The Mentality Of The Poor – Remember And Learn From The Poor – Part 3 of 4

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us. Today we’ve got a great message ahead of you. Get your Bible ready. We’ve got a lot of verses to go through. We’re in the midst of a great sermon series called “Remember And Learn From The Poor,” and today, we are talking about the mentality of the poor.

So if you haven’t been with us for the last two weeks, check out the playlist right here because we’ve got a couple of sermons in there that you should check out. You can do it after watching this one or you can do it before. It’s up to you.

They do kind of go hand in hand but it’s not important that you watch them in order but it would help. We’ve already talked about how you need to honor the poor and then how Jesus used the poor, and so the poor people are always going to be with us whether you are poor or whether you are wealthy or whether you are in the middle or wherever you are.

There’s always someone out there less fortunate than you and by definition, in comparison, to you, they are poor. And so no matter where you are in life, the poor will always be there. If we take that as a working definition of poor, that’s what God wants you to think about. He wants you to help those less fortunate than you.

They’re poor if they’re less fortunate than you are. Then they are more poor than you and you need to be looking at them with compassion and thinking about how can you help them and have the right frame of mind in order to do that. But of course, if you’re poor, how can you help them?

There’s still something you can do, still something you could give: advice, time, whatever it might be, but God wants you to be like the poor as well. He called a lot of poor people. He also used and called a lot of rich people. So does He want you to be poor? Does He want you to be rich? He wants you to be both. You say, “What in the world are you talking about?”

God wants you to have the mentality of the poor but He wants you to be blessed with wealth. So think about this for a second: how do the poor people live? How do rich people live? A lot of poor people are humble because they have nothing. Some people are poor because they were stupid and they blew everything, or they squandered it. That’s an outlier.

Some people are rich and are very humble and use it properly. Outlier. Let’s take a look at the majorities. We want you to be regular poor and a rich outlier. All right, you need to have a mentality of a poor person in that you rely on Jesus for everything. Poor people have nothing. What do they do? They go to soup kitchens. They sleep somewhere else. They beg on street corners. They rely on the generosity of other people to take care of them.

Now, if you take that frame of mind and say, “Alright, I’m going to rely on God to take care of me,” that’s the mentality Jesus wants. Rely on Him. Then what? What do poor people do? Some poor people are very generous.

They get, they share, they look out for each other. They’re like a little community taking care of one another. They’re humble. We’re talking about the good qualities, then that’s the mentality that you have to have.

Take care of others and then, as you grow in wealth, you’re going to still do the same. There’s a, a lot of people that say, “Oh well, when you’re poor, it doesn’t really matter, because you’re poor anyway.” So you’re giving away money. You’re giving to the church. You’re giving to charities. You’re tithing. You’re volunteering their time, your time. All of a sudden, you start getting wealthy.

Now you start being careful cause you got something to lose. That’s wrong. You gotta keep that mentality as you grow through your wealth because guess what? God’s going to keep giving you more. He’s going to say, “You’re using it properly. You’re using it properly.”

How do you think you got that wealth to begin with? Because you were living in a way where you’re giving and giving and giving and giving and building God’s kingdom and He says, “Here’s more. Here’s more.”

Then you say, “Whoa, now I got to be careful,” and then all of a sudden, you wonder why you’re upside down on your mortgage and you have late payments and your car is about to get repossessed and this and that.

You started being careful. You stopped giving. You stopped doing what God wanted. Keep doing all of that and you’re going to keep growing and growing and God’s going to keep blessing you with more. Now, I’m not saying, “Oh start doing that so you can build worldly wealth.” No, wrong. Mentality. Have the right mentality and the right heart. Seek first His kingdom.

Do what God wants you to do. He’s going to give you more and more so that you can keep doing His work and even greater things. What are you doing today for God? What if you had $10,000 more? Would you do more? Would you be able to do it better? Would you be able to help more people? That’s the mentality.

