When my children were little, I used to read to them a story called The Prince's Equal, The King's Equal. The King's Equal. And it's a story about a very spoiled and a heartless prince, the only oldest son of the king, and the prince of the name Raphael, and Raphael could not wait to be king. And his father was sick, and on his deathbed, and he said to him, son, no one in this kingdom wants you to be king, but you will be after I die, that is the law. You will be king, but you may not wear my crown until you marry a woman who is your equal and beauty in wisdom and in wealth. And he was furious. You cry out, this is not a blessing, this is a curse, no one in the kingdom is equal to me in beauty and in wisdom. I've been taught by the greatest teachers in the kingdom, and no one is equal to me in wealth. I'm the son of the king, I own everything, and so he was furious, and his father died, and he became king, he was harsh, and he was angry, and he was bitter, and his advisor said, we'll find the woman for you, and they conducted a worldwide search, but they couldn't find anyone that matched the king's specifications, and they were all just out of a loss, and into spare, and there was a young maiden who had gone up into the hills to escape the prince, and had been taught by some of the wisest teachers that no one knew existed, and she was asked, do you want to save your kingdom, and she said, yes, she said, we'll go down, and meet the prince, and so immediately when the prince saw her, he said, you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and she said, well, I guess I'm in your equal and beauty, he said certainly, but how can you, an untrained woman, how could you possibly be my equal in wisdom? And she said, well, I may not know everything you know, but I know something that nobody else knows, and he said, what, and she said, she got real close to him, and she whispered in his ear, you are terribly lonely, and at that moment, he realized that he didn't even know that he was terribly lonely, but she was right, she knew something about him that he didn't even know, and so she said, you are my equal in wisdom, but wealth, how could you be my equal in wealth, and she said, I own so many things, and she said, well, maybe you're thinking about it wrong, is there anything you want that you don't have, and he thought about kingdoms that he wanted to conquer, and gold that he wanted to accumulate, and of course, he thought about the crown, the crown that was just gnawing at him if he didn't have it, and he said, yeah, there's many things that I don't have that I wish I had, and she said, well, I think I'm wealthier than you because there's nothing that I want, I've got all my needs met, and he rejoiced, you may equal my equal, and she said, not so fast, if I know things you don't know, and if I am content and you are wanting all these things, you're not my equal, and I'll let you read the book to see how it is, but I think that's a genius way of thinking about wealth and poverty, wealth is not a measure of how much you have, wealth is a measure of your heart, how much are you missing, are you empty, are you driven by craving desires for more, or something different, and that's the letter that we're going to look at today from Revelation 3, Jesus addresses the church, and lay out to see you, and he says to them, you're poor, you are impoverished, and he teaches them that spiritual poverty is to have a annoying, hungry desire that drives you for more and more. The layout to see it was the wealthiest town that Jesus is going to address. They were known for their springs, all people from all over Rome would come to sit in their hot springs and be healed from various, no mainly from stress, but they thought more, and they were known for eyesight, they would sell, and they were made wealthy off that, and they were known for this wool, the sheep around layout to see it were black, and they made this beautiful wool clothing that was, it has shine to it, you couldn't get anywhere else in Rome, and they were known for their self-independence, when there was a great earthquake around 60 AD that the cities all over Rome were devastated, and the Roman government went around rebuilding the cities, but layout to see it said, now we're fine, we got this, we don't need anybody. And Jesus writes the letter and says, you need a lot more than you think. Please stand as we read from Revelation chapter 3, and see that spiritual poverty is to have a gnawing hunger to desire, the spiritual wealth is to have your greatest needs filled, so that you have joy and hope and contentment. Hear the word of the Lord. I know your works, you were neither cold nor hot, with it you were either cold or hot, so because you were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I was fit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold or find by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourselves, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and so I have to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, thus far the reading of God's Word, please be seated. If people are allowed to see a thought they needed nothing, and Jesus writes them the sternest letter that he writes. He doesn't say you are doing anything well, he doesn't say every other letter, the other six letters, he says, well you do this good, you do this well, you do this great, but you don't do this, but in this one he just jumps in. You think you are wealthy but you are impoverished, you are poor, blind, wretched, pitiful, and naked. And he shows us here how wealth blinds us, how tempted we are to measure wealth by the stuff we have instead of seeing true spiritual poverty in terms of what you lack. I wonder if that is still a problem. How do you measure wealth? His Bob Kraft wealthy, the owner of the New England Patriots, won the Super Bowl three years ago, and how do you celebrate? He was so lonely, so longing for intimacy