The Poor You Will Always Have With You

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. It's amazing how many different Bible passages we either say or don't even realize we're saying, and talk, and often misquote. So we're in the series called Misquoted, How to Avoid Using or Misusing the Bible, and we've been going through various passages that have been misappropriated, misapplied, misquoted at times. And all of this because we as human beings tend to read into the Bible rather than read the Bible. Do you get what I'm getting at? You read into it what you want to find there, just like the guy in our video kind of read into those passages to make them, quote, apply to his life. And in so doing, do you notice in that video, the little snippets we're getting, he tends to exalt himself throughout. It's all about bringing himself, confirming, affirming, validating, and making himself a little important. Now, it's all snarky, and it's all for the sake of kind of being a reflection of how we use the Bible or abuse the Bible. And today we're going to come up with one that I, when I've heard people quote this, they're usually quoting it as an excuse. OK, it's actually written in three of the Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and John. And we're going to be looking at John today. Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served. Sounds familiar. She does that a lot. And Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having a charge of the money bag. He used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, leave her alone so she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. So that's our text today. And have you ever heard anybody? I don't know. Maybe you've never heard it. You know, Jesus said, the poor you always have with you. Have you heard people use that? And how have they used it? Why did they say that phrase? To basically say, well, it's the way it is. It's always going to be this way. It's never going to change. So why bother? Do you get it? Why bother? Don't even bother, because that's not the most important thing anyways. You know, this body, this life, whatever it is, not really the real part. We've got to save their soul. Have you ever heard people talk about saving the soul, but not caring about the body? You are talking then about somebody who's not being biblical at that moment, because they go together. You can't find a body without a soul and a soul without a body, actually, in this life. So, when people say, well, you know, Jesus said, the poor you always have with you. We find that, well, they're not following what Jesus was really saying. So we're going to look at three points, as we've done in the past. What Jesus is not saying, what Jesus is saying, and why this is actually better. So, what he's not saying. Too often people say, well, you're just never going to make a dent in poverty. So don't focus. Just focus, like I said, on saving the soul. They treat almost the body as if it's just a receptacle for what's really important. Kind of like a battery for the energy inside. Do you get that? Because what really is important, what's the real you, is your spiritual nature. And the material part, just, you know, that's going to be sloughed off anyway someday, kind of like a snake skin. And you're going to then be in heaven forever with God. We've got to deal with that. I kind of grew up thinking that. I mean, I'm going to go to heaven someday. I mean, it's better than going the other way. But, is that what heaven is in the scriptures? Is that what God is really about? There's a strong tendency, by the way, in American Christianity, I'm not sure elsewhere, but here, to be all about saving the soul and not caring about the body. Because that's the most important part. Equally, there's a bias in American Christianity towards the individual rather than society or the community. We're very individualistic in it. Church is really about what you're supposed to be doing here this morning, is you come together to get your spiritual fix for the week. To feel like, have a nice, oh, I learned a new point about self-improvement from the sermon. And then, I'm motivated for another week. And so you keep looking. A lot of people do. I don't think that's necessarily you. But a lot of people keep looking for a church that satisfies me spiritually. But what they mean by that is really, that ...