Sermon Transcript
Proverbs 31, verses 8 to 9. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. For the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the poor and needy.
We are in our second week of looking at at 6 different conversations, um, that our friends, neighbors, colleagues often have in which we can enter into and show that Jesus is a better story. Um, our primary goal during these 6 weeks is to help Christians, um, be able to naturally share our faith in the context of conversations that we are already having. So the 6 conversations are power— we talked about that last week— the vulnerable, purpose, justice, friendship, and self-worth. And we may not have thought about it before, but each one of those conversations is actually an opportunity to point to how beautiful and amazing Jesus is. That’s our primary goal, uh, show that Jesus is better, not in an arrogant or argumentative way, but in a look at how amazing he is kind of way.
Um, our second goal is to deepen our own faith. So whether we are Christians or just kind of marginal Christians or not Christians at all, uh, we hope that by showing Jesus is a better story, that our own faith will deepen, or maybe even our faith will begin again for the first time. Um, where needed, I hope, I’m praying, uh, these weeks will correct us. Like last week, we were talking about power. Did anybody realize that they themselves are using power in a way that is contrary to how Jesus uses power?
Anyone realize that they support leaders who use power in a way that predicts Jesus’ use of power. Anybody realize that? Um, of course, right? Of course you did. Me too.
Um, that’s what always happens when we see Jesus for who he is. Uh, we are convicted, but we are comforted all at the same time. Like, we’re awestruck by him, and our faith deepens, and we are changed. So that’s our secondary goal. First goal, share Christ.
Second goal, deepen or begin our own faith. That’s what we’re doing every week for these 6 weeks. This week we’re looking at conversations we already have regarding the vulnerable, which happens all the time, especially right now. Taking care of marginalized groups, that is a hot topic right now. So before we get to anything else, let’s define what we mean by by a vulnerable group.
And we’ll build on last week. We’ll say a vulnerable group is one without power, a group that cannot protect itself, meaning if it is going to be protected, it will need outside help. That’s what we mean by vulnerable. We’ll divide our message into 3 sections. First, the Bible’s position on the vulnerable.
Second, Second, 2 contemporary vulnerable groups. And lastly, how we can share Christ when someone is talking about a vulnerable group. So, the Bible’s position, 2 contemporary examples, and then how to share Christ. So, first, the Bible’s position on the vulnerable. Speak for, defend, and help them.
Speak for, defend, and help them. Them. Our verses today, Proverbs 31:8-9, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak for them. Speak up and judge fairly.
Defend the rights of the poor and needy. Scripture is very consistent on this point, like from COVID to cover. It’s really comprehensive too. There’s things that we may not even think of, like don’t charge too much interest on a loan, Right? Someone’s in a bind and they need to borrow money, and if you’re the lender, don’t take advantage of them.
Because if somebody’s desperate, let’s face it, you could charge them 100% on the loan, right? They are vulnerable. You could easily prey on them. Don’t do that. Another example, God says take care of the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.
Deuteronomy 27:19, among other places. He says that a lot. And that orphan and widow might be intuitive intuitive to us. But foreigner? We need to take care of the foreigner?
Yeah, like someone’s new in town, it would be easy to take advantage of that person because they don’t know anything, they don’t know anyone, they don’t know how our system works, and you could make a tidy profit off of them. And God says, don’t do that. Instead, lift them, get them integrated, get them up to speed, help them. Now with the orphan and the probably very few of us would go out of our way to hurt orphans or widows, right? But we could easily— lots of us could easily say, they aren’t my problem.
I mean, it’s tragic they lost the provider for their family, right? Especially in biblical times, if dad wasn’t around, it was very difficult to make it in society. So I really feel for you. Too bad. But you know, I have my own family to worry about.
About. I can’t help you. God says don’t do that. God says make them your problem. Use your resources to piece their lives back together.
They are vulnerable. They can’t insulate themselves from the ups and downs in life. They can’t protect themselves from exploitation. People will prey on the fact that they are desperate. You have to step in for them.
You have to defend them. It’s not enough that we would refrain from taking advantage of them ourselves. We have to proactively defend them. Bible is crystal clear on God’s commands regarding the vulnerable. It’s like period, no debate.
So please don’t try to wiggle out of that. Please don’t say something like, God helps those who help themselves. That’s not in the Bible. Or, everyone needs to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. That’s not in the Bible either.
Or, the best way to help them is by letting them climb out of the hole themselves. They need to learn. It’s not in the Bible, right? Those— that’s contrary to God’s commands. In other words, we are breaking God’s commands.
