What If No One Went Hungry?

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– Hey, my name is Kyle.

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I'm a Pastor at Crossroads Online Church.

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You know, we exist to guide you

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on your path to adventure,

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and sometimes that's a bumpy ride.

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Recently, we had a controversial message

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and a lot has happened.

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This weekend, our Senior Pastor, Brian Tome,

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will be addressing our community with

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a message full of hope and love.

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Keep an eye out for the message from Brian.

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By the way, if any of you are a part

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of Crossroads Online Church want to connect with me,

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you can always email me at kyle.ranson@Crossroads.net.

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I'll do my best to respond to you in a timely manner.

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One of my favorite things about this community

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is that no matter who you are,

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no matter what you believe, even if you disagree,

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you can belong here and you matter.

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Now, today we have an exciting message for you,

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one I think you're not going to get anywhere else.

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Right now, I can tell you this,

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one of these three things is actually true.

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One, Space Jam 2 is much better than the original;

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two, the multiverse is definitely real;

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or three, we are on the brink of solving

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global hunger as we know it.

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Today's special guest is Dan Clark.

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He's a leader, at Convoy of Hope,

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one of our global partners who's focused on

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the fight against hunger and extreme poverty.

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They do this by feeding kids in schools,

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nearly 400,000, empowering women

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to start small businesses

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so they can feed their own kids,

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and training farmers in agriculture

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so they can feed their own communities.

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There is good news around world hunger,

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and I know that might feel like

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an oxymoron to most people.

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Normally when we hear about global hunger,

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we only hear the bad news.

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There's still work to be done,

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but God is using our church to

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make a dent in hunger around the world.

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Let's hear from Dan.

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– You're on.

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– Special guest to the stage, please.

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Special guest to the stage.

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– Is this thing on?

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– Hey, Crossroads excited to be with you

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and let me just say right out of the gate

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on behalf of the entire Convoy of Hope team

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thank you for your partnership.

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You know poverty's darkest message

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for those who are caught in its grip

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is that you don't matter.

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And together, through your generosity

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and through your partnership,

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we're delivering a different message.

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We're letting people know that you do matter,

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that you matter to God and you matter to us.

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And that's an amazing thing.

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So we're so grateful.

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I love this message series

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that we're in right now

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where nothing is off limits

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and we're talking about things, and having conversations that,

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well, you wouldn't normally hear in church.

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And I came across this story that I thought,

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yeah, this is probably something

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you wouldn't hear in church.

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And I'll just share it with you quick.

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A pastor decided to skip church

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one Sunday morning and go play golf.

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He told his assistant that he wasn't feeling well,

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and he drove to a course that was in another city

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so that nobody would recognize him.

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And when he teed off on the first hole,

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a huge gust of wind caught his ball,

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carried it an extra hundred yards

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and dropped it right in the hole

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for a 450 yard hole in one.

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An angel looked at God and said,

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"What did you do that for?"

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God smiled and replied,

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"Well, who's he going to tell?"

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That's probably a story

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that preacher's not telling church.

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Well, here's something else

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you also probably wouldn't hear in church.

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And it's good news, in fact, it's great news.

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And the news is this: that we are winning

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the war against hunger and extreme poverty.

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The fight is certainly not over.

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There's still work to do, but perhaps

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more than you realized we are winning.

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You say, "Dan, how? How does that happen

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and why is that happening?"

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Perhaps more than any other reason,

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I believe, it's because God's people,

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Christ's followers, are leaning in

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to the promises and the potential of philanthropy.

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Philanthropy is a word that probably

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conjures up some different images in your mind.

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Maybe it makes you think of like

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old men in top hats like Monopoly Man

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or Warren Buffett, I don't know.

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But I think most of us, we understand

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that philanthropy has to do with

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the act of giving, the giving to help

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others who are in need.

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But it actually means something

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much, much deeper, much more beautiful.

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The word comes from a Greek origin

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and it literally means the love of humanity.

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So you could say in a sense that God, the Father,

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was the original philanthropist,

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the OP, giving His Son.

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Why? Because he loved people.

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Jesus, too. He gave his life. Why?

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Because He loved people.

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And that's what philanthropy is,

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it is loving through giving.

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It's loving your community and the world

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and expressing God's love through generosity.

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And so today, I want to encourage you

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with a brief biblical perspective

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on the promises and the potential of philanthropy.

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You know, scripture, it says a lot about giving,

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about generosity, and sharing what we have

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to meet the needs of others.

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I think anyone who has read the Bible

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even a little bit would be quick to agree

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that God's love for the poor

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is a central irreducible component

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of His self identity.

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There's more than 700 scriptures that affirm this.

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And I want to look at just a few of them together because

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there's a theme that I want you to see.

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Let's look first, Deuteronomy 15.

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This is the Old Testament here, it says:

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Give generously to the poor.

