Good morning. Good morning, Berean. How are you guys doing? It's great to be with you on this special Sunday. And we want to thank Pastor Peter for having me. And yeah, we, I haven't known him that long, only two, three years, but yeah, there's a definite kinship. I came home on Friday.

I told my wife, there's just a connection with Pastor Peter. We have so many similarities. And it really is true when he says that we are like minded, like hearted. I hope you guys know how much your pastor loves you. He spoke at our retreat this past weekend, and it was just so clear.

His heart for Christ, his love of the gospel, and his love for you guys. He boasts about you. And I know so many churches, man, that would do anything short of sinning to have a pastor like Pastor Peter. And so I hope you know how blessed you are to have him at the helm, leading you towards Christ.

And yeah, if you have your Bibles, will you turn with me to the book of James, James chapter one? We're going to look at one verse this morning, a verse that may be familiar to a lot of you. And that verse is 27, verse 27 of James chapter one.

And before we go to God's word, will you go with me to the one who gave us the word, let's pray. God, I pray that you would fill us with your spirit. Spirit of God, I pray that you would move in power and grace in a way that goes far beyond me and what I'm capable of.

God, we need you. This cannot just be some human activity. God, we are desperate for you, and we want to hear your voice. And so God, I pray that you would now, Father, open our eyes. Open our eyes, God, that we might see the magnitude of your glory. God, open our hearts that we might feel the weight of your grace.

And God, open our mouths that we might declare the wonders of your gospel. It's in Christ's name we pray, Amen. Now, before we dive into the verse, let me give you the context of the passage so that you understand where James is coming from. In the preceding verses, verses 19 through 25, James talks about the centrality of God's word and how we are to be doers of the word and not just hearers.

And the reason for that is because the scriptures were given not simply to inform, but to transform. To transform our hearts and our minds, our lives, and that change happens, that change occurs when we do what it says. And then in verses 26 and 27, James shows us what a doer of the word looks like.

First, he says a person who has a true grasp on spirituality controls his tongue, that's number one. He controls his tongue. In other words, if you say you're religious, if you say you have faith, but you don't broddle your tongue, an unloving, gossiping, lying, deceitful tongue, then James says your faith is worthless.

It's not the real thing. And then he says in the very next verse what the real thing looks like. Look at verse 27 with me. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This is an astounding statement. James says this is pure religion. This is undefiled Christianity as far as God is concerned. To visit orphans and widows in their distress. You see, true religion is not just hearing truth. It's more than that. It's not just a monotonous routine of religious activity week after week.

No, the heart of true religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. And that word visit here means so much more than just dropping by and saying hello every once in a while. This is a word that was used to describe God. It was used of God when God would visit his people.

And it means to seek him out with a deep concern for their well-being and a commitment to care for their needs. And James drives this point home later in chapter 2 when he talks about a true and living faith and how it's expressed in what? In words, right? In good works.

More specifically in acts of mercy toward the poor, the downtrodden, the hurting, the marginalized in our world. And that's one of James' central points in this letter. Now it's important that we understand that what James says here in verse 27 is not said in a vacuum. He is not arbitrarily singling out orphans and widows as people we ought to care about.

No, what he's doing is he is reiterating what God has said all throughout the Old Testament about the people that he cares about. And when you read the Old Testament scriptures, you find that there are three groups of people that God singles out time and time and time again as the objects of his special mercy.

And they are the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner. The orphan, the widow, and the sojourner. For instance, Deuteronomy 10, 18 says, "He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves a sojourner, giving him food and clothing." Psalm 146, verse 9, "The Lord watches over the sojourners.

He upholds the widows and the fatherless." So God, God describes himself as their defender, their protector, their provider, and not surprisingly, he expects his people to do the same. And we see an example of this in Deuteronomy 14, 28, where God says, "At the end of every three years, you shall bring out all the tithes of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns.

And the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do." So God promises to bless those who bless them. Conversely, God also warns of judgment and punishment to those who mistreat them.

