the homeless from

one area, and they would retreat to another area,

and eventually it got to the park where we've

been serving. So I don't even know if there's

homeless people here. But I told our folks, I'm

like, there's nothing we can do. You find a place

to park where you can. If we get a ticket, we'll

just have a ticket, and we'll just park. There's

nothing we can do. and we're just going to set

up right here on the sidewalk. So we didn't have

much space. It was real tight. And our crew,

good crew, I'm telling you, I'd go to war with

this crew any day. Nobody complained. Well, I

did have one complaint yesterday. I did have

one of our elder crew members that said we needed

to stop for a bathroom break on the way, that

that was too far to drive. I was the only complainant

of the day, though. Other than that, it was smooth

sailing. So we get there, and we had this plan.

And, you know, I think it was Mike Tyson that

once says, everybody has a plan until you get

punched in the mouth. Well, we got punched in

the mouth. Our plan was out the window. So I

told our folks, I said, look, let's just start

getting stuff out. And everybody was just doing

what they could do. And we were lining our tables

up, and our tent folks were trying to set up

tents, and the wind was just blowing. I was like,

we've got to scrap the tents. We scrap the tents,

we line up our tables, and we start unloading

our stuff. And, of course, the heaviest stuff

to load is at the other end of the street. So

we've got this massive 10 -gallon pot of jambalaya,

cast iron pot, that empty weighs a ton and full

of jambalaya weighs two tons. But we had some

good strong men that were there to help tote

yesterday, praise the Lord. Nobody complained.

Everybody got what they needed to get. We got

the heavy tables. We set them up. We start getting

the ice chest. We start getting the jambalaya.

We start unloading the sleeping bags. Everything's

coming together. And we get it all. I tell our

folks, I'm still of little faith now. Y 'all

can pray for me. I'm still of little faith. I

said, look, we're not going to get much out.

I said, because we're probably not going to be

able to get rid of all this stuff today. I said,

so just get a little out. If we need it, we can

go back and get it. So we get our stuff out.

We get our tables set. Ernest heads off around

the corner. He said, I'm going to go around the

block, and I'm going to see if I can wrangle

up some homeless people, and I'm going to tell

them to come this way. Well, it didn't take long

to get the tables set up. All of a sudden, here

comes a few people, and then a few more people.

And then I head around the block behind Ernest.

I know he had already went. Well, in the ten

minutes from when he went to when I went, I guess

there were some more people that had come. Because

all the ones I told we had stuff, they said,

where? I said, right around this corner. Go right

around this corner, around this park. Follow

that sidewalk. You'll see a bunch of people at

the end of the sidewalk. Boom, off they went.

On their bikes, walking, whatever they had. Off

they went to get the stuff. And so we began to

serve the people. Praise the Lord. The rain held

off. We'd fill a sprinkle every once in a while.

Lord. The wind died down. The rain held off.

Everybody was there. Everybody had a place to

park. All our stuff was set up. Smooth sailing.

Homeless people began to come. Ernest and Erlo

went down to a little homeless shelter that was

just not too far away and said, hey, look, we

got stuff. Word got out. People started coming.

Everything was going good. I still didn't have

enough faith. We were serving that jambalaya.

Dana and Michelle, I think Miss Kathy, was serving

the jambalaya. And I walked over there after

we'd been there maybe 30 minutes. And they said,

what are we going to do with all the rest of

this jambalaya? Maybe we can take it back and

freeze it. So I wasn't the only one that didn't

have enough faith. And so they kept slopping

that jambalaya on them plates, boy. And guess

what? People kept coming. And they never stopped

coming. And it wasn't but about 30 minutes after

that I heard the ting of a spoon hitting an empty

10 -gallon cast iron pot of jambalaya. Turns

out we didn't have to freeze any of it after

all. We gave it out. About an hour and a half

later, everything we had took, every sleeping

bag was gone, 122 of them. I told you all last

week 125, and that's because I can't count. I

counted them again. It was 122. 122 sleeping

bags were gone. 129 of those red bags full of

socks and other goodies, gone. We had about 140

pillows we had took, gone. Everything was gone.

