In his sermon titled '09. Poverty,' Rob Tart explores the complex issue of poverty, examining its causes, perceptions, and the theological implications of vocation. He contrasts historical and modern poverty, noting that while physical hunger is less common in America today, poverty often manifests through lack of hope and a poor understanding of vocation. Tart emphasizes that poverty is not merely financial but also a theological issue rooted in the curse of the ground in Genesis. He critiques the 'Housing First' policy for homeless people in Los Angeles, arguing that it fails to address the root causes of poverty. The sermon highlights the importance of recognizing one's vocation as a divine calling, inspired by Martin Luther's theology of vocation and the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. Tart encourages a shift in perspective, urging individuals to stop complaining about their jobs and to see their work as an act of worship and a reflection of God's sovereignty.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these men. We thank you for the opportunities of what we've heard today. We pray that they would burn in our soul and affect our lives and allow us to serve you better. In Jesus' name, amen.

You know, as I listen to each one of these topics today, I find how pertinent they are in my own life or at least in people's lives that I'm affected by. It's interesting when we were on the LBGQABC whatever it was movement The first one I think is Mr. Beasley. There's a young lady that I know and I've known for 22 years. I met her and her, I met her parents when we first moved to Durham.

They had three daughters, I had three daughters, and our three daughters played together, our three daughters had birthdays together, and over time, we kind of parted ways because, You know, I ended up in the family integrated church movement. They're still in that same church and His daughter has that exact doctrine you talked about today And it's a heartache. It's a heartbreak But no one else is talking about it. We're not immune to these things. My subject today is on poverty.

I have a young man at the Durham Rescue Mission right now who is set under this very tent in years going by for other events. And our children aren't immune from these things. They're not. And when I first saw the subject that I was to speak on, I wondered how to approach it. How do I approach poverty to a group like this?

And I wondered, do I look for the cause of poverty? Do I look for how to avoid poverty or how to react to someone in poverty? I spoke to Jason about it And it kind of led me, thought, well, how to respond to someone in poverty would be a good angle to look at it. But as I thought about it, the way that many people respond to someone in poverty has a lot to do with what they think about the first two subjects. What is the cause of poverty and how to avoid poverty?

There's some people sometimes that have less than a benevolent eye towards someone who sees them as causing their own poverty. And we live in a country that is great and blessed, and I recognize that the poverty in America is significantly different than historical poverty. I mean, when people you read about in biblical days or even hundreds, few hundred years ago, if that long, there would be times and seasons when there would be no food. It wouldn't just be a, you know, in America today there's food. There may be some hungry people in America, but it's not because of a lack of food.

There's food. And you know, the poverty that we see in Scripture is significantly different than the poverty we see in America. Poverty in America has people that have obesity problems. Poverty in America has people impoverished, but they still have a cell phone. And they probably often have some kind of addiction.

I'm thankful that God is not only, is merciful to not only those who have sin or have issues outside of themselves. We all have problems that we didn't cause, but I'm thankful that God is forgiving to those of us who have problems we've caused ourselves. Because if he didn't forgive and help those who brought trouble upon themselves, then there's probably no one in this tent that would be immune from their own destruction. I find it interesting that in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14, it speaks about the issue of women pastors and different roles of women. But it makes this comment, and for the sake of time, I'm not going to read it, but it basically says this, that Eve was deceived.

And the implication is that Adam wasn't deceived. Adam wasn't deceived in his sin. Eve was tricked. Adam sinned with his eyes wide open, apparently. And people in our world today often make decisions that cause their own poverty.

They pierce themselves with many sorrows, if you will. But that's not everybody. I recently was in California visiting a rescue mission there to see their operations. I'd heard a lot about this rescue mission and I wanted to see what they were doing for myself. And I was there for about three days and it was interesting out in California.

They imposed this policy the federal government has in Los Angeles called Housing First. Now none of you are probably familiar with housing first. It's a ridiculous idea. But basically the government goes into a community where there's homeless people and the first thing they provide for them is housing. They give them an apartment or something like that, a house, whatever it is.

