back to index2018-11-4 The Heart of the Gospel
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Good morning. Good morning, Berean. How are you guys doing? It's great to be with you 00:00:15.240 |
on this special Sunday. And we want to thank Pastor Peter for having me. And yeah, we, 00:00:23.400 |
I haven't known him that long, only two, three years, but yeah, there's a definite kinship. 00:00:28.800 |
I came home on Friday. I told my wife, there's just a connection with Pastor Peter. We have 00:00:33.320 |
so many similarities. And it really is true when he says that we are like minded, like 00:00:39.480 |
hearted. I hope you guys know how much your pastor loves you. He spoke at our retreat 00:00:47.520 |
this past weekend, and it was just so clear. His heart for Christ, his love of the gospel, 00:00:55.760 |
and his love for you guys. He boasts about you. And I know so many churches, man, that 00:01:01.720 |
would do anything short of sinning to have a pastor like Pastor Peter. And so I hope 00:01:06.360 |
you know how blessed you are to have him at the helm, leading you towards Christ. And 00:01:12.360 |
yeah, if you have your Bibles, will you turn with me to the book of James, James chapter 00:01:19.760 |
one? We're going to look at one verse this morning, a verse that may be familiar to a 00:01:27.600 |
lot of you. And that verse is 27, verse 27 of James chapter one. And before we go to 00:01:35.520 |
God's word, will you go with me to the one who gave us the word, let's pray. God, I pray 00:01:49.920 |
that you would fill us with your spirit. Spirit of God, I pray that you would move in power 00:02:01.760 |
and grace in a way that goes far beyond me and what I'm capable of. God, we need you. 00:02:14.360 |
This cannot just be some human activity. God, we are desperate for you, and we want to hear 00:02:21.680 |
your voice. And so God, I pray that you would now, Father, open our eyes. Open our eyes, 00:02:31.320 |
God, that we might see the magnitude of your glory. God, open our hearts that we might 00:02:37.960 |
feel the weight of your grace. And God, open our mouths that we might declare the wonders 00:02:46.120 |
of your gospel. It's in Christ's name we pray, Amen. Now, before we dive into the verse, 00:02:56.160 |
let me give you the context of the passage so that you understand where James is coming 00:03:00.320 |
from. In the preceding verses, verses 19 through 25, James talks about the centrality of God's 00:03:07.320 |
word and how we are to be doers of the word and not just hearers. And the reason for that 00:03:14.120 |
is because the scriptures were given not simply to inform, but to transform. To transform 00:03:21.000 |
our hearts and our minds, our lives, and that change happens, that change occurs when we 00:03:24.880 |
do what it says. And then in verses 26 and 27, James shows us what a doer of the word 00:03:30.720 |
looks like. First, he says a person who has a true grasp on spirituality controls his 00:03:36.720 |
tongue, that's number one. He controls his tongue. In other words, if you say you're 00:03:41.200 |
religious, if you say you have faith, but you don't broddle your tongue, an unloving, 00:03:47.720 |
gossiping, lying, deceitful tongue, then James says your faith is worthless. It's not the 00:03:54.600 |
real thing. And then he says in the very next verse what the real thing looks like. Look 00:03:59.960 |
at verse 27 with me. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, 00:04:08.280 |
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 00:04:17.080 |
This is an astounding statement. James says this is pure religion. This is undefiled Christianity 00:04:28.040 |
as far as God is concerned. To visit orphans and widows in their distress. You see, true 00:04:33.640 |
religion is not just hearing truth. It's more than that. It's not just a monotonous routine 00:04:39.800 |
of religious activity week after week. No, the heart of true religion is to visit orphans 00:04:44.760 |
and widows in their affliction. And that word visit here means so much more than just dropping 00:04:50.360 |
by and saying hello every once in a while. This is a word that was used to describe God. 00:04:55.280 |
It was used of God when God would visit his people. And it means to seek him out with 00:05:00.480 |
a deep concern for their well-being and a commitment to care for their needs. And James 00:05:04.760 |
drives this point home later in chapter 2 when he talks about a true and living faith 00:05:09.240 |
and how it's expressed in what? In words, right? In good works. More specifically in acts of 00:05:14.680 |
mercy toward the poor, the downtrodden, the hurting, the marginalized in our world. And 00:05:20.440 |
