Reset—Created for Community - Dave Bagwell

0:15 We're in this collection of talks called Reset. And every person that's got up here has shared a little bit of a reset story, right? Pastor Louie got up here and he said his phone had to need a factory reset. Have you ever had to that moment where you're like, oh my goodness, I gotta reset my phone because of some problem. Grant, if you joined us online last week, sad we weren't together, but you know, the weather in Atlanta, it happens. So if you tuned into Grant, he talked about resetting his internet. And we've all been there. We've had to reset that, but I got a better one. I got the best one. You believe that? I'm talking about the password reset. Can anybody just get frustrated with me for a minute about how our lives are ruled by the password right now? It's like, I got so many passwords and every now and then you forget the password and you got to do that forgot password. Who in here is the one that just, you'll try.

1:14 so many different passwords. You do not want to go through the process of forget password. That's me. I'll try it all. I'll get locked out for however many minutes I got to get locked out. Who goes straight to forgot password? You know you don't know it. You're going straight there. I don't understand you, but I'm glad that you're here. I get it. My kids have devices and they have accounts. Don't worry. Don't judge me. It's only like eight hours a day that they're on the devices. It's not a big deal. They get locked out every now and then. And it's worse for me because now I get their little device and I don't remember their password. So I'm like, okay, forgot password. Then I realized I used some fake email to sign them up for the account. So I got to go log into that email. I forgot that password too. So about an hour later, after I get alone time and work on this thing, I'm handing it back over to my kids for them to play. But I love the password reset because it's also communal.

2:10 Okay. This is a communal thing because we've all been on either one side or the other of that text message. Hey, can you look at your phone and send me the code that you just got in 30 seconds? Otherwise, I'm going to have to start this whole thing all over again. And whether you're sending that code to your spouse or whatever, or maybe you're still on your parents' account, or maybe I know some of you, some of you are sharing Netflix with your friends and you're having to get that. So I know it's a communal thing, the password reset. And that's what I love about this because we today are gonna reset community. That's what we're gonna be coming around. What does it look like to reset on community? I showed you my family. I'm gonna show them again in just a minute, but I'm fired up. I'm excited. I want to help motivate us towards community today. Why?

3:00 Because this is my house. You guys are my people. This is my community. I've been part of Fashion City Church since 2010. So I was here just after the doors opened. I was literally here when we opened the doors to this location, me as a door holder since 2010. And then I got involved in the choir. You guys saw the choir up here? That was me. In probably 2012, I was a door holder on the worship team singing in the choir. And then I got involved in community groups. Back then we didn't have connect groups, but you better believe if we had had connect groups, I would have been involved in that. I was a door holder. I still am a door holder. In 2017, I came on staff just after I was helping this struggling chicken restaurant. And I really don't know if they're gonna make it. I don't know. You're gonna have to pray for Chick-fil-A because I left in 2017.

3:52 So I'm not sure they're gonna make it. Just kidding. They'll be just fine. But going back to this picture, if you guys could put that back up on the screen, this picture says a lot. This picture says a lot about community. There's a lot behind this picture, not just because we're all wearing Love Atlanta shirts. That actually worked out quite nicely. But this picture wouldn't be possible if it weren't for this community. This picture would not have happened if it weren't for Passion City Church. There's big stories here, but you can tell, obviously, all of my kids were adopted. And so through the adoption and the foster care journey, this community, the community of believers, the people of God were in my corner with me and Bethany. And I'll get to that in a minute. Hopefully I got time to share more of the story. But the choir, I talked about the choir back in those days. The choir gave me so many diapers. I had a whole garage full of diapers and it was a little bit excessive, but I loved it so much.

4:49 And that was Dave, the door holder. That wasn't Dave, the guy that gets up on stage. That wasn't Dave, the guy that's on staff. That was Dave, the door holder. That's what takes place in this house. Community will come around you and wrap around you like they did me. And I'm sure you guys have all that. But furthermore, back to that picture, you guys can all see that I'm in a transracial family. My kids don't look like me. And it's in this community that I was able to learn, to grow. I've had people around me teaching me things. I've had to change my mind on some things, change my heart. and it's the community around me that's given me the capacity to do that. And I love this house because my kids who don't look like me can come into this house and see themselves. They can find people that look like them. They can find people that don't look like them. And it's all in here. I'm looking around right here. It's a beautiful diversity.

