Honoring The Poor (A Key To Living A Prosperous Life)

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week. We hope you enjoy

this message from Justin Kirpenter. I'm also going to be putting a sign up

sheet for those of you that would like to join the Altar Team, the

Altar Teams, the prayer teams on Sunday mornings. I'm gonna be doing a

training for that here in the next two or three weeks on Sunday afternoons.

I'm I'm sorry after on a Sunday afternoon after service, and we will provide

lunch for that. So and depending on how many people have kids, we

could possibly have some childcare as well to make that easier for y'all to be

able to pray. So if you're interested in joining the prayer teams, that

that'll be coming up. We oh pray for mister mont Loong. Josh.

He has been burnt the Midnight Oil. I thought I saw his wife somewhere

where Sarah there she is No, not long not Kendrick. Oh, hey

you. Josh has a deadline and he has to be He built Streams Ministry's

new website and he has to be there Tuesday to upload stuff and get it

live and he's been working till like ten to eleven o'clock at night, and

he is probably needing some good rest. She's like, yes, and my

life is not mad at me. Just so you know, she's not here,

but she's on the live stream high baby. She hadn't had a day

off in about three weeks, and and my boys were gone. I had

to get at five thirty in the morning yesterday to take Mica to get ready

to go for a tennis tournament that shouldn't even be legal people, and then

turned around and had to do go to a funeral, and then we went

to Austin to meet with a couple and I got home at twelve thirty last

night. Once again, I built my sermon on my Trustee iPhone while Lisa

was driving and I was interceding for her driving, and typically she intercedes for

mine. I don't know why I feel like I'm a good driver. I

will leave that alone because I can feel you stirring people. Yeah, but

y'all for those of you that we're not here. At the beginning of the

service Wednesday, we closed down the twenty five acres. So my wife just

texted me that I'm funny. See as long as she thinks I'm funny,

I don't have to have your funny applause. Don't be trying to look at

my text. But yeah, And we have a local architect who has agreed

to come out of retirement and help us and work with my mother in law.

And he is an award winning architect and he is designed churches, and

so things are things are happening. The couple we actually met with yesterday,

the husband, he's a retired pastor, but he was in Louisiana and in

his early twenties. The lord told him to plan a church, and he's

all excited and he shows up to the bank and the bank basically laughed him

out of there, and he literally went back to his car and he was

crying and he was upset. He felt like he failed God. And the

lord said, I never told you to go to the bank. And they

built out five acres and then got more land and more land, and ultimately

he built out an eighty acre campus with a sanctuary that seated three thousand people,

debt free. And so me, being the wise young lad that I

am, I went to go pick his brain. Tell me how you did

this, because here's the thing. At the end of the day, the

less debt we have as a ministry is more money we can actually put into

people. And I've said this before, we don't. We don't save money,

to save money, to act like we have a massive savings account.

Everything has purpose. Everything we do in the Kingdom has purpose, right,

and it's it's all seed or bread. But if you eat your seed,

you you don't have seed to sow. Are you with me? That's why

financial stewardship is so important. Yeah, I know how you got real excited

on that, but um, thank you Wayne. Anyway, So it was

a long, amazing day and they Mercy Gate got to dedicate this awesome cross

at the Haven Friday. That was awesome. I got to be there and

be a part of that. And then Deanna's fundraiser Friday night. I think,

Deanna, where are you at? Around twenty seven thousand now twenty two

thousand, so she's got the For those of you who don't know, Ken,

her husband passed away in November and um, we didn't. Oh,

come on, he had been working on his house and he had it to

dry it in and uh, thank you Dean. Anyways, we uh were

so proud at Dianna and and we've been on a print there, see it

hanging. The church got that Friday night, so that was awesome and I

got to help Sean do my amazing modeling with pieces of art. Yeah.

Man, there is no mercy in this community. I'll tell you what.

Okay, Lord Jesus, I'm gonna I'm gonna move on now, thank you.