that's one of James' central points in this letter. Now it's important that we understand 00:05:25.480 |
that what James says here in verse 27 is not said in a vacuum. He is not arbitrarily singling 00:05:32.000 |
out orphans and widows as people we ought to care about. No, what he's doing is he is 00:05:37.280 |
reiterating what God has said all throughout the Old Testament about the people that he 00:05:42.600 |
cares about. And when you read the Old Testament scriptures, you find that there are three 00:05:47.540 |
groups of people that God singles out time and time and time again as the objects of 00:05:53.040 |
his special mercy. And they are the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner. The orphan, 00:05:59.320 |
the widow, and the sojourner. For instance, Deuteronomy 10, 18 says, "He executes justice 00:06:04.960 |
for the fatherless and the widow and loves a sojourner, giving him food and clothing." 00:06:10.480 |
Psalm 146, verse 9, "The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widows and 00:06:14.800 |
the fatherless." So God, God describes himself as their defender, their protector, their 00:06:19.480 |
provider, and not surprisingly, he expects his people to do the same. And we see an example 00:06:25.320 |
of this in Deuteronomy 14, 28, where God says, "At the end of every three years, you shall 00:06:30.040 |
bring out all the tithes of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 00:06:34.680 |
And the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come 00:06:39.280 |
and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your 00:06:44.400 |
hands that you do." So God promises to bless those who bless them. Conversely, God also 00:06:51.940 |
warns of judgment and punishment to those who mistreat them. For instance, in Exodus 00:06:58.240 |
22, verse 21, God says, "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him. You shall not 00:07:05.840 |
mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you mistreat them and they cry out to me, 00:07:10.360 |
I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with a sword, 00:07:16.440 |
and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless." Wow, God is not messing 00:07:20.480 |
around here, is he? He is dead serious when it comes to caring about the orphan, the widow, 00:07:26.720 |
and the sojourner, all of which begs the question, "Why?" Why does he care about them so much? 00:07:32.520 |
Why is he so drawn to the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner? Here's why. Because they 00:07:38.840 |
were the most helpless. They were the most vulnerable. They were the most powerless in 00:07:45.920 |
that society. To be a sojourner meant that you were incredibly vulnerable, because in 00:07:50.360 |
that day, your tribe was everything. And to be away from your people, your tribe, meant 00:07:54.880 |
that you had nothing. You were incredibly vulnerable. And to be a widow in that day, 00:07:59.480 |
guys, was vastly different from what it is to be a widow today. Today, there are all 00:08:03.280 |
kinds of social programs that care for widows. But no such thing existed in biblical times. 00:08:10.040 |
To be a widow in that day meant that you were on your own, and it was even worse for the 00:08:14.400 |
orphan. There were no welfare programs for orphans. There were no orphanages to take 00:08:22.200 |
them in. There was no foster care system. There was no such thing. To be an orphan in 00:08:27.520 |
that day meant that you had no one to look after you, no one to protect you, no one to 00:08:33.080 |
provide for you. You were entirely on your own. And it's one thing for a grown-up, for 00:08:38.880 |
an adult to fend for himself. Man, it's another thing for a child to fend for himself or herself 00:08:45.800 |
in a savage, brutal world. And understandably, they were the most vulnerable of them all. 00:08:52.740 |
And that is why God refers to Himself, get this, God refers to Himself as the Father 00:08:57.280 |
to the fatherless. God says, "That's who I am. I am the Father to the fatherless." He 00:09:02.360 |
is decisively drawn to them, and He takes up their cause. And consequently, He expects 00:09:10.040 |
Israel to take up their cause. Why? Because that's exactly what God had done for them. 00:09:20.680 |
You see, Israel was the sojourner before God called them and made them His people. Israel 00:09:26.320 |
was the widow before God became her husband. Israel was the orphan before God became their 00:09:32.160 |
father. And men and women, listen, it is no different with you and me today. It is no 00:09:40.040 |
different with us. We were sojourners, were we not? We were sojourners wandering aimlessly 00:09:48.260 |
