Love Local: Loving the Local Community | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Good morning, Awakening! You can find your seat.

If we haven't met, my name is Ashley.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And we are in, oh thanks, Brittany.

We are in week two of our series Love Local, where we're talking about how to love and serve the people around us.

This week we're focusing on loving our local community.

Regardless of your political leaning, regardless of whether you are lamenting or anxious or maybe celebrating after this election, we can all agree on this, that our world is deeply broken.

And we all have this deep belief that something isn't quite right in our country and in our world and that it needs to be fixed.

Here in America, we've been taught to believe that the answer to all of these problems is within the government and who we vote into power.

Now, who becomes the president, that is important.

The policies that they put in place, that is important.

However, we've misplaced our ultimate hope.

And every four years, we end up putting too much hope into whoever might be elected into that office, believing that they will be the one to bring about the change that we desperately want to see.

As followers of Jesus, we actually have a much higher and more certain hope for the world.

This certain hope that we need to embrace as followers of Jesus, as his church, is that the true restoration of the world comes from God.

That's why Jesus came to earth.

He came to redeem fallen humanity so that the world could be restored to the goodness that God created it with.

Jesus came to set the wrong thing right.

So this morning we're gonna see how God's way of bringing this restoration into the world is through his people, through us.

Every one of us is created to be part of bringing this restoration into the world, every one of us.

And it starts right here in loving your local community.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says this for it is by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Jesus saved us.

This was God's gift for us by his generous mercy and grace.

We're saved through our faith, not by works.

We can't do anything to earn our place in God's kingdom.

The works that we do, they don't save us.

Only faith in Jesus saves us.

But while we were saved by faith, we were created for good works.

God has good works for us to do while we are here on earth.

He prepared them in advance for us.

So what are these good works?

Micah 6, 6 through 8.

We're gonna jump down to verse 8.

It says, He has shown you what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

In the time of the prophet Micah, the people were doing religious things, burnt offerings, fasting, bowing down, but they were passing by people who were in need in order to focus on their religious practices.

So Micah was saying this.

He says, God has already shown you what's good.

He already showed you the good works that you're supposed to be doing.

Here's what God's telling you to do: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him.

This message is the same for us today.

We can show up for church, we can read our Bible, we can take communion, but without these good works, we aren't fully embracing the life that God has created us for.

God is calling us to something more, to something deeper.

So what does the Lord require of us?

He says this to walk humbly with him.

This is referring to our relationship with God, being connected to him.

This includes all those spiritual practices that we do, gathering with the church, worshiping him through singing, through raising our hands, reading scripture, prayer.

It's remaining connected to God.

And when we're connected to him, we see what he desires for the world.

It's also keeping this sober recognition that all that we have comes from God.

This is a humble posture for us to take.

This walk humbly.

Everything that we have, we have because of God.

At the end of his life, King David, one of the people with the most money and resources in his time, prayed this.

He said, But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this?

Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

Everything comes from God.

And this awareness makes space for generosity in our lives with our time, our money, our energy, our possessions.

Tim Keller in his book Generous Justice wrote this a lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God's.

When we walk humbly with God, we become generous people because we are connected to him and we recognize that all that we have belongs to him.

The call to walk humbly is about our relationship with God, which leads to how we interact with people.

Next is to love mercy.

This is about our heart posture toward other people.

God created people in his image.

Every person, every person, whether they follow Jesus or not, whether they have the same political views as you or not, whether they are kind to you or not, every person carries the image of God in their being.

When we talk poorly about someone behind their back, when we post something about those people, when we call somebody names, we're disparaging and detracting from the image of God innate within them.

Instead, our worldview needs to be one of compassion.

Over and over again throughout the gospels, we read about Jesus seeing people who had a need and being moved by compassion.

Now, compassion is having concern for the suffering of others and then being moved to action.

As we have a merciful view of people, we affirm the image of God in them, and we can have compassion for them.

So that brings us to act justly.

The action behind the concern.

