Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. For the past 4 1/2 years, I have
had the honor and privilege to serve our state as the
Governor's liaison for faith and community.
That's amazing. I have.
To tell you there's two things I really always hope that people.
Hear when I hear say that title one, I would love for you to
know I think it's the best job in the state.
There's 110,000 state employees. I think governor's liaison for
faith and community is the best. But here's what's more important
is that you should be, as Floridians, extremely proud that
that position even exists in the state of Florida.
Not, not that I'm in it because that's irrelevant, but the fact
that there's only 14 or 15 states in the whole country that
have put an emphasis on faith and community.
So it's a It's a big deal. It's a big deal.
So what is my role? Well, my role is to be the
governor's voice from the executive office of the
governor. By the way, we're the only one.
Arkansas is about to change that, but we have been the only
one that has that role embedded in the executive office of the
governor. Arkansas is about.
To join us and and what that means is that I get to be his
voice to the 20,000 faith institutions in Florida 20,020
thousand. There's 105,000 nonprofits and
we get to be his voice to them. But more importantly, and this
is super important, is that I have been invited into a table
of his senior leadership that we get to be your voice to him,
which is, which is super important because as you know,
you know, one of the things I, I find it difficult to stand on a
stage like this and not at least touch on this thing that's
talked about all the time is what is the separation of church
and state. So we're just going to dive in
for one second because I want to really preach a message.
So we're going to get this out of the way and say The thing is,
is that what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote a letter
about the separation of church and state is imperative.
It means that government is not to ever form a national church.
And it means that government is not supposed to interfere with
the work of the church. That's great.
But the misinterpretation of
that has led to a separation between faith and government
that is not healthy. And ultimately who loses in that
process is our most vulnerable populations.
And so we're going to, we're going to break some of that down
today. Let me see as I go through these
little pieces of my journey and probably because my voice, I'm
going to need as much affirmation as possible.
So I didn't know till we start doing worship that was not going
to be a problem in this church. And so I'm grateful for you, but
let's just walk through because I got a few things that I'm
going to stop at and I'm going to say.
How many of you know that? So let's just start.
With an easy one. How many of you know that having
Jesus as savior is a lot easier than Jesus as Lord?
So as I as I start my testimony, I need you to know I I I knew
Jesus early as savior. Why would I not?
He's the only way. It's an eternal path.
It's a destination to heaven. Like why would I not Lord?
So my life started in Boca Raton FL Boca Raton FL whatever.
You know it as one thing it does is it created in me a real heart
to think that the world was about power and money.
And so as I went into the University of Florida, as I came
out of the University of Florida, my path was a pursuit
of those two things. And and again, the Lord was in
tow because I appreciated my salvation.
But there was no reins handed over.
There was no leadership from the Lord at that point in time.
And so I just would say to you, how much easier is it to pursue
the things of the world than the things of the Lord.
It's just easier. I tell people all the time,
Christianity is not easy. It's worth it.
It's not easy. And so as I as I came out of
school, I got into the college bowl business.
And so I won't spend too much time here, but I spent 12 years
working up at the Gator Bowl. Actually was blessed.
When I was 26, they put me in charge of starting the ACC
Football Championship. And that was awesome, except I
was a Gator and don't like the ACC.
So it was less awesome and so, but that's God's sense of humor.
You know, he does things like that.
But I had this opportunity to do that.
And then a few years later, my wife introduced A sermon to me.
It was done by Francis Chan. It was called lukewarm and
loving it. And as I watched that sermon, I
realized that my life in the college bowl business, in the
pursuit of money, as Jesus, as savior but not Lord, was a life
of being lukewarm. And so I have to tell you, there
was a major intersection in my life right then, right there.
That day I took a couple days off work.
I started to pray about that. I said, Lord, I'm, I'm out of
whack. I'm out of alignment.
And three days later I went back to work and my boss said, hey,
let's take a drive. And my boss offered me to be his
heir apparent to take over football in Northeast Florida.
Which which was awesome, except for it made me forget everything
I've been thinking for three days because I'm not that
strong. And so all of a sudden I had
this opportunity with more power and more money and I had
forgotten what was the point again.
Now here's the problem. The Holy Spirit will never stop
being a nag in the nicest way possible.
Like. And so all of a sudden, I'm, I'm
like, OK, I I just need to quiet this voice.
And you start to realize, and I know there's many of you in this
room that have realized that the thing that you thought was the
thing of life is not the thing. And when you realize that thing
is not the thing, you're in a real problem because you've got
to figure out what is the thing. And so as as I'm going through
this time, I start to realize, I better figure out a way that my
vocation and my life better start looking a lot more like
Jesus as Lord instead of Jesus as savior only.