It was a fantastic day for me. I love it every

year. I feel confident, speaking about the rest

of the crew that went, that they were blessed

by being there too. We don't realize how blessed

we are sometimes, and maybe trips like that are

good for us because we get in our own bubble

and in our own routines, and maybe our life hadn't

been too tough. Maybe we've always had a roof

over our head, and maybe we've always had food

that we can eat. We get hungry. We don't have

to go far, about 20 foot probably, and you're

going to be at your refrigerator. And there's

probably going to be something in it. We might

eat a snack two or three times a day. You have

to go to the restroom. You just walk down the

hall. It's not too far. And we've done this our

whole life. We don't really think much of it.

But there are a lot of people in the world that

when they get hungry, they're just hungry. There's

nowhere to go get a snack. When they have to

go to the bathroom, there's nowhere to go to

the bathroom. When it starts raining, they don't

have a roof to get under. And we need to realize

just how blessed we are. I brought a couple of

pictures to show you all today. We didn't take

any pictures yesterday. We were busy. So there

wasn't much picture taking going on, praise the

Lord. We do got a couple of pictures I wanted

to show you guys of some of our workers lined

up out there. That was the ones handing out the

sleeping bags and our goodie bags. And we got

one more of all the food crew serving food. We

had a couple of girls that were serving water.

We also gave out water. I forgot to mention that.

Gave out water to everybody. But we had a good

crew of folks down there. And we were able to

serve a lot of these homeless people. But the

truth of the matter is this. We may be quick

to judge and say, well, those people need to

do better for themselves. Those people need to

do better for themselves. But you don't know

anybody's situation. You don't know what got

them where they are. Because a lot of those people

that were there once, they were just like you.

They had a family. They had a home. They had

a refrigerator with food and a bathroom to use.

And not anymore. And you may say they should

have made better choices. Well, maybe some of

them should have. Maybe some of them did the

best they could do. Maybe they became injured.

Maybe they lost their job. Maybe they were already

struggling to get by. It doesn't take much for

people's world to be turned upside down. There's

a lot of people in this world living paycheck

to paycheck. Some in this room wondering, boy,

is the next check going to get here in time?

Are we going to have food for groceries this

month? And these people were once like you. And

then one month came that they didn't have enough.

And then they lost their home, their apartment.

And they lived in their car. Until eventually

their car broke down. A lot of them don't have

any family and don't have anywhere to go. Where

else can they go? There's nowhere to go. They

go to an underpass in New Orleans until a fence

is built, and then they go to a park until a

fence is built, and then they go to the next

spot until a fence is built. I don't know the

solution to the problem. There is no solution

to the problem. I'm going to be so bold as to

say there's no solution to the problem. I'll

say that because there's always been poor people.

As Miss Madeline pointed out to me on the ride

back yesterday, Jesus said you will always have

the poor. So long as we are on this earth, there's

always going to be people who have a need. There

are people who are a lot smarter than I am who

have thought about and worked on this problem.

For centuries. And it still exists. There's always

going to be people who have a need. And how is

their need going to get met? Is it going to get

met through the government? Well, maybe in some

way. But I'll tell you how God wants the need

to be met. God didn't say in his word, and I'm

going to provide for the poor and the needy with

food stamps. That's not what he said. He called

his people to minister to and to meet the needs

of those who are struggling. He calls us to do

that. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 through

Matthew 22:37–40

40, it says this, Then the righteous will answer

him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed

you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and take you in

or without clothes and clothe you? When did we

see you sick or in prison and visit you? And

the king will answer them, I assure you, whatever

you did for one of the least of these brothers

of mine, you did for me. What is the Lord going

to say of us on the day of judgment? Are there

opportunities that we have to serve those who

are struggling in life, who are poor, who are

needy? Do we pass them by? Or do we help them?

Well, praise the Lord. This church yesterday

was able to help a bunch of people. I bet you

we served in total over 150 people. I have no

doubt about that. Not every one of them got everything

we had. There were a few people that stood out

to me yesterday. And maybe there were other stories

that I didn't see or weren't aware of. There

was one person that came and they said, Look,

I don't want a sleeping bag. I don't want anything

else. I just want food. Can I just get more food

if I don't get those things? Praise the Lord,

we gave them more food. Of course, we'd have

given them a sleeping bag too. We'd have given

them a sleeping bag and all the food they could

eat. And hopefully we did. Hopefully we gave

them all the food that they could eat. We first

got there, we got set up. There was one man,

a young man, he must have got there as soon as

they got stuff out. Because it wasn't but a couple

of minutes after we got set up that I went around

the block. And when I went up the sidewalk and

around the block, on the corner of the block,

I could hear this man from several feet away,

from a good distance, very loudly. I could hear

him, and I could hear him saying stuff like,

a black bandana, a blanket, I got a deodorant,

and as I got closer, there was a concrete wall

about this tall, and across that wall, this young

man had emptied his red bag of all the stuff

that was in there like a kid at Christmas. And

he was going through each item. They all had

about this much space between them. I mean, he

had it lined up, and he was going over every

one of these items, and he cherished those things.

