Hello and welcome to our Sunday Service. We are so glad to have you here with us. And happy, happy Mother’s day to all the mothers out there. We bless and celebrate you today. If you know a mother, have a mother, or a mother figure in your life, consider inviting her to share today’s service with you. Just hit the share button or send them this link.

And for those of you who are new, maybe joining us for the first time, we would love to connect with you. So if you have your phone handy, you can text “SayHi” to 97000, and someone from our team will reach out. And if you want to know more about what it looks like to pursue faith as a part of this community, we’ve also created a New Here section on our website, designed with you in mind.

We believe God brought you here for a reason, and we want to encourage you to check out the wonderful resource videos on this page. We hope they will be a big blessing to you. That’s all I have for you today. So let’s quiet our thoughts, center our hearts. Deep breaths and enter into our time of worship.

Lord, you love us. You love so great that you sent your only Son to give us life. Lord to guide us in Your path, Lord. And as we’re here in this time, we want to receive You. We want to receive Your love. We want to choose You. So take us by the hand in this time and guide us Lord and help us to hear Your voice.

We thank You for this time. We’ve had to worship and we thank You for the message that we’ll receive. We pray these things. Jesus, in Your good and beautiful name. Amen. Amen. It’s good to worship. Let’s hear the message now.

I think adoption has something that has been, that’s always been in each of our hearts. Um, even before we were married and I would venture to say that it’s something that kind of drew us to each other. It’s just the heart for children. More specifically, uh, a heart for adoption and orphan care. You know, we, we went through a lot of infertility issues.

We were trying to have a baby. It would have been really easy for us to just hold off. And and say, we’re gonna wait for, you know, a child biologically. We found ourselves at holding both of these things together. Um, the loss of being able to conceive, but a heart for adoption and foster care. There’s this idea and truth behind

waiting and action kind of thing. You know, we, we have, you know, we have a home, um, even though there’s no children in it that there’s no reason to be, you know, still can’t use it for children. That’s where we, I think really dived into orphan care ministry. So the Wednesday right before Good Friday, I’m at work.

Um, back when we were all in the office. So I was at work, I’m in a meeting and, uh, and Christine calls me. I, I texted her. I said, I’m in a meeting right now is everything okay? And she texts back. She goes, I remember it. She goes, um, when are you out? Call me all caps. So this is where this is urgent. So I stepped out of the meeting, I called Christine I say, Hey, what’s going on?

She goes, I just got a call from our agency and they want to know if we want to be placed on a list for a baby girl who was born, um, like a week ago. Oh man. Um, we said, well, this is what we were praying for. Right? This is everything we were kind of moving forward towards. Uh, and God has given us an opportunity and we’re kind of nonchalantly.

We’re like, well, and we’re only being put on a list to be considered. We might not even get picked, you know, so let’s, let’s see what happens. So, uh, we pray, uh, on the phone while I’m at work and she’s at home and that’s it. So that was Wednesday. So I’m at work again, and I get a phone call from her. As soon as I pick up, she goes, Oh my gosh, I go, I think I know what happens.

And Christine says this social worker picked us. She looked at our profile and she picked us and on Easter Sunday. That’s when we first met her, signed some papers just to make sure everything was squared away. Well, she was in our care as a foster baby for a total of, um, a year and a half. Um, so just this year in January, we were able to like, um, adopt her at the court.

And so she became a part of our family in January of this year. When I think of surrender, uh, as it relates to our story and our experience in foster care and adoption is surrendering, surrendering our hopes and our expectations of what we thought our family was going to look like. If this isn’t perfect, the way your plan is supposed to be perfect, then we have to surrender our, our hopes, our expectations, and trust that what you have is perfect.

You know, I think it’s the love that we all experienced from our Father God that gives us that love that the kids will need. Not everyone can open their home up as a resource family and so, you know, one reason or another, but I think everyone has an opportunity to get involved in helping to, come alongside the orphans. Cooking or writing an encouraging card or food delivered or, um, clothes.

