Prayer for the Fatherless | Orange Sunday 2023

Service Notes

Show Adoption Announcement Video

Gift to Wyatt Mize / Bible

Have parents sign the Dedication Form

Ask Jeff Mize and Greg to pray with the family

Call to Worship

Today is Orange Sunday: A time we recognize the great influence for good when the ministry in our homes and the message of the Gospel collide.

As we gather today on Orange Sunday, our invite you to respond to God’s call to worship Him today

Lyrics to song Always Enough

His love is peace to the broken Faith for the widow Hope for the orphan Strength for the weak

His love is the anthem of nations Rings out through the ages And He is always enough

Bible Reading

Tonight we will have Wayne Naugle with us with Families4families. He will explain the Banner Church Model and how to is a way for everyone of us to live in obedience to care for the fatherless.

I want us to look Psalm 10, as we hear a prayer for the Fatherless.

Psalm starts with a lament, but not for the condition of the Psalmist but on behalf of the afflicted.

The Psalm gives way to praise and confidence in God’s vindication of the faithful.

In spite of all the disorder in the world dominated by the wicked, the LORD is still the king. He is still a father to the fatherless.

God’s care for the fatherless is a theme throughout Scripture

He’s showing himself from the very beginning in the law as a defender and a protector of the fatherless. Exodus 22:22 “22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.”

In the recounting of the law we see it in Deut 10:17-18 “17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: 18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.”

The picture is God, our God, shows His majesty and His might by caring for the fatherless.

Then in the prophets we see God tells His people that true worship leads to justice for the fatherless and care for the fatherless. Isaiah 1:16-17 “16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Then talking about worship in the context of the people of God. God Jeremiah 7:5-7 “5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.”

IT WAS NEVER GOD'S INTENT FOR CHILDREN TO BE WITHOUT A FAMILY

God is the Father to the fatherless. Psalm 68:5 “5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.”

Psalm 68:6 “6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”

It’s all over the place; the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms. God has chosen to care for the fatherless.

As I read the passage I want you to circle the word “fatherless” in vs. 14 & 18

14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

16 The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

In the book of Luke we have seen as God said, “I see you where you are, and I’m coming after you!”

Our involvement in foster care, adoption and family support services are uniquely difficult and yet beautiful echoes of that same declaration.

Pastoral Prayer

Help us not to be ignorant of, certainly intentionally turning a deaf ear to their cries.

God help us to hear what you hear and act as you would have us act, in a way that reflects your character.

We pray for the growth of foster care ministries and adoption care ministries in and through your church.

Help us understand the Gospel implications of today’s passage.

Sermon Introduction

Last week we were in NYC

Elly Canavan is one of the kids in our church family who grew in the hearts of a mother before we ever met them.

Elly Canavan kept wanting Carsen to play hide-and-seek. No matter where you were standing in the room, you could see her.

This is a favorite game for children or peek-a-boo

Psalm 10, speaks to the feeling of living in a world where you believe God is hidden.

Overview of the next 25 minutes

Today we will look at Psalm and God’s heart for the fatherless

We will then look at the implications to us personally, as families, and as a church

We will end in prayer for the unborn, the fatherless, and that we as a church will live out the Gospel in this community.

Before we end with singing - I will share three we as a church desire to provide support for the ministry of your family.

We have asked and answered the question today?

Do you feel the world is broken?

A proper conversation concerning the power of the Gospel includes the reality of sin

This week the largest church in our city took a stand to call darkness light.

We are called to be salt and light in our world. We are not called to help people find comfort in darkness.

The world wants to redefine a family. Because in the family is so much potential for the Gospel to be taught.

The faithful must live in a world that act as if there is no god.

The psalm begins with an immediate lamentation of God’s hiddenness.

There are times that peoples godless actions make us believe our God is hidden.

There are times that God seems far off. Psalm 10:1 “1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”

The immediate trouble is one thing, but God’s perceived failure to intervene is a greater problem to the psalmist.

Description of a world where God seems to hide Himself

Please, look down and follow along with me as we walk from v.2. to v.9

In their pride they pursue and persecute the poor and vulnerable - their desire is above that of those are given to care for v. 2

The wicked boast about their hearts desire and teach that covetous is not only acceptable but a right. v.3

God is not in their thoughts. In their pride they believe they are as God. v.4

The judgement of God is not in their mind it is far out of their sight. They puff at those who oppose them. They believe they answer to no one. v.5

They are committed to their selfish lifestyle and say they will not be moved. v.6

Their mouths are full of cursing, deceit, fraud, vanity, and mischief. v. 7

There is evil all throughout the village hidden behind the doors of many homes. v.8

In secret places they murder the innocent. v.8

They lie in wait looking to kidnap the vulnerable. v.9

We may know what all this look like some 3000 years ago, but we are keenly aware of what that looks like to day.