And what about us? We got stuff laying around

all over the place. How many of you thank the

Lord this morning that you could put on deodorant?

I thank the Lord that y 'all could put on deodorant.

How many of us thank the Lord for these things

that we have a blanket to cover up with? I woke

up this morning. It was 67 degrees in my house,

and I was cold. And do you know what I did? I

reached to the foot of my bed, and I just grabbed

another blanket and pulled it over me. I do that

every day because it's 67 degrees every morning,

and I wake up cold. And how many times do I thank

God that I have a blanket? And not only that,

you know what? I got two blankets. Because I'm

already covered up with one and it ain't enough.

So I just grab another one. These people don't

have anything. They don't have one blanket. They

don't have two blankets. They don't have anything.

And we're going to complain. I don't like this

old blanket. It's too scratchy. I just don't

like this one. It's too hot. Oh, this thing's

hot. We complain about our deodorant. I don't

like that deodorant. I only use aluminum -free.

I'm not going to use that. And we find all these

ways to complain about everything we've got when

these people that we saw yesterday do not have

anything. And here's something that's really

cool. You'd love this. If you've never been,

I'd encourage you to go. But almost all of the

people are so appreciative. So many of the people

that come up to us are so appreciative. And they

say, thank y 'all for what you're doing. Thank

you for bringing this stuff to us. This is what

God calls us to do, brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is it. If you don't want to help with ministries

like this and be involved with ministries like

this, I don't know what to tell you. We just

need to sit down and have a talk because... This

is what God calls us to do. We see so many people

that are so grateful. Had one man come through

the line toward the end of the day yesterday.

And he, I'm not sure if he was homeless or not.

He may have been. Here's the cool thing about

some of these folks. Some of them stay in the

shelter. Some of them have jobs. You may say,

I need to get out and get a job. Some of them

are. Some of them are trying. Some of them have

had some tough life circumstances. They were

once like you. Life hit them hard. They got in

a bad shape. And some of them are really trying.

They're trying to get a job, and they're trying

to get reestablished, and that's a good thing.

And some of them come, too, from the shelters.

And they say, hey, we don't need a sleeping bag.

We've got a place to sleep, praise the Lord.

But we would like some food. We'd give them some

food. We had one gentleman come toward the end

of the day, older gentleman. I'm not sure if

he was in as bad a shape as some. Some of them

are in really bad shape. Others are doing better.

But this gentleman come up to me, had a little

bit of a kind of a slurred, slow speech, kind

of like somebody would have after they'd had

a stroke. Not too bad, but a little bit. And

this old man, he came up to me. And he looked

me in the eye, and he said to me, he said, I

want to thank you for what you've done. He said,

may God bless you. I said, brother, he already

has. He said, and I want to give you this. And

he gave me this wadded up. He said, I want to

give this to you so that you can keep doing the

work. And he handed it to me, and I put it in

my pocket. And it was two $20 bills. Now, I don't

know if this dude was homeless. I don't know

how bad off he was. But I can tell you, I don't

think he had much. But he gave us two $20 bills.

Us. We came to serve him. And he said, I want

to give back to what you're doing. And I said,

brother, this will be the first money that will

start our ministry for next year. Yours will

be the first. I bet everybody in here has a $20

bill in their pocket. You can afford to get rid

of a $20 bill. I don't know how much he could

afford to get rid of, but I can tell you this,

he gave from his heart. Perhaps not someone like

the widow in the scripture that only had two

mites. She gave her two mites, he gave his two

twenties. Man, that's... I don't make you think

right there. A guy likely living on the street,

struggling to get by, and he's giving us money

for this ministry? And how much do we have that

we could give, that we could use to support this

ministry and to help these people? Last story.

