- Well, hey, everybody. I wanna welcome you here today. So grateful for you in all of our locations. Those of you who watch online and TV, we're especially grateful for you as well. Hey, before I get into today's message, I wanna ask a favor of you. One of the things you receive from me this week in your email box if you're in our database, is a link to a survey. And if you would just take a few minutes, no more than 10 to fill out our survey, it really helps me. And it helps our church. One way, it's for you to be able to share your voice with us. We can hear what you need and how we can best care for you. And we take the result of those surveys and actually use those answers to think about the series and the messages that we prepare and teach so that we can best care for you. So if you'll do that just a little bonus, many of you know we opened up a little Highlands Fellowship store where you can get a t-shirt or some merch. And we'll give you 10% off on that. Be sure you do it by May the 25th. That's when your last day to do it. And I appreciate so much. It really helps us. So, just take a few minutes to do that. Well, again, I wanna welcome you here. And today is a special, special day. Special day from my heart. We're calling today Belong day, Belong Sunday. And it's all about God's plan to care for orphans around the world. And so, we're gonna have some unique features in today's message, but I just wanna share with you from my heart. And one of the things we're gonna do right at the very beginning today is I wanna share a video made from Virginia's Kids Belong, organization that Highlands partners with. You remember Janet Kelly that came last year on our first Belong Sunday. And this video features one of our own, Christie Parker, a Highlander, longtime Highlander. And she's one of our local heroes when you talk about foster care and adoption. So, I want you to see this video. I'll come back and share a message with you.
- I'm biased, but I think being a foster parent is one of the greatest adventures in life.
- As a foster family and as a foster parent, it's very important to let the child know that they matter and that they are part of your family for as long as they're with you.
- Every child is unique. And so I think there's really not a cookie cutter approach to how to show a child that they matter other than to just be a good listener and to see them for who they are.
- The key to be to success in foster care is a support system. We've had families bring us dinners. You know, when we first get a placement, I mean, that's huge just dropping off a meal, clothes. There's plenty of ways a church can, or just a family can support a local foster family.
- Whatever your interest is, your skill, your vocation, your hobby, whatever that is just offer it to God. And He can use that to allow you to show each kid that they have value. You know, if you have a home with a spare room, and you have a heart for kids, I just want to encourage anyone and everyone to really consider becoming a foster parent or partnering with a foster family because every child matters.
- Isn't that awesome? I love Christie, one example, she is the entire community on what she has done in this ministry. So today I wanna start out by asking you a question, have you ever been rescued? I mean, truly, really, honestly rescued? Let me share a story with you that helps me illustrate the point. Several years ago, long time now, I took a big group of young people from Buchanan County and Tassel County to Myrtle beach on a youth mission trip. And we get there. We've driven all day long. You can imagine trying to get 70, 80 kids down to the beach. And I say, all right, I know you guys are tired and worn out, but all of them have been talking all the way. "I wanna to go to the beach. I wanna to go see the ocean." So I said, "I'm gonna check in here and get all your rooms and assignments. And you guys, you gonna help yourself going down to the ocean. And I'll be there just in a little bit when I get everything taken care of." So I get the rooms and I head down and I'm thinking, I see a bunch of our kids close to the shore. And then I look out and I see two of my kids, and this is after 5:30. There's no lifeguard on duty, that no lie. They're probably at least 300 yards out in the ocean. And I can sort of make out that one of them is waving like this. And I'm thinking those are my kids and they're in trouble. And I'm not a great swimmer, I had a couple of chaperones with me, we realized these kids are in danger. What I didn't understand is several of the kids that we had from Tassel and Buchanan County had never been to the ocean before. And so I gave no instructions completely on me, and they go down there not knowing what to expect. They get caught in a rip tide, and they're taken out to the ocean, and I'm thinking they're gonna drown. So we head out to try to do what we can to save these two kids. And by the time we reached them, and we had to get in the rip tide ourselves it's way over our head. And here we are, and by the time we reach these kids, one of them has already gotten to the place where he's almost passed out. He's gone under so many times almost drowned, and the other is trying to hold him up. And so my buddy gets the one who is almost passed out, and he begins to swim to the side of the current of the rip tide, and get to a water where we can begin our process of coming back. And the other guy, Matthew, is his name. I got Matthew and Matthew is, he is fighting me with everything in me, and I'm thinking we're both gonna drown here, Matthew. And so I don't know what else to do, but just try to say quit, stop, I'm trying to help