And so this led to this career conundrum.
Which many of you have probably faced.
Yes, during that time I had met a little football player.
Not little, he's not little, but a football player named Tim
Tebow. And so yeah, yeah, he's.
I guarantee there's a few fans in the room.
Tim was graduating from school and asked if I'd come start his
foundation. And the truth is, how many times
do we, you know, Paul says it so beautifully, but how many times
do we know what we want to do? But we can't seem to do it.
And what we don't want to do, we seem to be able to do very
easily. And so even knowing that I knew
this thing wasn't the thing and this could be the thing, the tug
of war was still real. I never want to glaze over that
because I think, like, sometimes we act as Christians, like it's
just easy and it just happens and it didn't happen like that.
And so, Long story short, I turned Tim down for four months.
The part of the store. I want you to hear and that is
that one day in the middle of the night, I had a true
intersection with the Lord where he's like, what is it?
Which is it going to be? And I woke up that morning, I
sat with my family all but the one that's here.
I mean, they were all together and we said, hey, are we.
No, that's not true. Two of them weren't born.
I should take that back. I'm looking.
There's so many kids there. Some of them have.
Some of them have to be yours. I there's kids.
So. And so we we, we prayed and we
came out and said we're going to, we're going to do that.
And when we said we're going to do that, I called the guys that
were running it and Tim and I said.
Hey, I think we're going to take the role.
And it's that's great because. We're going to up the salary and
allow you to pick what city it's in.
How many of you know that there are things that God is
withholding till you're obedient?
I'm not. I have to tell you, that was the
first time I learned that. First time I learned that, which
is there's times when God's got it.
He's got the great thing right around the corner from you.
But until you take the step of obedience, he's not going to
give it to you. And so that was a major moment
in my life. I started running Tim's
foundation. For the next 8 years I would run
the Tim Tebow Foundation started in our guest room.
We built a lot of different things.
I want to be very real with you in the middle of that, that as I
started to run it, everything felt of the Lord.
It was the first time I was experiencing spiritual warfare.
I wore that as a badge because in the bulb business there's not
a lot of spiritual warfare. I don't think the devil cares
that we do college football and so and so all of a sudden I'm
experiencing that except we're doing great things guys.
We're we're we built a we built a Children's Hospital in the
Philippines. I'm running multiple orphanages.
We're doing wish granting. And in the midst of that and
it's OK. I she, I have permission.
In the midst of that my wife looks at me one day and says,
hey, I think we should talk about a divorce.
Now why is that? Because I had made my calling my
vocation more than her, more than them.
I had changed it. So I I need you to know and I
have to share that part of the story.
Not because it's the fun part of the story.
It has been redeemed. She's here.
We have a better marriage than we've ever had in our life.
Yeah, that's the praise God. But I don't.
Ever. I don't.
I don't love when people go into something and they forget that
they're heading into a battle, so they don't put their armor
on. Just because you're serving the
Lord doesn't mean the battle's not fully real, right?
And I I went into that role of thinking, these decisions aren't
hard. Who has to?
Who has to pray about opening orphanages and building
hospitals? And she should.
She should love me because the press releases say that I'm
awesome, right? Doesn't work that way.
It doesn't work that way. And so I I share that to say
that that was the the next thing I learned.
The other thing I was learning during that time was this idea
that I was in Haiti. And a woman walks up to me and
she puts her finger in my chest and she says, I want you to know
you'll never Unsee what you've seen.
And I remember thinking, oh boy, she's right.
And I got to tell you, that became an anthem of my life.
So many moments. We see something that God will
never let us Unsee that is not on accident.
If I were to tell you that I was hoping that something would come
out of today's time from me to you would be something that you
see that you can't Unsee. I think it's so powerful because
then God and the Holy Spirit take over.
It's not my problem anymore. It's his.
And so I did that for eight years with Tim.
During that time, we built something called Night to Shine.
It's a prom for people with special needs.
It's become. When I left.
So I left him in 2017, We had 500 locations in 18 countries
and 50 states, and I think now it's like 30 something
countries. It's happening this Friday
night. And I'll tell you what I learned
in That was where my calling was.
My calling is seeing the Capital C Church set down their
denominations and banners long enough to realize the power of
the Capital C Church. And guys, it's not easy.
I'm going to tell you it's not easy.
Sometimes just because we look different, but sometimes just
because there's all the sins of the world coming to church, just
like they do into normal business.
