"The Special Purpose of Spiritual Parents" - 1 Timothy 5:1-2

Do you recognize the special purpose of spiritual parents?

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh, well, Cedar Street, I want to say again, I love you so very much. It's my joy to be with each of you on a special day like today. For those of you visiting, we're so grateful that you're here spending this time with us. And uh today's gonna be a little bit more lighthearted. We've been going through 2 Samuel and our weeks together, and it's been heavy, I'll be honest. Today's a little more on the light-hearted side. Uh but today what I'm gonna share is simple but not easy. It's gonna be a blessing and an encouragement, but also a challenge that everyone in this room, including the men, can partake in. This is not just a message for the mamas, although I'm certainly thinking of the mamas, but I'm thinking about everybody in this room. So, men, this is not you're not taking Sunday off this week. I promise you. The title of my message this morning is I think about Mother's Day is the special purpose of spiritual parents, as we're going to be looking at 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 through 2. And you know, again, today's a day that we reflect on the blessing and the joy and the beauty of our earthly mothers. I can't help but think about my mama, who I'll be catching up with on the phone a little bit later today, I'm sure. And thinking about all the things that she has done for me. And now that my daughter's nine, with each passing year, I seem to have more and more appreciation for my mama. She got a lot more right than I realized. Ain't it amazing how our parents get smarter and smarter the older that we get? But you know, as we're reflecting on our earthly parents, this is a great time for each of us in this room to reflect on spiritual parents that God has chosen. You know, I want to say this. You didn't choose your earthly parents. God chose them for you. Okay? The highs, the lows, and the buffaloes, everything else in between that you experienced in your life, that when you had earthly parents before you were ever born in the sovereignty of God, He chose your father and your mother. But you know, you're on a sacred journey. The journey that you're on is a combination of two things that transcends human understanding. Number one, you're making genuine choices every day to lead you right where you are. But number two, God has sovereignly been with you every step, and he's guiding and directing your path. So I was reflecting on this a lot this week that not only do I have earthly parents that God chose for me, but I also have these spiritual parents, these men and these women that God has been placing in my path at every stage of my journey. And I know that I do not take enough time to think about them and to celebrate them and to seek out to become one of them. And so here's what my hope is today. My hope today is you're gonna be as you're seated right where you are right now and you're thinking about your earthly mama, I want you to be thinking about all those spiritual mamas and daddies who helped raise you up, who helped invest it in your life, who've carried the torch and help you to get where you are today. Today's a day to celebrate them, and also, as we'll see at the end of our time together, it's a day to become one of them if you're not already. So, what's our big idea as we walk through this together? In one sentence, here it is God has a special purpose for spiritual parents who help us grow together in the body of Christ. God has a special purpose for spiritual parents who help us grow together in the body of Christ. Again, today's message is simple that it will take a lifetime to live this out. Uh so if you have a Bible, turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy. In your New Testament, it's if you're new to the Bible, it's after 2 Thessalonians, it's before 2 Timothy. If you don't have a Bible, grab the Pew Bible in front of you or beside you. It'll be on page 1179 in your pew Bible. And if you would stand at this time, out of the reverence of the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, and fully sufficient word, we are in 1 Timothy chapter 5, looking at verses 1 through 2. Hear God's word to us from his servant the Apostle Paul, inspired of the Holy Spirit of God. It says, Do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity. Lord, I pray in the time that we have left that we would push past this idea of spiritual parents as a metaphor, and we would recognize in the church it is a reality. We say things all the time like you're like a mother to me, but you know what, Lord, I believe according to your word, it is a literal reality when we're born again because we're adopted into a family, and we don't recognize all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of being part of the body of Christ. Lord, help us to celebrate the sacred spiritual blessing of having adopted parents who help us on our sacred journey. Lord, I thank you for mine, many of them in this room right now. Be with us right now as we walk