you, but he was panicked. And somehow by God's grace, I'm thinking all five of us are gonna drown, but somehow by the grace of God, we made it back to shore. And that was just one of the most scary moments in my entire life. But I remember when we got back and we got both those kids healthy, again, they both said, "Hey, thanks for rescuing us." Now you may never have had an occasion like that in your life, but has there ever been an occurrence where you truly were in a helpless situation and somebody rescued you, you were saved in just the right time. Have you ever been rescued? Today, we want to talk about children who need to be rescued. We know there's 140 million orphans around the world. Let me give you the big picture. There are 400,000 foster care children in America today. And in a minute, you're gonna know some statistics about what we have in our local area, right in our own region of modern day orphans. And we begin in an unlikely place, in an unlikely passage that Paul speaks to the Ephesian Church in chapter one, verse four, this is what Paul says. He says, "For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight, in love, He chose in advance for us." And here's where we're gonna talk about a lot today, "To be adopted through Jesus Christ for himself, according to His favor, His will." So let me just in a random question ask, if you'd be willing at your location, just slip your hand up. If you know, for sure that you've been adopted you've, you're an adopted person in your family. Could I just see your hand? It's awesome. We have several people in the Highlands family, who have been adopted into their forever family. Well, here's the first thing I want you to sort of grasp today. If you believe in Jesus, if you are a follower, a Christian, a faith filled follower of Jesus, then this is true about you. You are rescued, and you are an adopted child of God. And it's incredible, when you think about really, the entire book, the Bible, these 66 book, it's really a complete book about adoption. Now, you maybe never thought about it when you think about the scripture, but I wanna tell you, the entire Bible is a book about adoption, and it's about God loving us and adopting us as his own children. You see, none of us are natural born children of God, okay? A few years ago as I was headed to a conference that we go to once a year with some colleagues, and I was headed in Northern Virginia, and I'm getting into the beltway of Washington DC, and I see this big billboard and on the billboard, it was comical to me, but it said, "Sister, Shirley, Palm reader, natural born Christian." And I thought, no, not according to the Bible, there are no natural born Christians. We're all adopted into the family of God. We've all been rescued. So let's look at some scripture on this, okay? Notice Paul's words to the church at Colossae. This is what he says in Colossians 1:13, "For He." this is Jesus, "Has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and He has transferred us into the kingdom of His dear son." To the church at Galatian 1:4, Paul says, "Jesus gave his life for our sins just as God, our Father planned in order to rescue us from the evil world in which we live." And then he goes on in Galatians 4:4, he says, "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son to redeem those who were under the law again, so that he could adopt us as His very own children." Jesus paid the price in full on the cross for our adoption. That's what it cost for us to be adopted into the family of God. When you think about the gospel, it's good news. And it's the story of adoption, because if you're a follower of Jesus, you've been rescued, you've been adopted into God's family. You're an adopted child of God. Now sometimes I think that goes over our heads. We never really think of it in those terms, but it's true, right outta scripture. Here's second thing I want you to understand today. The church, us okay, is actually God's plan for the rescue of the world's orphans. Now we like to put this off on the government or on other agencies, but it is really, really clear that the plan for the world's orphans is the church. God wants the rescued to become rescuers, okay? That's God's plan, and over and over again, God tells us in His Word that we are to care for the orphans. That is the job of the church. It's a privilege, but it's our responsibility. Notice what he says all the way back in Isaiah 1:17, there's a whole ministry over this verse. And it says, "Learn to do what is good, seek justice, correct the oppressor, defend the rights of the fatherless, care for the orphan." Listen to what James says in the new Testament, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their trouble." Well, pure religion, Jameson. What, does He mean when He talks about pure religion? Well, it's real interesting. Pure religion according to James, is the way we live at our faith, it's how we practice what we believe, it's the evidence of our faith, James, an action guy. He says, you can talk a good game all day long, but when your faith is true, you're gonna put it into action, over and over. God says, take care of the orphan, now to whom did He speak those commands? Again, it's clear, no need for interpretation here, okay. All Theologians agree on this one thing we all agree on. He spoke these commands to care for the orphans, to the people of God, his church, God has a tremendous love for the orphan. And I want you to get this picture in your mind. If you were to look up at me, you could see that over here are the millions, 140 million orphans in the world, okay? And over here is the heart of God. So between the heart of God and