Gospel In Culture, October 4th, 2026

(upbeat music) - Well, good morning, Fellowship. Let's say good morning to the chapel and to all of our campuses that are joining us together today. We are one church in multiple locations around Central Arkansas, so it's good to be together as one church family today. I'm so thankful for all that God's doing in this place called Fellowship. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Brandon Bernard. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Fellowship. We're an elder-led church. We have four teaching pastors, campus pastors, and so we're just so thankful for the team that we have here at Fellowship. So thankful for all that God's doing. And if you're a guest with us today, we're certainly God that you're joining us here in person, or maybe even online, somewhere here in Arkansas, or around the country, maybe even around the world, but we're really glad that you're here with us today. If you have a Bible, you can go to Psalm chapter 10. That's where we're gonna land this morning. Psalm chapter 10 here in just a few moments as we take a moment to step away from miracles of Jesus and have a gospel and culture message. And I'll explain that here in just a minute. But before we do that, I do want to take a moment, 'cause it's a new month, and this year,

we're in the season of God is able. We've been talking about how that's kind of our theme throughout this whole year as we look at the scriptures and know that God is able. And one of the things that we said we were gonna do is memorize scripture together. And so last month, in September, we memorized Psalm 8611, right? Psalm 8611, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. Really was hoping you'd join in. But anyway, so maybe you're still working on that, and so we'll encourage you in that. But one of the reasons we're doing scripture memory is so that we can pray it over people, so that we can learn that truth in our life, so we can teach it to ourselves, teach it to others, see how God is working and moving and just putting His word in our minds and in our hearts and overflowing into every part of our living and every part of our day. And so we come to October, which is a great month, and we have a great verse for you. We're actually doing Ephesians 3, 20, and 21. Got a little radical, added an extra verse, and so I encourage you to stretch yourself in that way. But I want us to read this together. All of our campuses joining in together and just saying this this morning from Ephesians 3, 20, and 21.

Here's what it says, and you say it with me. "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly "than all that we ask or think, "according to the power at work within us, "to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus "throughout all generations forever and ever." Amen, yeah, such a great passage. Got a Him who is able. Got a Him who is able to do more than we can ask or think. He can do more than we could ever imagine. According to the power, not your power, not the world's power, but the power of God that works within us for our good, for His glory, to Him be the glory now and forevermore. I'm not gonna keep preaching on it, but this is a great verse for us to, verses, for us to memorize, for God to use in our lives, that we can pray over, that we can share with, that we can meditate on, that we can live out, that we can believe, that we can stand firm on, and as we know that God is able, to Him who is able, because there is nothing that He cannot do. And so we want to be able to worship Him, glorify Him, and put His Word inside our hearts and our minds. I wanna encourage you to do that. Let me pray with us this morning before we dive into God's Word. Father God, thank you so much for being the God who is able. There's nothing that can stop you. There's nothing you can't do.

There's no one greater, there's no one higher, there's no one mightier, there's no one more amazing, there's no one more comforting, there's no one more joyful, no one more loving, no one more gracious in you, God, you are able. And so Lord, I just pray that you remind us of that truth, because there are people here today, there are people who are listening online, and they need that truth today, they need it to wrap around them, like a blanket on a cold night, or they need it like a waterfall that comes down in the summertime, they need to know that you are able to do more than we could ask or think. And so Lord, I just pray that you would strengthen our hearts and that truth by the power of your Holy Spirit, that works within us, there is no greater power, and we pray Lord, that we would live in light of that power, and that we would bring you great glory, by the way that we live our lives, We pray for our kids this morning across all of our campuses, Lord, strengthen them, bless them, help our volunteers as they love them and serve them. We pray for our community that desperately needs you, Jesus. Send us out as lights in this community. We pray for those that are in foster care, or that need, they need help. They need people to come and love and care for them in very meaningful ways for families that are trying to reunite.

