Hope in Action | Jason Gore

A truth in nature is a ministry dedicated to mentoring

fatherless boys.

What we do is we come alongside these young men

and step in as, as a role model or a father figure in their life.

And I think the most important thing is helping them find their purpose

as a Christian man in society.

We were camping in Umstead Park and they came and

just introduced themselves, told them what, uh,

they were gonna be doing with the program if any of our kids were interested,

especially all the boys. Then, um,

I signed Tyson up right there.

So the typical gathering, um, at least here in North Carolina,

we usually go to this pretty nice farm like area.

It's pretty nice. A lot of people in the group here gather there,

usually just hang out for a bit, maybe do some like archery or something.

Just have fun.

We meet monthly. We have one program a month.

It's always typically on Saturdays. Sometimes they're overnight programs.

And those, those programs can be anything from hunting, uh, fishing,

hiking.

In the beginning we always felt like that our

programs had to be fun or really exciting.

But what we've learned over the years is that the kids enjoy being around

each other.

And I think what keeps 'em coming back is that they get to hang out with a bunch

of other boys that have similar backgrounds.

The most important part of the program is that there is always a devotion.

And what happens in that devotion is myself or another mentor will

open up God's work and then that mentor will lead a discussion on what does

that piece, that verse or that scripture mean to us,

and how can we apply it to our lives as men,

the kids are seeking that part of the program. You know,

they want to know what it is. We have to say.

I've gotten a lot closer to God just since I've joined a long time ago over the

years and since recently when I got baptized, I've gotten really,

really close and a lot of things have changed.

Tyson's been in this group for seven years and I

prayed since he was little, for him to take that step.

And when I woke up to a picture when Tyson

was at camp this past summer of Tyson standing up in front

of a lot of people, I started crying because my prayer was answered.

That he does get closer to God.

If you ask Jamie his mother what the impact has been on his

life, she'll tell you it's been tremendous.

And so I would encourage moms out there to,

to give it a shot that we have so many boys that come in and they say,

he's probably not gonna make it through the program.

He's probably gonna call me, but let's just try it.

I've never had a boy labor program on their first award.

So it is a place where they're safe,

they're surrounded by men who love the Lord and just want to

extend that love to young men and teach 'em what that's about.

This ministry is impacting young men across the nation,

and I just hope that that will encourage people to get involved.

Yeah, man, it's a great story. You know what? Those,

you know what those guys are doing. They're changing the world. Man,

I'm so proud of Bart Hardison and his rowdy group of friends over there at the

Apex campus that are involved in this ministry. Uh, listen, if, if you, uh,

are a single mom, if,

if you know of a single mom who's got a young boy who would benefit from this,

or if you see that thing, man, I would love to be a mentor.

Just drop us an email [email protected]. We'd be more than happy to connect you.

Uh, but man, they're doing great things. Uh,

I wanna start outta the gate though, and say this, you too can change the world.

And you might hear that and think, wait a minute.

That's kind of a big statement right outta the gate. Um, but you can, and,

and I want you to hear this quote,

all that's required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by

and do nothing. Uh, I love this church.

Like it is one of the greatest honors of my life to be a part of Hope Community

Church. Um, I know some phenomenal men,

some incredible women that call like home to all of our campuses that here at

hope. But I want you to, so I want you to listen to this quote again.

All that's required for evil to triumph is for good men and good women

to stand by and do nothing. Uh,

what that's saying is, is that if good people don't actively oppose evil,

then an evil will inevitably prevail.

So it's essentially saying our intentions don't really matter all that much.

Our hope filled dreams for the world around us don't really matter all that much

because inaction by those with good intentions still will allow evil to

flourish. And so if we look around the world right now and we see what we see,

we see a lot of people that don't know how to love really well. Uh,

we see suicide rates higher than they've ever been.

We see families struggling in ways that families have never really struggled

before. Uh, we see numbers of those following Jesus on the decline,

and I just can't help but wonder is,

is it because good men and good women are standing by and being

lulled to sleep in a way that we don't even realize?

We opened this series by talking about how the world right now is lacking two

things. Much of the world is lacking two things right now,

belonging and purpose. Uh, we feel disconnected. We feel like, man,

we're going through life alone. There.

There's no real sense of this is why I'm here in most of our lives.

And the truth is, we were not created to experience life that way. The truth is,

we were actually created, we were born to experience connection.

