Pure and Undefiled Religion

This morning is our seventh week in the sermon series on the church standing in the gap, our call to defend the unborn. The title of this week's sermon is Pure and Undefiled Religion. And if you were in Sunday school, we talked a little bit about the difference between not doing what you should do versus doing what you ought not to do. Sins of omission versus sins of commission. And when we approach obedience, it's much easier to think in terms of what we ought not to do. We would rather avoid the trouble. But when it comes to having to do things, that's much more difficult for us. And if you're like me, you'll find that you would rather be told what not to do. You'd rather be cautioned and have someone say, don't go over there, don't do that, because that's not going to go well. And you're not as receptive to when people say, you need to go do this.

We're not telling you what not to do, we're telling you what you must do. Our text this morning tells us what we must do. And as we go through it, you're going to see that you think it tells us what not to do. But my goal this morning is to show you that no, it tells us what not to do, but it tells us how to avoid it. The way we avoid what we're told to avoid is by doing what we're told to do. Our text this morning is James chapter 1, verse 27. Would you please stand? for the reading of God's word. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So there are three main sections. We're going to break this verse down into three sections. The first being everything that comes before the colon.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and our Father is this. The second part is going to be on visitation, visiting orphans and widows. And the third is going to be on what it means to keep oneself unstained by the world. So we'll begin with pure and undefiled religion. We're told what pure and undefiled religion is, and we're told that it's in the sight of God what pure and undefiled religion is. And so I want you to think for a minute about how you would define pure and undefiled religion. If you were asked, what is pure and undefiled religion in your estimation, is this what you would say? Is that what you think of when you think of the essence, the most important part of being a Christian? What is it? Would you say visiting the orphan and the widow in your distress? Or think of this question another way to help get you understanding what I'm saying. If we move beyond the marks of a church, the right preaching of the word,

the right administration of the sacraments, and the practice of church discipline. If we move beyond those, what's most important to you in terms of choosing a church? How would you go about choosing a church? Because that will indicate to you what you think is most important with regard to your faith in Jesus Christ. Now, there's a number of ways to answer this question, and it depends on how you're wired, where you've come from, how you'd answer this question. What's most important? What is pure and undefiled religion in your own mind? If you're Reformed and you make a point of being Reformed theologically, we are Reformed. That's what we're about. What are you about if you're Reformed? What's important to you if you're Reformed? What is it? Doctrine. It's theology. When you go looking on a church website, and first of all, you go look on their website. You don't just show up because they're nearby. You look on their website and what are you looking for? What are you interested in? Do you go to their ministries tab?

No. What tab do you go to? What we believe. What do they believe in? And where are the confessions? And where are the doctrinal statements? And where's the rejection of all that's wicked in our society? Where's it at? This is what's most important. This is pure and undefiled religion. It's what we think. That's how we choose churches. Pure and undefiled religion is right theology. What if you say, no, that's not what I think about when I go to the website? I don't click on the what we believe tab. I click on the ministries tab. You're an evangelical. You're just a run-of-the-mill, normal evangelical. What ministries are there for us? And what kind of ministries are we looking for? We're looking at music ministries. We're looking at youth ministries. We're looking at men's and women's ministries. We're looking at small group ministries. We're looking for a relationship. We're looking to relate. I want to know if there's something there for my children.

You're an evangelical. What is pure and undefiled religion? It's providing for all of the felt needs that we have. It's so that we can feel good. We need to grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you heard that said that Christianity is a relationship, not a religion? Have you heard this? That's not true. It's half true. It's actually both. Part of the religion of Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ, but it has to do with obeying him. That's what they're trying to distance themselves from with saying it's not a religion, because religion has rights. Religion has ordinances. Religions have requirements. That's not what Christianity is about. It's about relationship. It's about an intimate, warm, good feeling between me and Jesus.

