Visiting the Vulnerable

The following is a lightly edited transcript provided by a transcription service. Please check the video before quoting.

The Seminary

Well, if you have a Bible and I hope you or somebody around you does that, you can look on with. Let me invite you to open with me to James chapter one, James chapter one. And while you’re turning there, I just want to say I love the seminary. I love the students of the seminary. I love the faculty at the seminary. I love the president of this seminary.

He has been such a good friend to me and partner together in the gospel not just to me, but to my family. When I told my kids last night as we were having just time and prayer together, Hey, I’m going to southeastern tomorrow and you know where the Aiken’s granddad is President. So Mr. Danny would go and play basketball outside when he would come to visit Paul and his family who lived just a few doors down from us when we were in Richmond.

A Personal Excerpt of Vulnerability

And Mr. Danny would go out there and do one-on-three verse Micah and two of my boys, and they remember just terrorizing Mr. Danny on the basketball court like totally. And he apparently allowed it to a certain extent like no, you could foul as much as you want.

And so they did. And so anyway, I praise God for his grace in this place and the way his grace here is resounding to his glory far from this place and it’s pure joy and honor to be here, particularly as part of this stand for Life emphasis on campus today.

I know Dr. Aiken mentioned coming back tonight. I think there’s coffee on the lawn at six o’clock out there and just time to gather together. But then at seven we’ll come back in and think biblically about how to approach this issue of abortion in our country in our day.

How do we respond biblically to legal decisions and how do we engage in biblically and political discussions? I was asked to speak this morning specifically on building a foundation to care for the vulnerable, and my mind immediately went to James 1:27.

So I’ll put it up here on the screen. I hope you have it. You can follow along in the Bible 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.

Where Do We Find Religion?

There’s so much here in one small verse. Let’s just take word for word “Religion,” is that up here? There we go. Religion. So this word for personal or corporate expression of devotion to a transcendent God riding in an Uber this morning to the airport and a man from Nepal and I asked him, what religion are you? What do you believe about who God is, and what it means to worship him? It’s a religion that is pure, it’s clean. Holy.

This is the same word that Matthew uses to describe the clean linen shroud that wrapped Jesus’ body after he was taken down from the cross. It’s pure and undefiled Jesus. Hebrews chapter seven verse 26 tells us his undefiled unstained by sin so pure and undefiled religion before God the Father. So this is God on high speaking very clearly to you and me right now about what some of your translations say is acceptable religion before him.

How Should We Practice Our Religion

He’s reminding us of what we see throughout scripture there are types of religion that are unacceptable to God. So what kind of religion is pure and undefiled acceptable before God? That’s a very important question to think that it’s possible for us to go through religious lives, religious exercises, and religious education and to do it all in a way that is not acceptable before God. So the word has our attention at this point.

What kind of religion is pure and undefiled? And the answer is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Now we know this is not an exhaustive definition of religion. The verse right before this one tells us another mark of true religion, a bridled tongue, or the verses before that which highlight the necessity of receiving and obeying the implanted word of God that is able to save our souls.

What Does Religion Truly Mean?

So this definition of religion in verse 27 may not be exhaustive, but it is essential. So pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is at least these two actions, one to visit orphans and widows in their affliction or distress. So we’ll call this sacrificial care for the vulnerable, pure, and undefiled religion necessarily involves sacrificial care for the vulnerable orphans and widows.

This vulnerable pair that we see all throughout the Bible, often also including sojourners from the introduction of the law in Exodus 22, 22, you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child orphan Deuteronomy 10, 17 and 18 tells us how the great mighty and awesome God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing. Psalm 68, 5, God is the father of the fatherless and protector of the widows.

That’s who God is in his holy habitation, which is why he commands his people. Isaiah 17 learns to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause. Jeremiah 22 verse three, thus says the Lord do justice and righteousness deliver from the hand of the oppressor, him who has been robbed and do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless and the widow. Don’t sit around debating justice as if that is somehow doing justice. Do it.

