Transformative Power of Faith and Community
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
We are all aware that we are in a constant state of spiritual warfare. Okay? We know that the world is not a beautiful place all the time. And we know that we are blessed to have this space where we can be safe. And where we can feel loved. [00:44:05] (24 seconds)
So when this child was about three days old. He was taken by DCS custody from his mom and his dad. And he was placed with his grandparents. At about three months of age he was taken back to his mom and his dad. At a six month welfare check up by DCS they found the child was not gaining weight. He had bruises. He had lots of terrible awful things that no child should exhibit. [00:45:36] (28 seconds)
He lived with his grandparents from the age of six months until about two years of age. At which point because the way that the law works in the state of Tennessee and you know just federal law anyway. They try to reunite families if at all possible. Okay. And there are several opinions about that. But that's just the way it works. And a lot of times it works out beautifully. And a lot of times it doesn't. [00:46:07] (28 seconds)
So from the ages of two until about five this child lived in constant abuse. And neglect. And starvation. He and his family were often on the run. He was shoved into closets and shoved into bathrooms in order to escape DCS. Because it was a constant presence in their home from the time he was born. [00:46:35] (33 seconds)
And it breaks my heart to even think about that. When I look at my boys I can't imagine allowing them to be in a situation like that. I would give my life to save them from that. So at the age of five his father was deported for violent crimes for rape and for murder. And he was taken back to his grandparents house. [00:47:25] (27 seconds)
At the age of seven mom comes back into the picture with a new husband. From the outside looking in for the first several months, this situation actually looks pretty good. Mom has a job. She is not using. Stepdad does all of the things that dads theoretically are supposed to do. He works. He brings a check home. He takes care of the family. He takes them to the movies. They go to the park. They have all these wonderful times together. They spend time as a family. [00:48:40] (38 seconds)
But what nobody else sees is when they're behind closed doors, the scene is completely different. So one story that this young man asked for me to share with you. And this isn't the worst. So I'm not going to get into as much detail as what we've been trusted with. But just one instance alone, this child remembers coming home from school and there was no food in the house. [00:49:26] (29 seconds)
And he ate at school as much as possible because he never knew when he was going to have food. it was the weekend and he was starving so his mom said well there's some milk in there get just a little so that your stepdad doesn't know that you took a drink of his milk and so he does and he goes to bed and he sleeps on a top bunk in a hotel because that's where they lived at the time and sometime during the night his stepdad returned home and realized that the child had gotten some milk so from a dead sleep this child is drug out of his top bunk by the ankles to the floor with his head and his ribs scraping across the bunk bed slamming onto the floor and is beaten and beaten and beaten and kicked ribs are broken bruises are everywhere face and head are bleeding it's terrible [00:49:54] (63 seconds)
as a parent I cannot imagine I would put myself in harm's way a million times over again to protect my child from one instance of this let alone seven years, six years okay so you have a child he's brought up in a home language is vulgar lots of inappropriate content things that we shouldn't watch as adults are on television constantly drugs, alcohol, guns you name it it's there okay then you put him in school where he doesn't know that those things aren't normal and he gets labeled as a bad kid and so he starts to believe it and he acts on that and he gets in trouble constantly and the more he gets in trouble the more it reinforces the fact that he's just a bad kid the more he knows that his life is going to end up in jail at best okay [00:51:43] (71 seconds)
This is right after he was baptized. Go ahead. This was another Sunday. It's just, I'm showing you these pictures because I want you to remember that first one by the fire pit, because I want you to see the change in him throughout the years of being invested in this church and us investing in him. Wade talked about investing in our church family. This is what you're doing when you give for this kids program in these kids ministries. This is what you're doing. You are breaking generational curses. You are winning souls. You are quite literally saving people. [01:02:18] (40 seconds)
And God has kind of helped to bring out. So the last picture, the last picture with his cadet uniform on was because he actually had never made above a what? Like a D at school? Maybe -ish? Maybe? We'd had him in our home for about six months or so. And I will tell you, it was a struggle. But this kid wrote his very first full essay because it was required and we wouldn't let him not do it. It took three nights. It took a lot of yelling. It took me standing over him, holding his hands over the keyboard while he got really mad at me. He won the essay competition for the state of Tennessee. [01:04:54] (50 seconds)
