Prayer for Andrew Steers
April 30, 2026
This week’s missionary letter is from Andrew Steers, a missionary to Tasmania. It says, “Praise God that he offers each of us his strength when ours becomes so weak,” and by this one is specifically referring to physical suffering. It takes a great deal to concede that the progressive nature of this dystonia that the Lord has seen fit to burden me with has become so burdensome in the last few months that I can no longer be as active in systematic church-wide soul-winning as has been previously the case.
Even with the support of a leg brace, the muscles in the leg are no longer relaxing when walking. The sheer physical exhaustion this generates in my right side is indescribable. In the midst of this growing challenge, I can still rejoice in the fact that he is using me to preach, teach, and impact people with the gospel.
While Andrew mentioned in my previous prayer letter has not been to every service, he says that he comes because he has never heard preaching like he hears when he attends Coastline Baptist Church. Praise God, other folk have been attending our church in the past year by accepting the gift of salvation. This includes David and Marion, an older couple who are enduring serious health challenges of their own. The spirit amongst the church family continues to be so refreshing, especially with the natural addition of the little ones in recent times.
Some of the children are beginning to sing their lungs out on the choruses of the hymns, albeit loudly out of tune. Teaching a junior-age boys Sunday school class continues to be a challenge mentally. This is especially so given that God has given me very bright boys. That’s interesting. Given me very bright boys who are like sponges on the intake.
With one particular boy so prompted to answer correctly on just about every Bible quiz question asked in class. Praise God for godly parents. Meanwhile, after just returning from a preaching conference out of state, on the plane, the Lord had me sit next to a couple from South Korea who were pharmacists with a Catholic background, who were visiting Australia as tourists. While neither got saved, Kim walked away with a fresh understanding of salvation being offered to us as a gift, a new revelation to him.
One message while at the preaching conference has been a great encouragement. It was preached by Pastor Kurt Skelly, titled, “Your confinement is your assignment.”
Prayer request: Pray that the progressive nature of this dystonia does not hinder me from being an ongoing witness to unsaved folk, including my neighbor Ian. Pray that others like Ray and Winnie will come to realize their need of a Savior, folk whom I can follow up with in the weeks ahead. Thank you again for your ongoing support, especially your prayers. We live in such troublesome times again. There is only one reoccurring message more necessary than any other: preaching the gospel, seeing lives change as a result, never forgetting whose economy we are obliged to follow. All to the glory of God and our wondrous, merciful Savior, Brother Andrew Steers.
Let’s bring Brother Steers to the Lord in prayer.
Dear God, we thank you so much for this dear man of God who is over in a foreign country serving you. God, he’s got some physical ailments that are hindering him in some of his service, but we thank you that he’s faithful in the areas where he’s able. We pray that you would just touch and heal this, just only he’s got in his leg, and you would help him to be able to continue to spread your gospel, that you would give him the ability to get out and to share it with others.
And Lord, at a time where he’s not able to, we pray that you show him the next area that you will use him. God, we thank you that you’re not a God who just puts us on the shelf. You’re not a God who just sets us aside, but God, you always have a perfect plan for our life. We pray that you’d be with Brother Andrew and his ministry in Tasmania, and that you would just help them to see more souls saved for you, help the church continue to grow, and just provide for him and protect him in every way that he needs. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Amen. Keep praying for him. He’s been faithful over the years. His wife’s passed, and he’s had this disease forever. He’s just a faithful guy.
Now, those churches, they got disco balls and strobe lights. They ain’t got nothing on us, man. I tell you what, we’ve got blinking lights, too, around here. And good to see you tonight on a Wednesday night. Glad you’re in. Just right your spot. That’s awesome. If you need a prayer request card, get one of those, one of those chairs in front of you. Get that filled out.
And I’ll tell you what, we’ll get that Brother Bill Jr. if I can’t get you up here to lead us in prayer here in just a minute. And Sunday will be a special day. Looking forward to that. And be in your spot, bring someone with you. And we’ll go over there.
We break ground again on Sunday. If you rode by, you see it, it’s staked out where the new building is going to be at, and that’ll just be a good, good day.
Saturday we will have sorting men or whoever it may be. We’ll meet at McDonald’s at 9:30 and head out from there, and then the ladies’ tea that afternoon. Ladies, you’ll enjoy that, and best dress contest, door prizes. I don’t know what all will be. Who knows what we’re going on, but it’ll be good. It’ll be good.
If you can help us, some men after service, we’ll move those back chairs up and bring eight of those round tables out of the shed. We just need eight of those, and that would be so very, very helpful. Appreciate Ms. Angela Renick putting that all together. That’s great.
And then Prayer on the Square. Now, next week we will not have Wednesday night service. We move everything to Thursday, National Day of Prayer, Prayer on the Square.
Pray with me. We found out this morning that the Hart family, there’s no fault of their own, but their RV had burned up, and they had said they’ve taken things off their schedule. They said, “We’ll be the first one back on their schedule,” and they said today they just can’t make that happen. So we’re shifting gears. Pray for us that we’ll get the right ones in on that. But I’m excited about it. But God knew all that’s going to happen way ahead of time. And looking forward to good. Just something about meeting in public. It’s a good thing. And praying for our nation. We need mercy for him. And just ask for God’s mercy. It was His grace that made America great in the first place. And let’s ask for His mercy again.