They give them a place to live And then the objective after that is to offer them services that are going to help them to deal with their poverty. And what has happened in LA County is that their homeless rate has gone up by 45% in the wake of that. It's a real brilliant idea, but they haven't figured out that it's not working yet. They have 80, 000 people in only 30, 000 places to put them in Los Angeles. They're literally destroying the city.

And we look at that and there are people out there that because of all this influx of people, the average person is struggling because there's just no place to live. There's just no place to live. There's just no place to live. The gentleman at the rescue mission I was talking to said a one-room apartment in their area and the area I was in was not actually LA was Burbank and Hollywood, North Hollywood is what it was. But he was telling me that a one bedroom apartment, I'm sorry, a one room apartment begins at $1, 600 a month.

Their wages aren't that much higher than our wages out here. Their minimum wage is, but the average wage is probably not a lot higher. And many people can't afford to live in their own home. They just work to pay rent, and they have to share homes with other people just to get by. You look at those people and I think to myself, why do they stay here?

Why do they come here? What's the attraction? Come to North Carolina. I actually have a couple in our church. They were living in San Diego doing the same thing, living to pay rent.

And they came to North Carolina. They live in Healdsboro right now and He works at a mold remediation company, living like kings out here. I mean, their rents a lot cheaper, their wages are comparable to what they were making, they're living like kings. I'm thinking to myself, why don't you come to a place like this where the conditions are so much better? But the reality is that changing someone's place or conditions alone will not lift them out of poverty.

Because poverty is not measured by our wallet or by our bank account. Poverty is a theological issue. It really is. You say, what do you mean by that? How can it be a theological issue?

Well, just consider this, the curse upon the earth in Genesis chapter three. I'm gonna read you Genesis three, verse 17 through 19. When God cursed Adam, and unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened into the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, Cursed is the ground. I find it interesting that he cursed the ground, for thy sake. And sorrow thou shalt eat all the days of thy life.

Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat of the herb of the field, and in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for thou was taken from it, for dost thou art and dost thou shall return." The ground was cursed so that it would no longer cooperate with mankind. He still had the burden to subdue the earth, but at that point, the earth began to rebel against mankind. And as man in his little world attempts to subdue the earth to where he's at, sometimes the earth rebels against man. And If you're not careful, the earth will win.

It may be an earthquake, it may be a fire, it may be whatever it may be, but anything can happen. A war could break out tomorrow, and every one of us could be impoverished for no cause of our own. You have the story of Cain and Abel. If you've ever read the story of Cain and Abel, after Cain killed Abel, God cursed Cain. And the curse literally says this in verse 12 of Genesis 4, when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.

A fugitive and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth." Literally, a wanderer and a vagrant shall you be in the earth. If there had been a rescue mission there in that day, he might have checked into the rescue mission. Now if we're dealing with someone who's in poverty and telling them about you know the curse upon the earth or the curse upon Cain, That's really not going to help a whole lot. As a matter of fact, the biggest thing that I've noticed with those that are in poverty, or at least the perception of poverty, is the lack of hope. People in poverty often have a lack of hope.

And the greatest thing that we can do for a person who at least sees themselves in poverty, though compared to history they're probably not, but if they see themselves in poverty, the greatest thing that we can do for such a person is to teach them a proper theology of vocation. And that's what I want to talk about today, the theology of vocation. When I use the word vocation, the problem with using the word vocation today is that the meaning of the word vocation has been eviscerated. It is actually a theological term. It was made famous, if you will, by the writings of Martin Luther and others behind him.

But you can always tell when someone has a poor understanding of the theology of vocation when they start to complain about their job. Sometimes they may not complain about their job, they just might have something on the back of their car like says, I would rather be fishy. You see, Most folks see their vocation, see their job, as just a necessary evil that is there to provide for the things that are really good, but it's not good in and of itself. Sometimes men will look at their jobs when they have a bad understanding of vocation, they will look at their jobs as meaningless. They will say, all I ever do is load this truck or whatever it is that they do.

