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Well, good morning everybody. I have a a special guest with me today. This is our Rock Hill city mayor, John Gettys.

Thank you so much for being here today and talking to us. You and I have known each other for quite a while now. >> And I'm the better for it, Steve.

>> Well, thank you. That's kind. I think we met first back maybe the early 90s.

>> Yeah, mid 90s. >> Mid 90s with the No Room for Racism. >> That's correct.

>> Uh you were I think you were chair. >> I was. >> And uh that's know each other and done some good things together since and I appreciate you being here today.

As I mentioned to you, we this year are focused on learning how as the people of God to to love other groups. And this summer we're focused on learning to love our nation, be good citizens, how to love this community, our city and the county. And if you can, share with us something you're really excited about that's happening in Rock Hill that you think would be good for everybody just just to know if they don't know it.

>> Well, it's an exciting time to be in Rock Hill. I think we all know that. Next year in 2027, the city will celebrate its 175th year in existence and incorporation.

And so we're really working hard to line up opportunities for the year for us to celebrate, to recognize from whence we've come, >> Right. >> all the things we have in common and really to take a step back and think about the sacrifices and the the risk people before us took to build the community we get to enjoy today. So, it'll be a year-long celebration.

>> Okay. Is there anything that you're in a position to be able to share with our people to that they can anticipate happening here beyond the celebration in the near future? >> Yeah, there's some some things we're seeing downtown really booming.

Jim Shore, who is renowned artist, is opening up a museum and shop in downtown Rock Hill. >> So, we're really excited to see him open up the first quarter, I think, of 2027. The Norman family is opening up the Lantern Hotel.

Uh it's on the corner of Oakland and Maine the workforce in that hotel, 30% will be those of all abilities. >> Okay. >> So it's sort of a continuation of what we're seeing at Miracle Park and making sure that our community is a community for all people.

>> What are some challenges, problems that we're facing in Rock Hill that that is good for our citizens to know about? >> Well, we've seen a lot of progress, right? We've seen since since I became mayor in 2018, our poverty rate has fallen from 18 and 1/2 to 13% last time we checked.

And so we think the answer to that, what we're really focusing on is how do we bring high-paying wages to Rock Hill? How do we use our assets, our quality of life, our tax structure, all of those things that so many people work so hard for for so many years uh to our benefit, but to make sure that the economy that we have of the future, we make it so people are earning wages so they can afford to buy a house. >> Mhm.

The struggle for some people to really make ends meet and then how that ties into the housing market and some of the people who are displaced. That that's something our city is struggling with on some level. >> Yeah, I think you can all right we can all ride around Rock Hill and we've never seen a homeless population in Rock Hill like we see now, right?

And for whatever reason that is, it is. How do we provide uh care? How do we provide brotherly love?

How do we do the things that we do to help people that you know that are trying to get back, but but also how do we make sure we're stemming the tide of that? >> Okay. >> we make sure we've got jobs so that if someone's working in these higher-paying wages and they get sick, it doesn't wipe out their savings.

They've been able to build up more, right? Right? Build equity in their homes, send their kids to college, do the things that we all know because that's what built this country.

You know, back in the 1950s when you had the GI Bill and Eisenhower was building the interstates, it set us up for a huge boom in our country. Well, we can do that again. And that's really where we we've spent a lot of time at the city is how do we invest in our utilities, how do we make good sound policy policy decisions so that we can differentiate ourselves with other communities in the Charlotte metro region and also in the state of South Carolina.

>> becomes part of the business recruitment etc. Talk about how you could see our our members here at First Baptist but others in the community as well engage in what already is and and make a difference. >> So you tell me what you love to do and I'll tell you where we can go do that together.

>> What are some of the agencies, some of the groups that that need volunteers that you think are having an impact? >> You know, you can go to so many organizations that we feed the hungry, certainly Hope House. You know, they do just great work and they have not just Pathways, not just food but you know, spiritual development.

>> Right. Human development. >> Pay electric bills, all of those things.

And that makes a huge difference and Pathways really is sort of leading in that regard in a lot of in a lot of contexts. >> It's kind of becoming a front door to help people get connected to different opportunities. Different okay, all right.

How would you encourage our people to pray for our community? >> So my wife and I have raised three boys. They're all adult men now but when they were little one of the prayers that that we all got in a rut of saying at the end of their prayers was dear God, please make the bad guys good guys, right?

Please open up people's hearts. Please make sure that we all recognize fruits of the spirit in others and reward that by acting the same way. It really is relationships.

You and I have known each other for over 30 years. Steve, the leadership you bring to our community, what you've done through your church, your ministry tending your flock is inspiring. >> So one person gets involved and that creates a ripple, a lot of people get involved and that creates a lot of ripples that that that impacts a lot of people.