For instance, in Exodus 22, verse 21, God says, "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with a sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless." Wow, God is not messing around here, is he?

He is dead serious when it comes to caring about the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner, all of which begs the question, "Why?" Why does he care about them so much? Why is he so drawn to the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner? Here's why. Because they were the most helpless.

They were the most vulnerable. They were the most powerless in that society. To be a sojourner meant that you were incredibly vulnerable, because in that day, your tribe was everything. And to be away from your people, your tribe, meant that you had nothing. You were incredibly vulnerable. And to be a widow in that day, guys, was vastly different from what it is to be a widow today.

Today, there are all kinds of social programs that care for widows. But no such thing existed in biblical times. To be a widow in that day meant that you were on your own, and it was even worse for the orphan. There were no welfare programs for orphans. There were no orphanages to take them in.

There was no foster care system. There was no such thing. To be an orphan in that day meant that you had no one to look after you, no one to protect you, no one to provide for you. You were entirely on your own. And it's one thing for a grown-up, for an adult to fend for himself.

Man, it's another thing for a child to fend for himself or herself in a savage, brutal world. And understandably, they were the most vulnerable of them all. And that is why God refers to Himself, get this, God refers to Himself as the Father to the fatherless. God says, "That's who I am.

I am the Father to the fatherless." He is decisively drawn to them, and He takes up their cause. And consequently, He expects Israel to take up their cause. Why? Because that's exactly what God had done for them. You see, Israel was the sojourner before God called them and made them His people.

Israel was the widow before God became her husband. Israel was the orphan before God became their father. And men and women, listen, it is no different with you and me today. It is no different with us. We were sojourners, were we not? We were sojourners wandering aimlessly until Christ found us and saved us.

We were spiritual widows until Christ, our bridegroom, entered into an everlasting covenant with us. And we were spiritual orphans without a father until God adopted us into His family through Christ. That was us. And that's what a Christian is. A Christian is one who says, "That was me. I was helpless.

I was vulnerable. I was fatherless, but I was shown mercy. God had mercy on me, and He sent His Son to rescue me." So when you come across someone who is actually helpless, actually vulnerable, actually fatherless, you see you. You see yourself. You see who you once were, and you see what God and His mercy has done for you, and that in turn causes you to do something for them.

Orphan care will not mean much to you if the single truth does not take hold of your heart until you see just how personal this is. Brothers and sisters, it's going to be hard for you to see why James says pure and undefiled religion is caring for orphans until you see that that's exactly what God and Christ has done for you.

That when we were spiritual orphans without a father, Christ came for us. He sought us out, and we have been adopted into the family of God. We, you and I, we have been adopted by God. Oh, let that sink in. You and I, we have been adopted by God.

I know you've heard that a thousand times. Hear it again. We have been adopted by the God of the universe. Oh, Christian, feel the weight of that all over again. You and I are the adopted children of God, and here's why this is so important. Because as Tony Merida has said, your theology inevitably leads to your biography.

Your theology inevitably leads to your biography. In other words, your understanding of God will determine what you do with your life, always. What you believe about God determines how you live, always. That's why when it comes to this issue of orphan care, the place where we have to begin is to understand what God in His mercy has done for us.

And Paul tells us in Galatians 4, this is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under law to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as son." Paul says God sent His Son to redeem us how?

By fulfilling the requirements of the law on our behalf, thus justifying us before God. That is, we are declared righteous before God, not based on anything we have done, but based entirely on what Christ has done for us. Now that in itself is astounding, that a holy God would send His own Son for sinners like us is amazing.

And if that's all there was to God sending Christ, if there was a period after to redeem those under the law, none of us should be disappointed. We would have more than enough reason to praise God forever and a day, but it doesn't end there. Paul says God's purpose in sending Christ doesn't stop with our justification.

No, he says we were justified so that purpose clause, so that we might receive adoption as sons. In other words, God's purpose began with redemption. It culminated with adoption. It began with redemption, but it culminated with adoption. Listen, to be declared righteous, to be declared righteous by God, the judge is amazing.