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This is God speaking to His people

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and do so without a grudging heart.

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Then because of this the Lord your God

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will bless you in all your work

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and in everything that you put your hand to.

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Here's Jesus in Matthew 25.

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Many of you are familiar with this verse.

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Jesus said: Truly I tell you,

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whatever you did for one of the least

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of these brothers and sisters of mine,

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you did for Me.

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And here the last one, words of wisdom

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from King Solomon in Proverbs:

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Whoever gives to the poor,

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lends to the Lord, and He will repay him.

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There's a theme there. Do you see it?

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This isn't just important to God.

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It's not just a priority, it's personal.

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If you have kids, if you're a parent,

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you'll understand this.

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It's kind of like if you do something nice for me.

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Great, I appreciate that. That's very nice of you.

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I'm going to say thank you.

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But you do something nice for one of my kids,

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now you've got my attention.

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Now you better get ready to be blessed

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because I'm going to find a way to bless you.

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And it's like this with caring, for the needs of the poor.

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It is so personal to our Heavenly Father

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that He has attached promises, benefits,

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rewards to His commands

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to help those who were in need.

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And I would offer to you that

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they are His promises of philanthropy.

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Another verse from Proverbs 11:25 says:

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The generous shall prosper.

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Whoever refreshes others

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will themselves be refreshed.

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They might say, "Dan, look,

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I didn't give to be blessed.

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I just gave because it was the right thing to do."

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And I'm telling you, it doesn't matter.

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These are heaven's rules.

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If you gave cheerfully,

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then you qualify for the promises.

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It'd be kind of like this.

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When we deposit money in a good account,

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like with a good bank,

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it is returned to us with interest.

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And when we give to the poor,

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we are lending to the Lord.

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And in a sense, He has promised us interest.

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Now, maybe you're thinking, Dan,

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is this a like how to get rich message?

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Not at all.

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By any global measure, we already are rich.

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In fact, the bulk of the promises,

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they have nothing to do with money.

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They have to do with more meaningful things.

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Take a look with me at Isaiah 58.

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This is right in the middle of your Old Testament.

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Isaiah, if you're new to scripture

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and you're not familiar with this character,

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Isaiah was a prophet. What does that mean?

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He was a spokesperson.

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God would speak through prophets,

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through men and women to His people.

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And that was Isaiah's role for about 40 years.

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He was on the scene about 700 years before Jesus.

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And like most of his contemporaries,

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he delivered messages through poetic speeches.

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And that's why it reads a little bit different.

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But all of the prophets, their focus

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was always on the covenant bond

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between God and His people.

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One of the things that made Isaiah unique

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was that he had personal access

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to the kings of his day.

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He was akin to a presidential adviser.

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And at this time that this book was written,

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Judah, The Nation of Judah, God's people

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were under threat from the Assyrian empire.

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There's a tremendous emphasis

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on international affairs

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and they're praying for God's protection,

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for His direction, for His favor.

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And if you read the book,

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it all comes down to this:

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Isaiah urges the people to commit to God's ways,

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to care for the needy,

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and to pursue economic and social justice.

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And in chapter 58, God declares

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what He will do for His people in response.

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Let's read it together, starting in verse 6.

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This is God speaking here, He says,

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"Is this not the kind of fast I have chosen --"

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He's talking about the kind of devotion

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or the kind of life that pleases Him.

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"-- To loose the chains of injustice

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and untie the cords of the yoke,

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to set the oppressed free,

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and to break every yoke."

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You say, "Dan, what's a yoke?"

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This isn't your two eggs sunny side up at Waffle House.

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A yolk was that that ring, that device

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they'd put around the neck of an ox

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or a horse to enslave them, to put them to work.

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It represented bondage, captivity, exploitation.

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Go on.

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"Is it not to share your food with the hungry

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and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –

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when you see the naked to clothe them."

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And here comes the pivot, the buzz word of 2020.

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God says, if you do this, verse 8,

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"Then your light will break forth like the dawn."

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I don't know about you, but I think

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if this chapter of the Bible had a soundtrack

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it'd probably be Eye of the Tiger,

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because that to me sounds like a promise of victory.

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That's the comeback story right here.

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"And your healing will quickly appear,

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and your righteousness --"

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Who is our righteousness? That's Jesus --

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"will go before you."

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That is a promise of direction.

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"And the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard."

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That is a promise of protection.

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The Almighty God is going to have your back.

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"And then you will call and the Lord will answer.

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You will cry for help,

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and He will say: Here I am."

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That is a promise, friends, of attention,

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that we will have the attention

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of the Creator of the universe.

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And notice, God didn't say maybe, He said will.

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He is not hedging.

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He has gone all in on His promises.

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Let's keep going with verse 9.

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God continues to lay out the terms.

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He says, "If you do away

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with the yoke of oppression,

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with the pointing finger and the malicious talk."

