You know there are some experiences that you have in life that just get burned into your memory. So, some of you know this, some of you don’t, but now you do. I served in the Army from 2002 to 2006 and was a combat infantryman and deployed to Iraq twice. My first deployment, we were part of the invading force with the 3^rd Infantry Division, crossing the border from Kuwait into Iraq, pushing our way up into Bagdad. By the time we got to Bagdad, the mission changed a bit. We began to enter and clear buildings. At least for the first part of our tour in Bagdad that became our objective for a while.

One day we were tasked with the objective of entering and clearing a school. I’m not quite sure what grades the school was. It was certainly elementary, but I don’t know if it went all the way up to high school. It was an empty school. And so, we had to enter and clear this school. We didn’t find anything except some very interesting things hanging all over the walls. Saddam Hussein understood that if you influence children, you impact the future.

Hanging all over the walls were pictures of Saddam Hussein, but more than that were pictures of the twin towers going up in smoke and people celebrating in the streets. And so, Satan knows that if you impact kids, you impact the future. I say Satan has had too much fun with our children. And I say the church steps in and does something about it. What do you say? [Congregation says: Amen.]

And that’s what we’re going to do this morning. How bad does a situation have to get before we call it a crisis? What’s the criteria for elevating what might be called a problem to a crisis? The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that there are currently 15.1 million children worldwide who have lost both of their parents. That number however doesn’t include the estimated 2- to 8-plus million children who live in an institution of some kind.

It also does not account for the large number of children who are living on the streets, exploited for labor, unaccompanied refugees, victims of trafficking usually for sexual purposes, or those who are participating in armed conflict not of their own will. We just don’t have the numbers to know how many children fall into those categories, but I would say that 15.1-plus million orphans is a crisis, don’t you think?

Let’s bring that a little bit closer to home. Every six months the Department of Child Services in Arizona (or DCS) publishes a child welfare report. So they track the statistics or numbers for a six-month period. The most recent numbers that we have cover October 2017 to March 2018. These numbers are three months old, so they’re the best that we can get. They are the most accurate that we have. During that timeframe (October 2017 to March 2018) DCS received 24,093 confirmed reports or abuse and neglect in the state of Arizona.

They were able to respond to 23,670 of those reports. So, pray for DCS. In that six-month period alone, there were 4,600 new removals. In case you’re not familiar with the lingo of the system, a removal is when they take a child from his or her home and put them in a different setting. Sometimes it’s a foster family. Sometimes it’s the DCS office where they have a little cot. Sometimes it’s Juvie. It’s just depends on where they can fit them.  Forty-six hundred new removals in a six-month period.

Currently, there are 14,929 children in foster care in Arizona, and this doesn’t count the 462 children who are living in a shelter during the time of this data gathering. Right now in Arizona we have 5,213 foster homes, which is actually the highest we’ve ever had since October 2013 and maybe the highest ever. I just didn’t have the data going further back than that.

These 5,213 foster homes provide DCS with 10,211 spaces or beds that are available to children in the system. So, if you are listening and can do the math, 14,929 kids in the system and 10,211 beds for those kids. During the time of this report, the six-month period, 681 new foster homes opened up while 945 of those foster homes closed. That can be for various reasons, not always bad.  Currently, in Arizona there are 3,255 children within the system that are up for adoption.

So let’s review. As of three months ago, March 31, 2018, there are 14,929 children in foster care in Arizona, and there are 3,255 kids who are looking for a forever home and have not yet found one. My wife talked last Saturday with a girl who is absolutely convinced that she will never find a home. She is absolutely convinced that no one wants her.

I think we would all agree that there’s a crisis—globally and locally. I think it’s safe to say that most, if not all, of you feel compelled to do something, I would guess. I think it’s also safe to say that you’re probably not quite sure what you can do. And as Christians sometimes we can get confused about our theology and our practice of that theology.

As faithful Bible believing Christians, we want to make sure that we have sound theology. Right? Sometimes, unfortunately, in groups that have sound theology, good works get sacrificed. We’re going to see that in the book of James this morning. And you need to know and hear this very clearly that you do not have good theology if you sacrifice good works. You’d have the kind of theology that Satan himself has.

What I want to do this morning is to give us a biblical grid for that desire that I hope you have to do something about the crisis. I want us to understand that this is not a social gospel issue. That when issues arise in our culture that require an answer, it is not a social gospel issue. Sure, those who claim the social gospel or the world might respond to those situations, but they don’t know like we know. They don’t do it because of what Jesus has done for us.