But Paul says as great as that is, that's not even the best part. What do you mean that's not even the best part? You mean to tell me that there's a greater and a greater with God? Yes, and the greater is knowing that you are loved by God, the Father.

And that's what led J.I. Packer to write, "Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers, higher even than justification. Adoption is higher because of the richer relationship with God that involves adoption as a family idea conceived in terms of love and viewing God as Father." And then he says, "Our understanding," listen to what he says, "Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption." In other words, the extent to which you get adoption, understand adoption is the extent to which you get the gospel.

And that's why John Piper, my personal hero, said adoption is the heart of the gospel. Adoption is the heart of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, this is central to who we are. This is what is at the core of who we are, the adopted children, sons and daughters of God.

That's what defines us. And not only are we as adopted children, Paul tells us in verse 7, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? We have great, we have greater, here we have the greatest.

You are an heir of God. Think about that. You're not just a son now, you will be a son forever. And you've got an inheritance awaiting you. All that God is, all that God has, the unsearchable riches of His grace, belong to you and me as His children. Now there are a couple of things that I want to point out here.

The first is that in the ancient world, the father's inheritance was restricted only to his what? His sons. Only sons could gain an inheritance, daughters could not. And guys, that's why Paul addresses all of us here as sons. He's not being chauvinistic as a lot of people today accuse him of being.

He's saying when it comes to God and the inheritance of God, we are all sons before Him. Now that raises the question, what if a man didn't have a son to give his inheritance to? In the ancient world, if a man did not have a son, he would adopt a son.

He adopted a son so that he would have an heir. Now guys, here's what this means. God's adoption of sinners like you and me wasn't necessary. Oh, you got to get this. God's adoption of sinners like you and me wasn't necessary. God didn't have to adopt us because you see, God already had a son.

He didn't need an heir because he already had an heir. But in His great mercy, in His great love, God sent His son, His heir, and He crushed him. He crushed him so that you and I might become the sons and heirs of God. Here's something else we need to know about our adoption.

Adoption in God's mind was not plan B. I repeat, adoption in God's mind was not plan B. Adopting us was not a consolation prize for God. Listen to what Paul writes in Ephesians 1, 3 through 5 in Philibrand, one of the verses. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace." Oh, we like to debate this passage. Let's just delight in it. Paul says, "Before the world even existed, God had in mind to adopt you and me." You see, our adoption was not plan B.

Adopting us for God was plan A. It wasn't second best for God. It wasn't an afterthought. No, He had planned it from eternity past. And that again is why Piper says adoption is the heart of the gospel. And that's why adoption for us as believers, guys, isn't just a good thing to do.

The gospel necessitates it. The gospel necessitates it. The gospel necessitates that we do for others what God in Christ has done for us. That much is clear, is it not? Man, the vertical love, the love of God that we embrace, the vertical adoption we celebrate has to, it's got to translate into the horizontal.

Now I'm not saying every Christian has to adopt. That is not what I'm saying. I personally don't believe that. I don't believe God calls every Christian to adopt, but I believe with all my heart that every Christian, everyone who is in Christ has a stake in the matter. You know why?

Because God does. Our God has a huge stake in the matter. And if we are as people called to be imitators of God, then we have got to do for others what God has done for us. And that's why what we do as Christians isn't mere humanitarianism. And it's not driven by altruism.

That's why adoption isn't for couples who can't have kids. It's for people who are attuned to the gospel. It's for people who love the gospel. It's for people who have been changed, transformed by the, it's for people who want to proclaim the gospel and live out the gospel in their lives.

And the reason adoption so powerfully displays the gospel is because it's the one act that most directly mirrors what God has done for us, God's actions toward us. When redeemed, men and women extend a hand of mercy and bring in children in need. Oh man, the world sees a real life picture of the gospel.

I mean think about how counter-cultural it is for Christians to adopt or bring in a young boy with a club palate from India where most people see him as cursed or defective. How counter-intuitive it is for Christians to adopt children of a different race or ethnicity. White adopting brown, brown adopting yellow, yellow adopting black.

