and on Monday I always make it a habit of reviewing the service in its entirety, including the sermon – ouch!   For anyone who has a low self-esteem  you may not want to do this because hearing yourself is not always pretty.  That being said, listed below is my brief, brief outline of what I preached:

“The Call to Preserve Life” – Exodus 1-2

• Fear God not Man
• Support Life with Actions (not with mere words)

If you’re not familiar with the Hebrew Midwife story (a heroic one at that) you’ll probably not understand why I’m about to segue into adoption.  But without going in a lot of detail, halfway through chapter 2 the Scriptures tell us that Pharaoh’s daughter adopts Moses.  As a result, Moses truly became her son and had two moms (his Hebrew mother who gave birth to him and his Egyptian mother who raised him).  Throughout the last part of my message I spent a considerable amount of time sharing with my congregation that we should not simply support life by merely lining up at the ballot box to vote pro-life (though that’s right, appropriate and something Christians should do considering the truth that God through the Scriptures places a high, high value on life), but we must also support life through other ways, such as adoption.  God tells us in His Word that “pure and unadulterated religions is to take care of widows and orphans.”  In our efforts to support life and doing so through adoption or foster-care we’re emulating our Heavenly Father because He is a Father to the Fatherless.  I concluded my sermon with seven points that a friend of mine named Jeremy Haskins cited on his blog; a blog that is primarily devoted to educating God’s people on biblical adoption.  Here they are:

1. Adoption is a reflection of God’s grace to us in Christ.
2. You were once Fatherless and now have a Father.
3. You were once without a family and now have a family.
4. Adoption is the wisdom of God’s mission in the world. (Ephesians 3:10)
5. Adoption is an aspect of true religion. (visiting orphans)
6. There are 145 million orphans and vulnerable children in the world, who Jesus considers His brother and sisters.
7. The sacrificial love and patience involved in adoption will transform you and your family.