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What are we talking about there?

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I think The Message translation helps us understand.

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It says, "If you get rid of unfair practices,

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if you quit blaming victims."

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You know sometimes we see people

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and they're in a tough spot.

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We say, "They're probably the victim

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of their own choices."

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That might be true, but it doesn't change

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how we're supposed to respond.

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It says, "Quit gossiping about other people's sins."

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You know, they must have done something

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really bad to offend God to end up in that spot.

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Maybe they did, but it doesn't change

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how we're supposed to respond.

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Let's keep going, verse 10.

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"And if you spend yourselves

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in behalf of the hungry

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and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

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then your light will rise in the darkness

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and your knight will become like the noon day.

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The Lord will guide you always."

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That's a promise of guidance.

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"He will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land."

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That is a promise of provision.

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"You will be like a well-watered garden,

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like a spring whose waters never fail."

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That is a promise of strength,

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a promise of abundance, friends.

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These are the promises of God.

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I would submit to you that

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they are His promises of philanthropy.

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Isn't that amazing?

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God is essentially telling His people,

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you and me, that if we will care

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for the needs of the poor, the hungry,

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the oppressed, that He'll take care of us.

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This is personal to Him

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and He has promised what He will do in return.

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I hope you're feeling encouraged

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because I've got some more for you.

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We talked about the promises.

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Now let's look at the potential of philanthropy,

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the transformation that can occur,

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that is, in fact, occurring

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as we express love through giving.

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In his letter to the Galatians,

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the apostle Paul wrote in Chapter 6,

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a passage that focuses on another

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giving principle, sowing and reaping.

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We know it as the law of the harvest.

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And the law of the harvest is all about potential.

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It's about what can happen

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when we sow good seed in good soil.

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And Paul writes at the end of this passage,

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he says, "Let us not become weary in doing good,"

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in giving, in generosity,

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"for at the proper time we will reap a harvest

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if we do not give up."

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And friends, those words are as true today as ever.

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Let me share with you about something

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that our team at Convoy of Hope

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is very passionate about.

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One of the great possibilities of our generation

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is the end of hunger as we know it.

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Based on the progress of recent decades,

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global leaders believe that it can happen

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in our lifetimes, as soon as

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the year 2030 they've projected.

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But only, only I believe, if we heed

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the words of leaders like the apostle Paul

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and Winston Churchill, who famously

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challenged us to never, ever, ever give up.

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Let me share with you a quick story

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as an example of what I mean.

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It's a true story, mybe you've heard it before.

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Back in the gold rush days

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of the Wild, Wild West,

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a young man and his uncle, they made their way

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to the western frontier of Colorado.

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They had journeyed all the way from Maryland

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with the hopes of striking it rich.

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After staking their claim,

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they went to work with pick and shovel.

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And in a matter of weeks, their faith

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and effort was rewarded

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by the discovery of shining gold ore.

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At the time, it was speculated that

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they had discovered one of the largest

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gold finds in American history.

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That had to be a great day, huh?

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So they raise the financing needed

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and a full scale mining operation

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was set into motion.

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But then the unbelievable happened.

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After all that work and all that investment,

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that main vein of gold ore suddenly disappeared.

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Resolutely, they kept digging deeper and deeper,

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but it was to no avail, it just wasn't there.

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The gold, along with their hopes

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and their dreams had vanished.

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Filled with self-doubt and disillusionment,

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they gave up, they walked away

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and they sold their claim to a man

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who bought junk for pennies,

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and then they boarded the next train home to Maryland.

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Sometimes pursuing an audacious goal,

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like ending hunger and extreme poverty,

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can feel like mining for an elusive treasure.

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I mean, we begin with high hopes

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and we see flashes of progress,

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but the seemingly endless need,

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it can create fatigue,

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which makes it vitally important

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that we see what's really happening,

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that we see the progress being made,

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lest we too lose heart.

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Because after all, what we're pursuing

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is far more valuable than gold.

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And victory?

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Well, sometimes it's closer than we think.

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Let me share with you just one example

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of the progress, the child mortality rate.

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This is the number of children who die before age 5.

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It's a heartbreaking statistic for sure.

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But experts believe that this measure

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takes the temperature of a whole society,

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not just the health of the children,

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but the quality of community life.

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The Gates Foundation recently wrote that

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if they had just one data point to focus on,

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this would be it.

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Now take a look at this graph.

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Each bubble on the chart, it represents a country

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with the size of the bubble corresponding

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with the size of that country's population.

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The big ones are China and India and so on.

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You get it.

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And check this out.

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You won't find a single country, not one,

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where the child mortality rate

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has increased since 1969.

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It's just the opposite.

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By comparison, over a 25 year period,

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6 million fewer children died in 2015 than in 1990.

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If you need a mental picture of that,

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that is more than all of the children

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in the country of France.