That's what pure and undefiled religion is in my sight. It's having a close, deep relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, is that wrong? It's not any more wrong than having right theology. But that's not what God calls pure and undefiled religion. So are you Reformed or are you Evangelical? We could keep going. We could flesh these things out further. But I'm going to have one other category who would answer this question. If you went and asked the world, just run-of-the-mill, unbeliever, guy on the street, co-worker, neighbor, whoever it is, finish this sentence for me. Pure and undefiled religion is, what will they say? They'll say something along the lines of philanthropy, but they won't use that word. They'll say doing good things, good deeds, being kind, loving other people. And we know this because there's tons of pressure put on the church by the world to do what? To accept everything, to take in everything. We can't say no anymore. We can't say that's not according to scripture. We have to be loving. We have to be accepting. We have to be tolerant.

And that's how the world defines pure and undefined religion, is that you gut religion of everything that's substantive, and you just maintain the shell. We keep the facade. And so we keep love, but we take out everything that love is. And we let them redefine love as accepting any and everything that comes our way. This would be the best religion they could envision of. This is the kind of God that they could serve. who would judge people. I won't serve a God who allows bad things to happen to people. This is the world's disposition towards God and therefore their vision of religion, pure and undefiled religion, has nothing to do with God and everything to do with just letting everyone come in and be as they are. Doing good deeds for each other as you're led, as you feel like it. But none of these things are what God says pure and undefiled religion is. And yet none of these things are bad in and of themselves. Right theology is important.

An intimate, close relationship with Jesus Christ is important. Loving our neighbors, as God tells us to, is important. But we're told in this passage that pure and undefiled religion, the essence, the nucleus of Christian faith in the sight of God, is visiting orphans and widows in their distress. So think of it this way. David's told you about a mercy ministry that we're going to start. Now, it seems strange that we're calling it a mercy ministry. You're going to go to the abortion mill. You're going to call people not to kill their children. How's that a mercy ministry? That seems like a really combative, aggressive, uncomfortable, judgmental ministry. We're going to come there and say, no, please don't do that. So how is it a mercy ministry? It's a mercy ministry because someone's about to be killed and we're pleading on their behalf because they don't have a voice and say, please don't kill them.

They're innocent. And so it is a mercy ministry. Now, given what I said about church websites and how people decide to come to churches, do you think we should put up a tab? Mercy ministry. A voice for the voiceless. Mercy ministry. Anti-abortion ministry. Down at the mill. Come join us every Saturday morning from 8 to 9.30 a.m. as we plead with mothers and fathers not to kill their children. Can we put that up on our website? You say, yeah, you can put it up on your website. Do you think it's going to be a positive thing? Do you think that's going to be the bait people are looking for? No, you don't. That's too bad. Because that shows you where we're at in this society. We don't know what pure and undefiled religion is in the sight of God. We don't have an appetite for it. And when we see it, we're going, okay, I see that we need it. I'll come that far. And I say, but do you see the goodness of it?

Do you see how God prioritizes it? And all the things that we say are important, the things that we think are at the top of the list, God says, no, this is what's important to me. All through Scripture, all through the Old Testament, what does he require of his people? What does he want? He wants them to be merciful and to execute justice, to care for the sojourner and the alien, to take them in, to teach them his ways. And it's no different here in the New Testament. It's no different when Jesus came. He didn't usher out that love and mercy of the Old Testament and come in and say, to hell with them. No, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, that we visit orphans and widows in their distress. Is this the only work that matters? Is this all that the church should be about? We all have these pendulums inside of us that swing. And we have a place where we stand and we go,

I've got what's important to me and I'm chugging along doing what's important to me. And then you hear this and it says, actually, that's not as important as this. And what tension do you feel? You go, well, how can I do both of them? Apparently, I have to swing the pendulum, leave that behind and come over here. And this is what we're all about. In fact, I don't think we should have men's ministry or women's ministry or youth or really none of that matters at all. What we need to do is be at the abortion mill. You know, we should have church down at the abortion mill. We shouldn't do anything else. Is that what I'm saying?