the orphans in their plight, there's a great Gulf. I mean, there's a chasm of separation. So how are the orphans of the world going to get to the heart of God? There's gotta be a bridge, right? And that bridge again, it's not the government, I'm grateful for all the government does, it's not just society, it's really clear, it's the church. The church is the bridge, again, the rescue become the rescuers, the adopted become the adopters. And there are churches all across America that are beginning to recapture this vision to care for the orphans around the world. And these churches are incredible, and I want Highlands to be right in the forefront of it, right? I mean, they started foster care ministries, there's orphan mission trips, there's adoption ministries, there's endowed funds to take care of people who foster and adopt. And perhaps when I was on this long flight to Israel, a few weeks ago, I had 13 hours and I started reading about these churches that were involved in these incredible adoption ministries. And one that stood out to me was this church that God's using an incredible way down in Texas, Barnett Chapel Baptist Church in Possum Trot, Texas. That's what sort of caught me when I'm on the plane, in four short years, this small church of 200 members actually have fostered and adopted over 70 kids, incredible. So what does God want our church to do, well to help me today I have invited a couple of people to the stage, Lindsay Lawson, whom all of us know, and Matt Verlander, who you'll get to know today, if you don't and these guys are gonna come, and as they come, I just wanna share with you my own personal heart for this journey, right? When you know our story, we have five kids. We have two that are internationally adopted from Ethiopia. And then we have one that we adopted, Chris, through the foster care system locally here. And then, you know, through that foster care, we were able to adopt Chris into our own home. It's been a journey for sure, and it's been an incredible journey for us, and so again, last year, because it's such a heart for me and for Brenda, we invited Janet Kelly to come and we had our first Belong Sunday and Lindsay helped orchestrate all this together, and since we've had that first one Lindsay's helped us establish a lot of neat things for foster kids and adoptive kids in our own church. So Lindsay and Matt are gonna come. We're gonna do a little interview here so that you can get to know what we have available in our church and what you can do. And Lindsay, let me just ask you and Matt, how did you get involved in the foster care work and the ministry of taking care of these kids?
- Well, it's really a God story for sure. So we'll share it together because it's kind of a together story. But so after Janet came last year, I knew your heart for foster care and adoption. As our lead pastor, I knew our mission and vision was clear that we were supposed to join God to make a difference right here in our community. And so I started to feel the call like this pressing, how are we gonna make that impact? How are we gonna make that difference? And then all of a sudden I got a phone call from one of our ballad partners. And she said, "Hey, we're gonna create a new position, through ballad with Virginia Kids Belong, Janet Kelly's organization." And she said, "Hey, we really want a representative from the faith based community that also has connections to the business community." And she said, "Are you getting my hint?" And I said, "I am." And I said, "I'll pray about it." And 'cause I did feel that call and I prayed about it for a while and I felt very clear that I was called to be here at Highlands. But every time that I prayed about it, I would either see Matt Verlander or I would run into Matt or Matt would come to my mind, and I kept thinking, man, I don't really know Matt very well. I know he kind of works in that space. I know his life early better, but God, what are you trying to say to me about Matt? And every time I would pray, it would be so clear and I promise their partner I would. And so one Sunday, Matt and Allen were just right in the back here and they were greeting, they were helping out 'cause they're always great to do that, we're thankful for them. And I just felt the holy spirits say, "Just ask." And so I said, Hey Matt, do you like your job? Which was a really odd question, and I let Matt take it. Kind of take it from there.
- So you can imagine my surprise when I was asked that question. And again, we really did not have, we were friends, we were acquaintances to that point. So I was very surprised by that question, but intrigued. And so we continued to talk about the opportunity over the course of last summer, talked with Janet and the team with Virginia's Kids Belong and I interviewed, and was fortunate to get the job. And so, here we are today, but my background is in social work, I'm a licensed clinical social worker. And so have worked in this space and in the fringes of the foster care space for about 15 years. And so always had this draw to work with kids and to serve kids and had some what I felt like restrictions on my faith in that space. So I worked for one of these agencies, and we did amazing work with these kids, but I always had the thought, where is the church in this? And you alluded to that earlier and excited to talk about that in a minute too.
- Awesome. Well, let me ask you Matt, like for those of us that are gathered in all of our locations today, could you help us understand a little bit more about the work that Virginia Kids Belong actually is involved in across the state?
- Sure. Well and I thank you for having me here today.
- Sure.