Lord, we just pray for your grace to be abundant in all those places and in all those people. Lord, we love you. We thank you. Speak this now through your word by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen, amen. So Psalm chapter 10, we are taking a break from the miracles of Jesus for just a week because we wanted to do a gospel and culture message. And some of you may be new to fellowship, and so you may not know or remember that from time to time, we take a Sunday. Sometimes we take several Sundays in the past. We've done that. We preach what's called a gospel and culture message. And we're very intentional about that. We call it gospel in culture because it's not gospel versus culture, gospel against culture. It's gospel in culture because we believe that the gospel absolutely transforms everything. And so for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we know the gospel. The gospel is this, that Jesus Christ came to this earth and he lived a perfect, sinless life and died a cruel, horrible death on the cross for our sins. And he was buried and God raised him from the dead

and he defeated death so that we could have life in him. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins. And that gospel changes us. And it affects the way we live in culture. It affects the way that we spend our money. It affects the way we spend our time. It affects the way that we treat others. It affects the way we look at others. It should affect every part of our life. That's why we call it gospel in culture. And as believers, we should be making a difference by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so this morning we come to a topic that is close to the heart of God. It's close to the heart of God. And when you get close to the heart of God, there's a mystery, there's a little bit of a risk there. There's a beauty to it. There's an invitation to it to come close to the heart of God. And so this morning we wanna do exactly that. We wanna come close to his heart and see what his heart is for the Fatherless, what his heart is for the oppressed. So we're invited to join him in that and to see how his love for us makes a difference and how it changes us. So we're invited into his heartbeat this morning. And it really is also a reminder.

This sermon is a reminder to those of us who are believers. Now I know that in a church this size across all of our campuses, we have people who are in person, we have people who are listening online and you're with us today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. For whatever reason, you're here with a friend, you're here with a family member. Maybe you just came, maybe you're searching the claims of Christ right now, but you're not a believer in Jesus. And if that's you, we're glad you're here. Thank you, thank you. We wanna know more about your story. We wanna know more about how maybe God's working in your life, how we can maybe come alongside you. We're thankful that you're here. For the rest of us who are believers, we understand that this morning is a reminder to us of God's heartbeat for the Fatherless, for the oppressed. Now I don't know how you are, but a lot of people don't like reminders sometimes. Because when you're reminded of something, if you're married and your spouse reminds you or if you're maybe single and you're a roommate or a parent or somebody else reminds you or whatever, when somebody's reminding you about something, sometimes it doesn't sit well with people. Part of that has to do with your posture,

kind of out of your heart, kind of where you are. Sometimes it's how they say it. Sometimes it's whether or not you've done something or didn't do something or you forgot to do something, but reminders can land differently on different people. I remember years ago, my wife and I were doing some work around our house and we had borrowed a tool from a friend. And when we were done with it, my wife said, you're gonna get it back to him, right? It's like, I'm gonna, yes, I'm on that. And so I put it in my trunk, I was driving a car at the time. I put it in my car and put it in the trunk. And I drove around for probably two or three weeks with that thing in my car. And my wife stopped me one afternoon and she was like, hey, you've returned that tool, right? Like you did that, right? And I was like, you know, I've been busy and I've had a lot on my plate, you know? And I felt myself kind of bristling up, you know? In that moment, it's like, how do you tell? You're gonna tell, like I was like one of those moments where it was a great re-engaged moment for us. And so we were having, you know, conversation and, and the reason I was taking offense to it is because I hadn't followed through on it. She wasn't wrong, her tone wasn't wrong. It was the fact that I just was being reminded about something that I said I would do, needed to be doing that I didn't do.

And so this morning as we come to this text, God's message may fall on you in a pre-tender place. of God, but it hadn't been too close to your heart lately. And so I just want you to lean into that because it may, and by the way, if you've been doing things, if you've been doing it, then the reminder just fires you up. Like if you've been a part of it and somebody's right, you're like, yeah, let's go. Like you're excited about it. But if you're not, yeah, maybe saying something to you. So this morning, let's look in Psalm 10, beginning in verse 17 and 18, really beginning and ending. It says two verses today, 17 and 18. And listen to what it says. It says, oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. Let me read that to you in the new living translation. It says, Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed so mere people can no longer terrify them. This is an invitation into the heartbeat of God. This is an invitation in an open window to see what God cares about. It's why I entitled this message, who cares? Who cares? Well, you can see on your notes on the bulletin, here's that first point, God cares.