Midterm elections right around the corner and a lot going on in our country. So let’s be there ready to pray and be praying about those things, excited about that service.
If you’ve got your cards filled out, pass them out in the aisle, and our ushers walk by and collect those. We’ll get those shuffled over to Brother Bill Jr. And what about that? The junior and the senior in here. I like that.
And praise all for that. Appreciate it. Brother Goforth preaching the funeral on Monday. Did a great job for Brother Almas Raymer. And that Rutherford County Baptist section in heaven is growing up there, and I tell you for sure. And great people. I was thinking about Ms. Patty’s sister-in-law. Her dad just passed. Was it, Mom? Mom. And faithful. How long have been in Scotland as missionaries? Wow, almost four. And that’s a tough country. And they’ve focused on the youth. And praise them for that. So let’s pray for them also, if you would. And that’d be great.
Brother Bill, if you come, lead us for a prayer at this time, please.
It’s always good to be in the House of the Lord, isn’t it? Thank you all for your faithfulness. It’s a blessing.
Brother John Sharp, praises this beautiful day. It is a beautiful day, isn’t it? The rain’s past and the cooler weather’s come. It’s beautiful. Please pray for Ms. Dina. She’s vying for a new position at work. We’ll pray for that. Patty Johaninand. Let’s see. Praises, bless the Lord of my soul. No, bless the Lord of my, for my soul. Oh, my soul. Okay, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Yeah, anyways. Prayer requests: Mariela and Keith, mission to Scotland. Mom passed. Yeah, pray for the Mills there in Scotland. They’re flying May 4th, so travel mercy for them also as they travel. Brother Goforth. Praises for our soldiers and our vets. Praise it. We got a couple young ones joining and have joined already too also. So if you could pray for them too. Thank them also for their service.
Jerry Curry, a friend, right, PTSD. Cousin, PTSD battles with that and leftover wounds that aren’t visible. His brother passed, so we’ll pray for this family there, the Curry family. And then Michael McNeil praises for his provision.
Abby is having lung imaging done this Friday. So we’ll pray they have completely healed. Do we know what time? 10:30, 10:30 a.m. So lift up your prayers for her 10:30. So we’ll pray for that. Unspokens, of course. We all have unspokens. Lord knows our hearts. We’ll pray for them also.
Let’s take these, Lord, in prayer.
Lord Heavenly Father, Lord, what a great day, Lord God, you’ve given, as other praises have been mentioned, Lord, your provisions, Lord, each and every day for us, for saving our souls, Lord, being a comforter, Lord God to us. It’s a Savior, Lord, God, for being a friend, Lord, God, and our Father. Thank you, Lord, God, for this church and these people, Lord, and their faithfulness, Lord.
Wednesday night crowds may be small, Lord God, but they are not weak, Lord. Sacrifice, Lord. Thank you for them, Lord. Would you please bless each and everyone that is here, our pastor to you? Lord, would you be with him tonight, Lord, and his family, Lord God, at this time? Lord, we just pray for these prayer requests, Lord. You know all of our unspokens, Lord, that we have. Our hearts, Lord God, with these unspokens, grown, Lord, and you know each and every one of them.
Lord God, I just pray it should please, Lord, intervene, Lord, in these wants and needs, Lord, and these burdens, Lord, of your people. Tonight, I’d like to lift up the Mills, Lord, the Scotland to you. Lord, would you work a mighty work in their lives, Lord, and the field that you’d have them that you sent them to? But also, Lord God, at this time of loss, Lord, with Mary Lowe’s mother, Lord. Please bless the family, Lord, God. Give them grace, Lord. Show them mercy, Lord, but then also use it, Lord. Use it for your glory, Lord, and use it for an opportunity that somebody, a family member that doesn’t know you, Lord, as their Savior. I pray you’d use this opportunity to the Lord in her passing to reach the lost, Lord. Convict the heart, Lord, convict the sinner, Lord God. Praise you for it, Lord God. For eternity, of course, Lord. Be with their traveling mercies as they fly back.
Just keep them safe, keep them, hedge of protection. We pray for Ms. Dina, Lord. We pray, Lord, God, for this position, Lord. What a great opportunity she has, Lord. And we know, Lord, that part of you providing provisions for us, Lord, is our jobs, Lord. And we just pray, Lord, God, a special guidance, Lord, and wisdom, Lord, with that. And would you guide their bosses and whoever else is involved with this position, Lord God, may be your will, Lord Father, please.
And Lord God, we pray for Jerry Curry, Lord, God, with his PTSD, the hidden wounds, Lord God, of our soldiers and him, Lord, friends, Lord, God, of mine and others, Lord, that we have here, Lord, God, that may be struggling. He, Lord God. Those wounds, you know, Lord God, you’re the great physician, Lord, and great comfort of Lord God. May they find comfort in you, Lord. May they find comfort in your word there, Lord. Would you be with the passing of his brother and also his family, Lord? Give them grace and mercy at this time, Lord.