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Yes, we still have work to do,

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but we're making incredible progress.

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And the improvements that we can measure,

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they're not unique just to child survival rates.

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If we were to look at graphs showing

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level of income, access to medicine

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or electricity, family size, education,

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they would all tell the same encouraging story.

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Perhaps more than we realize,

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the world is dramatically changing.

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See, it used to be divided into two:

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rich and poor, developed and developing,

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but it isn't any longer.

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To help us better respond to this new reality,

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the late Dr. Hans Rosling.

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He was a renowned public health educator

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who spent his life rescuing children from poverty.

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He developed a simple thinking tool

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referred to as the Four Levels.

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This model that was completed

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in the final years of his life,

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it's been so profound in its implications

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that many prominent philanthropists

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have committed to it

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as their new filter for understanding.

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In fact, in 2017, the World Bank,

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which sets the global poverty line,

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formally embraced the Four Levels

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and announced they were dropping the terms

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developed and developing. That's significant.

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Now, this framework, it shows how

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the world's population is spread out

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across four income levels,

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expressed in terms of dollar income per day.

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And it helps us understand all kinds of things,

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from hunger to terrorism to population growth.

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And that understanding begins by grasping

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what life is like on each level.

00:18:56

There are roughly one billion people

00:18:58

who currently live on level one.

00:19:01

This is what we think of as extreme poverty.

00:19:04

If you're on level one,

00:19:06

then you survive on less than $2 a day

00:19:08

and you get around by walking barefoot.

00:19:11

Your meals are cooked over an open fire,

00:19:13

and you spend most of your day

00:19:15

traveling to fetch water.

00:19:16

At night, you and your children sleep on a dirt floor.

00:19:20

I would suggest that if you're on level one,

00:19:22

you're not really living, you're just surviving.

00:19:26

There are 3 billion people who live on level two,

00:19:29

between $2 and $8 a day.

00:19:31

This means that you can buy shoes

00:19:33

or maybe a bike

00:19:34

so it doesn't take as long to get water.

00:19:36

Your kids, they go to school

00:19:38

instead of scavenging or working all day.

00:19:40

And when they come home,

00:19:41

you prepare dinner on a stove.

00:19:43

Your family sleeps on mattresses instead of the floor.

00:19:47

Level three is where 2 billion people

00:19:51

currently live between $8 and $32 a day.

00:19:56

If you're on level three, your home

00:19:57

probably has running water and a refrigerator.

00:20:01

You can also afford a motorbike

00:20:03

to make getting around easier.

00:20:05

Some of your kids, they go to

00:20:07

and they even graduate from high school.

00:20:10

Now, if you spend more than $32 a day,

00:20:13

you're among the 1billion people

00:20:14

who live on level four. That's us.

00:20:17

You have at least a high school education

00:20:19

and a car and can probably afford

00:20:23

to take a vacation once in a while.

00:20:25

Of course, everyone wants to level up, right?

00:20:28

Usually it takes several generations

00:20:31

for a family to move from level one to level four.

00:20:34

But keep in mind, just 200 years ago,

00:20:37

85% of the world population was still on level one.

00:20:42

But today, the vast majority

00:20:45

are spread out across the middle,

00:20:46

across levels two and three,

00:20:48

with the same standards of living

00:20:50

as people had in Western Europe

00:20:52

and North America in the 1950s.

00:20:55

Maybe you're thinking, "Dan, why does all this matter?

00:20:58

Why are you sharing this with us?"

00:21:00

Because it's hard to pick up on the progress

00:21:03

when you simply divide the world

00:21:04

into two categories, rich and poor.

00:21:07

If we can't afford to miss the progress

00:21:09

lest we too lose heart and stop digging.

00:21:13

I mean, let's be honest, when we look down

00:21:15

from our level for perspective,

00:21:18

everything else seems to be

00:21:19

the same shade of awful, right?

00:21:21

I mean, we don't want to live that way,

00:21:23

but people who are living on level two,

00:21:25

they have it much better than people

00:21:28

who are on level one.

00:21:29

People who are surviving extreme poverty,

00:21:31

they know very well, all too well

00:21:33

how much better their lives would be

00:21:35

if they can move from a dollar a day

00:21:37

to $4 a day, not to mention $16 a day.

00:21:42

But when you spent your whole life on level four,

00:21:45

it becomes almost impossible to grasp.

00:21:47

The progress becomes easy to miss,

00:21:51

and we shouldn't miss that in the last 20 years

00:21:54

the number of people living

00:21:56

in extreme poverty has almost halved.

00:21:59

That's incredible. I mean, think about this.

00:22:01

Up until 1966, the majority of

00:22:04

the world's population live below the poverty line.

00:22:07

That means poverty was the norm.

00:22:08

It was the rule, not the exception.

00:22:11

But in the last two decades,

00:22:12

it has dropped faster than ever in world history.