Those really helped us when we were going through it. You know, just find, find where you can fit into this, into the story. It’s a complete oversimplification, but I, to a certain degree, I think it does come down to, there is a need there’s a clear need, and the question just becomes, how can you help meet it?

How can you help meet the need? Foster children don’t necessarily have advocates, um, by the very nature of foster care. That’s what it is. It’s just not having anybody to advocate for them. So in the same way, Christ advocates for us, I think that we are called as believers to come alongside this population and advocate for them and care for them.

For our particular story, there was no, I don’t think we ever arrived at a particular where we could say we are at a crossroads. I think it was one of those things where we said, okay, let’s go to an orientation and see what happens. And then it became, okay, well, what more can we do? And there were just these little confirmations. God continually opening doors saying yes, and bringing us people and stories and opportunities to grow our heart and expand our vision of what God can do.

If we just say yes.

Wow. What a moving story that we just heard. Not only that, I actually had the privilege of being in a small group with Justin and Christine and watching them go through their own story of foster care that actually ended up leading to adoption. Now, for some of us, we all have different callings and giftings.

Some may be called to support, uh, those who are becoming resource parents, others may even feel the prompting to become resource parents. All those different ways will be found on our Outreach Page, on how we can get involved in the foster care journey. Not only in San Francisco, but also beyond, and be, be the hands and feet of Jesus.

And what a great month to also have Foster Care Awareness Month. Is the day. Today is also Mother’s Day. And I think I need to say to you Happy Mother’s Day. Yeah. Not just because of Micah who we’ve come to know and love at the back end of the service. Right? But also because of the little one that’s on its way, we’re really excited about that and appreciate all your prayers and, and, um, you know, we’re looking forward to that, but I do want to also say to all of you moms and grandmas and, uh, you know, mother figures out there, you know, you’re doing a great job.

And keep it up, keep it up. You know, being a mother in my mind is, is something that speaks so much of Christ-likeness. There’s such a sacrificial component, the nurture, the love, um, you know, the giving of oneself and all these things remind me of Jesus. So, you know, again well done and, uh, we’re grateful.

Thank you. Uh, I’m thinking about this idea of surrender. And, you know, we’ve been sitting with this theme of letting go and trusting God today, actually on Mother’s Day, we’re going to be having one of our Cornerstone teachers who many of you are aware of. Alex Costanza is going to be sharing. And one of the things about how it’s besides the fact that she’s a mom and I’m sure she’s going to touch on that a little bit as well, but the truth is that

when Alex teaches us the scriptures. And I think some of us are aware of this. Alex is deprived of her physical sight, but she has spiritual insight and we get to be blessed by that. And of course, the way that she modeled so courageously stepping forward. Even in the face of limitation and then how God uses that to be a blessing for all of us.

Well, it just becomes encouraging in and of itself, but I’m looking forward to hearing from her. Cause she’s going to talk a little bit about what it means to surrender to community and to walk in unity. And this is something that I think we, we all really need. In other words, we weren’t meant to be walking alone.

We need the value of together in the Lord. And she’s going to talk about how, even in our differences learning to live in Christian community becomes a huge blessing for all of us. So even now, Lord, we ask that you would bless this word and let our hearts be open and soft to receive it in Jesus name.

Amen.

Greetings everyone, blessings to you all and Happy Mother’s Day, and a friendly reminder to reach out to your mom today. My kids would say that I’m being a nag, but that’s what moms do. We nag. It’s our love language. And I also want to point out that some of the best moms I know do not have their own children, but they show up for nephews and nieces as students and colleagues.

So I hope you reach out to these women in your life also. But since today is Mother’s Day and because I am a mom, I’m going to talk about my kids for a few minutes. Michael and I, we have three boys. They are now 21, 18 and 13. They’re really big. Their names are Rocco, Bruno and Julio. I wasn’t that crazy about these names at first, I don’t have time to tell you the whole story, but let me just summarize by saying that my husband gets all the credit and all of the blame.