If we look at the vulnerable and say, it’s up to you to get yourself out of there. Right? We are doing something wrong then. Okay, that’s the Bible’s position on the vulnerable. Second, 2 contemporary vulnerable groups: expecting mothers and their babies.
Expecting mothers and their babies. Both are vulnerable. Both have difficulty insulating themselves from the ups and downs of life. And obviously these are not the only 2 vulnerable groups in our society. There are many, right?
Refugees, English as a second language, people who are differently abled, the poor, the elderly, those unfamiliar with new technology, on and on and on and on and on. Many vulnerable groups. And hopefully you are in a life group in our church, and if you are, that means this morning already you have thought about numerous vulnerable groups and discussed our obligations to them. If you aren’t in a life group, you should still get in one, uh, for the rest of this series. At least you have 4 weeks left, and you’ll get way more out of our remaining weeks if you process this with others.
So get in a group if you aren’t. But even if you aren’t in a group, I think you can take the principles from these 2 contemporary examples and apply them to how we must care for any vulnerable group. So, expectant mothers and their babies. Um, no surprise to anyone here, I’m sure. Nobody’s gonna be like, oh, I never noticed that before.
But here’s an observation for those who are right-leaning politically, there’s a tendency to speak for and defend the baby in the womb, which is great, but then to some extent neglect caring for the expectant mother. And for those who are left-leaning politically, there is a tendency to speak for and defend the expectant mother, which is great, but to some extent neglect caring for the baby in the womb. What seems to be rare, although it’s certainly not unheard of, and I could list a whole bunch of people who don’t fall into this, but what seems to be rare are people who stand up for, petition for, the needs for both the mother and the baby. But that would be the biblical position. Position to speak for both, to defend both, to use our resources to help both.
We as Christ followers should not overemphasize the child to the detriment of the mother, and we shouldn’t overemphasize the mother to the detriment, or death to put it bluntly, of the child. We shouldn’t do either of those. But for some reason, Christians tend to look at expectant mothers and their babies politically instead of biblically. And therefore, even many Christians tend to overemphasize one or the other. So in preparation for this message, I was reading hundreds of social media posts of women who shared when and why they terminated their pregnancies.
Pregnancies. And it’s heartbreaking. I mean, it’s heartbreaking for the baby, of course, like we’ll get there in a minute, but it’s heartbreaking for the mother too. Their stories fell into several different categories, but one overarching theme was, I was scared and alone. I wasn’t prepared financially.
I didn’t know how I could both work and support a child. We already had 3 to 4 kids and we could not afford another Or even surprisingly, but I think some industries can still get away with this, some women said, if work found out I was pregnant, they would have terminated me. And where would that have left me and the baby? Or, if my parents found out, they would have disowned me. For others, it was the parents who were like pressuring the girl into terminating the pregnancy because of the social stigma for the family.
So summary, one major theme, and it wasn’t the only theme of course, but one major theme was women who felt like they didn’t have options, who felt cornered, like there was no way out. They did not have the ability to compensate for their new set of circumstances. That’s a vulnerable group. Everywhere they turned seemed to be a closed door. Society wasn’t going to give them a break.
I mean, of course, right? You still need to work, you still need to produce just like everybody else. That’s what society would tell For some of them, their families weren’t gonna give them a break. Like, you got yourself into this mess, it’s up to you to get yourself out of it. For many of them, their religion scolded them or condemned them.
So they felt like they had nowhere to turn, right? Trapped. That’s a vulnerable group. That’s a group without the power to insulate themselves. And for some of us this morning, it’s easy to look at a mother in that position and say, Well, I don’t know what she’s gonna do with it, but she can’t terminate the baby.
Of course, if the baby’s terminated, that’s obviously not protecting the baby, and we’ll get to the baby in a minute. But if we tell the mother, I don’t know what you’re gonna do with it, but you have to have it— if that’s what we say, she feels even more trapped, like she’s been silenced, like her voice is irrelevant. What she hears, whether you are saying it or not, is that she doesn’t matter at all. She’s supposed to shut up, do what you want, and go away.
That’s not helping the vulnerable. That’s not speaking for or defending the vulnerable. That’s silencing the vulnerable. That’s telling the vulnerable, you deal with it, not my problem. Problem, and that is not biblical.
Some of us would still want to push back and say something like, well, she’s only in that position because of her poor decisions. If she hadn’t done what she did, she wouldn’t need to worry about it. And we only need to help people who are victims of circumstances instead of causes of circumstances. Really? Really?
