The Remarkable Compassion of God
All right. CM means with, so compassion means to suffer with. So to be with those who are suffering, those who are struggling, those who are in need, that's what compassion means to actually be with them in their need. And as I said, that's of course something that's really near to the heart of God as an n.
If you open up the scriptures beginning to the end, old Testament, new Testament it's clear. God loves everybody. God so loved. World very good. That he gave his only son, right? He loves everybody. And yet it's also clear when you open up the scriptures that there are some people that, that make the top of God's list.
He loves everybody, but there are some people that have a special place in his heart. It's the fatherless, it's the widow, it's the poor, and it's the immigrant. All throughout the Bible So abundantly clear. So Psalm 68, his name is the Lord, rejoice in his presence, father to the fatherless, defender of widows.
This is God. Psalm 82, defend the weak and the fatherless uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. That's just two like literally dozens and dozens of scriptures all throughout the Bible that make it so crystal clear what God's heart is towards the vulner.
And because that's, that is true of God's heart. That's a defining characteristic of who God is. That has been a defining characteristic of the church for about 2000 years time and again, you've seen God's people move into places of brokenness and injustice and bring healing and bring hope, time and time again.
In fact, did you know that the first known hospital in every nation across the globe was started by followers of Jesus? Isn't that crazy? If you look at prison reform, education reform, women's rights, the abolition of slavery, civil rights, the list could go on and on. All tracer roots back to the church, to the people of God.
And the same is true with foster care. Can I tell you about a guy named Charles Brace? Anybody here heard of Charles Brace? Probably not. Okay. Charles Brace was born in the 18 hundreds Northeastern part of the us. He. Family. They were Christians. He became a Christ follower early on, and one day he was sitting in church as a teenager listening to a sermon from his pastor, and his pastor said something that just really impacted his life, just became this defining moment in his life.
This is basically what the pastor said. I'm gonna paraphrase. Basically said when we stop to remember all that God has done for us in our moments, When we stop to remember all of his grace towards us, when we were in need, when we see those in need around us now, it's impossible for us to think that we don't have at least some level of responsibility to do something.
I feel like I butchered that. Can I say that again? Yeah. Okay. . When we stop to remember all that God has done for us in our moments of need, all the grace and the provision and the care that he has shown us, when we see those in need around us, it's impossible. For us to believe that we don't have at least some level of responsibility, some level of obligation to do something.
And again, that made a lot of sense to Charles. So a few years would go by and he would end up in New York City in seminary. He was gonna bible school trying to become a pastor. And one day when he was in, in Bible school, he went for a walk through the streets of New York and he walked into a neighborhood called Five Points.
And Five Points at the time, was known for. Crime and it's poverty, and it's prostitution, it's gang violence. He said that he walked into that neighborhood and his heart just broke. His heart melted because what he saw in front of him were a whole bunch of kids, a bunch of kids just living in these really broken, unhealthy environments.
And it said that his, he said that his mind went back to what his pastor had said those years before, and he realized in light of all that God had done for him when he was in need, he had to do something. He had some level of obligation to do something with what he was seeing in front of him. And so he did.
He got some of his buddies together, by the way. They were in their mid twenties. He got some of his buddies together and they started what they called the Children's Aid Society, which by the way, is still going on today, 150 years. And they started all kinds of programs that dealt like at this root level with what they were seeing in front of them in five points.
So for example, they started the first ever free school lunch programs. They started schools for kids with disabilities. They they started the first ever pta, parent Teachers Association came from the children's Aid side. Isn't that cool? But most notably, they started what we call here in America.
Foster care. So they would help these kids who were living in these really broken environments find a stable home to live in while their biological families took the necessary steps to get healthy. And then the families were restored back together. And what morph often evolved from there here in America is what we today called the modern foster care system.
So I wanna make sure we're on the same, like foster care was started by a pastor. Foster care was started by a Christian with the motivation. That in light of all that God has done for us when we are in need, surely we can do the same for those in front of us. Isn't that cool? Yeah. Guys that's our history.
That's our history as God's people. It's not just true though with foster care. It's also true with adoption. We have historical records that tell us about this, like early Roman tradition when a child had be born into a Roman family, often they would place the baby down at the feet of its.
And if the father stooped down and picked up the child in his arms, the child was legitimized, celebrated welcomed into that family, which is beautiful, right? That's actually where we get the term raising our kids. It's from that tradition, right? Ah, , that's what that one gotcha. . But listen, here's the deal that's beautiful.