And if you were a follower of Jesus,

you have been called into the greatest rescue mission of all time.

We're wrapping up a series this week that we've been calling who we Are,

and we're gonna be talking specifically about our call, our responsibility,

and ultimately our purpose as a part of the family of God to share hope with the

world around us. And so if you have your Bibles, I want you to open 'em up.

Turn to Matthew chapter 28. Uh, we're gonna start in verse 16.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Uh, and before we jump in, I just wanna recognize, I think it's funny,

a lot of churches have mission statements, and I'm not dogging that,

like that's a good thing. But as the church, we at our core,

we're followers of Jesus, right? And so, um, whether you know it or not,

you are a part of a movement that ultimately started at the beginning of time,

but probably most directly some 2000 years ago when Jesus rose from the grave

and he went to his disciples and he says, I,

your call is to go into the world and to share the hope that you have in

me with all the nations. We talk about that in, in the church world as the,

the great commission.

The commission that all of us are a part of commission because God has a huge

part to play in that.

And then we as followers of Jesus have a part to play as well.

So when we jump in here, uh, and I say that just to help us know, man, like we,

we actually do have a mission. Jesus gave it to us.

And so at this point where we're about to jump in into Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Jesus has already, he's announced the kingdom of God. He's,

he's said that he was the son of God who came to fulfill the prophesies of the

Old Testament. He's taught what it looks like to walk with God.

He's called people into following him. He's talked about caring for the poor.

He's healed the sick. He's rebuked empty religion and tradition.

He's gone to the cross to pay for the penalty of our sins.

He's risen from the grave,

and right now he's on the side of a mountain with his remaining 11 disciples,

really giving them his last words in per person before he ascends to heaven.

And so, again,

I want you to hear this as a man who is leaving behind 11 guys that he

spent three years discipling and walking alongside him.

So we jump in verse 16, it says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee,

to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him there,

they worshiped him, but some doubted.

So I just wanna highlight that right outta the gate.

Don't be surprised if you doubt sometimes, like when I come out here and say,

Hey, listen, you can change the world. Like I know each and every one of us,

probably in the back of my eyes, like, yeah, I don't know.

I'm supposed to change the world, man, I got a job.

Like I got something I gotta do. Have you seen my kids?

Like that requires a little bit of attention. Uh,

I have heard someone say before, it's quite possible for some of us in life,

one of the greatest things that we accomplish in lives is not necessarily

something that we do, but someone that we raise.

So that's just something to be considered.

But don't be surprised if you doubt your calling.

Don't be surprised if you doubt that God wants to use you.

I think it's worth pointing out that these men,

they walked with Jesus for three years. They saw him perform miracles.

They were told he was gonna die and raise from the dead.

And they're looking at him face to face and they still carried doubt.

And sometimes I think we're so hard on ourselves when it comes to our faith,

like we tell ourselves, unless we understand everything,

unless we intellectually get everything or we're 100% certain of the next step

we're supposed to take, we might not have what it takes to say yes to Jesus.

And I want you to know I'm a pastor

and I struggle with believing at times that God really can use me in the way

that I believe He's calling me to take steps of faith in my life.

And so I want us to understand, man, believing the gospel takes faith.

And so for those of us who find ourselves at times in a place of doubt,

that maybe God can use us, we're in good company.

Verse 18. And Jesus came to them and said,

all authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So he has all the authority. Okay? So, um, and remember,

let's hear this in terms of belonging and in terms of purpose,

but understand if this is true,

which it is all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him,

then what he's about to say is incredibly important. Verse 19,

go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So we talked last week and what it means to follow Jesus about our call,

to repent and then to be baptized. And Jesus is saying,

go and share and call people and responding to the gospel of Jesus.

Like we have to understand the only real hope that we have in life is

Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Scripture tells us in the New Testament,

like without the resurrection, man, we don't have a whole lot.

That's what gives us hope,

that all this brokenness around us in this world is going to be put back

together again. So the first point I wanna make for is,

is we share hope by lifting up the gospel.

That's what Jesus calls us into, man.

That's at the core of everything that we do. He goes on verse 20,

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold,

I'm with you always to the end of the age.

That last little part that should be some comfort for us. Um,

God calls us into big things. We go through difficult times.

Jesus reminds us here like I'm always gonna be with you. He leaves,

he ascends to heaven, but he sends us back the Holy Spirit.