And so, brothers and sisters, this morning I want to give you a biblical grid for thinking and acting in light of the crisis that we live in right now. I’m not sure if you knew, but this isn’t actually Mayberry. Just talk with one of the police officers or one of the DCS workers. Talk with Dave and Yvonne Berraras at the shelter. Dave told us the last time he was here with us several months ago that it’s common practice for sex-traffickers in the Valley to bring young girls up to the quad-cities area to practice before they send them down into the large city.

This is everywhere around us. I want us to understand a faithful Christian response to the situation that is presented to us. I want us to understand that if we say that we have genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must also have genuine good works that accompany that faith. The Lord wants us to understand that genuine faith is always accompanied by good works.

And so, in order for us to see that this morning, let’s open up our Bibles to James 1. James 1:27 is where we will be spending the majority of our time. And before we get into it, I just want to say that there is more going on here than I will talk about this morning. I’ll give you a brief snapshot of the overall message of the text. But I’m going to focus in specifically on how we are to care for the orphan crisis.

I’m going to give us three foundational truths for the church’s call to care for the orphan. Or if you’re an old Baptist, three E’s of orphan care. As we go through this passage you’re going to hear another group of people mentioned—widows. By no means am I saying that it is not important to care for widows. Absolutely! That’s why we have the ministry called James Gems here at Canyon Bible Church, which is where they got their name (from James 1:27—James Gems).

And even as we look in Old Testament history to see God’s heart and God’s instructions to care for the orphan, we’re going to see that he always couples the orphan with the widow and most often in the Old Testament includes the sojourner in that as well. And so, please hear me say that widow care is fundamental and essential to the church. We must do it. But my burden this morning is to focus us in on orphan care. For the purposes of context, let me read to us James 1:19-27 and we’ll focus in on verse 27.

¹⁹ Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶ 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.

So three foundational truths for the church’s call to care for the orphan this morning as we zoom in on verse 27, especially as regards to the orphan. The first foundational truth, or the first E for orphan care, is: Orphan care is an expression of genuine faith.

1.  Orphan Care is an Expression of Genuine Faith

We need to clear up a few things before we dive in too much further. One Greek lexicon defines an orphan as an offspring whose parents are either no longer alive or no longer function as parents as a result of having abandoned their offspring.

The vast majority of the orphans that we have in our state or even globally are because parents have decided they are not going to fulfil their God-given role. They are going to abandon their children. And so, for the purposes of our understanding this morning, that is the definition of an orphan. They don’t have any parents either because of death or the parents have chosen to walk away from them.

I know what it’s like to see a father choose to walk away, but I can’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t have my mother there to teach me. James talks about religion here in chapter 1, and he’s speaking very broadly and generally. When we hear the word religion, we tend to cringe, right? Religion—I’m not with that religion stuff; I’ve got a relationship. And sometimes that creates a helpful distinction. Yeah, we don’t do religion; we do relationship.

And I know what people mean by that, but that’s not what James is talking about here. Religion is just pointing to the external practice of what you say you believe. And so, basically, James is saying, if you say you believe in a God who is a higher power than you but you can’t bridle your tongue, you have a worthless religion. If you’re a liar, a gossip, a slanderer, you might think that you have religion, but you’re just deceiving yourself.

And then he’s going to say that if you don’t have a compassionate heart toward the most helpless and needy people in the entire world, the orphan and the widow, then you’re also deceiving yourself. Your religion is impure and defiled. And then he’s going to say, if you are claiming to have a religion that governs the way you live but you live a lifestyle of sin, sorry bud, not going to work here.

James is all about, in the book of James, showing us what genuine faith looks like. So back up to verse 22. James told them how to receive the word. But he says, don’t just hear it; you have to do it as well. And so, the command to do the word is the command that governs all of these others in these preceding verses—the verses that come after verse 22.

And so, James is saying if you want to be a doer of the word, then first of all you need to bridle your tongue. If you want to be a doer of the word, then secondly you need to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction. And if you want to be a doer of the word, then thirdly you better be living a life of holiness.

As I scan the horizon of orphan care—and I’m certainly not an expert on this; I’ve really only been invested all in for not even quite a year now—but as I scan the horizon and try to find helpful biblical resources and try to meet people and connect to see what we can do to care for the orphan, it strikes me that one of the things that I see quite a bit is really a lack of concern for holiness. And sometimes, that comes with those who take up social causes, doesn’t it?