5:42 And I love that so much. So there's a lot behind showing you the picture of that. But we are gonna come around community. We're gonna reset community. It might not be what you expect though. So I am not going to sell you on some program that Passion City Church is starting to help with community. I'm not going to be pitching what we need to do as a church community. And we're going to see in scripture in just a minute is about what I can do, what you can do, what we as individuals can bring and contribute and be a part of. That's what we're going to be leaning into. I just want to set the backdrop of this. There's some research happening lately and more is coming around this. It's called the loneliness epidemic. Have you heard about it? If you haven't, check into it. Major reputable places. Harvard's doing research on this. The National Institute for Mental Health is doing research. The Surgeon General actually brought something out recently, and I want to show you guys.

6:37 I'm going to the iPad. This is what the Surgeon General released, that lacking social connection is more dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. This is talking about the odds of premature mortality, that it actually matters. The feeling of loneliness is a big, big deal. Look at that. It's way above air pollution, way above physical inactivity, the impact of loneliness or the lack of social connection. Similarly, Harvard did their research and in their research, they surveyed people and people identified as being lonely. 73% of them were asked, why do you feel lonely? And 73% said, why? Because of technology. You guys know that? That's obvious. We all feel that. This is not an anti-technology talk. I'm using an iPad.

7:31 Technology is great. There's huge benefits to technology, but we also know there's massive complexities and there's a lot of downstream effect to the way we live our lives in connection with loneliness. And just to pause here for a minute, a room this size, this many people, the reality is looking at the stats and the research that there are people in here who feel lonely. You might feel lonely. You might always feel lonely. You might feel lonely at times. It could be that you have anxiety around gathering with people. And so you tend to not be around people. It might be that you're nervous about making friends. It could be that you're not sure who to call when you want to run an idea past them. You're, you got a life move and you just don't know who to call. You don't know who to celebrate with. So I know and I feel that we can all feel lonely. We can be around our whole family and still feel lonely. That's what some of the research is pointing to.

8:23 It's definitely something that we need to address. But before technology, honestly, before we were able to identify loneliness, there was still a need because our world is built on self-sufficiency, on independence, on being self-made, on autonomy. These were all before technology even rolled in. We just kind of, we have these good things and they're good, but man, if we focus on them, they're not what lines up with the word of God. And I'm happy to be able to break open the word of God. Pastor Grant was in Romans 12. That's where we're gonna be today. Grant looked at Romans 12, verse one and two. So he covered two verses. I'm gonna cover the rest of the chapter. Okay, so take that, Grant. Just kidding. We're gonna motor through a good bit of it. It's a wonderful chapter.

9:18 But before we get even back to that, I wanna take us all the way back to the beginning because community is not a modern church strategy. It's not a response to this loneliness statistic. I do believe it's an answer, but community was not invented as a response to something. It's not something God created to fix a problem. Community is woven into the very nature of who God is and who he created the world to be. Genesis 126 says this. It's not gonna be up there. I'm just gonna read it for us. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. From the very beginning, God reveals himself, not as isolated, but as relational. Did you hear it? Let us, this points to the triune God, the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He was God and will always be God.

10:13 He was there in the very beginning as us. Let us make man and we were made in his image, which then reveals to us, if we're made in his image, that we have a need to be in relationship, to be in community. Genesis one kind of goes on and it talks about, you guys know the creation story. It says land and it was good. It said light and it was good, creation and it was good. But then in chapter two, you can read it for yourself. It says, it declares something is not good. And it says, it's not good for man to be alone, right? So before sin enters the world, before brokenness, before dysfunction, before hurt, before heartache, before guilt and shame, before all of that, God named isolation as not good. So God wanted and designed for community to be in the mix from the very, very get-go.

11:10 Yet somewhere along the way, we started to pursue Jesus and follow Jesus in isolation. We get up and we have our moment, our quiet time. Love that, but it's me and God. We might roll into a gathering, talk to a few people and roll back out. We consume content, just us, but it was never designed to be that way. It was meant to be part of a family. So when Paul's writing to the church in Rome, this idea of isolation really wasn't in the culture at all. It was a deeply communal culture. The early church didn't experience faith as a private, isolated, internal decision. Faith was lived out together. Shared meals, shared suffering, shared resources, shared worship. That's what Paul is writing around. So to follow Jesus in the context of what we're about to open up would have been grafted into a new family. So Paul spends 11 chapters unpacking theology and then 12 comes around, he starts to get practical and you're gonna see that in just a minute.