But the problem is sometimes the dad didn't stoop down and pick up the kids. Maybe the child was. Maybe the child wasn't the preferred gender of that day. If for whatever reason the dad didn't pick up the child in that tradition, they would take the child outside of the city and would be left alone to die.
It was a completely legal, common accepted practice at the time. They called infant exposure. But we also have historical records that tell us how early followers of Jesus, the early church would go outside of the city, and they would walk up and down the streets outside the city listening for the cries of kids.
When they'd find these kids, they would bring them back into their own homes and they would raise them up as their own beloved sons and daughters. And by the way, it was the early church that put pressure on the Roman government to outlaw that practice. Wow, guys, this is our legacy. This is the, this is why I'm so stoked to be here today because like we had the opportunity to carry on that torch today in our generation right here.
This wasn't just meant to be like a defining characteristic of who we once were, but it's also meant to be true of the church today. The difference. So guys, is this like you and I don't have to walk up and down the streets of Costa. To be able to find the kids that are in need. The state of California has told us where we can find them.
About seven, eight years ago, my wife and I became foster parents started welcoming in kiddos into our home. And at the time I was pastoring a small church and and very quickly our hearts just began a break for the kiddos that were coming into our homes and their families and what they were walking through.
And so we invited our small congregation to actually join us. We said, Hey let's do this together as a family. Let's do this together and let's move towards kids and families experiencing foster cancer. We came up with all these ways as a congregation, we were gonna. . And as we did that we began to build relationships with social workers.
And at one point a social worker sat down with me, this is back in 2015 and she said, Hey, Philip, like we this is cool. We like working with your church. She said, but the reality is right now we're in an emergency crisis. That was a phrase she used when an emergency crisis in the foster care system.
She said, there are way too many kids coming into foster care and we don't have nearly enough homes to care for them to stand with them in their. She said, honestly, the crisis is just a little bit bigger than your one church. She said, do you think that there might be other churches out there, like maybe you guys could link arms?
She said, as a faith alliance is what she called it. She said, would you guys create a faith alliance of churches to help us up in that crisis? Guys, it's been one of the greatest joys of my life watching the way churches have responded to that invitation. For the last seven years, we've watched church after church, just like Canopy say not on our watch
And like today there's 218 churches that have linked arms together up in, in the Bay Area, in southern California, out in Nevada that are working together to upend that crisis. Guys it's our collective vision that, that one day there'd be a waiting list of families rather than a waiting list of kids.
And that it would be the church on the front lines to make that. Good. By the way, before I keep going I do just wanna take a moment. I already know there, there are some of you here that have you jumped in, you've already been getting involved, you've stepped forward as foster parents, you've stepped forward as support friends for foster parents.
You have great advocates here. We have an advocate coach here that's pouring into other leaders. Mike here is helping to catalyze other pastors in the Orange County area to help get more to keep growing this alliance. This church is leading the way in so many ways. So I already wanna honor you for the steps that have been.
And yet there's more to be done. There's more to be done. I wasn't, yeah I'll keanna prayed, but this morning that I would if I felt the Holy Spirit nudged to share something. Cause I'm gonna, I'll just share. There's more to be done guys. Listen, we just heard recently about two kids here in Orange County that are in a gov, a three year old little boy and an eight year old little.
That have been in a government facility here in Orange County for more than nine months because they can't find a home for him
for more than nine months. This little sibling set has been without family. The three year old little boy is so developmentally behind. He has yet to walk. Three years old. The eight year old little girl has had to be mom for so much of her young life. Mom to her little brother. That she literally does not play anymore.
She won't play in the playground. She doesn't play with toys because her brain has been rewired from being a child to now being a caregiver, an eight year old little girl who doesn't play. There's more to be done. Like the question is again, who will open up their home? Who will open up their hearts to these kids so that who, who will teach this three year old little boy how to walk?
Who will open up their home and teach this little girl how to be a child? There's much more to be done when we when we started this alliance of churches, which today we call Foster the City. We started with a few core beliefs that we're gonna really like, shape and guide how we move forward.
And I want to spend some time today sharing those three core beliefs with you. Before we do that can I just say one more thing? Yeah. Foster care is not for everybody. Can I say that? Can we breathe for a minute? You can. You can take a breath. We can't hold a breath here for 40 minutes, like just, it's not for everybody.
