Text: Esther 2:5-7, Title: Responsible for a Deliverer, Date/Place: NRBC, 1.20.13, AM
A. Opening illustration: Voddie Baucham video, hopefully Keith and Joanna Daniels, NLCH kid video instead
of announcements
B. Background to passage: the nutshell version of the story of Esther is that the Jews were imprisoned in a
foreign land, and there was a plot hatched to eliminate all the Jews. Queen Vashti’s attitude had gotten her
kicked out, and Esther, because God had showed out on her, got to be the queen. Esther had to approach the
king with an invitation (which was forbidden and dangerous) in order to plead for the Jews. Mordecai her
cousin and adoptive father told her that God had placed her there for such a time as this for the deliverance
of the Jews. She did, the King changed the decree, Hymen was hanged, and the Jews were delivered. So in
a sense, Mordecai was responsible for the deliverance of the nation because he took in an orphan that would
eventually save the Jewish people. Mordecai and Ester were there for such a time as this.
C. Main thought: For evangelicals, adoption is a proper response to the sanctity of human life and ending
abortion. One author even called it, “the other half of the fight for life.”
A. Preserve Human Life
1. Give some of the stats on Abortion. Speak to its heinous life ending reality. Speak about aiding the cause
of erasing the need for abortion. And of course the underlying factor to that is that every life is sacred,
created in the image of God. Adoption gives people options. It is part of the solution rather than other
preventatives. It is an alternative.
Argumentation
Illustration: Kaitlann asking how they kill their babies, Pregnancy Care Center and Women’s First
Choice Medical Center is dedicated to erasing the need for abortion through effectively serving pregnant,
at-risk women by transforming their fear into confidence, arguments against abortion document,
Should we pursue legal means to end abortion? YES! Go to rallies, write our legislators, defend life
personally, YES, YES, YES!!! Roe v. Wade should be overturned. And we cannot in good conscience
vote for a person who consistently votes to allow the murder of children. Now if you did, maybe you
didn’t know. He is so slick that many didn’t ask. Don’t mean to be a one issue voter, and I have other
political opinions and biblical justification for them, but this issue is a life or death issue to 1.2 million
kids every year in the US, and 50 million a year in the world.
If there were enough believers who caught a vision of the sanctity of life to make people know it, young
women might realize that people will love their children. Usually convenience and finances are the
driving forces behind abortion, and having someone who will spend the money and bear the burden is
liberating from fear. What if every adoptable child was in that process and enough foster families were
ministering in Tift Co that the PCC could tell young ladies, “there is a waiting list of people here that want
to love and care for your baby.”
2.
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5.
B. Care for Orphans
1. As believers we are called upon to visit (redeem or serve) orphans and widows. In fact we are told it
comprises true devotion to Christ. The bible is replete with verses describing God’s love and care for the
fatherless. And with the world, US, GA, and Tift County statistics on orphaned children, there is much
room for improvement.
2. James 1:27
3. Illustration: Merida and Morton have written a book called Orphanology, where they do a pretty good job
at marrying the ministry of caring for orphans to the great commission. I always wondered why I saw so
many international ministries that do children’s homes, and felt like the gospel was more important, but in
light of James 1:27, we are called to do it. “The deepest and strongest foundation for adoption is located
not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. And this act is not part of his
ordinary providence in the world; it is at the heart of the Gospel.” -Piper
4. It is your responsibility! It is our responsibility. We need to exhibit greater compassion. Complacency
and apathy is sinful because we are commanded to care for them. Care doesn’t simply mean meet needs,
it also carries with it the idea of empathy. The need is there, but we don’t notice it. Can you imagine not
having any family. Some of you probably can very well. Can you imagine being 18, aging out, and
having nowhere to go? Can you imagine not knowing the flies on your face were a bad thing? Never
having a mother or father’s touch for the first year of your life. You and I are called upon to mirror the
Father to the Fatherless, and rescue others. Not one of us in this room was born a Christian. We were
all adopted into the family of God. “…smaller churches have the opportunity to lead the way by more
visibly demonstrating that orphan care is not a missional add-on. For example, Austin New Church's
orphan care ministry really took off when it had only 150 people attending each week. They had a dozen
families commit to adopt and an additional 18 people go through foster care training. That's a significant
percentage of its people! Since then they have established an adoption fund and have teams of people who
are raising money, running marathons for orphaned children, and partnering with other churches both
locally and globally to bring hope to orphans.” –Stetzer
C. Advance the Kingdom
1. Biblically, there has been a long standing tradition of evangelizing all those that come into the covenant
community and into the households. In the OT provisions were made for foreigners, God-fearers,
servants, and adopted children. In the NT it was commonplace for entire households to become
Christians, which would have included servants and extended family, and adopted children. Wives
and servants were also told to win their husbands and children by their lives of love for Jesus and their
upright behavior. So I think there is a biblical precedent for including kingdom advancement in our list
of motivating factors for adoption. And it also gives us as a body responsibility to help adoptive parents
transmit faith to their children. It should be the only motivation, but it is legitimate.
