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Wayne Naugle - Families 4 Families · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

0:09
Well, good morning. We were here back on the Sunday
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after Easter in 2023. And so we're glad to be back
0:18
today. So just a little bit about
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families for families. We are, we're a faith-based
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foster care agency here in the state of Georgia.
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We have 9 contracts with the Department of Family Child
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Services and we just started our office in that Kenneth runs up
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here in Cartersville in January of 2023.
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You guys were our first partner church that we spoke at.
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We were working through contracting and stuff still and
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so you guys have been a great partner.
0:44
We have several foster families in this church and then we also,
0:48
you, you guys have hosted our gala 2 years in a row here.
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And so last time I was on this stage I was asking for money.
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I will not be doing that this morning, but you guys have
0:56
hosted 2 galas for us here. We raised $100,000 this past
1:00
year. And so we had a great gala.
1:02
And just leave a little bit about this area up here.
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We have, we're getting ready to complete our 10th adoption in
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this office in about two years because we just started a couple
1:11
years ago, placed over 80 kids. Hey, let me show you something
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about Northwest Georgia. So we have 10 regions that we
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work in Georgia. The way we divide it up
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Northwest Georgia has more kids in foster care than any other
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region that we work in the state of Georgia.
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In fact, your kids in this area come into care at a 50% higher
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rate here than they do in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett
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counties. And so we've pulled all kinds of
1:34
data and stuff. We last year, I'll go this
1:37
minute, we denied 2330, nine, 3223 kids, 691 of those kids
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were right around your church here that we just didn't have
1:48
enough homes for it. So this morning I just really
1:50
want to share with you kind of what's going on in your
1:52
community, what's going on with kids and how you can, how you
1:56
can help with that. I did not grow up doing foster
1:58
care, never thought about going into social work.
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I was in construction. So if you want to talk
2:04
Caterpillar bulldozers and Komatsu's and stuff after
2:06
church, I'm more than happy to do that with you.
2:09
I grew up in that. And then in 22,008, see if I
2:12
remember 2008, if you don't, you were not in construction.
2:15
OK. But in 2008, my wife and I
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reorganized financially. That means we filed bankruptcy
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and lost everything we had. We were, we were developing land
2:24
and we were clearing land and we were doing all this stuff and we
2:26
lost everything. In 2017, we started Families for
2:30
Families with our first office out in Loganville, GA.
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And so our whole mission was to connect with churches.
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And so we really believe that the church is an untapped
2:41
resource for foster care. And so we went into foster care
2:44
with this. We were going to connect with
2:45
churches. We were not going to charge them
2:47
any money. We were going to raise money
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from the business world. And so we wanted our families to
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be a member of a church, have a pastor's reference, sign a
2:54
statement of faith, a positional morality, and hold a biblical
2:57
view of marriage. And so as we started talking
2:59
about that and sharing with that, people told us that will
3:02
never work. You will never get enough
3:04
families with that model and and you'll never be able to scale
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that. Today we are the largest
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nonprofit foster care agency in the state of Georgia with 9
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offices. We have placed over 1500
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children and completed 250 adoptions since we started.
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So I say that, I say that, I say this, I still believe God's way
3:30
is the best way. I still believe the answer for
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foster care is the church and, and I'm, I want to share with a
3:37
little bit about that this morning.
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So here's the first slide here. Just share a little bit.
3:40
Last year, so last year we placed 287 children in Christian
3:43
foster homes. We did 120 reunifications, 44
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adoptions. We open 93 new foster homes.
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We're trying to do 110 this year.
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And this is the number I want you to remember.
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Last year we denied 3223 kids. That means the state of Georgia
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called us 3223 times and said we have an abused or neglected
4:05
child that needs a home. And we said no.
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And so people want me to come talk about the 287.
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How'd y'all do 287 kids? How'd you open 93 foster homes?
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And I'll say this, as long as we're denying kids, we're going
4:20
to keep pushing and we want to keep growing and we want to keep
4:24
connecting with churches. And so part of my job is that
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I'm in a different church every Sunday speaking.
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Next week, I'm somewhere. The next week I'm down in
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Albany, GA at Sherwood Baptist. They called us.
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It's the last place we haven't worked in Georgia.
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They got 92 pastors that are coming to a pastor's lunch to
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hear me come speak next Sunday afternoon and partner with
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Sherwood to plan an office down there in southwest Georgia.
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I believe it is so. So I want to share with you this
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morning here. If you don't hear anything else
4:50
me say this morning, I believe the church is the answer for
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foster care. So let me show you my first
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verse this morning. We're going to start here in the
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book of Exodus. And so if you've been in church
5:01
for more than a week or two, we have the book of Genesis and
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then we have the book of Exodus. And so it says this first part
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of that verse says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless
5:10
child. And so here's what I want you to
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hear. First.
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Think point number one, this is not a new problem.
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Foster care, the orphan and the widow are not a new problem.
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In fact, if you read the book of Genesis, we know Adam and Eve
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have two two sons, Cain and Abel.
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Cain kills Abel, so Abel's wife was the first single mom raising
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kids in the Bible. It's very possible that Adam and
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Eve were the first grandparents helping raise their grandkids.
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OK, but in Exodus, God starts to deal with the orphan and he
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starts to deal with the fatherless and he starts to deal
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with the widow. It's interesting in Scripture we
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always see this word widow and fatherless together.
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Or we see the word widow and orphan together, depending on
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what translation of Bible you have.
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They're together and Isaiah they're together and Ezekiel
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together. And James, Jesus talks about
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them together. And it's kind of weird because
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you look at the the widow and you say, well, she's older.
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And you look at the child, the fatherless child and you say,
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well, they're younger and you say, well, why do they always go
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together? And here's the reason why is
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they both lack a male protector. The fatherless child doesn't
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have a dad and the widow doesn't have a husband.