That’s what you want to say as a redeemed sinner yourself, even though you yourself are completely unworthy of Jesus’ love and acceptance, yet you were loved and received anyway. You would want to tell someone else, we only help innocent parties. Come on, just go read the Gospels and see who Jesus helped. See if he ever told a sinner in trouble. You find your own way out of this.
He never said that.
We need to help defend, speak for the mom. So I had an idea this week which I’m still following up on, so stay tuned. Um, for, for decades, Bridges has partnered with Real Options Pregnancy Clinic. We just had our Walk for Life yesterday, which is fantastic. Real Options shows the mom she has real options.
She’s not trapped. It’s awesome what they do. And they even often give moms like cribs and bouncers and high chairs and all kind of stuff to help with like the initial cost of the new baby. But here’s my idea. Hopefully we can get this set up.
I’ve checked, I’ve asked, so it’s still like in process. Could we do something like, Uh, adopt a mom. Like, one, provide the initial stuff she needs, but 2, if, if needed, provide like the ongoing stuff she needs, like child care if she’s working, if that’s a need, right? Provide maybe like ongoing coaching for parenting. Be like really involved.
Be like an extended family that she doesn’t have. Whatever we can do to say you are not alone. Alone. We know this is hard. We are here.
Something like that. And you may have a better idea. If you do, I want to hear it. We’ll try to do it. But something like that is carrying forward, defending, speaking for a mom who is in need.
Okay, that’s the mom. Let’s talk about the baby. For those who naturally really care about the mom, there can be a tendency to lose track of the baby. But the fact that the baby is a person in his or her own right is simply undeniable scientifically, philosophically, spiritually. Scientifically, I was blown away when our first son was born, probably like many of you were when you had kids.
But right when he was born, like 2 minutes later, they tested his blood and it was different than Beth’s. Like, our kid had a different blood type than Beth. And I asked the delivery nurse, you know, I was sleep deprived, obviously, but I was like, I have a question. Because remember, I ask a lot of questions. I told you that last week.
I said, I guess I didn’t pay attention that day in biology, but a baby can have a different blood type than the mom? Like, that can happen? And she said, yes. She said, your son made his own blood in the womb. Mom only gives, like, food nourishment through the umbilical cord.
She doesn’t give the kid any of her blood.
Blown away. I didn’t know that. I’m sure all of you do, but that was incredible to me. Like, here’s what that means, though. So, if the kid has different blood than the mother, that means the kid’s body is not the mother’s body.
Different blood means different body. The idea of my body, my choice, that’s an okay idea. I think there are some exceptions, okay? We could think of examples of if you do something to your body, it affects more than just you, right? But in general, my My body, my choice, good idea.
But it definitely does not apply here because the kid’s body is really objectively a different body and none of us can make a choice about somebody else’s body. That’s a violation. We can’t infringe on others. So scientifically, definitively, right, the baby is a separate person from the mother. No way that different blood could mean same person.
Just no way scientifically. Philosophically, here’s a question: what makes a person a person? Do you ever think about this? What makes a person a person? Is personhood innate, like you always had it, you always will have it, no one can take away your personhood?
Is that how it works? Or does someone else have the power to determine whether you are a person or not? Like, can the government, for instance, decide that some humans are only 3/5 of a person and other humans are whole persons? Does the government have that power? Does anybody have that power to decide whether somebody else is a person?
Or Or are we just all persons and no one has a right to mess with our personhood? Which is it? Of course, obviously, no one wants somebody to decide if they are a person or 3/5 of a person or not persons. Of course, no one should have that type of power over somebody else’s sovereignty. But that is exactly what we’re doing with babies in the womb.
All right, if the mom wants the baby, then it’s a baby and we celebrate with the mom. If the mom doesn’t want the baby, then it’s a fetus and can be tossed away. Currently, it is the mother’s desire for the child that makes the child a person with rights. If the child is wanted, it’s a child. If the child is not wanted, it’s not a child.
The personhood of the baby is determined by someone else. And that is really problematic because none of us would want anyone having the power to remove our personhood. That’s a very dark road. We’ve gone down that road other times in history and it’s always bad. So that’s philosophically.
Spiritually, God knitted us together in our mother’s wombs. All our days were ordained for us before one of them came to be, Psalm 139. None of us were a mistake. None of us were a mistake. No matter the circumstances of your conception, God was involved in that conception.
