Welcome to the defender bible study, a weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast It's

I'm thankful that you've invited me in. RD has allowed me to come and be with you this morning, and, it is, it's a blessing to be here with you guys at Mission. If you don't know, Mission Church, partners with Lifeline and we partner with Mission Church in, as, as your church is one of our key partners in doing the work that we do, not just here locally but also globally and around. And so we, we're we're just thankful that you allow us to be here today. Sometimes people ask, like, what do you do, Nate?

Like, what do you do with Lifeline? And I'll tell you, there's a myriad of things I do. Number 1, I'll tell you what I don't do. I'm not a social worker. Okay?

So I'm not a social worker. We have social workers. They're great at what they do. That's that's not what I do. I also don't do crisis pregnancy counseling, but we have people who do crisis pregnancy counseling.

What I do what I will tell people and what I do say to people, not just what do I do, but more so what do I get to be a part of. And and without a doubt, I can say day in and day out, what I get to be a part of, and the greatest privilege is to see gospel sent gospel, being brought into families and seeing the gospel being proclaimed within families. It comes in some different ways. It's that one is is seeing broken families that that need the gospel presented to be brought back together again. There's families that they've been broken because of choices or circumstances that come their way, and their children are placed into foster care.

And by the work of God and His gospel and God's people coming alongside them, although they get to see what it looks like for their family to experience reconciliation and be restored. Also, what we get to see is families in that is in the gospel working in families is through unexpected pregnancies. Some of you maybe know that Lifeline, part of our mission in ministry here in Topeka is we have a women's, Lifeline women's resource center, crisis pregnancy center over here on Gage. And the reality of it is is that every single day, almost every single day during the week, there's a young woman or an older woman or a couple coming in facing unexpected pregnancy. It's great to see how the gospel allows them to have hope in a circumstance that they think is it feels hopeless, or that there is no answer to the questions they have, but God brings the answers to that.

And then last but not least is, as you just heard, is that it's through adoption and families that say yes, that, you know what, we're gonna be a home that proclaims Jesus and brings hope to a child that needs a home. And not just for now, not temporarily, but forever. As long as they are well, as long as they're a child, we're going to be their parent. And into adulthood, we're gonna be their parent. And so I say that that that, we are thankful to be a part of that and it's not able to be done without partnerships just like this with Mission Church.

And and so today, I I I just tell you that this parenting journey, this this gospel journey within family, it continues to happen. And I'm still learning from it myself. Is that this year, I will celebrate, can I use that word celebrate, 19 years of being a parent? Okay? And for some of you, you go, man, that's a long time.

For others, you go, been there, done that. Right? Been there, done that. Is it my oldest daughter, Isabel? I think there's a picture of her right here as an infant.

I think we have this. This is what this was 19 years ago in January. I think she's, like, not very, not very old, not very far into being alive at this moment in time. And I remember thinking to myself as a parent, I don't know what I'm doing. Okay?

Like, I don't know what I'm doing. Somewhere along the way, our child that we brought home from the hospital decided that crying was her number one activity. Okay? That is what God ordained her to do on this earth. I remember my saying to my wife very clearly, I think they gave us the wrong kid.

Okay? Like, at the hospital, there was a swap on accident because my kid doesn't cry like that. At least that's not what I I envisioned. To top it off, she had what was called, it was like a bilirubin blanket. She had to be wrapped in it, and it helped with, like, jaundice and stuff, and she was plugged into a wall.

So I remember this, she had to be plugged into a wall. No. You couldn't hold her more than 4 feet away from a power outlet. Okay? And and that's how we cared for her for the first couple weeks of her life.

And she cried and she cried and she cried. And I remember calling my dad, and then he's like, how's it going? I'm like, she just cries. And he laughed. He said, God has a sense of humor.

He says, you cried for 18 months. And I thought, oh, no. We're a month in. It can't be 18 months. Right?

