Truth Talk With Stu Epperson - Babies Babies BABIES!

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Is anybody out there adopted? Well, guess what? If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, every one of you is adopted because of what he did for us, because the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, and we're adopted. We call him Abba Father. But what is Christian adoption? Why is this so close to the heart of God? I'm sitting with two leaders. I mean, guys, these are heavyweights in the field of Christian adoption.

They're both authors, they're both men of God. We just had a sumptuous breakfast, so we're trying to stay awake for this interview. But Herbie Newell and Dr. Rick Morton, God bless you guys. Thanks for coming on here. Thanks, Stu.

It's a privilege. Tell everyone about Lifeline and about how you got into this. Yeah, so Lifeline Children's Services is a ministry that's based out of Birmingham, Alabama, with reach in 14 southeastern states, but then 25 countries around the world. And the heartbeat of what we do is to equip the body of Christ as well as believers to ultimately manifest the gospel to orphaned and vulnerable children. And one of the great ways we do that is through adoption, when we actually invite these children into our home as believers. We love on them, we care for them, but most importantly, we disciple them in the Word of God and the truth of God. And that changes the course and direction of a child's life. We believe and truly know that many of these kids are an unreached people group because they don't have the families, they don't have the systems by which they're able to hear the truth and know the truth and live in the truth. Did you all pick that up there?

Do you realize, from what you just said, that one of the most powerful ways to change a life forever is to adopt a kid, even in foster care. What about that? Well, that's right. And if you look through God's Word, right, he meant for us to be a part of a family.

That was his equation. Of course, the fall brought sin and brought the curse of sin. And really, we see our ministry as a light to undo what sin has done by putting children into families or by supporting their biological family who is broken, because we've seen families, biological families, have been broken through foster care or through abuse or through neglect. We've seen them healed to the power of the gospel and to be made whole. And I had a little drop the spoon moment, having my parfait with you guys at breakfast, when, Herbie, you said, we minister to foster parents. We minister to parents that have lost their kids. And I thought, that is awesome. That's just like, we talk, why is it that secular folks and the government is running social justice?

Whatever happened to the church? Now, I just fed you up a softball there, but you got to introduce us to your partner in crime. I mean, I know he's not very bright, he doesn't like to read, he doesn't know a whole much about theology, but tell us who this guy is, will you?

And then I want him to come in and speak to that. Yeah, so grateful to have Dr. Rick with me. And Dr. Rick is, you know, he is well known because of his writing, his speaking, but he's also, most importantly, a husband to Denise and a father to three children that they brought into their home through adoption. A man of God, a guy that is just a thrill to be able to partner in this ministry with.

Dr. Rick, tell us about your passion, brother. Yes, dude, we, our story is pretty conventional, I guess, for an adoptive family. We adopted about 14 years ago, first time, a little boy from Ukraine. God has continued to build our family. We adopted three kids, two older kids from Ukraine. But really, you know, my journey, I was a seminary professor, I was someone who was teaching, but had really never considered adoption and orphan care and how that relates to gospel ministry. And so the Lord really took me on a journey, really humbled me in a lot of ways, but also really helped me to see kind of the thread of meaning as we move through the Scriptures of his heart for the orphan, his heart for the vulnerable, and how that's not disconnected from the gospel, but it's directly connected to the gospel. We, I mean, you and I, all of us, we were those estranged children. We were those kids who were outside of relationship with God, and through the work that Jesus has done, we've been adopted into the family of God. And so when we care for orphan and vulnerable children and vulnerable families and those kinds of people, and when we do that with the gospel as, you know, as the central message to why we do what we do, I kind of like to say it like this. My family, I love to take my family to Sam's because I have an 18 and 19-year-old son, and they love to kind of go around to the sample carts and, you know, and kind of taste all the food, and it keeps them occupied and gives us an opportunity to shop. Well, you know, Sam's doesn't intend that you and I are going to go make a meal off the sample carts. What they intend is that we're going to get a little sample, we're going to get a little taste, and then we're going to go buy the whole big bag, right?

