Gospel In Culture, October 4th, 2026

- Well, good morning, Fellowship. I'm gonna say good morning to all of our campuses who are joining us today as we're together, one church in multiple locations, and say good morning to the chapel as well, to those who are joining us online, all across our state, all across the world. It's such a great joy to be together as one family fellowship Bible Church, and I'm so thankful for all that God is 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, and we are just so thankful that we get to be together on this beautiful day. If you have a Bible with you, I want you to go to Psalm chapter 10. Psalm chapter 10 is where we're gonna find ourselves this morning, but even before we do that, I want to take just a moment and just remind us that we have been, last month, we started something for this whole year that's gonna continue for this year of scripture memory. And I hope and pray that you're off to a good start with Psalm 8611, teach me your way, O Lord, I may walk in your truth. Oh, I knew it was gonna happen, right? I knew it was gonna happen. Teach me your way, O Lord, I may walk in your truth.

Unite my heart to fear your name, Psalm 8611. So that was last month, and we want to keep working on these verses. And so for the month of October, our new verse is Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. Got a little crazy, added an extra verse in there. Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. And so I want us on all of our campuses, I want us to read this together this morning. Let's just say this together. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all 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. In a year where we're talking about how God is able. Now to him who is able to do more than we can ask or think according to the power, his power that works within us. Not your power, not the world's power, but the power of the Holy Spirit that works within us. And I believe that God's going to use this verse to encourage us, to challenge us, to help us, to encourage us, to strengthen us in all of these ways. And so I just want to encourage you to spend some time marinating, memorizing this verse throughout this month. Maybe you'll be able to share it with other people and your family or people you know.

And I pray that God will encourage you in that this morning. And even beyond, let's pray together as we dive into God's Word. Father God, thank you so much for your truth. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you are the God who is able to do more than we can ask or think according to your power that works within us by the power of your Holy Spirit, for our good and for your glory, for now and for all generations. So Lord, we thank you because as we come this morning, there are plenty of people who are here today, myself included, we need to be reminded that you're able, God, you're able. You're able to help us, you're able to strengthen us, you're able to help us get through what we're going through right now. We're able to carry us in times where we need to be carried. Whether you're able in all circumstances and you will keep your promises and you will work in us as we look to you and for our strength and for our hope as we trust in you. So Lord, I just pray for any individual this morning who needs that hope, who needs that comfort, who needs that peace, who needs that reminder that you are able, God would you strengthen this morning, would you help them, would you remind them of your great truths?

Lord, we just pray that you would draw us close to your heartbeat this morning. Lord, as risky as that is, as exciting as it is, as beautiful as it is, as inspirational as it is, Lord, would you just draw us close to your heartbeat this morning. We pray for our communities and we just pray, Lord, that you would work and that you would bring transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, for they're good and for your glory. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen, amen. To this morning, Psalm chapter 10 is where we find ourselves and we're taking a break from our miracles of Jesus series to have a gospel in culture message. And we've done this for years now at fellowship. So if you're new with us, maybe you've not ever heard us do this, but we, from time to time, we'll do a message called gospel in culture. It's not gospel versus culture. It's gospel in culture because we believe that the good news of Jesus Christ, the transforming grace and love of Jesus Christ should absolutely affect the way we live in our culture today. So as believers in Jesus Christ, which I know that not everyone listening today is probably a believer in Jesus Christ. And if you're not, we are really glad you're here. Thank you for joining us. We hope and pray that we get to know you more

and know your story more, that we can share more of the story of Jesus with you. But for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we know and believe that the gospel absolutely changes everything. And the way we live our lives should absolutely be known in the spheres where we are, that the gospel is changing the culture that we live in. And so this morning we have an opportunity to have a gospel and culture message. And it really is around foster care adoption. God's heartbeat for the fatherless, God's heartbeat for the oppressed. And for us to be able to see that and to be reminded of God's heartbeat. And it is, it is an exciting thing. It is a risky thing to draw near the heart of God. When you draw near his heart and he begins to ask things of you. And he begins to show you needs that are around you. It is overwhelming at times, it is risky at times, but it is beautiful and it is rewarding when you draw near to the heart of God. And also today, for a lot of us, it's a reminder. I don't know how many people love to be reminded about things. It really kind of depends on your heart posture and kind of how you're living. We balled a tool, when I say we, I mean, my wife and I. We balled a tool from a friend years ago.