I tell you that that being a father in truth and true fashion is one of the greatest things that we've been able to experience. But I have to tell you that when it looks like family, when we live with the gospel at the center of our family, it doesn't mean it's perfect. It actually means it gets more gets more messy. And over time, is that I am continuing to learn what that looks like. Me and my wife are going through seasons of parenthood, is that we have the oldest one now, our will be 19.

Our 2 youngest boys are 8. Okay? And there's seasons that are new every every single year. This last year, we had an opportunity to take a vacation as a family. We're gonna go to Florida.

Now I'll let you know when you go to Florida, July August is not the time to go to Florida. It is like the surface of the sun. Right? But it's when a Legion airline tickets are the cheapest. And that's when we went to Florida.

So we loaded up our family and we drove because we're we have 9 folks in our family. You can see my family there, 9 folks. So we drove to St. Louis, get the cheapest tickets from Allegiant to fly to Florida direct. And we went to Florida and we're there and it's hot and it's wonderful and it's great and the kids are having a fun having fun and we had gallons of sunscreen with us.

But while we were there in Florida, we we had this opportunity on the beach having a good time. Our son, Eli, thought it would be a good idea to feed the birds. Okay? And so I just wanna let you know that bird had a number of friends. It had a lot of friends.

As as soon as he started feeding that bird, there was a flock of birds that started coming and coming, and we had to say, you have to stop. Like, we he's feeding them Pringles, and they're just coming, they're coming. He's like, dad, isn't this awesome? I'm like, it's not because there there's a there's a lot of them now. There's a lot.

And on that vacation, on that trip, we had a great opportunity just to be and get out with a family of 9. It's not like you just get in the car and go do things far away randomly all the time. So it was well planned out, and we had this one day where we went to a beach that we're told you can go walk, and it's not a place you wanna go swim, it's not a place you wanna go, like, hang out and build sand castles, but you're gonna find as many shells as you're gonna be wanting to look for. So we went to this beach and started walking this beach. And as we walked this beach and started collecting shells and doing it was it was great.

It was awesome. My wife my wife found this shell. And what's really cool about it is at first, this is my this is me. She goes, look what I found. What does that look like?

I was like, looks like 17 is what it looks like to me. Right? You know, on the computer when you have to punch in a code, like, to let them know who you are, like the passcode thing, that looks like 17. She goes, Nate, no. It looks like a 7.

And I said, oh, and I it clicked with me where my wife was going with this because my wife is usually more in tune with god's presence sometimes than I am. And in that, what I share with you is other 7 children, and some of you maybe know this, that out of our 7 children, 3 of those children came to our home through adoption. But out of that, with the we look at this number 7 and the seashell that's there, that I'm reminded, and my wife was reminded that time, that when gospel comes into family, it doesn't mean that it's easier, it just gives us a center. It gives the Christ at the center to focus on and to live with, live with, and live through us. Saint Augustine put it this way, and I think it's so true when we look at caring for the vulnerable, and I think of my children, and I think of my family, that God loves each of us as if as if there were only one of us.

Let us think in for a moment. Is it no matter where you've been or where you're at, no matter which child we're speaking of, no matter what vacation I took with my kids or no vacation at all, right, is that God views us, me views them and views you as though that the love that he has is directed for them if they were the only one in existence. And I think this is important to know because for that for that for me and my wife in parenting, we need to know that. We need to know that the love of God is rich and true and real and does not waver no matter the circumstance, but rather he's there in the midst of it no matter what comes our way. You see, I mentioned my wife finding that seashell.

She has had experience with God since we've been married time and time again. We're nature, and this might be your thing, where God kinda reveals his goodness or reminds of the sovereignty through through nature. It's the way my wife it's his way of demonstrating that. It's she's in tune with that. You see, in that, he wanted he wants us to know and he demonstrates it to her that he's not going anywhere, that he is there, he is alive, and he's well.

But I'm so thankful of for our God of scripture, the creator God, he didn't just talk to us and speak to us through through things of of nature and creation, but rather he wanted to live in us, is that he came to dwell in us with his holy spirit. You see, God had this plan, and we're gonna see it today, that this beautiful power that God has to get us through and to see us through, to be there for the great moments of celebration and the difficult multiple moments of trial, to give us guidance, it was through the power of the holy spirit. If you have devices or your or pages with you, go ahead and turn to John chapter 14. As it will set this up in John chapter 14, we see this is that Jesus's ministry on earth is going to begin coming to an end. In in other words, he's had his time with the disciples.