Thank you for the Goforths, Lord. Thank you for him. Thank you that you give us love for our brothers and cousins and family members and the lost, Lord. Thank you, Lord God, for that. Lord, we lift up Abby to you, Lord God. She has this procedure coming up. What a great miracle you’ve done in her life, Lord, already, that we’ve seen, Lord God, and answered our prayers, Lord, and you as prayers, Lord, with that. Wonderful thing, Lord God. What a wonderful day you rock when you healed her. So Lord God, we ask, and we come again humbly, Lord, just be with this imaging that it would be clear, Lord God. We give you the glory for it, Lord.
Lord Father, we lift up the church building to you, Lord. About to pray, Lord, coming up at seven, but Lord, we need the church building sold, Lord Father, and I believe, Lord God, that you have the right buyer and lined up already, Lord God. Would you give us patience, Lord, or just bring them, Lord, God, so we may know? Be with the offering coming Sunday, for God, pour out your riches, Lord, upon us, Lord. I just pray that the offering, Lord, be the sufficient in the amount exactly, Lord, what we need, Lord. Not what we want, but what we need, Lord God, from you, Lord, please.
Lord God, we just thank you, Lord, God, for it. Thank you for this night. We love you. We praise you, Lord God. Thank you for your word. Thank you for everything, Lord God. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for making it easy, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God, that we don’t have to rely on ourselves, Lord. You can just rely on your Son, Jesus. Thank you for dying for all of us, Lord. We love you, Lord God. Pray this in His name by His blood. In Jesus’ name, amen.
All right, we’ll take our hymnals once again. We’ll remain seated. We’ll go to page 507. “My life is yours to control.” We just sang this the other week. It was a blessing to hear. Hope it’s a blessing again to hear. “My life is yours to control. Now use my life, O Lord, I pray. My stubborn will complete my way.” Good, good song.
I’m going to ask you here in just a minute to come down and pray again. We’ve been praying at 7 o’clock. By the way, good to have some folks slip in back there, and good to see them with us tonight. Good to see Paul Scribner over there also. That’s a blessing.
But let me just mention a couple of things. Of course, we are praying that God would sell this location. We’d be able to use the proceeds from this before we draw from the loan. We have had interest as of late. Some people that have looked at it in the past, they’ve looked at it several times now. They’ve met with us several times. It looked hopeful, but we’ve not just kind of stalemated here at the end. I should say stalled, not stalemated, but I would love to be able to announce Sunday that we have an offer on the table. Would you pray for that? Let’s pray. It would be just a perfect setting. Of course, God knows better than I, but it sure just looked like it would be a perfect setting. And so let’s pray for that.
And we’ve already, you know, negotiated somewhat, and a lot of details are taken care of just for them to fully offer. So would you pray that they would fully offer? And my Sunday would be a wonderful announcement. Let’s just pray that God would bless on that. Then, of course, the offering Sunday.
And praise the Lord, we’ve already had some come in. $80,000 is a lot of money for our church. We’ve never had that amount coming in on Sunday. But God’s able. And we’ve had some great offerings. We really, really have. But never quite that much. We’ve been close to it, but on just miracle days and projects, whatnot. But let’s just pray. God can do that.
And let’s pray for the offering Sunday, and that we’ll get an offer on this property soon. And our goal, of course, is so we don’t have to draw from that loan until the end.
Let me ask you this up front. If there’s any men that have not let us in prayer over this specific situation, any men, but you’d be willing to lead us in prayer over that tonight—any men that have not let us in prayer over that but you’d be willing to lead us in prayer over that tonight—I don’t want to push. I would never mention a name like Brother—okay, we got this. How about what if we just made it the Richard night tonight? If we had Brother Richard DeVille and Brother Richard Forbes, that might be a good—to just be the Richard night tonight. How about that? Robert, I’m sorry, Brother Robert. I’m getting to be trying to change names on your brother.
And it would be the R&R. How about that? Would you be willing to, Brother Robert?
Okay, good deal. Let’s come on down to the altar. Let’s just come down, if you would, as a church family. And let’s just come before the Lord humbly but in faith. And let’s just ask God to bless this thing and God to intervene. And He’s able, He’s able. And, you know, you have not because you ask not. Let’s go to Him. Brother Robert, would you come up here? Can I get you? Come on up here.
Amen. Trying to get you good, good, good. You know, sometimes folks that don’t pray in public sometimes are the most sincere. And that’s what matters. And God hears those prayers. We’ll get these men to lead us, but don’t just listen to them, pray. Let’s all be a prayer. Let’s go to the Lord in faith and ask God to intervene over these things. Praise the Lord, we’re small, but our God’s not small. And let’s take it to Him in faith. And Brother Robert and Brother Richard lead some prayer if they would.
Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come to your house and praise you. Lord, we’re outgrowing our current church and need your help and assistance to finish, even start the new church, new property, Father, and we love you. We have total confidence that it is in your will that this will happen for us. We just—we are trying to save a little money and not have to borrow yet. The money is ready and available. We just don’t want to start that loan yet, and that’ll save us a lot of money in this, and we might be able to put nice things in the church from the money that we save. Father God, and it also serves as our school. And the students that we have, they all are looking forward to it. The ones that I’ve talked to are looking forward to a new school as well. We thank you for all that you do. Thank you for giving your Son who died on the cross for our sins and forgive us of our sin because we are sinners, and these things we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this beautiful night. You’ve always asked us to come to you in the open and thanksgiving, and we thank you, Lord, for over 25 years of this beautiful church. And you’ve grown us, Lord, from a small church to a couple of storefronts to here to this beautiful church that we have today. And we’ve done that, and you’ve blessed it all along the way with so many good people, with so many good blessings, with growing ministries. And Heavenly Father, we ask you, and we know that you’re capable of it, to give us another miracle, Lord, and help us to raise the funds that we need for this new church so we can continue to do exactly what you’ve asked us to do. The most important thing is going out and winning souls, using that new building, Lord, for our new ministries, for our growing ministries, and for everything that you would have us do, but especially to reach the lost. Heavenly Father, we love you very much, and in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Turn to the book of Proverbs, Book of Proverbs. And we started last week on principles from Proverbs in dealing with the poor. And the week before, we had started in the book of Proverbs, and we just had a short introduction to the Book of Proverbs.