12:12 And the bulk of that chapter is not in isolation, it's actually life together. So here's what I want us to all rally around this big point. I need people and people need me. I need people and people need me. If we can all onboard that and just think about that for a minute, I need people and people need me. We're going to reset our understanding of community, the church, not as an accessory to our faith, not as an add-on, but as the core expression of it. So let's read the text. Thanks for being patient with me as I jump into this iPad mode, which is really fun by the way. And I'm not seeing a pen. Oh, there is a pen. Wow. That was amazing. The team puts the pen like right here. That's cool. Anyway, Romans 12, starting in verse three. We're going to read it right here together. For by grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed for each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, So in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

13:30 We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. Your gift is prophesying, then prophesy accordance with your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it's giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. And if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Paul begins this in a surprising place. And the verses right before this that Pastor Grant unpacked were renewing of your mind. So Paul begins right away that we are going, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.

14:10 Okay, okay, okay, I'm working on it. Well, I'm trying to do that. I know. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Sarah said I'm doing great. Turn the pin on, somebody says. Is anybody here to help? That's great. I'm going to let you come around here and figure out why it might be frozen up on me, but that's okay. But okay, while he's doing that, I don't really need the pen for this. Paul starts with a think, right? He says, think it with sober judgment, right? So you good? Okay, cool. Yeah, great. So sober judgment. Here's how I would outline sober judgment. I know it's distracting, but I got a word on me and I only have 18 minutes to do it.

15:05 So I think I got to keep moving. So Sober judgment, it's like this. It's not thinking too highly of yourself, right? But it's also not thinking too low of yourself. That's the danger. The danger is that we might think way too high or way too low. And both of those things break community. When we think one, that we're all it, or if we think that we've got nothing to contribute, then community is gonna break. I'm gonna stay close to my notes while you're still working on that. pride says it this way. I don't need anyone. So if I'm thinking too highly, I'm going to say, I don't need anyone. Insecurity says, no one needs me. And what's crazy. I felt this. I know you felt this too. We can feel both of those things as one person. I can come into some situations that I can think, oh man, I don't need anybody. And then next day I can think, no one needs me. I think we got, we're good. We got good. We're good. All set. All right. Amazing.

16:07 Look at that. Cool, we'll get to the pen in just a minute. So again, coming back to the reset truth. I need people and people need me. I'm not gonna think too high. I'm not gonna think too low. That's where Paul begins. He also begins in this word belongs. All right, so now I'm gonna erase what you just wrote. Boom, there we go. Cool. So it comes down for by grace given to me, I say to everyone, don't think more highly than you ought, but rather with sober judgment in accordance with the grace. For just as one body, many members, these members do not have the same function. So in Christ, though we form one body, each member belongs. And that's where we're going next. This is our first point that we're going to reset as one body. We need a community reset that we are one body. Look at it right here. Just as each of us with one body, but many members. And these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, though many, we are one body. It's right there in the text. Remember that we're one body.

17:09 That word belongs. I looked it up in the original language and just a sidebar here. If you're not on Bible hub in your study, you can go to this website. It's called Bible hub. I did it this past week. You can hit this thing called interlinear translation, and it shows you the actual Greek for the word. And I looked into this and belong is mutually dependent. So it's not just that I belong to a club, that I'm a member of a thing. It's not that I just signed up and now I'm on that list. No, there's mutual independence. That's what that word belong. Community is not an add-on. It's not a program. It's not a personality preference. It's an identity. Community is an identity. We are one. So I'm going to go to a little bit of a picture here. Paul obviously uses the body. You guys have already seen that. And the body is an awesome picture. And we're going to get to that in a minute, but in case you need another picture, I want to take you to math class. Y'all ready for math class? Okay, great. We are going to be talking about fractions. Okay. My kids are in a hybrid homeschool program. So this is homeschool dad right here coming out. We're going to be talking about fractions right now. And Paul says that we are one, right? Okay. One, guess what one is? One is a whole number. Y'all remember? Y'all remember? Okay. One is whole.