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Can I just say something? You don't have to look around at
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our culture very much today that there there's a plot to get rid
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of men. There there is a plot to get men
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out of our culture today. Every movie they make makes men
6:26
look stupid. Everything we do, we're trying
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to get rid of men. And let me just share this with
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you today. Satan's got something figured
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out. If he can get rid of men,
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society will do everything he wants to to women and children.
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And so there's this. There's this idea where God
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calls us as men to come in and to fight.
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He says you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.
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Now, I've invited some friends of mine today, and some will be
6:52
very careful what I say next. But when this verse was written
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back in Exodus, there were no Rotary clubs, y'all with me?
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There was no Kiwanis clubs. There was no Department of
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Family child services, There was no state government.
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So this verse was not written to any of them.
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This verse was written to us as believers.
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And I have people tell me all the time, and I said this in the
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last service, they say, Wayne, there's so many problems and
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there's so much going on. And just just hear me say this
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with love this morning, the biggest problem we have with our
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kids in the state and really in our nation, the biggest problem
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we have with the Department of Family Child Services is that
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the church has left their post. God never called the government
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to find homes for kids. He called the church to do it.
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And we talked about, we say, hey, Wayne, there's so many
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issues and there are issues. But let me tell you, the biggest
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issue is us. The biggest issue is that God
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called us to do it and we chose not to do it.
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And we gave it back to the government.
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And then we look at the government, we say, you guys
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aren't doing it right. And I just want to say this, If
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God called us to do it, he will not hold the government
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accountable for what happened to kids in our communities.
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He'll, he'll, he'll hold us accountable.
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And so he says, you shall not mistreat.
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And he says, and if you do mistreat them at all, and they
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cry out to me that I'm going to hear their cry.
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I tell my staff all the time, I'm like every time a child's
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abused, every time a child's neglected, every time a child
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goes hungry, every time a child's cold and they cry, God
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hears that cry. Did you know that a tear has
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never fell from a child's eye that God didn't know about and
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God didn't hear? And you say, well, Wayne, how
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come? How come sometimes abuse goes on
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for days and weeks and sometimes for years?
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And I don't know, but I know God hears that cry.
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And I know if I read my Bible right, I know who he's going to
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send to help him. And it's me and you.
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It's us as believers. This week we placed four kids,
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two abandoned babies, another child, actually 5 kids, and a
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sibling group of two. All five of those kids this
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morning are in church for the very first time.
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All five of those kids last Sunday were in an abusive home.
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And this Sunday they're all going to church for the first
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time. And so God sends us to help.
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I hear all this people talk about COVID and how much mental
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health worse since COVID and drug uses were since COVID.
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And I'll say, listen, look at foster homes in Georgia.
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We're down like 3000 homes since 2019.
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And I would just ask us as believers, if we believe that
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kids are creating the image of God.
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If we believe that God ordained those kids all the days of their
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life before they were born, If we believe that God's got a plan
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and a purpose for their life, then what is Our Calling in
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answering that in our communities?
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I believe the church ought to lead the way in social work.
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I believe our church is not in. Your church has done a great
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job. You guys have done a lot here.
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There's several families here that foster.
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I'm getting ready to share a story about one of those
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families. But as a church, we're not
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called to be silent in this part here.
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And so on the next slide, there is a fatherless.
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And so we talked about the fatherless.
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And now this is federal data. This is not from the Southern
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Baptist Convention or anything. OK.
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So listen to this. 63% of all youth suicides are fatherless
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homes. 90% of our runaways are from fatherless homes. 85% of
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children who show behavior disorders are fatherless homes.
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71% of all high school dropouts are fatherless homes.
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How much money we spend trying to keep kids in school?
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My family, we had a program for keeping kids in school.
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It was me. You know what the program was?
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My dad. Mom, I don't feel good.
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Today. My mom would be in the kitchen
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making me chicken noodle soup and saltines.
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You know what my dad would do? Get up.
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You're going to school and when you get off, when you get home
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from school, you can go to bed because you don't feel good.
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My idea was I lay in bed all day when my friends got off the bus.
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I could go play with him that afternoon.
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But my dad, there was no option of going to school.
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And if you couldn't throw up, you went to school.
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And if you did throw up, my dad said, OK, you know, you're
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better now, go to school. 71% of all high school dropouts,
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fatherless homes, 75% of adolescents who show behavior
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disorders or who chemical abuse. There is possible 85% of youth.
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This was from Fulton County and a county in Texas that are youth
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that are in prisons, are from father's homes.
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So people tell me all the time they say Wayne Satan's working
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so hard in our culture and he's destroying families and he's
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working through drug use and runaways and trafficking.
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Let me tell you what Satan's got figured out.
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All he has to do is remove you men from being the provider and
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protector for your home and society will take care of
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everything else. He doesn't have to do anything
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else. Once he gets once he breaks
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down, the family society will take care of almost everything
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else he wants to do. Let me share a story with you.
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In October of 2023, not far from your church, a little 6 year old
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girl was with her mom and dad and they had some pretty
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significant drug issues. They were homeless, they had
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drug issues, there was neglect and there was abuse.
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And her family was working with the Bartow County Resource right
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up the road here and doing a pretty good job.
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And it got so bad that they couldn't take care of her
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anymore. And a lady who worked there
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ended up taking care of this little girl for a couple weeks.
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She moved in with her. The judge let her go there and
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she stayed with her. And she stayed there for a
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couple weeks. And the family just said, it's
12:25
too much, like we can't do this anymore.
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And so they are going to surrender her over to the
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Department of Family and Child Services.
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And on that day that families destroyed, this little girl's
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already been removed from her family.
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She goes to another family. Not not anything they did wrong.
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They just couldn't do it. So you think about this little
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girl, my mom and dad don't want me.
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So I go live with a friend for two weeks.
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They don't want me. And it's six years old.
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Her view of family and stability is gone.