We’re going to go to it a little bit more chronological, but we’re making changes in our procedures with benevolence. And so I thought just a good time we jumped ahead to talk about the subject: principles from Proverbs in dealing with the poor. And we covered four of those principles. We’re just going to cover two tonight. Now, the last one will be the longer part. And I’m going to talk to the very end of it about blessings. There’s so many, and we won’t cover them all, but there’s so many blessings to those that pity the poor and truly sincerely help the poor, give to the poor, and all. We’ll talk about those things here in a minute.
So we’re going to pray and we’ll review just a little bit, and then we’ll jump into this new material at the very, very end. Remember we mentioned Proverbs as like a reference book. And we mentioned, you know, sometimes if you’re going to do something on your car before YouTube was around, you went and you got the Haynes Manual, you know, and you follow that. That was a reference book. And Proverbs is like that. And we’re going back and referencing things about how to deal with the poor tonight.
And Proverbs chapter 29, Proverbs chapter 29 in God’s Word tonight. Proverbs 29, we’re just going to start off with one verse. Verse number seven. And once you find that, would you please stand as we read God’s Word together tonight? Proverbs 29 and verse number seven. We read this, I don’t think at the beginning. We read it somewhere last Wednesday, but we’re going to start off with this verse again. Proverbs 29, verse number seven. The Bible says, “The righteous considereth.”
It doesn’t necessarily mean they give, but they consider. “The righteous considereth the cause of the poor, but the wicked regardeth not to know it.” Would you pray with me that God would give us wisdom in dealing with the poor? Father, Lord, you’ve told us, Lord, in the New Testament that we will always have the poor with us. Lord, we do ask, would you give us wisdom how you’d want us to deal with the poor, Father? Give us your wisdom, give us your insight. Lord, have us to be true help to them. And Lord, well, thank you for what you do. Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Principle number one, we talked about last week: You should at least consider helping the poor. Let me read for you. If you want to look it over, you’re right there. Look over in chapter number 21. Chapter 21, verse 13. Proverbs 21:13. He says right there, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” Wow, that’s pretty strong language.
Now here’s the thing: Don’t let the complication of dealing with the poor—and it can be very—who should you give to? When should you give? Should you give them cash? All the—just let all… And sometimes you get fed up with all of it because some people are going to use that and use it the wrong way. And if we’re not careful, we’ll let that drive us from even considering the cause of the poor. No, you want to at least check into it. You want to at least take some time. You want to hear it out. You want to consider the cause of the poor.
Principle number two. Look over in chapter number 13. Chapter 13. We’re just rehearsing a little bit from last week. Proverbs 13 and verse number 23. Proverbs 13 and verse number 23. Real quickly here tonight: “Much food is in the tillage of the poor.” In other words, if they would just plow up their field, if they would plant the gardens, they would work the ground, there’s much food in the tillage of the poor, but there is that is destroyed for want or lack of judgment. Just that they’re destroyed because they’ve never really had consequences. Okay.
So principle number two we talked about last week: We don’t want to create a bad pattern in them. In our day and time, they would call it, we don’t want to enable them. Okay. And sometimes you’re not really doing them a favor; you’re doing them a disfavor. But you need to consider it. You need to find out about it. We mentioned last week, we don’t give out cash. Last year, our church gave out about $4,500. But for the most part, it’s a Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night type of person we know very well. We didn’t give cash out. We gave to water companies and electric companies and landlords and all the rest of that. But we don’t want to hurt people by creating a bad pattern in them. Okay?
Here’s the third principle we talked about last week. Look over in chapter 21. Chapter 21 and verse number 17. Chapter 21 and verse number 17. Could you turn me down just a touch back there, guys? Just a touch. And this is—this, I think, is a very important principle right here. It’s not a pleasant principle, but it’s so true in dealing with the poor. You need to realize this is part of the formula dealing with the poor. Proverbs 21. Look at verse number 17. Proverbs 21:17. “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. And he that loveth wine and oil…” That’s typically luxury, “…shall not be rich.”
Now, here’s principle number three. We mentioned last week: Realize that monetary gifts likely will not change their character. You know, it’s amazing. They do studies of people that won the lottery—millions—and 10 years later, they’re back to where they were at the beginning. Typically, the monetary gifts… A couple guys came up to me last week and said, “Hey, did you hear about some guy? He had a radio voice.” Y’all probably know this story. I don’t know the story. I just had some people tell me. And some newscasters found him out, and they put him on the spot, and, you know, hired him, and he made a lot of money. And 10 years later, boom, back down.