But he's, he's saying it's not just calling others to embrace the gospel,

but also teaching others and into following the ways of Jesus. See,

Jesus is both our savior who saves us from our sin.

He saves us from getting what we deserve through his,

what he paid for on the cross. But he's also our Lord, like he's our king.

And so he as a king, he has a kingdom. He has a way,

a better way to live our lives through his kingdom.

And so there is a way that the world will disciple men and women and young

people. But as the family of God,

we live under the reign and under the rule of Jesus.

And then we have a responsibility to go into the world.

We have a purpose as followers of Jesus to call other people into what that

means, into what that means. I do, I want,

and I wanna say this really clearly 'cause I think this gets missed in a lot of

churches, especially churches like hope,

this is not the work of paid professionals. Um,

Jesus is giving this command to his disciples to go into the world and to make

disciples teaching them to obey all the things that we're obeying.

So if we are a follower of Jesus, like if we've been called into,

if we have stepped into the family of God, these are words for us as well.

So what does it mean to share hope? We share hope by lifting up the gospel.

Second point that we see here, that Jesus is talking about calling us into,

we share hope by teaching the ways of Jesus. Now,

I wanna recognize that, um,

for some of us that can probably be intimidating.

There's probably many of us who are not confident in calling people into

responding to the gospel,

much less into teaching people exactly what it is that Jesus taught.

And so I want you to hear me say, if that is you, that is okay

for now. Like that's not okay forever, but it's okay for now.

But we have a responsibility as your pastors and as your teachers,

as your leadership to teach you how to do this.

Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that it is the responsibility of church

leadership to equip the church for the work of ministry. And so again,

it's easy to get lost in a big church like this and think, no, no, no,

I show up and then there's paid professionals to do this.

I would be holding back if I didn't tell you.

This actually is foundational to our identity,

to the calling that we have as a part of the family of God.

So we all have a responsibility to share the gospel.

It's not just for the evangelists.

We all have a responsibility to call other people and to fall in the ways of

Jesus. Having said that,

sharing the gospel is not the only way that we share hope as followers of Jesus.

Uh,

we've talked about in the last few weeks that God's heart has always been to,

to have a,

people like to have a family that realize they are blessed to be a blessing.

We see in the book of James, it says,

true religion is this to care for orphans and widows. Uh, Jesus,

when he walked on earth,

he continually went to the down and outers to those that were hurting the

outcast. He actually said,

there's gonna be a day where you realize that anytime you fed somebody that was

hungry, anytime that you went to visit somebody in, in prison,

dare I say, anytime that you met the most pressing needs of our community.

Jesus says, it's like you were doing that unto me. And, and then on top of that,

we see in scripture, uh,

that a church that's on mission to meet the practical needs of a city man,

it's a powerful force in pointing people to God.

To see a picture, uh, of what I'm talking about here. Uh,

I want you to turn back to the Old Testament.

We're gonna take a look at Jeremiah chapter 29 and, uh,

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

to know what's going on here in the book of Jeremiah,

you've got the Israelites who are God's chosen people in exile in

Babylon. So around 5 86 bc uh,

the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar, they conquered Jerusalem,

they had destroyed the temple,

and then they sent a large number of Israelites back to Babylon,

completely devastating to the Israelites like they were forced to,

to leave their homeland.

And then to go live in a different nation under a pagan rule in a place of

hopelessness, struggling to figure out like how do we maintain our identity?

How do we maintain our faith in God while living in a foreign land?

And so I just wanna ask you a question before we jump into the text here.

See what it is that God has to say to them.

What would you be tempted to do if hypothetically

you were forced to live in a land that seemingly was working against everything

that you knew to be good and right? Hypothetically speaking,

what would our posture be? Prophet Jeremiah writes this to God's people,

uh, on behalf of God. It says in verse four, thus says,

the Lord of hosts the God of Israel to all the exiles I

have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Do you catch that little piece right there? God says,

to all the exiles I have sent,

like God takes ownership right out of the gate of where they are.

And so I think we gotta recognize,

just because you find yourself in a society that doesn't worship God,

it doesn't mean that God's panicked or the god's outta control.

And uh, I want you to remember that on November 6th, ,

when the preferred candidate that you vote for either is or isn't elected, okay,

God's on the, is still on the throne. He's not surprised. He's not thrown.

He says, listen, I I am aware I have sent you here. Verse five,

here's the game plan. Build houses, live in them,

plant gardens, eat their produce.