But listen, if you are a follower of Jesus, remarkable compassion is for you. That's not up for debate. Part. Jesus lived a life of remarkable compassion didn, and as his followers, we follow in his footsteps. Foster care is one expression of remarkable. There are many, okay? But what I'm about to share with you, I do think can serve regardless of what expression he might be calling you to.
I do think these three core beliefs can help serve as a foundation in a kind of a some driving force behind that. So stay with me even if foster care is not on your radar. Okay? All right. So here's the first core belief. It's this belief that every person has intrinsic value. Every person matters to God.
In the book of Genesis, of course we know it says that we are made in his image. His fingerprint is on our soul. It's on mine. It's on yours. In in Ephesians it says that God spoke us forth from before the foundation of the world. Think about that for a minute. He spoke you forth from before the foundation of the, that means that moment when your mom and your dad came together and you were, I know it's gross to think about, but like when you were conce, you were.
Like that second in your story, because what came first was that you were birthed in the heart of God before time and space began.
Book of Isaiah says, we are precious to God in his sight. You matter to God. Every person has intrinsic, inherent worth and value to God. I have a buddy who's a foster. He tells a story about how he got a call for a kid who needed a placement and he's I already I already have kids in the home.
Can you tell me a little bit more about this little guy? Before I say yes, I wanna make sure that he's gonna be a good fit for our family. And the social worker on the other line was like I don't, we don't know too much about him yet. He's brand new to this system. They said, we know one thing.
We know he's a bit. But he's what does that mean? What does he bite? ? He's I'm not sure I wanna take in a biter. He said, as soon as that thought hit him, though, all of his theology started flooding back into his mind. He said, and then I realized that the term biter is an incomplete description of a child.
The term biter is an inadequate, incomplete description of a human. because you're more than the worst things you've done, right? Yeah. And you're more than the worst things that have been done to you. Which by the way, you might have just come to Canopy just to hear that once. Can I say that one more time?
Yeah. Can you hear that and receive that? You are more than the worst things you've done, and you're more than the worst things that have been done to you. You matter to God, you are valuable to him, and he proved it. God proves his love for us, and this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He proved it. He demonstrated it. Okay. Every person has intrinsic value. That leads me to the second core belief. The second kind of core motivator behind this work is the belief that for these kids in foster care, their story is our story. Their story is my story. Like there, there was there was a time in, in, in my life when I was alone and I felt beat up and wounded and I thought because of all of the junk and all of the scars and wounds for my past, that I'd lost any hope for my future.
And when I was at my lowest and my darkest, most hopeless place, God met me there and he brought me into his family. That's my story. , is that your story?
There's a, one of my favorite verses in all the Bible syn. Ephesians one. It says, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. And isn't that beautiful? Listen, I know that I don't know most of you.
I don't know most of your stories. But maybe you're, maybe you've been coming, you're newer to Canopy, you're exploring this whole faith thing. You're exploring who Jesus is or claim to be. Maybe you're even at this place in your journey where even if there is a God out there, would he want someone like me, even if after all the things I've done and all the places that I've been, would he actually want someone like me?
And again, I've been there too far, too many. Would he want someone like me If that's you today I beg you to look at this. Not only is he willing to bring you in his family. He wants to, it would bring him great pleasure, great joy to welcome you as his daughter or as his son.
It's what he wants to do. As a foster dad, I feel like I have gotten just like a small little just taste of what this is welcoming kids into our family. The most recent little girl that we brought into our home we brought her in. She was two and a half months old and we fostered her for almost four years.
Part way through our journey with her we were told that she wasn't gonna have a home to, to go back to. In foster care, like just by definition like it, the goal is reunification with their biological family. We wanna see families restore. We survey God of reconciliation. We wanna be agents of reconciliation, so we wanna see families reconciled back together whenever possible.
In health. For this little girl, that wasn't gonna be possible. She didn't have a home to go back to. Just, I don't know. I, year and a half ago or so, we moved from being this little girl's foster family to her forever family. And we this is our family here. I think we have a picture. There we go.
That's us. It's a little hard to see there but right there in the middle. That's Lucy. Isn't she cute? Yeah.
that's that was during Covid. So we did our adoption ceremony in our living room. That's us adopting her right there in my three biological kiddos. But that's Lucy's name means light to Lucy means that's exactly what she's been to our family. She's been an absolute source of light and laughter and fun.