It’s like this. Social Media Ministries. What are we doing right now with a shoestring budget of zero? We’re reaching people. What if we had a one before the zero? Okay, we could boost a post, sure.

What if we had a one and another zero before the zero? Now all of a sudden, we got 100. Okay, sure. We can do some more. What if we had a one and seven zeros? Oh, now we’re careful. “I’m going to buy myself” No.

A one and seven zeros means now we can go do even more. Not, “Oh look at that, let’s put some in an investment account and make sure that we’re taken care of.” No. God’s giving it to you to use. Start using it. Now, does that mean that, personally, you can’t build wealth? No, because Proverbs tells you, “Hey, have an inheritance for your children and your children’s children.”

What does that mean? It means build wealth, so you gotta be building wealth but have that mentality that you’re not hoarding it for yourself. You’re using it for God. It’s all His anyway. He gave it to you. Now He wants you to funnel it back into His Kingdom. It needs to go through you. It’s not coming to you and stopping. It’s going through you. It’s coming to you.

You’re using it to build the Kingdom. God wants you to be wealthy. He wants you to live a very good life here on Earth. He provides you with a lot of financial advice all throughout the Bible and we have a cool playlist called “Blessed To Be A Blessing,” that you can check out here. If you’re going to be rich, you have to have that right frame of mind for acquiring wealth.

You need to, number one: hate debt. You can’t be loving debt and taking on all this stuff and then wondering why you can’t make the payments because that’s not being a good steward of your money. You need to not like debt. Let’s go to Proverbs. Check that out Proverbs 6:1-7. We got a lot of verses, not a lot of time, so we’re going to go quickly.

Come back later. Rewatch it. Read them again. Talk about them with others. Really study this. Proverbs 6:1-7:

“My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in a pledge for another, if you have been trapped by what you said and snared by the words of your mouth, then do this to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go—and humble yourself and press your plea with your neighbor!

Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler, go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer, or ruler yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food as harvest.”

The whole chapter is about this. “How long will you lie there sluggard? How long till you get up from your sleep? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:8-11). We read all the way to 11 cause it’s just so good. I’d love to keep going.

Here’s the point: if you have put up security for someone else if you struck hands in a pledge, that means you’ve either given them money or you have taken money and put up security. You said, “Yep, I’m going to take a loan and my car is my asset. That’s my security,” or “I’m going to take a loan against my house,” or whatever. You put up collateral for something then do this—don’t allow any sleep to your eyes.

Don’t waste any time. Go there. Settle it up. Pay it and get away. Run like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter like a snare from the fowler. Run away. Get away from that debt. Allow no sleep to your eyes. What does that mean? Work overtime. Take another job. Make money. Get out of that debt. You have to hate this debt. Get out. You can’t like debt. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it.

Yes, it can be a tool but it’s not something that you need to be using all the time. Learn to live without debt. Yes, a mortgage, you might need to take a mortgage. You could, you can learn all about this with Dave Ramsey. Alright, check him out. He hates debt. He is very very against debt. You can learn more from him. We’re not going to get into that here, not into the finance side of this, we’re talking about a mentality.

Hate debt. Let’s go to another verse. Proverbs 22 Verse 26, Proverbs 22:26. You ready? Here we go. “Do not be a person who strikes hands in a pledge or puts up security for debts.” That means don’t put collateral out and take money.

Don’t say, “Well, I got a car. Let’s get a loan on the car and go buy a boat.” Don’t say, “I got a house, let’s take out a loan on the house and buy this,” Let’s do this, let’s do… No. Enough is enough. Stop with the debt.

Start living without debt. If you want to buy something and you don’t have the money, maybe God’s telling you to wait. Build the money first. If you’re in debt, allow no sleep to your eyelids until you get out of debt. That means work extra. Take more hours. Work more shifts. Get another job. Do what you can do to free yourself.

