God's Care for Orphans Through the Haitian Church

Another video from Together For Adoption 2011.

Together for Adoption 2011 - Bryan Loritts - Session 4

Right off the bat he noticed the clock in the back of the sanctuary and said, "A clock to a black man preaching is like kryptonite."  Funny.

One of the ways that we do "on earth as it is in heaven" is to remember orphans and widows in their distress.

Have you ever thought of a black couple adopting a white baby?  Most have not.  Shows we have race issues.  We have to figure out how to get more minorities in the game when it comes to orphan care.  It is not happening very much.  Look at our the room we are in right now (filled with white people).  It is really good that we are all here.  And we need to become more diverse for the cause of the orphan.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King 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. 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.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison 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 my brothers, you did it to me.’ 

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
(Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)

He is telling the story of William Wilberforce.  The point = you don't have to quit your job to make a difference for Jesus.  You don't have to be a pastor.  Stay in politics!  We need people who love Jesus in politics!

The issue of fatherlessness, abortion, and orphans is our 21st century issue of slavery.   No race owns these problems, however, we have to know our American history.  What slavery produced was a legacy of broken families.  The system of slavery was predicated on breeding and dividing families.  They put these people on an auction block!  Families were ripped apart.  This went on for generations and that is why the typical black person could trace their family history to broken families.  This is the history of black people in the United States.  This curse has to be broken.

If you transracially adopt don't be like Different Strokes.  Arnold and Willis were not introduced to their culture.  We don't put black culture first, our Christianity has to define us ultimately, we lead with that, but we can't dismiss culture of skin color either.  We have to acknowledge it and own it and deal with it.  Maybe your white family has to go to a black church?

God saved me "as is" but never leaves me "as is".  He didn't wait for me to clean up my act.  He pursued me in spite of my sin.  Salvation is all of grace.  There is no boasting.  So...

Matthew 25 is not about working your way into the kingdom.  Your morality doesn't give you a pass into the Kingdom.  Salvation is a mystery.  C.S. Lewis said that when we get to heaven we'll be surprised who is there and who is not there.  Salvation is a mystery.

How do I know I am saved?  Fruit.  God is changing us.  We are not who we once were.  Matthew 25 is not the root of salvation but it deals with the fruit of salvation.   Saved people don't HAVE to do Matt. 25 it is that we GET to do Matt. 25.  We don't sit on the grace of God, we give it away!

For any Christ follower who does not wrestle with the question of caring for the orphan or the least of these means you probably don't understand your salvation.  But adopting a ton of kids has zero to do with you being saved or achieving anything for you from God.

Wayne Grudem:  "The Bible is the transcript of the heart of God".  There are over 2000 verses in the Bible that deal with the poor.  You want God's heart?  Deal with the poor.

Materialism is so much a part of American culture that its like trying to explain water to a fish.

How do we leave margin in our budgets so that we can remember the poor.  Are we wrestling with the issue of contentment?  Enough is enough?  Even asking that question?  Don't get legalistic.  Don't make people in your image.  Your standards might not be other standards.

Together For Adoption 2011 - Dan Cruver - Session 3

These are Dan's preaching notes.  Wild...

Dan started with this quote:

Richard John Neuhas: “As we come out of a movie theater and shake our heads to clear our minds of another world where we lived for a time in suspended disbelief, as we reorient ourselves to reality, so we leave our contemplation - we leave the church building, we close the book - where for a time another reality seemed possible, believable, even real. But, we tell ourselves, the real world is a world elsewhere. It is the world of deadlines to be met, of appointments to be kept, of taxes to be paid, of children to be educated. From here, from this moment at the cross, it is a distant country. ‘Father, forgive them, for they have forgotten the way home. They have misplaced the real world.’ Here, here is the real world” (Richard John Neuhas, Death on a Friday Afternoon).

We are reminding ourselves what the real world is.  God's story, his massive cosmic story of adoption, is the real world.  Dan is basing his talk on Psalm 36.

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O LORD.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart!
Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.
(Psalm 36 ESV)

What does God really want from you?

Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?


Psalm 82:3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.


Isaiah 1:17 - learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.


James 1:26-27 - If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. [27]!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.

But there is a confession to make.  This is a trick question.  What does God want from you?  The question really is... Who is God?

Listen to Psalm 36:9 - For with you is the fountain of life, in your light do we see life.

Does a fountain want anything from you?

The very nature of a fountain is the it gives and it never stops giving.  You cannot diminish the supply of Niagara with your tiny little mouth.   It does not want or need anything from you.  What does God want from us?  Wrong question.  What is God?  Much better question.  He is a fountain.  From before time as we know it, God was a fountain, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, giving and receiving loving and community.  Infinitely greater than Niagra Falls and the giving force of water that we find there.

We can't live the Christian life well if we think of God primarily wanting things from us.   To serve the orphan well, we have to think of God primarily as giver.

Why Psalm 36?