We're going to take the whole big thing home. And ultimately, that's what I think caring for orphan and vulnerable children does in the world. When we as believers step out and do this work, we're putting a taste on the lips of the world of the kingdom of God, of the reality of what the gospel has purchased and what Jesus has done and the fullness of the kingdom. And so when we're able to do these little small acts of mercy and little small acts of justice, whether it be adopting or fostering or supporting a family who's doing that or supporting a birth family, we're also having an opportunity to be able to put a taste on the lips of the world of the greater work that Jesus has done. And when we're doing this stuff, people are curious why we do it. And so we get the opportunity then to step through that door and say, we do this not because we're good people, not because there's something inherently different about us.

We do this because of who our Lord is and who our Father is and because of His character, and you need to know Him too. Wow, and that's the voice of Dr. Rick Morton with Lifeline Christian Adoption Ministries, also the author of the book. You talk about all this in orphanology, what a title. Yeah, you know, orphanology, we were laughing at breakfast. It's one of those fun nonsense words that we came up with, but it's kind of the intersection of orphan and theology, right? And what we maybe have lost a little bit in the modern church is this idea that God intends for His people to be engaged in caring for orphans. And so orphanology for us as a book was a real passion project just to say to the church, what are ways that everyone can be involved?

I love it. Part of my association, you know, Herbie's led Lifeline for a long time, for 17 years. I'm kind of the new kid on the block and have been at this about seven, but I was a raving fan of this ministry long before I was ever a part of it. And the reason for that was the heart of this ministry to come alongside local churches and come alongside believers and to help everyone in the body of Christ find a way to be connected and to find a way to live out James 1.27. We're really good at unspotted from the world part. That's not a negotiable. We don't smoke, we don't drink, we don't go with girls that do. But the first part of that verse, the church is made kind of optional, like you were sharing with me earlier.

Absolutely. Like, you know, what would you do if your pastor stood up this Sunday and said, personal holiness is optional, right? Like, there'd be an elders meeting or deacons meeting or whatever happens in your church. People would think something's wrong with your pastor. But we look at the first half of James 1.27, that idea of visiting widows and orphans.

And we know that the word James used for visit is actually the word pastor, shepherd. Like, we're supposed to go deep in what we do in engaging these people who don't have a family and don't have a voice and don't have a place. And so when we do that, and maybe the way you do that is not by adopting or not by fostering, it's by helping a foster family to stay in. It's bringing them a meal.

It's praying for them. It's providing transportation or all kinds of things that we can do. It's providing supportive community around the families that are doing this work. It's mentoring and shepherding a birth parent that's trying to get their kids back out of foster care and bringing the gospel to bear in their lives. There are all kinds of ways we can do this. And what I love about what we get to do at Lifeline is every day we get to wake up and think about kind of this narrow area of service and how we can help the church, how we can help the body of Christ step in and be the answer.

Because I think you hit the nail on the head earlier. This is work that the government's doing because at some point we as Christians step back from it. But we have an opportunity to step in and to be involved in relevant ways and productive ways and to point people to who Jesus is. Okay, we're out of time for broadcast, but we're going to keep this going on podcast. But Herbie, tell everyone on your website real quick, you wrote this amazing book, Image Bearers. So we've got the author of Orphanology here, Dr. Rick Morton. We've got Herbie Newell, who wrote this book Image Bearers, Shifting from Pro-Birth to Pro-Life. Tell everyone why they should get involved right now in some aspect of Christian adoption and Christian fostering. Yeah, we're not all called to adopt or foster, but we are all called to do something on behalf of orphan and vulnerable children. And if you want to get engaged in any number of ways, go to our website at lifelinechild.org, and then you can always look up the book Image Bearers on Amazon and Shifting from Pro-Birth to Pro-Life, and that is a book that really is the manifesto of who we are as a ministry. I can't wait to read this. This is the Truth Network.