Someone asked me one time, they said, how hard is it working in
government? And I said, well, I don't know
that it's any more political than the church, which is just I
was being snarky. But at the same point in time,
there's challenges that happen. You may know that.
So I want to share with you that I'm starting to learn these
pieces. I I leave Tim and I left him
ultimately. If you guys are wondering why
would you ever leave, well, one because I had to go home and be
a husband and a father. That year that I left him, I
flew a 200,000 miles just on Delta.
That meaning that I flew on many other airlines, but we didn't
measure those because that would be too much.
And so it was time to go home. And I went home and I did
nothing other than start to invest in my family and invest
in my marriage. We did that through a motorhome,
which is if you really wanna see how your family dynamics work,
get in 100 square feet and hit the road.
It was healing for us, ironically.
I don't know how. I can't really, on paper that
doesn't make any sense. But it was load a bunch of kids
in and and during that time I did nothing other than be
obedient with what I thought God had in front of me, which was to
be a husband and a father and let that try to become my
identity. Because how many of you know
that our identities are wrapped up in our jobs.
And if our identity is wrapped up in our job or the thing we
volunteer, the thing we do, it's going to be a fall.
And it was for me. And so I had to learn.
Can my identity as husband and father be enough?
And I'm going to talk about that more in a minute.
That's why I leave you there on that.
A year later to the month. I got a call from a guy named
Chris Tomlin. Chris is a worship singer.
And Chris said, hey, would you come start my foundation?
I said, man, I don't know. I'm kind of kind of in a mental
space right now of just trying to figure out who I am and pour
into my family. And he's like, well, would you
consult? And I said what do you want to
do? He says, I want to, I want to
change foster care and adoption in our country.
Chris has a real heart for the fact that every Christian
concert, if you've been to one in the last 20 years, stops
somewhere in the middle of the concert and usually talks about
World Vision, compassion, food for the hungry, and there's one
other. And he said, man, I think that's
great and that certainly is part of the metrics of the Christian
counselors these days. But it's killing me that we
don't talk about the kids that are right outside that arena.
And so Chris starts this foundation called Angel Armies.
I've become his consultant to that.
And a couple months later, my buddy calls and.
Says Hey Eric, I just was. I was just asked to be the
secretary of the Department of Children and Families.
Now to tell you how much I know about government, I'm like, like
what is the secretary of department Sharing Families.
He's like, well, we I, I'm going to be the head of department
sharing families. I'm like, OK, well, what's that
dude? He's like, he goes, I don't
know. He's like I, he said.
I I know it has to do with foster care, adoption and the
opioid crisis, which is so funny.
Because that's this. Big in what it's about.
But anyways, that's what he knew and that's what that was enough
for him to obediently say yes. And he says, hey, the governor
just said that he wants faith to become a priority in our state
and he's looking for somebody to come over and kind of speak.
Faith, because you might need to know that it's a bilingual
nature. Between government and faith.
There's two different languages happening, not necessarily in a
bad way. It's just to be almost like a
slang language and a regular language.
So as an example of that, you don't use the word orphan in the
States. That's like a very, very taboo
word. We would never say that.
But here on this pulpit, I promise orphan said a lot,
right? And so sometimes just
understanding foster care is orphan.
It just little translations, little silly things like that.
And so they said, would you come over and do it?
I said sure, I'll come over and do it.
And what the question I asked immediately is, are they serious
about it. I mean I just want you to know
and and and honestly because here's what I wasn't going to
do. I wasn't going to be the Tebow
Tomlin guy that all of a sudden was held up at the state and
said, hey, look, we care about faith and we don't.
And so the early days now I do think God gave us a weird gift.
And I don't know that this word and gift come together very
often. But we went into COVID almost
immediately and and the fact that we went into COVID
immediately made a bunch of faith leaders.
And really, really, I mean right now made a bunch of faith
leaders vulnerable, made a bunch of faith, made a governor
vulnerable, transparent. Like all of a sudden things
started to change. The communication levels started
to change. Obviously I'm super proud of
where our state went as far as keeping churches open.
That yeah, that. That.
You talk about changing and having denomination.
I mean political lines drop instantly.
When that happened, every church across the state was willing to
talk and and see how things were going, figure out how we were
going to lead together. And so as I share that one of
the major questions I had was will the local church be the
answer? Because the local church is the
answer. I just was curious.
I was just curious if government knew that the truth is, and
again, I will make this zero political, if you know me, I'm,
I'm zero political. But I needed to know that our
leaders felt that way, and they did.
And so the objectives I was given in the early days were to
thank and build relationships so that we could then show people
things they could not Unsee, so that then they could absolutely
make a difference in their state.