This is restorative justice.

Bible Project defines restorative justice as seeking out vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of and helping them.

These are the good works that God has created us for, to bring restorative justice to the world.

Scripture shows us four marginalized people groups needing this mercy and justice.

And Bible scholars call this the quartet of the vulnerable.

This includes the immigrant, the widow, the orphan, and the poor.

Zechariah 7, 9 and 10 says, This is what the Lord Almighty said.

Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.

These are the vulnerable people, often being taken advantage of, who need help.

So as we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, this quartet of the vulnerable gives us a framework of who we are to serve.

God has created us for this work.

And like Micah prophesied to his community, James in the New Testament also wrote on this.

He wrote, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?

Can such faith save them?

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

If one of you says to them, Go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

We aren't saved by these good works.

Jesus saved us.

But our faith isn't fully activated without the good work of meeting the needs of the people around us.

This is what brings about the change that our world needs.

This is where it starts, by God's people working to bring restorative justice to their local communities by seeking out vulnerable people and helping them.

So now I'm actually gonna invite up a few people from our church.

We have a panel this morning, and these three are already doing this good work, and they're gonna share that with you.

They've been serving vulnerable people in our community through awakenings partnerships with local organizations.

So we've asked them to come and share with our church, with you this morning, both what they're doing to love their local community and how you can be a part of it.

Can we thank them?

Can we welcome them to the stage?

So I have up here with me Brian, Tomas, and Melissa.

So we're I want them to introduce themselves to you.

And so would you each describe the ministry that you're a part of and how it's bringing restorative justice to our community?

Good morning, Awakening.

Thank you for having us up here.

My name is Brian.

I'm our local outreach coordinator here at Awakening.

Uh, some of the things that I oversee, I am our liaison with Del Mar.

Uh, we're able to help them in a myriad of different ways, whether it's uh rent, whether it is with college applications, college application fees, whether it's backpacks, uh, we support our teachers here, we get to love on our teachers.

Um that's kind of the little bit of what I do with Del Mar.

Uh I'm also our city team liaison.

Uh we partner with them for a lot of different things.

Uh Coat Drive is one of them.

And we also, I'm the contact here for maintenance for moms.

Uh, that's a nonprofit that some of our uh congregants here work for.

Um it's an amazing organization that is a resource for uh ultra-low-income uh single mothers to get um their cars repaired.

Uh as you can imagine, if you're a single mom, you're on your own, you're trying to get to probably one, if not two jobs, get your kids to high school, junior, and high, uh, different places like that that are around the San Jose area.

It's really hard if you don't have a car, uh, if you don't have a car that works.

So maintenance for moms uh as this uh group of women that they support, uh, they contact with uh local uh uh mechanics who are vetted, who are trustworthy, who do good work, um, and they're able to subsidize the work to get these moms uh back up on their feet, get cars at work, good quality condition, and gets them uh to and from their jobs, get the kids to school.

Um so as far as it relates to social justice, it um all the things that I'm a part of here help those most vulnerable members of our community, uh, and that's how I get to spend my day.

So that's what I get to do.

Hi everybody, my name is Tomas.

Um I am the co-coordinator, I guess, for the food drive that we host every other week um in partnership with Citite Team.

And I'm gonna look at my phone because I have the numbers for you, um, thanks to Brian.

But in the last uh fiscal year, um we served about a hundred sorry, we serve every week, every other week we serve about 105 families um with dry goods, dairy items, and produce.

Last fiscal year we served 2,324 families, which is about 93,000 pounds of food in one year.

And that's just us.

Um as for the bigger picture of things, um I found awakening because of this.

I am not one to put my time and energy into a church that isn't putting their money where their mouth is.

And so I'm very proud to be doing this work um alongside alongside Brian and City team.

Um but as the bigger picture of things of of loving justice and bringing mercy to our community, I think every other week we get this opportunity to extend a hand of love and care in a very busy individualistic um expensive American society and especially in the Silicon Valley.