Or they may not see their job as per se meaningless, but they will look at others as their jobs as being more meaningful. And that's really not the case. The writings of Martin Luther is what got the ball rolling on this understanding of vocation. It came to be known as the Puritan work ethic, and Martin Luther and Calvin and all of them commented and wrote about this, because what they were battling, as already been mentioned, I think, by Jason, was the issue of monasticism. The idea that one would walk away from work, would walk away from normal life, and enter into a higher state of spirituality where all they did was pray, where all they did was per se worship God, and work was taught to be something less than honorable.

It was meaningless. Martin Luther, with really one phrase of the scripture, turned the world upside down. He took the phrase in the Lord's Prayer where he said, where our Lord said, give us this day our daily bread. He then asked the question, how does God give us our daily bread? The way that God gives us our daily bread, usually, not always, but usually The way that God gives us our daily bread, usually, not always, but usually, the way that God gives us our daily bread is because there is a farmer somewhere called by God and gifted by God to do that job that is growing wheat.

And there is a miller somewhere called by God, gifted by God, to grind that wheat into flour. And there is a milkmaid somewhere called by God, gifted by God to milk a cow, to make butter, to add to that wheat, to make the bread, and so on and on it is. He made the point that God called these men and women into these callings or these vocations, which is what the word vocation means. It means calling, called into these vocations to accomplish his will in his kingdom and in his world. Luther and Calvin and literally thousands after them after the Reformation taught us that in doing their job that God has called them for, that is as much worship as a man sitting around praying all day long.

This is really understood under another doctrine. It's called the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. You've probably heard of that. But in the priesthood of the believer, the idea is that we are all equal, if you will, and we all go to God at the same place before Jesus Christ. Literally, you could put the priesthood of the believer under another idea that at the foot of the cross the ground is level.

There is no one with a more meaningful calling than another person in their calling. All of these callings that we're speaking of though are not limited to just one's career. We, all of us, every one of us have multiple, many callings and giftings. I remember being told, you know, somebody gave me a test years ago, 30 years ago, about, you know, trying to look for my spiritual gift and they said you've got this spiritual gift because I took some little test. That's crazy.

That's crazy. God doesn't give us one gift because he doesn't give us one calling. These callings are things like the call to be a husband, the call to be a son, the call to be a father. There are men here in the presence of us who are called to all three of these callings as we speak. Your parents live, your children live, and your wife lives, and you have callings and responsibilities in each of these vocations that God has called you to.

And God will gift you for each of these things. It's amazing how God gifts people to these various callings. I remember as a child, I grew up in a church. I'll admit it, and many of you know this, I grew up in a church, a free will Baptist Church, I don't know what that is. I'm not there anymore, I hope you realize that.

But when I was about, I don't know, eight, ten years old, I can't remember, The church got the idea they needed a youth pastor. And so they called this young man. He was a youth pastor and he didn't stay long. And but I remember one particular Saturday night He had this event at the church and we all went there. I'd never been to anything like this before.

We'd never had anything like this at the church before. Prior to that, all I ever did was went to church. What a strange idea, go to church, and that's all you know, church. But they had this event and he played, he had a 16, remember the big real projector movie things he played a little rascals for us that was interesting to us and and then he had these games and one of the games was he had two bottle baby bottles filled with Kool-Aid And he got two of the young men, they were about 17, they go up there maybe 16, 17 years old, and they would race to see who could drink that baby bottle first. It was funny.

Both of those guys tried to suck that bottle. Neither one got more than that down. Why? Think about this. Many of you have had children, and your wife was called to be a mother and God gifted her with the equipment necessary to feed that child and God gifted that child to have a strength that a 17 year old man can't even come close to comparing to.

Those little babies, months old, can outwork a 17 year old boy. I've seen it myself, because I've had children and it has been a few that we had to give a bottle to, and they kill them. Because they're gifted by God for what God has called them to do in their vocation. You have many callings. You may have a career calling.

I don't know what your career calling is. But I look at Adam. He was called to till that garden in Genesis 2 verses 7 through 8. You've called to be a husband probably, maybe a father, maybe a son. Your wife has been called to be a mother, a wife or daughter.

