Do You KNOW Your GREATEST NEED? | Helping the POOR - REALLY.

Our church receives up to 6 requests per week for financial and various other needs. I suppose it is partly because we are located in the city in a visible location. Because of our facilities and location, many assume that the church is wealthy. For our purpose this morning, we will not examine the dynamics of these needs. For the sake of this message, we will assume that they are all legitimate needs and honest requests. 

Though we assume, this morning, the requests are genuine, let’s stop to consider the nature of the needs themselves. When we stop to consider the needs in a deeper way, we begin to observe that even when we meet these needs, as we often should, it doesn’t really solve much of the problems that people face. Consider some of the unsettling dynamics we often face. 

• Most seek no spiritual guidance from the church and often when they do, it is an act to persuade the church member or pastor to give them what they want.

• With rare exceptions, they only want what they think the church can give them, many times expecting it because they think that this is all they need. 

But is this true? If the church meets all of the material needs of people in need, have we really changed their plight? Don’t miss understand me. We are commanded to help the poor, the orphaned, the widow. We must take delight in relieving the suffering of those in need for the sake of our Savior. I am not making a case here to cease helping those in need. Of course, we must be discerning, not gullible or naive, when dispensing God’s money. And make no mistake, it is the Lord’s money, not ours. 

But, should we not be even more conscious of our calling to press upon them their greatest need? Or, do our own confused priorities misinform our duty to the poor? In the account before us, we learn from the Apostle how we ought to help those in need, even when we do not have the resources to relieve their suffering.