If you remember the gospels, there's moments where he was with them and they got to experience the miracles. They had to experience Jesus raising the dead, the blind men seeing, the the lame man walking, the woman who was bleeding for generations completely healed. They got to experience his teaching when he told them that that that there is good, there is so much good that you're going to see. It's gonna be greater than anything you've ever experienced because of my father. There was religious leaders who heard him talking and they would say, we've never heard anyone speak like this before.

Like, we've never seen anyone get to the heart of the matter. And when they asked a question, he would respond with what? A question. He would give them a question in return to allow them to continue to think, to grow in their understanding of spiritual things. But there comes this moment here now is that he's getting ready to leave.

He's getting ready to leave this earthly this earthly ministry. And the disciples in this moment, they're a little distraught and rightly so. For many of them were fishermen and they gave up their life to go what? To go follow Jesus. There were some who had been estranged from their family because why?

Because they're a follower of Jesus. There were those who were upset and confused, but definitely, they were lacking understanding of what Jesus was saying, that he was leaving, but it's going to be okay. You see, in this, but the followers of Jesus began to ask questions about what Jesus says about his leaving. And I want you to hear today, hear this today, that every movement with God begins with a question. Every movement in our life of leaning into what God will do begins with Where where should I move?

You ask God, he that begins with a question. Who should I marry? Should we have children? Should we adopt? How do I care for this family?

How do I care for this mother? How do I do this? It begins with the question, and God begins to move when we're open to asking God the question. So we see this that all of a sudden there's this guy named Thomas, he asked Jesus this question. He says this, he says, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, and how can we know how can we know the way?

Don't you love it? Thomas in scripture has been tagged with this this name, tagged with this this kinda addendum to his to his name, Thomas. The he was what? Doubting. Right?

For us, that seems negative and I get it. It can be a little bit negative, but at the end of the day, Thomas at least had enough guts to ask the question. And not just one question, but he asked 2, where are you going and how can we know the way? See Thomas in this, when he poses these questions, I think it works well for us when we ask the question, for us to ask the same of how do we follow what God's wanting us to do? How do we know where the movement of God is going to be?

What do we ask when it feels like God is so distant? And Thomas says this, he says, where where are you going? See, we on this side of it of eternity, this side of the resurrection, we know where Jesus was going. He was going where? To be with his father, who's gonna be in heaven.

But for Thomas and the other disciples, they're thinking physically. I mean, they've traveled 100, if not 1000 of miles by foot with Jesus all around to administer to people and to care for people. He's like, So what city are you going to? Like, we can go there. We can go there.

Then he follows it up with that second question. How how can we know the way? In other words, help me understand. Help me understand. See, Jesus is stretching them because he what he wanted for them is their will to grow in deeper relationship with him, to grow in faith and understand that he was leaving, but something greater was coming.

Someone greater, not just living around him, but the spirit of God was gonna come and live in them. At Mission Church, I throw a question to you this morning, just kinda open and and rhetorical, but what is your question for God today when it comes to caring for others? What is the question you want to pose to God? Or what question are you posing to God? Because be mindful and know this, question questions of God, God can handle them.

God can handle the question. The question is, can we handle the response? Are we ready for the response? Because see it is this, it is human nature to begin to bargain, right? It is human nature to desire to bargain.

How many of you like a good yard sale? You don't like a good yard sale? And I don't mean like the not the where the guy cleaned out his garage and it's just a pile in the yard, but I mean like a good organized yard sale. You know what I'm talking about? Where you look at things and you and you think to yourself, man, that's that's that's not a bad price.

And your mind begins thinking you begin bargaining with yourself. Do I really need that? And it's really you want it. Right? You want it, but then you begin thinking, what shelf could I put that on?