Listen to God’s Word

Don’t sit around debating oppression, deliver the oppressed and care for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow. So it’s no surprise to come to James 1 27 and to see this pair yet again in God’s word. Yet this verse uses a fascinating word to describe what pure and undefiled religion does with the orphan and the widow. It visits them. Now what does that mean? What is God telling us to do to stop in and say hello to those who just came by to visit, to visit an orphan, to visit a widow?

Is that to spend a little time with them and then move on with our lives or is there more to it than that? Well, this word, its translated visit here is used 11 times in the New Testament and a few additional times in the Old Testament, the turn, and it sure seems like more than just making a short visit take you on a tour. Genesis chapter 50 verse 24 is the first time we see this word.

When Joseph said to his brothers, I’m about to die, but God will visit you. He’s not just stopping in to say hello. He’s going to bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. That’s what it means for God to visit, to come and bring someone out of a land of slavery.

How Does God Care for Us?

Psalm chapter eight, verse four, what is the man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? And the word for care here is the same word that’s translated visit in Genesis 50:24. God visits and cares for us men and women made in his image. Psalm 106 verse four, remember me, oh Lord, when you show favor to your people, help me when you save them.

The word for help here is the same word, the striving, how God shows favor to his people and saves them. So then it’s no surprise to get to the New Testament and we see this word. Luke chapter one verse 68, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people.

God in Jesus, this is announcing the coming of Jesus is not coming to just say hello. He’s coming to redeem them to make them totally new, to change their lives forever. That’s what happens when God visits just in the same way 10 verses later, look at this imagery because of the tender mercy of our God whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace.

God, in his tender mercy, visits us like the sun shining upon us, rising upon us, bringing light to the darkness, guiding our feet into the way of peace.

What a powerful picture of visiting. And Luke chapter seven, after Jesus raises a widow’s son from the dead, the Bible says fear sees them all and they glorify God saying a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people. Jesus is God’s definition of visitation. God has come to bring people from death to life not just Jesus.

Look at this description of Moses in Acts chapter seven, verse 23 when he was 40 years old. This is Stephen recounting history in the Old Testament when Moses was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. Moses visits his brothers. What does that mean? He’s seeking them out to take responsibility for their deliverance, their well-being, their future, and their destiny.

God & His Nations

At the Jerusalem Council, a few chapters later and in chapter 15, James speaks up and says, Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. God has visited the nations not just to say hello, but to bring them into his family.

Is this not an amazing word to visit? We haven’t even mentioned what’s probably the most well-known passage where we see this word straight from the mouth of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 when he says when you visit the vulnerable, the imprisoned, the hungry, the sick, you visit me, you visit me.

This is Jesus saying that. So are we hearing what God is saying to us? Religion that is pure and undefiled before him is not merely paying token attention to the vulnerable it is doing for them. What I have done for you, it’s going to them caring for them, taking responsibility for their wellbeing, raising them up, bringing them out, giving them life.

The implications are staggering in a culture in a country where millions of babies are vulnerable in their mother’s wombs, where multitudes of children are vulnerable out of the womb in need of moms and dads who need help in many ways to care for them and pure and undefiled religion takes responsibility for the care of those vulnerable children in the womb out of the womb and all the way to the tomb, specifically widows.

I think of Randy and Courtney, a couple who spent the first 30-plus years of their lives in cultural Christianity in a religion that is not acceptable before God until one day God visited them was preaching through Ruth and God met them in a powerful way and spoke to their hearts about his love for them, opened their eyes to new life in him. They were born again and with new birth came sacrificial compassion for the vulnerable, particularly widows.

How is God in Our Lives?

Randy is an electrician by trade. Courtney is a nurse practitioner, so they started looking for opportunities to visit widows in their affliction. Long story short, they now spend their weekends and many days during the week doing pretty unglamorous deeds in widow’s homes, rewiring electricity, fixing plumbing, building wheelchair ramps, cleaning bathrooms, changing diapers, delivering medicine, visiting and staying with and caring for many of these widows until their last breath.