Of course I never call the right kid the right name anyway, Rocco. I mean, Bruno, I mean Julio and lately Michael’s name is in there too, for some reason it’s maddening. Motherhood has certainly been challenging for me, especially given that I’m blind. I had to figure out little tricks to compensate, like tying bells on their shoes

so I could keep track of them in the house. But I wanted to be the best mom that I could be despite my disability. And my firstborn Rocco was a really easy kid. He didn’t cry or throw tantrums, and I thought it was all because of me. And then Bruno was born. So much for that theory. Fun fact Rocco and Bruno share the exact same birthday three years apart, which they hated growing up.

And it’s pretty ironic because they are complete opposites. Michael used to call them Rocco and anti-Rocco. Rocco is analytical and measured. Bruno is spontaneous and a risk taker. They once had the same homework assignment to come up with a family motto. Rocco’s was, “Do the right thing.” And Bruno’s was “Charge!!!” with like 20 exclamation marks after it.

And even today, they have very different views about music, faith, politics, and man, can they argue? I think bickering is their love language and poor Julio who has his own strong opinions can barely get a word in edgewise. Well, the boys also love and respect each other most of the time. And my one prayer,

is that all three of them will have strong relationships with each other throughout their lifetimes, despite their differences. You know, who else was really different? The 12 disciples. There, isn’t a lot of detail about all the disciples in the Bible, but we know enough that we can surmise that it might’ve been hard for some of them to get along.

Take Matthew, the tax collector and Simon, the Zealot, for example. Tax collectors work for the Roman government and they would overcharge their fellow Jews and keep the extra for themselves. Simon, the Zealot was kind of like the anti Matthew. They called him the zealot because he had this fierce Jewish nationalism and he hated the Roman empire.

He was like a political activist revolutionary. And these two guys would have never teamed up in their natural habitat and just like my boys. The disciples argued a lot and maybe that’s because they had such different personalities, impetuous, overconfident, Peter, who probably got on everyone’s nerves and the brothers, James and John with a nickname, the Sons of Thunder, which was probably because they had anger management problems.

And then there’s doubting Thomas skeptical of his co-disciples. He didn’t believe them that Jesus had risen and of course, Judas a traitor in their midst. Jesus certainly had His hands full to teach and train these drastically different men. I’ve been studying the book of John this year and I was really struck by chapter 17.

I’d never really noticed it before. The setting is the upper room. The night of the Passover dinner, Judas has gone to betray Jesus. And the last thing Jesus does before He leaves to the garden where He knows He’ll be arrested. It’s pray for His disciples and this prayer does not appear in any of the other gospels.

And I’m going to read a little bit for you, just a couple of verses. So listen to what He prays for. I have revealed you to those whom you gave Me out of the world. They were Yours. You gave them to me and they have obeyed Your word. He’s talking about the disciples here. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I am coming to You.

Holy Father protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave me so that they may be one as We are one. I find this very curious. He could have prayed for their courage or for their strength or understanding, especially given that the disciples were pretty confused about what was happening. But instead He prays that they may be one as We are one, in other words, for their unity. For the previous three years, Jesus was the glue that held these men together.

Maybe Jesus knew that the relational entropy of these men, especially after His death would push them toward fracture and isolation rather than toward each other. And at the one thing they needed, not just to get through the next few days, but to spread the gospel and to build the church was unity. To stay together, but also to emulate the oneness of God. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

They are three separate persons. Yes, different. And yet They are one, They are in perfect unity with one another. They are aligned in Their character and Their mission to save us, to love us. And They work together to fulfill that mission. And this is what Jesus wants for His disciples. And this is also what He wants for us.

And you don’t have to take my word for it because it’s right here. Check it out. Verse 20. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one Father just as You are in Me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Did you know that you are in the Bible? How cool is that? Jesus is praying for us, for you and for me. And He’s praying for our unity also. I think this is significant and worth mulling over a while. Jesus is preparing to face an excruciating death on the cross. And yet He’s thinking about us 2000 years later.

