A Word to Strengthen Parents of Disabled Children
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Happy Friday, everyone.
00:00:06.000 | Today we're going to do something a little bit different.
00:00:08.000 | Instead of a question, we're going to encourage one particular listener, and hopefully many like her.
00:00:14.000 | This is a letter from Pastor John to a mother he knows personally, who wrote him because she needs strength
00:00:21.000 | in the great calling that she carries.
00:00:24.000 | She's been caring for a disabled son for over 20 years.
00:00:28.000 | A son who cannot talk, a son who cannot dress himself, a son who cannot feed himself.
00:00:35.000 | He's now turned 20 years old.
00:00:37.000 | And most of us can only imagine the enormity of the burden this mom carries every day as his primary caregiver,
00:00:46.000 | now for over two decades.
00:00:49.000 | So, Pastor John, what did you say to this amazing mom in your letter?
00:00:54.000 | Maybe what I should do is this. I'm sure this mom would not want me to lift her up as a hero
00:01:03.000 | and make her name public or her situation known, so I won't.
00:01:10.000 | But I know that she wouldn't mind if I took this public occasion to share with others the kind of encouragement
00:01:21.000 | I wanted her to feel, because there are thousands of moms, and not just moms, of course,
00:01:29.000 | who quietly carry huge burdens for their disabled children and for other relatives.
00:01:38.000 | And I am sure that they often feel like this is one of the loneliest jobs in the world,
00:01:47.000 | with little or no public recognition or reward.
00:01:52.000 | So how do you last? How do you keep on so quietly and out of the way, bearing so much weight?
00:02:00.000 | How do you press on?
00:02:02.000 | So I'm going to make enough changes in this letter that I wrote to this mom
00:02:10.000 | to encourage her on the birthday of her disabled son so that she won't be given away,
00:02:19.000 | but I hope the basic message comes through and that all those who have the relentless job of caregiving
00:02:28.000 | will take heart. So here's what I wrote to her.
00:02:31.000 | "Noel and I remember being at your dining room table, talking about this new little one
00:02:38.000 | who had just been born. You were just beginning to come to terms with his disabled situation,
00:02:47.000 | and you were wondering about how to think about healing and prayer.
00:02:52.000 | And now here we are, over two decades later, and your world has been forever changed.
00:03:01.000 | So my birthday wish and my prayer is that John"—I'm going to call her son John,
00:03:08.000 | that's not his real name, because that's what I would want somebody to pray for me.
00:03:12.000 | I'll stick my name in there.
00:03:14.000 | "My prayer is that John will be able in some way to show you love
00:03:20.000 | and that you will be strengthened in the depths of your soul.
00:03:25.000 | Or, as Paul says, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened
00:03:33.000 | with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
00:03:40.000 | through faith that you may be rooted and grounded in love." Ephesians 3.16.
00:03:47.000 | I would love to share with you my most recent effort to grasp the psalmist's meaning
00:03:56.000 | when he says in Psalm 1 about the man, or let's say about the mom,
00:04:03.000 | who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night,
00:04:08.000 | that she will prosper in all that she does.
00:04:14.000 | Hmm. Really. I know. And the psalmist knew. He knew it because he said so in Psalm 44, verses 20-22.
00:04:24.000 | He knew, we know, that in the believer's life there are dozens of things
00:04:29.000 | that do not feel like they are prospering.
00:04:33.000 | I can imagine you feel this day in and day out.
00:04:37.000 | But here is what I think he meant, since he knew as well as we do
00:04:41.000 | that there are horrible days for the worshippers of the true God.
00:04:47.000 | I think he meant when he said everything you do prospers,
00:04:51.000 | if you delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night,
00:04:54.000 | everything you do prospers. I think what he meant was this.
00:04:58.000 | There is a day coming when a Redeemer will arrive,
00:05:03.000 | and he will snatch futility and death out of the hands of Satan.
00:05:09.000 | And like Isaiah 53, 6 says, he will bear all our iniquity,
00:05:15.000 | and so will cover all our sins and obtain grace that is so powerful
00:05:22.000 | and so pervasive that it turns every disappointment and every frustration
00:05:30.000 | and every pain in the path of obedience to Jesus, turns it into a final triumph.
00:05:40.000 | In other words, he will pay the price, this Redeemer who will come
00:05:44.000 | will pay the price to purchase for us Romans 8.28.
00:05:49.000 | He will purchase for us Romans 8.32.