that he went to a massage parlor and got his needs met, my strangers. Is that poverty or wealth? How about E. Hood, Leonardo, the diamond trader from Israel, a billionaire who died getting plastic surgery because he just wasn't satisfied with his body. Is that wealth or poverty? How about Charlene Reddit? It takes her jewelry box with her into the hospital where she knows that she is going to die because she wants to die as she lives being generous and blessing the nurses with her diamonds. Is that wealth or poverty? About the girls in our neighborhoods in Tulsa, you hear their moms say in a moment of exasperation, you are really gaining too much weight there, so they don't eat again for a year, longing for their mother's approval that they may not ever get. How about sweet agnus, agnus laid in a bed in a nursing home, in the poor section of the nursing home where she got very little care. A friend of mine went to see her, it was mother's day, wanted her to have a rose, and he brought her a rose, and she said, thank you so much, but I'm blind and I can't see it. Would you give this to someone else who could enjoy it more? And he said to her, is anyone going to come visit you today, agnus? She said, oh no, I haven't had visitors in a while. And he said, what do you do all day, agnus? And she said, you know, I'm a simple person, nobody really cares too much for my opinion. But I sit here and I think about Jesus most of the time, he just so sweet to me, and my friend said agnus, what do you think about Jesus? And she started singing Jesus is all the world to me. What is spiritual wealth? What is spiritual poverty? It cuts across all cultures and all worlds. It's the children in Peru who come to you, begging you to buy their little finger puppets. And if they don't come home with enough money from begging, then their parents will beat them for not having any money. And if they make a lot of money from begging, then the parents take the money and they spend it on alcohol and they come home drunk and they beat them. Spiritual poverty is hopeless. It is empty. It's an annoying emptiness in your heart that you would give anything to fill and nothing fills it. And spiritual wealth is joy and hope that is insuppressible. And I want you to notice that this is the most negative letter that Jesus writes. But he ends it with the most gracious invitation. He says, those I love, I reprove and discipline. Isn't that wonderful? I wrote you this letter because I love you. You don't have to repent to earn my love. I love you. I wouldn't have even bothered to say this to you if I didn't love you. I'm right here at the door. You don't have to climb to the highest mountain to find me. You don't have to descend the deepest wells to find me. I'm right here at the door. Will you just recognize that I'm here? Would you let me fill these needs for you? Jesus is the one who was blindfolded and beaten so that we could see. Jesus is the one who was stripped naked so that we could be dressed in his righteousness. Jesus is the one who became poor so that we could be rich. What I love about Compassion International is they address the deepest need of their children, the spiritual poverty that is in their families and in their hearts. And by healing that, they lead them to life. We've got a chance to really make a difference today. And I want you to hear more about how the healing of spiritual poverty leads to life, a new friend of mine in Kewani. She goes back Kiwi. Is a graduate of Compassion International and just a tremendous person and I want y'all to get to know her. Kiwi, would you share your story with us? Yes, I would love to pass away. Good morning River Oaks and Presbyterian Church. I'm just so honored and excited to be here to be testifying of what God has done in my life. He's such a good, good God. And you know what? If you would have told me 20 years ago, Kiwi, you're going to be in Palsa in this church called River Oaks. And you're going to be sharing what I have done in your life. I would say it's impossible because of what I have experienced as a child. But with God, nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible. You know, my real name is Kiwani. It sounds Hawaiian. I wish I was born in Hawaii, but God has a plan and purpose while I was born and raised in the Philippines to a very poor family. My dad, he's an alcoholic, and each night my parents would fight because he's always drunk. There are three brothers ahead of me who died because of lack of medical attention. My third brother, he was supposed to be born cesarean section, but my parents would not afford the medical care necessary. So what they did, they cut my mom open without proper anesthesia. My mom screamed for pain, but my brother didn't survive. After that, I was born in another sister. And I remember growing up in the Philippines, it was so difficult that there are nights that I would beg my mama and papa for food. Mama, please, I could not sleep because I was so hungry. But even my parents would give up the food that they're about to eat that night, which is most of the time rice and soy sauce or rice and salt. It would still be not sufficient. I remember would look at my neighbor's window and pretend to watch with their television from outside of their house, but I would look at their table and see food and wonder why do they have food tonight and us not. And I remember vividly when apples were imported from America to the Philippines. And I would beg my mama, Mama, please, I want to taste this apple, but even a rotten apple my parents could not afford to buy. But you know what, this is not a sad story because we have a good father in heaven. One day my dad was an alcoholic, picked up a track. For those of you young people, a track is a reading material about Jesus. And in that track, it says to go to a crusade. And in the crusade, my dad heard about Jesus, the love of God, that he gave his only and begotten son, that whosoever believed within him will not perish but have an everlasting life. And in that crusade, my dad received Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. And for the very first time, my dad went home sober. My mama so surprised and asked him, what's wrong with you? What happened? And my dad said, nothing is wrong with me. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And he need to come to church with me. So he brought us to church. And me and my sister, we would sit in Sunday school, and in Sunday school, they would sing about Jesus, the Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world, read yellow, black and white, that he cares, that he provides. But as a young kid, I could not comprehend that. Who is this Jesus? If he cares and if he provides, then why do we live this way? But you know what? We have a good, good father in heaven, because at the age of seven, I was registered to the compassion project. And at the age of seven, somebody from Australia picked up a packet, and he started to sponsor me. And the very first thing in his letter, he said, Kiwi, you are pretty and Kiwi, Jesus loves you. You know, I've never thought of myself as pretty when I was a kid. I thought pretty are just for kids with nice clothes, bowing their hair. It's not in their culture to tell our kids, oh, you're so beautiful. Oh, you're so pretty. You can be what you want to be. You know what? Later on in my life, I realized, Lord, is this how you see me? That I'm beautiful and wonderful in your sight. That I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And I am a child of the one true God. So I would go to the project and the compassion project in her church. And they would teach us about basic hygiene, about brushing our teeth. They would give us medical and dental care. And most especially, they would teach us about Jesus. My teacher there, she told me, Kiwi, yes, you are poor. This is your situation, but this is not your destiny. For in Jerry, Maya 2911, it says, for I know the plans I have for you, say it, the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. But sometimes we stop in that verse, but the following verses, it says, seek me. And you will find me if you seek me with all your heart. So I begin to open my Bible. I begin to read the words of God for my life. I begin to grasp the promises of God for my life. And during high school, I told my mom, I don't want to be poor anymore. I want to get out of this situation. I want to go to college. I want to take up something. I want to be somebody. And my mama said, let's pray because God will provide. God will provide. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. And God did provide. This lady who is standing in front of you right now is a physical therapist working in a hospital in Dallas, Texas. We have a good father in heaven. You know, after graduation from my course, I need to take a very difficult exam. I can see there's a lot of like younger people here too, who are scared of failing, who are scared of the unknown. Older people are scared too, scared of the unknown failing. But every time I open my Bible, God would tell me, can we is there anything too hard for me? And the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing is too hard for the Lord. All of my promises for you are yes and amen. Out of 1700 students who took the exam, I landed 10th place. And because of that, they gave me a medal. Our government gave me a medal. And as I was receiving this medal, I told the Lord, Lord, if only my sponsors were here, I'm going to give this medal to them. You know, every year in our church, we have a prayer and fasting. And usually I don't join because I was hungry when I was a kid. But that year, I said, I'm going to join and I'm going to pray for just one thing. I'm going to pray for that I'm going to see my sponsors. It seems so impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. So I prayed January, February came and March came. A group of Australian sponsors came to the Philippines and they asked me to give my testimony. And you know what, after that, they asked me to come to Australia to meet my sponsors. And I think I have a picture for you. And when I saw them, I ran for them and hugged them and over and over again, I told them, thank you so much. You didn't just change my life, but my family. And I know one day my community, my mom became a pastor of a small community church in the Philippines. And three years ago, we opened up our own kids church in our own backyard and we named it to God be the glory, kids ministry, to give him all the glory and honor. After that, after my visit with them, I went home to the Philippines and I can't find a job. And I said, Lord, did I make a mistake in choosing my profession? I cannot find a job in the Philippines. But God is perfect. He doesn't make mistakes. He is incapable of making mistakes. One Sunday, I told the Lord, Lord, the verse of the pastor that is going to tell us is your specific word for me. And the verse is for Abraham. The word is for Abraham. It says, go out of your country. Go to the land that I will show you and you will be a blessing. And he said, how am I going to do that? I don't even have money to go out of my country. And you know, I told my Lord, the Lord, Lord, if it's your will, it's your bill. You're going to pay for everything. So I went online and signed up to apply as a physical therapist in the state of Georgia. That time I don't know where Georgia is. And the employer said, he, we want you to come to America and we are going to pay for everything. We're even going to give you $1,000 as a sign on bonus to come to the United States. So here I am now 13 years later. And you know what? Nine years ago, I got married to a wonderful man from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I got myself a southern boy. They're the best. And you know, my husband's name is Terry Cook. And my husband is an executive chef