All right, whole musket. And so you’ve got to realize that. Now, dealing with the poor, typically you think, man, I’m going to change your life. Typically, you’re going to get money and then buy some things, but typically those monetary gifts are not going to change your character. And you need to realize that. The world thinks, “Well, environment, environment.” And we mentioned last week, our government will pump millions of dollars into a neighborhood, and 10 years later, that neighborhood looks like it did before. And so…
Number four, and we’re going to get to the new material here in just a second. Look at Proverbs 19. Proverbs 19 and verse number one. Proverbs 19, I like this fourth principle. It’s very, very true. I like it. We talked about these last week. Proverbs 19, verse number one. You’re there tonight, amen? Good deal. Anybody tired tonight?
Ms. Jennifer’s like, “No.” She’s back there yawning. No, she shook her head, yes, too. She’s yawned, too, a couple of people right here. Look at this. Proverbs 19. Look at verse number one. “Better is the poor…” Wow. “Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a…”
Well, look down in verse number 22, verse number 22 of chapter 19. Look at verse number 22. “The desire of a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar.” Here was a fourth principle we talked about last week: There are a lot of things worse than being poor. A whole lot of things. I mentioned last week the missionary today, and he was teaching on missionaries. He is a missionary now; he was reached by a missionary. But he said that bothers me. I go to churches, and they show these pictures of some little boy taking a bath in a river, and all the bleeding hearts, “We’ve got to go over there and give them new homes and all the rest of that.” He said, “I was that boy that took a bath in the river, and I loved it. I had a happy life.”
And he said what bothers me is they just want to go over there and take their living up a little bit, but they never tell them about Jesus Christ. And he said that some of those people are much happier than the people in America. And there’s a lot of things, a whole lot worse than poverty for you. Jesus lived in poverty that we might be rich, you know. And that’s the Bible of my grace, you know, the grace for the Lord Jesus Christ. So he was rich. Yeah, for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Now let’s get to a new principle, and then the last point is where I want to get at here in just a minute. Look over in Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs chapter 14. And this fifth point is: Never take advantage of the poor. And we’re going to break this down to three things here. And we’re going to start in Proverbs chapter 14.
Look in verse number 31. Proverbs 14 and verse number 31. What does he say there? He says, “He that oppresseth the poor…” And that could mean financial oppression. That happens a lot. It can mean social oppression. I mean, they don’t have money for nice clothes, and you just kind of shun them or put them down or think you’re better than them, you know. A haughty spirit has to do with you just—you just have this attitude. You look at other people as they’re just—they’re just little peon type things, you know. And it says, “He that oppresseth the poor…” However that may happen. “…watch this, reproacheth his maker.” Wow.
So when I oppress the poor, I’m going against the poor’s maker. And by the way, my maker, too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get God. But if I oppressed the poor in any manner, “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker, but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor.” Wow, isn’t that amazing? You honor—the Bible says you honor the Lord—you’ll have mercy on the poor. Wow.
Here’s really—you could just say it this way: Relationship to the poor reflects your relationship to God. Wow. Because if I oppress the poor, I’m going against God. And if I honor the Lord, the Bible says I’ll have mercy. Now, there’s a lot of ways to have mercy on the poor, a lot of ways to do that. But it’s just amazing to me that my relationship to the poor reflects my relationship to the Lord. That’s what he’s really teaching there. I don’t want to take advantage of poor people.
Let’s look at another verse. Look in chapter 17. Chapter 17, and look in verse number five. Proverbs 17, verse number five. We’re just going on pretty quickly on some of these principles. I want to get to our last point. But here’s this verse right here. Proverbs 17, verse number five: “Whoso mocketh…” How many you remember maybe during school, some people making fun of poorer people?
He says right, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker.” It’s just amazing to me how much God talks about how you treat the poor. It reflects—it shows something about your relationship with the Lord. “He that mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” Wow.
We were joking the other day. There’s a Christian school in our area that just closed down. And they’re young Christian school. And we were talking myself with the teachers in a little bit. Maybe we’ll get some students. But we said, we don’t want to rejoice in their calamity. And one of the teachers were trying to convict me, and I’m joking. They said something, I can’t even remember what they said. We were just joking around, but they said something along the line of, “Isn’t there some principles or verses about that if we rejoice in their badness?” Yeah, yeah, don’t preach at me. I’m teasing. But there’s truth to that. But he says right there, oh, my goodness, my—who so mocketh. By the way, isn’t it a shame—a shame, a shame for a Christian to make fun or mock the poor? That’s a shame.
Look over in chapter 22. Chapter 22, and we’re going to get done with this point number five. Point number five is: Never take advantage of the poor. You know, preachers have been preaching for a while. They say they only have three points, but they have 40 subpoints under each, you know. That’s—yeah. Boy, y’all are a quick study on that right there, I tell you.
Look at this one here. Proverbs 22, look at verse number 16. Proverbs 22:16. “He that oppresseth the poor…” I’ve tried to think about that today. It could be different ways. How can you oppress the poor? Do I oppress the poor? “…He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want.”