1. There is a strong connection in this Psalm to what Scripture calls sonship.

2. Drinking from the fountain of the Father’s lavish delight in us actually empowers us to live on the razor sharp edge of the world’s profound brokenness.

3. Orphans need Christians who feast on the abundance of God’s house and whom God causes to drink from the river of his delights (Psalm 36:8).

4. Christians who experience God the Giver are much better equipped to love the child who comes from or lives in the hard place.

There are god's who take and there is a God who gives.

Who is the God who gives?  Psalm 36 shows us.  God is the giver.  We are to feast on the abundance of his house.  You cannot begin to diminish his supply.

“The soul of man is of a vigorous and active nature, and hath in it a raging and inextinguishable thirst, an immaterial kind of fire, always catching at some object or other, in conjunction wherewith it thinks to be happy . . . and were it once rent from the world, and all the bewitching enjoyments under the sun, it would quickly search after some higher and more excellent object, to satisfy its ardent and importunate cravings; and, being no longer dazzled with glittering vanities, would fix on that supreme and all-sufficient Good, where it would discover such beauty and sweetness as would charm and overpower all its affections.” - Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man (get this book on Kindle for $0.99)

The orphan and widow will only be served well when we drink deeply from the fountain that is King Jesus.

Together For Adoption 2011 - Tullian Tchividjian - Session 2

Tullian is going to talk about the law and the Gospel.

Righteousness is not just about external behavior irrespective of what is going on inside of you.  The church has unwittingly absorbed this view.   Jesus turns this idea on it's head in the Sermon on the Mount.  He destroys it.   Jesus looks to the heart.  He insists that righteous is not just a matter of what we do but why we do it.

Most non-Christians think Christianity is about following the rules OR they think Christianity is about being against abortion or homosexuality.

Most Christians think that God cares only THAT we obey not why we obey.  Cain and Abel show this is not true.   If God cared only about external obedience then Jesus would have applauded the Pharisees over and over again.

Luther said that the Bible is in two parts:  commandments and promises.  Law and Gospel.  Two words from God that are both good but are in different genres.  Both are good but they do different things.

What does the Law do?

Paul says that it is good in Romans 7.   The problem is not God's law, the problem is us.  We are to blame.  Paul thought he was good before he knew God's standard, the law.   Paul says that the law killed him.  The light of God's perfect standard showed how desperate that he was.  The problem is sin and the law exposes that.

We know that the law can't convert us or save us but it can grow us.  Wrong.  No it can't grow you.  It wrecks us.  Paul says so.  When we come to terms with how sinful we are based on the law, this destroys us.  It doesn't make us grow.  It reveals sin but does not remove sin.  It cannot engender what it commands.  It serves me by showing me what a sanctified life looks like but cannot create that sanctified life.

The biggest lie that the church believes is that grace is dangerous and needs to be kept in check.  Most church people believe this.  Too much grace leads to licentiousness.  How do we deal with disobedience?  Lay down the law!  We think that the law will change the heart.  Paul doesn't put a governor on grace, he presses it in further.

Desperate people love grace, people who are legalists, fear it.

The law brings us to the end of ourselves and look away from ourselves and look to Jesus and his blood and his sacrifice.  The more you look inside the less peace you find.  The more you look outside (to Jesus) the more peace you find.  Again, most church people don't really believe this.

Bob Jones and Joel Osteen both preach "do more, try harder!!!"  One does it with a stick and the other does it with a carrot.

God relates to you based on Christ's performance and perfection, not your standard of performance and perfection.  The law can only crush, it cannot cure.  The law tells us what to do, the Gospel tells us what has been done.  Both are good and both have roles in our lives.

The law serves both Christians and non-Christians.  It tells us that we don't measure up.  We ALL need to hear that.   The law tells us that we are far worse off than we thought.

So if God accepts me regardless of how I perform what should motivate obedience?  When a husband knows that a wife will love him no matter what, does that cause the husband to be more of a jerk?  No!

God's loving forgiveness and grace HAS to motivate obedience or you don't get it.  The motivation to do good is to view what has been done.  What are you doing to do now?  Now that you don't have to do anything?

The Gospel compels grace-driven obedience.

We think way too much about how we are growing and if we are growing and what we need to do to grow.  There is no hope in wallowing around in ourselves.  We all spend way too much time thinking about us and less about what Jesus has done for us.  This doesn't compel anything helpful or holy.  Confession groups can just increase our self-centeredness.  We should emphasize fixing our gaze on Jesus.   Obsess over what you need to do and you'll be a narcissist.  Obsess over what Jesus has done and your obedience will be instinctive.

**My note:  I would encourage you to memorize those last two sentences.**

Together For Adoption 2011 - Darrin Patrick - Session 1

The church's future in regard to moving the needle with issues of justice may be in our ability to connect with the leaders in the city who love the same things as well.  People will notice Jesus when we do this.

1 John 3...

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.  (1 John 3:1-3 ESV) 

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.  (1 John 3:16-18 ESV)

1 John is a book of tension.  We are to love God and love people.  We have to do both.  And it's not easy.  It creates tension.

