Love For The Broken

Good Morning.

You know, it is tempting when ending a study like this to try and go back and recap all the main points that you have covered.

The hope there is that if anyone missed anything, that in that last moment they would get caught up and learn what the Lord had for them.

In reality though, this isn’t feasible or necessarily kind to make all of you sit through a years worth of teaching in one day.

But with that being said, it is good for us to take one last look at the overarching theme that God has given us for this study.

So, today we will do that, we will take all that we have learned and boil it down into a few thoughts that will hopefully guide us throughout our lives.

We will read all of the last of this passage in a moment, but I want to read just verse 13, which is the thesis of this book.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 CSB

13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

If you will recall, we learned that fearing God means to live in right relationship with God.

We call it abiding which simply means to hear God, do what He says, see His work, and repeat.

We talk about this regularly in order to keep our focus on seeking God rather than allowing others or culture to determine how we live.

We want God to be the one that is directing our lives.

God created us to be in a relationship with Him.

Know God Personally

I was sharing with Russ last week after life group, that my desire for myself and for the church is that we would read, understand, and then obey God’s word.

That wording and desire came through one of my daily readings last week from Nehemiah.

I didn’t tell him where it was from, because I couldn’t remember exactly, but it was Nehemiah 8:8

Nehemiah 8:8 CSB

8 They read out of the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read.

Later in the week Russ sent me Ezra 7:10.

Ezra 7:10 CSB

10 Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

This passage directly points to the Nehemiah passage.

To which I responded, okay God, You have my attention.

If you think about it, that is the point of this time that we spend together.

I’m not insinuating that you aren’t learning, understanding, or obeying, I just want to remind you and remind myself that this is the point.

We don’t gather just to learn facts about the Bible.

The purpose of this study wasn’t to breakdown the Hebrew language and culture to understand the history and origin of this book.

Those things are good, but it was not God’s purpose of our time here on Sunday mornings.

His purpose for us is to know Him in a deeper way and to let that knowledge and relationship bring us into the depths of God’s goodness.

We also discussed last week, that as we dive deep with God, others are drawn to Him and experience Him through us first.

Our personal knowledge of the person and character of God, when shared, is a revelation for those that don’t have that knowledge.

It is revolutionary for them to know the love of God in a church culture that has for so long only taught the rules instead of relationship.

As you know, we began this study with the last passage and we are going to read it again today to remind us of all that God has spoken.

Rather than just repeating that first message, I want to share my heart with you today in hopes that Christ will grab your attention this morning like He has had mine this week.

Ecclesiastes 12:8–14 CSB

8 “Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile.” 9 In addition to the Teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge; he weighed, explored, and arranged many proverbs. 10 The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately. 11 The sayings of the wise are like cattle prods, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings are given by one Shepherd. 12 But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. 13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

The three main points I made on our fist pass across this passage were that our lives are temporary, that we are love and obey God, and lastly, that we need to see the end in order to live in the present.

I spent a lot of time talking about how we are so easily distracted by the world.

My point was that we often miss out on what God is doing in the world around us and in our own lives because we are distracted.

My thoughts this week have been in the area of how are we living in light of what we now know?

What has this study changed about how you live?

Life is temporary and we have experienced that first hand in the world and in scripture.

Life is precious and therefore we cannot afford to waste even a sliver of it.

In order to help us get this message deep into us, let’s use a very specific example of what it means to value life.

As you know there was a vote on an amendment with the following wording, “to protect human life, a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution.”

It is not my intent to discuss the amendment, but to ask you to consider the following questions as they relate to the value of life.

If you voted yes, affirming your pro-life stance, does God think your job is done now?

If you are pro-life, are you pro-life for the whole of it or just the beginning?

What is the role of the church in the lives of the women that, for a multitude of complex reasons, desire to abort?

How has your personal relationship with God shaped your view of human life?

We have had a lot of conversations over the years about how many of us were fed up with the church because they preached one message and live another.

If we protest at abortion clinics, march for life, or vote against abortion and don’t step up to take care of those mothers and children, we are no better than the ones that we were so fed up with.

Life is precious and every baby, child, and adult are image bearers of God.

As professing followers of Christ, we should value life the way that Christ did by being willing to give up our life for the sake of others.

If the supreme court were to overturn Roe vs. Wade and access to abortions were no longer available, would you be as willing to adopt as you were to vote?

There are already more foster children in this state than we have foster homes and there is a very real possibility that there is about to be even more need than ever before.

God has some real serious feelings about widows, orphans, and those in need.

We need to hear and see this, because if we are going to be God’s love in a broken world, we need to FEEL what he feels.