He knit you together. And it’s not like God was like, whoops, didn’t mean to knit that together. Like, I accidentally made a masterpiece again. Like, that’s not what happened. God considered you a person when you were in the womb.
The womb is when you became a You didn’t become a you when your mother wanted you. You were already a you. You made your own blood. All your days were ordained by the God who knit you together. But when you were in the womb, you didn’t have a voice.
So for those of us with a voice, we need to speak for them. Biblically, there is no option. We must speak. We must defend. We must care for.
Those persons.
For every mom here who chose to terminate a pregnancy, for the likely many women in this room who made that choice, you are not alone. There are likely many here We love you. God loves you. Your baby is fine.
We love you. God loves you. Your baby is fine. Your baby is with Jesus. That’s my belief anyway.
Your baby is fine. Your baby is with Jesus.
You don’t need to hide from your past. You don’t need to have shame. Maybe the days ordained for your baby before one of them came to be was to help other babies avoid the same end. Maybe the role that God has for you and your history is to help other other mothers make a different decision. I was inspired last year.
Valerie Hill spoke here and she shared her story of choosing to terminate her pregnancy. But now she— this is what she said last year— she looks back at it as her purpose to share her experience with others. Like, she’s not hiding from her past. Her past is her purpose. And she— it’s the purpose of the baby that she lost.
God redeems. God doesn’t condemn. In Christ there is no condemnation. Right? God redeems.
God doesn’t shun us because of our past. God uses our past, no matter what it was. He uses our past for our good and for the good of others. So instead of being weighed down in shame, If that’s you, be free and help others. God doesn’t condemn you in Christ.
Neither do we.
Okay, lastly, how to point to Christ.
Admittedly, expectant mothers and their babies is a volatile conversation in which to attempt to bridge to Jesus. It won’t be easy to do that. So again, hopefully Hopefully you’re in a life group and you’re talking about lots of other examples of vulnerable groups and how to bridge to Jesus. But perhaps if you can see a path from the very difficult conversation of expectant mothers and their babies to Jesus, if you can see how it’s possible to get from there to Jesus, then you might be able to see a path to get from any conversation to Jesus, which won’t be as difficult. So here’s what I say.
Um, someone’s talking about pro-life, pro-choice, which doesn’t happen that often, but it does happen, um, especially with recent laws passed in other states, Supreme Court appointments. People, people in my circle say something, and generally they are mad, uh, which is not the best place to start if you want to share Christ, I admit. Uh, but here you are, you have an opportunity, so make the most of it. Um, Here’s how I respond, and I don’t do this on social media, by the way. Do not do this on social media.
Only in-person conversations, okay? But I ask, do you think there is a way to care for both the mother and the baby? They’re mad. They think the mother’s being silenced. They think some law’s unfair.
And I say, do you think there’s a way we could care for both the mother and the baby? Baby? Like blank stare back at me, right? So I just keep going. I say, as maybe like community organizations or churches or us as individuals, like you and me, is there something you and me could do to help both mother and baby?
Asking the question that way helps— doesn’t always eliminate, but helps skip the part of the conversation where the person assumes if you are pro-life it means that you must be anti-woman. It like, it helps, it helps to prevent that part of the conversation because you already said, I want to find a way to care for the mom, right? So you’ve kind of declared you aren’t anti-woman from the beginning. Is there a way to care for both the mom and the baby? Occasionally, not often, but they push back and say something like, it’s not a baby.
If they do, I would say, you know, I don’t want to spend time debating that. I’d rather spend our time time being creative and thinking of solutions for how to help both. So maybe just for now, maybe just hypothetically, um, you know, if, if the baby makes their own blood, then they’re probably their own persons. But just hypothetically, for now, for the sake of this conversation, do you think there’s a way that we could care for both mother and baby? Your friend might have some really good answers.
Listen to them, and you can share the adopt-a-mom thing or your better idea than Fine. Or your friend might say, I don’t think there’s a way. I think we need to choose one or the other because prioritizing one automatically disadvantages the other. But regardless of what your friends say, you could say, I wish we could care for both. I wish we could care for both because as a Christian, I believe everyone matters.
No matter how small they are. It’s part of my faith. And at this point, what we say here could apply to any vulnerable group. Or I’ll tell you, there’s times I’ve been asked by folks, they’re like, you know, they think evangelical Christians are the devil, and so they know that I identify that way, and they’re like, hey, you know, speak for your people. Why is pro-life such an important important, uh, issue.
And I’m okay, um, say it’s part of my faith, right? I mean, as, as a human, I care about other humans, period, right? Like, nobody needs to have faith in order to care about other humans. Anyone can care for anyone. But there is something extra because of my faith.
