Stand Up!
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
November 18, 2007…first sermon I ever preached here (in view of a call to become pastor here). My text was…!
Today, we consider the application of this verse in a very heartbreaking and aggravating focus...
33% of women & 25% of men have experienced this at some point in their lives.
60% of children who experience this never tell anyone.
75% of women & 90% of children knew the person who…sexually abused them.
Over a 20 year stretch (1998-2018), over 380 SBC church leaders and volunteer leaders have been credibly accused and/or convicted of sexually abusing at least 770 victims (survivors) [Houston Chronicle reporting].
Sadly, the reporting on instances of sexual abuse in SBC churches is not slowing down. Just last night I was involved in a conversation on yet another recent report of sexual abuse at a church in another state.
From our homes to our church homes, the devastating impact of sexual abuse surrounds us.
For these reasons, as we prayed for them earlier, we have selected a team to help encourage and challenge us to be a church that Cares Well for survivors of predatory abuse. Today, I simply want to set before us that along with the shocking statistics and reporting of the aftermath of abuse in the lives of survivors, we have a biblical…a Gospel…mandate to do everything we can to be people…and a church…which cares well in abuse situations, seeking both to prevent abuse from ever happening and to minister to people who are abuse survivors…whether that be years ago, or days ago.
A Right REQUIREMENT. ()
“Require” — desire, design for someone to do;
“Justly” — ‘justice;’ Heb: mishpat—uphold what is right according to the will of God; the opposite of social injustice, et al.; The will/requirement/ character of God is found in His word!
Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the city gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Amos
This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 22
A Wise RESPONSE. ()
Response= Rescue…Save (v. 11)
UN-Wise temptations:
Do Nothing (v. 10) = weakness! uselessness!
Say, ‘we didn’t know about this’ (v. 12) = untenable; unacceptable…especially in our age of immediate information. Also, we cannot…we dare not stick our head in the sand, or our fingers in our ears saying, ‘La, la, la, la. I can’t hear you.’…for that will be how utterly stupid we will look and how justly we will deserve the criticism which will come our way.
Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.
CONCL— As I have been reading on this issue, discussing it among friends, and observing the way we, as Southern Baptists as a whole are taking on this issue, I’ve been struck with a question: Why have we found it so easy to stand up for the unborn, but struggle with whether to or have the willingness to do the hard work to stand up for the survivors of sexual abuse? You say, “No way!” BUT, the truth of the matter is that WE seem to be a having a harder time with this issue (alongside one or two others much like it)—labeling it as a distraction from the Gospel—than we do with standing up for the unborn. Church family, this cannot…and will not…ever be said of us!
The word of God describes for us the totality of a God-honoring religious life...
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
prov 24.10-12
If you do nothing in a difficult time, your strength is limited. Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,” won’t he who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t he who protects your life know? Won’t he repay a person according to his work?