2. Illustration: Of course this is a discipleship issue in the home as well, but if we are losing 75% of our
youth after the first year of college, and the typical American Christian family has 2 kids, and one of them
becomes a believer, out of their four grandchildren on ΒΌ are believers, we are losing numbers really fast.
Voddie Baucham says he wants to raise up a whole army of Bauchams to send like Christian ballistic
missiles into the enemy’s territory, but he and his wife had her tubes tied, so now they are adopting as
many as they can. Obviously, not everyone is called to adopt, but every believer is called to act. That
means not merely feeling sorry for orphans. Sentimentalism is no substitute for action. In addition to
adoption, other ways we can be actively involved include hosting orphans for a summer, financially
supporting adoptive parents, fostering children in our community, and discipling local boys and girls from
functionally fatherless families. –Tony Merida
3. Like Mordecai, we could be rearing the next missionary, or the next mother who leads her children to faith
in Christ. How many orphans in Muslim, Hindu, or communist countries could know Christ if they were
adopted by Christian families? How can we help? Would you be willing to consider it? Would you be
willing to ask God if He would make you willing if He wanted to? How many orphans will grow up never
hearing a gospel presentation? It’s more expensive than taking a person out to dinner to share Christ,
but big difference in reward. What if people actually pursued adoption first in order to bring children to
heaven. What if New River did a day camp for the DFACS children and shared the gospel with them?
Closing illustration: the testimony of Lakeside and the 20 children and 70 people that will be touched, “So, I laugh,
but I also grieve, when people say to a family, “Why are you adopting? You already have natural-born children.
You can have your own kids.” They’ve missed it. They don’t see that adoption isn’t about infertility; it’s about
responding to God’s grace properly: first with gratitude toward Him, and then with active love toward others. How
is He calling you to love the orphan today?” -Tony Merida
In the U.S. 423,000 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system. 115,000 of these
children are eligible for adoption, but nearly 40% of these children will wait over three years in foster care before
being adopted.
Around the world, there are an estimated 163 million orphans who have lost one parent. There are 13 million
orphans who have lost both parents and are living in orphanages or on the streets and lack the care and attention
required for healthy development. These children are at risk for disease, malnutrition, and death.
U.S. families adopted more than 12,700 children through intercountry adoption in fiscal year 2009. China is the
top sending country, followed by Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea, and Guatemala. Intercountry adoption has been
on the decline since its peak in 2004 at 22,990 adoptions.
No child under three years of age should be placed in institutional care without a parent or primary caregiver. This
is based on results from 32 European countries, including nine in-depth country studies, which considered the “risk
of harm in terms of attachment disorder, developmental delay and neural atrophy in the developing brain."
Children raised in orphanages have an IQ 20 points lower
than their peers in foster care, according to a meta-analysis of 75 studies (more than 3,800 children in 19
countries). This shows the need for children to be raised in families, not in institutions.
Each year, over 29,000 youth “age out” of foster care without the emotional and financial support necessary to
succeed. This number has steadily risen over the past decade. Nearly 40% had been homeless or couch surfed,
nearly 60% of young men had been convicted of a crime, and only 48% were employed. 75% of women and
33% of men receive government benefits to meet basic needs. 50% of all youth who aged out were involved in
substance use and 17% of the females were pregnant.
Nearly 25% of youth aging out did not have a high school diploma or GED, and a mere 6% had finished a two- or
four-year degree after aging out of foster care. One study shows 70% of all youth in foster care have the desire to
attend college.
Over 65,000 children in foster care in the U.S. are placed in institutionsor group homes, not in traditional foster
homes.
Neglect was reported for 54% of all children entering foster care by their parent or primary caregiver. Parental
substance abuse was a circumstance present for 28% of the children entering care.
States spent a mere 1.2-1.3% of available federal funds on parent recruitment and training services even though
22% of children in foster care had adoption as their goal.
Over three years is the average length of time a child waits to be adopted in foster care. Roughly 55% of these
children have had three or more placements. An earlier study found that 33% of children had changed elementary
schools five or more times, losing relationships and falling behind educationally.
Adopted children make-up roughly 2% of the total child population under the age of 18, but 11% of all adolescents
referred for therapy have been adopted. Post-adoption services are important to all types of adoption, whether
foster care adoption, international adoption, or domestic infant adoption.