Those who are all about being a doer sometimes sacrifice their theology in order to be a doer, apparently. So, James is saying no, no, no, no, no, no. If you are going to be a doer, that doing has to come from the word. If you are going to be a doer, it has to be from a life of holiness. And so, that’s the bigger picture of what James is saying to us here.

Look at chapter 2:14-18. James starts broad, and then he narrows it down to what he’s really talking about when he says religion.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

So why do I say that orphan care is an expression of genuine faith? Because James says it. And if James says it, then the Holy Spirit is saying it. We need to understand that this is not something for people who like to get involved with social activities. This is for anyone who names the name of Jesus Christ.

We see an example of false religion and true religion in the book of Isaiah. If you would, turn with me to Isaiah 1. God is condemning the wickedness of Judah, and it sounds a whole lot like what James was doing in just a much shorter fashion.

Isaiah 1:2-17:

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
    for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
    but they have rebelled against me.
³ The ox knows its owner,
    and the donkey its master’s crib,
   but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand.”

⁴ Ah, sinful nation,
    a people laden with iniquity,
   offspring of evildoers,
    children who deal corruptly!
   They have forsaken the Lord,
    they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
    they are utterly estranged.

⁵ Why will you still be struck down?
    Why will you continue to rebel?
   The whole head is sick,
    and the whole heart faint.
⁶ From the sole of the foot even to the head,
    there is no soundness in it,
  but bruises and sores
    and raw wounds;
  they are not pressed out or bound up
    or softened with oil.

⁷ Your country lies desolate;
    your cities are burned with fire;
   in your very presence
    foreigners devour your land;
    it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
⁸ And the daughter of Zion is left
    like a booth in a vineyard,
   like a lodge in a cucumber field,
    like a besieged city.

⁹ If the Lord of hosts
    had not left us a few survivors,
   we should have been like Sodom,
    and become like Gomorrah.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom!
   Give ear to the teaching of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹ “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
     says the Lord;
    I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
     and the fat of well-fed beasts;
    I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
     or of lambs, or of goats.

¹² “When you come to appear before me,
     who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
   New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
   they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
   even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.”

Let’s stop there. Do you hear God condemning the religious practice of Israel? God required sacrifice, didn’t he? Fasting was part of their feasting. It was part of the celebrations that the Jews would celebrate. God is not telling them that you’ve made up something you’re not supposed to be doing. Instead, what God is saying is you’re doing the external practices, but your heart is not in them.

            What’s the solution in verses 16-17? He says:

¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
   cease to do evil,
¹⁷ learn to do good;
   seek justice,
    correct oppression;
   bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow’s cause.

That’s what God wants because that is the expression of a heart that has been changed by God. God is not pleased with religious practice that has no heart behind it. The pagans can do that.  The Mormons can do that. Every cult on earth can do that. Can’t they? But we are a people whose actions spring from the heart, and they spring from a new heart that God has given to us—the heart of flesh that he has put in in place of the heart of stone.

And so, Isaiah is condemning the false fake religion of his day just as James is doing the very same thing. Let’s go back to James 1. This has been a longstanding practice—to be a talker and not a doer—to talk the talk but fail to walk the walk.

What we read in chapter 2, James is saying, you say that you have faith but I’m going to show you that I have faith by the way that I live my life. And I’m going to give the praise and the glory to Jesus Christ. I’m going to do hard things because I’ve died to myself. Me does not matter.  Where I live, what’s in my bank account, what I have to retire on later—all of those things really don’t matter. It’s all God’s. That’s what James is saying to us. That’s what we need to understand this morning.

Orphan care is an expression of genuine faith. But why, of all things, is this an expression of genuine faith? It’s not the only one, but it is one that James highlights. But why is this an expression of genuine faith? Isn’t this what God has done for us? Isn’t this what Jesus Christ did for you? Isn’t this what happened when the Father sent the Son on his rescue mission to this sin-filled earth? Isn’t it?

Galatians 4:3-7:

³ In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:10: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” I love that. Whenever I get full of myself, whenever I think I need my way, I quote that verse to myself. “Will, once you were not even a people. You did not matter to anyone, but now you’re Gods. You’re a son of God. Your life is not even yours, Will, so give it to him right now.” That’s what God is saying to all of us.