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And so this lady that has this little girl at six years old
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remembers that there's a church in Cartersville that started a
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foster care, foster care ministry named Cartersville
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First Baptist Church. So she picks up the phone and
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she calls your executive pastor Stephen James says, hey, I know
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y'all started a ministry. I know you're working through
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the licensing process to get your home open.
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And his response was our home just opened yesterday.
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Now you talk about God's timing. Let me tell you something.
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There's a lot, there's somebody a lot bigger than any of us in
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here fighting for these kids. And so God's timing was that his
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home opened yesterday and he got a phone call and we took a
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little bit through courts and judges.
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In October of 2023, she moved in with the Stephen James family in
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your church. And the family continued to
13:56
struggle and visits and all the stuff that happened.
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In March of 2025, her 13 month old brother also came into care
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and the James family said yes. In November of 2025, this little
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6 year old girl was adopted by the James family and your
14:24
church. And I was talking to my staff
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this week and I said tell me some, you know, I can't keep up
14:34
with 300 kids. And they said tell me some, tell
14:36
me some information about what's going on with the little boy.
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And they said we'll call you Friday.
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And so Friday they called me. And on Friday, this past Friday,
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like 3 days ago, the James family signed 30 threes, which
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is an intent to adopt and they'll be adopting the little
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boy named Michael who they're changing his name to Matthew.
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So all that happened, none of that happened because of
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families for families. That happened because of your
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church. Now let me let me share
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something with ready that little girl and I know a little bit
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about her. I actually got to meet Matthew
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just a few minutes ago. I know about her.
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She understands an abusive dad and she understands a neglectful
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dad. And now she understands the dad
15:18
that adopted her and chose her. She understands what family
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dysfunction looks like and drug use looks like and neglect look
15:28
like. And now she understands what a
15:30
church family loving on her looks like.
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And she understands what it's like to be homeless.
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And now she understands what it's like to have a warm bed
15:38
every night. And now she understands what
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it's like to have food. And now she understands what
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it's like a church family. And I believe one day, because
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right now while we're sitting in here, she's back there in kids
15:50
ministry and I believe she's going to go to vacation Bible
15:52
school and she's going to go to youth camp one day.
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And you small group leaders that sitting here, you guys are going
15:57
to pour into her. And Matthew's in the nursery
15:59
right now and somebody's probably rocking him and singing
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Jesus loves him. And someday those kids are going
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to give their life to Jesus in this church.
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And let me tell you what's going to happen when that happens is
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generational sins have been passed down from that family
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from years and years and generations will all be broken
16:15
and strongholds in that family will start to come down.
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And alcoholism and drug use and abuse will end because of those
16:24
kids and because of what this church did in those kids lives.
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Now here's the only question we got to figure out this morning
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is how much of our life are we willing to give up so that can
16:34
happen for a child. That's the only question about
16:37
foster care. The only question about foster
16:38
care is this is what part of the American dream is your family
16:42
willing to give up so that a kids nightmare can end?
16:46
And what's my life really worth because of travel ball?
16:50
So important that I don't have time to take care of another
16:52
kid. Nothing wrong with travel ball.
16:56
My kid play sports. They were terrible, but they all
16:58
play. I'll be honest, we didn't play
17:01
travel ball. We weren't that good.
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Nothing wrong with all that, but taking another kid and take him
17:06
to play ball with you. But what happens because that
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little girl now understands she's got a mom and she's got a
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dad that love her. Those kids are here this
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morning. So church when you're teaching
17:20
Melinda in the 1st grade, 2nd grade, whatever 6 year olds are,
17:24
I guess they're first grade when you're teaching her and you're
17:26
holding Matthew, just know you stole one from the enemy and put
17:30
them back in God's Kingdom. That's what this church ought to
17:33
be about. That's what God calls our
17:35
churches to do. Here's the next verse says this.
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He says learn to do good, seek justice, right, correct
17:41
oppression, bring justice for the fatherless and plead the
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widow's calls. Now some versions say to fight
17:47
for the fatherless. Some versions say to take up the
17:49
cause. Some versions say to defend.
17:52
But the word here is this. If God calls us to bring justice
17:55
to the fatherless, the the the issue is there's begin in just
17:59
things done to them. Does that make sense?
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If God calls us to defend something, it means they're
18:03
being attacked. If he calls us to bring justice,
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it means there's been in just things done to our fatherless
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children, OK. And so I told you, well, we had
18:12
five kids growing up. I had three girls and two boys,
18:16
OK. And we were watching National
18:17
Geographic with our kids. You ever watch the National
18:19
Geographic with your kids? I don't know if it's good or
18:20
not. My kids are grown, so it's too
18:21
late. But we don't watch that.
18:23
And these little gazelles be going down towards the watering
18:25
hole, and you know, it's waiting for the gazelles before they get
18:27
there. The lions, you guys watch that
18:30
with your kids too. And so the lions and the lions,
18:32
they call them a pride of lions. And they all wait for the
18:34
gazelles to get right in the middle.
18:36
And then they all jump out at one time and all the gazelles
18:38
run. And there's three gazelles that
18:40
get left behind. Now my girls scream for the
18:44
gazelles. They can run.
18:45
Gazelles run. What are my boys screaming for?
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The lions? They're going to kill them.
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I shouldn't say that. Get them.
18:53
They're saying get them. And so they all start running.
18:56
Now there's three gazelles that get left behind.
18:58
The old gazelles that can't run as fast.
19:00
That would be some of y'all. You don't have to be the
19:02
fastest, but you cannot afford to be the slowest.
19:04
OK, so some of the old gazelles get left behind.
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The second gazelle that gets left behind is the gazelle that
19:09
maybe got a broke leg and maybe got wounded in a previous
19:11
attack. But the third gazelle that gets
19:13
left behind is the one the lions want.
19:14
Which one is it? The babies.
19:17
The lions want the babies first. Peter 58, says your adversary,
19:22
the devil, walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone
19:24
to devour. Do you know what stands between
19:27
Satan and those kids in the nursery back there?