No, that's not what I'm saying. These other things matter. They're important, but they need to be put in their place. They need not be elevated and displaced. What God says is most important to him. What reflects his mercy and his kindness and his character most clearly. We bear God's image and it's our place to demonstrate that, to live that out. And the way we can do that, the purest way we can do that in a fallen world is to visit orphans and widows in their distress. It is not the only thing. But it is the most important thing. So why is this work left behind? Why is visiting orphans and widows left behind? Have you visited orphans and widows before? I mean, whether you've gone to the abortion mill or you've interacted with orphans in some other way or a widow, someone who's just lost their spouse. What kind of work is it? It's humble work. It's painful work. We're not just supposed to go visit orphans and widows. We're supposed to visit them in their distress. And what happens when you visit someone in their distress?

You end up bearing their distress. You enter into it. You don't get to come with your happy day to their distress and not be touched by it. It's a humble work to visit them. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father requires that we do humble, unseen work. Only those who are humble seek out this work and do it faithfully. I understand some of you are saying, no, there are some people who do anti-abortion ministry and they're not humble at all. They're really very brash. And I say, they're not really doing the work. They're not doing it. They're not merciful in their work. We're to speak the truth in love. It's possible to speak the truth not in love. And our work is to go there and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, the mercy of Jesus Christ in love. And those who don't do it in love aren't truly doing it. But those who miss the target don't make the target invalid.

Humble people will seek this work out and they'll do it with love. They have to seek them out because orphans and widows aren't generally the categories of people that put themselves in front of you. Here I am. I need some help. I mean, even if you're not an orphan and widow, do you ask for help? Please help me. It's falling apart. It's breaking at the seams. Can you please come in and help me? Do we do that? Generally speaking, no. You don't ask for help. We suffer in silence alone by ourselves. The difference is almost everyone in this room, is better off than an orphan or a widow. You have more at your disposal than they do. And so they have to be sought out. The widow will never call you and tell you she's lonely. The orphan will never call you and say, are you my daddy? Will you be my daddy? Because I don't have one. They're silent. They're unseen by all except God. He sees them and he hears their cries. And he calls his people, that's us, the church, to seek them out in their distress, to visit them. So what is visitation?

Visitation is going to see people in their distress. When you think of visitation, what do we think of? When do we go visit people? We go visit people when they're in the hospital. We go visit people if something bad's happened in their life. They've lost their job, they're in the hospital, there's been a death in the family, there's marriage problems, struggle with one of their kids. Generally, when bad things are happening, that's when we go visit them. It used to be much more common than it is today. Have you heard people say they've got a loved one, maybe it's their parent, in the hospital, dying, going to die. And what will they say? Why won't they go visit them? They won't go visit them because I don't want to remember them that way. And so they won't go visit them. Then they die. And there's a visitation. They say the same thing again. Then there's a funeral. And they say, well, if it's a closed casket, we'll come. We'll visit.

As long as we don't have to visit, we'll visit. As long as it can be a celebration of life instead of a reminder of sin, we'll visit. When you go visit someone who's in their distress, you assume their distress. You cannot keep from being in their presence and not being a part of their pain. You can't do it. And so what does our culture do? Just stop visiting. I don't want to remember him that way. I don't want to see him like that. That's not the man I knew. That's awful. And it's selfish. Do you hear me? It's selfish. You care more about yourself than you do about anyone else if you won't go bear someone else's burden. You guys remember Hank? Some of you who are here. Older gentleman in our church, Hank, passed away last year. This is when I learned this. Hank was in the nursing home. First he was in assisted living and then he was in a nursing home and then he was in and out of the hospital and then he was in...

The nursing home across the street from the hospital. And when you'd go to visit him, you didn't know which one he was in. And eventually he was in the hospital and you could talk to him. And then eventually he was in the hospice area. And I didn't want to go visit him. And if you were here at that time, you remember us saying to you regularly, go visit Hank. Please, if you have time, go visit Hank. Why would we say that? Because you don't want to. That's why we said it. Because it's uncomfortable. Who wants to go see someone who's dying when you can't fix it? He doesn't just have a broken leg. He didn't just have a baby.