00:05:52.000 | Everything is going to work for our good, and he's going to make that come true
00:05:57.000 | because he bought it for us. And here's why I think that's what Psalm 1 is getting at.
00:06:04.000 | Because when he says, "In everything you do, you prosper in caring for your son."
00:06:12.000 | Everything, you prosper. Paul said, "Whatever good anyone does,
00:06:20.000 | this he will receive back from the Lord."
00:06:25.000 | Ephesians 6.8. In other words, not one expenditure of effort
00:06:31.000 | in the service of your son will go unrewarded.
00:06:35.000 | This was spoken to slaves who probably were rewarded in this life
00:06:41.000 | with pain for doing good things.
00:06:44.000 | In other words, in this life, it regularly does not look like
00:06:50.000 | the things we are doing are prospering.
00:06:55.000 | They're not being rewarded with good.
00:06:58.000 | It doesn't look like all the expenditure, energy, and effort, and care is prospering.
00:07:07.000 | But Paul says, "In the end, every good deed will come back with great reward from the Lord."
00:07:15.000 | In other words, in the long run, you will prosper in all of it. All of it.
00:07:20.000 | And to say it another way, Paul makes it even clearer.
00:07:24.000 | I love this text. I've never seen this in this light before.
00:07:29.000 | 1 Corinthians 15.58. "Therefore, be steadfast, immovable,
00:07:34.000 | always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor,"
00:07:41.000 | all of it, "your labor is not in vain."
00:07:46.000 | Now, that's a negative way of saying something.
00:07:49.000 | What's the positive way of saying, "Your work is not in vain"?
00:07:56.000 | Isn't the positive way of saying, "Not in vain, your work will prosper"?
00:08:03.000 | It will.
00:08:04.000 | And the "therefore" at the front of verse 58 makes this promise the outcome of the resurrection.
00:08:13.000 | In other words, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law.
00:08:17.000 | "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory, yes, through Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
00:08:22.000 | Therefore, everything you do will prosper."
00:08:27.000 | So when Psalm 1 says, "You will prosper in all that you do,"
00:08:32.000 | I don't think the psalmist is naive. He was prophetic.
00:08:38.000 | Jesus came, he paid our debt, he defeats Satan and death, he secures our future,
00:08:45.000 | he takes note of every good deed, writes them in a book, and he will make them prosper.
00:08:53.000 | He will reward us in due time.
00:08:55.000 | And let's just put one more promise on the table to make this crystal clear.
00:09:00.000 | Jesus said, Luke 14, 13, "When you give a feast, invite the poor, like a disabled child,
00:09:09.000 | the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.
00:09:18.000 | You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
00:09:23.000 | Wow.
00:09:25.000 | Your son cannot repay you.
00:09:28.000 | Even if there's some wonderful deep longing in his heart that he could do it, he can't.
00:09:34.000 | His disability is too profound.
00:09:37.000 | You spread a feast of love for him every day, and he cannot repay you.
00:09:44.000 | Yet, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
00:09:48.000 | And I don't think I'm going too far beyond Scripture to say,
00:09:53.000 | "Your son himself will join the Lord on that day in act of joyful repayment."
00:10:02.000 | So, happy birthday to you both, to John who cannot respond,
00:10:08.000 | and to you who makes his life possible.
00:10:12.000 | May you and he know deeply and sweetly the love of Christ,
00:10:21.000 | and may you be strengthened with the promises of your merciful high priest
00:10:27.000 | who is always there with mercy and grace to help in time of need.
00:10:34.000 | Some really profound promises here, Pastor John.
00:10:36.000 | Thank you for serving this mom and for sharing these thoughts with us.
00:10:40.000 | This is so humbling and sobering to hear of this mom's story.
00:10:45.000 | Thank you for joining us today.
00:10:47.000 | For more information about the podcast, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
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00:11:09.000 | Well, Scripture uses 22 different names for Satan.
00:11:14.000 | His diabolical aims are recorded for us all over our Bibles.
00:11:19.000 | He is still present and active in this world, even in each of our lives.
00:11:23.000 | But when and how and where?
00:11:26.000 | Those questions are on the table next time.
00:11:29.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Monday.
00:11:32.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper.
00:11:35.000 | We'll see you then.
00:11:36.000 | [Pastor John's Office]
00:11:38.000 | [Pastor John's Office]
00:11:40.000 | [Pastor John's Office]
00:11:42.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]