He cares about the fatherless and the oppressed. Now, I don't think that when I say that, anybody's listening to this message and goes, oh man, I never thought about that. I didn't really, man, that's a new one. Of course he does. Now, some people may think when you look at the atrocities, when you look at the tragedies that are happening around locally, when you think about all the things that are happening in our state and nationally, globally, and you look at all the things that are so dark, so disparaging, one probably could think, man, does God really care about this? Does God really care about this? And the answer is, without a doubt, unequivocally, yes, he does. The Scripture is littered with verses. It's scattered with verses that talk about God's heartbeat for the oppressed, God's heartbeat for the fatherless, God's heartbeat for the orphan. It's over and over that he is the defender of the weak. This isn't on the screen, but it says, "Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors God." It talks about this heartbeat of God of loving others. This isn't on the screen either, but 2 Corinthians talks about this. It says, "Bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all, comfort who comforts us in all of our afflictions." So the God of the Bible, the God of the Scriptures, the one true living God, he is a comfort giving, care giving God.

His heart is absolutely toward those who are oppressed and afflicted. Scripture says it over and over and over again. James 1.27, "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." Some of you are familiar with that verse, but religion that's pure and undefiled is pure and undefiled. Religion before God is to care for widows and orphans and to keep oneself unstained from the world. I want to take a little time out here and just say this. This message is for the Fatherless. It's for caring for the oppressed. But I would be remiss to not say this, that God calls us to care for the widows among us too. So if you know widows that are in your circle, in your D group, on your street, in your atmosphere, in the places where you go, if there are widows that you're around, as a believer in Jesus Christ, care for them, befriend them, get to know them, pray for them, encourage them, see how you can come alongside them, invite them into your family, invite them into some of the things that you're doing. We want to be the kind of church that cares for the widows among us. And so maybe that's the sermon to some of you today, to think about who's in your circle, who do you know, who's in that world. And I would encourage you, reach out with the text, with a phone call, with a note, come alongside, encourage them in ways that will encourage their heart in the Lord. But as we look at the fatherless and the oppressed this morning, as we think about God's heartbeat for them, here's what we find out.

We know that God cares about them. And here's what this passage points out to us. You'll see this very clearly in your notes. First of all, he's aware of their need. I love this passage because it's very, very clear in Psalm 10. It just says he hears the cries. He hears the desire, the afflicted. Like he hears the cries of the hopeless. He knows he's aware, he's not unaware. This is not a surprise to him. Nothing is hidden from God. He sees everything, he knows everything. And as chaotic as the world looks, as chaotic as the world is, and all these different places and all the things that have been done to children around the world, and things that are going on even now as we speak, God is not ignorant, he's not silent, he's not hidden from this, he knows this. But it says this, he will strengthen their heart. He's gonna strengthen their heart. Now, when he does that, where he does that, how he does that is really up to God. As that plan kind of unfolds, but it says he will strengthen their heart. He's going to do this. He's going to care for them. He's going to take care of them. He will hear their cries and strengthen and comfort them. There are multiple times in Scripture where God hears the cries of his people and he responds to strengthen in the midst of that. Third thing is this, he will act on their behalf.

It says he's gonna do justice to the followless and the oppressed. He's gonna make it to where the man of terror strikes no more. He's going to take care. He's going to act. He's going to do something about it. His justice is justice. Some of the justice we experience sometimes is just a foretaste, a shadow of that. Some of the justice that happens sometimes is not justice at all, but God's justice is perfect justice and he will act on their behalf. It says you will bring justice. So we see this laid out real clearly that God cares for the followless and the oppressed. And just so we know this, this is how God treats those who trust in him. This is how God treats those who trust in him. There's a very similar pattern to how God treats those who trust in his name, those who believe in him, those who follow him, those who profess the name of Jesus Christ, how he treats us. And here's the way it lines out. I put it on one slot so you can see it. It kind of breaks down. It's the same pattern, it's just different words. He knows that we're sinners. In other words, he's aware of our need. He knows our need.