What I what? I want to share with you.
Next is. I've got a.
Bible verse, this thing. I'm going to tell you something.
Everything. Everything in my world right now
seems to be messing around a little bit.
There we go. My notes got moved.
My voice is gone. It's going to be a good one.
Would you mind putting up there first Samuel 16 Guys, I'm going
to share 2 verses, 2, two different verses, two different
chapters with you today from two different books.
And my, my, my hope for you would be that in reading these
in particular as we focus on one or two individual parts, that
you find a different level of freedom, freedom that I have
really been focusing on in my own life and so.
Let's read this together. The Lord said to Samuel, How
long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from
being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go.
I will send you to Jesse the Bethemite, and for I have
provided for myself a king among his sons.
And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill
me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer
with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord, and
invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you
shall do. And you shall anoint from me
whom I declare to you. I just want to focus real quick
on just before we move on from that I will show you what you
shall do. How many of you know that?
Sometimes when God points you in One Direction, it doesn't mean
that all you're. Supposed to do is just go that
way you're because see here's one of my great faults is how
many times he's called me into something but I forget along the
way to stop and pray and continually make it his.
Like, how many times have we thought, Oh my gosh, this is the
call. God finally gave it to me.
I got it from here, right? And so I love that, he says.
You go and then I'll show you what to.
Do I think so? Many times we just missed that.
So that's not the point of what I want to talk about, but I
can't skip over it. So next one, please.
Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.
The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said to
you, come peaceably. And he said peaceably.
I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.
Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.
And he consecrated Jesus and his sons and invited them to the
sacrifice. When they came he looked at
Eliab and thought surely the Lord's anointed is on him.
But the Lord said, we'll just keep going, OK, but the Lord
said, do not be. Do not look on his appearance or
on the height of the stature, because I have rejected him.
For the Lord sees not as man sees but looks at the outward
appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart.
Then Jesse calls a Bennett AB and made him pass before Samuel.
He said, neither has the Lord chosen this one.
Then Jesse made Shema pass by. He said neither has the Lord
chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons
pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, the
Lord has not chosen these. I always joke with my kids.
It's the Cinderella story before before Cinderella.
So then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here?
And he said, there remains the youngest.
But behold, he is keeping the sheep.
And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit
down till he comes here. And he sent brought him in.
Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes, and was
handsome. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint
him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of Oil
and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of
the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
Now if you'll leave that slide up of everything.
I know some of that that story may be super familiar to some of
you, but there's one part that I've just not heard preached on
enough and it set me free. And it's this little part that
says then, Samuel said to Jesse, Right up here at Top Line, send
and bring him for. We will not sit down until he
comes here. Friends, can I tell you that I
have? Where I have messed up most in
life is that I think God needs me as a strategist.
Like I I need to tell you that the number of times that my
little strategic pea sized brain tries to come up with ways that
I can help the Lord accomplish what he's trying to do is off
the charts. Where that verse has freedom to
me is that if David knew because God could have shown him, if
David knew that the guy who was going to anoint the king would
be in the house that day, how many of us might have tried to
leave a resume on the table? Or maybe even sneakier, because
maybe we just do a little picture of ourselves on the
table so that the Samuel has to say.
Well, who's that? How many of us count on
headhunters or other people to lean in on?
This person will help me get the thing that the Lord has for me.
See, the problem is that this verse says none of that
happened. This verse is that he in that
moment says, Do you have another son?
He says, yeah, I've got one. He's out in the field at this
point in time. Jesse is the worst headhunter in
the history of headhunters. Didn't bring him up, didn't talk
about him. And then he says we will stand
and wait. Now again, anybody who's who's
studied this culture, standing and waiting, the seven older
brothers and dad standing and waiting.
And again, I, I, I just this year had the privilege of going
to Israel. Well, last year had a privilege
of going to Israel. And I don't know where the field
was, but it wasn't right outside the house.
I know that. And so they go out and they go
find David. In this moment, Can you imagine
the freedom, the freedom that we could live in if we knew that
God fights for us, That God remembers our address, that God
knows where we're at, that God doesn't need our help on this
strategy, that God has the role for you ahead of the time that
you've tried to plan for it? Can you imagine?
I mean, I'm just, I, I, I I just sit there and I think he, he
says, And then and then this little thing at the end where he
says in the spirit of the Lord, rushed upon David from that day
forward. The greater mystery to me of
God's faithfulness is that not only is he, does he do that.
He then says I'll be with you. As this this is so perplexing to
me. Because I I, in my own life, as
you heard my testimony, realized I was unqualified for every role
I was ever given and I was not in the right place at the right
time and I didn't have my resume out.