And what I tell my friends a lot is um the the um part of the Lord's prayer that we always stick with um as on earth as it is in heaven, that just sticks to me every other week.

And we have the power to bring God's love every other week.

Forget every other week, every day.

And um it's in our hands to do that.

And I I truly believe that to my heart and um to the core of my being, and we just need to prioritize it.

So can you hear me?

Good morning.

My name is Melissa, and I've been here at Awakening for about eight years, and recently I stepped into a volunteer role with an amazing nonprofit called Foster the City.

Um, may have heard about this organization, and what we do at Foster the City is we are empowering local churches to um open their homes for either being foster parents or for folks in the church to come alongside as what we call support friends, and the support friends' role is to support the foster families.

So, uh practical way that that looks is the support friend team will provide, I would say, many ways.

We can provide for them emotionally, physical needs, spiritual needs through prayer.

We can do things like making meals, transporting the kiddos, um, potentially even some childcare.

So um, so it's twofold, right?

It's it's to um bring the burden to the heart of the church to open their homes if they're able to become foster parents and then to have those support friends around them to help enable them to keep up the great work that they're doing.

Because as we know, not everybody is able to open their home and be a foster parent, but we can all support them in some way, whether that be right financially, emotionally, or spiritually.

So that's a little bit about foster the city and um what what awakening is doing with this incredible nonprofit.

So each of you had a starting point in the ministries that you're serving with.

Each of you have been serving for a while, whether a long time or a short time, but you each had a starting point.

So, what inspired you to be a part of that ministry initially?

I took kind of a funny path to get to where I am.

Um for 16 years, I was a police officer over in uh in the city of Santa Cruz.

I loved that job.

I thought it was very important.

Um, God gave me uh, I thought was a gift.

Um I was a detective, I did some, did a lot of investigations, a lot of talking to people.

And one of the things that I remember from when I was first hired was one of the questions was, well, why do you want to be a police officer?

And the the standard answer that you give is, Well, I want to help my community.

And well, what does that mean to you?

Well, in certain circumstances, like when you're being a police officer, you're keeping people safe, you're uh make sure people are following the rules and things like that.

Um, but there's not a lot of good that comes back from that.

Um, so when that that career ended, um, and I was finding myself with a lot of extra free time, um, I was unsure of what I was gonna do.

Uh I was asking God, you know, show me what to do, show me what to do.

Is it does it look like this, does it look like that?

And God brought me back to you still want to take care of your community, you still want to serve your community, how does that look?

Um, and for me that looks like being the local outreach coordinator with awakening.

Uh so instead of pulling people over, writing tickets, taking people to jail, um, all that sort of stuff.

Um still important and it happens.

Um I get to I just get to lavish uh awakening's generosity on our community.

Uh so when you guys give and you partner with us, I get to hand out coats, I get to uh get volunteers where they need to be, I get to uh work one-on-one with high-risk Del Mar students.

Um it definitely doesn't look like what I thought it was gonna look like, uh, but this is an amazing thing, and I wouldn't give this up for for anything else.

Uh for me, I think it started in um kind of the pandemic.

Um that part was a crucial time for me.

Um and then that aside, you know, my faith, um obviously this is our calling.

Um, the the Bible has 2,000 verses about helping the poor, helping the vulnerable.

And I don't think we live that out completely as a church, if I'm being honest with you.

Um one thing that really a little bit radicalized me was the the Bible project.

I'm glad you brought um a piece of that.

I have a friend in uh Oregon who works for the Bible Project.

I'm very proud of her, and uh they worked on a uh video about justice, and so I encourage you all to look that up, um, the Bible project um in-depth five-minute video um about justice.

Um the other thing, just how I was raised, um, my parents, my family, um, they prioritized other people um and their community.

Um and then as I reflected on um Ashley's question about just ministry in general, I part of me wants to challenge the use of that word.

I don't think that what I do is a part of a ministry.

I think it's just being in community.

