Visions from Isaiah on Ministry of Mercy (Isaiah Sermon 22)

I constantly marvel at the providence of God as He lines out the things that I get to preach on. It’s not an accident. Today I am preaching to you from the Book of Isaiah on ministry to the poor and needy, just having returned from Haiti, the neediest country in the western hemisphere. This will be my last sermon in the Book of Isaiah until further notice. When I preach to you next, it will be from the Gospel of Matthew, God willing. What I want to do today is just preach a topical sermon from texts in the Book of Isaiah on visions of mercy ministry and ministry to the poor and needy. I want to preach it as a challenge to each one of us to give generously and to live a life of sacrificial love to others. I can’t think of a better book in the Bible to do that from than the Book of Isaiah.

For me personally, I can’t think of a better time than today, this morning, having just come back from Haiti. The scenes of poverty in that country are overwhelming and devastating. Unforgettable. It’s my third trip there, and it just keeps deepening and expanding as I have visions in my mind. There’s a portion of the capital city of Port-au-Prince called the Cité Soleil. What a strange name, the city of the sun, because it’s a dark, poor place. There are all these temporary shelters built out of cardboard or wood with rusty corrugated metal roofs. There are children barely clad that are playing in puddles of muddy water or scooping some up in plastic pitchers and bringing it back into the city to do I have no idea what with. You see piles of garbage with people walking over them and picking out things that they find of some value and bringing them back into the city.

The whole country isn’t that poor. But the sights are unforgettable; the smells, the picture of poverty sitting on that community like a 900-pound gorilla and there’s nothing that they can do. I know the political history, the instability, the corruption, the wickedness of human government and of human sinfulness. You can’t put it all on the government because there’s just sin across the board that you see there, that’s brought that country to that level. The demonic element, voodoo, satanism, and darkness are pervasive. As I come back today to preach here at First Baptist Durham, my heart is moved and stirred with hope of the sense of the power of God. I have hope that God would anoint me, that He would sear my lips with a coal taken from the altar, that He’ll forgive me of my sins of selfishness, materialism, greed, loveless-ness, a lack of faith and fear, and all kinds of other sins that have hindered me from being fully useful to God and mercy ministry.

You remember how Isaiah had a vision of Christ seated on His throne, high and exalted, and he felt immediately his own sinfulness. He said, “Woe is me. I am ruined.” I feel that way as I look at the holiness of God, as I look at the love of Jesus Christ, the way He left that glorious throne and came to minister to us. I look inside my own heart of darkness, my own limitations as a Christian, showing what I’m used to, what I’m accustomed to. I just ask the Lord to forgive me and to free me so that I can minister to others better the rest of my life. And I know He will. He came to save me from sin. I know He’s going to save this church from the same thing. I don’t know what the future holds for our country. We may need to band together, economically, as never before. This is a good time for us to discover what it means to reach out to somebody who’s needy, to help them, and to not be selfish. So I’m trusting in God for that.

There’s one particular verse that moved me. You heard Fred powerfully read Isaiah 58:10. It says, “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” That’s the verse that’s going to be the focal point of our meditations together today. I believe that if we do this, God will bless this church as never before. We will be a light shining in a dark place. We will be a city built up on a hill for all the people around to see. No one lights a lamp and hides it under a bowl. God has lit a lamp in this church. He intends to put it up high in this community and to the ends of the earth that we might shine for His glory and for the alleviation of suffering. We could be a blessing in this world as Christ was. You’ve already heard the verse that Eric read, 2 Corinthians 8:9. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” That’s what moves me today.

I. Isaiah’s Heart for the Poor

So we turn to the Book of Isaiah. I’m not going to urge that you follow along. I’m going to be moving through the book and picking out verses in which Isaiah reveals his heart for the poor and needy. You can look these verses up later. For me, this message, as I said, is like a burning coal from the altar, a coal of conviction and also of atonement, that we might be transformed by the word of God. Isaiah called on Judah and Jerusalem to deal honestly with their sinfulness, to face it head on, and so he told the truth. They were saturated in religiosity, the machinery of religion. The wheels and the gears were turning all the time in Isaiah’s day.

This is what the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 1:13, “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, sabbaths, and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies.” They did all of these religious things, but God was displeased because their hearts were far from God. He was displeased with their hypocrisy. He was displeased with their lack of compassion for the poor and needy. Through Isaiah the prophet, God called to Israel to repent. In Isaiah 1:16-17, He said, “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” These staccato commands come from God. Seek justice, it says. That is, be certain that the weakest members of society are being fairly and justly treated.

Oh, there was a lightning bolt of conviction for me this past week! I didn’t go to Haiti to be convicted of sin. I went to Haiti to minister. I went to Haiti to give them something good, that I might be a blessing. God intended, perhaps, that, but also that I might be convicted. We were in this church in Sainte-Marie. The church was filled with people that were there for the medical clinic, consultations that the doctors were doing, and for eye glasses. We divided the people up. David Eugene, the Haitian pastor that I work with, it’s just a blessing to work with him for those that needed eyeglasses and those that wanted the medical consultation. We gave them tickets with numbers on them. Everything was just engineered and perfect. It was so orderly and I loved it.

That’s how it began, clean and orderly and neat. It didn’t stay that way. Pretty soon, there was a lot of chaos. There was a lot of moving. We had two men that we thought were trustworthy guarding the stairs up to the pulpit. Behind the pulpit was where the clinic was and the eyeglasses. There were the right stairs and the left stairs. One went up one side for the eyeglasses, and one went up the other side for the consultation. We had these guards that were guarding like the fox guards the hen house. It wasn’t long before corruption started coming in the system. They were allowing their friends and attractive young ladies and other people to get in ahead of these elderly women that were sitting and waiting patiently and could do nothing about it. It started to anger me.