What better way, what better way to display to the world that God adopts children from every nation, tribe, and tongue. So it's the gospel. That's what lies at the core of orphan care. It's the gospel that compels us to care for orphans and adopt them, but it doesn't end there.

Men and women, it's the gospel that sustains us in our adoption of orphans. In other words, what compels us and motivates us to adopt orphans is the very thing that sustains us in our adoption because adoption is not easy. It is not an easy thing. And it's important that I say that because I think much of what's done for orphans in our culture, even in the church culture, is owing to altruism and in some respects a desire for selfish gain.

And that was sort of the case for me. You know when my wife and I were looking to adopt our second child, our first son, we adopted him locally through the foster care system here in LA. But when we felt God calling us to adopt again, we wanted to adopt internationally.

So guess what country I had us look into first? The Dominican Republic. Now why, of all places, the Dominican Republic? Here's why. That tiny little country produces a lot of great shortstops. And as a diehard baseball fan, as a diehard Dodger fan, yeah I know, I've been in depression the last seven days, straight up dark, not in the soul, I can't believe we lost again.

I can't believe we went that far and lost again. Don't get me started. But I had this vision. I envisioned adopting this kid from the Dominican Republic who would one day grow up to play shortstop for the Dodgers, for real. I wish I was making this up, I'm not, you can ask my wife.

But God closed those doors, the Dominican Republic didn't work out, we didn't meet the requirements. So the next country I had us look into was Venezuela. Because Venezuela also produces a lot of great baseball players. But you know, I think that kind of mindset is a lot more common than we like to admit.

I mean, adoption has become almost trendy in our day, has it not? It's cool to care for orphans now. And we hear about all these Hollywood celebrities like Madonna, Sandra Bullock, Charlize Theron who adopt, and we're tempted to jump on the bandwagon. And I think there lurks in the back of a lot of people's minds this idea, this idea that man, it would be so cool to have this cute little kid from another race or country in our Christmas cards that we send out to all of our family and friends.

But here's the problem. What happens when the child you bring into your home isn't all that cute? What happens when that child suffers from emotional dysregulation and can't even sit still for the family photo shoot without melting down? What happens when that child has real developmental delays because she was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb?

What happens when you try to love that child, but she rejects it? She just pushes you away every time because she doesn't know what to do with it. She's never experienced love and affection. She pushes you away. What happens then? What happens when the child you bring into your home puts your other children at risk because of his violent outbursts?

You see, altruism will not get you through that. The only thing that will, the only thing that will sustain you and carry you through that is a cross, the cross of Christ. A while back, Jean shared with me a blog written by an adoptive mom named Stacey Gagnon, and I want to share with you a part of what she wrote in a post entitled "How Adoption Destroyed My Life." What a title.

"How Adoption Destroyed My Life," she writes, "I was warned these kids will ruin your life. I was warned that they grow up and they won't be so cute when you're caring for a 35-year-old still living in your home. What if they are so damaged they end up in prison?

What if they can never love you back and you poured all this money and time into them? What if doing this totally destroys everything you built for yourself? How will this affect your biological children? Aren't you too old for this? What if they ruin you? I say it's time we evaluated what we are living for and choose to be ruined.

Maybe ruination is where we're supposed to live. Maybe this adoption thing is hard work, ugly tears, broken hearts, and sleepless nights. Maybe it's a daily struggle and the rewards are small and few. Perhaps the costs outweigh the gain. It's possible that they grow up to become felons or they never learn to live independently.

Perhaps they hate me and want to hurt me because it's too much to trust an adult again. Maybe their fear is bigger than my love. Maybe I choose adoption because Christ adopted me when I was broken, when I was irredeemable, and when I was hard work. Maybe He chose me when nobody else would.