00:22:17

Look, we should not diminish the tragedies

00:22:21

and the needs of the present,

00:22:23

because there are still more than 820 million people,

00:22:26

that's roughly one out of ten on the planet

00:22:29

that remain hungry.

00:22:31

200 million of those are children

00:22:33

who are suffering from

00:22:34

the devastating effects of stunting and wasting.

00:22:37

And almost half of all child deaths this year

00:22:40

will be linked to malnutrition.

00:22:42

I mean, that's heartbreaking.

00:22:43

We have an answer for that.

00:22:45

But knowledge of the past,

00:22:47

it should help us realize that we are

00:22:49

getting better at getting help to where it's needed.

00:22:52

And it should fill us with a conviction

00:22:54

and a hope that further progress is possible.

00:22:59

You remember our unfortunate prospectors?

00:23:02

Well, let me tell you what Paul Harvey

00:23:04

used to call the rest of the story.

00:23:07

That junk man who bought their claim,

00:23:09

he wasn't convinced that it was a lost cause.

00:23:11

So he decided to bring in a specialist

00:23:13

to get a second opinion.

00:23:15

And that mining engineer determined that

00:23:18

the prior operation had failed because

00:23:21

the owners did not understand fault lines.

00:23:27

In fact, as the story played out,

00:23:30

that main vein of gold ore would be found

00:23:33

just three feet from where they had stopped digging.

00:23:39

They were just 36 inches away

00:23:42

from unimaginable riches and one of

00:23:45

the largest gold finds in American history.

00:23:49

Friends, your generosity is making a difference.

00:23:53

Don't stop. Victory is closer than ever.

00:23:57

And we dare not miss the progress because

00:24:02

in the words of Dr. Rosling:

00:24:17

When in fact, the measures we're employing,

00:24:19

they are working.

00:24:21

Feeding kids in schools is working.

00:24:24

Empowering women to start their own businesses

00:24:26

so they can feed their own families is working.

00:24:28

Teaching farmers and communities how to grow more food

00:24:31

so they can feed themselves, it's working.

00:24:33

And we need to continue to fight for more

00:24:36

because it won't just happen by itself.

00:24:39

Yes, we celebrate the victories of yesterday,

00:24:43

but we know that tomorrow depends on today.

00:24:49

Crossroads, thank you for being

00:24:50

a generous and a compassionate church.

00:24:53

Thank you for trusting Convoy as your partner.

00:24:55

Be encouraged today. We're winning.

00:24:57

God is using you, keep giving.

00:24:59

And may His promises be ever true

00:25:02

in each of your lives. God bless you.

00:25:05

– Isn't it amazing?

00:25:06

The work that they're doing at Convoy of Hope

00:25:08

is absolutely incredible.

00:25:09

I'm going to sit down with Dan in just a minute

00:25:11

and ask him some of the questions

00:25:12

you might be thinking about right now.

00:25:14

You know, Crossroads is about

00:25:15

making a difference in our world.

00:25:17

For our 25th anniversary this year,

00:25:18

we're giving away $2.5 million over 25 weeks

00:25:22

to our partners around the world.

00:25:24

Because of the generosity of people like you,

00:25:26

we were actually able to give $100,000

00:25:28

to our partners at Convoy of Hope.

00:25:30

You can join us in making a difference

00:25:31

in our community and around the world through giving.

00:25:34

If you're not sure yet, I totally get it.

00:25:36

We've made a way for you to try giving

00:25:37

risk free for 90 days

00:25:39

and to see what God does in your life.

00:25:41

If you want to take it,

00:25:42

like hundreds of other people have,

00:25:43

you can take what's called the Tithe Test

00:25:45

at Crossroads.net/tithetest.

00:25:47

It works like this: You try giving for 90 days

00:25:50

and if you don't see God show up in your life,

00:25:52

we'll give you all your money back.

00:25:54

No questions asked.

00:25:55

Before I sit down with Dan, let's see

00:25:57

a little bit more about Convoy of Hope.

00:25:59

– Hi, my name is Daniel Minera

00:26:01

and I am here with my friend Jon French

00:26:04

with Convoy of Hope and we're standing

00:26:06

in front of this beautiful Convoy of Hope truck

00:26:09

that has lots of food in it.

00:26:11

But we'll get to that in a little bit.

00:26:13

Hey, Jon, you want to tell us a little bit

00:26:15

about what Convoy of Hope is?

00:26:17

– We at Convoy of Hope,

00:26:18

we have a driving passion to feed the world.

00:26:20

We do that in a lot of ways, and especially

00:26:22

during times of disaster or need.

00:26:24

We honestly believe that when people

00:26:26

are having a dark day, we want to bring

00:26:27

a bright light of hope to them.

00:26:28

So we do that in many different ways,

00:26:30

but the main way we do that is through food

00:26:32

and helping with food security and families.