And the one thing He wants for us is unity. Why is unity so important? I think our first takeaway here is that He doesn’t want us to be alone. And I totally get this as a mom who prays for her boys to stay together. We are to live out our faith in community and not in isolation. You can’t have unity without community.

Right? And Jesus modeled this for us. He was not a one man band. He was in community with His disciples and the bottom line is that we need each other. But our culture, our culture values, independence and self-reliance. But for many of us, this only results in loneliness. Dr. Vivek Murphy, the U.S. Surgeon General believes that that loneliness is a silent epidemic in America

today. Research shows that more than 20% of American adults suffer from loneliness, and these are pre-pandemic figures. He recently wrote a book titled “Together, Loneliness, Health, and What Happens When We Find Connection” And he writes about how, when he took a closer look at personal stories of addiction, violence, depression, anxiety, he found a similar root cause. He says, and I quote, it struck me that there is a much deeper pattern here, a pattern that I began to see as loneliness.

We have a very human need for human connection end quote, and he goes on to discuss how healthy human connection is directly related to physical and mental health. I love it. When science catches up with what God already tells us in the scripture. Listen to this, two people are better off than one for they can help each other succeed.

If one person falls, the other can reach out and help, but someone who falls alone is in real trouble. We were designed to walk through life and faith together just like Jesus did life with His disciples. The Lord wants us to do life in community with other Christ followers. There are so many benefits to community, but especially when we need help, because when we help each other, our burdens become lighter.

We are not bearing them alone. I think about my own cancer journey. I could not have made it through five years of treatment without the support of my Cornerstone Community. Five years guys, it was a heavy lift. You took me to hundreds of hospital visits and faithfully prayed for me. It takes the village, whether we’re dealing with a crisis, celebrating the wins or just moving our couch, it’s better to do it together.

And speaking of couches, I read this very funny article recently, I wanted to share with you. It’s about a fluke email that was sent by ABC carpet, a furniture store in New York City. They had sent an email about a delay in couch deliveries to hundreds of customers from all over the country, but they use the CC function instead of the BCC function, which means all those hundreds of people could now reply all to each other.

And at first there was a lot of outrage. Get me off this distribution list ASAP, but then the customers began to talk to each other. They commiserated about the back-order couches. They sent photos of their pets. They agree that the square fabric swatches from the couches made great coasters. They even set up a single woman named Zoe on a couple of blind dates.

And before the emailing was over a GoFundMe page, raise $3,000 for a family in need, and they all agreed to meet each other in person one day at Zoe’s wedding. A community was born. I think that this couch story demonstrates that this pandemic has left a lot of us starved for community and human connection. We’ve had to make, do with Zoom, but it’s just not the same.

And I think about our re-entry into a vaccinated world. There’s still a lot of uncertainty. I know, but I hope that when the time is right for each of us, we will pursue a community again in earnest. It’s an interesting opportunity actually, to rebuild our community intentionally, but building a strong community, it takes work.

And I think Jesus prayed for unity for us because He knew there would be many obstacles for us to overcome. Human nature doesn’t tend toward unity, but toward disunity. Here’s an obstacle. Busy-ness. Busy-ness. Relationships take time. And there are so many distractions. We all have work and family obligations, but it’s easy to fill up the rest of our time with all sorts of things that are not necessarily bad things.

But are maybe a little more self-focused hobbies and activities and entertainment. And I think it’s even harder out here in beautiful California, because there are so many things to do all year round. I grew up in the Midwest where the sun went down in October and it did not come up until April and there was nothing to, to do in between except just keep warm.

And that’s when we did our community building, taking turns, hosting potluck dinners. Out here, it seems a little harder to sync up our calendars. But I think no matter where we live, it’s easy to become self-absorbed with our personal agendas. But if we look to Christ’s example, people always came first for Him.

