OBJECTIVES:

·  Challenge us to consider whether extreme poverty has to be a permanent feature of the world

·  Encourage us to start considering how important the poor are to God

·  Provide some Bible readings in preparation for next week

POVERTY: CAN WE REALLY DEFEAT IT?

Today I want us all to be challenged. To go away and consider this statement prayerfully: “Can we really defeat extreme poverty?”

Poverty takes many forms – spiritual, educational, emotional and many more, but today I want us to focus on some of the things we take for granted in the West.

The United Nations Millennium Campaign started in 2002. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. These form a blueprint agreed by the world’s countries and leading development institutions. They have galvanised unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the

world’s poorest.

ONE OF THE GOALS:

ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER

Target 1.A:

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day.

The global economic crisis slowed progress but the world met this poverty reduction target ahead of schedule.

Target 1.B:

Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.

Deterioration of the labour market, triggered by the economic crisis, has resulted in a decline of employment. As jobs are lost, more workers have been forced into vulnerable employment. Since the crisis began, more

people have found themselves and their families living in extreme poverty.

Poverty

Target 1.C:

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who

suffer from hunger.

Hunger rates spiked in 2009, one of the many dire consequences of the global food and financial crises. Despite some progress, one in four children in the developing world is still underweight. In some regions, the prevalence of underweight children is dramatically higher among the poor.

Do we really believe that targets 1.B and 1.C can be achieved? Are they realistic?

When Jesus stood up in the temple in Luke 4: 16-21, he read from Isaiah 61:1-2:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to proclaim 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 favour

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn.

He was setting out his manifesto. Jesus declared that the oppressed would be freed and we, as his Church, are his hands and feet to bring this to fruition.

The UN believes it’s possible and Jesus believes it’s possible. But do we? Are we echoing the words of the father who asked Jesus to heal his demon possessed son in Mark 9:24: “I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.”

Unbelief and doubt are understandable to God. He gives us faith as a gift

(Ephesians 2:8-9).

(Show DVD: The Poor Will Not Always Be With Us)

Dr Scott Todd says: “Maybe for the past 2,000 years it hasn’t really mattered because for 2,000 years we haven’t seen the real possibility. But this generation sees it. This generation is the first to look upon the dawn of a staggering possibility.

For the first time in human history we are looking at the realistic possibility of ending extreme global poverty. The dawn of a world in which everyone has enough food to eat and clean water to drink – a world in which massive numbers of children no longer die because

of mosquito bites.

I want to be part of a movement that says, ‘Yes, we did it!’, or at least, ‘Yes, we did all we could to play our part.’ The Church – our Church – can be that movement of God’s people who respond to the calling.”

In [the number of weeks until your Compassion Church Partnership launch] weeks, I’ll be talking about how we can do this together.

Can I ask you to do three things in response:

1. Read and re-read Isaiah 58 daily.

2. Seek God’s will. What is He saying to you?

3. Pray for the poor.

DVD IDEAS ON DISC

It Begins With a Child [4:39]

Children Speaking Bible Verses [2:00]

The Poor Will Not Always Be With Us [8:26]