00:26:34

We believe that the local church

00:26:35

is the plan for the world.

00:26:37

So everything we do is in and through the local church.

00:26:40

Each one of our trucks holds about 35,000 pounds of food

00:26:44

and Crossroads and Convoy of Hope

00:26:46

have partnered together to distribute 6 of those trucks.

00:26:49

And so that's over 200,000 pounds of food

00:26:52

going to thousands of people in the area

00:26:54

to be able to give them hope and to be able

00:26:56

to show them that Crossroads loves them.

00:26:58

– Man, that's amazing, because

00:27:00

what that means for us is that we get

00:27:02

an opportunity to pack almost 35,000 snack packs

00:27:07

that are going to be given to the children

00:27:09

of the communities where they don't have food

00:27:11

throughout the summer.

00:27:12

So thank you so much for bringing this over.

00:27:14

It's going to be put to really good use.

00:27:16

So if people want to get involved,

00:27:18

what can they do then?

00:27:19

– They can go check us out at our website,

00:27:20

ConvoyofHope.org or any of the social media.

00:27:23

You can find us, search for Convoy of Hope.

00:27:26

Follow us, like us, and you can keep up

00:27:28

to see all the things that we're doing.

00:27:30

And from us at Convoy of Hope, we just want

00:27:32

to say huge thank you to you, Daniel,

00:27:33

to Brian, to the Crossroads family.

00:27:36

Thank you so much for being a partner of ours.

00:27:39

We can't do what we do without you.

00:27:41

We can have a great vision,

00:27:42

but without partners, we can't make that happen.

00:27:44

And so thank you. Thank you, church family.

00:27:46

It's because of you we're able to do what we do.

00:27:51

– I think you would agree with me,

00:27:52

the work that Convoy of Hope is doing is incredible.

00:27:56

And honestly, Dan, just just listening to you,

00:27:59

I'm hearing you talk

00:28:00

and I've never heard this before, right?

00:28:02

This idea that we can actually end hunger.

00:28:07

And it sounds, if I'm honest,

00:28:09

almost like too good to be true.

00:28:11

Am I crazy if I go, "Dan, I believe you"?

00:28:15

– No, I don't think you are.

00:28:16

And it's not just Convoy saying it.

00:28:18

I mean, these are these are global leaders

00:28:20

who sit on a very high perch and they've said,

00:28:23

you know, within our lifetime,

00:28:25

2030 was the year identified when they created

00:28:28

the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015,

00:28:31

2030 was the target year

00:28:33

for ending hunger and extreme poverty.

00:28:36

And what do we mean when we say ending hunger?

00:28:40

You've got 820 million people right now that are --

00:28:45

they don't know where their next meal is coming from.

00:28:47

And what we're talking about is ending

00:28:49

the systemic cycles and shrinking that number.

00:28:53

We might never get that number to zero.

00:28:56

I mean, you -- estimates are different

00:28:58

depending on who you talk to,

00:28:59

but there will probably always be

00:29:02

a group of people, it'll be kind of a traveling need.

00:29:04

But we're always going to have conflict,

00:29:06

civil war, corruption, needs will arise as a result.

00:29:09

And so experts estimate that you might

00:29:12

always have 100 million, maybe 200 million people

00:29:16

that are affected by these different crises

00:29:19

that are temporary,

00:29:20

but the systemic cycles of poverty that

00:29:23

have accounted for decades of oppression,

00:29:26

we do know, we have an answer for those things.

00:29:29

– The places where it's like

00:29:30

this is just the way it is here.

00:29:32

That can that can be done. – Absolutely.

00:29:34

And the proof is in the progress. Yeah.

00:29:37

– That's that's incredible.

00:29:39

One of the things that, I guess it frustrates me.

00:29:44

I think Christians, sometimes we get this reputation

00:29:49

and maybe we do it to ourselves of pessimism.

00:29:51

Everything's bad.

00:29:53

Everything's getting worse.

00:29:54

Man it used to be so much better.

00:29:56

What do you think about that?

00:29:58

How do you reconcile that to what you see

00:29:59

in your work, which is,

00:30:01

no, the redemption of God is winning out,

00:30:03

the Kingdom of heaven is coming?

00:30:05

– Yeah, well, I think it is true that

00:30:08

we've kind of done it to ourselves a little bit.

00:30:11

One of the most commonly recalled scriptures

00:30:14

among churchgoers about the poor is Jesus' Words

00:30:18

from Matthew 26

00:30:19

– Be with you always.

00:30:20

– The poor will always be with you.

00:30:21

– Yeah.

00:30:23

–And I think that that has created

00:30:25

an attitude of apathy in some settings.

00:30:28

And I believe Jesus would be deeply troubled,

00:30:31

is deeply troubled still when His Words

00:30:33

are used to become an excuse.