When I read it, I started thinking about oppressing the poor to gain riches. The first thing—first people that came to my mind is the loan sharks. You don’t talk about—and, you know, get your paycheck a little bit earlier, get this loan, you know. And, boy, they just—you talk about usury. You know, I remember dealing with someone, and the original loan that they took was so small—I cannot remember the numbers—but at this point, they owed like astronomically because they had—they had borrowed from loan sharks. And don’t borrow from them, but shame on those loan sharks at the end of the day. They’re not going to get ahead.
We had one of those loan sharks years ago give us just a box full of cups with their name on it. And we used them for a bit, and then I got convicted. I said, “I don’t want to promote their sticking business, man.” I think somehow—I don’t know how—those thousands or whatever cups ended up in the dumpster, but they ended up in there, you know. I don’t want to be a part of that, and no, we don’t want to be that.
I thought about this. I think there’s a fit to be somewhat—but, you know, I think the lottery. You know, because so many—the lottery, you know, the people that give a lot and they spend a lot of money on the lottery typically. I’m not saying the rich don’t, but the lower income, man, they just empty their pockets out. And the majority—this is a Fortune magazine—the headlines are maybe Fortune online nowadays, but this is what they said: America’s poorest households spend 33 times more of their income on lottery tickets than the rich.
So the government and different people are really in some ways taking advantage of, oppressing the poor to get rich. I don’t forget we had some bus kids years ago, and years and years ago, and three little kids in a bad situation. The state was going to come in and take the kids, and we said, “Hey, before the state gets them, let’s try to get them in the children’s home.” And praise—well, we got them at the children’s home down in Murfreesboro, Good Shepherd’s Children’s Home. And once we got them in there, they did a great job with them down there. Once we got in there, we found out that the mom’s living boyfriend was spending a lot of their money on the lottery tickets, and those kids were going without food and clothes.
I never forget I was in line years ago. They were pushing the lottery years ago. A little Circle K, I think it is, down there on 96 and Franklin Road in 24 right there, and right beside Sam’s, that corner lot right there. And I was in there. I dropped the kids off from school, leaving, and the person, you know, the cashier person was just, “Every person, won’t you buy the lottery ticket?” And so we were in line. I could hear it was coming up, so I had a little time to think about it, you know. And I got up there and I bought my cigarettes—no, I’m cheating. They didn’t do that. Whatever I was getting, I had a little coffee or whatnot. And I was buying whatever. And they said, “You want to buy some lottery tickets?” And I said, “No, we had some kids in our church. We found out they were doing without clothes and food because of the lottery. No, I don’t want anything to do with that.” Well, it seemed like everybody around, boy, we’re not going to get any lottery tickets now, you know.
By the way, people need somebody to stand up now. And no, we don’t want to take advantage. Don’t take advantage of the poor to get rich. Or what a shame for a Christian to make fun of the poor. And it’s amazing how the Bible just talks about how a relationship with the poor reflects our relationship with God.
Now let’s get to this last point. I’ve been wanting to get here. We’re going to just for a little bit look at blessings to those that help the poor. Now, there’s a lot of ways to help the poor.
Have you ever had the Baptist handshake? You don’t want to talk about? “I ain’t got no money.” “Oh, I got a pocketknife.” “I ain’t giving him a pocketknife.” “I got Life Savers. How about that?” Here’s the Baptist handshake: I’ll take it, brother, if you give it to me. I’m going to take it now. No, here’s a Baptist handshake: Nobody knows. You just shake their head. And it’s just a Baptist handshake. That’s you.
By the way, sometimes the best way to help the poor is don’t wait for them to ask. You just see someone; they got a need. I know someone in our church—another person in our church needed some tires on their car, and they—and the other person really didn’t want to buy it—but they said, “No, we’re going to buy tires for them.” There’s a lot of ways to help the poor.
I don’t give personally. I don’t give a lot of these drive-bys who want money for this, that, or other, because their scholarship might be, you know, might be going to help someone promote homosexuality or whatever, you know. It’s maybe something that I know the cause. I might. But there’s a lot of ways. Maybe one of the greatest ways to help the poor is faith promise. We send missionaries around the world, and the greatest help you can give anyone is to get them saved. But there’s a lot of ways. Tons of ways to help the poor. It may be helping someone in your neighborhood. It may be, by the way, if you tithe to the church, a portion of that goes to benevolence. You just—the rescue mission are great. Typically, typically good causes, typically. But there are a lot of ways to help the poor.
Now let’s get into this saying: Five blessings for helping the poor. Look at them. Proverbs 13. And look in verse number seven and verse number eight. Proverbs 13 and verse number seven, verse number eight. We’re going to have to go quick because someone’s been talking a lot tonight. Who’s doing that? Proverbs 13:7. Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13, verse number seven: “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath…” What’s the next word? Wow. You know, there’s a lot of rich people that are miserable. It really is. And I’m not saying rich people are, you know, or bad people. Some of them are great people. Some of them have a lot. And he’s not saying every rich person. He says that there is—there’s some of them. He said, “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.” “There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.”
Well, here’s the interesting verse, that verse number eight: “The ransom…” It’s kind of like the protection or the covering. “…the ransom of a man’s life are his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke.” Now, that “the ransom of a man’s life are his riches” is a little bit of a negative thing. And by the way, there’s nothing—a whole lot of people that have money are great people, and they have given to the work of the Lord, and they’re great people, have great marriages and happy people. So I’m not trying to down that. I mean, that is part of God’s blessings, riches, financial blessings. It really is. A lot of people in the Bible were wealthy: Abraham was very wealthy, Job was very wealthy, Jacob was—Joseph. So I don’t think I’m saying that’s bad. But there can be some hardships that come with it. This thing, this ransom, this covering, it’s almost like if you—I’ll do a personal illustration.
