At Home as it is in Heaven May 10th, 2026

. All of the moms here today happy Mother's Day and we want to celebrate you today. We're so thankful for you. In fact, let's just take a moment right now and just kind of give a round of applause for all the great moms that are here today. And we're so thankful for you appreciate you the difference that you make. Yes. I even heard a shout there. I love it. Love that enthusiasm. That's good. That's good. And we've already had a great Mother's Day with child dedication. I just love child dedication is such a great Sunday and so fun to see all those across all of our campuses today. We are actually dedicating 63 kids. I don't know about you that feels like a lot to me and and what's really cool about that is it's clear that the Lord is continuing to grow our church. And and so as you read the media and you think about man, the church isn't growing the church isn't doing this the church isn't do that. Let me just assure you friend that the church is the hope of the world and God is still advancing his kingdom here at Fellowship and in many churches in our city and all across the world and he's doing it for his glory. And it's just fun to see all of these young families who are here and dedicating their kids and what a privilege and a humble privilege it is to be a part of that here at Fellowship. Well, if you're new to us, my name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors here. We're so glad you're here. If you're particularly a guest with us because of the child dedication, welcome to Fellowship. We're glad you're here.

If you have any questions about our church, if you want to take a next step with us here at Fellowship, please drop by the Connection Center after the service today. We'd love to get to know you. I do want to welcome those of you that are with us in the chapel, those of you that may be joining us online today. It's great to have everybody together. I do want to give a special shout out today to all the men and women who are incarcerated that are watching us today through the Pando app. You may or may not know this, but we broadcast our services to thousands and thousands of men and women who are incarcerated all over the country through the Pando app. We're one of two churches in the state of Arkansas that do so. It's just truly a great privilege to have you with us as well today. You may be wondering, why do we do this? That's one of the things we want to talk about today. Why do we do something like the Pando app? We have been in a series that we are calling at home as it is in heaven. We have been talking about what it looks like to make disciples at home. Our mission here at Fellowship is to make disciples by God's grace and for his glory at home and across the world. We've been talking about that aspect of at home. We've been using the analogy of different rooms in a home to help us talk about that. Also last week, we talked about the living room, not the living room, excuse me, the garage and this idea that we could use our hobbies and the things we're already doing in our everyday life to make disciples for Jesus. Today as we wrap up the series, we want to talk about the driveway. Now I realize the driveway is not a room per se, but it is the opportunity as we think about with what we know and what we have, how do we take that out and share that with the city? That's what we want to talk about today. In fact, Jesus commands us to do that.

If you have a Bible or a Bible app, however you like to follow along, let me encourage you to go with me to Acts chapter one, Acts chapter one. There's going to be two primary passages that we're going to look at today. One is in Acts one, the other you see there in your outline is Jeremiah 29 that we'll get to here in just a moment, but here in Acts one, of course, Jesus has been raised from the dead. He has spent 40 days with his disciples, giving them a convincing proof that he is alive. and now he's giving us and his disciples his final words in Acts chapter one. And here's what he said in verse eight. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in all Samaria and to the end of the earth. And so in his last words, Jesus is calling us as his followers to continue his mission. He is challenging us to be his witnesses. What is a witness? It's when you see something or hear something and you go and you tell others about it, right? That's what a witness is. Years ago, I was a witness to a traffic accident. And in that moment as a witness, all I did was recount to the officer all that I had seen. That's what a witness does. And what had the disciples seen? What had the disciples heard? Well, they witnessed the resurrection of Jesus.

They had heard Jesus teach his own truth. And now Jesus is commanding them and he's commanding all of us to go and tell the world about his resurrection and call people to trust in Jesus for salvation. Simply said, the driveway is really a picture of us showing and sharing Jesus with others in our city. It's about what we've seen and what we've heard and giving that away to others in our city. Notice here that the witnesses, what we're called to do is not something that we do in our own strength. Jesus starts this off saying, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The power to serve others in our city, the power to make disciples comes from God through the work of the Spirit. It's not us, it's by God's grace as he works in and through us by the power of his Spirit. That's why Jesus would say in John 15 that we can do nothing apart from him. It's like with your cell phone. Your cell phone is not much use to you if it's not charged or if the battery's not connected. But when your cell phone is charged up, you can accomplish a lot with your phone and the same is true for us. There's a lot we can accomplish and do in his name with the power of the Spirit working in and through us.