19:29
You know what stands between them?
19:32
You do, mom and dad. You fight for them.
19:36
Your health is important because you fight for those kids.
19:39
And before Satan's going to get to those kids, he's got to go
19:43
through you. So if Satan can just remove you,
19:45
he wants those kids. This what I believe about men.
19:49
Men, I, I think the church has done injustice in this.
19:53
Men are called to fight. We are called to protect and
19:58
provide. But more importantly in that we
20:00
are called to fight for our families and we're called to
20:04
fight for kids that cannot fight for themselves.
20:08
That is Our Calling as that is Our Calling as a biblical man.
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I know we don't say this in church, but I'm not a real
20:17
pastor. I told you all that so I can say
20:18
it. You guys watching NASCAR for
20:21
four hours, you know what you're hoping for in the back of your
20:24
mind that you don't say. What are you hoping for?
20:27
A wreck? We're all the same.
20:31
We want to see metal flying and cars flipping and bodies flying
20:34
out because there's a part of us it's like, yes, that's exciting.
20:41
We watch a football game in the end of the game ends in a brawl
20:46
in the guys are taking their helmets.
20:48
I don't know why they take their helmets off, but they take their
20:50
helmets off and they start hitting each other.
20:52
And ESPN will say, oh, this is terrible for college football.
20:55
We hate to see the game in this way.
20:57
But they showed the clips 30 times on Sunday afternoon.
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You know why they show it? Because they know who's watching
21:03
ESPN. It's men.
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And we're like, we want to see a fight.
21:09
We watch MMA. We watch people getting an
21:11
Octagon with bare knuckles and beat the slop out of each other
21:16
and going to come to church and say bless your brother.
21:20
You know why? Because God put that in US.
21:23
God put that in you. I grew up in construction.
21:28
I've shot everything there is to shoot.
21:30
I've mounted everything there is to mount.
21:31
I've catch. I've caught everything there is
21:33
to catch. I still drive a four wheel drive
21:36
truck. I don't need it for anything.
21:38
It's a diesel. I don't even know why, but I
21:42
drive that because I feel like, you know, a little bit of
21:44
manhood hanging on, you know? Let me tell you something, man.
21:52
The most manly thing you might can do is put down your golf
21:56
clubs and your guns. Don't sell them.
21:59
Just put them down and go pick up a kid that doesn't have
22:03
anybody to fight for him. And you look that kid in the eye
22:07
and you say before anybody gets to you, they're going to come
22:10
through me. And before anybody ever hurts
22:13
you again, they're going to have to deal with me first.
22:16
And you stand between that child in harm's way and you say it
22:21
stops today. We have no right to complain
22:27
about people abusing kids when we're not willing to take them
22:31
after they need a home. Well, you don't understand.
22:37
We're busy. Everybody's busy.
22:38
You don't understand. I got hobbies.
22:45
If there weren't kids in here, I could go into detail with you
22:47
what happens to our children and our state.
22:50
And the main reason it happens is because the church is
22:53
silence. Because we're as men were silent
22:58
as families, we become silent. I want to read a letter to you
23:03
we got a few years ago. I got to put my glasses on to
23:06
read it. A few years ago.
23:07
We got a sibling group of four, three boys and a girl.
23:11
The girl was the oldest and the mother wanted to get the girl
23:14
back, but she didn't want her boys back because she could use
23:20
the girl to make money to get her drugs.
23:26
And there was a talk about reunification until somebody,
23:32
families for families heard about it and started meeting
23:36
with county directors and people going, this is not going to
23:39
happen and they can't override me.
23:42
But if they do, there's going to be a lot of meetings.
23:46
And that was about six years ago.
23:48
And she was in my office last week.
23:49
I wasn't there and she left a letter on my desk for me.
23:52
And I want to read it to you this morning. 12 year old girl
23:55
and all this abuse happened from 5 between she was five and six
23:59
years old. And because of who's in, I'm not
24:02
going to details, but you can figure it out.
24:04
This is what it said, she said. Dear Wayne, thank you for your
24:09
company because if it wasn't for you I would have never been with
24:14
a great family. Sorry that I didn't get to talk
24:17
to you in person. You are the reason I got saved
24:20
and I'm safe because if you never made this company I would
24:24
be lonely and probably wouldn't even be here right now.
24:28
Thank you for being friends with my dad and being there for me.
24:35
So tell me what's more important than that?
24:45
That girl just spent three days at my house because she's
24:47
friends with my one of my daughter's.
24:53
And I'll just say the church like these kids are going to
24:57
spend eternity somewhere. There's kids that are going home
25:04
to an abusive home today and it's a church.
25:08
Sometimes I think we're just like, well that's OK.
25:11
There's nothing we can do about it.
25:14
And I just, I want to encourage you, we can fix this.
25:17
We can fix this churches. We you guys, you guys can fix
25:22
this. This church 2 services 1000
25:26
people on Sunday morning. Y'all could change your county
25:30
for foster care. Next verse is James 127.
25:35
It says this. It says religion that is pure
25:38
and undefiled before God is to visit the orphans and the widows
25:41
and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the
25:46
world. It's pure religion.
25:49
It's investing in people that can't pay you back.
25:52
It's loving on people that can't love you back.
25:54
It's you bringing something to the table when they don't bring
25:57
anything back for you. I go and go next slide.
26:01
And so James 2 talks about how that James 2 talks about if you
26:05
see somebody, if you see somebody who needs clothes and
26:08
food going to the next slide and you don't and you pray for him.
26:13
James 2 basically says that what good is that?
26:16
Because if you pray for somebody that's hungry, they're still
26:18
hungry. If you pray for somebody that
26:20
needs a coat, they still need a coat.
26:21
If you pray for a kid that needs a home, he still needs a home.
26:24
And I so I kind of put this down.