I saw this man give a ticket to one of his friends and he just put it in his pocket. And I said, “You gave him a ticket.” Now, I think the only word he understood was “ticket.” He knew that and he said, “Yeah, ticket. Ticket. Yeah, tickets. I’m taking tickets.” “No, no, you gave a ticket.” He was smiling and very, “Yeah.” Like I was born yesterday and knew nothing. But I do know some things. I studied French for six years and it served some benefit there in that Creole-speaking country. I said, “Ce n’est pas juste.” It’s not just, what you’re doing. And his countenance changed. He knew what I was saying. And we were not friendly after that. I wouldn’t mind reaching out to him, but he knew that I had caught him. Actually, I was the one that was caught. Is it just that I can walk into a Walmart and buy reading glasses in about ten minutes with a credit card, when they have to wait two or three hours to get them? Is that just? These are brothers and sisters in Christ, a lot of them. Is it just that we Americans, 5% of the world population, use 23% of the world’s energy? Is that just? It’s not just, I said. It’s not just, said the Lord to me. I’ll be wrestling with it the rest of my life. I don’t have an answer to the injustices of the world. I don’t know what the answer is. But I do know this: it is unchristian not to face the question. It’s unchristian to hide from it. It’s unchristian to remember one encounter you have with a beggar, and because of what they did with the money you gave (used it on drugs or alcohol), you are now free forever from thinking about ministering to the poor and needy. He means for us, based on Isaiah, to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy. That’s what He means.

It’s relentless. He means for it to overwhelm us. He means for us to go back again and again and say, “God, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s wise. I don’t know what’s best. I don’t know how to minister here in Durham. I don’t know how to minister in Haiti. I don’t know what to do, but God, please show me.” That’s what He intends. But we hide from it. We come up with clever answers that will be worthless on the day of accounting. They will not help us. The tissue-paper thin reasons we make for why we don’t have to obey the scripture on ministering to the poor and needy will not help us when we face Christ and give Him an account. They won’t help.

So, seeking justice means being certain that the weakest members of society are being fairly and justly treated. “Encourage the oppressed,” says Isaiah. Find people that are crushed as if by a yoke of slavery. Encourage them by releasing them from the crushing burden that oppresses them. Defending the cause of the fatherless means being certain that the weakest, most defenseless members of society, the orphans, have their needs met. Pleading the case of the widow means standing in the courtrooms and the halls of power and acting as an advocate for their causes, as if they were your own. That’s what He’s telling us to do.

Isaiah was fighting against the sinfulness of the human heart. He was also fighting against the corruption of wicked rulers. It’s everywhere in Haiti, and it’s all over the world. The wickedness of people who use their positions of influence for their own selfish purposes! Isaiah fought against it. In Isaiah 1:23, he says, “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless, the widow’s case does not come before them.” Consistently, Isaiah preached against these men. They were the ones corrupting society. For example, widows, orphans, and the otherwise weak and needy were being defrauded. There were multiple blasts from Isaiah’s clear trumpet against these wicked rulers. Isaiah 3:14-15 says, “The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: ‘It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”

This included unjust judges who used their positions to rob the poor and needy, to plunder the houses of widows and steal their property, to favor the rich. It included kings and princes who did the same, using their influence to do that. I’m thinking, of course, about King Ahab, who in the time of Elijah set his heart on Naboth’s vineyard and through the suggestions of his wicked wife, Queen Jezebel, orchestrated some trumped up charge against Naboth. He had him killed and then illegally confiscated his inheritance, which should have gone to his family. But he’s not the only one. This kind of thing happens again and again, and not just in Haiti. It happens in America. It happens all over the world. People use their positions of influence for themselves. Isaiah raises his trumpet to his lips and he blasts out warnings, like that in Isaiah 10:1-3. “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?”

Yet, Isaiah saw that even the financially poor and needy were themselves sinners in need of salvation. He had no romantic view of the poor and needy. They were every bit as sinful as the rich oppressors. If they could have, they would have been the rich oppressors. I’m telling you from my own heart, one of the greatest obstacles to sustaining ministry to the poor and needy are the poor and needy themselves, how they live, what they do. We expect to be thanked, to be recognized for the love that we show them, okay? We expect that they might take the money and use it wisely to build themselves up. We’re not going to see that. You know why? Because they’re as sinful as we are. That’s why. Isaiah never denied this. He never denied that the poor and needy were sinners. He addressed it fully. Isaiah 9:17 says, “Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and the widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”

He knew the hearts of the poor. It’s not, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” I know that’s what Luke says. But that has to do with poverty of spirit towards God, where you become a spiritual beggar and know you need a Savior. There are plenty of poor people that are going to go to hell. And there are some rich people that will go to heaven. That’s not the issue. We need to look past the sinfulness of the people we seek to reach and say, “Yes, they’re sinful. That’s why they need a physician. That’s why they need Jesus.” Yeah, it makes it complicated, very complicated, to know how to minister to them wisely.

Even the most wretched and oppressed people still need a Savior. Amen. That’s why we want to minister to them. Because they need Jesus. Isaiah knew very plainly that the only answer to poverty is Christ, the coming King. Amen! He’s it. The coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ is the only answer. I mean the eschatological, second coming of Christ’s kingdom. I’m not saying this in the sense of the liberal theologian that saw the kingdom of Christ here in this world and had the soup kitchens and the social gospel and all that. I see it when Jesus comes back and separates the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the bad fish, deals with wickedness, and sets up His eternal kingdom. That’s when it will finally be solved, and not until then. But Christ is a Savior now. He’s a Savior today, from selfishness and sin and wickedness and all that. The vision of Christ, the coming king, is in Isaiah 11:4. “With righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.” Christ is coming to establish an eternal kingdom of righteousness, justice, and holiness. He comes to judge the oppressors, the wicked. He comes to be a refuge for the poor and needy against their oppressors, a refuge, a shelter.

It says in Isaiah 25:4-5, “You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert.” Christ comes to save sinners. That’s the good news of the gospel. He comes to be a refuge for the poor and needy who know they need a refuge.

Later chapters in Isaiah speak of the vindication of the poor and needy and the humbling of the arrogant, unbelieving rich. Isaiah 26:5-6 says, “He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. Feet trample it down – the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.” What a vision! The wicked city of the rich is cast down by the hand of God, and then the poor trample it. Isaiah 29:19 says, “Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” That’s the future, friends. That’s a glorious future. That’s what the Lord is going to do.