until Christ found us and saved us. We were spiritual widows until Christ, our bridegroom, 00:09:55.120 |
entered into an everlasting covenant with us. And we were spiritual orphans without 00:09:59.720 |
a father until God adopted us into His family through Christ. That was us. And that's what 00:10:06.280 |
a Christian is. A Christian is one who says, "That was me. I was helpless. I was vulnerable. 00:10:14.640 |
I was fatherless, but I was shown mercy. God had mercy on me, and He sent His Son to rescue 00:10:21.800 |
me." So when you come across someone who is actually helpless, actually vulnerable, actually 00:10:26.760 |
fatherless, you see you. You see yourself. You see who you once were, and you see what 00:10:34.920 |
God and His mercy has done for you, and that in turn causes you to do something for them. 00:10:43.800 |
Orphan care will not mean much to you if the single truth does not take hold of your heart 00:10:50.280 |
until you see just how personal this is. Brothers and sisters, it's going to be hard for you 00:10:57.080 |
to see why James says pure and undefiled religion is caring for orphans until you see that that's 00:11:03.040 |
exactly what God and Christ has done for you. That when we were spiritual orphans without 00:11:08.280 |
a father, Christ came for us. He sought us out, and we have been adopted into the family 00:11:15.920 |
of God. We, you and I, we have been adopted by God. Oh, let that sink in. You and I, we 00:11:24.200 |
have been adopted by God. I know you've heard that a thousand times. Hear it again. We have 00:11:29.440 |
been adopted by the God of the universe. Oh, Christian, feel the weight of that all over 00:11:34.720 |
again. You and I are the adopted children of God, and here's why this is so important. 00:11:43.760 |
Because as Tony Merida has said, your theology inevitably leads to your biography. Your theology 00:11:51.080 |
inevitably leads to your biography. In other words, your understanding of God will determine 00:11:58.640 |
what you do with your life, always. What you believe about God determines how you live, 00:12:06.520 |
always. That's why when it comes to this issue of orphan care, the place where we have to 00:12:11.480 |
begin is to understand what God in His mercy has done for us. And Paul tells us in Galatians 00:12:20.440 |
4, this is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. "When the fullness of time 00:12:25.280 |
had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under law to redeem those under 00:12:33.320 |
the law, so that we might receive adoption as son." Paul says God sent His Son to redeem 00:12:42.240 |
us how? By fulfilling the requirements of the law on our behalf, thus justifying us 00:12:47.900 |
before God. That is, we are declared righteous before God, not based on anything we have 00:12:53.480 |
done, but based entirely on what Christ has done for us. Now that in itself is astounding, 00:13:02.600 |
that a holy God would send His own Son for sinners like us is amazing. And if that's 00:13:08.360 |
all there was to God sending Christ, if there was a period after to redeem those under the 00:13:13.320 |
law, none of us should be disappointed. We would have more than enough reason to praise 00:13:17.840 |
God forever and a day, but it doesn't end there. Paul says God's purpose in sending 00:13:23.760 |
Christ doesn't stop with our justification. No, he says we were justified so that purpose 00:13:30.720 |
clause, so that we might receive adoption as sons. In other words, God's purpose began 00:13:38.080 |
with redemption. It culminated with adoption. It began with redemption, but it culminated 00:13:46.960 |
with adoption. Listen, to be declared righteous, to be declared righteous by God, the judge 00:13:52.720 |
is amazing. But Paul says as great as that is, that's not even the best part. What do 00:13:59.200 |
you mean that's not even the best part? You mean to tell me that there's a greater and 00:14:01.680 |
a greater with God? Yes, and the greater is knowing that you are loved by God, the Father. 00:14:09.640 |
And that's what led J.I. Packer to write, "Adoption is the highest privilege that the 00:14:13.200 |
gospel offers, higher even than justification. Adoption is higher because of the richer relationship 00:14:19.200 |
with God that involves adoption as a family idea conceived in terms of love and viewing 00:14:24.760 |
God as Father." And then he says, "Our understanding," listen to what he says, "Our understanding 00:14:29.320 |
of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption." In other words, the extent 00:14:38.200 |