These are things that take a while to do, right?

This doesn't sound like this end. You're gonna be out tomorrow. He says,

stay a while. Build houses. Don't sign the 12 to 24 month lease. Like, like,

know you're gonna be here. Engage in daily life. Verse six,

take wives and have sons and daughters.

Take wives for your sons and give your daughters and marriage that they may bear

sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. In case you miss that,

that's like three generations. Like get married, have kids,

see that they get married. See that they have kids. Like he's saying,

you're gonna be raising families here.

You're gonna be in this land for a long time while you're there.

Seek the continuation of the identity that it is that I've given you.

Dare I say to us,

the best thing that we can do as followers of Jesus in America today,

or whatever country that you're watching this or listening to this in,

is to live life fully bought into the identity of living life as a family of God

who loves God, follows Jesus and shares hope.

But don't just live there, verse seven.

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and

pray to the Lord on its behalf, or in its welfare,

you will find welfare. He says,

work for the welfare of the city where, where I have sent you,

I've placed you there.

This isn't an accident like we are placed in the time and space and in the

cities, whether it's apex, Raleigh, Kerry, Northwest, Kerry, Fuqua, garner.

God has placed us where we are.

And notice he doesn't say stay at home and hope for the best.

He doesn't say their problems are their problems. He says,

put intentional effort into ensuring that your city and to ensuring your

community is thriving. And he also says,

pray to the Lord on its behalf. Listen,

these were their enemies.

They stood opposed to everything God's people stood for,

but he says it's peace. Remember the word from last week, it's shalom.

Like the overall experience of peace in this life.

It's shalom will affect yours. So pray for it.

He said, you,

you wanna experience more of God's kingdom in your day-to-day life. You,

you wanna experience more hope in your day-to-day life.

Seek the welfare of your city. Seek the welfare of, of your suburb.

might be more appropriate for, for most of us,

seek the welfare of your college campus. Seek the welfare of your dorm room.

But don't miss this, pray for it. Don't just seek it, pray for it.

And I'll ask us this question,

do we pray for our cities and seek the welfare of our cities

as much as we complain about our cities or post about our cities on social

media? Because best I can tell,

God really cares about how we live life within the city that he's planted us.

And uh,

the temptation for so many in the world is to look to the

world,

to go out into the world and to look to the world and expect the world to be

able to fix their brokenness. We can find it in success.

We can find the business place if we can just get the economy the way that it's

supposed to be. If we can just get the right elected official.

If I can just get the right relationship, not so within the family of God,

within the family of God, we look to Jesus to find healing for our brokenness.

And then as we find that healing,

we take that hope out into a broken world.

That's what we do as followers of Jesus. But this does beg the question,

like if we're talking about what it means to share hope, if that's true,

we gotta ask ourselves, have we been healed by Jesus?

And, and I know I said this last week, but man the gospel,

it's not something that we just need, like this one time thing.

Like we constantly have to go back to who Jesus is and what he's done for us and

figure out, I mean, how does the gospel apply to this brokenness in my life?

But I want us to be careful not to be discipled by a world that wants us to

believe that,

that a political party is gonna save us discipled by a world that tells us it's

our education or success.

Or if we just have a little bit more money in our own personal bank account,

that's going to be what brings us more hope.

We gotta understand the only hope for our world, our nation,

our state.

And I think we saw this when the disaster hit in the western part of our state

through Hurricane Helene,

like it was the church that actually went there and rose up.

The only hope for our schools, our neighborhoods, our homes,

is the family of God stepping up and sharing hope with the world around us and

praying for the shalom and the peace of where God's placed us.

Jesus says this in Matthew five 13 through 16. He says,

you were the salt to the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste,

how shall it saltiness be restored?

It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under

people's feet. So salt was a preservative, right?

It was used to keep things better for longer. That's what salt did. It says,

man. And so what this is saying,

if we are not stepping into the world and preserving the world by sharing hope,

what good are we being as followers of Christ?

Verse 14, you're the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden,

nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket,

but on a stand and it gives light to all the house. And the same way,

let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give

glory to your father who is in heaven. He says, you are the light of the world.

He says, Manam, if we live this way,

we gotta know it's not just for social justice.

It's not just to check a box to make us feel good about ourselves.