Maybe God took my broken pieces and loved me in spite of the reward. Maybe He picked me when I had nothing to give to Him. I look at this ruination and I guess I don't see the mess, the pain, the reality. I guess love must make me blind to the present and the past, but it opens my eyes wide to eternity because of what I see our children that I love fiercely.

I see the blessing of the tiny victories because I know the steep path taken to achieve them. I see the blessing. I see the internal battles and the emotional scars, and I marvel at the resilience. My eyes are now open, and I guess this ruination is exactly where I want to live because God, you live there too.

And brothers and sisters, He does. God does. Jean and I have experienced this ruination too. Having adopted two boys, we have seen firsthand the brutality and the beauty of adoption. We have seen firsthand how trauma has shaped them and the loss those boys deal with every single day. And there have been plenty of days for both of us.

There were so many days filled with darkness and despair, especially as it relates to our second son, Jackson. We got Jackson when he was two months old, and at that point of two months, we were his third placement. For starters, he was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb, and if that wasn't enough, in one of the previous homes, the one right before he came home to us, he was severely neglected.

Whereas a newborn, a newborn baby, he was left in the crib to cry for hours on end, all of which affected his brain development and the way he's able to manage and control his emotions. And it's most commonly expressed in loud outbursts, tantrums, meltdowns, and they're constant. They're constant.

And there's only so much one could take, you know? About the hundredth one, man, I'm done. And I've lost it more times than I care to remember. And I've had to do business with God over this. More specifically, I've had to deal with my resentment towards God. See, my wife grieved, Jean grieved.

She grieved the loss of normalcy in our home. I got mad. I got angry with God. I was so deeply bitter with God for putting that kid in my life. Because you see, God ruined me. God ruined my life through that boy. But thank God for his grace and mercy.

Thank God for his grace and mercy for sinners like me, because I'm at a place now, I'm at a place now where I thank God for the illumination. I thank God for Jackson. He still drives me up the wall, don't get me wrong. But I love that kid to death.

I wouldn't trade it for the world. And I thank God for choosing me to be his daddy because of what that little boy has taught me. And Jackson more than anything or anyone, and I'm being totally serious about this, that little boy more than anyone or anything has taught me the beauty and the power of the gospel.

You see, I look at Jackson, I see the cross. I really do. I look at that boy and I see the cross. You say, "How?" Here's how. It's at the cross that I see that the very thing that I can't stand in my son wasn't me. It's at the cross that I see my own outburst, my own brokenness, my own tantrums, my own meltdowns.

It's at the cross that I see how traumatized I was by sin, how I was controlled by my own sinful impulses. But it's at the cross that I see the amazing love of God, the love that saw value in me, that saw beauty in me and came after me, the love that never gave up on me no matter how much I ran from God and rebelled against him.

No, he came for me and he found me and he brought me to himself and he loved me as his own. And when you realize what took place at the cross, it makes sense. It makes sense why God would call us to love the unlovable and care for the uncontrollable.

The ones that this world says are unadoptable. Because when you are driven by the cross, you realize, you realize you are not a rescuer. Listen, we are not a group of altruistic people out to save these poor little orphans. That is not who we are. We are not the rescuers.

We are the rescued. We are the, that's who we are. We are the ones that have been rescued, saved from far, far worse. And when you get that, it makes sense why God would call us to love the hurting and the broken, the most vulnerable among us. I want to be careful here.

I don't want to paint a horrible picture of adoption. That is not why I'm here. That's the last thing I want to do. Because truth is, there are a lot of awesome, wonderful cases, man, where the adoptive children are great, the adoptive families are great, and those kids grow up to play shortstop for some baseball team.

There are plenty of cases like that. There really are. At the same time, I know there are a lot of families, and I know many of them, that will tell you of the hardships and the challenges that come with adoption. A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of being part of a pastor's panel at a conference put together by the Christian Alliance for Orphans, a great organization.

But that experience changed me. I'd never been more humbled in my entire life, because that week I walked among giants. I walked among giants. I walked among some of the greatest unsung heroes of our faith. Over 1,700 men and women who quietly, unassumingly cared for the most vulnerable children in our world with no fanfare, no applause, no recognition, nothing.