Now, Christ began His ministry, His preaching ministry, in His hometown, in Nazareth. What a moment that was. They’d heard some strange reports about Jesus, this boy they’d seen growing up in their streets. His father was Joseph and his mother was Mary. He was always a bit different. Well, never more than on that Sabbath when He got up and the scroll of Isaiah the Prophet was given to Him. He unrolled it and found the place in Isaiah 61, where these words are written: “The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those grieve in Zion.” The scroll is rolled up and Jesus sat down, saying, “Today, in your hearing, this scripture is fulfilled.”

Oh, how powerful is that! Wouldn’t you love to have been there? To feel the electricity in the place? Fulfilled. Fulfilled. Yes, fulfilled in the voice of the Messiah, the one who comes ministering by the power of the Spirit of God to lift the poor and needy out of the ash heap of history and save them eternally. That’s what He came to do. He went to the weakest and the neediest, the hungry, the dying, and the dead. He ministered to them. And the poor were the ones who received it most readily, most eagerly.

Now, you should not imagine that Jesus had no heart or compassion for the rich. There was the rich young ruler. It says very plainly that Jesus loved him. His heart went out to him. He wanted to free him from his materialism, his selfishness, and his idolatry. That’s what He wanted. He wanted to free him. Or Zacchaeus, who made a living out of defrauding people, taking way too much tax money and becoming wealthy. Zacchaeus was saved. He was transformed by the power of the word of God. He said, “Lord, here and now I give some of my possessions to minister to the poor and needy. And if, per chance, I have defrauded anyone, I give back four-fold.” I think he probably had. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready to admit it to everyone. I don’t know. But Jesus celebrated. He said, “Today, salvation has come to this house.” Then there’s Nicodemus, who certainly was wealthy. And Joseph of Arimathea, who brought seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloe to wrap up Jesus’ dead body and give Him a burial fit for a king.

Finally, they have the courage to come out and be counted when Jesus is dead. They didn’t have the courage when he was alive. But the Spirit of God, I think, moved on them and said, “You have a prophecy to fulfill.” Isaiah 53 said He was with the rich in His death. They provided the physical evidence for the resurrection by wrapping up Jesus’ body with that sticky, expensive, aromatic resin. He’s only going to be using it for three days, you know. There it would be, as physical testimony. Only the wealthy could afford that. So He has a heart of compassion for rich people. But just like with the poor, He calls on them to repent, to turn away from idolatry, to turn away from wickedness and to be used by God for the kingdom of God. That’s what He’s calling on them to do. He said it’s hard for them to listen. Very hard. In fact, without God, it’s impossible.

III. The Call of the Lord: Spend Yourself on Behalf of the Needy

So this is the call of the Lord from Isaiah: spend yourself on behalf of the needy. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 58. This will take the rest of our time in Isaiah, this one passage. There, the Lord calls on Israel to repent of their selfishness and spend themselves on behalf of the needy.

This is the context. He’s addressing Israel’s faulty religiosity. I’ve already mentioned that. He captures their attitude powerfully. Look at Isaiah 58:1-5. “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” No one had the power to strip you bare like Isaiah. Powerful words.

The people seem to think that their fasting has put God in some kind of debtor’s position, that God somehow owes them something now that they’ve deprived themselves of some food for a day. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not noticed? Why are we humbling ourselves and you’re not giving us what we asked for?” As though a single day of fasting obligates God to answer from on high and do whatever they want. In the midst of their fasting, they display their wickedness, their rebellion, and their sin. Their eagerness to know God’s ways was merely a façade. They claimed to know God, but by their lives they denied Him. “They seemed eager to know my ways,” said Isaiah, “as if they were a nation that does what is right. But they’re not. They seemed eager for God to draw near. But they really don’t want me because I’m a consuming fire.”

Even the fasting itself was polluted by their sinfulness. Look at verses 3-4. “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.” I’ve done that. No, I haven’t had the brawling, fighting thing. But I’ve fasted and gotten irritable as the day went on. Has that ever happened to you? I don’t know if you want to admit it. But it’s like, “Rawr,” snarling like a junkyard dog. Somebody just throw me a bone; I’d gnaw on it. I’m not behaving very much like Jesus. It’s hard to be with me on days like that. Oh, what a holy day to the Lord! He said, “Put oil on your head and wash your face with it. No one will know that you’re fasting.” My family has known when I’m fasting. It’s been obvious later in the day. Beating each other up, that I’ve never done.

But you notice that he zeros in on the social issue. “On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and deprive your workers of their just wages.” He zeros in on the social issue of their treatment of the poor and needy, and so God rejects this fast entirely. Verse 4 says, “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.”

Instead, he gives them a true, fast ministry to the poor. Look at verses 6-10. “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away form your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: ‘Here am I.’ If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and the malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

God is saying what truly moves Him. “When I see these things,” says the Lord, “it moves me. This is the fast I’ve chosen. This is what I’m looking for.” Look what he talks about: to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to break every yoke. Each of these refers to unjust laws and legal circumstances that are binding the poor so they can’t escape from oppressive circumstances. Then he says, “to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter and to clothe the naked.” These refer to basic physical ministries: food, clothing, and shelter. I was hungry; I was a stranger; you invited me in. I was hungry, and you fed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. These basic physical ministries, that’s the fast that the Lord is seeking.

He also says “And not to turn away from your own flesh.” Now, God intended this ministry to go on, not just to native Jews, but to all human beings. The NIV adds, I think wrongly, “own flesh and blood.” Blood tends to connect with your race, the Jews. It doesn’t say that in the Hebrew. Do not turn away from your own flesh means these are other human beings. You’re just like them. There’s no difference. They are human beings. We’re all descended from one father. From one man, He made every nation of men. We’re of the same kindred. “To not turn away from your own flesh,” He says. The whole human race has basic physical needs in common. When you see someone hungry, naked, or homeless, something should move inside you to want to alleviate their suffering.