Adam also had a religious calling, did he not? We call it the covenant of works in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, where God said, you can't eat of that tree, I'm not going to read it for sake of time. Don't eat of that tree, because in the day that you eat there of you shall surely die. He was under the covenant of works He failed he lost praise the Lord for the covenant of grace Did you ever notice what happened to his vocational calling and his bread winning work when he messed up his religious calling. You see, when you neglect one vocation, the other vocations are greatly affected.

I do a lot of study on the subject of poverty, And there's been study after study. Do you know what the greatest cause of poverty in America is? There's one event that you can happen in your life that will impoverish more men and women than any other event. It's divorce. You want to go broke?

Get a divorce. It's just that simple. Unless you're just really set, but it impoverishes so many people. When you don't recognize, or when we're dealing with someone who is in poverty, if the only thing that we do is to try to work on helping them make more money, we're never going to help them lift out of poverty. If the only thing that we do to our sons is teach them how to make money, They could very well be impoverished.

Some of the poorest people I know make good money. They really do. I know of a man, I won't name him, some of you may not know him, his son-in-law is here. He knows who I'm talking about. Man's in the late 70s, early 80s, he works with me at the rescue mission.

By this world standards, by American standards, he's not a wealthy man. But if you look at his wife, you look at his children, you look at his life. One of the richest men the world has ever known. One of the worthiest men the world has ever known. You see, the idea of wealth in scripture is that we don't work for Acme widget company or wherever you work.

When you come to the Lord you are called by God into whatever he's put you in. Listen to what it says in first Corinthians chapter 7. Let every man abide in the same calling wherewith he was called. What's he talking about there? Are thou called being a servant?

Are you called while you're being a slave? Are you being called to salvation while at the same time you were a slave? Care not for it. Don't worry about being a slave. Care not for it.

But if thou mayst be free, use it rather. If you can be free, praise the Lord, use it. Great. For he that is called of the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. You are no longer a slave to that man.

You don't work for that man. You now are owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise also, he that is called being free, he's Christ's servant. You're bought with a price. Be ye not as the servants of men.

Don't be like other men, brethren. Let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God. The point is, is that the objective is not to try to change your station in life, but to recognize that God sovereignly has put you where he has and has gifted you where you are to do what he's called you to do. So what do we do with this? What are we to walk away from this idea?

I think I got three things for you to walk away with. I hope you'll remember. First thing I want you to do, I'm asking you to do, is to stop complaining about your station in life, especially before your sons. Stop complaining about your job. Stop comparing yourself to other men and saying, oh, I wish I had what they had.

Not only about your jobs, stop complaining about your wife. Stop comparing your wife to other wives. I wish my wife was like that. I wish my wife. No, you don't understand.

I can't tell you many times I've talked to people about their marriage and I can't talk to people about you know loving them like Christ loved the church and don't complain about them and I can't count on my fingers and toes how many times someone said but but you don't know my wife And I've got a pat answer and I say, praise the Lord, I don't want to know your wife. God hasn't called me to that woman. I don't have the giftings to live with that woman. But if God called you to that woman, he will gift you with what you need. And I would also say this is still the first thing.

Stop comparing your sons. There are some children that don't have the same giftings as other children. They don't have the same calling as other children. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. The second thing I would call you to do is to proclaim the Lord's presence in your labor, whatever it is.

Proclaim to others the presence of God where you work. Don't just talk to them about theology here or there. Make them realize that you are doing what you're doing because you're working for the Lord Jesus Christ, not because you're working for a paycheck, which is probably what most folks are doing. This is what Jesus meant when he said go the extra mile. If someone compels you to go one mile, the Roman soldier comes along and says you got to walk a mile, that's the law, you got to walk a mile, walk with him a second mile just to let him know you have a greater authority.

And thirdly, proclaim the Lord's sovereignty over the world because This is what we're talking about, the sovereignty of God. God is, he owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He owns it all. And he gives to us as he sees fit. And let's recognize that before the world and before the Lord that God is soft.

Amen.