26:25
Church should provide the practical and pray for the
26:27
supernatural. As churches we ought to provide
26:29
the practical and we ought to pray for the supernatural.
26:32
Y'all remember Moses when he went up on the hill to pray and,
26:35
and Josh was in the battle fighting the Amicon Knights?
26:38
Y'all remember what God told him to do?
26:40
God said, I want you to hold your hands up, right?
26:42
And I'm going to make the sun stand still and you're going to
26:45
hold your hands up and the sun's going to stand still as long as
26:47
you hold your hands up. Josh was going to win the
26:50
battle. And so Moses is praying and his
26:51
hands starting to get tired and start to come down and Joshua
26:54
starts losing. And so Aaron and her are with
26:57
them. Y'all remember what Aaron and
26:58
her did. Y'all can talk if you want to
27:00
what they do. They held his arms up.
27:04
Now if the God of the universe can make the sun stand still,
27:07
can't he make Moses hold his hands up?
27:11
But God wants us to be involved in his work.
27:14
So think about this. I know they weren't Baptist
27:18
because if they were Baptist, Aaron and her would have prayed
27:20
for Moses to have more strength to hold his hands up.
27:23
They wouldn't have done anything else because they were busy.
27:28
That make sense, But no, they said, oh, we have a we have a
27:33
Moses is over here. He's praying and he's tired, so
27:35
maybe we should help him. That's a novel approach.
27:38
Here's a another Remember when Jesus called Lazarus out of the
27:42
grave? He's been dead for four days.
27:44
Jesus speaks into his Jesus speaks.
27:47
He said Lazarus come out of the grave and Lazarus walks out of
27:49
the grave. You know what God told people to
27:50
do? Take his grave clothes off.
27:53
Jesus can give him life after four days and he wants us to
27:56
take his grave clothes off. Why didn't Jesus make his grave
27:59
clothes fall off? Because he wanted us to be
28:01
involved in the work. We call these banner churches.
28:06
We call them Banner because of the the story in Moses.
28:08
So I'm going to, I'm going to share a story.
28:10
I'm going to we're going to do an illustration, then I'm going
28:12
to share a story with them. Then we're going to then we're
28:14
going to close. Is the Hamilton.
28:15
Where's the Hamilton family at? Y'all come on up here, all of
28:19
you. Your pastor recommended you.
28:22
I'm sorry. We got some kids for you.
28:28
They're in the nursery. I'm just kidding.
28:35
All right, Have you ever thought about fostering?
28:37
Good. OK, you're going to be a foster
28:39
dad. Be a foster mom right here.
28:41
OK, so this is a foster family. Now I'm going to share
28:44
something. You guys ready.
28:44
Half the foster family is going to foster care quit within the
28:47
first year. Now, we hold about a 90%
28:49
retention rate with our foster families and I'm about to show
28:51
you why, but you guys all have a part in this, OK?
28:54
So y'all have boys over here. OK, We are going to give you boy
28:58
who takes care of the boys mostly.
29:00
That's what I thought. All right, so and y'all are
29:05
married, right? It's good because Steven told me
29:11
y'all were. So that's good.
29:12
Husband, wife. OK.
29:15
And we have. All right.
29:16
Sorry these got mixed up. We have a mom.
29:19
You're a mom here. Make sure we can see all that.
29:22
OK, Dad. OK, this is good.
29:25
All right, y'all ever thought about how many kids you're going
29:27
to foster? What's that?
29:30
How many kids y'all want to foster?
29:33
I can put some pictures of kids that need homes up there.
29:36
OK, we're going to say 3. That's great.
29:38
Thank y'all for volunteering for three.
29:39
There we go. 3. Here, hold that for me.
29:41
OK, so this is a foster family, right?
29:43
This is a foster family in your church that's struggling Now,
29:45
what are y'all going to do? You're going to help, right?
29:48
You're not. You are going to pray for them,
29:50
but you're going to do more and pray for them, right?
29:53
Oh, we're praying for y'all. You know, they got these boys.
29:55
Do y'all like to eat? Yes.
29:57
OK, so all right, so as a foster family, he's still a still a
30:01
mom, still a dad, still a husband, still a wife.
30:03
Now they're foster parents, OK. And now they bring these kids in
30:07
the home. They have traumas and they don't
30:09
understand what's going on and they act out sometimes.
30:11
OK, so this what we try to do. We need a family.
30:14
You're going to volunteer. I need a family that says, hey,
30:17
I'll cook a meal once a week, or my small group has four people
30:21
in our small group and once a month somebody will do a meal.
30:24
And that was just illustration. So who's going to volunteer?
30:28
Come on. I was going to say, if nobody
30:30
raises their hand, y'all are all Baptists for sure.
30:31
Because you're just going to pray for them.
30:32
OK. Tell me your name.
30:34
Aaron. Bring your wife because we don't
30:36
want you cooking. OK, There you go.
30:37
All right, Aaron. Aaron and his family, his him
30:42
and his wife, they're going to work through a small group and
30:43
they're going to bring a meal once a week for this family.
30:45
Is that important? Thanks, Aaron.
30:48
Thanks, Aaron. OK, now, as a foster family, you
30:51
can't just leave your kids with anybody, OK?
30:54
You can't just leave them at the neighbor's house, OK.
30:56
So you have to find another family that goes through the
30:58
whole process. And so your wife's been doing a
31:00
great job taking care of the boys, taking care of you.
31:02
She needs a break. You're going to take her.
31:04
Where you going to take her? To Apple?
31:07
No, no. You're going somewhere, like for
31:10
three or four days. Would you like to go on a
31:12
cruise? She's going on a cruise.
31:15
OK, Sure. Can't take the foster kids out
31:17
of state, out of out of they don't have passports.
31:19
So we need a family that would go through the whole process,
31:22
but not bring kids in your home and just be a respite family.
31:25
OK, They're going to stay with you for a week.
31:27
Husband and wife. Anybody, anybody.