Apparently we have baby birds inside the church, yeah, the song birds.

Right. But anyways, I wanted to talk to you all about honoring

the poor this morning. And I don't think a lot of people realize how

important it is to take care of the poor. It was actually the church's

responsibility to take care of the poor, and when they neglected that responsibility,

government stepped in and now we have the mess that we have. Right.

I mean that in the most non political spirit way possible. And but what

a lot of people don't understand is that honoring the poor is actually a key

to your prosperity. And when we neglect the poor, it actually brings correction

from the Lord himself. And so I want to talk to you about honoring

the poor here for about two hours or so, and then we'll be done.

Just joking. I'm well aware of the time, y'all, But Father,

I just asked that you would just bless this time. Lord, thank

you for such an amazing high praise this morning where we could come in Lord

and worship you. So meet with us. Give me the right words,

Lord in Jesus name. So James one twenty six and twenty seven says,

if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his

heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that appear and undefiled before God

the Father. Is this to visit orphans and widows and their affliction, and

to keep oneself unstained from the world. Interestingly, in Matthew twenty six,

if you recall the lady who broke the alabaster jar over Jesus's feet, and

who got upset with that Judas right, hey, well yeah, but he

got upset because he was saying, well, this could have that, you

know, this could have been given to the poor. Right And Jesus says,

for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always

have me. So what do you need to understand there? We're always going

to have poor among us, which means our responsibility to watch out for the

poor and take care of the poor is always going to be here until he

returns. Right, So this wasn't just like a temporary deal. And if

you remember last week when I talked about Kingdom stewardship, that Paul was commending

church because they actually took up a offering to actually go and take care of

another part of the church. So modern times, like what we just did.

We just wouldn't bless another church financially a couple of weeks ago because they're

a small church and they're growing, and it was on our hearts to bless

them. Same principle. We are one body, regardless of how many denominations

are, and if we allowed denominationalism to get in the way, then you're

not going to love your brothers and sisters. Your agreement with them is going

to be based on doctrine rather than Jesus. So feeding the poor is actually

a part of a biblical feast or fast. I'm sorry you could yeah,

fast not feast. It says, why have we fasted? And you see

it not? Why have we humbled ourselves? And you take no knowledge of

it? Behold in the day of your fast, seek your own pleasure,

and oppress all your workers. Behold you fast only to quarrel and to fight,

and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will

not make your voice be heard on high? Is such the fast that I

choose a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down

his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is

not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness, to

undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to

break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked, to

cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh. So this

issue of they are fasting, and they're like, why are we not being

heard? And he lays it out and he says, your priorities are messed

up. And he says, this is what I call a fast, And

it's literally bringing the homeless poor into your house. You know, in the

old days, when I mean like old, old old days, like you

know, Abraham, Lot and all that. When they would go into a

home, they would take responsibility for the security of that sojourney they were there.

Remember with Sodom and Gomorrah, the dudes wanted to have sex with the

two angels. Now, I know that's pretty jacked up, but those angels

were in human flesh right, and so they literally thought they were human.

It's just like in Hebrews when it says we're to entertain strangers, because in

doing so, some of us have actually entertained angels. So what does that

tell you? An in jelly being can come in such a natural way that

you don't even know they're angelic. It could be hidden from you. If

Jesus can disguise himself and walk alongside the disciples and they don't know who he

is, he can disguise himself. He can disguise his servants to where you

don't know where they are that you think they're human. And what if you're

having a bad day and you, like, you know, told one of

these dudes to go pound sand or something, and all of a sudden you

realize it was an angel. When we minister to the poor, when we

bless the poor, we're actually lending to the Lord. Proverbs nineteen seventeen says,

whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will

repay him for his deed. So you're sewing seed into someone that can't give

you anything in return. The poor, you know it, like they don't

have anything to give back to you. And the Lord says, hey,

guess what when you do that, you're actually lending to me. You think

God's gonna default on his debt, You think He's gonna call you, be

like, hey, justin, I'm gonna be fifteen days late. I gotta

payment coming from the outside of heaven. It'll be here shortly. Don't worry.

