Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Before we get started with a show of hands, do we have any veterans in the house or active duty?
[00:00:12] Any hands? We had a few in the first service. I guess they're all easy early risers. Oh, I see some people back there. You know what? Let's just give a round of applause and thanks for your service. Thanks for your sacrifice. Thank you.
[00:00:29] Before I get started as well, I got to tell you that this is not something I do frequently. Last time I did this was seven years ago. I don't know if I should read something into that.
[00:00:38] But first service, we did have a first service. And look, no tomatoes, no eggs. Were, you know, maybe reserve your opinion till after I'm done, maybe. Right. So my topic today is something that's near and dear to my heart, my family's heart. It's about the vulnerable. And other than being saved by Jesus Christ, this is probably one of those topics that has shaped my life more than any other and shaped my family's life, too. So it's my joy to be able to bring this message to you. By the way, my name is John Shales. I am one of the lay leaders here in the church, and I want to get into the word so vulnerable.
[00:01:19] When you think of vulnerable, what is it that comes to your mind? For me, when I think of the word vulnerable, it's the idea of I'm with a good friend and I'm sharing something that's important. I'm sharing something that hurts, maybe some struggles, right. And I'm sharing those, and I'm being vulnerable.
[00:01:38] But that's not the end of the spectrum that I want to talk about with vulnerable.
[00:01:43] I want to use the definition from the dictionary, susceptible to harm, open to attack or damage. Right. Kind of this physical, this openness of vulnerable. Right.
[00:02:00] God has made us for community. God has made us for family. God has made us with protectors in our life, a spouse.
[00:02:08] But what happens when those protectors, those things around us are gone or missing?
[00:02:16] That's the kind of vulnerable I want to talk about today. And I want to use the story of two sisters, ages four and six. We're going to dive into their story at that age. Don't know a lot about what took place before that, but likely they were with their mom, and mom couldn't take care of them anymore, so she took them to their dad. So you see, mom was a mistress, not a wife.
[00:02:45] And dad and his wife had a lot of other kids, and they couldn't take care of these two little girls either.
[00:02:55] So suddenly, these two little girls don't have the parents there to protect them anymore.
[00:03:02] In a lot of societies, a lot of times throughout all of history, those two little girls would have been left to fend for themselves or just to die, abandoned, or worse yet, taken into slavery or exploited, trafficked.
[00:03:22] That's the kind of vulnerable that I want to talk about today and what God says about that and how he wants us to be different as his followers.
[00:03:35] Can you imagine being those two little girls, even at four and six years old? Can you imagine some of the questions?
[00:03:43] I just want to go home.
[00:03:46] Where's Mom?
[00:03:50] Why did she leave? Did I do something wrong?
[00:03:55] Are you my dad?
[00:03:57] Are you going to take care of me?
[00:04:03] It's a big deal, right? That's a little bit more than me just sharing some deep feelings.
[00:04:10] Let's look at James 127. We're going to use James 127 as our roadmap through this topic, and then we're going to bring in some of Jesus words as well. So, James 127, 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 word world.
[00:04:32] Get stained by the word. That's a good thing.
[00:04:36] Religion. I want to kind of define this a little bit when I see the word religion. If you're like me, that is kind of the idea of a set of beliefs. It's a little bit more head knowledge. That's not what the original language talked about. It was more about doing. It's a little bit more like worship. Right? The outpouring, the action of your set of beliefs. At that point, the Book of James is filled with actions, and this is one of those.
[00:05:02] This is about doing. But then there's pure and undefiled.
[00:05:08] I hope what's ringing in your ears is our study on Leviticus clean? Right? It's this high value.
[00:05:16] It's this thing to achieve, right? Pure and undefiled. This is a big deal to God. This should be a big deal to us. Don't let that pass you by. And if you remember from clean, it was about two things. One was proximity, closeness to God, and two, protection. Protection for who? Protection for us. It's the same kind of ideas that we're going to see in this passage at that point. Proximity and protection, but also set apart.
[00:05:47] God is calling us to love differently than the world, and we're going to see that.
[00:05:54] Let's look at John 13.
[00:05:57] Let me read this. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, but you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.
[00:06:12] They will know us by our love. Right?
[00:06:16] But Jesus also says in Matthew five, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
[00:06:27] And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, because your heavenly Father is perfect.