He's dying. His kidneys are failing. He's no longer processing food. He can't talk anymore. He's losing weight. He's in distress, unto death. And we go, that's way on the east side of town. That's what I thought. Maybe you thought it. That's what I thought. He's all the way over at Community East. Deacons, could you try to, before he got too sick, could you try to transfer him a little closer to town, to us, so it's not quite so inconvenient? Visiting people in their distress is painful. It's hard. You feel helpless. You're faced with the reality of this world. Every one of us is going to die. We are dying. People around us are dying. We're full of sin. I remember being with Hank, watching there with his estranged wife, with his daughter he hadn't talked to in years, trying to comfort and figure out what's going on at the end of his life.

And I didn't want to be there any more than any one of you would want to be there. And try to keep the doctors, trying to figure out how much medicine, is too much medicine, is he actually dying? It was a very difficult situation. I didn't want to do it. And I remember being in this when I went one day and I was going every day because I knew he has hours, he has days, he doesn't have weeks and months. And so I go each day, the last couple of days of his life. And we went from being able to say things and have him kind of acknowledge that it was said to where he couldn't say anything anymore. And then I went up one day and I went to the room that he was in. He wasn't there anymore. And I'm going, okay, did he die? And they said, no, he's over in this other wing, which is the hospice wing, which is we're making him as comfortable as possible because he's going to die. There's nothing more we can do for him. And so I walk over there and I walk into this room with this man that I love. And he can't hear.

or he can't respond if he can hear me. And what am I supposed to do? And the thought that I have and that you have is, why do I have to be here if he doesn't know I'm here? What should I say? I don't know if he can hear me. Maybe the nurses will probably think I'm weird. If I start talking to a guy who's on his deathbed, if I pray with him, it's not what I want to do. And so I sat there in silence for a while, not doing anything. And eventually I thought, well, you're here, and whatever they think, And you don't know if he can hear you. Do you love him? And the answer is yes, I love him. So I talked to him. And I prayed with him. And when I left the room, I said goodbye. And I knew that I'd never see him again. Alive. And that's the work of visiting people in their distress. And it's unpleasant. It's not what you want to do. You're not going to have a good day the rest of the day. And that's why the world doesn't do it. And that's why you must do it.

David's talking about going down to the abortion mill and coming down and visiting the orphans there because they're orphans. They're orphans because their mother and their father are killing them. They don't want them. They would prefer them dead. These children are orphans. And he says, come on down. He's trying to convince you that it's going to be exciting. And I'll tell you, it's not exciting. Occasionally it's exciting. Most of the time it's very difficult. And you'll have people who will go by and who will encourage you, who will honk or give you a thumbs up or maybe will stop and say thank you. We've had that. And you'll have just as many people flipping you off and calling you names and veering their car at you. It's difficult work. Because there's people there who are in distress. And everyone wants to conspire together to make it silent distress. And you're there to say, no, it can't be silent. And so it's difficult work. It's good for your soul work.

But you're not going to leave there, most days you're not going to leave there all full of excitement. You're going to leave there sad. You're going to leave there discouraged. You're going to leave there calling out to God and saying, Why, O Lord? How long do you have a place in your faith to accept that that's part of it? That that's within the scope, the breadth of Christian faith to be discouraged and unsettled, by the harsh reality of sin that we live in? Or do you work to suppress it? Do you work to hide it? Do you work to ignore it? Do you redefine pure and undefiled religion away from all of that, towards things that make you happy and comfortable? I'm not here to say that there's nothing positive, there's nothing to rejoice in with regard to the Christian faith. That's not true at all. But the sun never shines so brightly as after the dark of night. They both go together. Some of you love the sunshine.

Move up to Alaska. You'll hate the sunshine when it's sunny for 20 hours a day. Why do they hate the sunshine? Because there's no darkness. They want to sleep. The same is true the other way around, but you understand my point. The contrast is what gives you perspective. And if you lose perspective by having light all the time, like living up in Alaska, you don't love the light. You despise the light. You want to sleep. I want my kids to sleep. Light's in the way. We need darkness. We need contrast. We don't need evil, but we need contrast. Your love for God will grow. Your faith in God will grow if you understand the world and you see the world as he sees it. If you see the brokenness that he sees, you'll come to see what he sent his son to redeem. We all think we understand and we have a perspective, but most often that perspective has to do with us. My sin and my failures and my weaknesses and me. But there's so much more to it.