And I remember we balled it and we used it. It was great. And my wife said, you're gonna get it back to him, right? I said, I am. And so I took it and I put it in my trunk of my car at the time. And I drove around for about two weeks, probably within the trunk of my car. And she asked me one day, she was like, hey, you've given that back, right? And I got a little bristly. I was like, I, you know, I've had a lot of my plates, a lot of things going on, a lot of things going on. And I began to kind of just feel that emotion rise within me. And honestly, she wasn't in the wrong. It wasn't that she reminded me about it. It was that I just failed to do what I said I was gonna do. So sometimes we're reminded about things and you bristle up at that a little bit and you kind of go, oh, oh, hey, hey, hey. Sometimes we get reminded of things in God's word. Maybe it's because we're not really paying attention to what we need to be paying attention to. Now, sometimes we're drawing near to what God's calling us to do. And so if that's you and we're getting reminded today, what you feel like is like, yes, let's go. That's what you feel like. If you're like, hey, why ain't God talk about that? I would just say let that explore that for a moment. Because maybe God's speaking something tender

and strong into your heart and my heart this morning about his care for the fatherless and for the oppressed. Because I can assure you the gospel makes a difference in culture and particularly in this area. And God wants to speak to us today. Look with me in Psalm chapter 10, beginning in verse 17 and 18. Just two verses here this morning that we look at. Here's what it says, "O 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 it to you from the new living translation as well. 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." So this morning we draw near to the father's heart and here's what we need to know this morning. You have a bulletin there that has notes on the back and the first thing is this, that God cares about the fatherless and the oppressed. God cares about the fatherless and the oppressed. Now I don't think there's anyone here today that goes, "Wow, I didn't know that." I don't think there's anybody who's shocked by the fact that God does care for the fatherless and the oppressed. And that threat is all throughout scripture about God's protection, God's care for the orphan,

that he truly is the defender of the weak. And when we say weak, not their weak, but just in the sense that there's a need that's there, that if someone doesn't step in and help out, This isn't on the screen, but Proverbs 14, 31, whoever presses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors the Lord, right? Scripture also says, "Bless be the God "and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, "who comforts us in our afflictions." This Father of mercies, this God of all comfort, who comforts us in our afflictions. So we see the thread all throughout Scripture that God is a comfort-giving God. He's a caregiving God. His heart is toward those who are oppressed and afflicted. This verse is no surprise. James 1, 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." That verse right there preaches, you can read this verse right here and that can be the sermon for the day. Religion that's pure and undefiled before God is to care for widows and orphans. And yes, I just wanna say this in a moment. Today's message is specifically about how we care

for the Fatherless, how we care for the orphan, how we care for the foster care and the foster care families among us. How we do that, I would say, don't forget the widows. There may be a widow in your life. There may be a widow on your street. There may be a widow in your community. And I wanna encourage you to love them, to care for them, to check in on them, to minister to them, to come alongside as a church family as a D group for someone who may be a widow in our church family, because we do need to care for them, walk with them, befriend them, pray for them, minister to them. So I encourage you to do that. But this morning as we look specifically towards the orphan, as we look towards the Fatherless, God cares about them. And here's what we know from this verse. Here's the first thing, he says, he's aware of their need. He's aware of their need, God is aware of their need. He's not hidden to this, it's not strange to him, it's not a surprise to him. It says, you hear the desire, the afflicted, you know the hopes of the hopeless. So we can rest assured that even though the world looks chaotic, even there are things that we cannot explain. There are tragedies and atrocities that are happening all over the world that you and I look at and go, how in the world, how in the world can this happen? How in the world could God allow this to happen?

Where is God in all this? And I just wanna assure you that there is biblical truth. There is a biblical foundation that says this, that God knows the need. He is aware, it's not taking him by surprise. Nothing is hidden from God, he sees everything and he knows everything. And this verse reminds us that he is very aware of what's happening. Second thing is this, it says he will strengthen their heart. He will strengthen their heart. Now how he does this and when he does this is fully up to God and in his timing. But it says this, it's a promise that says that he will strengthen their heart. He will help those in need. He will hear their cries and he will strengthen them and he will comfort them. Maybe in ways that you and I never even fully know. But God will do this. He will keep his promise. And through all throughout scripture, you see the heartbeat of God to strengthen those who are for him, to strengthen those whose eyes are upon him, to strengthen those who trust in him, to strengthen those who hope in him. This is the heartbeat of God. He will strengthen their heart. Third thing is this, he will act on their behalf. That's what I love about this verse, it's so clear.