Because that's what now it turns into what? A need. Right? I drove by a yard sale a couple weeks ago, and I saw a guy out there. He had a one of those inflatable kayaks, you know, where you sit inside.

It's the 1 man fishing kayak, so your feet stick out the bottom with waiters. I've never been fishing in waders in my life. Okay? But within 5 minutes, I began thinking I needed that. Okay?

I needed that. And not did I just not need it, I thought, I mean, we have a pond and I'm thinking this would be a great activity for the kids. Right? As though my wife would be okay with me putting 8 year old boys out in the middle of a pond in an inflatable raft. But you know what happened in that moment?

The guy wanted $25 for it. I thought to myself, that's too much. Okay? That's too much. Not because I didn't know how much the raft was worth or it cost.

It had no value to me. But in the moment, I was tempted to offer that guy $15 is what I thought I'd offer him for that raft because I was gonna bring it home and it became something I want. I now I needed it, not just an idea. I didn't buy the raft because I wanted to be married. Okay?

I wanna stay married. But I'll tell you, I I thought in my mind, I wanna I wanna bargain. And the truth is is it's not relegated to a yard sale. We actually it's also can be in conjunction with our relationship with God. Is that we begin in as we step out and say, God, we ask him the question, he gives us a response, and then we'll say, you know what?

Well, I have I have another idea. Like, may maybe it's not that I'm supposed to do that or go there or care for this vulnerable population, this vulnerable individual, but rather, I I I just wanna go 50% into it. You see, because in this, it's that's not new. Remember your your Bible, you open it up to Genesis back to Adam and Eve. If you remember, they're living in this beautiful, sinless world of fruits and vegetables and trees, and it's not like Florida in August.

It is very temperate. It is beautiful. It's there, and what happens? They sin. They sin.

And how do they sin? Because Satan comes to tempt them, and he says to Eve, he says, did God really say you can't eat from that tree? Like, can you not eat from it? And little by little, there's a bargaining that happens, a justification that happens on the inside, and next thing you know, sin enters the world. You see, sin enters the world and therefore, people began seeing and experiencing the result of sin.

But for us, we see that Jesus came so that we can demonstrate the hope not just to ourselves and have it demonstrated to ourselves, but be demonstrated to others that there is someone who can save us of that sin. You see, in this moment, Jesus, he's talking to Thomas and as he and he poses this out there and Thomas asked the question, then Philip isn't very far behind. He begins to bargain. Philip said, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us. Show us the father, and that will be enough for us.

Don't you love what Philip did there? I mean, a little bit. He's saying, Jesus, you're good, but if you can show me who the father is, then I'll be okay if you're leaving. I'll be okay with the movement that you're doing and what you're asking of us. I just need to see well, I need to see the slip, if you will, like God is saying this needs to happen, and Jesus gives gives a little bit of room.

He gives a little bit of room in conversation, a little bit of room in the text, and all of a sudden in verse 15, you see that Jesus responds in this way. Says, if you love me, keep my, what's it say, church? Keep my what? Commands. Man, what a beautiful straightforward answer from the son of God.

As he doesn't bargain with, he doesn't bargain back and forth. Instead, he says, this is what has been taught. This is what my father's will is. And so therefore, if you love me and I love you, keep my commands. Could you imagine what's going through the disciples' head at that moment in time?

What's kinda rolling through there? Is that all of the things that he's been teaching them, all the things that he taught them, all the things that he taught at the Sermon on the Mount, of all the commands that the father was given, and all the things that he they've been he's been instructing them in, It's coming back like a video replay. It's saying that if you're gonna be my follower, then these are the things man, this this is what it looks like. To love me is to keep my commands. You see, for those of you who have stepped out or beginning that journey, and you're going, man, I'm going to I want to care for children, whether that's through adoption or whether it's foster care.

I want to care for a mom that's in unexpected pregnancy, or guys, maybe God's pricking you and pushing you and prodding you to say, hey, I I have a little bit of margin and I wanna create more margin for a guy that just does not have or has not had a good representation of biblical manhood in his life. I wanna be that. I wanna do that. I wanna I wanna encourage you to take this John 14 14 verse 15 and just put it on the front of your mind. Is that if you love me, keep my commands.