We were finished. The day was over. There was

a lot of rejoicing in my heart, probably in the

rest of everybody else. It was such a joyous

day. It was such a joyous day for all we were

able to do. But I still left with some sadness

even into the night. Not because of what we did,

but because of what we weren't able to do. Last

year we went, we took about the same that we

took this year. Was able to serve everybody.

Nobody came up to us that didn't get. We served

everybody that wanted. In my comfort zone. All

right, Lord, this is it. This is the number.

125 is what we're going to do this year. So we

served everybody. We were getting ready to leave.

And this little kind of crippled older woman

comes walking up. And she wanted something. We

didn't have anything. We did not have anything.

We had no pillows. We had no bags of love. We

had no sleeping bags. We had jambalaya, which

we were glad to give her. We had nothing. And

this lady is begging, would you please give me

something? Don't you have anything that you can

give me? Michelle come over to me. She says,

is there anything in the van? There was nothing

in the van but a quart of oil. That was it. Nothing

to give this woman. I said, I got nothing. I

thought about it after the fact. When I got home,

I was like, you idiot. I thought it was something

I could have gave her, and I missed it. I feel

horrible about that. And this woman begged, is

there anything? Could y 'all please give me something?

Praise the Lord, one of our folks went to their

car. They had a jacket in the car. They gave

this lady their jacket. So I said to myself,

We got to do a little better. We're going to

take a little more next year. And you may be

saying, well, you can't serve all those people.

No, we can't. We can serve one more than we did.

If we can serve one more than we did this year,

we're good. And I wouldn't even go so far as

to say we can't serve all those people. God is

good. If you'd have told me six years ago that

a few people scrambling around in a hotel lobby

putting sandwiches in a sack to give out to people

would have ever turned into what God's blessed

us with, I'd have said, I don't know about that.

But God continues to bless. So this year our

goal was 125 people served. Well, I'm excited

to announce today that we're doubling that goal

for next year. We're going to serve 250 people

next year. And I don't have any doubt that we

can do it. I don't know where we're going to

serve them. We're going to have to find a new

location. But God knows where we're going to

go. And he got me out of my comfort zone and

showed me, hey, y 'all can do better than what

you were doing. So we're going to do better.

And I pray that y 'all would help. I ask that

y 'all would pray about this ministry. If we're

going to serve twice as many people, then we're

going to need more workers. We had 21 that went

this year. Praise the Lord. We need 42 next year.

But we can do it. We can get 250 sleeping bags.

I'll find somebody to make an extra pot of jambalaya.

We can do it. Because the Lord can do it. So

I want to thank y 'all for all that you've done,

for all of your prayers, for all of your support.

And I want to praise the Lord today. Because

it is the Lord who has provided. It is the Lord

who has given to us. And it is from what God

has given to us that I believe God calls us to

give and to use to serve other people. Yesterday

was a good day. It was a blessing. And I just

wanted the church to know where your money's

went. I wanted you to know the people that it

impacted. I shared those four stories of those

four people. There were a lot more. A lot of

people came and went. We don't know their story.

But all the prayers and all the support, they

had an impact yesterday. And we may not can change

the world, but we changed some of those people's

world if it was just for a day. That meal is

not going to last long. That sleeping bag is

not going to last long. But at least they know

that God loves them. At least we gave them, even

if it's only a day's worth of comfort, at least

the Lord was able to provide them with that yesterday.

And we praise God for that today. Let's pray.

God, we come to you. We thank you for... letting

us be part of this ministry to serve in this

way. I pray for the folks that we saw yesterday,

that you would bless them, that they would know

that you love them. God, I pray that you would

help us not to be greedy. You bless us with a

lot. And I pray that you help us to give back

to those who need it, dear Lord. I thank you

for everybody who's got such a big heart and

has had. such a big heart to give and to provide

and to help with this ministry. And I pray, dear

Lord, that you would bless us going forward,

that we would do more, dear Lord, to meet the

needs that we can. God, we know there's a lot

of needs out there, and we know that we're a

small church, but help us, dear Lord. You provide

for us. And help us to be faithful with what

you provide. Thank you for the workers who went

yesterday and for the ones who were here that

prayed and gave, that you would bless them. I

pray that you would help us not to be judgmental,

but to be compassionate to these people, dear

Lord. That we would give to them, dear Lord.

Because one day it could be us there on that

street. So God, we praise you, we thank you,

and I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.