And yet God faithfully continually uses us unqualified.
I'll equipped people to do His work.
It's absolutely crazy. And so as I look at this, the
truth is God does not forget where you are now.
I do think it begs the question, what was David doing?
Because he wasn't in the right place at the right time.
So I the way I studied this, I see he was doing two things.
One is he was having a heart after the Lord, and two, he was
being obedient and everything put in front of him.
If I would, if I could encourage you if you said what posture
should I have. I I don't like this role.
I don't like this situation I'm in.
I'm looking for the Lord to Get Me Out.
I'm looking for what the Lord has next.
I want more purpose in my life. I want to be able to change the
world. I want to be able to make a
difference. I would say those two things
would be a very healthy posture, a heart for the Lord, obedient
in the things in front of you so that God will use each and every
one of those things. I combine that truth with a
second truth. If you don't mind pulling up
John 6. As we read John 6 together, I'm
going to do the same thing. Now this story, this story is
one that's going to be real easy for you to just glaze over
because you have heard it and I promise you have heard it.
The feeding of the 5000 John six one through 14.
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of
Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius, and a large crowd was
following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on
the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was a hand.
Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was
coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy
bread so that these people may eat?
He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him. 200 denarii worth of bread would not be
enough for each of them to get a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to
him. Well, there's a boy here who has
five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they for so many?
Jesus said, Have the people sit down now There was much grass in
the place, so the men sat down about 5000 in number.
Jesus then took the loaves, and then he and when he had given
thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated, so also
the fish, as much as they wanted.
And when they'd eaten their fill, he told their disciples,
gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be
lost. So they gathered them up.
So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
When the people saw the sign of what they had done, they said
this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.
I know you know that story. I've heard it preached a lot.
You've probably heard it preached a lot, and there's so
many beautiful pieces of it. But I want to dissect 2 for
today first. That's what I feel like in state
government. I feel like a guy.
With two fish and five loaves amongst 1,000,000 vulnerable
problems sitting here today there are 23,000 with no, excuse
me, that's not true anymore. When I started my role, there
were 23,000 children in foster care in our state.
There were 4000 children waiting, what we call TPR,
terminated parental rights waiting to be adopted.
Right now, 4000, the numbers, as you look across domestic
violence and trafficking and juvenile justice and
corrections, as you look at the thing most upstream from most of
our issues, fatherlessness, the numbers aren't getting better,
right? And it is so easy to look around
and be like, what do we have that could do anything for this.
And so as I share with you a little bit about what's
happening in our state, I want you to know that my heart
posture has been, man, I think all we've got is 2 fish and five
loaves and a big God, That's it, right?
And so ultimately what we've done in the state was we started
asking. Questions.
The very first thing we did. Is that we caught the governor
and I don't think it's ever been done before.
The governor and the first lady and me sent a letter signed by
him and I to 40,000 faith leaders in our state and said we
don't even know how to say this because we don't know everything
you do. But thank you, thank you for how
you serve. And we said we would love for
you to give us one set of feedback.
Would you share which vulnerable populations your church is most
passionate about? And we sent that out.
And 5000 faith leaders sent back who they're most, most
passionate about, who they serve.
OK, now it wouldn't surprise you that the most served vulnerable
populations in our state are homelessness, hunger and the
elderly. I don't, I don't think that
would shock anyone. I think those are very natural
areas to serve. What should shock you?
Bring you a little bit of frustration, a little bit of
like why is that the 2nd to lowest group served in our state
out of 27 categories was adoption and if you went up only
four from that, so the sixth lowest.
Of our state was foster care. Now, doesn't that bring an
interesting question? Doesn't it make you start to
wonder how can Pastor Earl and a bunch of and the other 19,900
faith leaders that preach their face off, as I heard said over
over and over about James 127 and Matthew 25 and they tell you
this is our role to care for these people.
How is it possible that that 6% were caring for adoption and 11%
caring for foster care it? I'll tell you this, it begged 2
questions to me. One, what can I do to talk with
pastors about that? But more importantly is what can
we do as a state to change that? And by the way, what I mean by
that is I think there's only two potential outcomes for that
question. One is the pastors standing up
here don't really mean that, which I struggle with mightily.
More importantly is the state has made it so difficult to be
involved in foster care, which is already difficult that we've
just made it where churches aren't engaging.
And so I want to tell you a couple things that have happened
in your state. One, we're the only state in the
country right now that has what we call a, a pastors or faith
leaders red phone. We were talking about it.
Sean and I were talking about on the way down here.