Not not a matter of saving you, and you can't you can't love enough people and demonstrate enough care to people to justify you before God, you're justified because of Jesus. But living that out and caring for them might just be the command that God has been given to you. I wanna rewind a little bit to me and my wife and our family is that we have experienced so much beauty so many beautiful things in our family of 7. Let me give you some joking ones. We drive a 10 passenger van that looks like we're delivering, Amazon packages every day.

Okay? We drive by and people open their door. They get excited. We drive by and they're angry because we didn't bring their package. Okay?

We we have our vehicle has rubber on the floor so when kids get car sick on car rides, we can clean it out more easily. Okay? And you're like, that is gross. That is Brunn's life truly on a monthly basis. We we've experienced the opportunity for people to come in come in contact with people who are who are just trying to live out life, but they haven't been given all the tools in their toolbox to know how to care for their kids well, to love their parents well, to be loved well.

And we've God's opened those doors to have those conversations and to just be an example, the best that we can in all our brokenness, redeemed by God, to be an example to others. But I wanna tell you when I look at this verse, it says you love me and keep my commands, it challenges me as a confession today. Because not all of those things that we've been a part of has always been always been, well, glorious. Not all of those things have been bright and shiny. In fact, it it it's heavy and it can be difficult.

When you look at what God calls us to and what God has called my family to, I believe it with everything in it, and I embrace it, but I've grown to understand that it will not happen and I will not see it through if it's not if it's not rooted in what scripture says here of keep my commands. When God has given and Jesus has given me and my my wife those commands, I and we we struggle with it, and I try to bargain with God about it. I find hope in one statement, in one statement alone in scripture, and this statement is this, that God does not forget you. That God doesn't forget you. That God has not forgotten me.

That God has not forgotten my kids. My God has not forgotten the bio families of the kids that of our adoptive kids. God has not forgotten the difficulty and the successes that people have seen, well, through not just our family, but other families. God has not forgotten them. You see, because Jesus lets them know that.

That's what he tells the disciples here is the moment has come and the time has come that he is leaving, but I won't forget you, that you'll do greater things than I've even experienced with me. And how is that? It's by the indwelling of the holy spirit. Look at the chapter 14 verse 16 through 17. And Jesus says this to them, I will ask the father, and he'll give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it's nigh they it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. Now here it is, verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come, what, to you. In the midst of your walking, in the midst of your journey, whatever life is presenting your way, know this, that God's not forgotten you, that God is not just wanting to be around you, that God wants to live in you as a follower of Christ.

And I and I know for some, they're sitting here today, they're like you're probably thinking, well, this guy's gonna ask us to adopt a child. This guy's gonna ask us to do something difficult. I wanna let you know something. No. God can ask of those things.

That's not why we're here. But rather, I want you to know that if you say yes to asking a question of God and begin following him, it will be difficult. But know this, God lives in every believer, and by the power of the holy spirit is the only way you see it to the other side. By the power of God working in us is the only way we see it to the other side because God has God has promised through Jesus, he will not leave us alone. You see in verse 4 chapter 14 and 31, Jesus wraps it up with them.

He says, but he comes so the world may learn that I love the father and do exactly what my father has commanded me. You see, as followers of Christ, we're called to model this to the world. We're called to model this to the world. To let the world know that what sets us apart and where our hope and our joy comes from is not in the work that we do or the work that we don't do, but it's in the spirit that lives in us. It's by the father that lives in us through his holy spirit.

And so how do we model that? Well, we we model it by being led by the holy spirit, being led. If God is prodding you to do something bigger than you thought to for vulnerable folks, know this, lean into it, but be filled by the holy spirit. Be filled by the holy spirit. If if if God is asking to do something bigger than you thought, then step forward with faith.