And where are we called to be witnesses? Jesus is real specific here about where we are called to be witnesses. Notice what he says here. He says, I want you to be my witness in Jerusalem. Now that is our immediate sphere of influence. That's our Jerusalem. That's your family. That is your coworkers. That's your friends. That's your Jerusalem. And Jesus is saying that we need to be a witness for him in our sphere of influence. Then he draws a circle a little wider and he talks about Judea. That we're to be a witness for him in all of Judea. That's our neighborhood or our community. That place where we are, that's our Judea where we're called to be a witness to what we've seen, to what we know, to what we've experienced in Christ. And then he talks about a place called Samaria. Samaria, which is the specific area that we're gonna be talking about today. And this is cross-cultural, where we go into areas where people may be different than us. Different in culture or race or beliefs. Areas in our city that we might otherwise tend to avoid. Yet we're called to be witnesses in our Samaria. And then notice also last, we're called to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Next week we're gonna begin to talk more about what that looks like to be a witness to. to the ends of the earth. But today we're focusing on our Samaria. How are we as a disciple of Jesus to be a witness in our Samaria? And I think our Samaria in the context of where we find ourselves is our city. That's our Samaria. So what I'm talking about, and what I think Jesus is calling us to here is our city that we find ourselves, which is the city of Little Rock. How can we be a witness for Jesus cross-culturally in our city where we live? Going into places and serving in places of our city where we may not live. And there really are different views and ideas that churches and followers of Jesus have about their city or their Samaria. And I think it's important how we see our city because how we see our city and the people in it will really determine what kind of witnesses we are. And I think there are three ways that most people view their city. And I think all of us probably fall into one of these three groups. And the first is this, I think there's a group of people who are just apathetic toward the city. What I mean by that is you live in the city,

you have a zip code in the city, you may work in the city, but for the most part, you have a part of the city that you live in and you stay in and you're not overly concerned with other parts of the city. You're not concerned maybe with some of the bigger issues and real issues that are facing the whole city. And you wouldn't say it this way, but you're just a little bit apathetic about what's going on in the whole of the city. And as you think about your own life, there are certain parts of the city that you wouldn't really go to. Because those parts of the city are considered bad. And you wanna stay in the good parts of the city. And what happens is when you have that kind of mentality, is that you become really apathetic about what's going on and what are the issues that are facing the city, in particular, the city of Little Rock, which we'll talk more about here in just a moment. I think a second way that a lot of people look at the city is that some of us are against the city. I think this view is becoming more and more prevalent in our day. Where people have a certain animosity toward certain people in the city. And this animosity may not be articulated, but it's there in the way you feel about certain people groups. And you see yourself as good

and you see certain people in the city as bad. And you feel that certain people in the city actually deserve what's happening to them. We see this in the story of Jonah, don't we? You remember the story of Jonah? Jonah is actually called to be a witness in the city of Nineveh. And Jonah doesn't wanna be a witness to the city of Nineveh. He runs away, gets on a boat, refuses to go. And what happens to Jonah? Well, you know the story. Even if you didn't grow up in the church world, you know the story. Well, you know the story. Even if you didn't grow up in the church world, you know the story. Jonah ends up getting swallowed up by a whale, right? Gets spit up on a beach. And he didn't wanna go in the city of Nineveh. He refused to obey God. Why? Because he believed the Ninevites were a bad people. He wanted God to punish them. That they deserved what they were getting. And for some of us, there's a certain group of people, there's a certain part of our city, there's a certain way that we view people where we look down on people.

And there's a certain feeling, an animosity that we have towards those people. And by the way, those two views that I just talked about are wrong biblically. That's not the way that God calls us to think about or to view our city. Which really leads us to the third way to look at our city, which is the one that I think Jesus calls us to as followers of Christ. And that is, as people, we are for the city. That as a church, as individual Christ followers, we're for the city. In other words, we live in the city and we're also thoughtful. engaged in the city. We're loving and serving our city. We're being the witnesses that Jesus has called us to be. And so we're for the city. We're not apathetic. We're not against the city. We don't have animosity towards the city or towards a group of people in the city. No, we're for the city. And what does that mean to be for the city? How can we, as followers of God, be for the city? Well, I think the Bible talks a lot about this, and really in the time we have left, I want us to talk about how we can be people who are for our city, for our Samaria.