What does God do for us in the gospel? He gives orphans a home. That’s what he does. So, if you fail to see yourself as a sin-sick spiritual orphan, then you fail to know what it is to be adopted by God. But if, on the other hand, you realize that the gravity and the weight and the disgustingness of your sin separates you so far from God that the only hope is for God himself to bring that back together, then you are a son of God.

If you understand that Jesus Christ is the one who accomplished that work and that through faith in him you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry “Abba, Father,” then welcome to the family. Don’t ever forget what God has done for you in Christ. Don’t ever forget what God has done for you in Christ. When you go home this afternoon and you’re tempted to be tired and live for yourself, do not forget what God has done for you in Christ.

So in light of what God has done for us in Christ, we see the second foundational truth of orphan care or the second E for orphan care. There might be a pop quiz when I see you of what the three E’s of orphan care are.

2.  Orphan Care is an Extension of God’s Character

Orphan care is not only an expression of genuine faith, but it is an extension of God’s character. James qualifies what type of religion he is talking about. He says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this. The world can care for the orphan crisis, can’t they? UNICEF—I mentioned them already. The state has stepped in. There are all kinds of unbelievers caring for the orphan crisis, but they don’t do it because it is pleasing to God.

We’re the only ones that understand. We do it because God wants us to and because it pleases our heavenly father. And so, just listen to the character of your God as I read various Scriptures to you from the Old Testament. Essentially, what James is saying in this section, and really throughout the whole book of James, is if you say that God is your father then there’s going to be some family resemblance. Like father, like son, is what James is saying here.

If you say that God is your father, and if he indeed is your father, the character that you display in your life is going to be godly.

Psalm 68:5-6:

⁵ Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. ⁶ God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

Psalm 146:9:

The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

God made sure that his people Israel were going to care for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. In fact, listen to what he says in Deuteronomy 24:17-22:

¹⁷ “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, ¹⁸ but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

¹⁹ “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹ When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²² You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

            Essentially what God is saying is, hey farmers, which is most of Israel, when you harvest your crop and the things that you forget, do not go back and get them. You leave that food for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. See the book of Ruth. How did Ruth and Naomi survive? Because of God’s law. Because Boaz was not allowed to go back and clean up the fields; he had to leave what his workers didn’t get the very first time. And guess who was in the family tree of Ruth and Naomi: the Lord Jesus Christ. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

            Listen to how strongly God felt about this in the Old Testament law.

Exodus 22:22-24:

²² You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. ²³ If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, ²⁴ and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

            He wasn’t talking to Babylon. He was talking to Israel. Do you see the character of your God here? Do you see how your God feels about the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow? Do you see how God says, you mess with them and you’re messing with me, and you really don’t want to mess with me? You see it? That’s what James means when he says pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this.

            Orphan care is an extension of the character of God. That’s our second foundational truth, and because it is an extension of the character of God, it leads us into the third foundational truth or the third E of orphan care.

3.  Orphan Care is Essential for the Local Church

There are things we do in churches that are negotiable. There are programs and ministries that churches run that we don’t have to do. The Bible doesn’t say that we have to do them. Then there are others that we absolutely have to do because the Bible says that we have to do them.

You may not know this already, but there are many wonderful amazing families who are actively involved in orphan care either in the present or have been in the past and continue to support in some way. So, we must make sure that orphan care is an essential part of our church.

James gives the definition here of what pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is. He says it is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction—the neediest people, the people who are supposed to have people to take care of them and to help them through life who no longer have that any more. Think about James’ day when there was no social welfare, when there was no health insurance. And that doesn’t diminish the need today, but I’m trying to emphasize the point here.

He’s talking about the most needy of all people. And he’s saying as Christians, our hearts must be full of compassion for people who need help. That’s what he’s saying. And so, what does it mean to visit? What is that word? Do you stop by with a hamburger and say hi? What does it mean to visit? Well, it means to make a careful inspection or to examine or to care for or look after with the implication of continuous responsibility. It does not mean just to drop in and say hi. It means to be actively committed to that person’s good no matter what it might cost you.

What is their affliction? What does affliction mean? Well, this is a word that elsewhere gets translated tribulation. We know what a tribulation is, right? We know about the great tribulation that will one day come upon this earth. So, their affliction—that’s a strong word. And if you can try to put yourself in the shoes of an orphan or a widow, perhaps you can begin to comprehend just how difficult life may be.