Alright, Proverbs 13. God also wants you to invest wisely, so number one: hate debt. The mentality of the poor — poor people are probably not in debt unless they’ve become stupid and gotten into all kinds of debt and then they became poor. Why? Because God’s humbling them and then hopefully they’re going to learn their lesson and hate debt. Hate debt. Invest wisely. Invest wisely. Alright, Proverbs 13:11.

“Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” Work your job. Do your thing. Gather money. Invest it wisely. Put it where it needs to be. Gather money little by little and make it grow. You’re not getting rich quick. He who chases fantasies will have His fill of poverty.

You’re not out there to get rich quick. You’re building wealth little by little and making it grow. Proverbs 11:24 says, “One man gives freely and gains even more, another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.”

God’s telling you to be generous. Give freely. You will gain even more because He sees that the wealth is flowing through you, building His Kingdom. God also wants you. So hate debt. Invest wisely. Use your talents for what? For God. Use them for God.

Let’s jump up to Matthew for this one. Matthew 25:14-30. This is a parable of talents. I love this. We’ve talked about it many times before. Matthew 25:14-30, “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one each according to their ability hold it” — pause there.

“Each according to their ability” — you wonder why you’re not wealthy? You wonder why you don’t have a 100 grand in the bank — a million in the bank? You don’t have the ability. God’s saying,

“I’m looking at you and I know you cannot handle that wealth. You will squander it. You will do something foolish. You will blow it. You will invest it poorly and lose it. You will give it to the wrong charity. You will support the wrong thing. You can’t handle it.”

Start changing your mindset so you can handle it. “Each according to their ability.” You want to be like the one that gets five. Five talents, not the one that gets one. Let’s keep going. “Then he went on his journey the man who had received the five went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.

So also the one with two gained two more,” probably took him a little longer because it doesn’t say it “at once”. “But the man who had received one went off dug a hole in his ground and hid his master’s money.”

That’s where we’re going to stop. He hid his master’s money. What’s going on here? Where are you? Are you wise in what you’re doing or not? Are you wise with your wealth? Are you like the person who was wise with the money — went off at once, put it to work, and gained more? Or are you like the person who went off, put it in the ground, and you get nothing more at the end of this story?

“Well done, good and faithful servant!” Put it to work. “Here you go. Here’s more.” The one with two who turned it to four — “Well done, here’s more. Put it to work.” The one with one, said, “Here, I was afraid of you,” and He says, “Get out of here you worthless servant. Give me that one talent. Give it to the one who has 10 because I know he will be the one who is best suited to take on more.”

Where do you fall? You want to be here. You want to take on more. You want God to say, “Here, you go take more. Take more,” because you’re out there building the Kingdom. You’re bringing more people into the Kingdom. You’re winning souls for Christ. You’re growing the church. You’re growing the ministry. You’re building the Kingdom of Heaven. You have to hate debt in order to do that. If you’re going into debt, you’re going to lose.

If you are investing poorly, you’re going to lose. You gotta hate debt and invest wisely. You’ll gain more. Use your talents. God also wants you to have the mentality of a poor person like we said in some areas of your life, but He doesn’t want you to be poor. Let’s go to Proverbs 19:4, for this one you, you’re not destined to be like a poor nomadic shepherd or a poor farmer all your life.

He wants you to be rich. He wants you to have wealth. He wants you to have the 10 talents and take one from the people that can’t do it and give it to you, so you can keep building His Kingdom.

Proverbs 19:4, “Wealth brings many friends but a poor man’s friend deserts him.” God doesn’t want you to be the poor person whose friends desert you. He wants you to have wealth and use it wisely so that you can get more and more work done for His Kingdom.

Let’s go to Proverbs 19:7, “A poor person is shunned by all their relatives—how much more do their friends avoid them! Though he pursues them with pleading, they are nowhere to be found.”

God doesn’t want you to be out there friendless, shunned, hated, people run from you — no. He wants you to be the one that people turn to, that people come toward, not run away from poor people.