Several years ago, we paid our house off. And we’re like, “Woo-hoo, man.” We paid a little bit extra every month for years to get the house paid off. And you get there, and you know what happens? Insurance company says, “Hey, you need to increase your insurance now because if you’re in a wreck or something and somebody finds out, your house is going to pay it off. They’re going to go after you,” you know. And like it’s almost like, you know, the more you have, the more protection you have to have. And so a little bit of saying that.
But, but, you know, he says there, he says, “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” Now, that poor making himself poor, he’s just nobody giving out. You know, for a millionaire, if he only has $900,000, he’s poor. You understand what—a little bit of what’s going on here? You know, he makes himself poor; he’s giving out. Yet he hath great riches.
I thought about this. I know a pastor that got this. He told me about it. We filed for it last year. We didn’t get it. We’re going to file for it again this year, but it’s called the Lasco Foundation. And it was a man that started a tool-and-die company in Michigan up by the automakers. It was a Republic Tool and Die for years. It was the largest tool-and-die in the world. And John C. Lasco, he passed—I can’t remember how many years ago—but he set up a foundation trust. Well, they have some investments. I think they’re still getting some, but it’s all set up, and there are restrictions, and he gives money to help churches, not build necessarily buildings, but the sanctuary. And even our project, when I filed for, you know, we had the square footers. All right, the whole square foot—215—how much of that is the auditorium? But he gives money. And I know a good church over in Smithfield that they got, I think, $350,000, $350,000 out of them to help build their sanctuary.
Now, here’s the thing: That guy’s making himself poor, but boy, he’s rich. I mean, and their whole guidelines, they want these churches for years and years and years to win souls. And I guys go—he’s already in heaven now. I think he’s been in heaven about 10 years. And, but boy, he’s making himself poor. They can’t spend it now anyway. But he’s also rich, man. Imagine when someone gets saved in one of those auditoriums he helped build. In heaven, they know there’s joy in heaven or when it’s in their pit is.
And so there’s just blessings. Here’s the thing: Giving to the poor—this is principle number one, blessing number one—helping the poor, giving to the poor gives you wealth beyond money. See, some wealth is not necessarily monetary. It’s just riches, eternal riches.
Number two, let’s get this second one here. Look over in chapter 14. Chapter 14. Proverbs 14 and verse number 21. I like this one. Just blessings about giving to the poor and helping the poor. Look at this next one here. Proverbs 14:21. Once you find that, would you say, “Glory to God”? Good. China, see if you’re still there. You are. We’ve got a couple more principles. We’re going to go home here tonight. 14:21. “He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor…” What’s the Bible say? “…Happy.” Happy. Anybody out there want to be happy? I’d like just be happy. Sometimes you meant all the birds and problems and everything. I just need to be a habit, a little happy. Can I drink a glass of happiness or something? I need to be happy, you know. And the Bible says, you know what? You take care of the poor.
Just—just… I remember years ago, I worked at North Florida Shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida. And we were off a couple days at Christmas. Came back after Christmas break. Our foreman in the section I was at the time, Duane—he’s a Christian, and I think he went to the Southern Baptist or something. He’s a good man. And I said, “Hey, Duane, so what was your favorite thing about the Christmas holiday?” He said, “You know, my family and all that, that was good. But,” he said, “my favorite thing: Our church, we were selling Christmas trees. And we had a bunch of them. I don’t know what they were raising the funds for. But he said at the end of Christmas Eve, he said we had a bunch of them left over. We weren’t going to sell them. He said, I loaded up my truck, and I went to the poor side of town, and I just went through trying to find anybody that needed it, and I was just giving out Christmas trees.” And he said, “That was my favorite thing of all Christmas.” He said, “Man, I had a good time of family. I had good food. I had all that. My kids and my wife, and it was wonderful, but,” he said, “my favorite thing.” A week later, the thing he was talking about, given to the boy, made him happy. I mean, I love it. One of the blessings of just giving to the poor: It makes you happy. And sometimes I think I give to the poor can be selfish. Man, I just want to be happy. You just want to be blessed.
Biblical principles. Let’s get the third one here. We’re looking at five blessings for helping the poor. Number one, you give to the poor: God says, I give you wealth beyond money. Number two, mercy on the poor brings happiness. Number three, look over, Proverbs 19, and verse number 17. 19:17. This is a good one here. Proverbs 19:17. He says right there, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.”
Now, it kind of—he’s saying you give or you at least have pity on the poor. But then he says it’s like you’re lending, not giving, but lending to the Lord. Wow. “And he that which he hath given, will he pay him again?” Wow.