It's on the other side of the tracks, you know where the people

that just escape the flames that got in. They're a little late on their

famous was that over the line? That was just a joke. Don't get

offended. Proverbs twenty eight twenty seven. Whoever gives to the poor will not

want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse. Whoever

man, we must have a whole nest in there. Whoever gives to the

poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a

curse. Proverbs fourteen twenty one says, whoever despises his neighbor as a sinner,

but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. Do you think

he's taking this issue of us taking care of each other serious? Remember he

gave the Parable and the Gospels and of the good Samaritan, and everybody went

by, and this dude's beat up in a ditch, and everybody's got an

excuse. And the one guy stops, bandages them up, take him to

the to the end, says, hey, here's some money. I'll be

back if you need. If there's anything else, I'll cover that too.

And he says, who is your neighbor? Who's your neighbor? We talk

about wanting to fulfill the great commission and evangelize the world, but how many

of us have actually met our neighbor literally next door to us. Proverbs seventeen

five. Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker, He who is glad at

calamity will not go unpunished. Here's another one Proverbs twenty eight eight. Whoever

multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to

the poor. That kind of goes to the wealth. The wealth of the

wicked is stored up for the righteous, you know. And Deuteronomy it says

it's the Lord that gives us the power to make wealth. And the beautiful

thing is, if you actually allow the Lord to give you the power and

give you the ideas and his favors on you, then guess what, it's

his job to continue to sustain that you steward it. But if you're trying

to make it happen, guess what happens. You gotta keep trying to make

it happen. Out of all the different things like hunterd X and all these

different kingdom minded business conferences and workshops that I've seen, the people that were

the wealthiest were actually ones that listened to the Holy Spirit, and they had

these crazy ideas that would that went totally against the grain of the world's way

of doing finances, and God blessed the socks off of them. Y'all.

Do you realize, you know, on a heavy Sunday, we're about two

hundred and fifty people. We're a little light this week, probably a couple

of my jokes last week, but we'll get past it. And but do

you realize we've already the original projections for the campaign from Enjoy, We've already

past them from their projections two months into it. That is the Lord.

You need to understand that the Lord is doing something very significant with this community,

with this tribe right now, and it's not because of one person.

It's because we are saying yes to what the Lord has called us to do.

It takes an army. It's literally it's Joel's army, right because one

day we're gonna see Joel's army. And you go back and look at Joel's

army, and you see they don't leave rank, they know their rank.

They don't get offended, they don't get jealous, they don't try to outrank

each other. But they actually lock arms and they stay in their lane,

and they march forward, and they listen to the commands of the commander.

Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with

the poor Proverbs twenty two nine. When you begin to align your life with

the priorities of heaven, then provision is released. You have to understand what

says there's an abundance of provision attached to the good works we're called to walk

in. That says that provision follows assignment. If you're not being blessed,

number one, maybe don't understand your covenant with God. Or number two,

maybe you're actually not walking in obedience and walking out the good works that He's

called you to walk in. So therefore, finances are being restrained because it

follows assignment. Say La Psalm seventy two one to four. Give the King

your justice, Oh God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May

he judge your people with righteousness, and you're poor with justice. Let the

mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills and righteousness. May He

defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children

of the needy, and crush the oppressor. Do you think we need some

righteous leaders in our government today? Think you think that this whole agenda of

Marxism is going to end well? The path that we're on. We need

righteous leaders. We need to be praying for our leaders. We need to

pray Lord save them or remove them, Have mercy on our nation and give

us righteous leaders period. Give us leaders that will actually fulfill justice according to

God's word. Not twisted justice. Give us leaders that won't call evil good

and good evil, because guess what, when we give to the poor,

it actually can suspend the judgment of God. Then Daniel, whose name was

belt Shazar, was astonished for a time, and his thoughts troubled him.