People run from poor people. People shun. God wants you to have the mentality of the poor in that you’re relying on Him and that you’re using what He’s giving you to help others, but He doesn’t want you to physically be poor here on Earth.

This is very important. It’s a mentality. It’s a posture of your heart, but physically, and in this world, He wants to bless you with abundant wealth so that you will then turn it out and build His Kingdom.

Think about poor people for a second and what goes through their minds, not financially, like the poor investments, the debt, the spending, the wasting money — that is foolishness. Remember the foolish servant that we just read about?

In addition, let’s go to Proverbs 21:20. We’re going to see about a little bit more foolishness 21:20. “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish person devourers all they have.”

In the house of… the wise have stores — wait a minute — don’t store up for yourselves things on Earth, uh-huh, Proverbs says you are to store some of your wealth for your future generations, your children, and your children’s children.

You’re to take care of your family, that is the believers and the unbelievers. We got a whole sermon on this, a series, provide for your family, leave an inheritance, you are to store. In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil but the foolish people devour everything. They have, and then guess what? They’re poor.

God wants you to have a certain mentality in a heart of the poor but He doesn’t want you to be like that. Now you’re saying, “Wait a minute, Spence, He wants you to have that mentality but if that mentality is what made them be poor, uh-uh,” — He doesn’t want you to be foolish but He wants you to have the posture of relying on Him.

Think about these poor people and the character traits they have. Being desperate, crying out to God for help, not being afraid to ask for help — God wants you to be wealthy, to be rich, but He also wants you to have those characteristics of the poor person. He wants you to cry out to Him with desperation. Even though you’re wealthy, He wants you to rely on Him.

Don’t rely on your own wealth to solve your problems. Cry out to Him with desperation. That’s what the poor people do. They’re crying out desperately for someone to help them but they might be being foolish. Don’t be foolish. Be wise. Invest wisely. Hate debt. Store up inheritances for your future generations. Use your talents to build the Kingdom. Cry out to God. Let’s go to Psalm 34:17.

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” The righteous cry out in desperation to God. He wants you to ask Him for help, not to be afraid or ashamed of asking Him for help — the poor people are not afraid to ask for help. They will ask anyone for money. They will stand on the street corner and beg for $5 dollars.

Don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Don’t be greedy and be begging all the time asking for things you don’t need. There’s a difference. It’s a mindset. It’s a mentality. It’s a posture. We’ve gone through several things. You’re going to need to watch this a couple times.

Hate debt. Invest wisely. Use your talents. Store up wealth for future generations. Build the Kingdom. Allow it to flow through you — not to you and stop. Cry out to God in desperation. Don’t be foolish. In addition, don’t be afraid to ask.

Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you.” God wants you to ask. He wants you to follow Him in all ways. Keep that right frame of mind. Do what He commands and you will be blessed. God wants to bless you.

Proof: look at the parable of the talents, the one who had five, made 10. The one who had two, made four. The one who had one, didn’t make anything and what did the master do? Take it from him, give it to the one with the most because He knows that that person will be the best suited to make more with that. God wants you to make much of what He gives you and grow His Kingdom abundantly like never before.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I pray a blessing on these people. I pray that they would internalize this message. There’s so much here. There’s so many verses, I ask them to dive deep. Lord, I pray that they would really, really get into these verses, that they would meditate on them day and night, that they would study them, that they would internalize them and then externalize them in their lives.

That they would grow to be wise with money, to hate debt, to invest wisely, to store up for future generations, to leave inheritances not for themselves but for others to take care of the body of Christ, their relatives and their brothers and sisters in Christ and that they would grow your Kingdom with their talents and that they would use their abilities to do work for you.

That they would have the right mentality and mindset of crying out to you and asking for help and not being ashamed, and that they would seek you first and Lord, that you would bless them abundantly to grow your Kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Alright, this was part three of our four-part sermon series. join us next week where we’re going to conclude this and talk about how you should be rich and it’s okay to be rich. God bless.