I’ve heard from some of the people whom Randy and Courtney have visited. I’d love for you to hear from them too. One widow writes, Randy and Courtney are my friends. They’re my family. I believe that God sent them to me to encourage me and to help me. Sometimes I ask God if they’re even real. It’s like God has sent me some angels to take care of me. They pray with me, they help me with my house.

They always come and check on me. They bring me food and groceries. They read the Bible with me. I know that they care. Sometimes I just feel like I want to cry. I’m so thankful to God for sending them that sounds like a visit and other rights. When I see Jesus, I’m going to tell him everything Randy and Courtney did to help me serve me, and take care of me.

One more who said I spent over 20 years without a friend than Randy and Courtney became my friends. They’ve given their life to show mercy to people like me and to me that is the very picture of who Jesus is.

The woman who said those words was elderly and disabled and recently went to be with the Lord and she died holding her friend Courtney’s hand. This is what it means to visit. It means sacrificial care for the vulnerable in the world in their affliction.

A word that can include everything from oppression to tribulation. Let’s not forget that the reason orphans and widows exist in the world is because sin suffering and death exist in the world, which means visiting orphans and widows and their affliction will never be easy for them or for those doing the visiting.

What is Pure Religion?

Babies are aborted children are orphaned and widows are alone because we live in a fallen world. And in the middle of it, God is saying pure religion. Undefiled religion steps into the fallenness cares for looks after, and takes responsibility for the wellbeing of the vulnerable. That Greek word for a visit has antonyms opposites as well to neglect or to forget or ignore.

That’s what unacceptable religion does with the vulnerable, acceptable pure undefiled religion. Sacrificially cares for the vulnerable in the world. That is not an option for the church. That is an obligation of the church.

And so that’s the word here and does this in such a way that we keep ourselves unstained from the world. So the second mark of true religion in this verse is sacrificial care for the vulnerable in the world. Then second, let’s call it clear separation from the ways of the world.

Now we might read this and think, okay, moral purity sounds good, be morally pure. Let’s turn the page on James one and get ready for James two. But remember, the chapter divisions are from us, not from James, which means that what follows in chapter two verse one flows from chapter one verse 27. So let’s think about how these verses relate to each other. It’s interesting. James mentions the world three other times in the book.

You can turn and look at him. James chapter two, verse five. As James is talking about the sin of favoritism in the church, he writes, listen, my beloved brothers has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and he of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him. James chapter three verse six, talks about the tongue. James writes the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

Friendship with God

And then there’s chapter four verse four, you adulterous people do not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James is clearly referring here to a fallen world system that is set up against the ways of God and true religion.

The Bible says in James 1:27 do not live according to this fallen world system, which is why in chapter two, James immediately applies this to favoritism toward the rich, which is the way the world works. The world loves to honor the rich and ignore the poor, and the church was living according to the ways of the world.

Listen to James two verse one, my brother, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory for from man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in.

The Holy Spirit and Vulnerability

If you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing, say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my blood brothers, it’s not God’s chosen.

Those who are what we just read, poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised of those who love him. Do you hear what the Holy Spirit is saying here through James? According to the world, you go out of your way to honor respect, and treat others well, the person who watched this can benefit you the most.

Lemme say that one more time. According to the world, you go out of your way to honor respect, and treat well the person who can benefit you the most. But that is not true religion unstained by the world that is false religion stained by the world’s true religion.

So make the connection with the first mark of true religion, sacrificial care for the vulnerable in the world. You go out of your way to honor respect and treat well to take care of those who this world would say benefit you the least. At which point we might be quick to think, oh, that was obviously a problem for the church then things are different today. But is that true?

Churches Today

How common is it in churches today for the people who make the most money to have the most influence, the direction of so many churches and ministries, even seminaries and denominations can easily be driven by the rich. May it not be so among us, it is detestable to God. I’m convicted about this.

When I think about the model of church that I pastor, which I think is similar to many, maybe most churches where we spend, whether it’s thousands, tens of thousands, or millions of dollars on nice buildings and elaborate programs, why appeal to the poor?