00:30:36

Because Jesus was not signing

00:30:39

the permission slip for extreme poverty to exist.

00:30:43

I mean, think about this:

00:30:44

Historians estimate that when Jesus was on Earth

00:30:47

that the world's population was somewhere

00:30:50

between 150 million to 300 million people,

00:30:53

like the whole planet.

00:30:55

That's less than we have in the United States today.

00:30:57

There was no context for people to understand

00:31:01

Jesus's Words as the excuse for 16,000 children

00:31:06

to die every day from hunger and malnutrition.

00:31:09

That it -- like we've invented that.

00:31:12

And, you know, if people, well, what about

00:31:16

if people, somebody asked,

00:31:17

"Well, what about when Jesus said this?"

00:31:18

I guess it would depend on how long

00:31:20

I have to answer the question.

00:31:21

My short answer would just be,

00:31:23

"Well, can't people be poor, but not be starving?"

00:31:26

– Yes.

00:31:27

–The long answer would be,

00:31:29

"Are you sure that's what Jesus meant?"

00:31:32

– Yeah. Gosh, yeah. That's amazing.

00:31:35

I think the other thing I see that

00:31:37

that same line of thinking can steer us down

00:31:39

is like, you know, to really be a follower of Jesus,

00:31:43

like somebody else can take care of

00:31:47

material needs, feed people.

00:31:49

Our job is spiritual needs, Dan. – Yeah.

00:31:52

–We're here to share the Bible with people. Right?

00:31:54

Isn't that what we do? Jesus modeled it best.

00:31:57

I mean both and, it was always both and.

00:32:02

It wasn't one or the other.

00:32:03

It was meeting physical and spiritual needs.

00:32:07

And if we preach a gospel

00:32:11

that is absence of justice and compassion,

00:32:14

then we preach a gospel Jesus never preached.

00:32:17

At the same time, if all we ever do

00:32:20

is offer physical help,

00:32:22

but we never share our spiritual riches,

00:32:26

then we are guilty of the greatest injustice of all.

00:32:29

– Amen. I love that. That's --

00:32:33

I feel like I've got to chew on that for a while.

00:32:36

I mean everything to me is like, yes, yes, and amen.

00:32:40

I think if you're a person watching at home,

00:32:46

I know I feel this way right now.

00:32:49

What what do I do? What do I --

00:32:51

I'm like, yeah, that's amazing,

00:32:53

I want to participate. What do I do, Dan?

00:32:57

You said a lot of things. What do I do now?

00:32:59

– Keep giving. Keep doing.

00:33:02

If you're already engaged, keep doing what you're doing.

00:33:04

If you're not engaged, maybe because

00:33:06

you thought it was a lost cause,

00:33:07

like this is an empty hole

00:33:08

people have been throwing money into a long time.

00:33:10

It's not getting better.

00:33:12

That's the point of the message. Right?

00:33:14

I think people don't hear this often because

00:33:18

this is just my opinion, because need sells. Right?

00:33:21

I believe that hope sells better.

00:33:23

And I believe that people want

00:33:25

to invest in a winning cause. They want to invest.

00:33:27

When we do it with our money, you know,

00:33:30

we invest in companies that we think are going to win,

00:33:32

not ones that are going to sink. Right?

00:33:34

– That's right. We're doing so bad

00:33:36

and we need your money now, please.

00:33:37

– Why is it any different, you know,

00:33:39

with our charitable giving? Right.

00:33:42

And I think that's the point here is

00:33:44

to let people know this is not a lost cause.

00:33:46

And I've grown up like you.

00:33:48

We've all seen pictures of, you know,

00:33:51

runny nose children, distended belly.

00:33:55

You know, we've seen those horrible images

00:33:57

our whole lives and it it really does,

00:33:59

it creates this fatigue and the sense that

00:34:01

this is always going to be here.

00:34:05

It's always going to be a problem.

00:34:06

And if you grew up in the church

00:34:08

and somebody taught you well, Jesus said the poor --

00:34:11

then you're convinced that

00:34:12

this should be a problem because Jesus said so.

00:34:14

But I don't think that's what He meant at all.

00:34:17

I think it's been taken out of context.

00:34:19

And, you know, that's a whole different story.

00:34:22

But what people can do is get involved.

00:34:26

And it's not just about financial resources.

00:34:29

Yes, we need to invest more in organizations

00:34:31

that have the capacity to grow.

00:34:33

But we also need to engage our thinkers,

00:34:36

our business minds.

00:34:37

We need to raise up the next generation of leaders

00:34:40

that will go and serve on the front lines.

00:34:42

This is like a collective,

00:34:44

this is a potentially historic moment

00:34:46

for the church to rally its people, its resources,

00:34:50

and put its collective shoulder behind the load

00:34:53

and push it across the finish line.

00:34:55

And I think the church has

00:34:56

an unmatched ability to rally, to recruit, to mobilize.