in Dallas, Texas. Imagine I was hungry when I was a kid. Now I'm married to an executive chef. I will never be hungry again. God can surprise you like that. And during the wedding, I invited my parents to come to the United States to witness the wedding. And you know where I took them after that. I think I have a picture for you. I took my parents to an Apple orchard in LA, Georgia. Remember the Apple story. And by that, he's picking up apples from the ground. And I said, no dad, God has blessed us exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or think that we're now able to pick up apples from the tree. God with hell that rotten apple years and years ago because he has something better for us. If you're praying for something and you think that God doesn't have an answer, he does. Be waiting patiently upon the Lord. He knows the big picture. And he hears our prayers and he's able. He's able to put it into fruition. And at that moment, we were just celebrating about the goodness and grace and compassion and faithfulness of God in our lives in that Apple orchard. And I know that God has blessed us not to just keep it for ourselves. God has blessed us to be a blessing to other people, to be his hands and feet to other people. I am now a sponsor of four kids to from the Philippines because I'm biased. One from Haiti and a little boy named who won from Bolivia. Six years ago, I went back home and met my sponsored children. And I think I have a picture. And I told them, hang in there. Do not give up. God has a plan for you. And that's a word for you to hang in there. Do not give up. Continue in serving the Lord. Continue and knowing what God has in store for you. One day, God will give you an avenue, a platform, a chance to tell your friends, to tell your neighbors, to tell an acquaintance, to tell a church that we have a good, good father in heaven. Before I end, I know that there's a lot of you who are sponsoring kids here in this church too. And I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for what you're doing. You just don't have any idea how you are changing. Not just a person's life, but hopefully the world. And you're partnering with our Lord Jesus Christ. To be his hands and feet. To the rest of the world. Thank you so much and God bless you all.
You're wondering why this sermon was so short, aren't you? I was going to hurry for you to hear that. All right, so this is, let me tell you just a little more about compassion and because I think it's important some of the things I want to highlight. The main thing I want you to know is this, if you ask any sponsored child all over the world, what do you think of Compassion International? They're going to look at you with the blank stare and say, I don't, what are you talking about? All of the help comes through their local churches. The support that we give goes to the local church. It goes to provide for medical care and dental care and for Bible classes and to teach them the Bible and to take care of them. And in some cases to give them food, whatever's needed. But it all goes through the local church. All they know is they have a sponsor. Somehow their local church found a sponsor who's taking care of them and that builds this tremendous bond between the children and the church and it's a huge blessing not to what Jesus is doing in those places. So this is how it works. Out front there are tables filled with these, these pictures. The last time we did this is about three years ago I picked up a kid. Can you show that slide? It's already up there. There he is. There's Brian. He's my little, he's my champ. He's holding up our Christmas card from last year and a little note that says I love you Ricky. He's a sweetheart and he's from the Philippines as well and so he's my buddy. I also have another kid named Rose that we've been sponsoring for 20 years. He's Will's age and we picked up what he was three and so that's that's been a lot of I can say 18 years that's been a blessing. So these are real kids. They're not these are not models from a suburb of Los Angeles who pretended to be poor and had their picture taken. These are real kids in real places. There's not you know 10 others of Lisvania. There's not 10 other of her you know in other churches. This is the only one and so and they really are waiting to be sponsored and those sponsors have come along during COVID and so they've all been waiting for a very long time. What I want you to do is as soon as I say the benediction, he wants you going out to the tables because they're going to want to talk to you. I want you to go by and thank Kiwi and I want you to look at the cards and I want you to pick one up. You know to the typical preacher thing is I'm supposed to say I want you to pray about it. I don't. I know the right answer.
Obviously not everyone can afford it is $30 a month but I really hope $38 a month but I really hope you'll take one. You fill out this card right here and there's there's tables out there if you do that with and then give this card to Gina Schmidt. She'll about there taking up the cards. It's got your credit card information on it. We don't want that just laying around. You know for these church staff to pick up and go buy books on Amazon. We don't want that right. So we want you to pick up a card and sponsor a child and my hope is we'll have enough others I think 27 kids from one church in Bolivia and in every card out there are the overwhelming majority is from Bolivia in that same region and I really hope that in a couple of years we can take a trip and meet these kids and see firsthand the impact that our ministry has had. I think that is it. Let me look over my notes. I supposed to tell you three things. Yes that is it. So I really want you to do that. Please come by the tables pick up a card and maybe pray now I pray that the Lord would lead you to the right person lead you to the right card. Please stand for a little bit of addiction.