So the King spoke and said, belt Shazzar, do not let the dream

or its interpretation trouble you. Belt Shazzar answered and said, my Lord,

may the dream concern those who hate you, and its interpretation concern your enemies.

Now Daniel said this Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezar made the current person in the White

House look like a little puppy dog. Okay, Nebuchadnezzar was a bad dude.

And Daniel is literally saying, may this dream be for your enemies.

We are called to pray over all of our leaders or lists of what we

think right. And you see Daniel going from leader to leader and literally menaced

string in and out. I think it was four kings that he ministered to.

In and out. He'd disappeared in the boom. Back on the scene

again, and he says, my lord, may the dream concern those who

hate you, and its interpretation concern your enemies. The tree that you saw,

which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens, and

which can be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely, and

it's rude abundant, and which was food for all, under which the beasts

of the field dwelt, and whose branches the birds of heaven had their home.

It is you, o King, who have grown and become strong.

For your greatness has grown and reached to the heavens, and your dominion to

the end of the earth. And as much as the King saw a watcher,

a holy one coming down from heaven, saying, chop down the tree

and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots, and the earth bound

with a band of iron and bronze, and the tender grass of the field.

Let it be wet with the dew of heaven. And let him graze

with the beasts of the field till seven times passes over him. This is

the interpretation, O King, And this is the decree of the Most High,

which has come upon my lord, the King. They shall drive,

They shall drive you from men. Your dwellings shall be with the beast of

the field, And they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall

wet you with the do of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you

till you know that the most High rules and the kingdom of men and gives

it to whomever he chooses. There's another scripture that says, we actually get

the king we deserve, and as much as they gave the command to leave

the sumping roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after

you come to know that Heaven rules. Therefore, o King, let my

advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by being righteous, and

your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening

of your prosperity. Break off your sins by righteousness and your iniquities by showing

mercy to the poor. Perhaps there'll be a lengthening of your prosperity. So

he just said, hey, if you repent and you choose righteousness, and

you actually show mercy to the poor, then perhaps Heaven will see and there'll

be along there'll be a lengthening of your prosperity. There's another thing that protects

us as a country, and that's our relationship with Israel because he will bless,

He will bless who blesses them. He will curse who curses them.

And guess what, every single time any of our leaders have tried to come,

I challenge you go back and look. Anytime leaders got ready to do

something stupid towards Israel, there were things that happened to wick us up saw

him seventy two twelve. He delivers the needy when he calls the poor,

and him who has no helper Proverbs twenty nine fourteen. If a king faithfully

judges the poor, his throne will be established forever. So that means we

need to be praying for our leaders to actually judge the poor righteously, that

actually take care of the poor. They don't exploit them for political gain or

for votes, but they actually take care of them. And if we have

leaders that do that, then guess what. Now you're flowing with kingdom principles.

Now you're in alignment with what is on the heart of the Father,

and you actually see a blessing come. It says he it causes it to

reign on the just and the unjust. He blesses all of us. Proverbs

thirty one nineteen says, open your mouth judge righteously defend the rights of the

poor and the needy. But if you choose to rise up and ignore these

things, guess what The Lord is the refuge of the poor. It says

in Psalm fourteen six. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the

Lord is his refuge. The Kingdom of heaven is the inheritance of the poor

in spirit. Matthew five three blessed her the poor in spirit, for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven. And don't forget last week I shared the scripture

two twenty one one to four. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting

their depths into the offering box, and he saw poor widow put in two

small copper coins. And he said, truly, I tell you that poor

widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out

of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all

she had to live on, which those two coins is literally equal to one

penny. One penny. The birds agree, honoring your brother who falls on

hard times, if among you one of your brothers should become poor, and

any of your towns within your land, that Lord, your God is giving

you. You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor

brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for

his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy

thought in your heart. And you say the seventh year, the year of

release is near, and your eye look grudgingly on the poor brother, and

you give him nothing, And he cried to the Lord against you, and

you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your

hearts shall not be grudging when you give to him. Because for this the

Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you

undertake, for there will never cease to be poor in the land. It's

kind of like what Jesus said, You'll always have the poor among you.