00:35:02

Georgetown University recently did a study.

00:35:05

They estimate that people of faith

00:35:08

in the United States alone control

00:35:11

more than $4.8 trillion of annual disposable income.

00:35:17

– Disposable income?

00:35:18

– Annual disposable income, $4.8 trillion.

00:35:21

That is equal to the 3rd largest economy on the planet.

00:35:26

That is more than 90 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations.

00:35:31

Why do I mention them?

00:35:32

Because usually when we talk about

00:35:33

these kind of problems, we think it's people

00:35:35

like them that have the capacity to solve it.

00:35:38

But the church, so much more.

00:35:40

– Wow, that's incredible.

00:35:41

As you were talking I was thinking about

00:35:43

the verse that Paul says where he says,

00:35:46

you know, don't don't just run the race,

00:35:49

run the race to win the race. –Amen.

00:35:52

– And that's very different than this attitude

00:35:54

of the poor will be with you always

00:35:56

and is getting any better? I don't really know.

00:35:58

It's like an endless treadmill.

00:36:00

Welcome to the club. – Yeah.

00:36:02

– And I love the hope that you present.

00:36:04

I think for me it just rings true of the gospel,

00:36:08

you know, of this idea of the story of Jesus

00:36:12

is not everything's getting worse and awful.

00:36:16

It's a story that starts in death

00:36:19

and it brings life.

00:36:21

It's the story of the resurrection.

00:36:23

It's the story of going some place.

00:36:24

And I want to encourage you,

00:36:25

if you've been inspired by Dan, I know that I have,

00:36:28

I want you to take a minute right now

00:36:30

and hang with us.

00:36:31

We're going to do a song led by my friend Justin

00:36:33

that talks about the resurrection.

00:36:35

I don't know what's going on in your life right now.

00:36:37

Maybe this is a message of hope that you need

00:36:39

and maybe it gives you a spark

00:36:40

for the thing that God is doing in you.

00:36:42

I don't know what it is, but I encourage you,

00:36:44

spend this moment with God

00:36:45

and sit in the reality of His resurrection.

00:36:50

– Hey, my name is Justin, and I get to do

00:36:53

some of the music around here at Crossroads.

00:36:56

One of the core beliefs we have as a Christian,

00:36:59

as a follower of Jesus,

00:37:01

is this thing called the resurrection.

00:37:03

We believe that Jesus died, He was fully dead,

00:37:07

and that He was raised to life, fully back to life.

00:37:11

And that's crazy.

00:37:13

Like, just think about for a moment.

00:37:16

I believe that a dead man was brought back to life.

00:37:20

But I spend most of my days

00:37:22

only putting the resurrection in the future.

00:37:25

Like, yeah, the resurrection, I think it happened.

00:37:27

I believe it happened.

00:37:28

But it only impacts the day I die,

00:37:30

because the day I die, I really hope

00:37:32

that the resurrection is real

00:37:34

so that I have eternal life.

00:37:37

I rarely stop and say,

00:37:39

how does the resurrection change today?

00:37:43

Because it should, it should change everything.

00:37:46

It should change what I put my hope in,

00:37:49

how I hope, it should change what I pray about,

00:37:53

how I face struggle, how I walk forward.

00:37:56

It should change, the friend who I spent

00:37:58

the weekend with this weekend,

00:37:59

whose son just got diagnosed with leukemia last year.

00:38:03

It changed -- the resurrection changed

00:38:05

how he prayed about his son

00:38:07

and how I prayed about his son.

00:38:09

And this week I got to just play with a son

00:38:12

because I believe Jesus has brought

00:38:14

healing into his life.

00:38:16

I'm not hopeless anymore.

00:38:18

Because of the resurrection I have hope

00:38:20

because I believe a dead man

00:38:22

was brought back to life.

00:38:23

Romans 8:11, says this:

00:38:39

That truth changes everything.

00:38:43

The resurrection just wasn't just one time.

00:38:46

It says the same spirit dwells in you

00:38:49

and it will do the same action in you,

00:38:51

bringing the dead things to life.

00:38:54

So as we sing this next song, I just invite you

00:38:58

not to sing about one day or tomorrow,

00:39:00

but bring the resurrection right here

00:39:03

today in this moment.

00:42:42

– Crossroads exists to help guide you

00:42:44

on the adventurous life that God designed you for

00:42:46

and help you along that entire journey.

00:42:48

At Crossroads.net/getstarted

00:42:51

you can sign up for more content,

00:42:52

get into a real community of people like you,

00:42:54

and download the Crossroads App.

00:42:56

And coming next week on Crossroads,

00:42:58

Esau McCaulley, theologian, author,

00:43:01

and Anglican Priest will be here talking about

00:43:03

the collision of God and race in the Bible.

00:43:06

We'll see you then.

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