The girl never stopped smiling. I. When she comes waddling out of her bedroom each morning, I'm sitting in my chair. My wife and I have kind chair sitting next to each other where we do our quiet time in the morning. She comes out every morning, waddles out in her little jam's, comes and crawls up in my lap.
I don't care if we were yelling, getting, trying to get her to sleep the night before or whatever. It was like that. Next, when I see her coming out there, like the amount of love and the way I feel about her is she comes towards me when I think God sees me like that. That's the kind of pleasure that he experiences when he brought me into his family.
It's incredible to think about. And yet when God brought us into his family, it not only came with pleasure and with joy, like Ephesians one says, but it also came with a price, a sacrifice. You. God welcomed me. Us in His family not only brought joy and pleasure for God, but it also came a sacrifice, right?
For the joy set before him. He endured the cross. When you and I move forward in remarkable compassion, there will be joy, there will be light. There will also be a cross. There's also a cost to pay. When people hear that When people hear that we foster, we often hear the same responses from folks.
They'll be like, oh, that's so cool. You guys do that. That's amazing. I can never do that. . That's what they time, and again, that's what I hear. I can never isn't that hard? What if the kids come into your home and maybe they're, they come from maybe some difficult experiences, some hard places. Don't they act out of that?
Don't they misbehave? Do you wanna know the answer? Sometimes? Yeah. Guys, we all act out of the trauma that we've experienced in. Every one of us act out of the difficult and hard places, and oftentimes these kids have walked through significantly more hard places than you and I ever have. So sometimes that's the case.
My wife my wife and I are third generation foster parents, so my parents fostered and their parents fostered. And if I'm being completely real some of the most difficult moments of my childhood are direct result from the fact that we were foster. It was hard. I remember lots of tears, lots of anger.
I remember my mom getting attacked at one point. I remember my parents one of my parents separated for a little bit because of the, just the stress that it took on their marriage. It was hard. And yet, by the way, just for every difficult moment, There were 99 other moments of grace and grit and faithfulness and compassion that I watched in my parents.
So that even though it was it did cause some challenge and some difficulty in my childhood. I grew up saying, I'm gonna do that one day. I'm standing here before you today because my parents were willing to move forward in remarkable compassion. So yeah, sometimes there, there can be challenges there.
Sometimes there can be difficulties. Sometimes people will say on the flip side, they're like, but isn't that hard? Isn't it hard to say goodbye? Not just is it hard Maybe when there's behavioral issues, but what if you get attached to 'em and then you foster for a year, for two years, for three years, and then one day you get a call from a social worker and they get picked up and you never see them again.
Isn't that hard? You wanna know the answer. Yes. We are not cold-hearted robots. . Yes, it is hard. Of course it is. The first little girl that we brought into our home she, we got her when she was four months. Beautiful little girl. We had her for almost a year and she just very quickly became like a little sister to my biological kids.
Her, she took her first steps in my living room. Okay. Her first word was calling me. She called my wife mama. We had her for a year, fell in love with this little girl. She became a part of our family. As we were falling in love with this little girl, though over the, that, that year we were also getting to know her biological parents.
And they had made some mistakes. There was a reason why their little girl was with us, but they were taking all of the right steps, doing everything that they needed to do to be ready to be able to welcome their little girl back home. And so after about a year, The judge gave the green light and I remember handing that little girl back into the arms of her father in my front door.
My son, who was seven at the time told me it was the first time he'd ever seen me cry, cuz we wet that day. Of course it's hard, but we don't show compassion because it makes us feel good. It's not about you. It's not about me. I have a buddy. He says you don't foster to get a child for your family.
You foster to give your family to a child. You see the difference? Yeah. Again, that's true with any expression of compassion. You don't show compassion to get something for yourself. A nice warm feeling, a nice pat on the back. You show compassion to give yourself to something or to. But if we're willing to do that, if we are willing to embrace both the joy and the laughter, and the light and the pleasure of that, and also the sacrifice and also the cost and the pain and the grief and the tears, it's incredible to think about the impact that we can make in the city.
That's a third and final kind of core belief and motivator. It's this, that our investment in the lives of vulnerable kids will bring long term. Okay. As you can imagine, kids who grow up without a stable, healthy environment, they're far more susceptible to all kinds of other issues as they get older.