Remember we said, man,

people before they actually have a reason to hear what we say,

when we share the gospel with 'em, they actually have to know,

they need to know that they're loved. Jesus is saying, as you do this,

as the family of God, your world, the neighbors, your friends,

they will see your good works and give glory to your father who's in heaven.

When, when that happens,

when people see the love that we have for the world around us,

when they start to give glory to our Father in heaven,

that's the opportunity that we have to actually share the gospel,

to share the good news with them.

We have a call in our lives, we have a purpose on our lives to share hope.

And God's placed us exactly where he wants us to be as the family of God who

love him,

who followed Jesus to pray and to seek the welfare of our cities and to bring

hope and to share the gospel to the world around us.

So how do we share hope as God's people? We share hope by lifting up the gospel.

We share hope by teaching the ways of Jesus,

and we share hope by investing in our communities and in our church.

I wanna give us like four really simple practical ways that we can actually take

a step as a church to share hope with the world around us in the coming weeks

and the coming months.

The first place that we need to be sharing hope as the family of God is

within our own families. Um,

make no mistake like the makeup of the local church. It is a family of families.

And so if we're looking to share hope with the world around us, man,

we can only do that to the extent of which our own families are strong.

And so, men, women, dads, moms,

like we have a responsibility to set the spiritual climate inside of our

families to be constantly sharing the gospel,

to be constantly teaching the ways of Jesus, to be constantly looking for, Hey,

what are the needs of my family?

What are the needs in our neighborhood that we can actually go and model with

our kids? What it means to live this out? May, maybe you're single,

maybe it's maybe you're a college student and it's your dorm room.

Maybe it's at work and it's your department of work. But man,

what does it look like to actually share hope within the context of the group of

people where God has uniquely placed us? Second area,

we can share hope coming up. And I'm gonna tell you,

this is gonna surprise you a little bit,

probably talk about this once every four years.

But one place that we need to step up and share hope is in the voters booth.

I believe it's irresponsible as a follower of Jesus

to not show up and to vote. Um,

I assure you that there are people who are opposed to the things of God,

and they will show up and they will vote and they have an agenda,

and it's not God's kingdom.

You have an opportunity to seek the welfare of your community

as you know it to be true through God's word.

And so when Jesus says, you're the salt of the earth,

and salt is like a preservative, what that means is it slows decay.

And so as a follower of Jesus, we're not asking the question, Hey,

who's free from flaws? We know who that is, that's Jesus. As a Christian,

we're saying, whose policies are most likely to slow societal decay?

That's the question that we need to ask. And so you might say, I, I don't know.

I just feel like I'm choosing between the lesser of two evils right now.

You are , you absolutely are. That's good news, man.

There is one savior there.

You're not gonna find it's good news that you recognize that you're not gonna

find the perfect candidate, that one's Jesus. But as a follower of Jesus,

my advice is, is to cha is to challenge you, to take your Jesus formed,

I would say biblically formed values,

and then decide which government system is going to work towards that end.

We have to know that like the election season is bigger than one specific

candidate. When you elect a government, you elect an entire complex of persons,

uh, of appointees, of judges, justices. You go down the list.

Please do your part in seeking the welfare of our nation and jump in the voter's

booth. Um, for the last two, uh, I wanna highlight, uh,

our tangible strategy as a church to share hope with the world around us.

And so you gotta understand this is, um,

everything that we do when we talk about sharing hope,

I think at some point I'm just gonna have to drink some water.

I actually started getting sick last Saturday morning, woke up,

still preaching Sunday,

and the first part of this week has been rough thought I was feeling good.

Looks like we're on the rebound,

but it's definitely still got something going on. Okay, listen, our,

our call as a church is first and foremost to pursue the kingdom of God,

is to look to advance the kingdom of God, is to look to see the,

the kingdom of God lived out. That's the Big C Church, okay?

That is over and above the name of Hope Community Church.

That's what we're a part of. And so when we talk about sharing hope,

we gotta recognize one place that we need to be sharing hope is in our everyday

life

in places and spaces where there's people who may never step foot into a hope

Community Church campus. Uh, we talk a lot around here about sharing hope,

where we live, learn, work, and play. Um,

the video that we saw at the beginning, uh,

Bart Hardison and that crew over at Apex, here's what they did.

They live life and they saw men. There are young boys who don't have dads,

like they need men in their lives.

And then there's this organization that's kinda meeting that need.

We can jump in and, and we can partner.