The word also means to be pressed in on. I imaging that’s the feeling. You feel totally hopeless. There’s a book called Fields of the Fatherless, and in that book the author tells a story about a Russian child who was living in an orphanage. He talks about how he felt as though he was a cockroach until one day some Christian Americans came to the orphanage. They all thought they were coming to laugh at them because they were cockroaches. But instead, they came and loved them, and they helped them to understand that they were no longer cockroaches, but they were people created in the image of God.

That’s what it means to visit them in their affliction. We see an amazing example of this from the Lord Jesus Christ himself in Luke 7. Listen to it as I read the story of Jesus raising the widow’s son.

¹¹ Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. ¹² As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow [Do you hear the emphasis? He’s dropping bombs on us here.], and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” ¹⁵ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 

Do you think Luke included that just as an oh-by-the-way, Jesus gave him to his mom? No. You can imagine Jesus tenderly handing the widow her son, the only son that she had, the only hope to be cared for that she had in this world, Jesus handing him back to his mom. Listen to how the people responded.

¹⁶ Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” ¹⁷ And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

What does it mean to visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction? It means to go to them and take care of whatever they need for you to take care of. It means to commit yourself, that as long as you have breath in your lungs, they will have an advocate. They will have a helper with you. Why? Because that’s what Jesus did. Same word—God has visited his people. That’s what it means to visit them.

And so, as we think about some practical applications of this, we can look back to church history and see a few examples. It was common in the Roman Empire in the time that James was writing for them to decide that certain infants were not worth living. In my study, I read a short little note that has been found from Ancient Rome from a husband to his wife. And it says essentially, congratulations on your pregnancy. If it is a boy, keep him. If it is a girl, expose her. Just like China.

It was common practice in Rome and many cultures to decide at the moment of birth whether or not they wanted that child. And if they decided that they did not want that child, they would just go outside and put them outside somewhere on the ground. Or sometimes, they would take them to the trash heap. There’s been a discovery of around 100 infant corpses all just kind or thrown into an area in Rome.

That’s how they would treat infants if they didn’t want them. And so, Christians in that day, as they were walking in the streets, if they came upon an infant, guess what they would do? They would visit that orphan in their affliction, and they would take the orphan home, and they would make him or her a son or a daughter. That’s what they would do.

Every time the gospel has been reclaimed from darkness, orphan care and many other things have followed along with it. The great evangelist, George Whitfield, was so burdened that he eventually started the Bethesda Orphanage, which still stands today in Savannah, Georgia and is now called the Bethesda Academy and is a boy’s school.

George Mueller, who is one of the most famous men in history to ever take up the call of the orphan, built five different orphanages in England but was also known for never asking for any money but only praying and watching how the Lord miraculously provided.

Charles Spurgeon, who was influenced by George Mueller—in fact, who went to hear George Mueller preach because George Mueller was also pastoring a church on the side—went to hear George Mueller preach one day, and after the sermon Mueller asked him to come up and pray. But Spurgeon couldn’t because he had been weeping the entire time.

One day at a prayer meeting in 1866, Spurgeon, certainly burdened by Mueller and as he studied the word, said this to a prayer meeting. Dear friends, we are a huge church and we should be doing more for the Lord in this great city. I want us tonight to ask him to send us some new work, and if we need money to carry it on, let us pray that the means also may be sent.

And then a dear saint, a widow who had a lot of money from an inheritance that she had received from her family, stepped up to provide what is today the equivalent of about 3.4 million dollars to build Spurgeon’s orphanage. She didn’t like the lime light. It’s difficult even to find the story of her giving the money because she so badly wanted no one to know about what she had done. She just wanted Jesus to get the glory and kids to be cared for.

The Stockwell Orphanage opened up in 1867 and it still stands today as Spurgeon’s Children’s Charity. Though it is no longer an orphanage, it still takes up the cause of the orphan. You see, where there is gospel preaching and gospel believing, there is gospel living manifesting itself in orphan care.

So, let me with the time that we have remaining give you seven different ways that you might visit the orphans in their affliction. Seven different ways that you might visit the orphans in their affliction, and we’ll go through these fairly quickly. I want to encourage you. These are just the things that I have gotten from other resources and my little pea-brain could think of. So, be creative with how you might apply this. Get creative in how we might care for the crisis in the world and the crisis in Arizona.

The first thing that we can do is to pray for them and all involved. Pray for the orphan and all involved.