through this together. Help us to think about our journey and all that you've done to bring us right where we are at this moment. Lord, you are good and you do good, and you work all things together for good. And one of your good and great gifts is our spiritual parents. So just be with us right now as we think through this together. It's in Jesus' name we pray, and all of God's people said. Amen. What we just read is a really, really short passage. Perhaps you've read it and kind of glossed over it. It's not the most famous passage in 1 Timothy. I'm sure many of you could quote many more passages from one of those great books of the New Testament. But it's not just a metaphor. Paul's not just saying respect your elders. He's saying, look at the person sitting to your left and sitting to your right and treat them as if they are actually your mother, as if they are actually your father, as if they are actually your sister or your brother, because in the body of Christ they are. I think sometimes we talk so metaphorically we don't take it seriously, and because we don't take it seriously, we don't seek out and celebrate the gift that God has given us. What a blessing! What a blessing to be part of such a large, vibrant spiritual family that can help you and help me in our journey together. And we're going to talk about what that means. You know, this is a biblical idea. And when I think about this idea, I start with Jesus on the cross. In the Gospel of John, chapter 19, as Jesus is hanging on the cross in those final moments, he looks down at his mother, and he looks down at the beloved disciple John, and he says these words. He says, Woman, behold your son. And then he looks at John and says, Behold your mother. Now, of course, there's a practical aspect of that. He's dying and he's looking out for his mother. He wants his mother and her needs to be taken care of. And so from that moment, John took Mary into his home as if she was his own mother. But I also believe as Jesus was getting ready to establish the church that is finally inaugurated several weeks later at Pentecost, I believe what he's preparing them for and preparing us for is this reality that if you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you and I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me, we are part of one spirit, one faith, one baptism, one family. We are in this thing together. Like it or not, warts, wrinkles, and all, we're a family. And I don't think we always recognize the blessings of this family. Now, the New Testament has many other things to say about it. Earlier on in 1 Timothy chapter 1, in the second verse of the book, Paul's talking to Timothy, and he says, My child in the faith. He looked at him as a legitimate child, that he was raising up spiritually to be a shepherd of the flock. And then you see this famous passage in 3 John verse 4. Many of you have this hanging in your house that says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Guess what? That's not talking about your blood children. That's talking about spiritual children. That's talking about ones that have been invested in and they're starting to grow in their faith. And again, if you have that hanging in your house, that also applies to your earthly children, so don't take it down when you go home. I'm just saying the context of that passage is John's looking at those that he's invested in, and he's saying, Boy, I have such joy to see the ones that are my spiritual children walking in the truth. What a great blessing that God gives us. You know, some denominations are super intentional about this. They have godparents. I know this because, again, I wasn't raised in uh in a Southern Baptist home. I was raised in a Catholic home at the time I did not really know the Lord, and when I came to faith, I became a Lutheran for a few years before I felt a true calling in our Southern Baptist denomination. But I have had godparents, and guess what? I'm the godfather of three. Marlon Brando's got nothing on me. Uh I've got uh most of you know our former youth pastor Joel Hogar. His two children are my godchildren, uh Madison and Aidan Hogar. And then uh my sweet niece, Olivia Marie Anderson, getting ready in just a few weeks to graduate from high school. She's taking her talents to James Madison University in a few weeks. And uh I told her I'm gonna be pulling hard for you, except when you show up in Statesboro, Georgia to play them Georgia Southern Eagles. Uh but I love my godchildren. I wish I could see them more. I think about when my goddaughter Madison, uh, in the Lutheran church, when she was being christened, they have a christening outfit with a bonnet. I'll never forget this. And I'm in the pew before she's going up front, and the bonnet keeps slipping off her head. I said, Well, I'm gonna fix this. And I took that bonnet and I triple knotted it. I got it as tight as I could get, and then we're standing up front with the pastor, and he said, Would the Godfather now remove the bonnet? And I grabbed the knot and I'm shaking, and her head's going like a bobblehead, and I thought, this is embarrassing. We