So if you're in Acts 1, let me invite you to turn over to Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29, this is a great passage that talks about this. Jeremiah 29, about being for the city. Now, let me set this up for you as you turn there. What's happening here in Jeremiah? If you know much about this book, just a little bit of background, the people of God, the Israelites, were sitting and running away from God. And God came after them, and in his grace, he gave them an opportunity to return to him. He offered them an opportunity to repent and to come back to him. But finally, because they refused to do so, God brought his judgment against his people. And he raised up a group of people called the Babylonians. And the Babylonians came into Israel, and they conquered Israel, and they conquered Jerusalem. And what they did is, they carried the Israelites back to Babylon. So now, the Israelites are strangers in a strange land, living now in a pagan, godless culture and city. And so now, the Israelites are asking the question, God, what are we to do now? They're asking that question. And so here in chapter 29, God tells them and us how he wants us to act and treat the people as we live in the city. Look what God says to them through the prophet Jeremiah,

starting in verse four. He says this. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles, that's the Israelites, God's people, whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. I want you to build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city, where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. So God sent them into the pagan city of Babylon, and he tells them that he actually wants to increase their influence, not decrease it while they live there. And God tells them three things that he wants them to do for the city. And I think these things are incredibly instructive for us as well. The first is this, he tells them, invest yourself where I have you. Invest yourself where I have you. Look again at verse five, what God says to them through Jeremiah, he says, build houses and live in them.

Now, here they are, they're prisoners in a foreign land, a land that they don't wanna be in, a land that they don't wanna stay in any longer than they have to, that they want to leave and go back home, but God says to them, I want you to put down roots here. I want you to settle here. I want you to invest in this place where I have you. See, when you build a house, you're making a long-term commitment to that place. You're investing yourself in that city, and that's exactly what God is saying here. He's saying to his people, I want you to make a commitment here to this place. Don't be looking elsewhere. Be committed and focused right where I have placed you, and I think that's a really good word for some of us today, because some of us are always looking for the next better thing. better neighborhood, a better house, a better job. And God may be saying to you, I've got you where I want you. I want you to invest yourself where I have you today. I want you to invest in your friends. I want you to invest in your coworkers. I want you to invest in our city through a ministry, an organization. I want you to invest exactly where I have you. And some of us miss out on those opportunities because we're always looking elsewhere,

always looking for something better, something new. And God may be telling you today, I want you to invest right where I have you today. He goes on in verse five to say this. He says, not only do I want you to build houses and invest yourself, he says, plant gardens and eat their produce. And I think the idea here is make a contribution to those around you, make a contribution to those around you. Now think about this. They've been captured, taken off to a foreign land against their will. It'd be easy to be complacent and apathetic, but God says, no, I want you to provide for yourself. I want you to work, plant gardens, go to work. Don't be a burden on others. Make a contribution to those around you. And so this could be you serving in a local ministry in our city or with a local organization where you're making a contribution to those around you. I know my wife, Jenny, and several ladies here at Fellowship are a part of a mentoring ministry at J.A. Fair High School where they're mentoring and tutoring young girls. They're making a contribution in those around them. And that's how we're a witness is we make a kingdom difference in the lives of people that are around us in our city. And so we wanna have an impact or an influence where we are.

We wanna make a contribution in our city. And then last and most importantly, notice what God tells them. He says that he wants them to help the city flourish, that we need to be people at a church that's helping our city flourish. These are powerful words in verse seven. God says this, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. And pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. He says, seek the welfare of the city. Pray for the city. By the way, last Thursday in the National Day of Prayer, we did that. Prayed for our nation, prayed for our state, prayed for our city. And that word translated in your Bible, welfare, is the word shalom. Most of the time when you see the Hebrew word shalom in your Bible, it's translated peace. But peace is more than just avoiding conflict. Peace is also when everything socially, spiritually, emotionally, when everything is healthy and strong and flourishing, that is shalom, that is peace. And God here is challenging his people and challenging us to be the kinds of people that bring shalom, that bring peace and help the city flourish.