Like there are so many different opportunities to share the hope of Jesus,

to share the gospel of Jesus,

to to meet the tangible needs of our community that we as a church could never

program to. But God has placed you,

has sent you to those places to do just that. Um, I I want you to know,

I I see a day, and it's not gonna be tomorrow.

It might be a year from now, it might be two years from now,

it might be three years from now, where there's hundreds of small groups,

missional communities from Hope Community Church to just live life this way.

They say, here's what we do. We, we break bread together. We,

we share a meal together each week. We,

we spent time and prayer for one another. We care for one another's families.

We meet the needs inside of each families. We're devoted, uh,

to scripture together, just like what you see in Acts chapter two. Um,

but not only that,

we we're intentionally seeking the welfare of the community where God has placed

us since we've identified a need and we're doing everything that we can do to

seek its welfare, because we know in its welfare we will find welfare.

And it just so happens that the world might just see our good deeds and give

glory to our father in heaven,

and we will have an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fourth area, uh, I wanna call us into sharing hope is at your campus.

Now, like I said, we, this whole thing is about God's kingdom.

It's not about hope, but when you read the New Testament,

you see that the primary vehicle that God intends to use to advance his kingdom

is the local church.

And so we have initiatives that we do program as a church.

We have local hope initiatives. You know, we partner, uh,

with Ship of Zion to serve, um, vulnerable women, uh,

who've been pulled out of human trafficking to help them get back up on their

feet. Um, we have a food pantry where we look to serve the under-resourced.

We've obviously raised a ton of cash and sent it to Western

North Carolina. We've got, uh,

teams that are heading to Western North Carolina this weekend.

So we have global initiatives. Uh, we've got a team that is leaving, uh,

this weekend depending on, on when you hear this message, uh,

to go to a country that I can't even name, um, for the sake of safety,

I can say that it's in the Far east and they're going over to share the gospel

and to help build God's kingdom there. We've got ministry partners, uh,

in Haiti, ministry partners in France, uh, um, in Nicaragua,

and I mean all over the planet. We're partnered with different folks.

There's opportunities to jump in, But man,

we've also got opportunities specifically at your campus. And I said,

I wanna talk to you about our tangible strategies. One of the primary ways,

and we put a lot of resources into this,

into sharing hope with the world around us,

is by these worship gatherings that we do every single weekend.

And we have people show up and they need to be welcomed. Uh,

we have young people who show up who, man,

you wanna talk about looking for belonging and purpose.

And we have these environments, man,

and there there are a space where we need people to step up and to jump in.

I I wanna share some stories, um,

that some of our campus pastors shared with me here of some different things

that are going on at campuses, um,

just to celebrate what it is that God's doing. And, uh, and Fuqua Verina.

This says, uh, first impressions.

Ben Snead is a trucker and a striker and Fuqua verina.

He serves alongside his middle school aged kids, Skyler and Jackson.

The three of them show up once a month at 5:30 AM to haul trailers Throughout

the morning, Skyler,

Jackson and Ben are moving cases and setting out signs and creating spaces for

people to connect to the spirit of God.

Ben initiated the idea of creating a prayer space at Herbert Aikens where people

can leave prayer requests or be prayed for. In addition to this,

Ben is very involved and cares deeply as a vet for the mental health of veterans

and is involved in our community and advocating for and combating suicide of

military veterans Northwest Kerry Shang Lee.

She serves as a leader on her next steps team through first impressions and is

in the process also of meeting several has.

And in the process of meeting several families of Asian descent that have been

coming to the campus,

she launched a starting point study that's kinda like introduction to

Christianity to help point these new members to the fa of the family,

to a greater understanding of the story of God,

and is also translating this English resource to their native language

at the Raleigh campus.

I'd like to highlight DJ Voda known DJ for a long time.

DJ's involved with our special needs ministry.

He also serves as a greeter every week.

And people have joined our church because of dj choosing to greet weekend and

week out Garner Campus.

Brooke Hayward serves on the Kid City team at the Garner campus.

Felt God leading her to start a mentoring program at the school where she

teaches in Clayton,

a team of mentor teachers leads high school students who serve as mentors for

elementary school students,

providing supportive relationships for at least 6 56 mentees after one school

year. This program grew and sped to an spread to an additional high school,

and we've had the opportunity as a church to partner with her.

Few more from the Apex campus. Uh,

two first responders at the Apex campus that share hope regularly as a part of

our Kid City team. Scott Benninghoff, who works with the Kerry Fire Department.