The Christian story is that God gave us a voice when we were only dust. When we were as insignificant as it gets— dust— God gave us a voice. Which, whether you are a Christian or not, you should believe that Christians are dust, right? Because what else would we be? What else is there?
We’re just a collection of particles that appear on the periodic table. We’re just dust. That’s it. I had a friend in college who said, because of the law of conservation of mass, right? Bring you up to speed.
Earth has basically the same amount of raw material that it has always had. Yes, like a few things have left Earth, not many. A few meteors have come in or whatever, but basically we’re a closed system. Nothing in, nothing out, right? But now there are 7 billion people on the planet, close to 8 actually, and there hasn’t always been 8 billion people.
So he said that must mean there is now much less dirt on the earth than there once was. Like, when we only had a few people, there was a whole lot more dirt. But now, 8 billion people later, whatever the mass of 8 billion people is, that’s how much less dirt is on the earth. Ever think about that? That’s all we are.
Dirt. But the Christian story is that even though we are only dirt, God gave us a voice. It’s the ultimate give a voice to the voiceless. The dust from one tiny planet has been given enough status that we can speak with the one who created all the planets. That’s amazing, right?
And it’s humbling. Like, I wouldn’t have a voice unless someone outside of me chose to give me one, and I was given such a voice that I can speak with the infinite Creator even though I’m only dust. That’s humbling. So how can I not do the same? No matter how small the person is or unworthy, I need to give them a significant voice.
See, that’s a little bit deeper than just as a human I care about other humans. We have, we have more to our story than just solidarity with the vulnerable. So we share Christ by talking about the voice that he gave us. That’s how we share him into a conversation of we speak for the vulnerable, because God gave us a voice when we were voiceless. And then your friend might say, oh, that’s kind of cute, inspiring even.
I wish all Christians were as reflective as you are.
Um, no one’s ever said that to me. Um, so you’re like, yes, uh, I shared my faith and that’s great, but remember, right, we can’t stop there. If we’re having an evangelistic conversation, we must go to our need for Christ. If we only provide some kind of vague inspiration, we have not actually been evangelistic. So they’ve that’s cute.
God gave you a voice when you were only dust. And you say, yeah, it, it’s kind of inspirational, but there’s a flip side to it too. It’s not all lofty whimsy. If God created us, lifted us out of dust, gave us status in the universe— I mean, neat story— but then that means that we are accountable to him. If he made us, we answer to him.
There’s, uh, there’s this ancient metaphor. It predates Jesus, written by a guy by the name of Ezekiel. I’ll actually say this to folks. I’m like, there’s this ancient metaphor. If that’s not you, find your own way.
But since it’s a metaphor, it means it didn’t literally happen, but it’s supposed to teach us something. Ezekiel 16. Someone sees an abandoned baby flailing around in a field, and it’s like after birth fluids. It’s graphic, but the baby is taken in, given a good home. It’s like the baby was given life, given a voice, lifted up out of the dust.
So the baby grows up, but then instead of living in gratitude for being rescued, the now woman completely betrays and slanders the one who adopted her. It’s a sad story. It’s meant to be a story describing us and God. God is the adopter. We are this unfaithful woman.
And in the story, God is rightly pretty upset. But the story doesn’t end with God upset. The story ends with God saying he will redeem the unfaithful woman, even though there doesn’t seem to be much change of behavior on her end. End, God promises to redeem nonetheless. It’s like God is going to lift her out of her filth round 2.
That’s how it ends. That’s the Christian story. God gave us life. We were unfaithful and betrayed him, yet God redeems. Jesus took the abandonment that should be ours.
Jesus was left out to dry, soaked in his own blood, like the baby in the field in order that we would be adopted. On the cross, the all-powerful one became vulnerable so that we, the vulnerable, could be given a voice forever. It’s a remarkable story. It’s utterly unique. And it is that story that will transform us into people who passionately want to give a voice to all who are voiceless, to protect all the vulnerable.
Let’s pray.
Jesus, we thank you for lifting us out of dust. We thank you for redeeming us even though we have run from you, Lord. Thank you for empowering us, giving us a voice. Thank you for becoming vulnerable, Lord. We pray that as we look at you and your good that we would see our past as redeemed, that we would carry no shame, that we would carry no condemnation, because you carry— you, you put no condemnation on us.
You have freed us from all condemnation, Lord. Let us celebrate our stories as a way to worship you and bring others to you. We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