I'm talking about people who've taken children into teens. I don't mean teenagers. People adopt 13, 14, 15 kids. People who've taken the dying. Jean and I attended this workshop, and it was by this older couple. They were probably in their 60s, 70s. But guys, they had this ministry. They just took in children who were terminally ill.

Children that were dying, just so that they could comfort them with the love of God as they died. Who does that? Who does that? I'll tell you, people who are driven by the cross. People who understand that they themselves have been rescued, and that they themselves have been loved by a far, far greater love.

And that's why they do what they do. And that's why we do what we do. And that's why we love and we live differently from this world. And that's why James 1, 27 makes sense. Why the mark of true Christ-centered, gospel-centered, gospel-driven religion is to care for orphans, because that was us.

That was us. That was you. That was me. And now God calls us to do the same for others. There are over 147 million orphans in the world right now. If there were a country, they'd be the seventh largest country in the world. Children who have no one to call, there are no mom, no dad.

And this isn't just a global crisis. There's an orphan crisis here in America. More than 800,000 children pass through the foster care system every year here in America, bouncing from one house to another because they are not wanted. And when they turn 18, they age out. They age out.

And every year, 30,000 kids age out of the foster care system with nothing but a check and a good luck. That's it. And yet every year, only a tiny fraction of Christians open the door of their homes and their hearts to these children. If you ask me, there's something wrong.

There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that picture. Brothers and sisters, you and I have been given so much. We've been given so much. We've been given so much. But far too often, we in the church, we squander God's blessings on ourselves, forgetting that we are on mission.

God put us on this earth to proclaim and portray the beauty and the power of the gospel. And that's why James says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father exists to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." And then what does he say? "To keep oneself unstained from the world." To keep oneself unstained from the world.

That's not separate from what he just said about caring for orphans and widows. They go hand in hand. And what James is saying here is this. Don't miss this. "What is of great concern to God will be of no concern to you when you are corrupted by the world." What is of great concern to God will be of no concern to you when you are corrupted by the world.

When your values are shaped by the world, things like caring for orphans will not matter much to you. So James here is issuing a warning. Be careful. Be careful not to be conformed to this pattern, to the pattern of this world, because when that happens, you're going to miss the heart of religion, pure religion.

You will miss the heart of God. But I thank God that this church has it. Marie and I thank, I thank God, I thank God for you guys. I thank God that this church gets it. You guys get the gospel. And you guys are actively seeking out ways to live out the gospel in your lives and in this community and in this world.

I praise God for you. I praise God for this church. There's a deeply theological movie called Nacho Libre. I asked this the first service, and I'm going to ask it. Who here has not seen Nacho Libre? All right, listen, part of your assignment this week, apart from praying about how you might be involved in orphan care, is to go on Netflix and watch Nacho Libre.

It's one of the best movies ever made, for reals. One of the best movies ever made. But the movie's about Nacho, a friar, who moonlights as a wrestler, right? And that's how he raises the funds to care for the orphans. There's this one scene where he's talking to his friend, Steven, about his desire to care for orphans, and Steven goes, "I'm tired of hearing about the stupid orphans.

I hate the orphans." And Nacho goes, "What did you say?" And he says it again, "I hate all the orphans in the whole world." And Nacho responds, "I'm not listening to you. You only believe in science. That's probably why we never win." To which Steven says, "We never win because you are fat." Great movie.

Great, great movie. No one says, "I hate all the orphans." I've never heard anybody say that, and I never will. That's not the issue for us. The issue is not that we hate orphans. The issue is that most of us aren't sufficiently motivated to do something about their plight.

Guys, what I've come to tell you today is that we, we the redeemed, we the adopted sons and daughters of God, we of all people, we of all people have all the motivation we need to do something about it. Why? Because we are people of the gospel. That's who we are.

That's what defines us. And the gospel compels us to go out, go out and do for these vulnerable children what God in his mercy has done for us. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Thank you.