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California's Homelessness Crisis 0:10 Well, thank you for joining us again. This video series based on Reversed from culturally woke to biblically awake. We're on chapter 29 and the topic is homelessness.0:23 I mentioned in a previous chapter that my mayor, Mayor Bill Wells, had helped me in thinking through the strategies and writing and research on the topic, and this is another 1 that he's helped me enormously with.0:35 And he's immensely qualified to do that. And quite frankly, I wish that the whole homelessness situation of America could be turned over to Bill Wells. He has the understanding of what it takes to0:47 resolve this issue. I happen to live in California. I live in San Diego, and I love the beach. But, it's really changed over the years because of California laws and people0:59 just simply move in and take over whatever turf they want. The exhibit a for how not to handle homelessness is in California. I think1:11 in, New York, there's something like 27000 homeless people. In Texas, 27000. Those figures have probably increased more recently. And in California,1:23 we have 38 percent. That's 161000 homeless people. The handling of that by our state government could not possibly,1:36 be worse. Let me just start with this 1st premise. Nobody has the right to just set up housing wherever they want that's not property, that's not their own, be it public or otherwise.1:48 They have no right to do that. They can't bring their particular disease, their urine, their feces, their trash, wherever they want. The church I pastored,2:00 across the freeway, we owned some property there. We could not keep homeless people off, and we were, fairly out from the city. People had to travel a bit to get out there to where we were. And yet on that2:12 property, we had to go in multiple times and clean up a cost at a huge cost to us. Claim a horrific message. I don't even wanna describe the stuff of what we had to do and and the cost it2:23 was, to the church to do that. You could not keep people off of your property. The state of California has sunk billions of dollars into this, and they have done a2:35 abysmal about as bad a job as you possibly can do in handling this issue. Now the scripture has some answers to this issue. 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 142:48 says as follows, and we urge you brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, and help the weak. Now this tends to re this tends to cover the 3Biblical Categories of Homelessness 2:59 categories of homelessness. The 1st category is the idle. That would be the criminals and others not taking responsibility for their lives. That's the 1st category. The3:11 2nd are the faint hearted, those who are crushed by life's experiences. That's the bona fide down and outer who's really suffering and needs help, needs a hand up, to to get out3:23 of the situation they're in. The 3rd category says the weak. That would be the mentally incapacitated and unable to function for some reason. We have 3 categories. We have those that are legitimately3:36 down on their luxe, we would say. That's really a small percentage of the homeless anymore. It's a tiny percentage. We have those who are simply idle and drug addicted. That's an3:47 enorm enormous group, and it's just a a criminal element that is taking place in our in our culture today. So what do we do in that situation? And and the biggest category4:00 is mentally ill. What about mental illness? Does the scripture speak to mental illness? Well, yes. It does. Not a lot about that. It does tell us about it in 1st Samuel chapter 21, for4:12 example, but a more specific verse that deals with what happens in a culture that turns its back on God, Deuteronomy 28 28 says, the Lord4:23 will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. That is a description of what we're facing. So what we have is people who are mentally ill, huge4:35 category, drug and alcohol addicted, and then a small percentage of what we historically used to associate with homelessness. That people who are going through very, very, very hard4:47 times. It's been said that by some authorities that 30 percent of the people homeless are addicted. People who I know who work with homeless people say the number is4:58 closer to 90 percent. And along with that is the issue of criminality, criminal activity taking place, both within those homelessness camps as well as before.5:10 Scripture speaks to that issue. Colossians 3 25, for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Right now in the state in which I live,5:22 a person can do almost anything they want and stay on the streets. All kinds of illegal activity happening in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and to some measure, my own city of San5:34 Diego. Gavin Newsom could clean up the streets of California, San Francisco, when the president of China came to visit. Cleaned it up perfectly. And then in a few weeks,5:46 it was filled with exactly what had been there before. Now I'm gonna touch on this last category. The last category is people who who truly have suffered some5:58 catastrophic change in their lives, an economic reversal. Maybe they lost a job. Maybe they lost their health. Something went wrong. Maybe a man abandoned his wife and kids, and they6:10 suddenly find themselves homeless. I have discovered that all the Americans I know are very willing to help out those who are legitimately6:22 down in their luck and have gone through a very hard time. And they're experiencing a temporary pain, and they're homeless. Nobody objects to paying taxes, to helping those kinds of people, or working with6:33 a church group and donating funds to work with these individuals, or donating funds directly to them to assist and help them get back on their feet as quickly as possible. That type of6:45 homelessness is the easiest kind to deal with and the 1 for which there is a great deal of compassion. The challenge is when our government builds in6:57 structures which reward people who are drug addicted and people who are mentally ill to continue living on property that is not theirs and7:09 leaving behind unbelievable damage. That is unscriptural. It is unbiblical, and it demonstrates the absolute lack of biblical7:20 governance that we're calling for in this book. We move from culturally woke to biblically awake.Compassion, Accountability, and Prayer 7:30 Let us pray regarding homelessness. Heavenly father, encourage the fainthearted and help the weak. Be patient with everyone, including those who may7:42 be in a difficult and challenging time in their life. Father, let us have compassion for we all go through seasons of lack and testing.7:54 May we cry out for our brothers and sisters in need, Lord, and may we do what we can to help alleviate their suffering and provide encouragement to8:06 each 1. Father, help us to encourage believers to care for 1 another in our church community, to warn those who might be idle, to8:18 encourage the discourage, and to help the weak according to Thessalonians 5 verse 14. We thank you for this instruction, and we thank you, father,8:30 that you care for your beloved creation, your people. And, Lord, that we are have the privilege of partnering with you in this task. In Jesus' name,8:42 amen.8:44 We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you so much for watching. Hey. Don't forget to check out this discussion questions that are attached. Have a fun time studying, and we will see you in the next chapter.In this video 0:00 California's Homelessness Crisis2:50 Biblical Categories of Homelessness7:30 Compassion, Accountability, and Prayer12.9K followers
Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
12.9K followers
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