He hears the desire they afflicted. He will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do justice to the Fatherless and the oppressed. Like you will do something about it. So he's not just gonna know about the need and hear about it. He's not just gonna strengthen their heart in some ways. He's actually gonna act on their behalf, to do justice for them. Not just as the world defines it, but justice as God defines it. That he's the one in control, that he will work for the good of others, for the glory of his name. He will bring justice, he will act on their behalf. So this is the scriptural foundation. So when you look and see what the scripture says, it says that God cares about the Fatherless. He cares about the oppressed. He knows their need, he's gonna strengthen their heart, he's gonna act on their behalf. This is what happens. So the next point says this, this is how God treats those who trust in him. So we see the overarching purpose that God cares for the Fatherless and the oppressed. But this is how God treats those who trust in him. So that same thing, look at it, he's aware of the need,

he strengthens their heart, he acts on their behalf. That's exactly how he treats those of us who trust in him. so you can kind of see. It's the same breakdown, just in different words. He knows that we are sinners. God knows that every person on the planet is a sinner, that we all fall short of the glory of God, that none of us escapes this reality. Not kids, not students, not adults, like none of us escaped this reality that we are born with a sin nature, that we are born as children of wrath, enemies of God. That's how we're born, separated from God because of our sin. He knows that we're sinners. But look, he sent Jesus to save us from our sins. We talk about this all the time at fellowship because it is the gospel. The reason that Jesus came to this earth was to save people from their sins, to save us from the sins that we have in our lives. We can't save ourselves from our sins. Only Jesus Christ can do that. So many people are trying to depend upon good works. They're trying to depend upon the church, the institution itself. Some people are trying to depend upon their family heritage and their family faith. And so some people think, well, man, if I do enough works, if I do enough good things, if I give enough money,

if I'm associated with the church enough, if I have enough family heritage of people that know God, then maybe that will help me get saved. Maybe that will help me in eternity. Maybe that will help me have a relationship with God. But the reality of it is this. It's not about what you do, it's about what Jesus Christ has already done. He paid the price on the cross for our sins. He came to do this. That's that third point, Jesus died on the cross so that people might be saved. So we understand that this is how God treats those who trust in Him. He's aware of our need, we're sinners. He will strengthen our heart. He sent Jesus to save us from our sins. He will act on our behalf. The fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Romans 5, 8, but God demonstrated His love for us. And that while we were still sinners, still enemies, Christ died for us. Even when we were unlovable, He loved us. Even when we were rejecting Him, He was accepting us. Even when we were turning against Him, He was turning toward us. He demonstrated, manifested, showed His love for us that while we were still sinners, He died for us. This is God's heartbeat.

Because in many, many ways, all of us are fatherless. In many ways, we are the ones who are oppressed because of our sin. Look what it says in Galatians 4, 3 through 7. 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, sons and daughters. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father," so you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then you're an heir through God. It's very, very powerful. This is breaking down the passage for us, and it's reminding us of our identity. It's reminding us of who we were, for those of us who know Christ, like who we are in Christ. Again, there are some who are listening this morning that you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, and we would plead with you to understand that you're a sinner and that you need the love of Christ to save you and forgive you of your sins. And he's willing and able to do that. He went to the cross on your behalf, took your place, took the punishment of God, and he died, and God raised Him from the dead, and because He defeated death, you can have life in Him. And this morning, if that's you,

we'd love to have that conversation across all of our campuses, stop by our connection center. If you want to, we have elders that are there, we have staff that are there, we would love to have a conversation with you about what it means to know Christ. You can also tear off this tab on your bulletin and just say, "You know what? "I would love to have a conversation "with someone about what it means to know Christ." You can just fold it just like this, and on all of our campuses, we have giving boxes. People will think you're giving. You can put it in the giving box, and you can say, "I want to have a conversation "with one of your pastors about what it means to know Jesus." And we would love to follow up with you about that. Ephesians 1, 3 through 6 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 that the Scripture refers to those of us who believe us,

that we have been adopted in Christ? That we've been adopted into His family. And I don't know if you know how adoption works, but what happens in adoption is you say, "I want you and my family." I have five kids, two of my kids are adopted. And when Julie and I walk through the process and we understood what God was doing, to be in a moment where you're in a moment where God is moving and you say, "I choose you. I choose you. I love you. I want you to be in my family." That's exactly what Jesus has done for us. That He has invited us to be in His family. That is the gospel. And we move from slavery. We move from being sinners and slave to sin to adoption. That we've been invited to the family with all the rights and all the things that come with being a part of the family. It's beautiful. It's a lasting relationship with God that's intimate. It's not distant. He says, "Abba, Father." It's an intimate term that we move from this slavery to adoption. Being a part of the family of God, Romans 8, 14 through 17, for all who are led by the Spirit of God or 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." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children than heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. So when we come into the family of Christ, we're considered heirs.