One last thing, I know you have surgery coming this coming Wednesday, right? Foot surgery, be be out of commission for a little bit. >> Well, don't tell anybody.

They'll try to sneak things by me. >> Don't don't don't tell anybody what you just heard, but >> Never had surgery in my life. God, they're going to reconstruct my left foot.

So, I'm I'm happy to do it because of the quality of life I want later in life. I'm a little nervous. >> Well, just know that we'll be praying for you and uh we'll be praying in the service today as well.

>> Thank you very much. >> John, thank you so much. Appreciate you, brother.

>> Thank you, River. >> Thanks. Well, you heard the mayor mention uh homeless homelessness and the the poverty rate.

And uh last week, if you were here, you heard the chief of police, Chris Watts, talk about homelessness as well and >> [snorts] >> uh he talked about mental illness and addiction being some of the challenges that the officers in our city deal with. And most of us know these issues impact our school system, too, because you know, if children are in poverty, quite often it impacts or they're they're with [clears throat] parents who have addiction issues. It impacts the consistency of their attendance.

It It impacts negatively the support they get at home with learning. And so, all of these issues affect the quality of life in our community. And today we want to talk about that because, as you remember, we exist, as it says on the wall, to love God, love people, make disciples.

And this year we're focused on opening the scriptures and learning what it tells us about how to care about people. Not necessarily how psychologists tell us to do it, how the culture tells us to do it, but how does God tell us to do it? And we began this summer looking at how to love our country.

And in recent weeks we've been shifting to learning how do we love our community. And one of the ways we do that is by helping, caring about people who have needs. And so, that's what I want to talk about this morning.

And there's really three three points I want to make in the sermon today. And the first is this, as the people of God, we are to care, we are to help. Secondly, uh we can't fix everybody.

Not everybody will let you help them. And third, we help because we care, but helping the needy is not our purpose or mission. We have a different mission.

We do it because we care. So, those are the three things I want to talk about. So, open your Bible with me to the book of Deuteronomy in your Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15.

Deuteronomy 15. Thank you so much for bringing the word of God with you. It blesses me when you do that.

Let me see it. Hold it up. You have the Bible with you?

Thank you so much. We we are to be a church where we all bring God's word because his word is the authority for what we believe and how we live. You want to know what God's will is?

His word. His will is not your opinion. His will is not the majority vote.

His will is not what anybody thinks. His will is what the word says. So, always bring the word of God with you when you come to worship.

Now, Deuteronomy 15 is a section of scripture where the Lord is giving the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, some regulations, if you will, for how they were to treat other people. Now, understand the Old Testament law was for the nation of Israel, not us who are followers of Christ. The principles the principles behind the Old Testament law do apply to us.

But the specific regulations of the law do not. We are we are not under the law, we are under grace. You you understand that.

But now, the principles that that are behind the law that God gave the nation of Israel, they do apply to us. And so, he's giving some regulations for them. And uh and what he's saying is in these regulations, here how here's how you as as Hebrews, as Jews, as as Israelites are to treat one another.

Here's regulations for how you are to treat non-Hebrews, non-Jews, foreigners, Gentiles. And running through all of that is the principle of generosity and kindness that they were to show to everyone, fellow Jews and non-Jews. But it's also evident in these regulations that they owed a special level of kindness and generosity, a special level of love to their fellow Jews, fellow Hebrews.

Doesn't mean that they were to love Gentiles less, it means they were to love one another more. And you find that same principle in the New Testament that while we are to love everyone because they are created in the image of God and therefore have value and worth, the New Testament makes it clear there is a special love that goes up a notch we are to have for our fellow believers in Christ. And there's many places that this is this is clear in scripture.

So I want us to look at what he says here and then talk about those three things I mentioned. Chapter 15, let's read together starting at verse seven. He says, "If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers in any of your towns in in your land which the Lord your God is giving you." So he's talking to the Hebrews as they make their way to the promised land and in your towns there in the promised land, any of your fellow Jews, any any brothers who uh are is poor.

At the end of verse seven he says, "You shall not harden your heart nor close your hand. You'll be tight-fisted, hold on to your money from your poor brother." Verse eight. "But you shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks." Now drop down to verse 11.

For the poor will never cease to be in the land. Therefore, because of this, I command you saying, you shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land. Now, the first lesson is obvious.

I mean, it just jumps off the page. That we, as the people of God, are to to care about and to help the needy. And there's there's no way you can read this and not and not see that.

Those of you who for last few years have been doing the Bible reading plan with us, and maybe you've been in a D group. I hope you have. You've seen over and over and over in the Old and New Testament, especially in the Old Testament, these passages that talk about the way we are to care for the needy.