And notice the word he uses here. He uses the word seek, that we need to seek the welfare of the city, that we would help our city flourish. That means, that idea of seek means that we're actively involved in seeing that happen, that we have a role in that, of helping our city flourish, that we're involved and we're getting involved in that. Because that matters to God, and because it matters to God, it ought to matter to us. So how do we do that? How do we practically speaking, help our city flourish? Well, here at Fellowship, we have five ways or areas where we can help our city flourish. We seek to help the city of Little Rock So, you know, I've been here for a long time. in particular flourish. And these are five areas where we deploy our people I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. and we deploy our financial resources to help our city flourish, to help bring God's shalom to the city of Little Rock. And by the way, we didn't just come up with these five areas out of the air.

We believe that these five areas are really founded in the heart of the gospel. And there's a lot of places that talk about these different five areas, but I think maybe the most foundational passage that talks about this is in Matthew chapter 25. Don't turn there, but I'm gonna put the verses up here on the screen. I want you to follow along as I read them. These are Jesus' words. Matthew chapter 25, verse 31. And here's what Jesus says to us. He says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Jesus is talking about the judgments that is to come. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Now, sometimes this is referred to as the parable of the sheep and the goats. It's really better said that it's a prophecy of the sheep and the goats. And Jesus goes on to say, and he will place the sheep on his right, he'll put the goats on the left. Then the king, that's Jesus, will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you

from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you did what? You gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you what? You welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king, that's the Lord Jesus, will answer them and say, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. And so these five areas, think about it this way, this is how we wanna help the least of these in our city flourish. How we wanna help the least of these in our city flourish as God encourages and challenges us to as a church and as people. So let's talk about these briefly. Here's the first area or way that you can be involved in helping our city flourish. The first is education.

You may not know this, but Arkansas has one of the lowest literacy rates in the nation. And that's certainly true for our city. This is why, by the way, that we partner with ministries like STEP who comes alongside and tutors and mentors underprivileged kids in our city. This is why we partner with an underperforming elementary school, Stevens Elementary. And we send people out there to mentor the students there, to help them read better and to tutor them and to help them take steps. Why do we do that? Because we wanna help the city flourish. We wanna help the uneducated become more educated. Why? Because that's a blessing to them. And as it blesses them, it also blesses us and it blesses the city. We wanna see the city flourish. And part of the way we do that is through helping people in the area of education. Another area beyond education is orphan care. We wanna help our city flourish in education. We also wanna do that in orphan care. James chapter one, verse 27 says this, "'Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father "'is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction "'and to keep oneself unstained from the world.'" Man, we wanna help our city flourish by helping take care of those who are in foster care.

Or those who are desiring to adopt a child. Or those. who are facing an unwanted pregnancy. And so we support ministries like The Call, which you saw their video just a few moments ago. The Call is the largest foster care agency in our state. And do you know who started The Call? Fellowship Bible Church. And God has seen fit through his grace to grow that and to impact our state. It's also why we wanna walk alongside moms who are facing a pregnancy and support the unborn through places like Caring Hearts Pregnancy Center, helping moms who are pregnant find the care and support they need so that they can choose life for their baby and not death. We wanna see the city flourish. That's why we care for the orphan who is among us. The third is this, prison. Maybe you heard that when I read through Matthew 25. I heard an alarming statistic about Arkansas a while back, that if Arkansas was not a state and we were an independent country, if we were an independent country and not a state, Arkansas would have the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita. Now sit in that for a moment. Let me say that again. If Arkansas was not a state and we were a separate independent country,