So we receive it all. It's beautiful. We gain all the legal status, the permanence, the identity, destined to receive all that Christ receives by His divine grace. This is how God treats those who trust in Him. But let's kind of move to the practical part of today. This is how God instructs His children to treat others. Do you see that? So we see the heartbeat of God for the fatherless. He's aware of their need. He strengthens their heart. He will act on their behalf. We see how He treats those who trust in Him. He knows that we're sinners. He sent Jesus to save us from our sins. Christ died for our sins. He's acted on behalf. And now He's saying to us as believers, "This is how you should treat others." This is what the love and grace of God does. This is the gospel to us and through us. Do you see that? God's love and grace was meant to come to us, to flow to us and through us to others. And so we talk about gospel and culture. That's what we mean. That we're going to live out the gospel in this way and we think about foster care and adoption. In particular, we just need to know today that as believers, God is instructing us that this is how we are to treat others. Isaiah 1 17 learned to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the Fatherless, plead the widow's cause. Those are imperatives.

It's saying learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the Fatherless, plead the widow's cause. It's Scripture telling us how to live. And the motivation for that is because God has loved us. We love because He's first loved us. It's because His grace has come to us. And the reason we can care for the Fatherless and the oppressed is because God's love has come to us. He's adopted us into His family. And so now we can love others that way. So real practically this morning, let's look at this. How does God instruct us to treat others? We need to open our eyes to the needs around you. I helped you out this morning. That's not even a fill in the blank. It's right there in the bulletin for you. You can just rest on this one, right? You can just open your eyes to the needs around you. And we're trying to help us do this as a church. That's why we're doing this foster care initiative this year. That's why we're asking you to pick up one of these. And many of you have already done that. The latest knowledge I have that I think we're probably like, I don't know, maybe 600 shy of that number. We still have a few left on multiple campuses. I know on the West Little Rock campus, I think we're around 75 that we still have left. And so we want to encourage you to take one, take multiples. And don't just take the card. But I mean, say, oh, I might do it.

No, take the card and see if I do this, I got to take it. So you, you, you. Okay, there it is right there. I just did that. We have another one, hon. So what we want to do is we want to love those in foster care. We want to love those who are serving foster care at DCFS. We want to love the biological families, the kin families. We want to be able to love the foster families. That's why we're asking you to go and purchase these little gifts and for us to come together on our campuses. Matter of fact, I want to show that slide because we're one church in multiple locations and we meet at different times. We've got a couple of campuses that are meeting tonight, that are meeting tonight to pack. You can see the dates for all this week. You've got North Little Rock on Wednesday. You've got Midtown tonight. You've got Marmel on Tuesday. You've got Cabot tonight. Benton's doing it tomorrow night. Español's doing it Wednesday. So you can see all the campuses there. And we're going to encourage you to come because we're going to pack. We're going to pray. We're going to write some notes. And we're going to watch over 9,000 care packages be delivered all across the state of Arkansas. And we're going to ask God to multiply that.

We're going to ask God to minister to the kids in need. And the families in need. We're trying to help you as a church. Help us as a church to open our eyes to the needs around us. Because there are needs all around us. And sometimes we get so self-focused that we don't realize that. So we need to open our eyes to the needs around us. Here's the next thing. We need to open up our hearts and our homes to the fatherless. We need to open up our hearts and our homes to the fatherless. Now I want to be real clear about this. I don't think God's calling every person to foster and adopt. I don't. There are many of you who don't need to do that. You don't need to feel the guilt about it. You just don't need to do that. But if God's calling you, there are some that are listening to this message today. And you've been thinking about it. It's been rallying around in your mind. You've been kind of skirting the issue with your wife or with your husband or even by yourself. Because there are individuals. There are singles. I know some singles who have done foster care. They've adopted. So this is not just about family, it's about singles too sometimes. And so I want to encourage you that some of you may have been skirting the issue. Maybe God's been laying on your heart and you've been pushing away,