We come to this key phrase in verse 10. “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry.” “Spend yourself” is the NIV translation. It’s a beautiful translation. I love it. It makes you uncomfortable. It causes you to live differently than you were living before. It changes you. It affects you. It’s not a life given out of surplus and out of the extra. It’s not “if you spend some of your money”, it’s “if you spend yourselves.”

There are different ways that preachers can belabor a point. I’m going to do it this way. I’m going to do it by reading different translations of this verse. King James says, “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, so draw out thy soul to the hungry.” NAU gives us Isaiah 58:10 as, “If you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted.” The ESV has, “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted.” The New King James has, “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul.” All of these speak to the issue of self-sacrifice on behalf of the poor and needy. Now, I think spending yourself is the next step after a previous one, which is to deny yourself. Right? Jesus called on us as His disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. I fit “spend yourself on behalf of the needy” right into the following Jesus part. Deny yourself. Say no to yourself. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. You will spend yourself on behalf of the poor and needy the rest of your life, because that’s what He does. To me, that’s the Christian lifestyle. I find myself wanting in it. I lack it. I’m not doing it the way I should. I mean, there are glimmers here and there, like sparks before the fire. But I want the fire. I want the bonfire. I would like to be on fire for this. We need our hearts to go out to the poor and needy. We won’t do it otherwise.

Jesus, in Luke 7, saw a widow from Nain. She was in the process of burying her only son. She was weeping with a lamentation we can hardly imagine. In that society, that was a desperate situation. It says in Luke 7:13, “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’” We will not obey the Lord until our heart goes out to people and knits with them in their suffering. I think it starts with sight. You have to see them. Look at what it says in Isaiah 58:7. “When you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh.” You have to see them. If you don’t want to do this, never go where they are. Then you never have to see them. And if you don’t see them, then you don’t have to help them. Beggars, if you have ever noticed, they try to catch your eye. When they have your eye, they’ve got a better chance. What do you do if you don’t want to help them? You don’t look them in the face.

So I think the text is saying, “See them. Look at them. Look at their eyes. Look at their faces. Then, care for them.” And what is the result of this true fast? What is the result of this ministry? Glory. Glory for God. Glory for us. “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Matthew 13:43. In Isaiah 58:10-11, it says, “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Do you have any idea what kind of economic times are coming to us? I don’t. I don’t know. We may need to be this for each other. We may need to be an incredible community of sacrificial love, like we have never been before, to help the poor and needy even in our own congregation.

God is making this promise. If we live like this, we will have everything we need. He will take care of us. We will know the righteousness of God. We will know the happiness of God’s pure light shining in our souls. We will have a clarity and a purpose in our lives that we have never had before. We will know God. We will see His hand, His activity and sacrificial service. We will see Him. We will get to know Him better. The Lord will guide us always. He will meet our needs. He will strengthen our bodies. We will be fruitful like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

I think it was Tuesday morning of this past week. I was about to go out. I was standing at this pavilion where there was a group of Haitian people. Every morning, David Eugene and I went out and preached the gospel to them before they got ready to come into the clinic. And I just had nothing. I had nothing to give. I was weary. I was empty. I stood off to the side and they hadn’t seen us yet, David and I. I prayed. I said, “God, fill me up. I have nothing to give. I don’t want to be here. I want to be home. Please help me say something to them about the Gospel of Christ.” And He did for the rest of the day, and the next day, and the next day. He continued to fill me, continued to strengthen me, to give me the power to minister. It wasn’t just me. Other brothers and sisters that were there, I saw Him do that for them, too. He has promised that if we will spend ourselves, He will replenish us and give us everything we need.

III. Who Are We? Where Do We Live?

So who are we? Where do we live? We are an urban church. We worship every week adjacent to the poorest part of Durham, northeast central Durham. Here, the standard of living is the lowest in the Triangle Region. Here, the crime rate is the highest. Right near us, gang activity is pronounced. Here are single parent homes, drug deals, and prostitution. Now, I can tell you that there is no poverty here in Durham that even remotely compares with that in the Cité Soleil. It’s not even close. There’s no poverty in America that compares with that. But it is poverty nonetheless. There is suffering here, nonetheless. And we are called to minister to the poor and needy here, even though they are not at the level of those in Haiti. We are an urban church.

Secondly, we are a commuter church. Most of us, I would not say all of us, but most of us, drive a distance to get here. We live in more comfortable and more affluent communities than the people surrounding this church building. We drive to get here. Hardly any of us live in this community. Hardly any of us would choose to live in this community. Hardly any of us have ever lived in anything like this community. We are affluent, well-educated, and unfamiliar with the kinds of struggles that characterize daily life in northeast central Durham. The real issue is that we don’t necessarily want that to change. We may want to keep the sufferings of these neighbors of ours at arm’s length.

Thirdly, we are a blessed church. We have been lavishly blessed by God. He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Through faith in Jesus Christ, the one who shed His blood on the cross, all of our sins are forgiven. If you came here today and your sins are not forgiven through faith in Christ, you don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to go anywhere. All you need to do is look to Jesus. He will forgive all of your sins and you will be adopted into the family of God as we have been. We are children of the living God. We have a glorious future. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And the earth we’re going to inherit is better than this one. It’s going to be greatly fixed up, okay? It’s really going to be beautiful, a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. We are completely set for eternity. All of our needs are met, indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are materially blessed as well. That’s what we are.

IV. A Call to Pray and Act

An urban church, a commuter church, and a blessed church. What then shall we do? How shall we live? Well, I’m calling on us to pray and act. I want you to start with this. I love what Michael Card said in that concert that you folks so beautifully arranged for me and for all of you guys that came. It was such a blessing. I remember one thing Michael Card said. “It makes no sense to try to hide something from an omniscient God.” Amen! So if you say, “Boy, that was a disturbing sermon today,” go tell God. He already knows how you think about ministry to the poor and needy. Don’t hide it from Him. Just go and pray. Say, “God, I don’t care like I should for the poor and needy. I just don’t. I don’t want to walk down that road. I don’t want to go there. There are too many unanswered questions. There are too many hard things. You already said, Jesus, that the poor will always be with us. So what can we do? But I know that You want us to change. I know You want me to change. Please change me. Make me willing to travel with You on that road.” Just start there. There is no sense in hiding something from an omniscient God. I’m going to remember that one. Tell Him the truth.