Period.

Like this is what community should look like.

I think when we look at ministry, we think of like this extra step or this strategic plan that needs to go in place where there's an agenda behind it.

I think this should be just what you do.

This should be your your sixth sense, six sixth sense or whatever number it is after that.

It should be a part of your being, um, not just because God calls us to it, but uh because it's what's right.

So um a couple of months ago, I don't know who was here.

There was a gal from Foster the City who delivered the message, and I don't know uh who else's hearts were like, you know, bumping out of their chests that day, but mine was.

So I decided to go to the booth afterwards and learn a little bit more about Foster the City, and that hit me.

It was like, oh yeah, you were a CASA a couple of years ago.

So um I did a different volunteer opportunity a couple of years ago.

It's called a court-appointed special advocate, and um I had the privilege of supporting these two sweet boys who were in foster care for quite a few years.

Um, when they were going through the system, going, I would um go to court and I would speak to the judge on their behalf.

I would work with the um just the the system, right?

Santa Clara County system that these children were in.

And I was just as someone in their lives for a couple of years, I would spend time with them every Every week and just support them and be consistent because foster kids often get put from home to home, right?

And it's very, very traumatic for them.

And so the goal was to have a person in their life to do fun things with and to watch out for them.

So it was very interesting because it had been a while since I had completed that role.

And then I'm sitting here in church, and this this woman is talking about foster the city.

And I, you know, um, we probably a lot of you have had that experience, right?

We're like, wow, I I really feel like this is something that I could get involved with.

So that's I I look back thinking about how God uses previous things in our lives, right?

And the way He's um softened our hearts, right?

And then there's this something else.

This woman comes up and talks about this, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, right?

So I knew in that moment that that I was uniquely gifted and able to step into this role.

And it wasn't just because of what I'd done in the past, but it sure um strengthened me in thinking through, yeah, I I can do this, I got this.

Can you explain what CASA is?

Oh, yeah.

CASA, the court-appointed special advocate, is um it's a program, it's a nonprofit, and we we help kids who are in the foster system.

So um so, like I was saying earlier, it has to be just basically being a position where you're supporting them and you're you're going to the court with them.

So it was a volunteer opportunity.

Yeah, okay.

You just said.

So you all kind of talked about how the ministry that you're doing now, what you're a part of right now, wasn't the start for you, that this has been something that you've been passionate about and wanting to do for a long time, and that you've stepped into that in different ways in your life.

And I love Tomas, what you were saying about how this is meant to be our entire lives, not just a thing that we do, but something that we live out all the time.

So, would you guys talk about you all have full lives?

So, would you talk a little bit about what this practically looks like in your life to serve locally?

I had the pleasure of um working with a group of Del Mar College seniors.

Uh, they're in something called an avid program.

There's about 40 of them.

Uh they are students that are uh they're high achieving, uh, but they come from um a little bit of a tougher socioeconomic uh background, to where they qualify for awakening to pay for their college application fees.

Um so that's something that I got to go do over the course of three or four days.

Um if you guys know college or high school seniors, they're not always like the most on it with every last little detail.

And the college application process is uh not easy.

Um so it was it was being in the classroom and it was listening to them um go through all of their their fee waivers and talking to them about, oh, well, there's you know, how many people do you have in your house?

Well, I've got this person and this person and this person and this person and this person and this person and this person.

Um when you come to find out a lot of these people they live in multiple multiple generational homes, um, which you know provides a lot of different challenges, and just getting to talk to them, um, hearing their hopes and their dreams for lack of a better term.

Um, some kids are going into microbiology, they're going into uh business management.

Uh I mean, gosh, I I think I wrote out over 40 different majors that these kids were applying for, and they weren't they weren't easy things.

Um so it was getting to talk to them one-on-one, look them in the eye, tell them congratulations when I was able to get their applications put through, submitted.

I've already heard that some of them have been accepted to several of the colleges so far.

