Pete Smith, Pastor, on Loving Your Forgotten Neighbors

• “I would much rather err on the side of mercy and helping, even if it’s ham-handed and doesn’t maybe work out the way we would like.”
• “When in doubt, give.”
• “Default to mercy. Don’t withhold good from the person to whom it is due when it’s with you and you can do it.”
• “Remembering in Scripture is always connected to activity. It’s never simply just recalling.”
• “The number one thing I would argue is that poverty is really poverty of relationship. It’s spiritual poverty.”
• “What people need are time with others, connections, community.”
• “The person needs your time. They need relationship, and they need you to listen.”
• “If you listen long enough, you’ll actually start to hear, ‘I start to now see how I might help.'”
• “Treat them with dignity and respect, no different from how we would like to be treated.”
• “The Scripture says, ‘Love the stranger.'”
• “If you’re not going to live among the poor, you do have to intentionally remember them.”
• “Money in a savings account doesn’t do anybody any good. It might give you some peace of mind, but that’s not why this money is there. This money is to meet need.”
• “If you ask God to give you eyes to see, you’ll begin to see.”

• Remember the Poor: Cultivating a Heart of Generosity by Peter Smith
• Navigators
• A Candle in the Window Hospitality Network

Luke 9:23 | Take Up Your Cross

“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”

Psalm 41 | Blessed Is He Who Considers the Poor

Psalm 112 | The Generous Righteous

Proverbs 11:24 | Generosity Grows

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”

Proverbs 14:21 | Blessed Are the Generous

“Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.”

Proverbs 14:31 | Honoring the Creator

“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.”

Psalm 72 | The Righteous King Defends the Poor

Amos 5:24 | Justice Like Waters

“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Micah 6:8 | Justice, Mercy, Humility

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Luke 10:25-37 | The Good Samaritan

Matthew 25:31-46 | The Sheep and the Goats

Luke 14:12-14 | Invite Those Who Cannot Repay

“He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’”

Proverbs 19:17 | Lending to the Lord

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Galatians 2:10 | Remember the Poor

“Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

Ephesians 4:28 | Work in Order to Give

“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”