31:30
OK, come. Y'all come on up here.
31:31
This is going to be this is going to be great work.
31:33
Kenneth, you're getting all these guys information.
31:35
Good. All right, so here's the respite
31:36
family. What's your name?
31:41
Tom. OK, Tom, you're going to get the
31:42
foster children, OK? And then you guys get all three
31:45
of these kids, OK? You want to give your boys up
31:48
too, OK, We're leaving them. I'm not sure, but anyway, we'll
31:54
talk about that later after everybody leaves, OK?
31:58
So because now, oh, you know what, when y'all are on the
32:00
cruise, by the way, you're not a dad.
32:02
You're not just husband and a wife.
32:04
You're not a foster mom. Because it's important for our
32:06
foster family sometimes just to be a husband and a wife.
32:10
Sometimes it's important for them just to be a mom and a dad.
32:13
Now, don't tell me when you see families in your church or
32:15
struggling. Oh, we're praying for y'all.
32:17
They, they need you to pray. They need help.
32:19
Your families need help. So now I'm losing my stuff here
32:27
sometimes even if you weren't to go to is Appalachian Grill is
32:31
that close here? Even when the Appalachian Grill,
32:33
you won't leave your kids for a couple hours.
32:35
How old are y'all? 14 and 13, OK, You aren't
32:39
allowed to keep kids by yourself.
32:40
You got to be 18 to keep kids by yourself.
32:42
So is there a 18 year old in here and say hey, listen, I
32:44
would do a background check and ACPR check and I could keep kids
32:48
for two or three hours so they can go on a date.
32:51
Anybody. I'm look, come on up here.
32:54
I was about to say I'm looking around.
32:55
Most of y'all look over the age of 18.
32:58
OK, What's your name? Name.
33:04
All right, so May's going to babysit.
33:06
OK, so now we're going to take the foster children.
33:10
They're back from their cruise, by the way, and you're going to
33:12
keep them for a couple hours. So now they can go out and be a
33:15
husband and wife. Let me tell you something else
33:20
about our kids too, though. You ready?
33:23
Sometimes, a lot of times these kids have behaviors and traumas
33:29
that we don't understand that that none, that none of this
33:33
helps. That therapies help control
33:38
behaviors, but it doesn't change their hearts.
33:41
Therapies can help rebuild their minds, but it can't change their
33:44
hearts and sometimes their behaviors that only Jesus can
33:47
fix. We have a church in Snellville.
33:50
56 couples in their senior citizens ministry have adopted
33:54
56 of our families and they pray for our families every week.
33:59
We've seen some stories of our time.
34:00
I could share with you of what we've seen God do in families
34:03
this year at Famous for Families.
34:05
So I need somebody that could just call this family once a
34:08
week and not do it like Baptist do it, but really do it and just
34:12
pray for them. Is there a couple here that
34:15
could do that? Y'all come on up here.
34:18
All right, tell me y'all's name. Jansen.
34:20
Jansen. All right, Jansen and Jenna are
34:23
going to pray for this family. Y'all go to Santa?
34:25
Barbara Jansen. And Jenna are going to pray for
34:27
this family question, wonder if every foster family, and this is
34:31
what we do at Families for Families.
34:33
What if every foster family had this around them?
34:35
Let me tell you what would happen.
34:37
You wouldn't have half the families leaving in the first
34:40
year. Now I shared a number with
34:43
y'all. Earlier y'all remember how many
34:45
kids we denied last year 3. 1223.
34:50
I spoke a couple about a month ago at the Georgia Baptist
34:52
Convention. I don't think they'll ever
34:54
invite me back because you know what?
34:57
He, I asked him. I said you.
34:58
Know how many Jimmy just Southern Baptist churches are in
35:00
Georgia not non denominational not independent not Methodist
35:04
not Lutheran not just Southern Baptist churches are in Georgia
35:09
3400 3400 Southern Baptist churches in Georgia if.
35:16
Every church. Had one family and supported
35:21
that one family. We could have said yes to every
35:24
child they called us for last year.
35:26
In fact, that's not even true because most of the kids we get
35:28
are sibling groups. So really 3002?
35:31
123 was. Probably only 1600 phone calls.
35:35
Does that make sense? Can I tell you something?
35:38
There is no problem with defects.
35:40
There's no problem with the foster care crisis in Georgia.
35:44
The problem is believers obeying God's Word and being doers of
35:48
the Word and not just hearers of the Word.
35:50
That's the problem and I speak to.
35:53
Myself when I say that too. All right, y'all put those down.
35:55
Thank y'all. We do have your information.
35:58
You will be will be expecting a response.
36:02
All right, I got one more thing and I'm going to be done.
36:06
Let me show you what's going on right around you.
36:08
You hear 12,000 kids in foster care.
36:10
How's our church going to do that?
36:11
Bartow County, 126 kids in care right here.
36:14
Just the counties that touch your county, 13147 kids.
36:17
I really believe this. I believe there's enough
36:19
churches in Bartow County we could take care of all those
36:21
kids. I was coming this morning.
36:23
I live in Gainesville. I drove past the churches at
36:24
cross point and up the road here.
36:26
Big old church. We could be doing a lot more 13,
36:32
147 kids. People ask me all the time that
36:34
when how did you go from construction like land clearing
36:38
to this right? How did how did you go from land
36:42
clearing to, to doing this? Since I want to share a story I
36:45
told you all. We have 5 kids.
36:46
We're a weird family. We homeschooled our kids.
36:49
They all have jobs and so they're doing well.
36:51
And so, but we, we, we always took our kids overseas like
36:55
Honduras, we took them to Africa, we took them to India.
36:57
And so we heard, we heard through this guy, he said, Hey,
37:01
y'all know, there's, there's like kids in in the US that need
37:04
homes and we're like it, but not in Georgia.
37:06
They're like, no, there's kids in Georgia.