He knows that we're all sinners. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there's not a person on this planet, a young kid, a teenage kid, an adult. There's not anyone on this planet who's not a sinner, who's not born as a child of wrath, that we are enemies of God. Some people have a tough time grasping this, coming to understand this, but God's word makes it very clear that all of us are sinners who need to be saved, who need to be forgiven of our sins. So he treats us like this because he knows that we're sinners and he sent Jesus to save us from our sins. That's the strength in our heart. He's gonna strengthen our hearts. That's why he sent Jesus for this very purpose. This is why Jesus came. This is why he left heaven and came to this earth so that he could live a sinless life and he could die on the cross in your place, in my place, because all we deserve is the wrath of God, the judgment of God and yet Jesus took the wrath of God, the judgment of God in our place for us so that we could be saved. That's how he's strengthening our hearts and he acted on our behalf. Jesus died on the cross so that people might be saved. So you see how the gospel unfolds. This is how God is treating us.

For those of us who have been saved, we are like orphans who've been adopted in Christ. He's brought us into his family. Galatians, well, let me just say Romans 5, 8, it says that God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When God shows, he demonstrates, he manifests his love for us, that while we were enemies, while we were sinners, while we were rejecting, he was accepting, while we were separated from him, he was drawing us near because he died for us. This is how he treats those who trust in him. Galatians 4, 3, 3, 7 says this, "In the same way we also, when we were children, "were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. "But when the fullness of time had come, "God sent forth his son, born of woman, "born under the law, to redeem, "to save those who were under the law, "so that we might receive adoption as sons. "And because you're sons, "where sons and daughters, "your son's God has sent the spirit of his son "into our hearts, crying out of a father. "So you're no longer a slave, but a son, "and if a son, then air through God." This is beautiful. He's telling us our identity. He's saying, listen, you were enslaved to sin, but God sent his son to bring the spirit of adoption,

to adopt you into his family, to call you his own, to redeem you so you're not a slave anymore. You're a son, you're a daughter of the king, you're an heir to the throne. This is who you are. This is your identity. This is your permanence as a follower of Christ. Now, some of you this morning may not be believers in Jesus Christ. And if that is you, we would plead with you to realize that you're a sinner, and you need a savior. Because that's all of us. And so this morning, you have an opportunity to repent of your sins and believe in trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you because he's the one who paid the price for you and he wants to forgive you and give you hope. And if you have a bulletin this morning, there's a tear-off portion on the bulletin. if you don't know Christ. We have a connection center that have pastors and staff that are there after the service, and we would love to have a conversation with you to tell you the truth about how much Jesus loves you. If you don't, if you have to run after the service, then I would encourage you to take and tear off this tab, write your name down, say that you would love to have a conversation with us. You can fold it just like this, and you can put it in the giving box.

People will think you're giving. You can put it in the giving box, and we will follow up with you, will follow up with you, because we'd love to introduce you to Jesus Christ. Let's keep going through Ephesians one, three through six, it says this, "Bless be the God and Father "of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, "that we should be holy and blameless before him. "In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself "as sons through Jesus Christ. "According to the purpose of his will, "to the praise of his glorious grace, "with which he has blessed us in the beloved." Do you understand the concept of adoption? It is a powerful thing, it is a powerful truth, it's a powerful moment when someone is adopted. To be able to have a young lady or a young man, I mean, to have a baby that you bring in your home that you adopt, what you're saying is, I love you, I choose you, I want to bring you into my family. Some of you know my story, some of you don't, but my wife and I have five kids, and two of them we adopted, by God's grace, and they've changed our lives. And we are so thankful for how God's worked in moving that, but to be in a moment to say to a kid, "I love you, and I choose you, I choose you, "I want you to come to our family, to give that invitation."