pushing away. And maybe God is saying this morning, "Hey, you need to pay attention here." And I want to make this really, really clear, too. Foster care and adoption is not easy. Parenting is not easy. I don't want anybody to put rose-colored glasses on and say, "Well, because God called me to do it, it's going to be easy." Man, you're reading a different Bible. Because part of the walk of following Christ, it involves pain and suffering and joy and excitement and reward and hardship and difficulties. And there are some of you that need to take this on and say, "You know what? I need to look into foster care. I need to look into what would be for us to be a foster care family or for me to be a foster care family." Some of you need to look into adoption and say, "What has God called me to is a local adoption, is an international adoption. God's calling me to this to invite someone into my family. Sometimes people foster, they move foster to adoption. What would it look like if we had 50, 75, 100 families across all of our campuses that jumped in, dove in and said, "Man, we want to do this." I'm not asking anybody to rush into this, but I am asking you to pray about it to consider, is God calling your family? Is God calling you to foster care? Is He calling you to adoption? Because we have agencies, we have people that can help you do that.

The call is represented on our campuses today, and I love what the call is doing, but there's other ministries as well that we're partnered with. There's other ministries in the city that are doing that as well. There's multiple avenues to get there for foster care and adoption. Is God leading your heart to that today? Because I would venture to say, there are some of you. The spirit's working right now. And this time next year, maybe this time in two years, your family photo, your Christmas photo is going to look a little different. It's going to look a little different. Are you going to open your heart and your home to the followers? Arkansas has an urgent need for more foster homes. Tiffany with the DCFS said there's several hundred at least, several hundred at least. Could we be a part of that solution? One hundred and forty-six foster children in Arkansas waiting for a forever family? One hundred and forty-six that are waiting for a forever family. Could we be part of the solution? Could you be part of the solution? Here's the third thing I would say, we need to offer up our time and resources to the fatherless. So whether you're single, whether you're married, no matter what your financial standing is, this may be the role.

Because I can say this, I don't think that everyone's called a foster. I don't think everyone's called to adopt, but I believe every believer is called to do something biblical. I do. I do believe this is close to the heartbeat of God. And you can offer your time and your resources. That's why we're doing this. It's time and resources that we want to offer to help and show the love and grace of God, to be able to say to foster kids, to be able to say to foster families, God sees you. We see you. He loves you. We love you. He values you. We value you to the DCFS workers. We see you. God sees you. God values you to be able to encourage them in that way. We want to offer up time and resources. There's several ways you can do that. Respite care, family advocate, support, supporter of ministries. You can see that. Respite care, do you know what that is? Respite care is when you give a few hours on a single evening to care for our foster children while their foster parents rest. It's a small commitment, but it's one of the most needed forms to support in the foster care world. So if you're a D-group, if you know someone that's involved in foster care, if you know a foster care family,

then I encourage you to find out what it would take to host and to babysit for an hour, for two hours, to have their kid come over to your house or to be able to meet and do something with their kids so that they can go and rest, or they can go and have some kind of respite. That's a huge need, and I want to encourage you to consider that. Sometimes we're not thinking about that. You say why? And listen, if you're saying to me, you're busy, look, I would just say take a number, man, and everybody's busy, everybody's busy. And you may genuinely be in a season of your life where you're like, man, I can't take on one more thing. Okay, you're right. Maybe God's asked you to give up something else so that you can take something else on, maybe. But respite care, if you're saying, man, I don't know any foster care families in my world, I would just say contact our missions team. I think we can help you find, maybe a foster care family. Maybe contact one of the mission partners that we have, some of the people who are working in the city, they can probably help you find someone that you could minister to. Become a foster family advocate. You come alongside one foster family as their steady support. So you're a listening ear, you bring a meal,