Jesus bore all of your sins and so much more. And it would do your soul good to see how much more. You cannot disregard the work of visiting the orphan and widow in your distress and carry on as though it doesn't matter to God. This is the definition of pure and undefiled religion in his sight. You visit the orphan and the widow. That's what you must do. What about keeping ourselves, the final part of the verse, we're to keep ourselves unstained by the world. And of visitation, and keeping oneself unstained by the world, we prefer keeping ourselves unstained by the world because we're told, don't go over there, don't do that, don't participate in that. And you say, I'm good at not doing it. I'm good at not doing things. Tell me what not to do and I'll just become more passive and more lazy and more complacent and more quiet. Tell me what I'm not supposed to do. Don't be stained by the world. And you know, when Paul was...

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, when I told you not to associate with the ungodly, I didn't mean of the world. If you were going to have to do that, you'd have to leave the world. That's not what I meant. I didn't mean don't go associate with the ungodly of the world. I meant with those hypocrites in the church. Those are the ones you're not supposed to have anything to do with. But you can't leave the world. So we're left with the work of being in the world, living here, associating with the world, and doing the work. of remaining unstained by it. You do not remain unstained by the world by withdrawing from the world. You do not remain unstained by the world by withdrawing from it. Your flesh will tell you that's what you have to do. How do you keep your kids unstained from the world? You just don't let them near the world. That's how you do it. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You're worldly. Your kids don't need to go away from you to learn about the world. Okay? They don't.

You're worldly. Every time you think, well, I don't want my kid to watch that, or I don't want my kid to say that, or I don't want my kid to think that, I don't want them exposed to that, I say, that's your worldliness. You don't want them exposed to it. But you know what? You're not as good of a keeper of it as you think you are. You don't keep them isolated from it. You're not the best insulation. Removing yourself from the world will not keep you unstained from the world. When you do that, it's the sort of stain like when you get lemon juice on a white dress.

and it doesn't show up right away? Is that true about lemon juice? What is it that you get on white and it doesn't show up until later? Fruit juice. My wife says clear fruit juice. Is that what you're talking about? Wedding dresses, right? All you ladies have wedding dresses and they were beautiful and they were beautiful all day and maybe there's a little dirt around the edge and you get it out five years later and there's stuff all over it. If you didn't get it washed in, where'd that come from? Those stains just weren't seen for a while but here they are and they showed up and they set and they're, dang it, that was your wedding dress. You don't, Keep yourself from being stained by the world by removing yourself from the world. And further, Christianity, that whole idea is antithetical to Christian faith. Before Jesus left, he gave his disciples, the church, work to do. And what was that work to do? Go and make disciples of the nations. Go and baptize them. Go and teach them. To that point, before that happened, if you wanted to be named among the people of God, you came to them.

Jesus took that in the Great Commission, turned it upside down, and said, no, you go to them. You go and you speak. You be proactive. You don't sit here and wait for them to come to you. You go to them. So you have to be engaged in the world. You have to deal with the world. Christianity is not a silent or a private faith. It's not. It can't be. The world will tell you it has to be. You keep your mouth shut. You can't tell people no. You can't tell them what God says. People don't like that. That's not their truth. You say, right, it's not their truth. It's God's truth. It's not on a plane with them. It's above them. Because they were made by the one who said it. And it's in their best interest to submit to it. Because they can't get out from underneath his rule and his reign.