That's what the Scripture says about us. That Jesus Christ has invited us, he's chosen us, he's invited us to come and be a part of his family. We are adopted, that's how we are, that's who we are in Christ. Romans eight, 14 through 17, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, "Abba Father." That's an intimate term, calling us in a relationship. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God, and if children than heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. As adopted kids in the family of God, we gain all the legal status. We are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Jesus. We're destined to receive all that Christ receives by divine right, by divine grace. He changes us. That's how God cares for us and for those who trust in Him. Do you trust in Him this morning? But it's not just how He treats us. This is now to the practical side of things. This is how God instructs His children to treat others. And this is where we come to the part about caring for the fatherless and the oppressed. Because for those of us before we met Christ,

this was our condition, this is where we were, and God adopted us into His family. And now He's treated us this way, and He's instructed us to treat others that way. So this is the gospel to us and through us. See, the grace and love of Jesus Christ comes to us and flows to us, not just to stay there, but to flow through us to others. So that's what we're wanting to do, is we want to love those around us. Here's what it says in Isaiah 1 17, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. These are imperatives that are just rolling off. Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. We're highlighting today this idea, this truth, this command for us to bring justice to the fatherless, to care for them. So as we think about that, several things I would just say is this, one is open your eyes to the needs around you. I didn't even make you feel that blank in. It's just there, right there in your bulletin. Open your eyes to the needs around you. One of the grave dangers and sins of us is sometimes just not seeing the need, being ignorant, being apathetic, being selfish, being lazy, and not seeing the needs around us. Open up your eyes and realize that there are kids in need,

there are families that need to have needs. We can't just afford to kind of look at our own life and our own places and not see how there are other people out there that have needs as well. We're going to open up our eyes to that. And one of the reasons we're doing this as a church, and we're trying to help each other out, we're trying to help you out is because we have the Foster Care Initiative, and we've got packing nights that are happening starting tonight. And they're happening tonight. you can see the dates that are there. Midtowns tonight, Cabot is tonight. Benton's doing it tomorrow night. Mom L's doing it Tuesday night. Everybody else, West Little Rock, Espinio, North Little Rock are doing a Wednesday night. We have an opportunity to love on some foster kids. We have an opportunity to encourage some DCFS workers. We have an opportunity to encourage some bio-families, some kinship families. We have an opportunity to do this all across our state. 9,000, over 9,000 packages. Now, in fact, we have like, I think 400 or so left, maybe even total. Maybe a little bit more than all of our campuses. And so, I encourage you to go out and to grab one of these cards. And it has a tear-off part. And once you tear it off, it's yours.

So, Julie, we have another one, okay? 'Cause I tore it off in the first service. So, we have another one. And I just, I wanna encourage you to do this. Don't just take it, not do it, take it, and go shop on that list and then come back on the night that's designated and let's pack and let's pray. Let's write notes. Let's ask God to show His love and His grace to these foster kids and these families and these DCFS workers. And let's shout with these care packages and say, God sees you, God loves you, God values you. And so do we. Let's do that as a church. We wanna be aware of the need that's around us. I wanna encourage you. We shouldn't have any of these left over. We should be able to get all these and encourage these kids and these families and these workers. Let's do it together, Fellowship. Here's the next thing. Open up your heart and your home to the fatherless. Open up your heart and your home to the fatherless. I wanna put everybody to ease for a second. The call is not for every person to adopt and foster. That's not the call for everybody. There are plenty of people that are hearing this message. You don't need to adopt, you don't need to foster. That's not where you are.

That's not where your family is. And this is for a single and married. But some of you are single and maybe God's calling you to foster and God's calling you to adopt. And some of you are married and God may be calling you to foster and to adopt, to do one or the other. Maybe to do both, maybe it turns into that. But God is calling some of you. And we would be remiss if we didn't take a moment and say, you know what, God may be stirring your heart. What would it look like for 50 to 75 to 100 families from all across our fellowship campuses to step up and become foster families? To become adoptive families. That maybe God's stirring your heart that this time next year or in two years, your family Christmas photo looks a little bit different than it does now. God's calling you into his heartbeat. And let me tell you something, it's risky, it's dangerous, it's hard, it's beautiful, it's exciting, it's rewarding, it's all of those things. God may be calling you to step into this world. What is your answer going to be? As you pray, as you seek, as you think, some of you maybe have been wrestling with it for a while. You've stalled out the conversation. You've kind of pushed it back a little bit. But God's asking you to lean in. God's asking you to step out in faith, open up your home.