Secondly, let’s start to see the needy. Let’s see them. Let’s go where they are. You had an invitation to go out in the streets of Durham and invite people to the Health Fair. That’s a wonderful way to begin. People will understand why you’re there. They won’t think it’s weird. They may or may not come to the Health Fair, but they’ll know why you’re there. You have an entré. It’s an easy thing to do. Invite them to the Health Fair. I don’t mean to be in any way disrespectful to the actual medical care that goes on in the Health Fair, but the invitation could cut out the middle man of them coming to the Health Fair by them coming to faith in Christ right there on the streets. You can witness to them. Talk to them. See how they live. Look past their shoulder into their living room to see where they live. Talk to them. See the needy.

If I can urge you, start with your own family. I don’t just mean your own children. Well, I do mean that. It says in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than a nonbeliever.” There’s much poverty in the world because fathers especially have neglected their ministry  to their children and their wives. So we have to start there. But then you could extend it out to extended family members: to your parents, to siblings that may be poor and needy. Care for them. I’m talking about concentric circles.

Then let’s talk about FBC. There are needy people here in this church already. It’s already happening. It says in Galatians 6:10, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Acts 4:34-35 says, ”There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and so it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” Actually, the more that our urban ministry is fruitful, the more people from the community are going to become members of this church. And they’re going to need our help. So we need to minister. At the end of every Lord’s Supper, we have a Deacon Benevolence Fund offering. Plan now to give more generously to that than you’ve ever given before. We give that money out to help the needy of this church first and the community second. Already there are more and more needs of church members. There just are. So plan ahead to be very generous the next time we have the Lord’s Supper. Then extend from there to the community. Let’s reach out here in northeast central Durham.

I asked Matthew Hodges, the director of Urban Ministry, “I’m working on a sermon on ministry to the poor and needy. Can you give me some points of application for the church?” And he wrote out a list of them. I was reading over them this morning, and I said, “Why would I read them? Let’s have Matthew read them.” So we’re going to end our sermon. I told him he’s under strict orders just to read them. Now, he could easily preach on each of these points but he’s not permitted to do so. Right, brother? He can elaborate, and if you want to hear him elaborate, come and talk to him afterwards and he will. But he’s going to tell you some specific ways to minister here in the community. Then he’s going to close in prayer.

These are applications on ministering.

1. The fourth Sunday of every month, after church from 12:30 to 1:00, commit to pray for our outreach to the community. We meet here at church in Room 246.
2. During the greeting time, welcome men and women who do not normally attend FBC. All you need to say is, “My name is” and say your name. “Welcome to FBC. What is your name? How did you hear about FBC?” Share how long you have attended FBC, and thank the individual for coming.
3. The visitor who looks lost (not spiritually) on Sunday, or who is by themselves, needs to be acknowledged. At the end of Bible for Life class, if you see an individual standing by themselves that does not normally attend, go to the person and introduce yourself. Ask the person if they are sitting with anyone in the service. If they are not, welcome them to sit with you.
4. If an individual asks you for any type of assistance, direct them to the ministerial staff or a deacon. We will make that decision.
5. Meditate on the fact that we all were needy and poor spiritually, and have been made rich through faith in Christ.
6. There’s a need for men and women to walk the streets of Durham during the day to pray, pass out tracts, and engage men and women in conversations that prayerfully would lead to the gospel.
7. When referring to the community, let’s say the people are “the men and women in our community” rather than “they” or “them.” This terminology will help FBC members to not think they are better than men and women in this community.
8. Bible for Life classes can commit to serve a meal and then engage in conversation with men and women at the Durham Rescue Mission, on the men’s or women’s campus.
9. Pray about being a part of the 2009 Summer Mission Trip right here to our community.
10. Remember that all communities have been affected by sin. The degree of the sin problem manifests itself differently. The answer to the problem of sin in the people who live in your community is the same answer to the problem of sin in the 27701 community.

FBC may not be able to meet every physical need of the poor and needy, but we can be the heartbeat to meeting the spiritual needs in this community. Talk to me about serving on the Urban Ministry Team. Invite men and women from the community to come and worship here at First Baptist. Let the men and women you invite from the community make the decision of whether or not they are going to come. We cannot make the choice for anybody, whether or not they want to come and worship here. Pray as we move forward ministering to the community.

Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” We need to look at the poor and needy in our community from a Biblical worldview first, not from a we-do-not-connect worldview. If the latter is what we use, we will never minister to the community. Ask yourself, “Do I look at ministering to the poor and needy in our community from a Biblical worldview?” Let’s pray.

This will be my final message in Isaiah for a while… my next sermon will be from the Gospel of Matthew, as I return to a series I was preaching in that book back in spring of 2007.

For my final message in Isaiah, I want to take a more topical approach and preach something that’s been on my heart for a while from the book of Isaiah—the issue of ministry to the poor and needy here in Durham and around the world.

We just returned from a week of ministry in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—Haiti. The scenes of degradation and poverty that are commonplace in that country are shocking and heartbreaking

There is the unforgettable City Soleil in Port Au Prince, the capital of Haiti. City Soleil is a filthy city of tents and other temporary structures, where children run around in minimal clothing and drink muddy puddle water, where adults stand around all day with nothing productive to do, where poverty sits like a 900 pound gorilla on a city unable to rise… where people created in the image of God live at the lowest level of existence imaginable… far from the glory and honor God originally intended for beings created in His image.