you clean their house, you pray for them. Maybe there's a family that's foster care and they've got some older kids and they need help shuttling to doctor's appointments and dental appointments and all those kind of things. You're kind of like, man, I can drive, I can pick up, I can take them, I can help out. We can do a meal a week because they've got so many things on, they're taking on, they just got a new kid that came in through the system last night and so now they're having to figure out what all that looks like and oh, what are we gonna do for dinner? Well, we don't have to worry about dinner 'cause this D group's bringing us dinner. So we don't have to worry about it. I know how some of you work, some of you cook the dinner, some of you give the gift card, both of them are acceptable, all right? How do we come alongside a family and help in that way? And some of you are saying, man, I just hadn't thought about that. Well, guess what? Yeah, you can't, think about it. Don't just think about it, do something, do something because God, His grace has given to us to love others and be a supporter of ministries. Be a supporter of ministries. I wanted to show you real quickly because I know there's so many advocates, so many ministries. I just wanna show you some of the ministries

that we're connected with, that we support, you see the call. You can take a picture of these because I want you to leave it up long, but the call and Arkansas, they're doing a great work. Connected adoptions have had the chance to work with Carol Watson and Lori Chapman and several others that are there. Connected adoptions, they're doing great work. Project Zero, Christy Irwin, they've been around for a long time and they've been the middle parents. They've been talking about what it looks like to be able to foster and move towards adoption, those kind of things. The other ministries Restore Hope's a great initiative. Paul Chapman's one that's leading that charge and it's a wonderful initiative that's helping with families adoption, foster care, all kinds of things. Good roots is another ministry, Jackie and Billy Young, who are ministering to girls that need to be cared for. And so you see that. And then we also have partners in the city that are doing great work. Many partners in the city that are in this foster care world that are helping kids transition out of foster care to real living or other things. You see these other ministries, Immersed, Arkansas, our house, the care portal.

I had a chance to work with someone recently that did the care portal. Was it in Korea? Can we go back to the other one? That was fast. Okay, yeah. So if you want to take a picture of that, you can take a picture of that because maybe that's an avenue God wants to use you to serve in, okay? Let's go on to the next one and just see this. We've got a hundred families. They're under Restore Hope, City, Serve, Arkansas, Healing Waters, Our Wheat Center. Now I know I'm running through all those. You can take a picture. You can go to fellowshipar.com/missions. You can see the partners that we work with. But there are plenty of options out there to be able to get involved and support ministries. So this morning as we see the heartbeat of God, we get a draw near to the heartbeat of God. And it's risky and it's dangerous and it's rewarding and it's beautiful. Oftentimes when I've shared this story in the past, I've talked about when Tim Call one hour leading student ministries here at Fellowship when we led kids up Volcan de Pecaye in Guatemala. It was an active volcano. It's a miracle we're still on staff at Fellowship.

But we took some students up there and it was jagged and rocky and it was hard and it was sweaty and there were some cuts and bruises along the way. We got near some rocks, it had lava there. If you put your hand on it, it was so hot when you touch it, you get to draw it away. It was at that point we're like, this isn't good. This is not a good idea. But when you come so close to the heartbeat of something it is risky, but it's exciting and it's beautiful and you know, look, every illustration breaks down at some point, not saying you're adopting a volcano, right? I'm just saying that and you might be. It's beautiful, and it's hard. That's what God calls us into. At Fellowship, you know, we give a significant portion of our missions giving to multiple partners every year who engage in foster care and adoption, and they're going to continue to do so. We're going to continue to give to the five categories that we have, local missions. We talk about that education and orphan care and prison ministry and church strengthening and kind of health and shelter and food and those kind of things. We give to those five buckets every year. And we're always praying about opportunities to do that. We're going to continue to be faithful.

But as we prayed about opportunities unique to this year, God is able. We're praying, we're seeking the Lord about a way to do something that's unique. And in the midst of that, there was a door that opened with the call, actually. God in His timing and through the Spirit, He opened up a unique need for the call of Arkansas. Something that was going on in their ministry that they really needed help with. And we felt like maybe God was leading us to step in and give a unique gift to them. This ministry was actually birthed through someone here at Fellowship. Many of you may not know that. It was under the leadership of Mary Carol Peterson many years ago that God convicted her, maybe in a message just like this, for her to do something. And she did and her faithfulness along with many others through the years has ministered to so many churches, so many foster care kids, so many families. And we heard of a need for a new call center, for a call location in North Little Rock. And so the Lord put it on our hearts. And we have recently given the call, a gift of $100,000 to help make that a reality. Yum. (audience applauding) And here this morning to share the vision behind that