He made time for His disciples, even after long days of teaching and healing the crowds. He invested in His community, wherever He was. Maybe the pandemic has taken away a lot of this busy-ness for us. And we now have an opportunity to be more intentional about how we spend our time. To reprioritize community over personal pursuits.

Okay. Here’s another one. Favoritism. Jesus was the unifier of all different types of people. We already talked about how different His disciples were, but we know that He spent time with men, women, children, different socioeconomic classes, different ethnicities with both elite society, like the Pharisees and the marginalized, like the disabled and the mentally ill.

And I think there is something here for us to imitate. There’s nothing inherently wrong with building community, with people who are similar to us. I mean, it makes sense. It’s natural. Um, but I think it’s easy if we’re not careful to slip into subtle forms of favoritism. I think about Jesus and Judas.

Jesus knew that Judas would be the traitor from the very beginning, and yet He treated him exactly the same as His other disciples. He even washed his feet the very night that Judas betrayed Him. The apostle Paul reminds us there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ

Jesus. We are all different. Yes. Yet we are equally loved and valued by the Lord. And I think it brings the Lord glory when we intentionally broaden our community beyond our comfort zones. You know, when you always need a ride like me, you can’t always be picky about who’s going to drive you around. And there have been some very kind people from past church families that have helped me run errands and pick up my kids and true confession,

I might not have gravitated toward them naturally. In fact, I might have even judged them like a book by its cover. But when I took the time to really know them, they came to be some of my most precious friendships and they taught me so much. I learned about living a life of daily worship and gratitude from a friend who grew up in South America as a prostitute.

I learned true hospitality, that kind of doesn’t mind being interrupted from a couple, with a tiny house and a giant heart for loving people. And I learned empathy and compassion from a friend who suffered from chronic depression. I can go on and on. I think it pleases the Lord. When we seek out relationships with all different kinds of people, we focus on what unifies us and if complete strangers can bond over a couch, come on, how much more can we bond over the gospel, but we can also embrace our differences and learn from each other resulting in a richer, wider community that better reflects the kingdom of God.

But it’s not just about breadth. It’s also about depth. Jesus wants our relationships to be meaningful. And sometimes the obstacle to meaningful relationships is a lack of vulnerability. We don’t fully engage. We’re not totally authentic, whether it’s pride or shame or fear that drives us or simply complacency, or maybe we’ve been hurt in the past.

And it’s hard to let people in. And many of us are really private and that’s okay. That’s okay. But we all, we all have this need at our core to be known and seen. And of course the Lord sees us and knows us, but we need deep Christ centered relationships with other human beings. And I would argue that this is in addition to our spouses, women need sisters in Christ.

Men need brothers. Jesus also modeled this for us. He had 12 disciples. But there was an even smaller inner circle. Peter, James and John, these three men knew Jesus more intimately. They witnessed things that the other disciples didn’t see, like the glorious transfiguration of Jesus on a mountaintop, but they also witnessed the most personal and painful moments like His anguish prayers in the garden before He was arrested.

And the same way we need to invest in a few deeper relationships. Our inner circle, a friend of mine calls it, the shortlist, the people in our lives we can call in the middle of the night, the ones that will listen, but also challenge us to grow. We give each other permission to ask the tough questions and urge one another to obey and honor the Lord.

And this short list, it can develop naturally, but sometimes we need to seek it out more actively. Building strong bonds is a function of both quantity and quality. It’s about investing time. Right? But it’s also about how we spend that time. I want to walk through, uh, quickly different ways to build and strengthen community.

Um, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are kind of on a loose continuum from surface to deep. And you can also think of these like different fibers that are woven together to make a fabric stronger. The more fibers, the more tear resistance the fabric becomes, and they all begin with the letter S the first is Socialize.

Hang out. You have meals together. You have fun together. Many of our friendships stay at this level and that’s okay. Not if all of them stay here, a community that’s just about having fun is not very strong. The next is Share. We share together. This is when we become more vulnerable with each other. There’s more trust.