Okay, so hear that loud and clear. A Manly fire department worker,

a manly firefighter, is serving in Kid City on Sunday mornings

because he knows that young boys need to have strong men in their lives.

He shares hope with preschool boys on a regular basis. Uh,

Brian Opitz serves regularly as a part of our Kid City welcome team.

He works with the Apex Police Department. I think of people like Tim Fairchild,

who've, who's been, I don't know how Tim is, how old Tim is. Um, I,

I think he's in his sixties, I'll say that,

but I know he's been serving in Kid City for probably close to 20 years because

he knows that young people need an older voice in their life that can help them

find this, this place to belong.

I think of Tom and Cindy Mitchell. Brian and Cindy Smith.

I mean folks that have been serving at the Apex campus in this area for years

and years and years and years. And they do it

because they know it's, they're call to share hope.

I was rereading this book this past week, um, from a,

it's like a discipleship series called First Principles.

And this is specifically from a book, um,

called Belonging to a Family of Families. And it says this,

we've lost the sense of a church being a family of families

and have developed instead an organizational market driven model

and a shopping mall mentality. You know what you do at a shopping mall?

You show up, you walk through, you look at the things that you like,

you buy the things you like, and then you leave

God's designed for the local churches for it to be a family of families with

strong intergenerational roots,

a powerful force in raising children and building strong marriages,

and in cultivating an intergenerational heritage that grows stronger and

stronger generation by generation, by generation, by generation.

That's why Built Man building.

There's this foundation understanding that we are a family of families.

It's why we have ministries here like Reengage.

It's why we have ministries here called Hope for Parents.

Like we've gotta get our families strong. But listen to this,

more than 60% of the children in our Western churches are failing to continue

with the faith as they establish their own households.

Your church family needs you to invest in its own church family.

And I'm telling you,

it's not just something that we want from you that your campus wants from you.

It it's something that I want for you.

That this is one of the most life changing,

future changing purpose filled things that you can ever do to invest in the life

of a young person's life,

to help them understand they are a part of the family of God,

and to be able to share the hope of Jesus with them. And I know you're like,

I don't have any idea how to do that. Um, we will equip you. That's our job.

That's our role,

that's our responsibility to come alongside of you and to help those next steps.

As we wrap up, uh,

this message and really this whole series,

I know that you could hear a message like this and just think, well,

if I don't do it, somebody else will.

What if they don't?

What's required for evil to triumph is for good men and women to stand

by and do nothing.

You can be a part of changing the world.

We have a call in our lives to share the hope that we have in Jesus.

Will we accept the call that God has placed on us to be that church.

Next week we're gonna be kicking off, uh, a brand new series,

and it's called Thus Sayeth the Word of the Lord.

It's really the whole thing is just an introduction to the Bible and how to

engage it, how to read it, how to apply it to our lives. Um, man,

phenomenal series. You wanna talk about sharing hope,

fantastic series for you to reach out and invite somebody who you know needs to

be introduced to this Jesus that we know and love. Uh,

I wanna encourage you, man, take some time.

Think through who is it that God would,

that God would have you bring along and learn about the gospel of Jesus.

But as we wrap up this series,

And I hope you spend time thinking through

what next step do I need to take to recognize my role within the family of

God, to to be able to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, to,

to be able to take my next step and following Jesus and to be able to take my,

my next step and sharing the hope that we have in him. Father,

um, Lord, I thank you for your word. Um,

I thank you for the clarity that it provides for us and what it means to follow

after you. Lord, I thank you for us being able to look to your word and seeing,

okay, this is what it means to belong.

This is what it means to live into the purpose that you have for us. And Father,

I pray for those who call hope community, church home, Lord,

that you would ignite in us a passion,

that you would ignite a flame to go into the world,

to seek the welfare of our cities, of our neighborhoods, of our communities,

Lord, that we would have the passion that if you called us too,

that we would charge the gates of hell with a squirt gun.

Father for what's at stake.

There are men and women and students that short of a saving knowledge of Jesus

Christ will die, will go to hell.

There are hurting men and women and students in this world right now who

desperately need to find their place within the family of God.

Would we be a church that doesn't sit by idol but willingly steps into the call

that you have placed on our lives to share the hope that we have in Jesus?

We love you and we pray and ask all these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone said.

Amen.