Be willing to ask the questions just like Thomas did, just like Philip did, just like 100 of people during Jesus' ministry. They had the ability and the willingness to at least ask the question. The o they were okay with being a little bit wrong, but knowing that I wanna know more of what Jesus has to say. You see, because as followers of Christ, we're called to model this to the world that God will not leave them alone if they're willing to ask the question and allow him to come into their life. See, as the band comes this morning, I wanna share with you just a couple a couple stories of where I believe people are beginning to know and beginning to have the opportunity to be demonstrated to them of what it looks like to not be God not leaving them alone.

At our pregnancy resource center that Lifeline has here in Topeka, there's a young lady that came in a few months ago. And I share the story more in generality just for confidentiality sake, but I I I I hope it speaks to you of how it is the holy spirit can work when people are willing to lean into that and allowing to guide. She came in as a young lady who came into the the the clinic and she was ready and willing, in preparing herself to terminate her pregnancy in Kansas City. But as she came, she brought a friend with her, same age, younger lady, she comes in and was bound to determine that this is what that this is what her decision needed to be because she didn't see much hope at the end. As she was there and going through a sonogram with the nurses is showing her, showing her a sonogram.

And one of the nurses that was provide for, providing the sonogram was a little bit newer. And so in that, she realized in the moment, hey, that this young lady did not just have a child, she had twins. And so she pauses and goes out and gets one of the more experienced sonographers to come in and begin sharing with begins well, showing and seeing that that is true, that she had twins. And so, in the moment, the young lady is not looking at the screen. She's not she's not wanting to see her child in her womb, but rather just focusing on the hopelessness that's there or at least the feeling of hopelessness.

And the more experienced sonographer says, hey, I want to let you know that you are pregnant. We're confirming you're pregnant, but you're pregnant with with twins. And in the moment of that, she begins to weep. The magnitude is just doubled. The hopelessness is seemingly doubled for her because now she's not just pregnant, but she's pregnant twice over.

And all of a sudden in that moment, her friend who was very supportive of her making decisions that she thought she needed to make, she'd all of a sudden just kinda flips a switch and becomes compassionate for her friend who is pregnant. And she says, oh, I will let you know, like, whatever you decide, I'm willing to help. I'm willing to I'm willing to help. Like, we can I'll help you being a good friend. And she goes on to tell the story.

She goes, I don't know if I ever told you this, but my mom knows how the holy spirit god works. She goes, my mom, 19 years ago, was going to not have me, but then just felt this overwhelming presence that she was supposed to give birth to me, and she did and she did. So I'm telling you, as a friend and as people, I think we can help you. I think we can we we can help you be be a mom. In the moment in that room, the the attitude and the presence just switched.

The scenarios were able to pray with her and and give her hope and share with her that guess what? That this model of care that God has for us is meant to be demonstrated to one another. Is that there is hope. There was hope. The heaviness is real.

Being a parent is real. It's not easy. But you know how we get through to the other side and do it is by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, today, if you're sitting here, it might not be that the heaviness for you as being a parent. Maybe the heaviness for you isn't necessarily even thinking about being a parent.

The heaviness for you is just whatever is in front of you this week. I want you to know whether it's caring for someone else or it's allowing God to care for you, know that it is done by the movement of the Holy Spirit. It is done by the work of God in us and through us. So I wanna encourage you begin, be willing to ask God your question today. Asking the question you have brewing of what is next for you and is movement in your life, but also be willing and ready to respond.

Will you pray with me as a band will lead us? Father, we come to you and, God, we thank you for the day that you've given us. We thank you for your word. And, father, if we're going to care for others, if we're going to care for the person next to us, if we're gonna be open to that, father, let us be open to the movement of your holy spirit. Let's care for others by your power and by your with your mercy and with your grace.

Let's be willing to ask the question of what do you want from us and be willing to respond. For father, we know that you saved us and you continue to sanctify us. You continue to make us like like your son, but only by the power of your holy spirit. So today, father, we ask we ask you would move in us and allow us to ask the question that's brewing in us and give us the give us the willingness and the power to respond accordingly. In Jesus' name, we pray.

Thanks again for joining us for the Defender Bible study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the defender bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifelinechild.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child. You can email us directly at info at lifelinechild.org.

We look forward to seeing you again next week for the defender bible study.