Also, as we read these passages, listen to what A.W. Tozer says about the role of our feelings in relation to living in obedience.

This is in today’s devotional.

A state of emotion always comes between the knowledge and the act. A feeling of pity would never arise in the human breast unless aroused by a mental picture of others' distress, and without the emotional bump to set off the will there would be no act of mercy. That is the way we are constituted. Whether the emotion aroused by a mental picture be pity, love, fear, desire, grief, there can be no act of the will without it.

So how does God feel and how should we feel about widows and orphans?

Exodus 22:22–24 CSB

22 “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.

I’m not here to beat a dead horse, we have talked about this many times before, but I want to show you that while many consider this amendment a victory for the church, it is much more than that.

It is time for the church live out what they say the believe about life.

We are commanded to care for the fatherless.

God doesn’t tell us to care for them if we have time or if we feel like it.

Deuteronomy 14:28–29 CSB

28 “At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and store it within your city gates. 29 Then the Levite, who has no portion or inheritance among you, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow within your city gates may come, eat, and be satisfied. And the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

God says that He will care for the orphans, but how does he do that?

Who, specifically, is God using?

He’s using his people and in case you missed it, that is us!!!

Psalm 10:14 CSB

14 But you yourself have seen trouble and grief, observing it in order to take the matter into your hands. The helpless one entrusts himself to you; you are a helper of the fatherless.

We have seen the brokenness of this world.

We are all aware that there are children that are waiting for their forever home.

There is no greater way to be God’s love in a broken world than to follow His command for all of his people to care for orphans.

A friend of mine, Melissa Smith, shared these words that her husband, Brian, wrote in 2016 on the way to get one of their adopted children, Becket.

“Why do we adopt? Read the Word. All throughout scripture we see commandments to care for the orphan, meet them in their affliction, defend the fatherless. God has concern for the orphan, and from the days of Moses on to the teachings of the apostles, He commands His people to meet the needs of the orphan. There is no mention of a calling to do so. Just commandments. Like feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the poor. Defend the fatherless, care for the widow.”

I love that he points out that there is not a “calling” to orphan care, but a command.

If we have learned anything at all this year, it is that life is hard and unfair.

As difficult as it has been for you personally, can you imagine doing it without a family to support you?

There are children in this state that are waiting and have had to do 2020 without a mommy and daddy to lean on, to love them, to tell them that it will be okay.

I know, more than most, all the things that go through your mind when you think about adopting a child.

It is going to be hard and require sacrifice, but isn’t that the very thing that Jesus role modeled for us?

Have you ever considered how much harder the orphans lives are with no parents, than yours could ever be by adopting them?

The idea that there are children out there with no one to love and care for them should break all of our hearts and if it doesn’t, you need to spend some serious time at the feet of Jesus.

If this doesn’t break your heart, then I would say you don’t know the heart of God.

He is clear that it breaks His.

Now, I’ll admit, I don’t want to give you an easy out, but for the sake of not making anyone feel manipulated, I need to say that there are many ways that you can follow this command.

We have been through those avenues before, but if you are in need of further guidance, come see myself, Bethany, the Westbrooks, or the Meeks, we can help you figure that out.

We have used orphan care as the example today, but the same is true for all that God has spoken for us, His people, to do.

We cannot say that we desire to know God personally if we are not obeying and living the way He has spoken for us to live.

Do what God has commanded.

God is not mysterious in how He wants us to live.

He has given us clear direction on how we are to love Him and how we are to love our neighbors.

If we are honest, loving others, the way God does, is difficult.

Let’s talk about hard stuff.

I’ve been watching a show called the The Long Way Up.

It is the third series of Ewan McGregor (Young Obewan) and Charley Boorman.

During one of the more recent episodes Ewan shares the story from their first trip, The Long way Around

The were in a very remote part of Mongolia and terrain was extremely hard, and he and Charley wanted to turn back.

As the were contemplating what they could do to escape the harsh conditions they found themselves in, they looked at the map and realized that if they turned north for a day, they would be back in Russia and could avoid this difficult route.

They called their producer to discuss their plan and his producer told him to “remember why you are doing this.”

The whole point was to see the world.

The show was not called “the easy way round.”

It is called “The Long Way Round.”

That was the encouragement that Ewan and Charley needed and they continued.

After reaching the final destination, they visited an orphanage and meet a two year old that had been found wandering the streets.

This toddler was found two days before their arrival.

Had they altered their course in any way and arrived early, they would have never seen this little girl, Jam-ma.

Ewan realized this and immediately fell in love with her.

It took two years, but his family was able to adopt Jam-ma.