Don’t we do so much in our churches, maybe unknowingly, but in the end ultimately to appeal to the rich people who have much and want comfort and expect excellence? So we spin the resources of God trying to appeal to or dare I say, appease them. Is this how people organize themselves and are called to sacrificially care for the vulnerable in the world?

Just think about our church planting strategies. Don’t most of our strategies depend on a certain income level of the people we’re trying to reach? Why are we not planting more churches in more vulnerable communities? Could it be because they can’t afford us and our church planting models here or around the world where billions, billions have never even heard the gospel, many of them living in extreme poverty and suffering?

Why then do we spend millions reaching the rich around us and relative pennies reaching the unreached and impoverished far from us? Is this pure and undefiled religion or is this religion stained by the world?

Religion that is pure and undefiled visits orphans and widows in their distress, sacrificially cares for the vulnerable in this world, and keeps our lives unstained and clearly separate from the ways of this world.

Even as I’ve meditated on this verse and thought about the issue of abortion in our country, I can’t help but grieve in part because yes, praise God for the overturning of a law that made abortion a legal right in our country. Praise God for a monumental decision for the vulnerable in the womb. Yet don’t we grieve

How do we Grow as a Church?

How do we as the church not keep ourselves unstained from the world in the process? Don’t we grieve over how we have adopted the ways of this world, everything from worldly speech to worldly strategies to worldly politics, to worldly personalities in order to get to this point? God helps us to care sacrificially for the vulnerable in the world while maintaining clear separation from the ways of the world.

So what does this look like in your life? Sacrificial care for the vulnerable makes clear you’re not living according to the ways of this world. What does this look like in your family? What does this look like in your church?

I know that I and my family have much room to grow here, as does the church I pastor, but I so want to grow. I want this kind of religion, pure and undefiled to mark my life and my family and the church I pastor and us together as the church before God, our Father in this world in a way that reflects God, our Father to this world. Isn’t that the beauty of this whole verse?

This is our God, what we read in Psalm 68 earlier, he is the father of the Fatherless and protector of widows. That’s who God is in his holy habitation. Do you see it? Sacrificial care for the vulnerable in this world. Clear separation from the ways of this world.

Praise be to our God. Praise be to Jesus who has come to visit us in our vulnerability, who has come to care for and deliver and save and redeem and take responsibility for our eternal wellbeing.

Praise Jesus completely unstained by the sin of this world dying on the cross to pay the price for our sin rising from the grave in victory over sin so that we orphaned by sin might become sons and daughters of God. Praise God for the gospel. Praise God in the words of Hosea 14, three in you, the orphan finds mercy. So I read that and I think about my own story.

God Blesses Each of Us

Some of you have heard me share about how my wife Heather and I struggled and agonized through years of infertility with God not blessing us with children in the way we desired and how God used that journey to open our eyes to children in need.

And I would’ve said at that point as we began an adoption process, this is kind of second best since we couldn’t have children this way. And it’s really interesting, Rick Morton sitting down here on the front row here who works for Lifeline.

He was teaching at New Orleans seminary at that time, and he was one of the first conversations my wife and I had about adoption because they had just walked through an adoption process full circle that moment hit me right now, we thought this was kind of second best. We learned real quick.

This is just as best the Lord led us to Kazakhstan where we adopted our first son, Caleb, and we got back and two weeks later found out Heather was pregnant. So what happens in Kazakhstan doesn’t stain Kazakhstan. So anyway, sorry. It’s not appropriate. Not appropriate.

It was just sitting right there, right? So anyway, fast forward nine months later, Joshua comes along. So Caleb and Joshua, we obviously knew at this point we were able to have children biologically, but we also knew we wanted to adopt again.

We started an adoption process from Nepal that fell through after we’d been through that process for a while, we started another process from China. We adopted our daughter Mara from China, and then three months later got home and Heather was pregnant again. And her doctor said, you adopt four, you’ll have eight. We were like, no.