The red phone is a phone where faith leaders can call and ask
any question they want of state government and we will get their
answer, their answer, their question answered from the
executive office of the governor.
Now let me why does that matter? Because you can't break silos
when you're inside silos. But what you can do is if you're
at the top, you can whack the top off the silos.
And So what we can do is we can take calls from faith leaders.
So when he's struggling with something that's outside
whatever and we can say what are you struggling with and I can
just call right over to the. Secretary of that agency and get
that question answered. And we're doing that.
We've done 309 calls. Yeah, it's great.
And if you wonder why, if you wonder why, it's because one
pastor said to me something that kind of, again, I couldn't see,
something you can't Unsee, he said.
Eric, it seems to me that the only time I ever hear from
government is when you need something from us.
I was like, oh, boy. And so we knew there was some
truth in that. And so we started this red phone
in the state of Florida. We serve 309 people.
Another thing is, right now, if you're an interested foster
parent, I want to tell you something.
Well, let's just start there because I really need to know.
I think every church in America should know this People in this
room. Right now that have a foster or
adopted child. Hold them high.
I know that means they're tired.
They've worked hard. Praise God.
Yeah. Thank you.
I. I've challenged every state.
I mean, excuse me, every pastor in our state to know who those
people are in their church. Someone one time said it to me,
so I can't take credit for this. But they said a foster or
adopted parent in our culture today is like a domestic
frontline missionary for the church.
It's the best way I've ever heard it.
And so just I want you to know, for those of you who raised
their hand and I, I, I, I, I know there's a lot of
circumstances out there. Thank you for being bold and
thank you. And so we found out that people
that were interested in fostering and adopting, if they
try to call our state, there were 53 different things they
could do, emails, calls, whatever.
And we found out that that system was broken.
So right now in the state of Florida, we've changed
everything. There is one call center that a
human being answers your phone call.
That human being has been trained somewhere between the
customer service of Disney and Chick-fil-A.
And they're going to, they're, you know what I'm talking about,
right. And so and they're going to walk
you through that process. And every single person
answering the phone is a current or past foster parent.
And so that they can walk you through it.
And let me tell you this, the system isn't easy, but as you.
Walk out the system of licensing and adoption.
Licensing for foster care or adoption, We're going to be with
you every step of the way and that person can be called upon
again if the time is needed. So we submit these little things
to the Lord. But the biggest thing that we
submitted to the Lord was we realized we don't have a
resource issue in our churches. You already said it.
God has a cattle on 1000 hills. We don't have a resource issue.
What we have in our in our in our churches is a connectivity
issue. Right.
And so we realized that, see because you could say to me,
Eric, we don't need government to do foster care, right.
OK. And you guys are already doing
awesome things in that space. I would say The thing is the
secretary of DCF who was in this building a couple days ago knows
the name and story of every one of the kids in foster care.
She knows how to what their needs are.
She knows what they not needs. Like you might know if you if
you foster them, but I just would contend to you that
government and church are stronger together.
And so. So I just would say one of the
things we did we're we're super, super proud of this.
It's going to get talked about here in a minute.
We launched something in our state called Care Portal.
Anyone heard of it? Couple.
Well, good. A lot of you will know it in a
second. Here's what's happening in our
state. We can give you like a little re
enactment. A caseworker or CPI is called to
a home and they walk into that home and they're going to make a
judgement in that case of whether that child is removed or
stays. That's happening all the time.
Do you know that in our state and I, I've learned that it's a
national average, 80% of the removals of children in our
state, 80% are neglect, not abuse.
Meaning that 20% we're going to remove them because we will keep
kids safe. That is one thing government
does. 80% are for neglect, meaning potentially preventable.
Do you know what one of the number one needs that children
are removed for is a lack of beds?
Now I say that, and when it first was said to me, I think
I'd give a bed. In a minute I could build a bed,
I could go buy a bed. I might have extra beds, cuz we
are, as the song said, living in the overflow.
But yet while that's happening, a bunch of us are gathered here
on Sunday and don't know what's happening.
You see that? That's the disconnect problem.
What Care Portal is, is so I think that Caseworker and CPI
the first time that there's not enough beds.
I think they buy a bed even though they don't make enough,
because who's wants to remove a kid?
Over a bed or a car seat. Which is another popular one.
And then the next time they don't have the money to do it so
they call uncle so and so and uncle so and so says sure, I'll
buy a bed. And then the next time after
that they they don't have anyone to call.
And yet we have 16.5 million people, 16.5 million people in
Florida that say they are faith-based, about 15,000,000
say they are Christian, 15,000,000 people.