Um it's just it's amazing that I got to do that and be with them and just to see them one-on-one and talk to them and listen to them and have them even ask questions about awakening.

Uh, I had one student ask me, oh, you there's a church that meets here?

And I went, and I'm thinking, well, yeah, we meet here, but they don't know it.

Uh they're here Monday through Friday and they leave.

They're not here Sunday mornings, they don't see us setting up.

So she was asking me questions about, well, do you guys read the Old Testament?

Is it the New Testament?

What do you guys believe in?

And it was just this really cool moment of, you know, she's asking questions, so I got to answer them in the middle of public school.

Uh, so that was really fun.

Uh so I guess that's what it looks like for me uh practically is meeting them where they are and being able to get back.

I'm gonna jump in here really quick.

Last Sunday, Brian has been working on this for a couple of weeks.

He's been over here multiple times working with these seniors on this application process.

Last week, I was out at our kids' check-in in the front, just waiting for church to start, greeting people as they were coming in, and one of our greeters out at the parking lot ran over to me and said, Ashley, you're on staff here.

Can you come help me?

There's somebody who wants to talk to somebody on staff talking about avid and college applications.

Can you come talk to him?

And I said, sure.

And so this dad gets out of his car and says, I don't know who to say thank you to, but I need to say thank you to somebody.

My daughter came home this week and told me that Awakening had paid for two of her college applications.

And I was just floored by what your church does for our community here at Del Mar.

He said, My kids have gone here for eight years, and we have just been blessed over and over and over again.

Thank you so much.

So, church, thank you.

Thank you for your giving because you guys make that possible for us to be able to do these types of things.

Okay, go ahead.

I'm just thankful to be a part of this church that has such a connection with Del Mar.

There are so many religious institutions out there that raise millions upon millions of dollars for a building.

Not to say that Awakening doesn't deserve a building.

But I came from one that literally had this fortress and was like, we need another building.

And I was like, no, you don't.

And you you guys just putting your time and money again where where it means the most and giving this opportunity to share, it's just fantastic.

I know we're running out of time.

Um, but um to answer your question quickly, um, serving locally, I think it looks like so many things.

I think it looks like going to your other other local nonprofits events.

There's gonna be a ton of events in the next two months for the giving season.

It looks like going to their education events, learning about what they're doing.

Um, it means voting locally, paying attention.

You know how many people voted for the president and not locally?

Who said, Oh, I don't care about these California props?

Hello.

That is an injustice that irks me to my core.

And so it it looks like that.

Uh, it looks like education, it looks like um this, it looks like giving your time, it looks like giving your money.

Um, so I I guess to answer the question, I just want to challenge everyone to think about more ways that you can serve, that you can seek equity within your community because there are way more opportunities than you actually think.

Yeah.

So, what serving locally looks like here for me and and practically with foster the city is so my role as an advocate, so I am helping get uh other support friends trained and ready and understanding their role, and I'm helping coordinate with the foster family for those acts of service that the support friends do.

So in terms of being a support friend, what that looks like practically is two times a month.

That's all it takes, is just two times a month, and only one time a month to physically be present.

So, example would be once a month bringing a meal, once a month going to the grocery store, once a month helping out with transportation, and then the other time of the month is more virtual, right?

So praying, calling, um, listening, listening to the foster family and just being there to love on them and support them.

So that's the practical matter of what this ministry does, and it is extremely flexible.

I think we could all meet that ability, right?

Twice just twice a month to come alongside.

Um, so there's there's so much flexibility and and opportunity there.

And with so many service opportunities, they are pretty flexible.

So just encouraging everybody to um think through their schedule and their their daily routine and how we could all um fit in serving someone else in that.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So I'm gonna wrap us up.

Sometimes we hear these messages and we get excited about serving.

Like Melissa, you talked about that when Kylie came from Foster the City.

You felt that excitement and you took a step to just go out to the table outside.

So sometimes we get excited about serving and all the things that we could potentially do, but then we get home after church and we begin to feel these hesitations, right?