is Kristen Butler. She's the executive director of the call statewide. She's a board member for every child Arkansas. And I want you to please give her a fellowship welcome as she comes up and shares what God is doing in and through the call ministry. So Kristen, come on up. I'm so thankful you're here this morning. Share with us what God is doing. Well, first it is a true blessing and privilege to be here in person and to be able to give a heartfelt thank you. A couple of weeks ago, a teenage girl entered one of our support centers. And you see it had been two weeks since she had had a shower. Several weeks since she had had a warm meal and a very long time since she simply felt safe. You see, her world had been turned upside down and she found herself entering foster care as a teenage girl. She walked in through the doors of one of our support centers, was greeted with a smile, was given a fresh towel, shown to a private bathroom where she could take a shower. She was able to pick out some clothes that she could call her own. She warmed up a meal and settled in on a couch. And she looked around and she said, "What is this place?" And she was answered with, "It's a place where people love God "and they want to share that love back to you." You see on that day, ordinary things became extraordinary. And through partnerships with fellowship

and so many other churches through generous donors like many of you sitting in here, the call is able to offer 38 support centers like that one all across our state. Many of you've probably served in those, maybe in our campuses there in Benton or Cabot, West Littorock. But we realized that in Pulaski County, there are over 400 children and teens that are in foster care today. And the need is great. We also realized that the support services, those tangible support services were severely lacking in the north of the river area for North Littorock, Jacksonville, Sherwood. And so together with this partnership, with fellowship, we are soon with the call in Pulaski County, going to be able to open a local support service in a center there in that north of the river area. Where teens like this young lady can step in on the hardest day of her life and experience God's love. Where foster families can come in, they can receive love, support, connection, prayer, where biological families can come in for their weekly family time visits in a home like setting, play in a backyard instead of meeting at a cold state office. And where churches like yours and families like mine can engage in this local, missional work of foster care. Where God's love can be shown and where ordinary can become extraordinary. So with sincere thanks on behalf of this teen young lady,

the families that we serve in the call, thank you so much. - Yeah, let's pray for the call. Yeah. (audience applauds) Let's pray together. Little we do thank you for the work that you're doing We thank you for other ministries, Lord, they're engaging foster care and adoption needs and families, and Lord, we just pray for your strength. Lord, we pray for this specific center in north of the river, and we just pray for those that are gonna be served by the children and the families that are gonna be affected by it. Lord, we pray that you would bless this place, so that you would go before them, and you would make it very clear to where they're going to be, and for all the things that are necessary for that, Lord, as this gift kinda helps catapult them into that Lord, we're thankful for your generosity to us that we could share with the call, and we just pray, God, that you would bless them, that you would use them, that you would work through them. We pray that kids will be experiencing your love and your grace and your acceptance, Lord, that they will know that you see them, you value them. And so, Lord, we pray for transformation in their life, we pray for help in their life. So, for Kristen, for the staff,

for everyone else who's gonna be involved in making these decisions to help in these areas, Lord, would you bless them and strengthen them? Lord, let your face shine upon them, be gracious to them, give them your peace, and always at all times, and use this, Lord, for the good of children and families, and for the glory of your name. It's in Christ, let me pray, amen, amen, amen. Well, this morning, as we get ready to worship on all of our campuses, I just wanna encourage you with this. I don't even think I said the title of the message today, the message was a question that says, who cares? Who cares? When my kids were little, there were a couple of my kids that they were trying to say, who cares? But what they said was, who matters? They were trying to say, who cares? But they said, who matters? And I think there's something about that. The fatherless, the oppressed, they matter. They matter to God, they matter to the heartbeat of God, and they should matter to us fellowship. So, what is God calling you to do today? How is God calling you to respond? His overwhelming grace to his adoption of us, how will that affect your life? How will the gospel shape the culture around you and me? Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your truth. How we love you, how we need you. Lord, thank you that you were aware of our need. Thank you that you came to strengthen our hearts. Thank you that you came to act on our behalf, that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, that you adopted us into your family, Lord. A love like that, would you overwhelm us with that love? Would you remind us today of that love? And would you allow that love to stir us to action? Or to stir us to love others? Lord, as we think about these foster care initiative packages, as we think about the DCFS workers, as we think about the distribution day that's coming up, Lord, we get to take these all over the state, Lord. Would you, would you work through us? Lord, would you bless us to bless others? Would you be honored in this way? And would you touch the hearts and lives of many, many children, many, many families, many, many workers for their good and for your glory? Or send us out to be that kind of people. We love you, it's in Christ's name we pray. 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 fellowshipare.com/contact.

Have a great week. (upbeat music)