And so this is an app that now exists on our state workers
phone And when they say with the with the family's permission,
hey, would you mind if I shared some of the needs you have, they
press a button, it goes to every faith and community organization
in the city of that of that family.
You're doing it. Anchor Faith is doing it.
It's going to get talked about more in a minute.
It will allow you to see real time needs.
Now here's one other thing I want to say because I just want
to shake it up a little bit for you.
It doesn't matter what side of Roe V Wade you land on, OK?
It does not matter for this statement.
There will be more children born with special needs and into low
income families than have been born in the last 50 years.
Now let me tell you what that looks like in state government,
in state government, that looks like down the road.
We will see more kids in foster care.
We will see more kids in in juvenile justice.
We'll see more kids in in in trafficking, but this is an
opportunity for the church to head that off at the pass.
We have been far. We've been praying for 50 years,
50 years to watch that law change and now is a time for the
church to be aware of how it is that they can best serve those
people. And so one of my favorite quotes
our our pastor up in Jacksonville says we can't be
merely pro birth. We must be pro-life.
Womb to Tomb. And what's going to happen with
this Care Portal app is we are going to have every need at
every stage of life coming into the people who sit here and have
a heart for those needs, you see how awesome it could be.
Let me paint you a picture real briefly in 1990.
In 1990. Michael Jordan's on the scene,
by the way. I know it's older people in
here, which is great. So none of you are fooled by
thinking LeBron or Kobe were better than Jordan.
I know this is AI can I can see this is a smart room.
And so Michael Jordan's on the scene and and Michael Jordan.
This night he's playing the Cavaliers and he goes off for 69
points. Some of you may remember that
performance. Jordan scored 69 points.
It's a overtime game, playoff implications.
It's it's just remarkable. At the same point in time,
there's another player on the. Court for the Chicago.
Bulls named Stacy King. Stacy King is a rookie and
during that game he takes four. He takes, he takes two shots, he
misses both, but he gets fouled on the second one.
And so he goes to the line and he misses the first free throw.
And I've always thought it's pretty funny because you got to
imagine Jordan, who's got 69 for the night, is looking at him
like, come on, man, like, I'm not.
I can't do it all myself. And yet he then goes back to the
line and he makes the second free throw.
He gets a free throw. And at the end of the game, the
media is frenzing because they're like, hey, we've got to
talk to Jordan. He just got 69 points tonight.
It's a historic game. They won in overtime.
Jordan slides right into the locker room and there's Stacy
King out on the court. And so the media comes over to
him and they're like Stacey, like, what did you think of
tonight? Like it was historic.
It was what we know. What's your perspective on it?
And he said, I will always remember tonight as the night
that Michael Jordan and I combined for 70 points.
True story, true story, guys. That's us partnering with God.
Like, like I I will tell you that bringing his bride into the
position that we bring our two fish and and five loaves is that
picture we except we bring less than one point and he brings a
lot more than 69. OK And so I I just need you to
know what we're presenting at government is a model where
we're just saying, God, here it is.
We're putting it back to your bride, back to your church.
We're doing things that I wake up every day and think about one
particular thing. What can I do that the next
administration can't undo? It's been real with you.
And so you know what? You know what they can't undo
connectivity between our vulnerable populations and our
churches can't undo it. But I want to make that story.
Can you go back to that the the, the Bible verse for a second?
I want to make that story. Get one back from that.
Sorry, should have coordinated that better.
I want to make this. I want to make this little more
personal. See right here in the middle
verse 9, there's a lad who has five barley loaves and two fish.
But what are those for so many people Do you know else I've
never heard preached on. What do you think happened to
the boy? I mean, I got to be careful
because it's not in Scripture, but I'm going to make a small
assumption to think that he gave it over and then sat down and
listened, sat down and ate, sat down and ate in abundance.
For that matter, I think, I think sometimes we have so
messed up that we think that 1, -, 1 in God's economy equals 0
fish, and loaves minus fish and loaves equal nothing.
And we approach God sometimes with that kind of sacrifice.
Like God, I don't know if you know how big this is of me, but
here's my sacrifice. And he's like, Are you kidding?
Are you kidding? I mean, think about this.
I think the boy sat down. I think he ate as much as he
wanted when we know he ate as much as he wanted, 'cause there
were 12 baskets left when it was done.
And I just would say to you, how many times?
Do we approach God with this idea that that man, we've done
some great thing for you? I'll tell you something else
that bothers me in the church. After years of being in the
church. The boy could have said, well,
yeah, I have two fish in five loaves, but I don't necessarily
theologically agree with that guy, and he doesn't quite look
like me. And you know what, Honestly,
just for the sake of my own comfort, I'd rather keep my fish
in five loaves. And yet, guys, I'm telling you,
we are using division as an excuse to do nothing.