37:07
This has been 14 years ago. And so we began to do some
37:10
research. My wife and I did at the time,
37:11
there was about 8000 kids in foster care in our state.
37:14
And so we're like, hey, we could probably take in one kid and
37:17
just foster them for a while, help mom and dad.
37:19
So that was kind of our goal. And so we we went to D fax and
37:23
we tried to get open and they said, well, they didn't think
37:25
we'd be a good foster home. So the wind went to private
37:27
agency. And so in God was just using all
37:29
of that. And so we went to private agency
37:31
and we got approved in a couple months.
37:33
And I was at church, I was on staff at my church and my wife
37:35
called me on a Monday morning at 10:00 and she said, hey, the
37:38
state just called us and said her home's been approved by the
37:40
state. I'm like, honey, what does that
37:41
mean? She's I don't know.
37:42
I think we're done with paperwork.
37:43
That's good. That's good because it's a lot
37:45
of paperwork. By the way, it should be a lot
37:47
of paperwork. They're putting a human life in
37:48
your home. And so they called back like 6
37:52
minutes later and then hey y'all ready for a placement And I'm
37:57
like. We have 5 kids.
37:58
We've been open. For six minutes.
37:59
And y'all think we're the best option, you know?
38:03
And they said, well, yeah. And I said, well, honey, what,
38:05
what do we know about her? And she said, well, we know
38:07
this, that there's a little girl.
38:09
And last night she was born and left behind a dumpster in
38:11
Atlanta. And she's got 5 drugs in her
38:14
system. Cocaine is the worst.
38:15
Mom has some significant mental health issues, like bipolar, the
38:19
other words, schizophrenia, that I can't say very good.
38:22
She aged out of foster care at 18.
38:25
There's a lot going on. And I'm like, honey, we, we're
38:29
remember, we're Baptist. We need to pray about this for a
38:31
few days and she's like, well, you can pray all you want to,
38:33
but they're on hold on the other line waiting on your answer.
38:39
And I'm like, I'm just a youth pastor.
38:40
I don't know. Honey, no.
38:42
And we, we joke, but all my kids are in the background.
38:45
GoDaddy, can we have her? Can we have her?
38:47
And so we said yes to her immediately.
38:49
And so we, I'm going to teach my students on Wednesday nights.
38:53
My wife's going down to Grady Hospital, pick this little girl
38:55
up and nobody wants. I'm going to be honest with you,
38:59
I'm here this morning because I never got over that first phone
39:02
call that in a state with 20,000 churches and 10,000 kids and we
39:06
don't have enough homes for kids.
39:09
And so we bring her home and. For a year we have trips to.
39:13
Chowa and seizures and detox and courts and court.
39:18
We go sit in court all day and the next day judge will come out
39:20
and we'll see y'all tomorrow morning.
39:22
And so we go sit in court all day the next day.
39:24
And for a year we did all this stuff with this little girl and
39:27
visits and it was tough. It was tough on my family.
39:29
And so here's the picture. That first little girl we
39:31
brought in her home. By the way, there's. 12,000 kids
39:36
like that some of them are older, some are younger so
39:43
that's her and after a. Year goes by 53.
39:46
Weeks later, the phone rings. And they're like, hey, would
39:50
y'all like a baby? And I'm like, no, we still have
39:53
the first one, remember? And they said, well, mom's had
39:59
another child. By the way, mom aged out of
40:02
foster care at 18 years old because she never had a family.
40:06
I have lots of opinions on that and.
40:09
So they said, would y'all like another?
40:11
Little girl. And we immediately said yes.
40:13
And so here's a picture of our next little girl.
40:18
That's Ashley. Ashley has what they call
40:20
absence corpus callosum. Her left side of her brain
40:22
doesn't talk to the right side of her brain.
40:23
She's in a special needs class. Ashley will probably never leave
40:26
home. So we have Ashley for a year.
40:31
Phone rings again. I'm like honey, don't answer the
40:35
phone. It's not a.
40:38
Law that says we have to answer it.
40:39
Once you answer it, now we're kind of on the hook, but we're
40:42
in the car. This time on speakerphone.
40:44
And all my kids are in there. And this was the phone call I
40:46
got. And I still can hear Miss Sarah
40:50
Moton's voice in Fulton County. And this is what she said, She
40:54
said. We have looked for mom, dad,
40:57
brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles.
40:59
We have exhausted all family members and nobody wants those
41:04
girls. Nobody wants them.
41:09
How do you live in a state like Georgia as a child and nobody
41:13
wants you? There's a website you can go to
41:18
called My Turn Now. And look at 3 or 400 kids and
41:20
nobody wants and really. What we're saying is our life is
41:24
more. Important than their life.
41:27
And so we said yes. And on April 8th, 2014, going to
41:33
the next picture there, the only picture on the last April 8th,
41:36
2014, we adopted both those little girls.
41:40
We celebrated their gotcha day. We celebrated their gotcha day
41:48
on Wednesday. I was supposed to be meeting
41:51
with some candidate that's running for something.
41:54
I won't go into all that, but I stayed home because my girls
41:57
want to have all the little friends over there. 12 and 13,
42:00
getting ready to be 13 and 14. May 6th and May 15th.
42:05
And as adoptive dad, people ask me.
42:07
A lot of questions. They asked me questions like, do
42:10
you love those? Kids like they're your own kids.
42:13
Those are my kids. They got an Ogle birth
42:16
certificates and they. Asked me.
42:19
Like, do you ever worry? About, like, generational sin,
42:22
like what they're going to do when they can become teenagers.
42:25
Can I tell you something? I'm worried about what my own
42:26
kids were going to do when they were teenagers.
42:30
And my favorite? Question people ask me.
42:33
And I know we live in a culturally sensitive world.
42:36
They say, are you going to tell those girls they're adopted?
42:40
Yeah, conversations come up. In fact, my.