18:33 Anything less than one, anything less than one is a fraction. Okay. So if we were going to write today as one, all of us, the people of God in this room, I just got word 1,123 people are here out of 1,123. You guys that? Now that would be us, one, the fraction. But guess what that equals?

19:00 All right, y'all with me? Y'all with me? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man, this is amazing. If anybody leaves, gone. If anybody leaves, now we're 1,122 over 1,123. Remember, this is the hole down there on the denominator. The numerator is what is there. So if somebody leaves, that's what we are. And guess what? What is this? Not equal to one. it's fraction. It's a fraction. Without any one of us, we are a fraction. We are not whole. We are not one. Okay. That's what Paul's trying to get at here. When, when we read this at Passion City Church, we say this phrase, we are family. It's getting around to that same oneness. If we say it's not an organization you join, it's a family to which you belong.

19:58 That family language is all throughout scripture. In verse one of chapter 12, it says, dear brothers and sisters, it's that familial language to show that we are one, that we need each other, that it's that mutually dependent. Church isn't a building. That's why you don't see our name on this church building because the church is the people gathered, right? So we are the church and it's important that we understand that. So we need more than your contribution. We need more than your addition to the whole. We need you because your presence is us. Does that make sense? Is that tracking? We don't need you because you're impressive. We don't need you because you're perfect, but we need you in every part because we're incomplete without you. And you need us. You need to be connected to the people. When you disconnect, something suffers and you suffer.

20:56 When you withhold your presence, something weakens and you weaken. But when you show up, when you lean in, we are strong. You are strong. We are whole. That's the picture that we're getting. Let's keep moving to the next point, and that's reset with many parts. Back to this same scripture, verse 3 and verse 4. Verse 4, it says, for just of each of us has one body. We all have many members. Look at that. I changed the color and everything. That was amazing. And these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ, though many, we form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it's serving, then serve.

21:48 If teaching, then teach. If it's to encourage, then give encouragement. If it's giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, then do it diligently. If it's to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Before Paul gets into all these gifts that people have, he talks about something else. And I referenced it when I talked about my family. He talked about diversity. He talks about we are many parts. And when I was doing my study in this, looking at commentators on verse 12 or chapter 12, a lot of them are pointing to the fact that the body only exists because diversity exists. If diversity did not exist, there would be no body. That's what people are saying. Paul's getting at with this imagery about we're one body and we're many parts. So what does that mean? How do we do that? How are we one body and many parts? It's crazy.

22:40 It's right here, verse five, in Christ. In Christ, we are one body and many parts. What does that mean? And that could be a whole big theological thing that we are in Christ. But right here in the text, it's really talking about we're all under the headship of Christ. In other places where it talks about body in many parts, it talks about Christ being the head. Pastor Louis, in the very first talk of Reset, he says, I'm made by God and for God. That came out of Colossians. Right after Colossians, it said, in Christ, the head of the church, right? So to be in Christ means that you and me, we put our faith in Jesus. We're all pursuing Jesus. Jesus is our common denominator. Whoa, did y'all see that? That was crazy. That was back to math class. We're all pursuing Jesus together. We're all renewed by his power. And that's what it means to be in Christ. A couple of things that I see in this passage as we get into the different gifts, it's not an exhaustive list.

23:39 There's other places in scripture that talk about the gifts, right? And there's lots of different ways that God has gifted us. But the two things that I see in here are really just cautions. The caution number one is comparison. Look out for comparison. It's a dangerous thing. We all have different gifts, but guess what? It's according to the grace given us. That's what scripture says. So if you think this caution or this comparison, it's kind of similar to the high and low that I was talking about. One side of comparison says that I'm better than everybody. and the other side of comparison says that I'm less than everybody. Watch out for that. If you think you're better than everybody, you think you might be self-made, scripture says it's by grace given you. You're a recipient of grace. I got news for you. None of us have gotten really anything on our own. We've got grit, yes, we got determination.