So, you can google orphanages, and you can find a whole bunch of information on the internet. If you’re thinking specifically of orphans in the state of Arizona who are up for adoption, you can go to places like www.childrensheartgallery.org, and you can see pictures and bios of kids who are adoptable. I would encourage you to go there and to pray by face and by name for each one of those kids.

You can also go to www.connectonenow.org and do the same thing. Pray for foster and adoptive parents. Ask that God would give us more who have the opportunity to be able to meet the need in that particular way. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

Pray for our local state workers, DCS workers, and all those who are involved in the system. Pray for them. Seek to support them in some type of way.

The second thing that we can do is to give financial support. Maybe you can give 3.4 million dollars to start an orphanage. Interestingly enough, a home in Prescott Valley has just opened up for girls who are aging out of the foster care system. The statistic is something like 70% of kids who age out of the foster care system and don’t have a permanent placement end up right back in the system. It’s a vicious cycle.

Satan loves it and I say we break it. Give financial support. Support foster care agencies, global orphan care ministries. It is understood that about $10,000 will provide what an orphanage needs in an entire year in a third world country.  $10,000—we could take that up in one morning.

Help a family who wants to adopt. Help them with their costs. That could be another way that you use your money. Get creative in the ways that you use that resource, that little green resource that we call money. Get creative in the ways that we use it.

The third thing that we might do is to support those who support orphans. Support those who support orphans. You could adopt a foster care family or an adoptive family and make it your goal to make sure they always have what they need. Clean their house. Do their yard work. Take them meals. I know that this has been a huge blessing for Katie and I as we have received your ministry. Find creative ways to encourage those families. It’s hard work.

Let’s see, twice we were down in Phoenix last week because we had specialist appointments. We’ll be down there again this week. It’s just going to keep on going. It’s hard work, so encourage them. Seek to see what you can do to help them.

The fourth thing that you might do is to become a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). A CASA is appointed by a judge and speaks on behalf of a child in the courtroom. A CASA has a lot of say in a foster child’s path in their case plan. Only one in every eight kids in the Arizona foster care system has a CASA. One in eight. So, become a CASA. This is a great way for some of you who are retired or only need to work a part time job—a great way to serve.

The fifth thing that you can do is become a mentor. Christian Family Care has begun a mentor program very similar to the Big Brothers Big Sisters program except this one is explicitly Christian and so it partners you with a child in the foster care system. Very often, depending on how that child’s life ends up, there’s only one or two consistent adults in that child’s life.  Perhaps you could be that consistent adult.

Number six, become a foster parent. This is not for everyone, but it is for some people. And so, if you decide that it’s for you, then go for it. If you decide it’s not for you, there is absolutely no shame in that. Every one of these things is equally important. Each one of us can play a roll. It’s just that we have to decide what it is that we can play.

And then the seventh thing is adopt. Adopt a kid. Bring a kid home. Give him or her a mom and a dad who loves them, who loves the Lord, who will teach them all about the Lord and what he has done to save sinners from the consequences of their sin.

If you are remotely interested in knowing more about orphan care and how you might get involved in maybe one of those seven ways or any other way, would you reach out to me and let me know that?

In the month of August, Chuck and Susan Cosgrove are going to host a six-week small group study that I’ll be leading. If you are interested in that—I’m not asking you to be committed to anything that you’re not sure if you can commit to; you might be thinking foster care, no way; adoption, no way, but I could cook some food—I want you to come to this small group study with me. It’s a six-week small group study. It will begin in August. If you’re interested in that, email me this week. I need to make sure I have all the resources together before it starts, so email me this week, and you can find my email in the worship guide.

Well, I hope this morning that we have seen that orphan care is an expression of genuine faith; it’s an extension of the character of God; and it is essential for the local church. I am so thankful for the many who do something already in our church body. I think what happens most often is we want to do something; we just don’t know how to go about doing it.

And so, if that is your case, listen to those seven things or speak with me, or if you know a foster care or adoptive family, ask them how you can apply James 1:27 to your life. Let’s pray and ask the Lord’s blessing on his word this morning.

Lord, thank you for your care for orphans. Thank you that you are deeply concerned for the fatherless. Thank you that you have made us sons and daughters, and we have received the spirit of adoption. Lord, I’m asking that you would apply your word to each one of us individually. I’m asking that there would be absolutely no guilt amongst us. Guilt never motivates us, Lord. I pray that there would be no guilt but only thoughts about how we may glorify you in the way that we care for and visit the orphans in their affliction. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your precious truths. We pray that you would write them on our hearts so that we might live them. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.