Last year 38,000 pregnancies in GA ended in abortion

Atlanta has been identified as one of the cities with the highest incidences of child sex trafficking (FBI, 2005; Urban Institute, 2014) Between 200 – 400 adolescent girls are sold online per month

The porn industry generates more income than the combined revenues of ABC, NBC, and CBS and more than the combined revenues of NFL, NBA, and MLB.

Why include those numbers? Sex trafficking is funded and propagated by pornography.

Do you feel the world is broken? We do.

Do you feel like God is hidden? He is not.

Why is the world as it is? So many live believing in their heart they will not answer to a holy and just God.

Psalm 10:13 “13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.”

contemn: treat or regard with contempt.

contempt: disregard for something that should be taken into account.

The world lives as if they are in the home of an absent father!

There is no one who cares and there is no one who with whom they will give an account for their actions.

This lie is very destructive to homes and children

Took boys to see the 9/11 Memorial. Remember being in Knoxville and being told it was a potential target. Why? In like manner, children are often the object of Satan’s attempts to hide the glory of God.

The home is God’s design to help give us a working definition of all the theological words that matter so much

We should see forgiveness demonstrated

We should feel the protection of unconditional love

We begin to understand grace and mercy

It is in the home that we should learn what it means to be loved and accepted

When we read in Ephesians 1:6 “6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” We should be able to think “like at home but on a much grander and eternal scale”

Transitional Statement: We live in a world who says there is no God. As the wicked celebrate this lie, children suffer as a result.

We have a Father who hears

The psalmist affirms that the LORD dwells among his people and does hear and does answer their cries.

Our God is not just the God who speaks — remarkable as that is — but also the God who listens.

When James calls us to be “swift to hear” (James 1:19), he calls us to be like our heavenly Father.

We have a Father “that hearest prayer” (Psalm 65:2), who attends to our voice (Psalm 66:19).

Which means when you cry out, when you feel alone. You are being heard.

We should pray to our Father who hears

We move from a lamentation to a prayer for God to come to the aid of his people.

Psalm 10:12 “12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.”

The appeal for God to lift his hand is a call for divine intervention

We should always based our appeal based upon God’s glory. Psalm 10:13 “13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.”

When God rescues his people, he will also rescue his reputation.

Our Lord is not hiding

We started off with the question. Psalm 10:1 “1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”

Our God hears. Psalm 10:17 “17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:”

Our God sees. Psalm 10:14 “14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.”

We have a God who see and hears us in our pain

One of the first names of God recorded in the Bible is declared by Hagar, Abram’s servant, after she desperately fled to the desert (while pregnant, no less) to escape harsh treatment by her mistress Sarai.

Genesis 16:13 “13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?”

El Roi - the God who sees me

It’s a profound statement that the God of the universe sees us individually, in our hurt, in our pain. He sees their need.

We have a God who sees and hears those in need.

This name would be continually affirmed through the Old Testament.

God saw the heartache of Leah (Genesis 29:31–32).

He saw the injustice done to Jacob (Genesis 31:42).

He saw the suffering, enslavement, groaning, and misery of the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 2:23–24, 3:7–9).

Even more than just seeing, Jesus himself bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Isaiah 53:4 “4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”

And in the end, God himself will wipe away every tear from his children’s eyes (Revelation 21:4).

But until then, he promises to draw near to the brokenhearted and save the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 “18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

Jesus will return and set all things in order.

They prayed for the day that all evil would be vanished. Psalm 10:15 “15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.”

If God seeks it out and destroys it, then it will no longer be found.

This may not seem like an appropriate prayer for New Testament believers; nevertheless, if believers pray for the LORD to come quickly, they are calling for him to come and judge the world and remove wickedness entirely.

There will be justice.

There will be redemption.

A day is coming when Jesus will step into this story. All evil will end. Healing will be found.

Psalm 10:18 “18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.”

Until that day he calls you and I to walk into other peoples story to bring comfort and healing.

Justice will reign, and second, deliverance will come

Transitional Statement: On behalf of all the fatherless who feel abandoned. Who feel like God is hidden. I pray “surely Lord come quickly.” I will also pray that God will show me how I am to respond to the needs around me, that He is able to meet through me.

Implications of this Psalm

Psalm 10 leaves us like the whole Old Testament leaves us, looking forward; leaves us longing for more, looking forward to the day, to the point, to the time when justice will reign and when deliverance will come.

First Implication is Personal

As we look at Psalm 10 we see a broken world, but we should also see our own brokenness. We should see the Gospel!

We are wicked

Desire for selfish gain.

The description of v.1-10 is our description.

The adulterer begins with a desire for selfish gain

The liar begins with the desire for selfish gain.

Our sin is the result of acting upon a selfish gain that gives no thought to God’s glory or the good of others.

It is a desire for selfish gain that leads us to ignore the one true God

It is our attempt to live in this world believing there is no God. We are fatherless.