42:45
Oldest daughter who's 13. Got in an argument with my 20
42:48
year old bio daughter and she said and my adopted daughter
42:51
said well dad chose me. I'm like, don't say that, but
42:56
that's well. Played and let me tell you.
42:59
Something you. Know people tell me they're
43:01
like, you know, you know those kids.
43:03
Don't look like you. And I'm like, yeah, and this is
43:07
usually mean, people telling me this stuff.
43:10
And I'm not like Kenneth Aycock. I'm not as nice as he is.
43:13
But you know what I want to say? You don't look like God.
43:19
In most days, you don't act like God, and God let you and his
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family. And when you came to Jesus in
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vacation Bible school when you were eight years old, He knew
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what you were going to do at your freshman year in college,
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and He still let you and his family.
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He knew what? Your life was going to look
43:35
like. And adoption in foster care,
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it's the work of the family, has nothing to do with the behaviors
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of the child. And God's love for you is the
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work of him. Nothing to do with your
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behavior, has nothing to do with your behavior.
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And I'm glad because I've made a lot of mistakes in my life.
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I made a lot of mistakes. One reason I started Families
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for Families, I interviewed with three different foster care
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agencies. I just want to come recruit
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families. They all said I wasn't
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qualified. I started my own thing.
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Let me show you a last picture here.
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This my whole family, my daughter on the.
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End over there on the right hand.
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Side, she was pregnant with twins.
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They're six months old now. My other son and daughter on the
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other side, she's pregnant now with our fifth grandchild.
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And the Ezra, the little girl he's holding Ezra was born in
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October 21st of 2014. She was born blind and she has a
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feeding tube and she gets a shot every day for growth hormones.
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And so she is what if she was in foster care?
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She would be considered medically fragile and last year
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we started a project called the Ezra project with families for
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families and we we we intentionally go after specialty
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medically fragile. Watch for oversight SMFWO we
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have 12 kids in our Care now that are medically fragile.
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We have. Two kids that the doctor gave
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them. A year to live and they're one
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of our families down in South of Atlanta, so we're intentionally
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going after children like my granddaughter.
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And I've told my son, I said, Kayla may be the reason God had
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her born in her family so that we could use her story all over
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the state of Georgia to help kids all over our state.
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And so you say, what do you want us to do with all this?
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Information like this is a lot and I just, I want you to say
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this. You can't change the whole
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world, but you can change the whole world for one child.
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You can do that. It's a let me give you your next
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step. This is just, this is the next
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step. I'm not asking you to do
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anything crazy. Just I, I want you to consider
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taking one step this morning, April 26th at 5:00 in the
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Chapel. Kenneth's going to be back.
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I'll watch to be in Albany. Kenneth's going to be back and
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we're going to do what we call an information session.
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We don't bring kids with us and say, do you want to take these
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home? That's not the way it works.
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But we want you to come that day and we'll talk to you about what
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it looks like to cook a meal. And we'll also be a babysitter
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and a rested family and a foster parent.
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We call them partnership parents and a foster parent.
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We'll talk about what it was like to do a date night and be
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in just everything that you can do on April 6th at 5:00 PM.
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If for some reason you can't make it, you can scan that QR
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code and we do 2 online information sessions every
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month. It's better to come because you
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can ask questions If you're like Wayne, I got some more
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questions. I'm not sure I'm.
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Ready to take a step? Yet that is my cell phone number
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and my e-mail. You guys can get a hold of me
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easier than my staff can, and I want you to know that.
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If you need something, I'd love to give me a call.
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I'd love to talk to you. I would love to share with you
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about what you can do for a child and that you could be the
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answer to a child's prayer. Hey, there's two of my friends
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this morning I want to introduce that are here.
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And I told you guys, I believe in partnering with the state and
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partnering with our legislators. And I believe that families for
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families that none of us can do this work alone, but we could
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all accomplish it together. And I want to introduce them to
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you. And then we're going to pray for
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them and then we'll turn it back over.
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So Candace, you and Katie, y'all come up here.
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They didn't know I was going to do this.
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So if I don't have a job tomorrow morning, you'll know
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why. This is Miss Katie Dempsey, and
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she is the chairman of the Department of Human Services for
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on the subcommittee on the House side.
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I say the budget. She's in charge of the budget
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and the money. And so we work with her and her
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committee a lot, and they really have an impossible job to do.
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And so, and this is Candace, bro.
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She is the commissioner of the Department of Family and Child
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Services. And so we work with Candace and
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her team a lot. And I want to, I want to share
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something. Listen, there's no way they can
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watch what goes on everywhere and they have a tough job.
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And I want you to remember these two names, Katie Dempsey and
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Candace Bruce. And y'all pray for them.
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Y'all pray that God will give them wisdom.
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Pray that God will give them wisdom to see what they need to
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see. And I'm going to pray for them
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and I'm going to turn it back over.
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We'll all three be in the lobby when it's over.
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And thank you guys for letting me share.
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Thank you all for letting me go over.
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That clock's been red for about 15 minutes, so I know I'm way
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over. So thank you guys.
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Let's pray and I will turn it back over your church.
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Lord, thank you for today. And God, I thank you for for
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Candace and for Katie and for the work that they do and for
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the work they do for kids in our state.
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And I know sometimes when you work with kids, only thing
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people remember is what you did wrong.
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It's I pray this morning's encouragement as we hear about
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kids being fostered in this church.
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We hear kids about being adopted.
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Well, I know families are going to be here on April 26th.
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And God, I pray you help us to just put in front of us this is
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about today, but this is about seeing these kids saved and
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spending eternity with us in heaven.
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So God, I pray you give this church a passion.
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I pray you speak to families as they go to lunch, as they lay in
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bed and couples talk tonight and they talked this week.
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And God, I pray that your Holy Spirit, we'll just pursue them
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and bring them back on the 26th. God help us to lay our life down
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for a child, just like you laid your life down for us.
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It's a God, we thank you for what you're doing here.
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Thank you for this church in Jesus name, Amen.