to which you get adoption, understand adoption is the extent to which you get the gospel. 00:14:45.440 |
And that's why John Piper, my personal hero, said adoption is the heart of the gospel. 00:14:54.780 |
Adoption is the heart of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, this is central to who we are. 00:15:03.080 |
This is what is at the core of who we are, the adopted children, sons and daughters of 00:15:10.080 |
God. That's what defines us. And not only are we as adopted children, Paul tells us 00:15:15.600 |
in verse 7, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through 00:15:21.680 |
God." Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? We have great, we have greater, here we 00:15:31.800 |
have the greatest. You are an heir of God. Think about that. You're not just a son now, 00:15:40.600 |
you will be a son forever. And you've got an inheritance awaiting you. All that God 00:15:46.880 |
is, all that God has, the unsearchable riches of His grace, belong to you and me as His 00:15:54.480 |
children. Now there are a couple of things that I want to point out here. The first is 00:16:01.000 |
that in the ancient world, the father's inheritance was restricted only to his what? His sons. 00:16:09.280 |
Only sons could gain an inheritance, daughters could not. And guys, that's why Paul addresses 00:16:14.120 |
all of us here as sons. He's not being chauvinistic as a lot of people today accuse him of being. 00:16:18.960 |
He's saying when it comes to God and the inheritance of God, we are all sons before Him. Now that 00:16:25.240 |
raises the question, what if a man didn't have a son to give his inheritance to? In 00:16:31.520 |
the ancient world, if a man did not have a son, he would adopt a son. He adopted a son 00:16:37.480 |
so that he would have an heir. Now guys, here's what this means. God's adoption of sinners 00:16:44.480 |
like you and me wasn't necessary. Oh, you got to get this. God's adoption of sinners 00:16:50.080 |
like you and me wasn't necessary. God didn't have to adopt us because you see, God already 00:16:53.400 |
had a son. He didn't need an heir because he already had an heir. But in His great mercy, 00:17:00.320 |
in His great love, God sent His son, His heir, and He crushed him. He crushed him so that 00:17:05.560 |
you and I might become the sons and heirs of God. Here's something else we need to know 00:17:12.160 |
about our adoption. Adoption in God's mind was not plan B. I repeat, adoption in God's 00:17:20.720 |
mind was not plan B. Adopting us was not a consolation prize for God. Listen to what 00:17:29.280 |
Paul writes in Ephesians 1, 3 through 5 in Philibrand, one of the verses. "Blessed be 00:17:34.160 |
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual 00:17:38.480 |
blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the 00:17:43.120 |
world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. In love He predestined 00:17:48.320 |
us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the 00:17:54.240 |
praise of His glorious grace." Oh, we like to debate this passage. Let's just delight 00:18:00.240 |
in it. Paul says, "Before the world even existed, God had in mind to adopt you and me." You 00:18:10.360 |
see, our adoption was not plan B. Adopting us for God was plan A. It wasn't second best 00:18:17.680 |
for God. It wasn't an afterthought. No, He had planned it from eternity past. And that 00:18:23.840 |
again is why Piper says adoption is the heart of the gospel. And that's why adoption for 00:18:29.720 |
us as believers, guys, isn't just a good thing to do. The gospel necessitates it. The gospel 00:18:37.960 |
necessitates it. The gospel necessitates that we do for others what God in Christ has done 00:18:47.160 |
for us. That much is clear, is it not? Man, the vertical love, the love of God that we 00:18:52.840 |
embrace, the vertical adoption we celebrate has to, it's got to translate into the horizontal. 00:19:02.240 |
Now I'm not saying every Christian has to adopt. That is not what I'm saying. I personally 00:19:06.240 |
don't believe that. I don't believe God calls every Christian to adopt, but I believe with 00:19:10.560 |
all my heart that every Christian, everyone who is in Christ has a stake in the matter. 00:19:14.280 |
You know why? Because God does. Our God has a huge stake in the matter. And if we are 00:19:20.160 |
as people called to be imitators of God, then we have got to do for others what God has 00:19:25.080 |
done for us. And that's why what we do as Christians isn't mere humanitarianism. And 00:19:33.880 |
it's not driven by altruism. That's why adoption isn't for couples who can't have kids. It's 00:19:43.560 |