During the interview, through tears, he said, “If I had turned back because it was hard, I would have missed my daughter.”

When we avoid parts of life and God’s commands because those things are hard, we are missing knowing God in the specific way He is trying to reveal Himself.

I don’t know if you have realized it yet or not, but anytime God ask us to do something, it is going to be difficult.

Do you know why?

It is difficult because we were not intended to do it on our own.

The whole point is to learn to walk with God in the hard things so that we can know Him.

The problem that many of have had with church in the past is that no one was willing to do the hard stuff, aka, follow God.

The church felt dead because no one was willing to obey God.

The author of Ecclesiastes wrote all of this down so that we could see from his life and example that this world is difficult.

His conclusion is that we must live in right relationship with God AND do what He says.

We cannot live in right relationship with God and not do what He says.

Do you remember what he said in verse fourteen?

Ecclesiastes 12:14 CSB

14 For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

We know that we live under grace because of Jesus, but I think that we forget that just because God is gracious doesn’t mean that He is blind.

God’s grace doesn’t hide from Him from our disobedience, nor is it a free pass to ignore His commands.

If we are ignoring God’s most basic commands, we cannot expect to know Him.

To be clear, we are forgiven, but scripture also tells us that we will stand before God and give an account for our lives.

Psalm 90:8 CSB

8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

1 Corinthians 4:1–5 CSB

1 A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God. 2 In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful. 3 It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself. 4 For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

Our lives are the testimony to a broken world of the goodness of God.

If we are living with our comfort and happiness in mind, we are not showing the goodness of God, rather, we are showing the selfishness of our hearts.

If we use the same example of adoption, the world knows that orphans should be taken care of.

That is why there is a state agency that does it’s best to take care of them.

If the church was following God’s command there would put that agency out of business.

I’ve been told that there is large turn over of state social workers because of the incredible demand put on those workers.

Their job is find loving homes for those children and there aren’t enough.

If the church was caring for those children, we would not only make their jobs easier, but we would also bring light into the darkness that is foster care.

The purpose of all of this is so that we can know God and make Him known.

God intended for every person to know Him.

In the beginning, God created us with one goal in mind.

We were created to live with God, walking together in the garden, enjoying His perfect creation.

Sin and disobedience came through Adam and Eve and we were separated from God and His perfection.

God has been working ever since to bring His people back to Himself.

He gave us the law to show that we needed Him and then He gave his son, Jesus, to fulfill that law.

Jesus lived a perfect life, never sinning, and sacrificed His own life to repair the brokenness of the world.

Jesus did that for you and He did it for me.

If you are here today and you have never accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation, I’d like to invite you to speak with me after we finish today.

We can talk more in depth about how much God loves you and desires to for you to know Him personally.

If you are here today and you have recieved that gift of salvation, it is imperative that you share that gift.

God came and gave himself so that this broken world could know Him and experience His love.

The world discovers God’s love when we share who we know God to be and live in the way He has intended for His people to live.

I have said a lot today about living in obedience, but I want to leave you with this final thought today.

If we speak of God’s goodness, quote His words, put scripture on our social media, and then live only for ourselves, we are part of the brokenness.

God’s desire is that we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

That means that we are the same people that we say that we are.

That means that we are living for God and not for ourselves.

But we need help, we can’t do that for ourselves.

Ecclesiastes 12:11 CSB

11 The sayings of the wise are like cattle prods, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings are given by one Shepherd.

Life is hard, and we sometimes need God to use a cattle prods to move us.

Remember that cattle prods are used to move cattle into a place that they don’t want to be, a place that is scary, so that they can be taken care of.

When working cattle, the cattleman is treating them so that they are healthy and can grow to their full potential.

Even though the process is scary, the cattle will live better lives as a result of going through the difficult.

The same is true for us.

This study has been our cattle prod.

God has used this study and this year to show us who we are supposed to be.

We are to be a group of men, women, and children who forsake all to make Christ known.

Living for God is not in our fleshly nature.

It is the very opposite of what our flesh desires.

Yet, it is in denying our flesh, and going into the scariness of the unknown that we grow.

It is healthy for us to do that.

God loves His people and he wants all 7.8 billion of them to know that.

God reveals Himself through those that know Him.

We are a living, breathing testimony of God’s goodness and have experienced His love.

We are about to enter the season of Advent and there is no better time to share the reason that we celebrate.

It is a celebration of God fulfilling His promise to restore the relationship that was broken by sin.

Jesus is born into this broken world to show us who God is and how much He loves this world.

Let’s bring hope, love, and joy into this world by knowing God and doing what He says.