[00:06:40] Yes. Love those people around you. Love those people who are easy to love. That's great. But God calls us to more. Right? God calls us to be different. God calls us to pure and undefiled and clean, to be set apart. A holy people where the world would want to exploit those two little girls.
[00:07:02] We are called to do just the opposite, to care for them and to be engaged in that.
[00:07:10] That word perfect.
[00:07:12] I hesitate every time I read that word perfect, right? To me, that word perfect is about doing everything just right.
[00:07:20] That's not really the context of that. It's more along the lines of clean, pure, undefiled.
[00:07:28] See it in those terms. Jesus talks all throughout the Gospels. Things like the two greatest commandments. Love others. Love God, love others. Love your enemies. Walk the extra mile. If somebody wants your coat, give them your shirt too. Right? There's a ton of examples of this, of how Jesus called us to love differently, about being generous and self sacrificing and engaged, especially with the vulnerable.
[00:08:00] Let's go back to James 127, that middle part. Visit. Orphans and widows, visit the vulnerable, visit.
[00:08:15] Face to face, shoulder to shoulder, visit.
[00:08:20] I'm sure they're nice people and all, but really visit.
[00:08:25] Yeah, I went looking for different translations, right? When I encounter a word, that man just doesn't feel quite right. Or maybe there's more to it. I go to other translations of the Bible just to see what it says. You know what I was looking for? I was hoping for pray for pure and undefiled is praying for the vulnerable, right? Prayer is great. Pray without ceasing. It's awesome.
[00:08:49] Please do pray. Heck, I can do that for my lazy boy, right? It's awesome.
[00:08:55] But that's not what this passage says.
[00:08:58] Or how about this pure and undefiled is donating to the vulnerable. Donations are awesome. Please do support. That's great. But that's not what this passage is about either. True story. My wife came to me about 16 ish years ago and said, you know what the Lord is putting on my heart that I think we need to adopt and in my head, I'm like, oh, boy, I hope there's a punchline coming.
[00:09:28] There wasn't. So then I went down the track of you know what, babe, we got three kids.
[00:09:34] You know, the youngest is out of diapers, we're out of strollers. She's in a big girl bed. I'm really starting to like these kids.
[00:09:43] Love my kids. Love my kids. Here it is.
[00:09:46] I said, can we make a donation to an orphanage and be able to check that box?
[00:09:56] Right.
[00:09:58] My wife was seeking pure and undefiled, and I was seeking my comfort.
[00:10:03] Now, when I tell a story, it's always, I was half joking. When my wife tells a story, she leaves that part out because she thinks that's not true.
[00:10:11] Shrew's halfway between. Maybe I was quarter joking. Can we settle on that?
[00:10:17] The translations that I did look at, most of them do use the word visit, by the way, but it's also look after, help, take care of.
[00:10:26] It's about face to face, shoulder to shoulder. That's what this passage is teaching. BuT let's see what Jesus says about this. Matthew 25.
[00:10:36] This is the least of these passage.
[00:10:40] Then the king, Jesus will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Big deal. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. That's Jesus saying those things. I was. I was. That's Jesus.
[00:11:10] Do you see it? Face to face, shoulder to shoulder.
[00:11:16] And Jesus is also expanding that definition of vulnerable, too.
[00:11:23] James picks out orphans and widows, but Jesus takes that list and makes it even broader and wider.
[00:11:34] But it's about presence. It's about being there. It's about giving. It's about selflessness. It's about sacrifice.
[00:11:39] I love this passage. Also. What it's not saying, it's not about religious beliefs. It's not about sacrificing animals. It's not about how often you read your Bible.
[00:11:50] Look at the king in the end times. What he highlights as important as the thing that he wants to bring up in your life.
[00:11:59] It's about right living. It's about acts of mercy.
[00:12:03] It's about loving the vulnerable.
[00:12:06] Those two little girls, by the grace of God, ended up in a Christian orphanage, salvation, run by the Salvation Army.
[00:12:18] And for the older one, that would be where she spent all of her life. Till 18.
[00:12:25] She aged out at 18. But still the people of the orphanage watched over her. And were her family right? The younger one did get adopted when she was five years old, so she was there about a year, and then the two of them were separated and had no contacts for over 40 years.
[00:12:47] But that orphanage provided a stable place where they could get food and drink and clothes and cared for.