And I do wanna acknowledge that we have many families in fellowship who've adopted. We have many families in fellowship even currently who are doing foster care. Just in between services, I had someone come up and hand me a piece of paper. They've had 82 foster kids through their home in nine years. (audience applauding) Yeah, so it's a, there are many, many families who've invested in this in fellowship and I'm thankful for that. But it's God calling you, it's God calling you. Here's the third thing I would just say on this, we need to offer up our time and resources to the fatherless. So when I said that not everybody needs to adopt and not everybody needs to do foster care, some of you do. But the rest of you don't, we still have obligation because it's part of God's heartbeat to care for the fatherless and to care for the oppressed. We have the opportunity, we have the responsibility to step in and to offer up our time and our resources to the fatherless, whether we're single or whether we're married, whether we have a lot of financial standing or we don't have much financial standing. We are called, the scripture makes it very, very clear that we are to care for those that are fatherless and care for those who are oppressed. And we wanna be the kind of church and the kind of people that do just that.

And so when you think about your time and your resources and I know there are plenty of people that say, "Man, I just don't have time, I'm just busy." And we say this all the time, take a number, man, we're all busy, everybody's busy. And I'm not saying that you're busy doesn't matter because you're busy is you're busy, but maybe you need to stop doing something so you can start doing something else, maybe. Let the spirit kind of guide you in control. How can you offer up your time and resources? Well, I would say several ways. Respite care, family advocate, supporter of ministries, have all three of those kind of there together. Respite care, do you know what that looks like? Respite care, what it looks like is, is that you give a few hours on a single evening or a day to care for foster children while their foster parents rest. So you know a foster care family. Maybe you know a family, you say, you know what? Let us take care of the kids for the night so you can go have dinner, so you can rest, so you can take a nap, so you can sleep, so you can do what you need to do. Let us step in as a friend and help you in this way. Or let us go with you to do some activity so that we can help you, and we can be your hands and feet. We can kind of help you in that moment because when someone steps into a foster care role,

when someone steps into a adoptive role, there's a lot of things that change, there's a lot of things that are there. If you step into adoption or foster care, you need to not have rose-colored glasses on because it's not all fun and games, it's not always easy. It's a painful process sometimes, it's a difficult process sometimes. Sometimes there are seasons, sometimes there are really long seasons. Parenting's not for the faint of heart anyway. And so when you think about that, just know that it can be challenging, and so even more so, respite care becomes something that's very doable, it's a small commitment. And it's one of the most needed forms of support for a foster care world. And so think about the people that maybe you know, and if you don't know anyone, that's why we're talking about it. Come talk to our admissions team. I'm getting ready to show you partners that we have. I'm getting ready to show you people in the city that are doing work around this. Maybe God would use you to step in. Become a foster family advocate, what does that mean? It means come alongside one foster family as their steady support. Be the listening ear, bring a meal, clean their home, pray for them.

So maybe your D group, your discipleship group says we know a family who's doing foster care, and so we're going to make a meal for them because when you're doing foster care, you may get a kid at 2 a.m. in the morning. You may get a kid at 6 a.m. in the morning. We don't know, it can turn your world upside down in a moment, and in a moment they go, what are we going to do for dinner? Well, I know what we're going to do for dinner. The D group's bringing dinner. They're going to bring dinner. They're either going to bring real dinner or they're going to bring gift cards, both work. They're going to do this, they're going to service. Your group can do that. Your spiritual community can do that. We're going to clean the home. You think about it and you act on it. You do something about it. And then support our ministries. Support our ministries that you look out and go, there are quite a few ministries. We have some ministries that we partner with as a church family. We also have no ministries in the city that are doing good work. They're doing work in the foster care world and the adoption world. But there are ministries that we support as partners.