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So when this child was about three days old. He was taken by DCS custody from his mom and his dad. And he was placed with his grandparents. At about three months of age he was taken back to his mom and his dad. At a six month welfare check up by DCS they found the child was not gaining weight. He had bruises. He had lots of terrible awful things that no child should exhibit. [00:45:36] (28 seconds)
He lived with his grandparents from the age of six months until about two years of age. At which point because the way that the law works in the state of Tennessee and you know just federal law anyway. They try to reunite families if at all possible. Okay. And there are several opinions about that. But that's just the way it works. And a lot of times it works out beautifully. And a lot of times it doesn't. [00:46:07] (28 seconds)
So from the ages of two until about five this child lived in constant abuse. And neglect. And starvation. He and his family were often on the run. He was shoved into closets and shoved into bathrooms in order to escape DCS. Because it was a constant presence in their home from the time he was born. [00:46:35] (33 seconds)
And it breaks my heart to even think about that. When I look at my boys I can't imagine allowing them to be in a situation like that. I would give my life to save them from that. So at the age of five his father was deported for violent crimes for rape and for murder. And he was taken back to his grandparents house. [00:47:25] (27 seconds)
At the age of seven mom comes back into the picture with a new husband. From the outside looking in for the first several months, this situation actually looks pretty good. Mom has a job. She is not using. Stepdad does all of the things that dads theoretically are supposed to do. He works. He brings a check home. He takes care of the family. He takes them to the movies. They go to the park. They have all these wonderful times together. They spend time as a family. [00:48:40] (38 seconds)
But what nobody else sees is when they're behind closed doors, the scene is completely different. So one story that this young man asked for me to share with you. And this isn't the worst. So I'm not going to get into as much detail as what we've been trusted with. But just one instance alone, this child remembers coming home from school and there was no food in the house. [00:49:26] (29 seconds)
And he ate at school as much as possible because he never knew when he was going to have food. it was the weekend and he was starving so his mom said well there's some milk in there get just a little so that your stepdad doesn't know that you took a drink of his milk and so he does and he goes to bed and he sleeps on a top bunk in a hotel because that's where they lived at the time and sometime during the night his stepdad returned home and realized that the child had gotten some milk so from a dead sleep this child is drug out of his top bunk by the ankles to the floor with his head and his ribs scraping across the bunk bed slamming onto the floor and is beaten and beaten and beaten and kicked ribs are broken bruises are everywhere face and head are bleeding it's terrible [00:49:54] (63 seconds)
as a parent I cannot imagine I would put myself in harm's way a million times over again to protect my child from one instance of this let alone seven years, six years okay so you have a child he's brought up in a home language is vulgar lots of inappropriate content things that we shouldn't watch as adults are on television constantly drugs, alcohol, guns you name it it's there okay then you put him in school where he doesn't know that those things aren't normal and he gets labeled as a bad kid and so he starts to believe it and he acts on that and he gets in trouble constantly and the more he gets in trouble the more it reinforces the fact that he's just a bad kid the more he knows that his life is going to end up in jail at best okay [00:51:43] (71 seconds)
This is right after he was baptized. Go ahead. This was another Sunday. It's just, I'm showing you these pictures because I want you to remember that first one by the fire pit, because I want you to see the change in him throughout the years of being invested in this church and us investing in him. Wade talked about investing in our church family. This is what you're doing when you give for this kids program in these kids ministries. This is what you're doing. You are breaking generational curses. You are winning souls. You are quite literally saving people. [01:02:18] (40 seconds)
And God has kind of helped to bring out. So the last picture, the last picture with his cadet uniform on was because he actually had never made above a what? Like a D at school? Maybe -ish? Maybe? We'd had him in our home for about six months or so. And I will tell you, it was a struggle. But this kid wrote his very first full essay because it was required and we wouldn't let him not do it. It took three nights. It took a lot of yelling. It took me standing over him, holding his hands over the keyboard while he got really mad at me. He won the essay competition for the state of Tennessee. [01:04:54] (50 seconds)
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