Okay. But there are thousands of kids right now in the Orange County foster care system, okay? Tens of thousands in the LA County foster system right there more, there are more kids in the foster care system in Southern California than any entire state in the. You guys manage the largest population of youth in foster care in the country.
Half of these kids, if they're not placed into a loving, stable home, half will be unemployed in the early twenties. A third will end up on the streets, about half will develop a substance addiction. Suicidal tendencies for youth in foster care are four times higher, 400% higher than that of the average.
There was a study done several years ago by the fbi. They said that three out of five kids that they're rescuing from trafficking here in the States come directly from foster care. Three outta five come from the foster care system. I could just spend the rest of our morning talking about stats. But here's my point.
We need churches and groups and organizations and individuals that are addressing those issues that I just talked. We need groups like IgM that are breaking down doors and rescuing men and women who are being trafficked. Right now, we need people who are dealing with the homelessness issue and the unemployment issue, like right now as when people are in it.
But what if in addition to that, you also go upstream and you care for the kids before they ever enter into those issues? Yeah. What would the stats look like here in Southern California if every single child that entered into foster care was immediately placed into a loving home?
Again it sounds cheesy, it sounds trite but the best way we're gonna see a transformed city tomorrow is if we care for vulnerable kids today. In just a minute, I'm gonna tell you a couple ways you can do that. . Okay. Again, we have, I've already said it. We've got this dream that one day again, the church is going to be known, is going to be characterized as the community where kids who have been abused or neglected are cared for as beloved sons and daughters.
That, that would be true of us again. And my hope is that God might be stirring in some of your hearts to learn about how you can get involved. Now, there are several ways Before I do that, I do want to just invite you to watch this quick story with me. I want you to see about a story about somebody whose life was changed by one caring adult.
Statistically, I'm supposed to be dead in jail or homeless. Now I'm not exaggerating. These are the grim odds that I faced growing up as a kid in foster. Kids in foster care are almost four times more likely to attempt suicide. Close to 90% of kids that have been in five or more foster homes will encounter the juvenile justice system before they turn 18.
And roughly 30% of foster kids end up homeless. So I'm not exaggerating. Statistically, I was supposed to be dead in jail or homeless, yet obviously here I am. Why? All because of one Caring adult. Let me tell you a little bit about Rodney. See, I spent three years trying to get kicked out of Rodney's Foster home because what hurting kids like me don't talk.
They will often act out. Now, my most notable stunt, and I know this was stupid, I opened up a checking account. I had about a hundred bucks in there, but then I proceeded to write north of $10,000 worth of fraudulent checks. I actually got picked up by the police for that idiotic stunt, but what Rodney did was life changing after allowing me to spend the night in jail so that hopefully I would learn from my foolishness.
He bailed me out the next morning and I thought for. That was it. That was a moment. This guy was gonna get rid of me, wash his hands of me, give up on me, walk out on me, just like adult after adult in my life had. But Rodney sat me down. He said, Josh, you know you can keep causing problems.
Acting up, acting out. But you've gotta realize, son, we don't see you as a problem. We see you as an opportunity.
Rodney didn't see what was on the surface, right? This foster kid who was a troublemaker, this kid who some would call a lost cause. Rodney saw the opportunity and that moment was my turning point from becoming an inevitable statistic. To who I am today, all because of one caring adult. Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story.
So let's be frank with each other. You could be. The very reason that a kid like me doesn't end up a statistic. Foster the city is focused on providing a loving home for every kid in the foster care system. Now, they do this in two distinct ways, number one, by recruiting foster parents, and way number two is by recruiting individuals to support these foster parents.
Look, because of broadening no exaggeration, my life was drastically forever change. And with Foster the city's unique approach, all of us can be a Rodney, either as a foster parent or as a member of that support team for the foster parents. So whichever option you feel called to do, you could be that one caring adult that changes a kid's life.
So to take your next step and to learn more, check out Foster the city.org.
Again, I do hope that you would be open to whether or not God might be stirring in your heart today. To learn maybe just a little bit more. There's, as Josh said, there's a couple of key ways that you can do that. For some of you that might that actually might mean exploring actually being a foster parent, actually opening up your heart and your home to a kid or to a sibling set who is in need of someone to show them compassion, to stand with and to be with them in their suffering, in their time of need.