We are to care for the foreigner, care for the immigrant. You you cannot read God's word consistently and not see that leap off the page at you. I mean, it's there.

There's no denying that. And uh let me just share with you some verses first from the Old Testament just to remind us in the book of Proverbs. I want to just stay there.

We could go to Isaiah, a lot of places, but let's let's just look here. Proverbs 14:31. He who oppresses the poor taunts his maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors God.

Now, none of us, if you could you can't do this, but if you could if you could, so to speak, walk up standing right in front of God and just mock God, make fun of God. There's not a person in this room that would do that. And yet scripture is saying, when you oppress, you take advantage of poor people, that is exactly what you're doing.

That's a pretty strong verse, isn't it? Another another one in in Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord.

You You remember Jesus talking about he gave the the parable and he talked about, you know, people who were poor and people who were hungry, people who were naked, people who were in prison. And he said, "When you don't feed them, you don't clothe them, you don't care for them, he said it's like you're not caring for me, but when you do care for them and give them clothing, it's like you're doing it to me, right?" Again, illustrating the fact because everyone is God's creation, everyone is created in the image of God. Listen, I've said this, but I know it's popular in our culture, but it's unbiblical to say we're all brothers.

We're not. We're all fellow human beings. We're all created in the image of God, but only believers in Christ are brothers and sisters.

I know what people mean by that, but biblically, but but what what he's saying is everyone is in the image of God. Therefore, everybody has value. Everybody has has worth.

And Jesus is saying, "When you when you care for people at a point of need, in a sense, you're you're doing that for me cuz they're made in my image and I love them and I died for them. They have value, they have worth." And and so how you treat them matters. Proverbs 22 verse 9, he who is generous will be blessed because he gives food to the poor.

Now, that That doesn't mean God is going If you If you are you give a lot of money to poor people that God is going to make you financially wealthy. It's not what he's saying. It is saying he will bless you.

And those blessings can take a lot of a lot of forms. Some of you are financially better off than most. Thank God.

Rejoice. But generosity and giving is not a formula that that God says, "All right, I'm going to reward you with with more money." He says, "I'm going to reward you with blessings." And they can take a lot of different forms. He will supply your needs.

And so, God blesses those who bless others. Proverbs 31 verses 8 and 9, he says, "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and the needy." What does he say?

Speak for the voiceless. Speak up for those who have no power. Speak up for those who are oppressed.

And in our divisive partisan political culture, sometimes we struggle to do that because we may think we're supporting one party over the other. Has nothing to do with it. As the people of God, we are to speak up for truth, and speak up for justice, and speak up for the needs of those who are the powerless, and who are poor.

That is a God-given duty every follower of Jesus has. There's no way around that. The New Testament has similar verses.

There there are many more than we read in the old, but just one from the new, and there's several in the New Testament. Let's Let's look at this one from 1 John chapter 3. He says, "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us." How do we know God loves us?

Jesus died for us, right? He sacrificed. He says, "In the same way, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but indeed and truth." So, he's saying, "If you do the first banner, love God, you're going to do the second better, love people. And part of loving people is caring about those who who are in unfortunate circumstances, those who are needy.

They they get there a lot of different ways. What he What he says is you love God, you're going to love people. Loving people means you're going to love them.

You're going to care about them, and you're going to find ways to help meet needs. And there are There are so many people in this church who do that so well. Through your personal lives, through the ministries that you are a part of, whether it's in this church or volunteering in the the the community.

There are many people in this church who are in the social services. And And by the way, if you're wanting to know how you can partner with with others in this community, you need to be here tonight. We're We'll have our annual business meeting at 5:00, and then immediately after that, we're going to have a ministry expo, and around the perimeter are going to be exhibits from several of the partners that we work with in this community that you can connect with to make a difference in this community, serve other people to meet needs.

So, come and and and walk around and get some literature and talk to them and find out how you can volunteer. This is a great opportunity for you to put into practice the very thing we're talking about in this passage. So, I hope you will be here tonight for the business meeting at 5:00, immediately after that, the ministry expo, and we will have some good Mexican ice cream for you to eat as well.

So, it's going to be a good evening. So, what's the the first point? Obviously, there is this principle that that as the people of God, kindness and generosity toward people in need is part of what we do.

Why? Because we care. We care because they're created in the image of God.

And we care because God tells us to. Now, here's the second thing. Generosity starts at home.

Generosity starts at home. Now, what do I mean by that? Two things.