24:34 We got hard work. We do all that kind of stuff. But somewhere along the way, we're all recipients of God's grace. the talent you have to do the thing that you're doing given by God. So don't think too highly of yourself, but also don't think too lowly of yourself. Guess what? God gives gifts. And for you to think you don't have gifts is actually saying you know better than God because he gave you those gifts. God in all his wisdom, in all his intellect, gave you talents and gifts. Don't count him less than. He gave you those things. So step up into them. And then comparison gives way to the other caution, which is envy. Comparison gives way to envy. Don't be envious of what other people have. In here, as he's starting to unload things, he's not saying if you have the gift of serving, then try to get the gift of prophesying. If you have the gift of leadership, then try to get the gift of teaching. And I'm not saying you don't want to add to your life, right? You want to discover God's gifting. And there's some things in you that over time that he reveals. So seek those things, but envy is seeking what someone else has. And so I'm not looking with eyes thinking, I want that. This is very relevant for me. Most of the Sundays I'm sitting right over there.

25:55 Pastor Louie's up here. That's his gifting. I'm jumping out, right? And I got some things that I'm exercising, but for the most part, I know who I am. I'm not envious of Pastor Louie, because honestly, Louie or Brad get up here, and they're talking about something that we're going to do, or a way that we're being organized, and you might notice it subtly. They kind of glance over there. They're looking at me, because I'm going to have to organize the thing and get it done, and that's great. That's how God's gifted me, so I'm not trying to clamor for something that is not mine. I'm going to operate in my gifting. I'm going to be confident in that. there's no spectator in Romans 12. There's nowhere in here where there's just somebody sitting by watching. So community, if we're going to jump into this together, there's no spectator. This is basically saying, you don't all do the same thing, but you all do something.

26:55 You don't all do the same thing, but you all do something. I was doing a little research, research and I found out about the sinoatrial node. I don't know if anybody's heard of the sinoatrial node. It's this little thing inside your heart. It's the size of a grain of rice. And I'm so glad that I'm to this point in my talk because I've been trying not to lose this grain of rice the whole time. And it's just been sitting here just staring at me. The sinoatrial node is in your heart and in my heart. And it's the size of a grain of rice. It doesn't pump blood. It doesn't make the heart strong. It doesn't get any attention. It quietly sets every heartbeat. It sets the rhythm of your heart, and it's the size of a grain of rice. It's the electrical signal in your heart that tells your heart to pump beat after beat, day after day. When you're awake, when you're asleep, when you're aware of it or not aware of it, you don't feel it working, you don't think it, you don't even know it's there. Y'all didn't even know the name of this guy.

27:59 It never stops doing its job. But if it does stop doing its job, your heart loses rhythm and everything in your body goes off. That's exactly how the body works. You don't all do the same thing, but you all do something. Your role might feel small. Your contribution might feel hidden. Your gift might seem unimpressive. But in God's design, small things sustain life. God designed the sinoatrial node to sustain life. Same thing is true for me and you, and it didn't take much. I just Googled small body parts to have a big impact. And guess what? That's not the only one. I'm telling you, the picture that God has used through his word for the body is crazy. Okay. There's these tiny little, in our inner ear, little hairs that keep us balanced. That's wild. So you can Google your own kind of thing, your sinoatrial node, but I learned a lot in the process. It was amazing.

29:05 what should we do now so that kind of takes us to the rest of the chapter and it's a long list and i'm going to read it over us but this chapter is not a list of things that we've got to check off to earn our way into the body that's not at all what this is about by by in jesus in christ we are the body but this is behaviors of his body behaviors of what it looks like to be in the body of Christ. So there's going to be a list that's going to come up on the screen, but I'm going to read the scripture. So however you want to kind of interact with it, you can see it in a list form, or you can just listen to me read the scripture. Verse nine, love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. That's not easy. None of this is really easy, easy. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction. These are not easy, but man, wow. Faithful in prayer. How's your prayer life? Are you faithful in prayer?

30:17 Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Obviously, that's my favorite one being from Chick-fil-A. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of a low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends. but leave room for God's wrath for it's written it's mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord on the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good it gets a little sideways when it says you're heaping burning coals on people's heads heads. That's just an expression of the day that talked about the heat of shame that your enemy would feel if you did good to them and they didn't deserve it. So it's not saying you're actually going to do bad to someone, but look at this list. Keep it up there for a minute, if you will.