That's not for most, Again, you can breathe. Okay? That's, but for a small handful of you, maybe 1, 2, 3 families or individuals, maybe that is something that God is calling you to explore. And if that's the case, I wanna encourage you to just simply learn a little bit more. Take the step to learn a little bit, ask some questions, explore it.
For the rest of you, I want you to know there's a, there is a significant way that you can get involved. There's another significant role for you to play. One of the primary reasons why there is a shortage of foster parents is because foster parents don't last very long. Only about 40% of families will make it past their first year of fostering.
About 40% will make it past their first year. Cuz it's really difficult for all the reasons I've already talked about. What changes that retention, what changes that statistic is if a foster family takes their journey in the context of covenanted c. So for with this model that, that Josh was just talking about, we're not seeing 40% of families make it past their first year.
We're seeing more than 90% of families making it past their first year. Because for every foster family that's raised up, we're wrapping them with three or four or five households that come alongside them and provide support. So maybe like you're hearing these stories and it's like breaking your heart, but you're not in a season where you can actually foster.
But what you can do is you bring, you can bring some meals, you can come and babysit. So you can give those foster parents a date. . You can come and mow a lawn or do some yard work or some housework. You can come and provide meaningful support, right? So that foster family can foster longer and better.
A support friend is somebody who provides practical, emotional, spiritual support. So a family can foster longer and better. Maybe that's a role that you can play. Do you have a little bit of time that you can invest in families who are fostering? I know that there are families. Already at Canopy who are fostering.
I know of another family that's actually in process to become a foster parent. Guys, they're gonna need support. As an as a longtime foster parent myself, I can tell you, they are going to need you to come alongside them and to support them. If you are interested in getting involved in any way with Foster the City, you wanna.
Become a foster parent. You wanna learn more about that support role. Maybe you just want to know how to pray, know what's going on. Your next step is the same. It's simply to come out to the courtyard, come see us at the table and fill out a next step card. Guys, if you fill out that next step card, I promise, we are not gonna drop a foster kid off to your house,
Okay? I swear all we're going to do is we're gonna send you an email this week, okay? We're gonna send you an email. We'll tell you about an interest meeting that's coming up where you can learn a little bit more. You can take about an hour of your time and you can we'll dive a little bit deeper into the, to these two roles and a couple other roles that you can play to get involved.
That sound good? Yeah. And also check out Royal Family Kids, Priscilla and Tyler. Is that right? Check out RFK too. Okay, let me close with this. And I'll just say one more time, third times a charm. Foster care is not for everybody. Okay. It's. But remarkable compassion is what God is calling you and me into.
Here's a question that each one of us, I hope will consider today, regardless of what the expression might be. Am I living a life of remarkable compassion? I began by telling you what the word compassion means. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you what the word remarkable means. Very simple. You're able to remark on it.
I flew in last night. I live in the Bay Area. Flew in last. Somebody asked me how my flight was. I said it was fine. It wasn't worth remarking on. In other words, nothing really good happened. Nothing really bad happened. It was fine. It wasn't worth commenting on. It wasn't remarkable. Remarkable means you're a remarkable means it's worth talking about.
So here's a question. Am I living a life of compassion that's worth talking about? Because in Matthew five, Jesus says, let your light shine before others, that they might see your good deeds and give glory to your father. Who's in heaven? Am I living a life that when others look into, they see the way that I spend my time and my money, and my resources and my gifts, these things that God has entrusted with me?
Does it cause people to respond and give glory to God who's in heaven? That's what he's calling us into. He's calling us into a beautiful joyfilled, grief filled. Painful. I'll say it again. Beautiful adventure, and I hope that you'll. God, thank you so much again for this incredible church. God, thank you so much for what you're doing in this community.
Thank you for what you're doing here in these walls as they gather together and worship. But I also thank you for what they're doing outside of these walls in their community. Thank you for the families that are raised up. Thank you for the support. Friends, I know there are households already 6, 7, 8.
Families that have already jumped in and they're providing support. Thank you so much, God, for the way that they're using their time, so well, to honor you and to bless and for the good of their neighbors. God, I pray for more. May there be more. God we, I pray that across this room and across this community, God, that there would be, whether it's through foster care, whether it's through the person on the street corner, whether it's through the neighbor whose marriage is struggling, I pray God that we would be a people who move forward with compassion to stand with those who are suffering.
Again. Lord, I pray that Costa Mesa and beyond would not be the same as a result of canopy being here in this time and in this place. We love you. Thank you again for the gift.