Matter of fact, I want to show you a few of those. We have the call who's here with us today, the call in Arkansas, the great work that they're doing all across the state. And we want connected adoptions. People for years, Carol Watson and Lori Chapman have given much effort to that. Becky Brunes was a part of that. Connected adoptions, they're doing great work when it comes to foster care and adoption of that world. Project Zero, Christy Irwin, that team's been around for a long time. We're there trying to help eliminate that by saying, let's get foster care kids adopted. And it's a great ministry that we've partnered with. Let's go to the next one. Restore Hope. Paul Chapman used to be our missions pastor here. He moved into this restore hope world man, doing a phenomenal job with that. Trying to help people connect in different ways and take care of foster care families and Bible families and all those kind of things. Good roots, Jackie Young, Bill Young on our Benton campus. They have started this ministry to help young ladies that find themselves in need. So these are ministries we partner with that are amazing. There's also ministries in the city. There's so many ministries in the city that are doing good work.

Let's show this one. So immerse Arkansas, our house, the care porter, portal. I just actually helped someone recently with the care portal. It was an awesome experience. And so they're doing great work in the city. And so you could check those out. And then there's several more. A hundred families, which is under restore hope, city serve Arkansas and then healing waters, outreach center. I just list those. I can't spend time on all those, but just know that we have partners and we have people who are also working in the city that are doing work in these moments. And you can support those ministries. You can also go to fellowshipar.com/missions. If you're kind of going, I just don't know where to go. Now you do, now you do. Fellowshipar.com/missions. And you can look and see how God may be stirring your heart to find a way to serve and be a part of this and be a part of God's heartbeat. At fellowship, we give a significant portion of our missions giving to multiple partners every year who engage in foster care and adoption. So you need to know that we have five buckets at fellowship that we give to locally. We give to prisoners.

We give to orphan care. We give the kind of health and shelter and food. We give the church strengthening and we give to it orphan care. So we have these five, education. We give to education. So there's five there. And so we do that on a yearly basis, being as generous as we can be. But as we engage this year, God is able, is there something bigger? Is there something unique that God has for us to really show that God is able?" And so as we prayed about it, we were thinking about it, the Spirit just moved in such a way that we actually had a conversation with the call. And the call had a unique need. And so as we began to see what the call needed and we began to pray and God is able and God just began to kind of point us in this direction. The call, this ministry was burned through someone here at fellowship. It was under the leadership of Mary Carol Peterson many, many years ago, probably in a sermon like this that God sparked her heart to do something and she did and her faithfulness and the faithfulness of many, many others have ministered to many churches and foster care families and kids for a long time.

And so we heard of this need for a new call center. It's a call location in North Littorod because sometimes there are calls in the middle of the night at some time a day and they need a place to come and shower. They need a place to have a towel. They need a place to have a bed to sleep on. They need to have a place before they actually get placed into foster care families. And so I'm here to tell you that today we have given the call a $100,000 to be able to go and purchase a center in North Littorod. Did you hear that? (congregation applauding) I think you know this. I think you know this about fellowship. I hope you do. This is not about patting ourselves on the back. This is about saying that the generosity when you give here, God wants to supply that to meet some needs and this is a unique need for us to do to be able to give this gift so that they can purchase a place in North Littorodod in the North area that will serve these families. And this morning we have Kristen Butler. Kristen Butler is the executive director of the call in Arkansas. She serves on the board of every child Arkansas. And so she's here this morning to share what God's doing. So I want us to give a warm welcome to Kristen Butler. Come on up.

(congregation applauding) So thankful for you. Thank you for your leadership and I would love for you to share kind of what God's doing. Well first I just want to say I'm truly honored to get to be here with you. Fellowship has been a tremendous partner for many years as Brandon shared and this gift is gonna be life-changing. Recently we had a teenage girl that walked through the doors of one of our centers. It had been a couple of weeks since she had had a shower, a warm meal, and simply feel safe. She walked in absolutely broken and at the hardest time of her life she had entered foster care. As she came in she was handed a warm towel. She was shown to a private bathroom where she could take a nice warm shower. She picked out some clothes that she could call her own, warmed up a meal and cozied it on the couch. And she looked around and she said what is this place? And some people there said it's a place where we love God and we want to share that love with others. Because of the generosity of fellowship, so many other churches and individual donors like many of you I'm assuming, the call is able to offer 38 support centers across our state where these same services are offered. Many of you may have served at our center