for people who are attuned to the gospel. It's for people who love the gospel. It's 00:19:49.920 |
for people who have been changed, transformed by the, it's for people who want to proclaim 00:19:54.000 |
the gospel and live out the gospel in their lives. And the reason adoption so powerfully 00:20:00.840 |
displays the gospel is because it's the one act that most directly mirrors what God has 00:20:07.000 |
done for us, God's actions toward us. When redeemed, men and women extend a hand of mercy 00:20:14.240 |
and bring in children in need. Oh man, the world sees a real life picture of the gospel. 00:20:21.760 |
I mean think about how counter-cultural it is for Christians to adopt or bring in a young 00:20:26.560 |
boy with a club palate from India where most people see him as cursed or defective. How 00:20:32.720 |
counter-intuitive it is for Christians to adopt children of a different race or ethnicity. 00:20:38.880 |
White adopting brown, brown adopting yellow, yellow adopting black. What better way, what 00:20:46.240 |
better way to display to the world that God adopts children from every nation, tribe, 00:20:51.560 |
and tongue. So it's the gospel. That's what lies at the core of orphan care. It's the 00:20:58.520 |
gospel that compels us to care for orphans and adopt them, but it doesn't end there. 00:21:06.200 |
Men and women, it's the gospel that sustains us in our adoption of orphans. In other words, 00:21:13.560 |
what compels us and motivates us to adopt orphans is the very thing that sustains us 00:21:20.440 |
in our adoption because adoption is not easy. It is not an easy thing. And it's important 00:21:32.080 |
that I say that because I think much of what's done for orphans in our culture, even in the 00:21:35.720 |
church culture, is owing to altruism and in some respects a desire for selfish gain. And 00:21:45.240 |
that was sort of the case for me. You know when my wife and I were looking to adopt our 00:21:49.880 |
second child, our first son, we adopted him locally through the foster care system here 00:21:55.400 |
in LA. But when we felt God calling us to adopt again, we wanted to adopt internationally. 00:22:02.680 |
So guess what country I had us look into first? The Dominican Republic. Now why, of all places, 00:22:11.720 |
the Dominican Republic? Here's why. That tiny little country produces a lot of great 00:22:18.160 |
shortstops. And as a diehard baseball fan, as a diehard Dodger fan, yeah I know, I've 00:22:27.040 |
been in depression the last seven days, straight up dark, not in the soul, I can't believe 00:22:31.640 |
we lost again. I can't believe we went that far and lost again. Don't get me started. 00:22:38.960 |
But I had this vision. I envisioned adopting this kid from the Dominican Republic who would 00:22:44.360 |
one day grow up to play shortstop for the Dodgers, for real. I wish I was making this 00:22:49.600 |
up, I'm not, you can ask my wife. But God closed those doors, the Dominican Republic 00:22:54.480 |
didn't work out, we didn't meet the requirements. So the next country I had us look into was 00:22:58.840 |
Venezuela. Because Venezuela also produces a lot of great baseball players. But you know, 00:23:09.480 |
I think that kind of mindset is a lot more common than we like to admit. I mean, adoption 00:23:15.400 |
has become almost trendy in our day, has it not? It's cool to care for orphans now. And 00:23:20.800 |
we hear about all these Hollywood celebrities like Madonna, Sandra Bullock, Charlize Theron 00:23:24.440 |
who adopt, and we're tempted to jump on the bandwagon. And I think there lurks in the 00:23:29.920 |
back of a lot of people's minds this idea, this idea that man, it would be so cool to 00:23:34.400 |
have this cute little kid from another race or country in our Christmas cards that we 00:23:38.160 |
send out to all of our family and friends. But here's the problem. What happens when 00:23:45.080 |
the child you bring into your home isn't all that cute? What happens when that child suffers 00:23:52.600 |
from emotional dysregulation and can't even sit still for the family photo shoot without 00:23:56.520 |
melting down? What happens when that child has real developmental delays because she 00:24:03.080 |
was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb? What happens when you try to love that child, 00:24:08.760 |
but she rejects it? She just pushes you away every time because she doesn't know what to 00:24:13.080 |
do with it. She's never experienced love and affection. She pushes you away. What happens 00:24:17.880 |
then? What happens when the child you bring into your home puts your other children at 00:24:24.440 |
risk because of his violent outbursts? You see, altruism will not get you through that. 00:24:31.960 |