As I come back to Durham to preach, my heart is moved to preach a powerful theme from the visions of Isaiah the prophet… a prophetic word falling like a coal from the altar, having touched Isaiah’s lips, burned in his heart… written with the pen… read by our eyes, and applied to our sinful hearts by the same Holy Spirit that first moved the prophet to write

I believe God is calling this church to embrace the poor and needy of Durham and of the ends of the earth with a commitment that we have never seen before

Isaiah 58:10 if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

I believe that if we do this, God will bless our church like never before… and more than that, we will ourselves be a blessing to this world like Christ was when He entered:

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

I.   Isaiah’s Heart for the Poor

A.  Isaiah’s Message a Burning Coal from the Altar

1.  He called on Judah and Jerusalem to deal honestly with their sin

2.  they were saturated in religiosity—Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1:13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations– I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

3.  but God was very displeased with their hearts… with their hypocrisy

4.  also God was very displeased with their lack of compassion on the poor and needy

5.  through Isaiah the prophet, God called on Israel to repent

Isaiah 1:16-17 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

a.  These staccato commands from God speak of a life lived energetically for the poor and needy

b.  “Seek justice” = be certain that the weakest members of society are being fairly and justly treated

c.  “encourage the oppressed” = find people that are crushed as if by a yoke of slavery, and encourage them by releasing them from the crushing burden that oppresses them

d.  “defend the cause of the fatherless” = be certain that the weakest most defenseless members of society—orphans—have their needs met

e.  “Plead the case of the widow” = stand in the courtrooms and in the halls of power and act as an advocate for their causes as if they were your own; perhaps some powerful man has robbed them of their inheritance, the portion of the Promised land that was allotted to them by the Lord in the time of Joshua

B.  Fighting the Corruption of Wicked Rulers

Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.

1.  consistently Isaiah preached against these men

2.  they were the ones corrupting society such that widows, orphans, and the otherwise weak and needy were being defrauded

3.  so there were multiple blasts from his clear trumpet against them

Isaiah 3:14-15 The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

a.  This included unjust judges who used their positions to rob the poor and needy and favor the rich

b.  This included kings and princes who plundered houses and lands from the poor… a great example of this was King Ahab in Elijah’s day who coveted Naboth’s vineyard and, prompted by his wicked wife Queen Jezebel orchestrated Naboth’s death by using false witnesses against him

4.  so Isaiah raises his trumpet to his lips and blasts out a warning against these unjust leaders

Isaiah 10:1-3 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3 What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?

C.  Yet… Even the Poor and Needy are Sinners in Need of Salvation

1.  Isaiah had no romantic view of the poor and needy… they were every bit as sinful as their rich oppressors

2.  one of the greatest obstacles against consistent, sacrificial ministry for the poor is how sinful they are…

3.  Isaiah never denied this, but addressed it fully

Isaiah 9:17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

4.  it is not the beggars who go to heaven but the spiritual beggars! Those who know that spiritually they have no hope

5.  thus even the most wretched and oppressed people are still sinners in need of a Savior

D.  Christ the Coming King: The Only Ultimate Answer to Poverty

Isaiah 11:4 with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

1.  Christ comes to establish an eternal kingdom of righteousness

2.  Christ comes to judge oppressors

3.  Christ comes to be refuge for the poor and needy against their oppressors

Isaiah 25:4-5 You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall 5 and like the heat of the desert.

4.  Christ comes to save sinners… including those among the poor and needy

5.  Christ’s coming reign is the only answer to all of this… both for the rich oppressor and for the poor and downtrodden

6.  later chapters speak of the vindication of the poor and needy… and humbling of the arrogant unbelieving rich

Isaiah 26:5-6 He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. 6 Feet trample it down– the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.

Isaiah 29:19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

7.  The Beginning of Christ’s Ministry: His Sermon in Nazareth

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion

a.  From the very beginning of Christ’s ministry, Christ’s desire to lift up the poor and needy was clear

b.  Christ came to the weakest, the most rejected, the most despised people

c.  They were the ones who received Him most readily, most eagerly

d.  That’s not to say that Christ did not care for the wealthy… His encounter with the rich young ruler proves that Christ had a saving desire toward rich people as well as poor

e.  However, it is clear that Christ saw his mission in terms of lifting the poor and needy and saving them… he came to preach good news to the poor

Of all the passages in the magnificent book of Isaiah on the poor and needy, however, there is one in particular that powerfully speaks to me of our obligation to a consistent ministry of mercy…

Isaiah 58

II.   The Call of the Lord: Spend Yourself on Behalf of the Needy

A.  Context: Addressing Israel’s Faulty Religiosity

1.  Isaiah captures their attitude powerfully

Isaiah 58:1-5 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

2.  the people seem to think their fasting puts God in a debtor’s position

a.  as though God owes them something for doing it

vs. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?

b.  as though their single day of fasting obligates God to answer from on high and do whatever they want Him to do

c.  but they fast in the midst of their rebellion and sins: verse 1

vs. 1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.

d.  their eagerness to know God’s ways is merely a façade… they claim to know God but by their lives they deny Him

vs. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.

e.  they seem to want God to draw near to them, but their sins have driven Him far away

3.  but even the fasting itself is polluted by their sinfulness

vs. 3-4 “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

a.  The deprivation of food has left them hungry and snarling like junk yard dogs that haven’t fed in a day

b.  They quarrel with each other and have arguments… even fistfights

c.  Sometimes fasting can uncover the greatest wickedness in man’s heart… the hypocrisy

Illus. Islam has a whole month of fasting—Ramadan—during which no food can be consumed from sunrise to sunset; yet amazingly, more food is consumed in that month than any other month in the Islamic calendar!!

d.  God rejects this fast entirely

Vs. 4 You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

B.  Deeper Issue: Exploitation of the Poor

Vs. 3 “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

1.  yet if we look closer, it’s not just the irritability of the fasting men… not just their bickering and quarrelling with each other… not even just their fistfights that so appalls Almighty God

2.  far worse in His eyes is this: their exploitation of the poor workers whose labor enriched them

3.  these poverty stricken workers could be poor Jews whose adverse circumstances forced them to abandon their ancestral farmlands and sell themselves into bondage to pay their debts