- I'm honored to represent Virginia's Kids Belong that I'm gonna refer to as VKB from here in our conversation, it's a mouthful. So we'll shorten it to VKB, but VKB is a collective impact organization and we unite church business and government leaders to wrap around and serve with the child welfare workers who are the guardians of these children we've been talking about, who are in foster care. And we do that with the mission of every child belongs, should belong and deserves to be in a loving home in Virginia. And so another thing that we do is we try to create foster friendly communities and a foster friendly community is friendly to foster parents, foster children, kinship families, put some definition around that. So a kinship family is maybe a grandparent or an aunt, or uncle who has taken in a grandchild or a niece or nephew into their home in a foster situation. And sometimes in an adoptive situation too, depending on the situation. But a foster friendly community has churches and businesses who have a heart for foster care for foster parents and foster kids. They can have days like today, where we're talking about it, to the greater congregation, business owners can maybe offer a discount for foster families, and all of that towards supporting the those families so that they can continue doing the good work.
- So let me ask you, Matt, this sort of maybe put you on the spot if you don't know, and that's fine, but I just wondered for our neck of the woods here, any idea about how many kids we have in our region that are in the foster care system or adoptive system, any stats that you might know off the top of your head?
- Sure, sure. So, the numbers sort of change from month to month, and so social services is able to put out a report every month to update those numbers. Currently they're just under 5,000 kids in Virginia who are in foster care.
- Okay. Wow.
- And so that really is just that foster care group, who are in that traditional foster care home. So today we're in Washington County and in Washington County, there are about 80 kids who are in foster care.
- Wow. Okay. So Lindsey, I know you've been really helpful for our work here. So tell me in our mind and your mind, what does it look like for our church to be a foster friendly church? What are some things you think we could do better?
- Sure, I'll let Matt fully answer what a foster friendly church is, but you'll see that we're doing it and I'll explain what those are, but I promised Matt. I said, "Hey Matt, if you take this job, I promise we'll come alongside of you.
- Yeah.
- And so one of the first things he said is, "Hey, we need us to be a foster friendly church." And I said, "Man, what's that mean?" So can you just give a little definition around that? And then I'll give some insight about what we're doing.
- Okay. Great. Sure, and I'm so thankful for Highlands fellowship and all that, that the church has done to serve foster families to this point, and even more excited about what's to come beyond Belonging Sunday. So a foster friendly church is a church that really, has days like today, and is teaching about God's heart for foster children and for kids who have been adopted. So that, so that's one thing. Another thing that a church will do, who is considered to be foster friendly is to provide trauma training for their members and for the congregation, that really gives an insight into, maybe the experiences that these children have had, a lot of times they come from hard places and so to have a heart toward that and be sensitive toward maybe some of the trauma, that they've experienced. And then the other thing that we would encourage churches to do is to provide a wraparound care and that there are some examples, some really cool examples that Highland Fellowship has been able to do over the course of the past year.
- Yeah, sure. So let's talk about wraparound.
- Okay.
- So I've had to learn a lot of new lingo as I've stepped into this foster care space. So wraparound is when you maybe don't feel called to foster or adopt, but you feel called to help in some way. And Virginia Kids Belong has a saying that "Everybody has a something, watch your something, right" And I know Janet said that last year, and as she began to say that it resonated with lots of people here, so, the first thing we did is we said, "Hey, let's get everybody together." So we had a meeting that said, "Hey, if you wanna be part of these wraparound teams, let us know that happened at lots of our campuses." So we came together and we said, "Hey, how can we start to organize around this cause." The first thing that came up is we needed to know who these families were, who are our own families. We can't branch out and become bigger and help the community. If we can't first help our own. So first we worked to identify our own families. So that was exciting, and at that first event that we had that connect event, Christie Parker, who you guys saw earlier, she said, "I need to know who those families are, we're all great wells of resource, so let's get together." So we had some connect events where they could connect together. Also on that day, people like Miller Castle, he loves to fish, right? You heard Christie say, "Hey, what's your hobby? What's your skill?" Miller said, "Would it be, what do you think about having a fishing day? Would that be helpful, man?" My not be a helpful for a foster family just to have a fun event to go out and fish? We saw nine bass boats line up to just come and greet these kids and fish with them. And these were people that Miller know, people who don't come to Highlands, people who don't know Jesus. So what a great story that is, to just kind of see all those come together in a really unique way. We also had a couple ladies that said, "Hey, let's create some resource for these families. Let's create a foster care closet." We're working on what that's gonna be called right now because it really encompasses lots of things. It could be for adoptive families, people in fictive care. Fictive kin, can you say that for me the right way?
- Fictive kin.