31:36 What's the Holy Spirit speaking to you? What's stirring in your heart? What's the thing that is grabbing you? Obviously, none of us are going to reach this to perfection. We're not going to be able to attain this perfectly all the time? Of course not. But there is someone who embodied this to perfection. His name is Jesus. And we are under him and in him. And we have the power to be this. Maybe we're not doing it like checking it off, but we can be this church. We can be the people of God by the power of Jesus. So there's a flaw in my original statement. I need people and people need me. You guys were on board with it and I tricked you. That's my bad. It's deeper than that because you don't need just anybody in your life, right? It's not saying the whole world you need to be in with because not everybody looks like this.

32:30 Not everybody wants to be like this. But what the scripture is getting at is we need the people to be like this and we need to be around those people. So here's my rephrase. I need Christ-like people or I need people in Christ and people need Christ in me. I need people in Christ and people need Christ in me. I need people who are under the headship of Jesus. I need people who are walking with God and I need to be walking with God too. That's the better rephrase. That's the better reset. So what step can you take today? We are community. We are many parts. So we're mutually dependent. We all don't do the same thing, but we do something. I need people in Christ and people need Christ in me. Who do you need in your life? Who needs you in their life?

33:24 And I'm gonna wrap with a story. This is the question that Bethany and I asked without knowing we were asking it, but we were surrounded by community. When we leaned into our foster care journey of our twin boys, we had already adopted Lola and that went great and our community surrounded us. We're like, let's do foster care. We brought home these babies and twin babies, medically fragile. They needed all sorts of care, PT, OT, doctor visits. It was every day. It was hard. It was tough. But we had a community of people around us, not just like the people of God were around us, right? Not just anybody. People who were modeling that were around us and they came to bat for us. They leaned in. My wife very quickly created this little prayer team, not little prayer team, ended up being like 200 people. And she'd just go up to people and she said, hey, can you commit to praying for us on Monday, just one day a week? Then she'd find another group to do Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday. So we had someone, a group praying with us every day of the week and she'd send these updates. And that's what got us through. But we had people arounding us, guess what? So that we could be there for people. So I thought, who needs me? Who needed us was the boy's birth mom, was these boys. That's who needed us. And so we leaned then and their birth mom needed to do a bunch of steps, needed to go to rehab, needed to find a job, needed to find a car, needed to find a place to live. There was lots to do. And you know what?

34:44 At some point in the process, she checked all those boxes. Amazing, but heartbreaking because our kids who we've been leaning into were about to go back and be parented by their birth mom. And it was hard, but our community, the community that rallied around us reminded us of the hard thing. That's what we've been praying for. We'd been praying for reunification. We'd been praying that if it's God's will, that they would be there. And so your community tells you hard things. They remind you of the faithfulness of God. They tell you to stick with it, to stay with it. And our community did that. Actually, a few weeks later, I can't remember exactly what, their birth mom came to us and said, you know what? Would you parent these kids? I would love for you to adopt my twins. I wanna take care of the kids that I, other kids that I have, and I want you to adopt. And we adopted them. It was amazing. And yeah, you can clap right there.

35:38 But here's where I wanna take you. We have a great relationship with the boy's birth mom, Misty. She gives us gifts. She gives us gifts for Christmas. She wrote this letter to us, and I wanna share this letter with you. I have her permission to do that. This was in our Christmas gift this year, 10 years later. Dave and Bethany, I thank God for y'all each and every day. I will never stop thanking him for y'all's love and patience and kindness to me and my family. I would not be where I am today if it weren't for y'all a part of it. I know God placed us in each other's lives. He heard your prayers and many others, and I was saved. she put her faith in Jesus Y'all helped pull me out of the darkness I was in and showed me the light and the goodness of the Lord.

36:36 There's nothing I could say or ever do to repay y'all. But I pray the life I'm living and the person I'm becoming is enough to show y'all. I'm honored that God allowed me to be a vessel to carry your twin boys. He trusted me enough to do that. And I'm grateful he chose y'all to be their parents. they were never meant to be mine. They were yours as soon as God started to form them in my womb. I pray y'all know how much I love y'all. Don't ever question that. I loved y'all even in the darkness. Y'all taught me how to love. Love y'all always, Misty. Thank you.

37:23 Misty, I love you. I love you. Thank you. So look, I need people in Christ and people need Christ in me. That's the picture. That's the picture I've lived. I can testify that this community, this body, this people that God has called us to, it works. Why? Because it's our original setting. It's what God designed for us to do, to be surrounded by people that challenge us, but also to lean in and extend ourselves for other people.