Misquoted – Week 4 | The Poor You Will Always Have With You

Many people hear Jesus’ line, “the poor you always have with you,” and treat it as permission to shrug at hunger, homelessness, or the needs in our neighborhoods. That split—spiritual priorities over material care—has become a convenient excuse: save souls, ignore bodies; grow your church, ignore the city. This sermon names that tension and the ways we subtly dehumanize others by talking about “the poor” instead of the persons in front of us. The message walks the text back into its wider scriptural context and turns the usual reading upside down: Jesus isn’t endorsing apathy but pointing to faithful, timely love while highlighting a unique act of devotion. The good news is that caring for bodies is deeply spiritual, that small, particular acts of service matter, and that generous communities look a lot like the early church. Come away with a clearer, more humane way to live out faith—one neighbor at a time.