- Fictive kin. So that may be even like a boy scout leader or a teacher that I actually has a kid for a few days in a displacement situation. So we're creating a resource closet, that's fully operational, if anybody wants to see it, let us know. At our Bristol Campus, they're working to wrap around those child protective service and social service staff to they've created events like that to wrap around that sector section of the community. I know at our Marion Campus, our Bluefield Campus, we're wrapping around foster care families. So it's just been really neat to see God move in some unique ways.
- Yeah.
- As little things as we had a foster mom that said, "Hey, I'd really like to provide some care for my girls for the prom." We have people who could do nails and makeup. So everybody has a something, what's your something?
- That's awesome. Well, good. It's good to know. Sometimes I don't know everything that the church is doing. Well, let me ask you another question, like a next step for our church or for maybe an individual. What would you say is a sort of a next step that we could help in this foster care, Virginia Kids Belong Ministry?
- Sure. Well, and that, that really goes into the, quote that, that Lindsey's introduced. And that really is, you think back to when Janet Kelly came back last year, that really was a message that resonated with me. I've worked in the social workspace for a long time. My wife has felt called many times to be a foster parent. And I, just never felt that call. And so, I give her the credit and she's getting the last laugh now because while I may not still feel called to be a foster parent, I have been given this opportunity to maybe influence and help other folks become foster parents, and maybe have an impact on many more kids than my house could ever hold for one household. So I love that, and I'm so excited to be, to be doing this work, but not everyone is called to be a foster parent. We need so many more foster parents, and I think that is one thing that Southwest Virginia can do to help Virginia come out of this crisis phase that we're in, with the foster care system. But if you're not called to be a foster parent, everyone is called to do something, right. If you're 17 years old and you can mulch mow a lawn, if you're 70 and you love baking casserole or lasagnas, you have a role to play. And so maybe you are a business owner and you can offer a discount to a foster family. That would be great.
- Yeah.
- Maybe you just love doing laundry and you can help a foster family with their piles of clothes. Maybe you're an empty nester and you're used to your afternoons being consumed by traveling to the ball fields or the basketball court or all the activities. Could you help a foster family, and those kids just have those same amazing experiences and be a help, be a transporter for that family too.
- Yeah.
- So really everyone can do something and we'll talk in a minute about an event where we're about, we're gonna have it each campus to help you identify what your something can be.
- Okay.
- Yeah. So one thing we can do is pray too, right? So you'll see on the screen behind me, Virginia Kids Belong has an awesome resource that you can download, it's a prayer guide. And so you can download that, and that gives some specific ways that we can pray. We all feel called as a church to pray for this, right. We need to rescue the world's orphans and that's step one is, Hey, who's the best rescuer that's Jesus.
- Yeah. So we need to join with them in praying, just for specifically, it's got some specific things, so you can download that on the hub, so just hf.church/hub, go on there under resources, and you can find that great resource to pray. Also, we're gonna have a connect event, no, a next steps event. I'm getting the lingo a next step event at every campus. And so that will be an opportunity where you can go and you can learn about all the ways that you can wrap around foster care. So if you, even, if you feel called to foster, you can get more information there. So your community pastors or your communicator will come out at the end at each location, and they'll give you a card, there's gonna be a card. You probably already see it. They'll talk about that. And you can join God just to make a difference in the crisis, right in our area.
- Awesome. Well, Hey, would you guys join with me and just give Matt and Lindsey a hand for what they do and for the difference that kids' lives are being changed. Thank you guys so much for being with us today. It's awesome to meet you, Matt, and to know a little bit more of what you do every day. Well, I wanna sort of wrap this up today as we finish, but again, I want to ask you a question. And as you think about when you've heard Matt's story and Lindsey's opportunities that we have locally in our own church, what does God, what does he want our church to do for these children? I mean, that's a question that I think about often as a leader here at the church, and then I want you to actually personalize that question. And I wanna, just ask the question to you. What does God want you to do for these children? And I think when we personalize it, it becomes more real to us. You heard a lot of opportunities. Maybe God wants you to start a small group, a support group to help some couples who are fostering our adopting. Maybe you would want to be a part of a wraparound team. You're not called to foster or adopt, but hey, you can help a family that's in the processes of that I know from previous experience, it would've been so helpful to have somebody to wrap around us, but we know the church is God's plan to care for orphan children. Here's the, third thing I wanted you to get today is that you are a part of God's plan to rescue the orphans, you are. And I just wanna quickly say that, God, again, He may not call on you to actually foster a child or to adopt a child, but God has called all of us to minister, to these kids, every one of us. And I believe that it's sort of like the concept of gifts that he's given us. You know, we've