The only thing that will, the only thing that will sustain you and carry you through that 00:24:36.620 |
is a cross, the cross of Christ. A while back, Jean shared with me a blog written by an adoptive 00:24:46.920 |
mom named Stacey Gagnon, and I want to share with you a part of what she wrote in a post 00:24:52.520 |
entitled "How Adoption Destroyed My Life." What a title. "How Adoption Destroyed My Life," 00:25:00.200 |
she writes, "I was warned these kids will ruin your life. I was warned that they grow 00:25:06.880 |
up and they won't be so cute when you're caring for a 35-year-old still living in your home. 00:25:12.440 |
What if they are so damaged they end up in prison? What if they can never love you back 00:25:18.740 |
and you poured all this money and time into them? What if doing this totally destroys 00:25:24.240 |
everything you built for yourself? How will this affect your biological children? Aren't 00:25:30.800 |
you too old for this? What if they ruin you? I say it's time we evaluated what we are living 00:25:38.400 |
for and choose to be ruined. Maybe ruination is where we're supposed to live. Maybe this 00:25:47.400 |
adoption thing is hard work, ugly tears, broken hearts, and sleepless nights. Maybe it's a 00:25:51.920 |
daily struggle and the rewards are small and few. Perhaps the costs outweigh the gain. 00:25:58.280 |
It's possible that they grow up to become felons or they never learn to live independently. 00:26:04.480 |
Perhaps they hate me and want to hurt me because it's too much to trust an adult again. Maybe 00:26:08.640 |
their fear is bigger than my love. Maybe I choose adoption because Christ adopted me 00:26:15.160 |
when I was broken, when I was irredeemable, and when I was hard work. Maybe He chose me 00:26:22.100 |
when nobody else would. Maybe God took my broken pieces and loved me in spite of the 00:26:27.320 |
reward. Maybe He picked me when I had nothing to give to Him. I look at this ruination and 00:26:34.520 |
I guess I don't see the mess, the pain, the reality. I guess love must make me blind to 00:26:39.080 |
the present and the past, but it opens my eyes wide to eternity because of what I see 00:26:45.400 |
our children that I love fiercely. I see the blessing of the tiny victories because I know 00:26:50.960 |
the steep path taken to achieve them. I see the blessing. I see the internal battles and 00:26:57.240 |
the emotional scars, and I marvel at the resilience. My eyes are now open, and I guess this ruination 00:27:07.280 |
is exactly where I want to live because God, you live there too. And brothers and sisters, 00:27:15.320 |
He does. God does. Jean and I have experienced this ruination too. Having adopted two boys, 00:27:28.040 |
we have seen firsthand the brutality and the beauty of adoption. We have seen firsthand 00:27:37.200 |
how trauma has shaped them and the loss those boys deal with every single day. And there 00:27:45.640 |
have been plenty of days for both of us. There were so many days filled with darkness and 00:27:51.960 |
despair, especially as it relates to our second son, Jackson. We got Jackson when he was two 00:28:00.960 |
months old, and at that point of two months, we were his third placement. For starters, 00:28:08.640 |
he was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb, and if that wasn't enough, in one of 00:28:15.320 |
the previous homes, the one right before he came home to us, he was severely neglected. 00:28:22.920 |
Whereas a newborn, a newborn baby, he was left in the crib to cry for hours on end, 00:28:31.160 |
all of which affected his brain development and the way he's able to manage and control 00:28:36.360 |
his emotions. And it's most commonly expressed in loud outbursts, tantrums, meltdowns, and 00:28:45.160 |
they're constant. They're constant. And there's only so much one could take, you know? About 00:28:53.680 |
the hundredth one, man, I'm done. And I've lost it more times than I care to remember. 00:29:03.640 |
And I've had to do business with God over this. More specifically, I've had to deal 00:29:09.080 |
with my resentment towards God. See, my wife grieved, Jean grieved. She grieved the loss 00:29:15.000 |
of normalcy in our home. I got mad. I got angry with God. I was so deeply bitter with 00:29:23.040 |
God for putting that kid in my life. Because you see, God ruined me. God ruined my life 00:29:30.720 |
through that boy. But thank God for his grace and mercy. Thank God for his grace and mercy 00:29:39.840 |
for sinners like me, because I'm at a place now, I'm at a place now where I thank God 00:29:45.040 |