had to cut the bonnet off. Wasn't my shining moment, my first moment as a godfather. Uh but you know, here at Cedar Street, what we do as many other evangelical and Southern Baptist churches do, we have baby dedications. And when we ask the church to stand, as we're gonna do in a few weeks, I know we're gonna we're gonna have some dedications for the Braggdons, and we've got some other ones coming up later this year. When we're asking the church to stand up, you are taking on the role of being a spiritual parent, whether we call you God Father or not. What a great gift. We're gonna take some time to reflect on what this means. And I'm gonna share part of my journey, and as I'm talking about mine, I want you to think about yours. So I want to talk about three special purposes of spiritual parents. And here's the first. Number one, spiritual parents fill the gaps of our past. They fill the gaps of our past. What do I mean by that? Well, guess what? Newsflash, you guys ready for this foundational truth that will rock your world? Your earthly parents are not God. They're not perfect, they're not omniscient, they're not omnipresent, they can't be everywhere at all times. And so, because they can't be everywhere and do everything, God brings along spiritual parents that help fill the gaps. Now, again, perhaps I'm more sensitive to this than many of you because God chose a sacred journey for me. And my sacred journey, when I think about it, uh God had me leave the nest two months after my 18th birthday, and I never looked back. I packed uh what I think two or three suitcases I owned, got my 89 Chevy Blazer, and drove to Statesboro, Georgia to be a Georgia Southern Eagle, and that was pretty much it. Other than uh some summer vacations and some winter breaks, that was pretty much the end of my journey and where I was raised in Philadelphia. And I will tell you this, I recognized more every day, I did not choose this path. I simply became obedient to the path that God chose for me. That means that God knew from very early in my life I would be separated by my earthly parents by 500 or more miles for the rest of my life. And that's been my journey. I've been separated from my earthly family for most of my life. And so God knew from that beginning that I was going to need many spiritual parents to get me across the finish line. And I've been reflecting on that. I could name so many, even some in this room, but I just want to name a few. And as I'm naming mine, I want you to think about yours. You know, one of the reasons that I'm in Georgia, God, boy, He doesn't waste anything. When I was in the fifth grade, a family moved to town. They were from Chickamauga, Georgia. Okay, most of you might know Chickamauga's up there by the Chattanooga border near Ringold and right there on the Tennessee-Georgia border, and they moved to Philadelphia, and I got my first taste of Southern hospitality. And I'm not sure if it was Miss Debbie Holstein's biscuits or that southern draw, but I fell in love. And I remember just sitting at that table with uh Dean, who's been my one of my best friends on planet Earth since fifth grade, and his family was so good to me. And his mama would sit there and she'd tell me all the time, you need to go to Georgia for college. They're gonna love you. And I thought, man, if everybody in Georgia is like Debbie Holstein, this is gonna be an adventure. Well, in 1998, I headed south, and by God's providence and blessing, one of the greatest single blessings in my life, just a few hours into my orientation, I crossed I crossed paths with a man named Eric Simpson, who is uh my college roommate, and again, my more than a friend, but a brother. And his family took me in, the Simpson family from Milledgeville, Georgia. Now, when I talk about his parents as my spiritual parents, I envision his daddy, Mark Simpson. I still don't know how he does this. I would go out to his house for uh holiday weekends, and I just picture on Saturday mornings hovering over his stove with no shirt on, cooking sausage and bacon, and the grease is just bouncing off his stomach, and he's not even flinching. I said, Man, they make them different down here. And uh his wife, Miss Sheila, and just call her mama. She had a she was a hard-working woman, had several jobs. One of her jobs, she worked part-time at JCPenney, and I started to notice that year after year, as Eric would take me home, we'd sit at the table. I began to mention certain needs that I had, and she would mentally take notes, and then she'd go back to JCPenney and pull things off the shelf, and then she'd send me home with sheets and quilts and all kinds of things that I needed without ever having to ask. And they carried me across the finish line of my college years. And then uh when I got into professional baseball, every team that I worked for had seasoned ticket holder families who would take me in. I can remember when I was in Florida, uh, there were families like Bud and Fay Haas and Pat and Ed Droston, and they'd follow me on the road because they knew I'd get meal money, which would last about two days, and during a 