Christianity is not a silent faith. It's not a private faith. It's not something you do between you and God in the confines of your home or on Sunday mornings. It is those things, but it's so much more. James says, do not keep yourself unstained by the world. Paul says in Ephesians 5, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. We preached on this a couple of weeks ago. And then Paul goes on to say, but rather, even expose them. Don't just stay away from it. Yes, don't participate in it. But furthermore, expose it. It's not sufficient for you to abstain. There is work for you to do in terms of positive, productive, proactive engagement. Even expose them. So if you want to know how to keep yourself unstained with the world, you do this. You expose the wickedness. That's how you keep yourself unstained from the world. Because the lies...

and of Satan and the temptations and the lusts and the enticements of the world become more attractive to you. Your chances of being stained by the world go up when you agree to keep everything in the dark. It doesn't seem so crazy. We talk about abortion and you say, I would never kill my own child, man or woman, married or single. I would never do it. Even if I got pregnant and I wasn't married or I got a girl pregnant and I wasn't married, we'd keep our baby. We'd keep that baby. We'd never do that. And I'd say, you've never been in that situation. What makes you think you're so different than all the other evangelicals and reformed people that kill their children? What hope do you have that you can point to in scripture that says you're different than them? Especially if you're doing the same thing they do, which is to keep silent about it. You're stained and you don't know it. The seeds are planted. And then when the opportunity arises and you have the oh no moment, life's about to fall apart moment,

The world has an answer for it. You don't have to have that problem. We can take care of that. We talk about abortion and why people have abortion. A couple weeks ago, we preached on that, the lie of abortion. And people say, my life will be ruined. And we look at them and we say, well, they say their life will be ruined and they're going to kill somebody else for the sake of their life being ruined. And I would never do that. And I say, have you ever been in this situation? You ever had the chance of someone finding out what you did? Maybe you weren't pregnant. Maybe it was something else. And you had that knot in your stomach where you went, oh no, people are going to find out. And you tell me to what extent you were willing to go to cover it up. Now just make the thing that's giving you the knot pregnancy. Unwanted. And you believe a lie if you think you won't face the temptation. The way you remain unstained by the world is to engage in fighting against the stain. You know who cares the most about cleanliness?

In a bathroom? The one who has to clean it up. Right? That's the one who cares. Don't leave it there. You missed. Clean it up. Oh, there's no toilet paper. You're leaving. You go get a roll and put a new one in there. Don't let somebody else show up in there and go, oh. The one who has to do the cleanup work, that's the one who cares. And that's the work of exposure. That's how they keep themselves from making a mess. I don't want to clean it up. So I'm not going to make a mess. So make your children clean the bathroom. And you, Church of Jesus Christ, be witnesses and visit the orphan and the widow in their distress. And you will find that the stains of the world, the temptations of the world, will not be as tempting. Think of it another way. What is the primary, big picture, what is the primary sin that America has given to? Category. What is it?

Oh, it's too big. What is it? Not big enough yet. But I appreciate you trying. What? Sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is the most pervasive, widespread, far-reaching category of sin in our society. And abortion is its sacrifice. Abortion is the answer to the sin, to the stain. We're not going to expose the sin. You guys ever read The Scarlet Letter? Hester Prynne? got pregnant, what'd she have to do? Wear a big scarlet letter. Right? Isn't that awful? Isn't that awful that they made her do that? That they did that to her? Isn't that what all your teachers taught you to think? It was so awful to make Hester print, to embarrass her and to shame her and to let everyone know. Isn't that terrible? We shouldn't do things like that, should we? We shouldn't expose it. We should kill it and move on.

This is what our society has taught you. And it's wicked. If you want to remain unstained by the world, your work is to expose the wickedness and to see in what ways you participate and are sexually immoral. You say, I've never had an abortion. I've never had one and I never would. And I say, you've scratched the surface of what it means. Pornography is absolutely rampant in our culture. There is no sexual sin between men, the race of man, that even makes us blush. There are still things beyond that that make us blush now, but they won't in 20 years. There's nothing a man can do with a woman or with another man that the world goes, ooh, no, you're stained by it. All of us, 7 out of 10 men in America are addicted to pornography.