for the illumination. I thank God for Jackson. He still drives me up the wall, don't get 00:29:52.680 |
me wrong. But I love that kid to death. I wouldn't trade it for the world. And I thank 00:29:58.880 |
God for choosing me to be his daddy because of what that little boy has taught me. And 00:30:03.120 |
Jackson more than anything or anyone, and I'm being totally serious about this, that 00:30:08.080 |
little boy more than anyone or anything has taught me the beauty and the power of the 00:30:11.920 |
gospel. You see, I look at Jackson, I see the cross. I really do. I look at that boy 00:30:17.120 |
and I see the cross. You say, "How?" Here's how. It's at the cross that I see that the 00:30:21.520 |
very thing that I can't stand in my son wasn't me. It's at the cross that I see my own outburst, 00:30:28.160 |
my own brokenness, my own tantrums, my own meltdowns. It's at the cross that I see how 00:30:32.480 |
traumatized I was by sin, how I was controlled by my own sinful impulses. But it's at the 00:30:40.000 |
cross that I see the amazing love of God, the love that saw value in me, that saw beauty 00:30:45.800 |
in me and came after me, the love that never gave up on me no matter how much I ran from 00:30:51.320 |
God and rebelled against him. No, he came for me and he found me and he brought me to 00:30:55.840 |
himself and he loved me as his own. And when you realize what took place at the cross, 00:31:02.280 |
it makes sense. It makes sense why God would call us to love the unlovable and care for 00:31:10.800 |
the uncontrollable. The ones that this world says are unadoptable. Because when you are 00:31:18.080 |
driven by the cross, you realize, you realize you are not a rescuer. Listen, we are not 00:31:23.600 |
a group of altruistic people out to save these poor little orphans. That is not who we are. 00:31:30.280 |
We are not the rescuers. We are the rescued. We are the, that's who we are. We are the 00:31:36.960 |
ones that have been rescued, saved from far, far worse. And when you get that, it makes 00:31:44.120 |
sense why God would call us to love the hurting and the broken, the most vulnerable among 00:31:53.640 |
us. I want to be careful here. I don't want to paint a horrible picture of adoption. That 00:32:01.800 |
is not why I'm here. That's the last thing I want to do. Because truth is, there are 00:32:07.880 |
a lot of awesome, wonderful cases, man, where the adoptive children are great, the adoptive 00:32:14.120 |
families are great, and those kids grow up to play shortstop for some baseball team. 00:32:20.040 |
There are plenty of cases like that. There really are. At the same time, I know there 00:32:25.200 |
are a lot of families, and I know many of them, that will tell you of the hardships 00:32:31.480 |
and the challenges that come with adoption. A couple of years ago, I had the privilege 00:32:36.840 |
of being part of a pastor's panel at a conference put together by the Christian Alliance for 00:32:41.880 |
Orphans, a great organization. But that experience changed me. I'd never been more humbled in 00:32:50.520 |
my entire life, because that week I walked among giants. I walked among giants. I walked 00:32:59.320 |
among some of the greatest unsung heroes of our faith. Over 1,700 men and women who quietly, 00:33:05.280 |
unassumingly cared for the most vulnerable children in our world with no fanfare, no 00:33:09.160 |
applause, no recognition, nothing. I'm talking about people who've taken children into teens. 00:33:16.560 |
I don't mean teenagers. People adopt 13, 14, 15 kids. People who've taken the dying. 00:33:27.760 |
Jean and I attended this workshop, and it was by this older couple. They were probably 00:33:31.040 |
in their 60s, 70s. But guys, they had this ministry. They just took in children who were 00:33:36.400 |
terminally ill. Children that were dying, just so that they could comfort them with 00:33:44.280 |
the love of God as they died. Who does that? Who does that? I'll tell you, people who are 00:33:54.760 |
driven by the cross. People who understand that they themselves have been rescued, and 00:34:01.200 |
that they themselves have been loved by a far, far greater love. And that's why they 00:34:05.160 |
do what they do. And that's why we do what we do. And that's why we love and we live 00:34:10.120 |
differently from this world. And that's why James 1, 27 makes sense. Why the mark of true 00:34:16.240 |
Christ-centered, gospel-centered, gospel-driven religion is to care for orphans, because that 00:34:20.480 |
was us. That was us. That was you. That was me. And now God calls us to do the same for 00:34:27.880 |
others. There are over 147 million orphans in the world right now. If there were a country, 00:34:34.560 |