10-day road trip, I'd get hungry, and they'd take me out to steak dinners and encourage me and support me. And then, of course, when I got into ministry and I went to seminary, uh, there was a church there, Emmanuel Baptist Church, and I was so distraught, thinking I didn't deserve to be a pastor. I was about to quit seminary, and the doors opened for me to teach a senior citizen Sunday school class, and those people loved me and they poured into me. And they would, again, they'd physically feed me, but spiritually feed me, and they carried me across the finish line of seminary. And then, of course, there's Cedar Street Baptist Church. I've been here 16 years as a member. And I could, if I started naming names, I would inevitably leave the people out who've invested in my life, but I would not, I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't make it without the faces I'm looking at right now. I would not have made it. And I'm not going to make it without your help. You know, I say this a lot. When I showed up here in 2010, I can't explain it. There's a smell in this building. I used to think it was the air freshener that Brother Reemer would use, but now that Kimbo's using a different air freshener, it's not the air freshener. It's just something about the presence of God in this place that ever since I've been here, this place feels safe. It's like a rock for me in the eye of the storm. In fact, this has been my rock even during physical storms. I've slept here during many hurricanes. And I just think about the families and just the strong men and women in this church and the rocks that they are. And it just gives me such hope that I can make it the next step of the journey. I'm just so grateful for the people that God has invested in my life to carry me through. And again, I've got great earthly parents. I love my mother and I love my father, but God chose a journey for me where I'm going to be separated from them physically the rest of my life. And so I've needed spiritual parents to fill the gaps that my earthly parents simply could not do because they didn't move to Georgia because that wasn't God's journey for them. So before I go on, let me just say this Think about your life. Who's a spiritual mother or father that has helped you to get right where you are right now? Today's a day to think about them and celebrate them. If they're still alive, today's a day to call them and thank them. And just enjoy the gift that God's given you in a spiritual mama or daddy. That's number one. Spiritual parents fill the gaps of our past. Number two, spiritual parents offer guidance for our present. You know, they give us a unique perspective on the way things are. Again, your earthly parents may have great wisdom, but they're not omniscient. They don't know everything. But let me also say this spiritual parents sometimes say the same thing that your earthly parents have been saying over and over and over again, but it takes a little different in your heart and in your mind when you hear somebody else say it. I'll give you an example in my own life. So my daughter, most of you know, is nine. She'll be ten in November. And I take discipling my daughter very seriously. And over the years we've had different traditions of reading through spiritual books together and talking, and there's been seasons that she's been really energetic about that. And then as a nine-year-old, there have been seasons where she'd rather do something different. And I've tried not to be overbearing, but I've really, a couple of about a month or two ago, I really started praying, Lord, I want to really invest in more discipleship with my daughter. Well, I was driving her to school, this might have been about a month ago, and she said these words, like I almost crashed the truck. She said, Daddy, I've been thinking. I said, Yeah, what about what? She said, I've been thinking that I think that we need to read the Bible together about 10 minutes before bed, and then you let me ask you as many questions as I can think. And I was like, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I mean, I was like waiting for this. And in my head, I'm thinking, she's finally starting to take root with all this wisdom that I've been investing in her. And I said, Where'd you get this idea? She said, Well, last Sunday I was at First Baptist Statesboro, and Dr. John Waters said that we should read the Bible for five minutes, and I listened to his sermons, Daddy, because he's a very wise pastor. I give all the credit to John Waters. He said the same thing that I've been saying, but it took root when he said it. How many of you parents in this room, when you sent your kids to college and then they came home from college telling you something you've been telling them for years, but they heard it from another family, another group of people while they were on campus, and it stuck. All the things you've been told you've been telling them, somebody else told them the same thing. Well, that's what spiritual parents do. They they come behind earthly parents and they reinforce wisdom and truth and guidance, and they