[00:12:56] Thank God for those people working there to take care of them. But also thank God for the volunteers, because an organization like that does not survive just on the workers. They need volunteers to come alongside and love on these Kids. Thank God for the donors that provided for those kids, that they were not as vulnerable as they could have been.
[00:13:22] That's what God calls us, pure and undefiled to give, to engage and take care of the most vulnerable.
[00:13:35] Let's go back to our James 127 last part.
[00:13:43] To keep oneself unstained from the world.
[00:13:46] To keep the vulnerable unstained. No, it doesn't say that. To keep us unstained from the world. It's kind of that idea of clean, right? It's about proximity, but also protection for ourselves. There is something for us in this, too, that God does not want us to dismiss or release or let go on that this is for our benefit. I like to consider it the Holy detergent. Right?
[00:14:14] This is my testimony of my life. When I have given sacrificially and been face to face with the vulnerable at helping those helping people in need. That's the most satisfying. It helps wash away the gunk and the junk of this world at that point. And I'll tell you what, this is the testimony of my family, too.
[00:14:34] We used to take our kids as soon as they're out of a stroller at that point, and we'd go serve once a month at a food kettle. We did that probably for the better part of a decade in fixing food and serving food to those in need of a meal at that point. It was awesome just to see those people created in the image of God, other than one or two circumstances are just like us.
[00:14:57] What a powerful message for your family to grow up in again. This changed our dimension of our family drastically.
[00:15:09] U what are those things that we've learned out of that? I'd say I got a short list. Empathy, sympathy, humility, self sacrifice, less entitlement in myself and my kids.
[00:15:26] Who wants more of that in their life? Right? Less entitlement. Greater appreciation for the opportunities God has given me. Deeper understanding of who God is. Faith growing. Those are great things to pursue.
[00:15:37] And here's a recipe for it right here in James. But let's see what Jesus says about this. Let's go back to Matthew 25, and this is the response from those things that the king, Jesus had said to the people.
[00:15:53] Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when do we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or imprisoned or visit or imprisoned and visit you? And the king will answer them, truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.
[00:16:21] Do you see those questions? Do you see the humility in those?
[00:16:26] Do you see the lack of entitlement?
[00:16:29] I would guess those people were standing there listening to this and thinking about all the other great things that they thought they had done.
[00:16:37] But yet the king highlighted these acts as what he thought was greatest, greatest in his economy, not the world's economy.
[00:16:48] I love that they were almost surprised in that response.
[00:16:55] But then they look at that last passage, and the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me, not for me. This is not. Get out of your head that. This is, hey, Jesus, you know what? Take a break. You've been working hard. You're doing an awesome job. I will take care of this for you. I will go and serve this people for you. That's not what he's saying to you.
[00:17:24] Face to face, shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, not for Jesus at that point. I think that's powerful, just to get that in your head that way.
[00:17:36] Let me also just touch on the point. This passage does not say pure and undefiled is to adopt orphans and widows. Are there people that are called to do that? Yeah. Are there people in this room that are called to do that? Yeah, for sure, but not everybody.
[00:17:52] But I do believe that we are all, as followers of Jesus Christ, called to visit the vulnerable, face to face, shoulder to shoulder to support. I know there's different phases of life, seasons of life, all those good things, but this is important to God. It's pure and undefiled. This is a big deal.
[00:18:19] Let's get back to our two sisters.
[00:18:22] What happened to them?
[00:18:26] By the hand of God, one of the orphanage workers was able to connect those. 240 years later, 40 plus years later, that gentleman actually just went home to be with the Lord this last week.
[00:18:42] So these two girls, the younger one, grew up actually not remembering her sister, she didn't know if she had a sister or not. The older one, she knew she had a sister.
[00:18:53] And she would often say, if I'm ever going to see my sister again, she would have to find me.
[00:18:59] And they were able to meet and talk for the first time. And then a few months after that first phone call conversation, they were able to meet in person and embrace and discover that they both have a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:19:16] About 16 months after that first meeting, the older sister died of cancer.
[00:19:21] But it was God's grace that allowed them to meet this side of heaven. To know and expect to see each other on the other side of heaven. Just awesome blessing. At that point, that older sister got married, had two beautiful girls of her own. Beautiful life.
[00:19:43] The younger sister, we actually have a picture of her. The younger sister, she was adopted. I mentioned that she grew up in a forever family.