Maybe our life feels too full and we freak out about how am I even gonna fit this in my life?

Or we get afraid of what am I gonna experience when I'm actually out there doing this work.

So would each of you, in just one sentence, I know you prepared probably more than that, but in one sentence, would you give our church or what would you say to somebody who's feeling passionate about becoming an active participant of bringing this restorative justice to our community, but they're nervous or hesitant to take their first step?

One sentence.

I'm gonna fudge just a little bit.

Um, maintenance for moms has a uh big ask right now.

Uh, they are trying to provide uh desserts for about 40 different families.

If you bake, if you think you can bake, if you have a daughter like I do that is an amazing baker, um please sign up out at the table or through your QR code.

They are looking for homemade desserts for about eight people for Thanksgiving.

Crack a recipe book, do the internet thing, I know we can do it.

Let's blow them out and give them more than they need.

Forty recipe 40 desserts for people, a family of eight.

That would be awesome.

Yeah, you're not getting a sentence.

Um the this just came to mind.

The um I I don't know the details behind the uh toy drive or that we're doing on Awakening for this Christmas season.

But if you can bring um anything extra in the second or third week of December, um as a part of our food drive, we will have a bunch of um toys for families to also take.

And those run out in five minutes.

I would love to give these families 20 minutes of their time and to have you know maybe each one of those families go away with with something other than food.

Um and then just to actually answer your question, um the uh thing that I want that I the thing that I think all of us could walk away from today in other aspects of our lives, because I know we're so busy and we can't give all the time or we can't give all the money, but just ask yourself, is this helping someone who is less fortunate than me?

I think if we answer ask ourselves that question when we're leaving Walmart, when we're busy in our day, when we see an email come in from a nonprofit that's asking for money this this Christmas season, I think that would lead to a lot more good that is needed.

Um and just to leave you with one more thing, the opposite the opposite of poverty is justice, and God calls us to enact that justice.

So, do it.

And to piggyback off on what we were talking about last week, everybody in this room has unique gifts and talents that were given to you.

You are blessed by God with those gifts and talents.

And so I would just encourage you to continue pondering through that um what we talked about last week and think about how you are uniquely gifted and how you can use that and you can give back to our community.

It won't feel like work, and you will find the time because it'll come from your heart.

So that's my encouragement is just to lean into how God created you and how special you are and how you can share that goodness with our community.

Oh, Melissa, thank you.

What a perfect ending to this.

Yeah, can we thank them?

Church, let's thank them for being up here and sharing with us today, but also for the work that they're doing to lead our church in this restorative justice ministry.

Can we thank them like really big?

For all three of them, this act of restorative justice has been an act of generosity that has flown out of their relationship with God.

They're the picture of what it looks like to walk humbly with God, to love mercy, and to act justly.

So here's our challenge, church.

You heard it.

He said, do something.

So that is our challenge.

I want you to take out this tiny, tiny card that was on your seat, and you're gonna scan that QR code.

We have a whole bunch of different ways that you can step into this.

And our challenge for you between now and Christmas is to do one thing.

You're gonna scan this code.

These are the options that are on there.

Serving at a food pantry with Tomas, joining a Foster the City interest meeting.

The interest meeting isn't even a commitment, it's just exploring what it looks like to serve with Foster the City, to donate a baked dessert like Brian was talking about, and then City Team has a ton of other projects that you could go to City Team downtown and help them do.

So scan this, find something that you can do between now and Christmas and awakening.

If we all do this together, the way that God is unleashing his restorative justice in our local community will be incredible.

Church, would you stand with me?

We're gonna pray, and I'm gonna pray this prayer of King David over us.

Let's pray.

Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our Father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yo, is the kingdom.

You are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you.

You are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name.

But who am I, and who is awakening that we should be able to give as generously as this?

Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

Lord, would you unleash your restorative justice on this community through this church this season?

God thanks.

And Jesus, may all this be done in your name.

Amen.

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