Fatherless Day
Notes
Transcript
Fatherlessness
Fatherlessness
As I was thinking about today’s message, I started thinking about society today.
Sure, here in rural Tennessee, we aren’t exposed a lot of what is going on.
But just 1 hour north, in Nashville, we see some of the turmoil of society.
Head to Memphis, Knoxville, or Louisville and you see more.
Poverty, crime, unrest.
We see it in the news, from riots to the cancel culture,
We see people uneasy with the state of society today,
We hear about crimes and threats,
We hear about the plight of others,
And we want to know why.
Some blame it on racism,
And while there are racists in America today, systemically America is no longer a racist nation.
Not only have we gotten rid of racist and segregation laws,
We have put in place laws forbidding those practises,
Yet we still have unrest.
Some blame it on poverty,
We have spent trillions on the “war on poverty”,
The poor in America live better than 75% of the rest of the world.
The live in more square footage than the average middle-class European.
And their biggest health problem is obesity.
And we still have unrest.
Yet is seems the one statistically proven way to improve the life of millions,
The American people ignore.
In fact, they are running away from it.
Fatherlessness!
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Searching through Scripture, I find many places where God commands His people to take care of the fatherless.
“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.
He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
“You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge.
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,
‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
That the man of the earth may oppress no more.
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother.’
God promises to be a father to the fatherless
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.