they'd be the seventh largest country in the world. Children who have no one to call, there 00:34:39.840 |
are no mom, no dad. And this isn't just a global crisis. There's an orphan crisis here 00:34:44.240 |
in America. More than 800,000 children pass through the foster care system every year 00:34:48.800 |
here in America, bouncing from one house to another because they are not wanted. And when 00:34:53.200 |
they turn 18, they age out. They age out. And every year, 30,000 kids age out of the 00:35:01.480 |
foster care system with nothing but a check and a good luck. That's it. And yet every 00:35:13.520 |
year, only a tiny fraction of Christians open the door of their homes and their hearts to 00:35:22.560 |
these children. If you ask me, there's something wrong. There's something wrong with that. 00:35:32.120 |
There's something wrong with that picture. Brothers and sisters, you and I have been 00:35:37.040 |
given so much. We've been given so much. We've been given so much. But far too often, we 00:35:48.040 |
in the church, we squander God's blessings on ourselves, forgetting that we are on mission. 00:35:57.000 |
God put us on this earth to proclaim and portray the beauty and the power of the gospel. And 00:36:05.280 |
that's why James says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father exists 00:36:09.400 |
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." And then what does he say? "To keep oneself 00:36:13.280 |
unstained from the world." To keep oneself unstained from the world. That's not separate 00:36:18.120 |
from what he just said about caring for orphans and widows. They go hand in hand. And what 00:36:22.080 |
James is saying here is this. Don't miss this. "What is of great concern to God will be of 00:36:26.800 |
no concern to you when you are corrupted by the world." What is of great concern to God 00:36:32.280 |
will be of no concern to you when you are corrupted by the world. When your values are 00:36:38.480 |
shaped by the world, things like caring for orphans will not matter much to you. So James 00:36:44.280 |
here is issuing a warning. Be careful. Be careful not to be conformed to this pattern, to the 00:36:50.360 |
pattern of this world, because when that happens, you're going to miss the heart of religion, 00:36:55.920 |
pure religion. You will miss the heart of God. But I thank God that this church has 00:37:04.440 |
it. Marie and I thank, I thank God, I thank God for you guys. I thank God that this church 00:37:09.440 |
gets it. You guys get the gospel. And you guys are actively seeking out ways to live 00:37:16.000 |
out the gospel in your lives and in this community and in this world. I praise God for you. I 00:37:20.560 |
praise God for this church. There's a deeply theological movie called Nacho Libre. I asked 00:37:34.800 |
this the first service, and I'm going to ask it. Who here has not seen Nacho Libre? All 00:37:41.840 |
right, listen, part of your assignment this week, apart from praying about how you might 00:37:48.480 |
be involved in orphan care, is to go on Netflix and watch Nacho Libre. It's one of the best 00:37:53.000 |
movies ever made, for reals. One of the best movies ever made. But the movie's about Nacho, 00:37:59.800 |
a friar, who moonlights as a wrestler, right? And that's how he raises the funds to care 00:38:04.480 |
for the orphans. There's this one scene where he's talking to his friend, Steven, about 00:38:09.160 |
his desire to care for orphans, and Steven goes, "I'm tired of hearing about the stupid 00:38:14.720 |
orphans. I hate the orphans." And Nacho goes, "What did you say?" And he says it again, "I 00:38:20.880 |
hate all the orphans in the whole world." And Nacho responds, "I'm not listening to you. 00:38:25.640 |
You only believe in science. That's probably why we never win." To which Steven says, "We 00:38:30.400 |
never win because you are fat." Great movie. Great, great movie. No one says, "I hate all 00:38:43.120 |
the orphans." I've never heard anybody say that, and I never will. That's not the issue 00:38:51.920 |
for us. The issue is not that we hate orphans. The issue is that most of us aren't sufficiently 00:39:02.080 |
motivated to do something about their plight. Guys, what I've come to tell you today is 00:39:08.240 |
that we, we the redeemed, we the adopted sons and daughters of God, we of all people, we 00:39:16.600 |
of all people have all the motivation we need to do something about it. Why? Because we 00:39:22.360 |
are people of the gospel. That's who we are. That's what defines us. And the gospel compels 00:39:31.040 |
us to go out, go out and do for these vulnerable children what God in his mercy has done for