offer that here in the present. In fact, this is something that should continually be happening in the local church. It says in Titus chapter 2, verses 2 through 4, it says older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slave to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children. One of the things that I pray when I pray for this church, I pray it almost every single day. I have a series of things I pray for Cedar Street. And one of the things I pray every single day is, Lord, make us a thriving multi-generational church. And I'm gonna tell you why I say that. Uh I've been around plenty of churches in my time, and I've been around churches that are ultra-contemporary, where the average age is 25, and there's just no wisdom to hand down because they're all at the same stage of life. But then I've also been at churches where the average age is 75, and they have all this wisdom, but they have no children to hand it down to. And I love this, and I don't take this for granted when I look at certain pews, I see great-grandparents and grandparents and parents and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren all sitting in one pew. What a blessing that is. But if you're in this room and you say, Well, that's great for them, but that's not my family, well, guess what? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, they are your family. So invest in them and let them invest in you. They give you guidance and direction. So again, I want to ask this question who outside of your blood family are you giving or receiving life wisdom from? All right, if you're in this room and you're over 75, you didn't get there by accident, you've gained some life wisdom, and hopefully it's been spiritual wisdom from God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's church. Who are you handing that to? Down to that is not related to you. Now, if you're in this room and you'd say, I really could use some of that wisdom. Well, maybe you need to make an investment in someone that you'd like to learn from. And I'm going to talk at the end of the message about how we can do that. But just be thinking about that right now, that spiritual parents offer guidance in our present. Now, third and finally, spiritual parents give great hope for the future. I can't speak for everybody, but I can say this. I get such great hope from the, especially in this church, the godly women and the godly men who are still following Jesus after 50 and 60 years of walking with the Lord, and they've been through some really hard things. Really difficult things. And they're still putting one foot in front of the other. They're further along in their journey with Jesus than I am. You know, that's the thing that people don't understand sometimes about church. When you look for wisdom, you always look to the pastor. Well, certainly God has a special calling on my life where I have a great privilege that others don't. I get to spend a lot of time each week in prayer and in the word while many of you have other jobs that you have to tend to. I don't take that for granted. That's a unique calling for me. But that does not mean that I'm the biggest prayer warrior in this church or I'm the wisest in this church. There is just some wisdom that you cannot get in a classroom. You can only get it through living life. The wisest person in this church is not the one behind this pulpit. The biggest prayer warrior in this church is not the one behind this pulpit. Look at the gray hair in this room. There's where your wisdom is. And we're missing out if we're not gleaning from that wisdom. We are missing out. My spiritual parents in this in this place, they give me great hope. They show me faith in action. They show me that you know what, no matter how difficult things are, you can and you will make it through. Now I want to, forgive me, I don't want to embarrass anybody, but I do want to mention something practical that has been super life-giving to me. And this started several years ago, but it really took root about a year ago for me. So a couple of years ago, uh I don't know five, six, seven years ago now, I got a phone call from uh Dwayne Tucker. And Dwayne Tucker called me and he said, Brother Bo, I'm going up to Augusta to the dental college, get my teeth fixed, and you're gonna go with me. And I said, Papa Duane, I would love to, but I have got so much to do tomorrow. I absolutely, he said, I'm coming to pick you up at 8 a.m. and you're going with me. Now, when Dwayne Tucker tells you to do something, it's it's a done deal. I got a bunch of amens there in the second row. And we were driving up to Augusta, and he explained to me, he said, He said, Pastor, I know you're busy. But what you're doing right now is ministry. You're spending time with me. Now, first of all, I'm one of your deacons and us being together, that's ministry. But you're ministering to me, and I'm gonna share things with you, and you're gonna learn from me. He said, We're doing ministry in this truck. And he was one of the first ones to really teach me that doing life together, that's ministry. Ministry's people, it's