We are using comfort as an excuse to do nothing.
We are using that we look different, talk different, sing
different as an excuse to do nothing.
And that has got to end. That has got to end.
Because when this little boy presents this little thing, what
happens? What happens?
He sees God's economy. He gives a little, but he ate
fully. I want you to remember this
because again, I I think we just, you got to get God's
economy is not the world's economy.
He eats fully. He had leftovers.
Yet he was part of the miracle. He was part of lives changed.
His name is written in Scripture.
Or his title. I guess he's in his name is the
lad is written in scripture. Guys, we have got to approach
God differently as the capital C church as his bride.
He gave something small and a tidal wave of blessings come
back. Do you understand how those two
passages freedom if #1 if he knows where we are and he never
forgets it and he's got the thing in store for us?
If you put that next to the fact that whatever we bring in
obedience and whatever we bring in sacrifice, none of it's
wasted. None of it's wasted.
I would pray that those two things and start to really sink
in. And that daily you may meditate
on that thought. Because the truth is, if we were
set that free, what would it matter?
We'd sacrifice everything. We'd buy the field 1,000,000 * /
A lot of you might wonder, should you trust him?
I think anytime someone says, trust me, that's a good
question. I told you I answer it for
government all the time. He is trustworthy, he is
faithful, he is good. He has a peace and joy and an
economy that are not comprehendible by us.
Some of us understand it, but we've only understood it because
we went through something, that he met us there.
And then you understand it. But can I tell you that I would
never leave this stage without saying that all of that only
works if you know him? I mean, I don't know how many of
you hear the words peace and joy and God's economy and and long
for him to know the next thing for you and long for him to
receive your sacrifice and and and and be part of the miracle,
be part of the blessings. We we said miracle at least 54
times. So we we are, we are believers
of miracles. So I don't know if you know him,
but I'm going to tell you this changed everything for me.
And I don't mean to know him as just savior.
We need to know him as Lord. We need to act like He's Lord.
We need to give him the reins because he's trustworthy,
faithful. He's good.
Some of you might need to hear me say today that He is for you,
just He is for you. That we sing it, we raise our
hands. But then we leave here, and I'm
not sure we act like it, because if if the Creator of all things,
the God with cattle on 1000 hills, is for us, what then
shall we fear? What shall cause us?
Anxiety or strife? What strategy do we need to
plan? What do we talk about, David?
Have a heart for the Lord, Be obedient with the things in
front of you. So do you know that we were
separated from God by sin? One of the things I've talked
about all these years in orphan and foster care ministry is
that. Orphans never forget that they
were orphans when they're adopted.
We as Christians forget we were orphans all the time, All the
time. So do you know that?
Do you know that you were separated?
Some of you are separated right now from a holy and just God
because of our sin. Do you know that from the
beginning of time that wasn't good enough for God, that he
would send his Son Jesus to come to this earth and live the life?
You couldn't die the death. You should let his blood cover
you. Cover the sins of your life.
Do you know it? For some of you, the question
isn't just do you know it? Do you live it?
Do you live like you're an orphan or were an orphan?
Do you look down on people, or do you see them as fellow
orphans in need of help, just like you needed help?
Do you know that the best news of the story is that he didn't
stay dead? The best news of the story is
that three days later, he rose. He conquered sin, He conquered
death. He put us in situations where he
is trustworthy and faithful. He is the almighty conqueror.
He is your creator. And the craziest part of all is
that he's willing to call us sons and daughters.
I know this is a church filled with people that love Jesus.
I know that. But I'm not going to let us
leave here without giving you the opportunity if you don't
know him as Lord and Savior to take that opportunity.
And I've been around a lot of denominations, and everybody
does it differently because there's no magic in the prayer.
There's no magic in the words. The truth is, you have to admit
that you are a Sinner in need of a savior.
You have to believe that Jesus was that Savior sent by God as
his only son on a rescue mission for you.
And then you have to confess him as Lord and Savior.
That's it. And I'm just telling you, I'm
honored to be able to talk about that.
I'm thrilled that that I that I can come from a government lens,
But none of that matters. I have an audience of one,
right? An audience of one that I know
is faithful and trustworthy and good.
And so I want to give you the opportunity.
If you've never had that moment, and I'd ask that you pray with
me. And some of you, by the way,
just need to get real about the fact that he needs to be Lord.
Let's pray. Thank you so much for listening
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