You know, one of the reasons why I think God’s blessed our church financially—we’re done pretty good, man—it’s all the Lord. I think some of it is we try. We’re not perfect. We try to help the poor. And God said, “I’ll take care of you.” I mean, I was talking to a very, very wealthy man recently, very, very wealthy. He’s going to help us with our build. He owns some companies and factors and whatnot, and he’s going to help us with some materials for our build, very wealthy. And I would dare say his company—and I’m sure this is accurate more than me—and probably big. But he said this: He told me he had a great guy, just down-to-earth, very friendly, down—just humble, Christian, godly man, countryman. And he said this: He said, “Well, you know,” he said, “my wife told me, ‘If you’re going to earn your first million, you’re going to have to make two million because you’re going to give the first million away.’” Maybe that’s why he has a billion-dollar company.
And this is what we think. We think, “Well, I’ll reach a certain level and then I’ll give to the poor.” Maybe you give to the poor, God helps you reach that level. God bless us. It’s just so many blessings. And I don’t want to enable them just to be happy, all right? And I don’t want to create a bad system in them. We talked about that more last week and things you can do about all that. And I tell you what, God says, “You have pity on the poor. God says, I take it as you’re giving to me. God always pays back.” Pretty amazing.
Look at this here. Let’s get a couple more here and we’re done. Look in chapter 22. Chapter 22 and verse number nine. Proverbs 22 and look at verse number nine. This is more like a more of a general type blessing, but I like it. Proverbs 22, verse number nine: “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be what?” Blessed. “For he giveth of his bread to the poor.” In other words, blessed has to do with happiness, but we’ve studied that before. I think it is more than just happiness. I think it has to do with happiness, yes, but growth. You grow. You ever feel just stuck? You can’t get in the next level in your Christian life, whatever? Give to the poorest part of that. It brings happiness and it brings growth. And so very, very important. God just says, “Hey, tell you what, you’ll be blessed.” I like to be blessed. All right, go find some poor people, help them out, and truly help them out, just enable—but help them out.
Last point, we’re going to go home. Look in chapter 28. Proverbs 28. And look in verse number 27. Proverbs 28 and verse number 27. Amazing, amazing promise right here. Proverbs 28:27. “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack. Wow. But he that hideth his eyes shall have many a…” Yeah, wow. Kind of goes back to that first: At least consider. Don’t, because of complications and people that take advantage of it, don’t write it all off. No, at least consider it. And he says right there, he said, “Look, if you just hide your eyes, you don’t want to deal with it at all, God said, you’re going to have a curse.” The guy that gives to the poor—and, by the way, typically, you’re not going to change your character by the—you think, “Well, I’ll get this money, they’ll never need any more money.” Yeah, they will, typically, next month, next year. Typically, it’s going to be back where it is now. That’s all right. You’ve got to understand what you’re dealing with, though. Man, there are blessings there. Blessings there. “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack.”
Let me say this about this principle here: It doesn’t mean you give to the poor, you might not be filthy rich, but you won’t be lacking. You’re going to have what you need. Pretty amazing principle. That’s what it says. It’s pretty amazing the choice: A curse? Or you don’t lack? No-brainer for me. You know what you say there? Wow, just the promises all over God’s Word.
Do you ever think about the Good Samaritan over there, Luke 10? I mean, he’s traveling alone. He’s maybe a businessman traveling over to Jericho—as a wealthy place from Jerusalem and Jericho. And he’s traveling over there, and he comes on this guy’s been beat up and robbed and everything, you know. And so he takes him and he… and it gives him—takes him his own medicine cabinet. I mean, maybe he’s got a donkey or something, you know, he can’t have too much, but he takes from his medicine, he gives to this guy. Eventually, he puts him on his ride, you know. Then he takes him to a motel somewhere, and he stays with him all day long. First of all, you know, he’s a businessman; he’d probably been busy, but he lost out on some deals because they didn’t have cell phones back then.
And then he’s using his own expenses and medicine, taking it—is that he’s paying for the motel—and he says, “Hey, let me give him.” He gives him two pints. A pint typically in the Bible, that’s a day’s wage. In our day in time, that may be around $200 a day. So he gave him $400 bucks, and he said, “Look, I’m going to come back in about two days or so, and whatever you need, I’ll give you the rest of it.” I mean, the guy lost—maybe he was out of $1,000, who knows? I mean, just look at this thing. He’s—boy, he’s going to be hurting. No, he’s not. God says that guy right there, I’m going to see to it. I’m going to see to it. He’s not going to lack. That guy right there, he’s been—Lord, if the Lord treats you like he’s been loaning money to me, I’m going to pay him back. He’s going to be blessed. He’s going to be happy, and he’s going to have wealth beyond monetary money.
There are so many blessings. I mean, every once in a while when I study it out a little bit in the Bible, I’m like, “Let me find somebody that’s poor. I want to have them out because I’m selfish. I want some blessings.” God’s good, very, very good to those that take care of the poor.
Would you stand? We’ll have a word of prayer. We’ll just spend a few minutes. If you want to come to an old-fashioned altar, you just be obedient, have the Lord guide you. We won’t be long tonight. Let’s just spend a few minutes praying, maybe asking him, “Lord, what would you have me do with these principles we learned tonight?” Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for being such a good God. You’re so good. And Lord, thank you how you care about us all. And Lord, thank you, you’re in control. You see it all. And Lord, thank we can rest in you and in your Word. Bless our folk tonight for a few minutes. And Jesus, then we pray. Amen.
Just spend some time to the Lord. Just spend some time. I believe you.
Original File: 2026-04-30 - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Wednesday PM 04⧸29⧸2026