not projects, it's people. And I'm kind of slow on the uptake, but God really helped me with that. And, you know, fast forward to a year ago, I get a phone call from or a text message from um D-Ron Connor. And brother D-Ron said, you know, me and Mike Page have been getting together on Wednesdays for lunch, and we want you to come join us. Now, I'll be honest with you, if he had sent that text seven or eight years ago, I'd have said, Man, that's great. I've got way too much to do. But Dwayne Tucker taught me that's ministry. Enjoy the invitation and be a part of that. So I started on Wednesdays at noon, I started going to pawnhouse with Brother D-Ron and Brother Mike, and three men turned into five men, and five men turned into seven men, and finally we got we kind of outgrew the pawnhouse and we've started cooking out at the church. And right now we got 10, 11 men from four different churches that get together every Wednesday. And I'm gonna tell you this. Now, granted, it's not a Bible study, we have those. It's not Brotherhood, that's a great ministry, we have Brotherhood. This is just a time for men to be together, and whether they know it or not, as I look around and I see the men that are at this at this lunch every Wednesday, they fill my heart with hope. I listen to all their stories. For some reason, most of them happen to be retired EMC men who had a very tough working journey. And so I hear their stories and I'm thinking, boy, they have it a lot tougher than I have it. And they're still putting one foot in front of the other. But at the same time, and they know this when I miss some Wednesdays, but when I'm there on Wednesdays, I ask important questions because I'm trying to squeeze every drop of wisdom out of them that I possibly can. And I've been asking this question, and for the men who have not answered this question, you're gonna answer this on an upcoming Wednesday. I ask all of them, because I'm 45, I ask them this question. If you could get in a time machine and go back to the 45-year-old version of you, what would you tell yourself that you now know? And it's amazing how many things they worried about at 45 that I worry about at 45, that they don't even think about at 65, 70, 75, and older. And we've got one man, Brother Vincent Meeks, who's in his 90s. And he's coming and eating with us every Wednesday. That's what it is. That's the gift of spiritual parents. The older handing down to the younger. And I leave every single Wednesday filled with hope that I'm gonna make it because of their testimonies and their journeys. Now, they have warned me well that I'm gonna have some serious prostate issues in a few years. But other than that, I've got great hope for the future. Because these men, they're strong in their faith, they love being around each other, and they know that Jesus is real, and he's carried them, and he and I look at them and I say, if Jesus carried them, he can carry me. I want to say this. We got to be more intentional about being together. We gotta be more intentional about this. So let me sum it up and make it intentional. In one sentence, here it is. Seek out, celebrate, and become a spiritual parent so the church can grow through sharing this spiritual blessing. Seek out, celebrate, and become a spiritual parent so the church can grow through this sharing this spiritual blessing. As you look in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, it's a simple statement that Paul makes. Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is one spiritual blessing we overlook every day. Now, let me be as practical as I can. I said that we should seek out spiritual parents, we should celebrate spiritual parents, and we should become spiritual parents. Now, I'm probably more on fire for this than any of you because again, I'm an adopted Meterite. I don't have blood, with the exception of my daughter, within over 600 miles of this place. I just don't. And I want to affirm something, but also have you recognize the danger of this as well. In all the places I've lived over six states and I think nine or ten cities, I've lost track. This is my favorite place in all the world. And there are some really strong families in this church and in this community. I mean, this community is founded on really strong families. I'm looking at many of them right now. But one of your greatest strengths is also one of your greatest weaknesses. Some of you are so focused on your families, you've got no room for anybody else that you're not related to. You've created a bubble, and it's hard for people to break through the bubble, and I know because I'm one of them. Now, I have a lot of great spiritual mothers and fathers in this room, but I'm just gonna tell you this. From the day I showed up in 2009 at Pyland, I pushed my sleeves up and I hustled and I broke down doors to get to know people. This is one of the most amazing towns to raise a family, but I'm just gonna tell you for an implant, it's not really easy to plug in in this place. It's not. But it can be. Even the people just in this room right now, it can be. If you're more intentional about