Therefore I command you you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to

the needy, and to the poor in your land Deuteronomy fifteen seven to eleven.

So this concept of actually taking care of people that can't give you anything

in return is pretty close to the Lord's heart. And I want to challenge

you to when you're driving by people, maybe maybe they're at the end of

Walmart. What what if what if what if one of these people are at

the end of Walmart and the pol in a hustle, and you know they

are you know, they're not telling the truth. Their Cadillacs parked on the

backside of Walmart. Because that happens, right, It happens in big cities.

And the Lord says, I want you to go bless that person.

And you know that the Lord's not calling on a cell phone, but he's

actually talking to you and your spirit. And but and he tells you go

bless that person. You're not the judge. It says that what it's the

goodness of God that leads us to repentance. I don't think my brother will

mind me sharing the story. Years ago, when he was not in his

right mind on the streets, a cop came by, he saw a cock

car and he had the instinct to probably run because he you know, it

was it was a different time in his life, and and he thought,

man, I'm too hard to run and this and the cop pulls up and

gave you what a hundred bucks or something? Yeah, she gave him a

hundred bucks and she knew he was messed up, but the Lord told her

to go a different way back for her lunch or whatever. And when she

did, she saw him, and then she knew and he didn't deserve that

hundred bucks. He was being a knucklehead and the famous words of my dad.

So he saw her at church couple of years later and actually gave that

blessing backer. But what did she say to you specifically? Yeah, mhor

and what the Lord tell her? Yeah, except for those of you,

wouldn't hear that. She asked, She asked the Lord, why did you

send me this way? And he said, that's why I imported to my

brother and he goes and I'll go tell him I'm not done with him yet.

And my brother was homeless and addicted to drugs and and it and what

was it a week later? Yeah, two weeks later he was on my

couch getting ministry. You have no idea what the Lord can do with a

yes, you have no idea if a person's life's going to be radically changed

in that moment, because you were you just had simple obedience. He's close

to the broken heart. He's the refuge of the poor. He watches out

for the oppressed. And remember Scripture says, not many of you were wise,

right, not many of you were rich, not many of you And

you get the story right, blessed or the poled spirit? What does that

means? That that means that we're in a place of humility, and though

we are content with godliness, there's still a spiritual hunger for righteousness that never

leaves us. I want to encourage you to invite the Lord into every aspect

of your life. The scriptures talk so much about money, and it's been

abused in the church, but we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And there's a massive difference between being rich and actually having wealth. When

you're wealthy, money doesn't own you. Things don't own you. You realize

it's a tool to advance the kingdom. You realize that you're a blessing to

those around you. But when you're rich, you have the fear of lack,

You have the fear of losing money it owns you. You become a

slave demanmin because you become a slave to whatever you serve. So we need

to tell our money where to go. We need to align ourselves with the

heart of God, and as we choose to actually put our time, talents,

and resources into the areas that God wants us to then, guess what

you're blessed when you bless others that can't you in return, you're blessed.

Remember the heart of the Father. And I'll bring this still clothes. And

I've mentioned this because I just think that shows the extravagant heart of God,

his goodness, when David had committed adultery and committed murder by putting your riot

of the front line, when he had more integrity than David did. In

that moment, Nathan comes and confronts David and he says something to him.