4.  the Law of Moses provided for a cyclical pattern of debt absolution and for the emancipation of all Jewish servants

5.  yet the prophet Jeremiah speak in his day of how wealthy Jews were refusing to allow their fellow Jews who were slaves to go free

C.  Isaiah’s Call: A True Fast of Ministry to the Poor

Isaiah 58:6-10 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

1.  God states what truly moves Him… what kind of religious action He desires

2.  He calls it “the kind of fasting I have chosen”

3.  look at what’s listed

a.  to loose the chains of injustice

b.  to untie the cords of the yoke

c.  to set the oppressed free

d.  to break every yoke

all of these refer to unjust laws and legal circumstances that are binding the poor so they can’t escape their oppressive circumstances

e.  to share your food with the hungry

f.  to provide the poor wanderer with shelter

g.  to clothe the naked

this refers to basic ministry of mercy to the poor and needy… caring for those who have no food, clothing and shelter

h.  and not turn away from your own flesh

and God intended this ministry to go on not just to native Jews, but to all human beings, no matter what their racial backgrounds

the NIV adds “and blood”… blood generally refers to race

but the Hebrew just says “flesh”… and not turn away from your own flesh

the whole human race has basic physical needs in common… when you see someone hungry, naked, homeless… something should move in you to want to meet the need

Isaiah 58:6-10 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

D.  Key Phrase: Spend Yourself on Behalf of the Hungry

Vs. 10 …if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

1.  “spend yourself” is NIVs translation… it implies a painful sacrificial way of life… a way of life that pinches at your comfort zone, that changes you, that affects you

2.  not a life given out of the extra, out of the surplus… a life that is difficult to live

3.  other translations give a sense of the Hebrew phrase

KJV Isaiah 58:10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul

NAU Isaiah 58:10 And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted

ESV Isaiah 58:10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted

NKJ Isaiah 58:10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul

RSV Isaiah 58:10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted

4.  all of these speak to the act of self-sacrifice

spend yourself = next step after deny yourself

Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

To deny yourself is to say NO to selfishness, to selfish use of God’s resources—your time, energy and money—lavishing it on yourself

Deny yourself is the start… take up your cross is reality (it will be painful)… follow me = SPEND YOURSELF on behalf of the poor and needy

Isaiah’s verse speaks of a soul drawn out to the poor and needy

a.  Draw out your soul = be moved with compassion, feel inwardly what they are feeling

b.  Compassion is the emotional state most commonly displayed by Christ

c.  “heart went out” to the widow at Nain who was burying her only son

Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

d.  Genuine ministry to the poor begins with SEEING the poor and needy… turning from your own busy lifestyle and stopping and looking, and allowing the scene to enter your heart

Vs. 7 when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh

e.  Next, the heart is drawn out to the needy… a heart moved with compassion

f.  Then God is calling on us to spend ourselves for the poor and needy… to give ourselves to them

g.  A costly lifestyle of inconvenience, of expense, of trouble and difficulty from getting involved in their sufferings

E.  The Result of the True Fast: Glory!

Isaiah 58:10-11 if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

1.  your light will rise in the darkness… your night will become like noonday

a.  you will know the true happiness of God’s pure light shining in your souls

b.  you will have a clarity and purpose in your life that you have never experienced before

c.  you will know God… and you will know why God brought you here and what God wants you to do

2.  the Lord will guide you always

3.  the Lord will meet your needs

4.  the Lord will strengthen your bodies

5.  you will be fruitful—like a well-watered garden whose spring waters never fail

III.   Who Are We? Where Do We Live?

A.  We Are an Urban Church

1.  we worship every week adjacent to the poorest part of Durham… Northeast central Durham

a.  here the standard of living is the lowest

b.  here the crime rate is the highest

c.  right near us, the gang activity is pronounced

d.  here are single-parent homes, and drug deals and prostitution

2.  now I can tell you, there is no poverty in Durham that even comes close to city Soleil in Port Au Prince Haiti

a.  American poverty is nothing compared to that found in the third world countries of the world

b.  The suffering of Darfur and of Bangladesh and of Haiti dwarfs that of Durham

c.  Yet for all of that there is suffering and poverty here nonetheless

d.  Worst of all is how many of these people don’t know Christ as their Savior!!

B.  We Are a Commuter Church

1.  hardly any of us live in this community

2.  hardly any of us would choose to live in this community

3.  hardly any of us have ever lived in any thing like this community

4.  we are affluent, well-educated, unfamiliar with the kinds of struggles that characterize daily life in Northeast Central Durham

5.  and the real issue is… it may be that we don’t want that to change

6.  we may want to keep the sufferings of these neighbors of ours at arm’s length

C.  We Are a Blessed Church

1.  above all, we have been blessed with the gospel of Jesus Christ

2.  our earthly wealth and education and security is as nothing compared to our heavenly wealth and wisdom and security

3.  we have stood at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ and, weeping, have confessed our sins to Him

4.  we have been cleansed by His blood, adopted into His family, given the downpayment of the Spirit

5.  we have been well-trained biblically and know more of the Bible’s truth than many of our neighbors… we have been completely and totally blessed, covered with the goodness of God

the call on us is clear:

SPEND YOURSELF ON BEHALF OF THE POOR AND NEEDY

IV.   A Call to Pray and Act

A.  Present Your Heart to God

1.  be honest that you struggle with the lifestyle change that genuinely spending yourself for the poor and needy would entail

2.  ask the Lord who left His throne of wealth and glory to descend to a place of poverty… ask Him to work compassion for the needy in your heart

3.  ask Him… sue Him for it… beg Him to work in you what is pleasing to Him

B.  See the Needy

1.  Isaiah speaks of this:

Isaiah 58:7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh

2.  so often we desire to go through life willfully ignorant of the suffering around us…

3.  beggars in street always try to catch your eye, get your attention… God wants us to be willing to look at the needy and see their misery