all been gifted in different ways. And you have to look at the gifts that God's given you, and then you have to choose a path to use and minister those gifts to others. And this is true in orphan ministry as well. We all have a role to play in ministering to these kids. You know, the neat thing is in our church, God does call many of you to foster and adopt. And I'm so grateful that you've gone down this path and you've joined God on this journey. And so many of you said, it's hard, but we see that we're making a difference in this child's life. I love this scripture in Psalm 68, verse six. This is what the scripture says, "God sets the lonely in families." He sets the lonely in families. Perhaps it's something that you would pray about, like Lindsay challenged. Could it be that God would have you to take a little child into your home and you would become that forever family. And at some point in their future, you might be able to introduce them to Jesus. Perhaps God wants you to take care of a foster child just for a couple hours where that couple that's fostering them could get a break, go out, maybe have dinner together. That would be a true gift. What does God want you to do? And I thought, how do I conclude this? And I thought the best way to conclude it is for those of us who know Jesus is to try to get you to look back just for a moment. And remember the day, that you trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you remember that day, I mean, I know I do, special day in my life. And can you remember just how thrilled you were to know that the God who created you now loved you had forgiven you, that he was with you, that you could talk with him and you knew forever that he would never leave you, that he would never abandon you. Now look forward with me, just for a second one day in heaven. It's gonna be awesome, right? I mean, we'll be there and it's even gonna be more thrilling. Scripture tells us that eye has not seen and ear heard, what heaven is actually gonna be like. It's gonna be awesome. All that God has for us in heaven. Think for just a moment, about your first day in heaven, the older. I get, I think about these things. Now, lemme tell you this. This is how child feels when they're rescued, really is, when love takes them in. When God's people decide, we're gonna give this child a forever family, they feel as they've just been born again. I mean, they feel if they died and gone to heaven, someone finally loves them, someone finally wants them, and someone finally took them home. Maybe you're here today and you've never been rescued spiritually, man, what a tragedy, I would just say, Jesus Christ has done everything He can, to rescue you spiritually, to adopt you into his family. But you know what, it's your choice. And I would just challenge you to make that choice today and trust Jesus as your Lord and savior. Would you pray with me? Let's pray all of our locations. God, thank you so much for the work that Lindsay is doing here. And all of our disciple caregivers, group leaders, it's amazing in every location that God we've actually looked at the scripture and we're making a difference in the lives of children, which it's our privilege to do. It's our responsibility as the church, the redeem, the rescued and God, I thank you for organizations like Virginia kids belong. I thank you for a guy like Matt, who is probably doing okay in the world in which he lived. And all of a sudden he started praying and God called him to make a difference in the lives of these kids. Think you, that he stepped out and he answered your call. And God, that's my prayer for everyone. Under my voice today, we all have a responsibility and a privilege to care for the least of these, God what is it? Speak to our hearts right now. And Lord, if there's one here today, who's never been spiritually adopted. You're lost, You do not know Jesus as your Lord and savior. I would just beg you with everything in me. God wants to adopt you into his forever family today. He wants to rescue you and he's gone to the cross sacrificed his life, paid for your sin debt, a debt you could never pay. Would you just trust and invite Jesus Christ into your life? You simply say Jesus, I've messed up. I've made mistakes. And today ask you to come into my life and save me and forgive me. I surrender my life to you, Jesus. And hey, if you're on TV and you prayed that prayer right now, I just prayed, click that little raised hand button so we can cheer you on. If you're at one of our in person locations, grab somebody and just let them know you are adopted today by God who loves you. Lord have your will and way now in Jesus name. Amen. One last thing as we sort of gather our thoughts around this, I back in 2009, I had the opportunity to go to a convention up in Louisville, Kentucky, the SBC convention. And if you've been to a convention like that, I do it just mainly to seat folks, but they passed some resolutions and none of them really caught my attention. But then all of a sudden there was a resolution that they passed that did catch my attention. And the resolution was a call to all SBC congregations across the world to care about orphans and basically to commit that they would take an active part. I thought about that and I asked our team to sort of craft a resolution similar to that, that we would join God's great rescue plan here at Highlands for these children who need a family. So it's on the screen, I wanna read this to you in closing our resolution here at Highlands today, we commit to call on each Highlands family to pray for guidance as to whether God is calling them to adopt foster a child. We commit to encourage our pastors and church leaders to preach and teach on God's concern for orphans. And we commit to pray for an outpouring of God's spirit on all the Highlands network congregations so that our churches will proclaim and picture in word, and indeed that whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. May we be a church that has a heart for the orphans of the world. Thank you, God bless you.