Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. God's gracious heart for human flourishing. is evident in his conditional covenant with Israel.
In Deuteronomy 15, God lays out terms for canceling debts and freeing indentured servants on the seventh year. this message gives us a glance of God's generous love. and it also gives us some principles for our own daily walk. Let's listen to this message titled, Remember That You Were Slaves. Our scripture this morning is Deuteronomy chapter 15.
Uh verses 7 through 11. I'll be reading from the ESP. Mm-hmm. If any among you one of your brothers should become poor, if any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you should not harden your heart, or shut your hand against your poor brother. but you shall open your hand to him.
and lend him sufficient for his need. whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart. And you say, The seventh year, the year of release, is near. and your eye look grudgingly.
On your poor brother. And you give him nothing. And he cried to the Lord against you. and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely.
and your heart shall not be grudgingly when you give to him. Because for this the Lord your God Well bless you. in all your work. and in all that you undertake. for there will never cease to be poor in the land.
Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother. to the needy and to the poor. in your land. Father, As we quiet our Spirits to receive your word. Uh preaching.
Lord, may you remove the distractions of our minds. Um help us to Focus on. on the message you have for us. Lord, as we Just read. about our Position in the in our generosity.
Lord, may we be mindful of the grace you have so lavishly given us. Lord. This morning we pray that you will usher in a spirit through pastor rich that will use your word. to transform our lives. We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen. Amen. Good morning, church. We are in the third section. of the book of Deuteronomy.
for our sermon this morning. Before I begin the sermon, I would like to give you an update, if I may, please. I've been asked to do this by the Missions Committee. This is a brief update on the status of Ben and Megan. Having served for six and a half years with Word of Life in the last four years.
In Owens Sound, Ontario, Ben and Megan. Along with The family and the missions committee have determined that the best course of action for them is to move back to Winston-Salem. for the sake of a stable environment. for continued healing. Ben has made much progress.
During the four-month medical leave, And he and Megan are deeply appreciative of your loving care. and support through words of encouragement. And kind. gestures. They are also grateful for your gracious forbearance.
And continued support for the next little while in this time of transitioning their home from Canada. to instance Salem. And Ben looks forward to presenting a living picture sometime before too long. I didn't even have to invite him out to lunch to do that. What we're going to be discussing today in Deuteronomy chapter 15 is a part of our worship as the people of God.
James makes this very clear. And the principle is founded right here in Deuteronomy chapter 15. The title is Remember that You Are Slaves. We must never forget. God's redeeming grace.
upon our lives. When we remember his grace, it makes us. Grateful. And also creates in us a disposition of generosity. Because God's grace has been so generous.
Now, throughout human history. There have been Multiple. human attempts. at establishing some utopia on earth where everyone is equal, there's no need, there's no poor. 1875, Karl Marx, from each according to his means, to each according to his need.
Here's the dark side of that philosophy. Since that time, Well over 100 million people have been murdered. in the attempt at propagating and supporting that ideology. That's what happens when humans try to create. A utopia.
It can't be done. It is a God thing. What God is prescribing, what God is commanding and directing for his people here in Deuteronomy chapter 15, we see it in the context of a conditional covenant. Covenant. Look at verse 5 with me.
If only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. This is a conditional covenant. But it is a covenant. that reveals the heart of God. And that is his heart for those who are in need.
What he is prescribing for his people. is the gracious treatment of the poor. the gracious treatment of the poor. This chapter outlines what we might call the economic solidarity. of a people.
This is Israel, the people of God. And he's prescribing here the economic solidarity of a people. And who are these people? They are a people, first of all, that serve the living, redeeming God. People that serve the living, redeeming God.
Secondly, they are the people with attitudes of trust. and graciousness. Verse 4, verse 15.
So much of it comes down to the attitude in the text that Adam read this morning. The Lord warns them: be careful about your attitude. There shouldn't be anything grudging done grudgingly about this. Yeah.
So let me walk through this five points here in this. What God prescribes is the gracious treatment of the poor among the people of God. And then we'll look at it. As far as we're going to look at it in its historical context here, and then we'll look at it in terms of principles for the church today. Number one, what we have in Deuteronomy 15 is a legal means to work off debt and or regain property.
It says in verse seven, if a brother should become poor. That's interesting because look what Look what he says, verse 4. But there will be no poor among you, for the Lord will bless you in the land. Why does he say that? Because verse 5 follows verse 4.
It kind of works that way, doesn't it? If you will obey my voice. Don't listen, don't take that to say that just because somebody is poor today, it means it's just simply because they're being disobedient. Don't go there. Stuff happens.
How does somebody become poor?
Well, you look at it in the context of the Old Testament, of Old Testament times and the societies of the day. It was an agrarian society. What if a family had a really bad crop that year? What if there was a plight? Locust came and ate it, or hail.
Tore it down, or whatever. Their crop failed that year for some reason. Maybe there were worms in the ground, whatever, their crop failed. Or what if? A man dies.
We see that. We see that, for example, in 2 Kings chapter 4. There is a There is a death and this woman has two sons and she cries out to the prophet Elisha The The creditor is coming to take my two sons. as slaves to pay off the debt we owe him. My husband died.
And what does Elisha do? He says, what do you have in the house? She says, I have a jar of oil. He says, have your sons go collect all the jars they can. Close the door, go in there and start pouring that oil into those jars.
And she does, and it keeps coming, and it keeps coming, and it keeps coming. And she says, Go get some more jars. And the boys say, That's all the jars we've been able to find. and then the oil stopped pouring out. And then what does Elisha say?
Go sell it. Pay off your debt and live off the rest. Moral of the story. The first oil tycoon was a woman. You didn't see that one coming, did you?
Pay off your debt and live off the rest. What Elisha did, the prophet, and he used miraculous, God intervened here. But the whole point was. She had something to sell. and she paid off a debt.
She paid off a debt. and then lived off of the rest of what she sold. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission.
To help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