This is why we desire others to affirm our sin. It is not just so they participate with us but so they can help build in confidence in the lie that God is hidden or does not care.

We are also weak

Have you ever felt trampled upon by someone else’s sin? Hurt by someone else’s sin?

We walk through life with broken relationships and unmet needs, wrestling with loneliness or hurt or pain.

We are wicked; we are weak, and the cross is the only solution

We are wicked; we are weak, and the cross is the only solution to our crisis, because at the cross we discover that God judges our sins.

At the cross, God takes the penalty due your sin and my sin and puts it on His Son.

God judges our sins, and at the same time, He makes us His sons.

We, helpless in our sin, fatherless, slaves to sin, and God on high reaches down and, instead of leaving us as sinners in rebellion, worthy of eternal damnation, He raises us up to be His children, in whom He delights. That’s what happens at the cross.

Transition: An understanding of the Gospel tells us that we no longer believe God is hidden. We no longer desire to believe He is far away. We know he sees us in our sin, but He has forgiven us and made us his sons.

Next implication is for us as families.

Christian homes are simply homes that live acknowledging we have a God who sees us; who has forgiven us; who have made us His sons and daughters.

This is where the yellow + red = orange

When we bring the Gospel into our homes and don’t just leave it as a message taught to us at church.

When we help our kids know God is not hidden.

When they see our love and care for them as expression of His love and care for them.

We should allow this wonder and knowledge to overflow into the care of others

Deut 24:19-21 “19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. 20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.”

Call for piano player

Next time you sit with your family.

Would you pray to God to show you what you are to do with abundance He has placed in your life.?

Would you ask God if He hasn’t provided more for you than your family needs because their are people outside your table He wants to respond to their cry?

Write this down and pray it with your family. Micah 6:8 “8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

We do not hear the cries of the afflicted, but can hear from the God who does

I won’t ask you to seat here today and try to listen to those who are afflicted by the belief that God is hidden from them. BUT I WILL ASK YOU TODAY TO TAKE TIME AND LISTEN AS THE GOD WHO HEARS EVERY PRAYER FOR HELP SPEAKS TO YOU.

Time of response

Believer

Fellow believer would you listen to the God who hears the cry of he afflicted and ask Him how you can show this world He is not hidden.

May God use you life to walk into the room and turn on the lights for people who believe God is hidden.

Some of you may be fatherless today

God sees you.

He knows your story.

He knows your pain and does not turn from you.

He sees your sin and knows that His son took them to the cross.

There is no reason to continue living as if He is hidden from you.

Now is a time for a response. [Heads bowed]

Altars are open.

I will return to pray for you, our response to God’s Word, and for the fatherless.

Before we end with singing today.

Last Implication is for us as a church

This is the part of the sermon that I have wanted to run to. This is where our celebration begins. Let me remind you of where the concept of Orange Sunday comes from. Next week after the service we will have our annual business meeting. But right now I would like to have a business meeting in regards to our corporate response to God’s calling upon us to care for the fatherless.

Foster Care, orphan care, family ministry, Banner Ministry ( you will hear about tonight). These are not trending programs of the church. They are implications of the gospel in our lives.

It’s the mark of Christians to care for orphans, because we were orphans. It’s automatic; it’s natural. James 1:27 “27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

We should think and speak about foster care and family ministry different than our culture.

In light of the cross, we must recognize that we are not rescuers.

Verse does not say “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to rescue the fatherless…

Christ is the rescuer, and He has done it at the cross, and that changes everything.

When we realize that, then it makes sense for those who were once orphans and who are now children of the King it makes sense for every single child of the King to now care for orphans all around them

Here is what we have learned through watching those around care for the fatherless

It is hard

It is filled with unexpected challenges

It is messy

It is wonderful

As a church we must be committed to two areas.

By God’s grace, we will provide the best care possible for the children and birth parents that our church families are serving

We must also provide the needed support and care for families who are creating Orange Homes.

Here is what I propose for us today

Tonight we hear Wayne Naugel explain the Banner Model for caring for the families who will care for children. [Slide]

We recommit to our church covenant [Slide]

In our homes: We also engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate our children in the Christian faith; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances;

In relation to one another: We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech;

We add a staff member to help us better care for one another, support our various ministries, and reach more people for Christ. [Slide]

We provide the best and safest environment for children to find and follow Jesus.

We have the perfect building, but we are in it.

We need to make room [Slide]

When? In God’s timing.

Ask that you pray and continue to faithfully give so we can have this opportunity.

Men I invite you to join me in Men of Valor Projects this year. [Slide]

First project is a BBQ dinner and Bible study with the boys of the Baldridge Boys home

We will teach them the meaning of the word Valor; which is courage on behalf of others

Then as a group we will pray God opens the next door for us to encourage some kids who have come from hard places