Preached Nov 22, 1998 at Faith Baptist Church
By Pastor Steven E. Mays

Welfare Baptist Church

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

All of this welfare stuff bothers me… This is not how God wants things..

Before anyone says Bro. Mays is picking on a racial group let me remind you, the vast majority of people who are poor and who are on welfare are white.

The average annual cost of welfare and food stamp payments (not to mention housing and insurance.) to a single mother and two children is $7,932. Whoever said, Welfare rolls are made up from our dough was on target.

America has changed. The idealized family comprising two married parents and two children is a small minority of American households. In 1993, the proportion had shrunk to 10%.

Some 39 percent of welfare mothers receive welfare payments for a ten-year period or longer..

In Washington, D.C., (which happens to be per capita one of the highest places for the welfare rolls), the 80 percent of people on Welfare are involved in the Criminal justice system by the age of 30.

55 percent of all welfare mothers were teenagers at the time of their first birth…..

The sorry Politicians say… We are giving you free money. If you don't continue to vote for us the money may dry up and you may actually have to go to work.

Somebody said, As America, is the only country in the world where so called poor people often drive Cadillacs.

I don't know if you have noticed or not, but we've got fences around our boarders, it's not to keep folks from getting out…

This morning I want to notice some things about this wicked welfare mentality, I want you to notice how ungodly it is… and I want you to examine our church, and notice if it's got in here…

I. Welfare produces Lazy Loafers….

God never intended you to have something for nothing.

Proverbs 24:30 I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
31 And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
32 Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.
33 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
34 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

Our God has a plan…. That plan includes folk working if they want to eat..

1. Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

2. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

3. Proverbs 20:4 ¶ The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

4. Proverbs 21:25 ¶ The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.

The same welfare mentality that we decry has crept into our churches… Think with me for just a second…

  • If every American decided to go on welfare, it would grind to a screeching halt wouldn't it? Somebody has to carry the load for those who won't work.

  • That is true in the Church too.. Welfare folks want: Highways, Defense, Housing, they just don't want to produce any of it.. Go with me to Welfare Baptist… At the average Welfare Baptist Church we find folk who want …

    But they don't do anything but sponge off of those who are working. They produce nothing. They are Gospel Bums. Christian Hoboes.

    YOU -- cast your vote one way or the other every week. You're not a Welfare Baptist Are you?

    God is now and always will be a Rewarder of hard work… Does he get it from you?

    Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

    Our God is a worker..

    What if our Savior had the welfare mindset? We wouldn't read Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

    It has been said that in the average church 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people… I submit that that is true because the welfare mentality has taken over the church…

    Welfare mentality loves Grace, loves that Salvation is not works, Titus 3:5. But never forget it cost the saviour everything… God saved you to work.. Eph. 2:10, and you are a welfare Baptist if you wont!

    II. Welfare Produces Loose Living…

    "Since welfare we have had a 600 percent increase in violent crime and a 500 percent increase in births out of wedlock."

    Between 1960 and 1990, (the Growth years of Welfare) the ratio of out-of-wedlock births among all women of childbearing age in America increased fivefold, from 5.3 to 28.0 percent of all births.

    In Washington, D.C., (Welfare Capital of the world) 64 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion. Of those young children who survive that, 70 percent plus are born out-of-wedlock.

    We've got people having illegitimate kids so that they can get a pay raise… God never intended you to be rewarded for doing wrong.

    Somebody, well said, What does that have to with us this morning? Well, let me say, the welfare mentality has gotten into the church.

    You let a politician say something about the high illegitimacy rates and they'll call him a racist..
    You let a preacher talk about the worldliness in its members and all their compromise and they'll call him a legalist…

    Are you a welfare Baptist? Are you more interested in Feeling Good than Being Good?

    2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

    Welfare believers hate what I'm preaching, but it's true….

    IJohn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
    16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
    "There is a toleration which is treachery. There is a peace which issues in paralysis. There are hours when the church must say NO to those who should ask communion with her, in the doing of her work, upon the basis of compromise. Such standing aloof may produce ostracism and persecution, but it will maintain power and influence....The Church today has destroyed her own influence by compromise." - G. Campbell Morgan

    III. Welfare Produces Lax, Limp Men

    *The percentage of children who live in female-headed households has grown from 11% in 1970 to 22% in 1990. Women maintained 86% of the 10.5 million single-parent families with children in 1992. One aspect of the welfare mindset that no one says much about is the carelessness and irresponsibility of the men…

    Where are the men? Where are the fellas getting all these ladies pregnant?

    Where is the discipline for all these kids getting into all this crime?

    Welfare living makes momma the head of the home, the only one taking care of the kids doesn't it?

    Why is it that the average Baptist Church couldn't go on if it had only the men to count on? I say because they have the spiritual Welfare mentality.. Thank God for you woman, we probably couldn't have church without you…

    1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

    Our Saviour was a man's man.. and so were the men who followed him…

    My saviour took a stand for what was right…

    Matthew 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

    My saviour looked men eye ball to eye ball and called it like it was..

    Matthew 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

    He had discipline to get up in the morning..

    Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

    God give us some men, not Welfare men, but real Christian men.

    A woman wants a leader..
    someone to respect and follow..
    Are you that?




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