inviting people into your life that you're not related to. And you don't have to look far. Look at your children and grandchildren. Who is it, who are they spending time with? Invite them to bring their friends over and pour into their friends the way that you pour into them. That's what, you know, when we say it takes a village to raise a child, that's what it's all about. You know, I can just say 30, 40 years ago when I was coming up, my mother helped raise my friends, and their friends helped raise me. And you and some of you are saying amen. That's how it used to be. That's really not how it is today. We are so closed off today. We draw a big circle around our dirt road, and that's our little kingdom, and boy, we're not gonna let anybody else in. I don't know why that is. The kingdom of God is bigger than your dirt road. It is. And I'm saying that you're a gift. I'm not insulting you. I'm I'm I'm exalting the gifts that God has given you. I'm saying, share yourself with others. This has to happen. I will say this right now. I met with our associational missionary uh last week. He said, Bo, we got 36 churches in our association. He said 15 of them are gonna shut their doors in the next five years. And you know why? People over 75 are not lifting a finger to invest as a spiritual parent to the next generation. That's what happens to churches that are not handing down the mantle to people they're not related to. Of course, you're gonna pass that down to your children and your grandchildren, but if you don't go beyond the borders of your property, man, this church could be part of that in the future. And we feel like this church is gonna be here forever. But he he he he reminded me, he said, Bo, here's a hard truth. All the churches listed in the New Testament, you know the common denominator, none of them exist today. Woo, that's scary. I do not take for granted the blessing of Cedar Street. I am where I am today, more so by the people in this room investing in me than any other group of people I've known in my journey. So as we pray, here's my pastoral plea. Make an effort. And it doesn't have to be a huge effort. One text message. Inviting somebody to lunch, inviting people to your dining room table, investing in their lives, asking them how they're doing, finding out if there's certain needs that need to be met and meeting those needs. I think you know, again, I didn't list all my spiritual parents in this room because they've all met needs in different ways. There's some women who've been hemming my pants when they tear apart, others that have been giving me belt when they fall down. I've had men that have passed the hat around to help me when I needed new tires, I've had men that have come alongside and helped me through some relationship difficulties, I've had others that laid hands on me and ordained me, I've had others that encouraged me to go to seminary, and then others that encouraged me to come back from seminary. I am where I am today because of the people in this room and others that have invested along the way. So as we pray, everyone in this room can play a role in this. For those of you visiting, go back to your hometowns, invest in people. What a gift that God gives us this special purpose of spiritual parents. Today I say thank you, and I say don't stop. Stay after it. And as I close, if you're in this room or watching this video, and maybe today's a tough day, maybe you're grieving that you didn't have good parents, they died young, or they were not very active in your life. That can all change. Jesus Christ invites you in, not just an invitation to get out of hell and get into heaven. No, he invites you into a living, vibrant body and family. He's calling you in from the storm and he's saying, trust in him. Repent of your sins and trust that Jesus has done everything for you to be forgiven. He's done everything for you to be adopted, and he'll do everything for you to grow if you'll trust him and walk with him and be part of his body. So as we pray, whatever stage you're at right now, you have a role to play in the special purpose of spiritual parents. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. I thank you for that old wise saying that we say quite a bit around here. It takes a village to raise a child. I thank you for the village you've chosen for me. And I know that you've chosen a village for every single one that will seek it out in the body of Christ. Lord, I I just pray and I plead that the best days for this church and this community are ahead of us and not behind us. Lord, I pray that all the wisdom in this room is going to be passed down. Lord, I thank you for my earthly parents. I thank you for my mom and my dad. I thank you for roots to grow and wings to fly. And I thank you that when I flew out of that nest and found another one, it was right here. Lord, I pray that others would experience the grace that I've experienced and the special purpose of spiritual parents. Be with us during this time of invitation and speak to us about how we can respond to your word today. I know it will not return void. In Jesus' name. Amen.