in West Little Rock, Benton, Cabot. But through this gift we're gonna be able to meet an unmet need in the North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Sherwood area. And Pulaski County there are over 400 children and teens in foster care. And these services are simply not available to them in those communities. By offering this we're gonna be able to serve teens like this young lady, biological families, through family time visits and a home like setting instead of in a cold state DCFS office. We're gonna be able to minister to foster and adopt a family so we can get together with community and prayer and wear churches like yours and families like mine can step into this local, missional work of foster care where God's left is shown and where ordinary can become extraordinary. I want to thank you so much on behalf of the call, this young lady and the foster families that we represent. Thank you so much for your generosity. - Thank you, Kristen, thank you so much. (audience applauds) - I'm so thankful for the call and Kristen is a very humble, skilled, gifted leader. I'm so thankful for all that you do for the organization and we want to take a moment and just pray. Pray for the call and quite honestly pray for all the ministries in the city that are doing work

in the foster care world and adoptive world. And so let's just take a moment and pray for this. Little, we just come to you. We just love that you're an amazing God and that you care for the fatherless and the oppressed or you care for them more than we do. And we just pray that you would draw us close to your heartbeat that we might serve others in this way. Thank you for the call, thank you for their vision, thank you for answering this need or this unique opportunity north of the river to be able to meet a need for that community and for the kids that especially, that need a safe place to visit, for this just to be a great opportunity for the gospel light to be shared in that community. And so Lord, I just pray you continue to lead them to the right place. Lord, continue to bring volunteers that can serve and can help in so many great ways. Lord, given the resources they need to minister to the kids and families and the way that you desire for them to do that. So Lord, thank you for how you're loving us. Thank you for how you're loving the call. Thank you for how you're working in them and through them to bless so many children, so many families all across the state of Arkansas. And Lord, for the greater work that you're doing through multiple organizations,

Lord, that are trying to seek your heart and to be able to share your heart and your love with others. And so Lord, we ask you to do this to glorify your name for the good of these children and families and for the glory of your great names. In Christ's name we pray, amen, amen. Thank you, Kristen. So this morning as we kind of close out before we worship together, this is the call that God's inviting us into. He's calling us close to his heart, to his heartbeat. Normally when I share this story, I share another story years ago, Tim Caldwell, who's the Midtown campus pastor. When we were student pastors here, we took students to Guatemala and we took them on a volcano, Volcan de Pacaya. It was an active volcano. It's a miracle that we still work here at Fellowship. (congregation laughing) But we took them up there and when you get close to the heart of a volcano, it's risky and there's cuts and bruises and you see a little lava under the rock and you touch a rock and it's so hot you have to pull your hand back. That's what we knew we needed to leave. But it's beautiful, it's amazing. It was rewarding in certain ways. Every illustration breaks down, okay?

Adoption's not like adopting a volcano, although it may feel like that sometimes. But getting close to the heartbeat of God, it is risky and it's exciting and it's hard and it's rewarding and God's grace is sufficient to make it happen. That's what he's inviting us into. I didn't even really say the title of my message, I guess maybe once today, I called it, who cares? Who cares? When our kids were little, several of our kids, they were trying to say who cares, but it didn't come out that way. They said it this way. Instead of saying who cares, they say, who matters? Who matters? I like that. Because you know what? The fatherless and the oppressed, they matter. They matter to the heart of God and they need to matter to us. That's what he invites us into and we want to step into that with faith and trust and excitement and joy and do that with all of our hearts. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for your great love to us. And I pray that you would just continue to stir in our hearts a passion for your name and a passion for the fatherless and the oppressed. Lord, right now, you are speaking to the hearts

of some people this morning, to be a respite family, to be an advocate, to reach out to one of these ministries and say, how can I get involved? Lord, this morning you're speaking to the heart of maybe a single person, maybe a married couple and you're calling them into foster care ministry, like to be a foster family. Lord, for some families today, maybe to say, take the next step and adopt. Lord, as they're filled with maybe fear or wonder, Lord, reminding that your grace is sufficient and that it won't be easy. It won't be easy. But Lord, it's so rewarding to follow you and to have your heartbeat. Would you make that happen in us? Or send us out to be the ones you love in your name because you've loved us first. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. - Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week, through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com/contact. Have a great week. (upbeat music)