He comes from St. Louis.  St. Louis is a ROUGH city.  54% of kids not graduating high school.  Should not the Gospel address the darkness in this city?  He knew he had to lead a church that would do word and deed ministry.  Historically the church usually chooses to do one or the other.  We don't do both well.

For Jesus the main ministry for him was preaching, yet as he was doing that he would do amazing works of justice and mercy.

Every person who came to Jesus who came to him for healing, he healed them.  He was never so distracted by the needs of people that he failed to address their greatest need, the need of spiritual transformation.

If we are going to do social justice we have to nail the Gospel.  We have to know the definition of it and live by it.  Or it will distract us from the Gospel.  If you don't know what the historical message of Jesus is our people will be confused and we'll lose the Gospel for the sake of doing good deeds.  Do you know the definition of the Gospel?  The true historical Gospel?

Church history shows us that if we don't get this right our churches will be jacked.

But on the other hand many of us can answer "what would happen if we died tonight?" but maybe the next question has to be, "how do we live if we are not going to die tonight?"  We have to have a definition of "deed"

Social justice is not the Gospel, but it is a CLEAR implication of the Gospel.  Have to be clear on this or the church will be a complete mess.

The screen saver of the human heart is always works righteousness.  If we don't bring serious clarity to what the Gospel is our people will always default into doing good deeds and thinking that makes them accepted by God.

If you don't know your neighbors don't try and roll out something that is going to change the world.  Get to know your neighbors first.

If you live in the suburbs don't just jump into the inner city for the Saturday work day.  Love the people around you first.

Social Justice = meeting the basic tangible needs of people and fighting systematic oppression that serves to keep them there.

He knew that if they (the Journey Church) didn't go to the broken parts of the city they would never make an impact as a church in St. Louis.  It would just be another show.  St. Louis didn't need another big church show.

What do we do?

1.  The church is called, first and foremost, to proclaim the gospel.  This is the most loving thing that we can do as a church.  To all sorts of people, all race, class, and education.  We have to keep people's eternal plight in mind.  This is most loving.   We have to beat this drum or our people won't get it.

2.  You must not use social justice to avoid the offense of the cross.  It doesn't work and you'll do a ton of damage if you try and do this.  Don't be too optimistic or pessimistic about the Gospel you preach.  Some will hate you and some will love you.  Your definition of the Gospel will be a problem for some no matter how much social justice you do.

3.  Churches should plant other churches that love to preach the Gospel and do social justice.  We need to reproduce people and leaders into new churches.  New churches attract people who want to make a difference in the city.  Raise up more leaders and send them out.  Your people are there and ready to serve.  You just have to give them a vision.

4.  The institutional church must equip individuals who will become the "organic" church.   The job of the institutional church is to focus on the word ministry and then equip the people to organically grow ministry out of that.  Equip your people (church leaders) and then let them go wild with their dreams for reaching those who need Jesus with word and deed ministry.  Easy for church leaders to get distracted away from preaching, teaching, and leading, so we have to equip our people to it.

Figure out a way to teach your people the Gospel.  Be crystal clear about that.  Then teach them the huge implications of this historical Gospel.  Be crystal clear about that.  This creates tension.  Live in it and DO IT.

Together For Adoption - Live Blogging

Today we head out to Phoenix for the annual Together For Adoption conference.  I'll be one of the live bloggers so please tune in for a summary of the main sessions of the conference.  It is featuring some great speakers and it promises to be a time of great singing, learning, and advocating for the orphan.

Winners of the Together for Adoption Registrations!

And the winners are....

Bryan and Sherry Lopez

Renee Skibinski

I'll be live-blogging this conference again this year.  It stands to be a great conference!

Giving Away Four Registrations for Together for Adoption 2011

Interested in going to the Together for Adoption conference Oct. 21 and 22 in Phoenix?  Today I am pleased to announce that I am giving away four registrations for the conference (two couples, four singles, one couple and two single, etc).

All you have to do is...

1.  Post a link (http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?page_id=11) to the conference website via Twitter or FB 3 times over the next 3 days.  Or tweet something about the conference with a link.  Get creative.

2. "Like" the T4A Facebook page  (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Together-for-Adoption/117901198296180).

3.  Then leave a comment here with your email address and I'll pick the winners on Monday.

Hope to see you there!  I'll be live-blogging it.

Together for Adoption 2011 National Conference

The Together for Adoption 2011 National Conference will be October 21-22 in Phoenix, hosted by Redemption Church. This year's theme is Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care.

Registration

• Early Bird Registration: $109 Per Person (good through August 31st)
• Regular Registration: $149 Per Person (price from September 1 until October 21)

Register for the conference online.

General Session Speakers

• Darrin Patrick
• Tullian Tchividjian
• Tim Chester
• Bryan Loritts
• Juan Sanchez
• Jeff Vanderstelt