Finding Joy

So we were joyfully content with four children until one night. So a few years ago we were going out on our regular date night and we hadn’t even planned on talking about adoption. It wasn’t even on the agenda at dinner. And it came up and the Lord, the only way I can describe it is the Lord met us at that table and just told us we still had a lot of love left to give and there were a lot of children in need of that love.

And so we started an adoption process again from China and we were three days away from going to pick our son up JD in January 2020 when we got a message that there was a virus in China. So we’d be delayed for a couple of weeks whole two and a half years later. We’re still waiting to go get him.

So have a son a long way away from that. Can’t wait to bring it into our home and pray daily for God to open that door. But then a few months after that, Heather and I did the same Bible reading plan with our church family and we were in Psalm 1 27, we children a heritage from the Lord blesses the man whose quiver is full of them.

And both of us just had this sense that even with adding JD to our family, our quiver wouldn’t be full. And both of us had this sense, how do I share this with the other? And so we both start praying and then again it comes up as we’re on a date and it’s what happens on date nights. So we start talking like I was thinking this, I was thinking this. And so we came to the conclusion that God was leading us to visit another child in need.

Our Families & the Gospel

And so we started a parallel process from domestically through Lifeline and fast forward to just about a year ago, a little less than a year ago. So Lifeline is a great gospel-centered ministry that walks alongside birth moms and helps them care for children whenever that’s possible, when that’s not possible or best, and helps them find a family that they can place that child with and relationship with that family.

And so we got a profile sent to us about a birth mom, and when this was sent to us, it said, Hey, here’s some information about this birth mom. One thing you need to know though is that she’s going to have a little girl about a month from now, but she already has a name picked out for her little girl, which we were kind of bummed about as soon as we saw that. I could be honest because we for years have said, that if the Lord ever gave us another daughter, we’d love to name her mercy.

And it’s not the most common name, but we were like, of course, that’s not a deal breaker. So we open up this profile and we read all about this beautiful birth mom, and we get to the end and she says, I just, I’ve already picked out a name that I really want for my little girl. I really want her to be named Mercy. So that began a process where over the next month we got to know this beautiful, brave, selfless birth mom who was doing what she believed was best for her beautiful baby girl.

And I just want to say very loud and clear that we honor her. We honor her trust in the Lord, her desire for her daughter’s good, and her adoption through this process. There is no question, there will never be a question about how much mercy is loved by her birth mom and we honor her dad as an image bearer of God.

But all of that to say about a week later after we had had initial contact with her, she ended up giving birth to Mercy. And this is Mercy being held happily in her first mom’s arms. A couple of days after that we met them both and this birth mom entrusted Heather and me to be mom and dad to Mercy. And here’s my wife with

God’s Presence within Each of Us

Our precious little girl who a few days after this we found ourselves in a courtroom via Zoom, telling a judge and anybody who would listen in that courtroom about how much God loves this little girl and about her birth mom’s love for her and our love for her, told the whole story about her name. And by the end, the judge was like, well, you’ve got us in this courtroom in tears. And she pronounced that Mercy was a member of the Plat family.

So this is one of my favorites. I’ve got about 5,000 other pictures that I could show you right now, but I will show you this. Just a little picture of the chaos in our home. So just the other night I was given Mercy a bottle before I put her to bed, just singing over her, praying over her peacefully, looking up at me.

So this was her looking up at me when all of a sudden the rest of the family got home and came barging into the room, kissing all over her, playing with her, which led to this picture where it’s like she’s thinking, just put me in the bed. I was just about to go to bed.

So all this to say, I so want to live a James 1:27 life and I want to lead a James 1:27 family and I want to lead a James 1:27 church. And I have so far to go. I trust that’s likely true for all of us, but it’s worth it. Let’s not settle for anything less than pure and undefiled religion before our God. Let’s sacrificially care for the vulnerable in the world and let’s do so with clear separation from the ways of the world. Will you bow your heads with me?

These guys are going to come lead us in a song and before they do, I don’t want to say anything else. I want to give you just a moment in quiet. I don’t know how this word lands on your heart and life, but I want to give you a moment before we stand and sing and move on just to respond and your own heart to whatever God by His Spirit is speaking into your life.