He goes, you were a shepherd, and he tells him exactly where he

pulled David out of and he says, I've given you this. I've given

you this, and I've given you this. And he says, and if

that wasn't enough, all you had to do was ask I would have given

you more. You have not because you ask not, And when you ask,

you ask a miss. The moment we begin to tell God who deserves

to be blessed and who doesn't deserve to be blessed. We just tried to

become God. We are called to judge righteously, not unrighteously. And I've

shared this story. I'm gonna finish with this with this story. Actually shared

it last night with the couple, and I've shared it before, so if

you've heard it, you'll just have to hear it one more time. And

but God, God really got a hold of my heart one time. In

a ministry session years years ago before the church plant, I had a gentleman

came in from out of town. He was in living with his girlfriend an

adultery, and he wanted me to essentially agree with him that he should divorce

his wife and marry his girlfriend. He lived in a trailer with his wife

and kids. She had everything he ever wanted, a big house and all

this stuff. And I was beginning to get a little perturbed after a few

minutes of recognizing that he wanted me to embrace him in his end, and

I ultimately just said, look, if you've come here today to think that

I'm going to tell you that the adulterous affair that you're in, that you

should divorce your wife and marry this woman, I said, if you think

I'm going to embrace that and tell you that God's okay with that, I

said, you're in the wrong office. I stand for righteousness and that's adultery

and that's not okay. And a little bit time, a little more time

went by, and finally I was like, man, I've had enough of

this. Lord, I'm shutting a session down. This isn't going anywhere.

He didn't want to repent. So I very pastorally bring the session to a

close, and I've got my hand on this guy and I begin to pray

over him, and I hear tell him he is clean. I said no,

I said he's not clean. I hear again a second time, very

strong, we tell him he is clean. I said he's not clean,

he's an adultery. And I was like, I don't even think this is

Jesus like looking over my shoulder, like some I's trying to influence me right

now. And then a third time, very stern of like a very stern

father, tell him he is clean. And I was like, dear Lord,

and I literally I remember right before I got ready to say that,

I was like, Jesus, is if this isn't you please forgive me because

this is violating everything I understand. And I go and the Lord says you

are clean, And I had no idea what I was gonna say after that,

And I said, because the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all in

righteousness. And in that moment, the power of God hit this guy.

He fell out of my couch, when into wailing and repentance for about fifteen

minutes, got up, went home, repented to his wife. The next

day they drove together, he moved all of his stuff out of his girlfriend's

house, went back home, and I renewed his vows of the cross.

Three months later. God will not violate his word, but he'll violate your

understanding. And I didn't have grid for the way he wanted to set this

guy free, because I was in righteous judgment over his adultery. With the

measure we use, it's measured back, pressed down, shake together, overflowing.

So how do you want to handle your life? Let me tell you

something. Look at your bank account. Every one of those dollars, pennies,

quarters, whatever you got, it's either bread or it's either seed.

Don't eat your seed, sow it, you eat your bread, You get

some bread. All right, let's stand. The disciple said, Lord,

what about us? We gave up houses and family and all this stuff to

follow you. And what Jesus say I tell you he who has given up

father, mother, sister, brother, houses and all that will have all

of these things in this life given back to him and the life to come

also says with persecutions. But you probably don't want to hear that part.

But we serve and amaze an amazing, generous Father who you cannot exaggerate his

goodness. And I want to say something, whoever's up here, whatever day

it is, whoever's teaching, when you hear truth, you are responsible for

that truth in that moment. Every one of you, your blood is on

your own head on this one. We are all responsible for truth. And

when we hear the word of God, we are responsible. And we don't

want to be like a man that looks at a mirror, looks at what

he looks like, walks away and forgets what he looks like. We want

to look into that mirror so that we can see what the Lord wants to

prune and trim and transform, so that we actually are transformed into the image

of Jesus. We want to look like him. So Father, I just

asked that you would break our hearts for what breaks yours. Lord. Every

time we've judged someone unworthy of your mercy. Forgive us every time we've judged

someone not worthy of blessing. Lord, forgive us. Would you transform our

minds and our hearts? Lord? Would you renew us in the spirit of

our mind? Or would you pull down our strongholds? Would you pull down

unrighteous judgments? Lord? Would you remove bitter root? Thank you for listening.

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