We help each other in more significant ways, and we’re willing to share more about our struggles and to pray for each other. And I think it’s worth noting that as Christ followers, you can go from socializing to sharing pretty quickly if the parties are willing. The next is to Study God’s word together, opening God’s word, discussing it, helping each other, apply it to our lives.

It takes us to a deeper level of intimacy. Let’s keep going. Serve together. Whenever we share a mission and roll up our sleeves to work toward a common goal, it brings us closer. We can serve together at church, or we can simply find a need and meet that need together. Last, but not least and this is the one that you don’t really wish for.

We Suffer together. When we walk through something really hard with others, it galvanizes the bonds like nothing else. And I’m sure this is exactly what the disciples experienced as they walked through Christ’s death and resurrection. Before Michael and I moved to San Francisco, we used to live in Charleston, South Carolina, and we had a small group there.

And we’d been together for a couple of years, kind of working our way through the S’s, studying the Bible and serving together. And one of the couples in the group had a daughter and son-in-law with a toddler that lived in the Midwest. I’ll call the young couple, Tony and Jane and their dream was to move to Charleston, to be closer to family,

and for Tony to start a carpentry business with Jane’s dad, his father-in-law. So we prayed as a group for months and months for this family. For God to open the doors and their house in Indiana finally sold. And Jane finally got a job in Charleston, and I remember all of us celebrating on our back porch.

It was Memorial Day and we were just rejoicing that the Lord had provided. Jane was leaving the next morning to pack up the house and would be back later that week for good. And Tony and his son would stay in Charleston because Tony and his father had a carpentry job to do. But a few days later, Tony had a terrible accident.

He cut himself badly with some equipment, tried to drive himself to the hospital. He bled out and died on the road. It was horrific. We were, we were stunned. I’ll never forget that night. Jane’s parents were just broken hearted and somehow a dream had become a nightmare and our whole group was together.

Taking turns, holding that little boy who was asking for his mommy and daddy, Jane was on a flight back and hadn’t arrived yet. We prayed together that night. We cried together. We just sat in the pain and confusion together. We truly suffered together. I still don’t know why it all happened, and the Lord heals with time. Jane and her son are doing well today.

But what I do know is that our group was super tight after that ordeal. And these bonds are still strong today. The ones we maintain long distance, and here’s the thing about strong communities. They can survive conflict. They are relationally resilient. They can maintain unity, our Charleston group, you know, we didn’t always agree.

Certain personalities clashed at times. And we had different views on politics and theology, but after Tony’s death, none of that seemed to matter. We just loved each other more. Jesus prayed for our unity because He knew that there would be forces that would pull us apart. And this brings me to the obstacle of conflict.

You know, the enemy is smart. United they stand. Divided they fall. And this is why we have to proactively build deeper and stronger community. But when conflict does arise and it probably will, Jesus wants us to fight, not against each other, but for unity. I mean, that’s what He did for us. United us with God restoring the broken relationship with His own blood.

And it seems like these days are so much more to disagree on things that are polarizing us, even in our closest knit communities. And it’s just so easy to write someone off and walk away, but Jesus does not want us to walk away, and if we are Christ followers, all this unity stuff is not just a suggestion.

It’s a command. That same night at the Passover Dinner, Jesus gave us a cycle’s a new commandment. I give you a new commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.

Jesus calls this a new commandment, because although it’s similar to the Jewish teaching that says, love your neighbor as yourself. It has two distinct differences. First, we don’t love each other with our own love, but with the love we receive from Christ. His love becomes the source and standard of how we love one another to forgive, to bridge the gaps, to not repay evil with evil, to reconcile.

And it might cost us something to love in this way, our pride, our comfort, our resources, but as Christ followers, we are uniquely equipped to love in this self-sacrificing way because we have the Holy spirit to help us. We no longer have to love with our own strength. And the second distinction is that the way we love has great purpose, as we love each other with Christ’s love, we point others to Jesus.