One out of five women are addicted to pornography. 70% of men, 20% of women are addicted to pornography. And we're to think of ourselves and go, I don't know what you're talking about, Pastor. I say that's the extent, that's a conservative estimate of the extent of the stain in that one manifestation of pornography. How prevalent it is in our society. You can't possibly think for a second that you are protected from the stain. You're not. You're surrounded by it. So how do you fight it? What do you tell a man or a woman who's in bondage to pornography? Go to the abortion mill. That's what I'll tell you. If you're addicted to pornography, go to the abortion mill and see its end. The people that are being consumed on your smartphones and on your tablets and on your computers, Kill their children to entertain you. Go to the mill and see what they do for your pleasure. Go see what you subject them to because of your lust. You'll be horrified by it. And you'll find strength to fight against being stained by the world. It's that serious and it's that prevalent in our society. And if you and I remain silent, we are complicit. And so if you want to remain unstained, then come.

to the mill and see where the things that you're tempted by, that the world's tempting you by and that you're enticed by end and what they lead to. You don't get to determine the end of this roller coaster. That's the lie Satan will tell you with all kinds of sexual immorality is this far and no further until something goes wrong. And then what? Now what are we going to do? You come to the abortion mill and you see, you watch and you go, it's sad and it's awful and it's terrible and there's murder happening. Right there. Life is about to be translated into death because of the sinfulness of man. And you'll learn about yourself. You'll find in your heart how much you do not want to be there and you do not want to face this reality and you do not want to bear the distress of the orphan. You just don't want to do it. I don't want to do it any more than I want to go visit Hank. I don't want to go. I'm no different than you. But we must. Because God says that pure and undefiled religion in his sight is to visit the orphan and the widow.

To be a voice for the voiceless. To snatch the defenseless out of the jaws of the wicked. And we do that by showing up. David stood up here and said, here's a sign. Here's a tract. Here's a microphone. Here's prayer. There's work for you to do. But you've got to show up. You've got to show up. If you don't show up, I'll tell you, it's the hardest part. Once you're there, it's not as hard as you think it will be. You'll start by thinking, oh, it's not that bad, and I'll go down there, and yeah, it'll be fellowship. I'll go down there second two Saturdays of the month, and we'll have church fellowship. It will not be like Williams Park. It will not be like that. It won't be a church picnic. Not if you're engaged in what's going on there. And so when I say that, you go, oh no, it is so awful and so terrible and so scary.

I couldn't imagine going down there and I say, by faith, if you will come, you will find out it's not as bad as you think it is, but it's worse than you think it is. Do you follow what I'm saying? When you think superficially about it, it's worse than that. It's not pleasant like that. But once you come, you'll realize there actually is faith being demonstrated in the gospel going forth. And you will find strength. And so you're not too immature or weak or unfit. To be down there. I once knew of a woman who wanted to get involved in this ministry. She was scared to death. She just couldn't imagine it. And for months, what she did was she drove down there while other people were protesting. And she drove down there and she sat in her car. And she prayed. But she couldn't open the door and get out. But she went. And then through going and seeing the work and seeing the reality, she gained strength. And she got out of her car one day.

And then she went out and stood. And she watched some more. She didn't say anything. She didn't do anything. She just was out of her car now. And she did that for a while. And eventually, you know, that woman found a voice. And she was able to call out to the women and to plead with them in her own words. And eventually she decided, you know, I'm going to figure out what day. Not the day that they do the abortions, but the day that the women come for consultations before they do abortions. And I'm going to come on that day because you have a better chance of talking to them then. So she started going down there then. All from a woman whose knees were too weak to get out of her car at first. And that's God's mercy to his people. That's not her strength. And so if you say, I'm too weak and I can't, I say, you're not weaker than her. She's a dear sister in Christ. And God gave her strength. So come. That is the application.

visit the orphans and the widows in their distress. Come to the place where they're at. Bring your body to where their body is. And then trust God to lead you and to give you the strength you need to do the work he has before you that day. And it may just be to stand there in solidarity with those who are speaking and counseling and holding signs. So do you know that there's work that goes before going to the mill? Do you know what the work is that goes before going down to the mill? One of the things that's really helpful is knowing when the mill's open, because they're not open every Saturday. So there's a group of people that David and I and Daniel are in contact with who have been trained or who've taken up the work of figuring out if the mill's open. Because if you just call and say, hey, are you guys going to be open Saturday? They won't answer your question. Because that cues them that you're going to come down and tell, you're going to come and oppose them, so they don't tell you. And so how do you know if they're going to be open or not?