[00:19:55] She married a terrific, really humble guy.
[00:20:01] Yes, you figured it out. This is my wife's story.
[00:20:08] And you know what else? The Lord blessed her with the ability to meet her biological father and stepmom, the two people that took her to the orphanage about five years after her sister died.
[00:20:27] Can you imagine the motions that could have been there? The anger, the resentment, the bitterness? But you know what? The Lord took those things away.
[00:20:38] And Shelly, my wife, was able to walk into that with a great deal of humility and forgiveness.
[00:20:44] You want to know what the first two things that dad had said to his daughter in a phone call? The very first two things, will you forgive me?
[00:20:58] And do you know Jesus?
[00:21:02] Unbelievable story.
[00:21:04] It turns out that that stepmom, that his wife was a stalwart follower of Jesus Christ and brought that man to saving faith. And all the kids in that family, too.
[00:21:21] You never know what the story is going to be.
[00:21:24] We're not in charge of the outcomes, but we are called in to step into care for the vulnerable and let God write some incredible stories. I could even dream this up, and this is the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to that story.
[00:21:37] Our God is a Redeemer. God. Our God is a generous God. Our God is a God of forgiveness and healing. And our God loves the vulnerable.
[00:21:47] We all are the vulnerable, right? Being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
[00:21:55] These acts will not save you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ will save you.
[00:22:02] But in response to that, how great would that be to go for the pure and undefiled that he defines for us and to pursue him in that my. So what's be intentional.
[00:22:18] Don't leave this to chance. This is too big a deal.
[00:22:23] Maybe take an inventory of what you're doing in your life, where you're giving your time, your emotional energy, the season of life. I get that. I totally understand that.
[00:22:34] Make sure there's a portion of this. You have, like, a well rounded portfolio.
[00:22:39] Make sure you got a piece of this in there, too. Taking care of the vulnerable.
[00:22:46] Number two, ask God. What is holding you back? There's lots of things, right? There's lots of things that can derail you from the pure and undefiled things that God defines for us. Busyness, wrong season. Afraid of outcomes. Here's one that I wanted to highlight. A dear relative of mine was holding, my daughter has a foster son, and my relative was holding him. And she said, he is so adorable. Which he is. He's very adorable. He's so adorable. But I could never do this.
[00:23:20] I said, why? I could never give him back.
[00:23:27] What was she focused on?
[00:23:30] The potential pain of what that could be.
[00:23:35] But if you focus in on the great good that is taking place, especially for an infant, right. In those critical years of brain development, of emotional development, of just having a stable family, that is a gift that will last his entire lifetime. It's an incredible gift.
[00:23:54] What are you focused on? The good you could do or the possible painting number three, identify the vulnerable that you can help.
[00:24:10] There's no orphanages anymore. There's some, not as many. What does Orphan care look like? It looks like foster care. It looks like safe families.
[00:24:24] And there's places to serve and to help those who are called to the front lines of the Ministry to be the volunteers. Right. Free babysitting, diapers, meals, respite care, et cetera. We have four organizations out in the lobby today just to try to help bridge a gap for you. And Michelle has put together a great pamphlet as well of needs. A lot of these things are face to face, shoulder to shoulder type things. But there's a lot of things that if you just have an extra $50, if you just have an extra hour or 2 hours, there's a lot of things, good things here, too, that will do great. Good. At that point, I'd encourage you to get involved in that. But even beyond that. Right. Who are the vulnerable in your life?
[00:25:06] The widows? How about the single parent families?
[00:25:10] They're vulnerable, too.
[00:25:13] How about a single family? Single parent family whose spouse is deployed, military. Right. They're vulnerable, too.
[00:25:22] Look for the Vulnerable in your life and opportunities to serve.
[00:25:28] That's my message for today. Let me close us in prayer Father, we thank you.
[00:25:35] We thank you that you have adopted us into your family, Lord, not because of anything good that we have done, not because we deserved it was because of your great love and how you call us to Love like you, to Love differently. You call us to something higher and greater, impure and undefiled.
[00:25:54] Lord, give us the strength and the courage and the resolve to pursue those things as you'd have it.
[00:26:03] Father, thank you for your Word and how you defined holy. How you defined what is Good for us. Lord, we pray this all in Jesus mighty Name. Amen.
