-Caring for the poor
· Popularity in our community is a poor guidepost to how we are doing as a church. It has an over/heightened sensitivity to what the world thinks about it.
· There are substantial truths that speak to the issue of caring for the poor; however, it is not the church’s main mission to care for the poor.
· Jer. 29 is a first of a unique moment in redemptive history (i.e.- God’s kind word of revelation for how to live as a dispersed people in particular time); however it presents a particular principle of seeking the welfare of those around you by praying for and petitioning on behalf of those in that city.
· We should understand the rebuke of other nations as a rebuke of the treatment of those (humans) created in the image of God.
· We can all agree that God’s rebuke of the OT nations for what they did that was evil, still stands today.
· The careful distinction we must build in is that we cannot build our church identity on a specific target group like the poor.
· We must make clear what makes a “true” church; then, we must discern the opportunities the Lord has laid before us.
· Practically we can speak to this in our sermons as we apply this in the “public” category of the application grid.
· Those who do not see the same discontinuity we see- are not (in many ways) carrying out the fundamentals/consistency of their “Theonomist” perspectives consistently.
· Going to work as economist, or teacher, or a banker are all good things to do and should not be held in lower light than other works like “World Vision” or other relief organizations.
· We should be moved by the spiritual state of either the poor or the rich.
· Jesus context was to the poor who were considered to be forsaken by God.
· Biblical Theology is key to understanding on how these text fit into redemptive history.
· There is an over thought and emphasis on certain principles that treated as overreaction –“if you don’t treat the care of the poor with highest importance then you must not care.”
· Being grounded in your nuance of theology, will help wade the waters of rhetoric- Mark Dever