They won't tell you. They don't post it on their website. You need women to call and to do the work of finding out if they're open. So if you're a young woman, say, what, of childbearing years, you don't have to be married. If that's the sort of work you'd be interested in doing, we can get you trained to do it. We have resources. A group called the Rahab Project will train you to do it. They'll train you in calling the ministry and finding out, or the abortion mill and seeing if they're open. That's good, helpful work. So that we know that they're open. That's good work. That's preparatory work that needs to be done. So if you're a young lady and you're interested in that, talk to David, talk to myself after the service and we can get you the information and get you pointed in the right direction and being trained for that work. That's not work for older women. And the reason is because the people who answer the phones listen. And if you sound like an older woman, one of the problems they have is that usually it's older women.

50, 60-year-old women calling, well, they don't sound like they're pregnant. Their voice doesn't sound like the voice of a young woman in distress. So we need young women to do it. What else do you need? That sign David had was one of the signs we have. We have another sign that says, we'll adopt your baby. And I know we can find people who will adopt their baby. When I prayed earlier for our deacons and the work that they're doing, part of the work that we need our deacons to do is to figure out what does that process look like? What does actually adopting a baby look like? What does it mean for the biological parents? What does it mean for the adoptive parents? What are the legal ramifications? What is the wisdom regarding that whole process? And our deacons are going to do the work of learning from other men who've gone before us in this work. But it's all for naught if we don't have families who are willing to adopt the babies. And so don't hear me putting any pressure and manipulation or twisting your arm to be willing to adopt. I'm simply asking you to pray and ask God, if you're married,

You have to be married if God's calling you to adopt a child. One of these children. If you can be a resource in that way. If you can help the work in that way because there is an actual need there. The church that put on the conference that David and I went to a couple of months ago have adopted four children from this ministry. And their church isn't huge. I don't think it's much bigger than our church. And they've been at it for a couple of years and they've adopted four children. We need families who are able to do that. and who aren't saying it blindly. So if you say, yeah, I think that is something, we've prayed about it, and that is something we're interested in, then come talk to David or I, and we'll help flesh out what that work looks like. We're ignorant to some extent still at this point about what that work looks like, but we look forward to the day to be able to be down there proclaiming the gospel and actually offer adoption to those children, the same kind of adoption that we received as God's children.

And so if you feel led or called or interested in that work, talk to David and I about it, and we'll keep you in the loop about that process. But there's no need for that if we're not at the mill, because there won't be babies to adopt. So come to the mill. If you're able on Friday, come. Come on Thursday night. Clear your schedule and come. David was polite in saying if you're able. I'm not saying if you're able. You don't have anything to do on Thursday night. Change your schedule and come. And if you can, And it's not too late and you haven't been negligent because you did know about this thing on that Friday. Come on Friday morning. I'm not going to be mad at you if you don't. But I do want you to hear me as your pastor to say you should make every effort to be there. If your kids are puking out their brains the night before, I completely understand. No one's mad at you. But if you just decide I don't want to be a part of it because it's not really my bag, you're being disobedient to God. Come. Bring your kids.

Stay for as long as you're able. Let's pray. Father in heaven, you have given us good work to do and your spirit to enable us to do it. We ask that you would strengthen us and convict us and increase our love for you and for our neighbor, for the defenseless and the voiceless. Give them a voice through us, we pray. We ask, Father, that you would go before us and prepare our way in this work. that you would help us, each one of us, to seek out the ways in which we are to be useful. Help us, Father, to maintain a clear conscience before you as we do this work. Help us not to do it because we're guilt-stricken or because we're manipulative or because we fear what man will think of us, but help us to do it, Father, only out of love for you and for those who are being led away to the slaughter. Help us, Father, to be...

to visit the orphan and the widow in their distress, to bear their burdens when no one else will. And Father, we pray that you would use this ministry to build your kingdom and to save the lives of the innocent. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.