Arkansas would have the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita. Man, we wanna help bring God's shalom to our city, to our state. One of the ways we can do that is in our prison system. This is why over a year ago, those of you who have been around here, you know we took care package to every single man and woman in the state of Arkansas that's incarcerated. It's why we partner the way we do with ministries like Pathway to Freedom, who's actively working to rehabilitate men at the Wrightsville unit. Why are we doing that? Because we wanna help our city flourish. One of the ways we wanna do that is in our prisons. Fourth, is health, food, and shelter. Health, food, and shelter. Did you know that one in four kids in Arkansas is food insecure? That's hard to believe. We're one of the leading states and cities around food insecurity. It's a big issue. This is why we partner the way we do with food banks like Rowling Crisis Center and other food banks in our city. In fact, starting next Sunday, we're gonna start a new initiative

called the Summer Feeding Initiative. This is gonna be a very practical way that you and your family can help our city flourish around food insecurity. When you come here next week, there are gonna be boxes at every one of the exits here on this campus. We're gonna ask that either you or as a family, you pick up at least one of those boxes. You can pick up as many as you want. On that box will actually be a menu. We're gonna ask you over the next few weeks to take those boxes and fill those boxes up according to the menu that's on that box and then bring that back to fellowship by June the 7th. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna take those boxes out to our city, which is food insecure, and we're gonna deliver those boxes to some of our elementary schools and to some of our food banks. What an incredibly practical way that you, that me, we can be involved in helping our city flourish in such an important issue like food insecurity. So I wanna encourage you. This is a great opportunity to be involved in what we're doing here and to help our city flourish. And then last but certainly not least, it's church strengthening and planting.

One of the ways we help our city flourish is by starting and strengthening churches. Much of the Apostle Paul's ministry was dedicated to planting and strengthening churches. First Corinthians chapter three, verse six says this. This is Paul speaking. He says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. And we do that primarily through our ministry partner, Fellowship Associates, who we've been partnered with for years and Fellowship Associates has planted over 100 churches throughout the United States and all across the world. And the more we start churches, the more disciples we can make, the more witnesses we can have who are sharing and showing the gospel. And that helps to bring shalom, not just to our city, but to cities all over our country and all across the world. And so my question is this, as you consider these five ways that we're engaged in helping our city flourish, where do you see yourself getting involved? Your city needs you, needs me. And where can you see yourself getting involved in helping our city, the city of Little Rock, flourish? I think each and every one of us have a part to play.

And listen, if you don't know where to get started, we can help you with that. Drop by the Connection Center today. We can help you get connected into ministry opportunities. And one of the areas that I listed out today, if you don't have time to do that, you'll notice at the bottom there of the outline is our website. And if you'll go there, it'll list out for you all different ways that you can get connected here in and through fellowship to help our city flourish and sign up for one of those. We all have a part to play in helping our city flourish. And it's so important because when the city flourishes, the people flourish. Look what God says about this at the end of verse seven. He says this in Jeremiah 29, seven. He says, for in its welfare, he's talking about the city, you will find welfare. That's a very interesting statement. In other words, what God is saying through the prophet Jeremiah is the more we seek to serve and bring good to our city, the more we will experience that ourselves. Simply said, as our city goes, so go we. If our city flourishes, we flourish. Our church flourishes. It benefits all of us is what God is saying through Jeremiah. So God has called each of us to go beyond these four walls

and to be a part of being a blessing in our city. So ask yourself, where does God wanna use you to help the city flourish? God has a place for you. It's not an accident that God has you in this season of your life living in Little Rock, Arkansas. And I believe that he wants to use you, he wants to use me to help this city flourish for the glory of his name. All he's asking us to do is just put our yes on the table. And listen, we don't have to do it in our own power and strength. Why? Because God put his power in us. God works in us and through us. And he can help us if we'll just take that bold step and we'll trust him and step out. God can use us in this city to be a witness for the glory of his name. And that's what he's calling us to do. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much that you care about the city and you care about each and every person in our city, each and every part of our city. You have a heart for our city. And God, would you grow our heart for our city? It's not by an accident, it's by your sovereign plan that you have placed us here in Little Rock, in North Little Rock to be used for the glory of your name. Would you give us courage today,

individually and corporately as a church, that Lord, we would be a blessing to our city, that we would be a part of helping to bring shalom to our city, that our city would flourish because of the way we're loving and serving and caring for others, just as the way, Lord Jesus, you loved and served us at the cross, that we would give it all for the sake of the city. Because as the city flourishes, so do we. And we wanna help our city flourish. And we pray that you would do this in the power of your name. Amen.