When we allow our unifying faith to outweigh our grievances against each other and choose peace and unity, we become the powerful manifestation of the invisible, but loving God, the visible evidence of Christ, and it draws others to faith in Him. You know, I am so grateful for those disciples. They stuck it out together.

They remain unified until the whole world about Jesus. Let’s do the same. Let’s do the same. So here’s how I want to end our time together. Three ways. The Lord may be calling you today to build and strengthen community first, go deeper, go deeper. Is there a relationship in your life that the Lord wants you to make stronger?

Maybe someone for your short list to invest more time, to be more authentic, maybe you’re in a shape group that’s ready to go deeper together. Second, go wider. Wider is the Lord leading you to someone who might be very different from you, someone who will stretch your definition of community into new territory, or maybe someone who simply needs your help and finally fight for unity.

Fight for unity. Is there a relationship that God wants you to restore, to work out any differences with love and respect and not just walk away, but to remain unified? I know growing in the Lord is not comfortable. We have to be willing to do the hard work. Let’s not be complacent and settle for the status quo.

Let’s keep growing together in a few moments, the band is going to do a song and PT will close us out, but first let’s pray. Dear Lord, You are the great unifier of humanity, the ultimate community builder. Thank You. Thank You Lord, for saving us through Your precious blood. May You be the source and strength of our love.

May we remain as one with each other and with You in complete unity. Amen. Don’t forget to call your mom.

What a blessing, the common grace we share in Jesus, right? The Bible says in Psalm 1:33, how good it is for the brother and for those who love the Lord to dwell together in unity. It’s that common grace that we share. Jesus, the one who, well, He’s the tie that binds. He gave us everything. He wants us to love one another.

He wants us to love better. He wants us to learn how to live with people who are even different than us. To not be defined by our distinctives, but to be defined by what unifies us in Christ. Jesus. Yeah. That love. I also want to remind our church community, whether you’re near or far. Hey, this is our time of giving.

Don’t forget. You can give directly by sending it into our offices. You can give online on the website. You can give, like I do through the app. But I always say, you know, when it comes to our tithes and offerings, it’s really good for us to remember before even our resources, God wants our heart. And I think sometimes those two things are tied together more than they see.

But I always, I remind myself, I can never outgive God and don’t forget. He’s so good. He’s so God, and he wants us to sow good and He wants us to sow God, wherever we go, and my prayer on this Mother’s Day is that He would keep you. Uh, in your spirit, in your soul, in your body and in your mind. Yeah, Lord, we need that.

And may He give us one more gift. The gift of relational peace. Yeah. Sometimes we can’t control other people, but we can control our own heart. We can choose to give and forgive. And I always feel that when we forgive, there’s a part of us that starts to live. But either way, I know the Lord wants us to, to grow in His love and to be a blesser and a healer.

I do. I truly believe that. So may the Lord be with us as we make our way into this wonderful gift of a day, celebrating Mother’s Day in whatever way we can and into this week and into these coming months, though, there are many things ahead that are not always clear. We know one thing, you’ll go Lord this with us.

We’re not alone. And we’re together. That counts for something too. All right, let’s do this. The Lord is with us. Here we go.

Hey, happy Mother’s Day from Chloe& Micah. This is to all the moms out there. And actually what’s really neat is that this month is also Foster Care Awareness Month. And what better way than for us to hear stories like the one we heard today on what it could look like to become a Resource Parent. And it, who knows what the Lord has in store.

It could even lead to adoption as well. Maybe you can’t do that right now. There are other ways to get involved and to partner with Foster the Bay. So make sure you check it out. There’s two other things that are happening on Saturday. On May 15th, we have our next Prayer Walk Gathering, and we would love to see you there.

That’s from nine to 11 and then on May 22nd. This is for Kids Ministry. We’ll be having another safe Family Gathering. So all the details will be online. So check those out and Micah, can you wave us out? Happy Mother’s Day