C.  Start With Your Family

1.  mercy must begin with the family

1 Timothy 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Tim Keller:

“Many a Christian family has found its primary mercy ministry in the care of disabled or elderly or chronically ill members. If a family has elderly or infirm parents, uncles and aunts, cousins and other relatives in need, it must not look elsewhere! Far too many evangelical Christians today hide themselves behind the high mobility and privatization of our society to screen themselves from duties of mercy to their kin.” [Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road, p. 126]

2.  family as ministry base

Keller advocates also that the family can and should be our primary ministry base of operations toward the poor and needy:

He cites the example of Al and Laura Miller in Pemberton Township, New Jersey

On just Al’s salary as an equipment operator at a local steel plant, the Millers have taken some four dozen homeless into their modest home during the past two years; some are victims of fire, or have been evicted from their homes; some are recovering alcoholics or drug addicts; some are teenagers thrown out of their parents’ home at age eighteen

The Millers allow no one to stay longer than 90 days. All guests must abide by the Millers’ house rules (no drinking, no drugs, no beds left unmade, no curfews violated); and they must fill out a statement of goals through which they can move to financial self-sufficiency

This is a direct fulfillment of the hospitality envisioned in Isaiah

Isaiah 58:7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh

D.  Extend to the Household of Believers: FBC

1.  the next level of commitment a Christian should have is to the poor and needy within the church

Galatians 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Acts 4:34-35 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

2.  there are needy persons within the walls of this church… more than you might think

3.  AND the more we see our urban ministry succeed in bringing people to faith in Christ, the more church members we’ll have with genuine needs

4.  be certain you give generously to the deacon’s benevolence fund, an offering taken after every observance of the Lord’s Supper

5.  go beyond that… ask questions, listen, learn what the needs are right here at FBC

E.  Extend to the Community

1.  start with your own immediate neighborhood

2.  see if there are any neighbors struggling with grief, loss, sickness, divorce, age, disability, personal problems

a.  ask the Lord to help you meet the needs as He directs

b.  ask Him also to give you opportunities to share the gospel as you do it

3.  go beyond that to find out what’s happening with our urban ministry… are there needs that you can help meet?

4.  Keller: “Stop, look, and listen…”

“Do you really stop, look and listen in the middle of your church and neighborhood? If you do, you will notice a multitude of needs. There is a college student who had to drop out of school for lack of funds. Over here there are numbers of elderly folk without sufficient support from children, who need transportation, friendship, and other aid. Turn in another direction and listen hard. You will hear single parents, divorced and widowed people, struggling financially and emotionally to be ‘both mother and father’ to children. They often don’t seem all that poor and threadbare to the eye, but a sensitive ear will hear the anguish.” [Keller, p. 127]

5.  Keller’s practical ideas

… Do you have tool that others often do not have? Offer it to others. Go to the elderly couple on the corner and offer to till their garden this spring. Is there some kind of neighborhood social action you could render? For example, try taking an opinion poll about the heavy traffic on your street, and discuss what the neighbors could do about it together. Can you find some natural way to give gifts? Buy too many bedding plants or too many tickets to the big game. Make too much bread, or plant too many tomatoes in the garden. Then take the extras to your neighbors, to the folks at work, or to people in the church with whom you are trying to cultivate a friendship.

Is there some specific service you could render? You could offer the elderly lady on your block transportation to the market. You could offer free baby-sitting to a single parent.

You could notice a neighbor starting to build a shed or doing some painting, and offer to help. Watch especially for crisis situations and be there to offer help.

Perhaps all of the above suggestions seem rather obvious. We do these things naturally to make friends. But keep in mind, most people only work to cultivate relationships with people they like, with people they enjoy being with. Christian ministers of mercy are unique in that they intentionally and systematically seek to build bridges with all the people around them at home, at work, and at church. The do this to discover needs and to create a climate in which others can share their weaknesses.

Page 129, Ministries of Mercy, The Call of the Jericho Road, by Timothy J. Keller

F.  Matthew Hodges’ ideas for involvement in urban ministry Applications for FBC Durham urban ministry [from Matthew Hodges]

1.     The 4th Sunday of every month after church from 12:30pm-1:00pm commit to pray for our outreach to the community.

2.     During the greeting time welcome men and women who do not normally attend FBC. All you need to say is, “My name is _______, welcome to FBC what is your name. How did you hear about FBC? Share how long you have attended FBC and thank them for coming.

3.     At the end of BFL class, if you see an individual standing by themselves that does not normally attend go to the person and introduce your self. Ask the person if they are sitting with anyone in the service and if they are not, then welcome them to sit with you. Phil 2:4

4.     If an individual ask you for any type of financial assistance direct them to the ministerial staff or a deacon and we will make that decision.

5.     Meditate on the fact that we all were needy and poor spiritually and have been made rich through faith in Christ. 1 Peter 1:3-5

6.     Men and women can walk the streets of Durham during the day to pray, pass out tracts and engage men and women in conversations that lead to the gospel.

7.     When referring to the community let’s say the people or the men and women in our community rather than “they” or “them”. This terminology will help FBC members to not think they are better than men and women in the community.

8.     BFL classes to commit to serve a meal and engage in conversation with the men and women at the Durham Rescue Mission men or women campus.

9.     Pray about being a part of the 2009 summer mission trip to the community. (In the works)

10. All communities have been affected by sin, the degree of the sin problem has manifest itself differently. The answer to the problem of sin in the people who live in your community is the same answer to the problem of sin in the 27701 community. FBC may not be able to meet every physical need of the poor and needy, but we can be the heartbeat to meeting the spiritual needs in the community.

11. Talk to Matthew about serving on the Urban Ministry team.

12. Invite men and women from the community to come and worship at FBC. Let the men and women from the community decide if they are going to come. We cannot make the choice for anybody to come here to FBC.

13. Pray as we move forward ministering to the community Proverbs 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

14. We need to look at the poor and needy in our community from a biblical worldview 1st and not from a “we don’t connect” worldview. If the latter view is what we use then we will never minister to the community. Ask yourself, “Do I look at ministering to the poor and needy in our community from a biblical worldview?”