It starts with being generous toward and being kind to fellow believers. Go back to Deuteronomy 15 a minute and I want you to look at the first three verses. Now, remember what I said about the law, the regulations of the law apply to the Jewish nation, not to us, but the principles behind it do apply to us.

Chapter 15, verse 1. He said, "At the end of every 7 years, you shall grant a remission of debts. This is the manner of remission.

Every creditor shall release what he has lent what he has loaned to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed. Now, in the Old Testament, there there were there were two things God told the the Jewish nation to do that probably individuals in the nation did, but there's really no record that as a nation as a whole they practiced them.

One is here, it's the the Sabbath year, every 7 years. They were to forgive debt. The other was the year of Jubilee, every 50 years.

And they they were to do a whole bunch of other things. Now, there are some who did that, but as a whole, this doesn't seem to have ever really been practiced by the nation. That's another point, but but it needs to be stated.

Now, what he's saying to the Hebrew nation as they move into the promised land is every 7 years, if you've loaned to someone, now, understand it's not their system was not our system, they didn't have banks like we do and all of that, but the system was for the Jewish people, every 7 years, you were to you were to forgive the debt of the person that you had loaned to. But, look at verse 3. From a foreigner, someone who wasn't a Jew, a Hebrew, a Gentile, from a foreigner, you may exact it.

What does he mean? You're not required to forgive that financial debt. You can exact it.

You can expect them you can demand they pay you back. Go on in verse three he says, "But your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother." So, what he's saying in this Sabbath year, every 7 years to the Hebrew people as they moved into the promised land, they were to forgive the debts they had with one another as fellow Hebrews, but they were not required to do that with non-Hebrews, with Gentiles. They could exact they could they could require payment.

You see the distinction. And it's not that they were being mean to the Gentiles. Is that they were going above and beyond in generosity toward fellow Jews.

That's Do you see the principle I'm making? That's also true in the New Testament and we don't have time to open all the passages and dive into it, but it's found in several places in the New Testament as well that we are to love everybody, be kind and generous, but there's a special generosity we owe one another as members of the family of faith. Similar to what the Jewish people owed one another as fellow Jews.

It's not that you're mean to others, but you're extra kind to your people, so to speak. Are you tracking with me, church? Now, I know this may be new for some of you, but it's what the scripture is saying.

And um so, the principle is generosity starts at home first with fellow believers. Doesn't mean you don't extend it outside the family of faith, but it begins here with one another. Secondly, generosity starts at home with your earthly family.

Your earthly family. Look on the screen at 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8. Next slide, here we go.

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Now, we're going to build on that because there's another verse that follows this in a minute, but what he's saying is is family is to provide for family. And if you don't take care of your family, you've messed up.

YOU'VE MESSED UP. NOW, HE GOES on uh to say in verses 3 and 4, actually it's before verse 8, verses 3 and 4 in the same chapter, he said, "Honor widows who are widows indeed." Now, let me stop there for a moment. In In In Timothy, it seems that some of the churches had an office, I'll call it that for lack of a term.

Like we have a office We have deacons and so on. They had an office of widows. Now, listen, not every widow was automatically put in that office.

There were guidelines, regulations for which widows in the church were put in that group that received care from the church, but there was also things expected of those widows. And what I'm saying is the the Bible lays down the these levels of generosity, it lays down guidelines at times. It's not just a blanket whatever.

So, he's saying, "Now, widows, honor the widows." So, he's talking about those in that office. But he said, "Notice this. This is one This When you read the whole chapter, this is one of the qualifications before they were to be put on the list of widows in the church.

But if any widow has children and grandchildren, they, who's the they? Children and grandchildren, must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. Now, in the Jewish culture, I'm a grandfather.

In the Jewish culture, it would be appropriate for my grandchildren to be referred to as my children. Because they still descended from me. You're with me?

And so, he's saying here, children, grandchildren, you owe your parents, you owe your grandparents. And that's where generosity starts. And one of the qualifications was a widow was not to be put on the list of widows that the church took care of or helped if they had family to do it.

Generosity starts at home. And there's a I got to be careful. I don't want to chase this rabbit too much, but there's a trend in our culture today where counselors and psychologists in some ways are replacing God and scripture.

Affirming some of the unhealthy thoughts that young adults have. So, there's this growing trend of young adults cutting off their parents. I don't want to be that child on the judgment day.

I'm not talking about a parent who physically abused you or sexually abused you. I'm not talking about that. But there's this growing trend of kids cutting off their parents because their parents didn't always agree with them on everything or their parents weren't perfect.

Those kids are going to be in for a rude awakening when they stand before Jesus on the day of judgment. Generosity starts at home. And And scripture says, you owe you owe your parents and your grandparents.

Third lesson, I got four. These next two go fast. They really do.

Number three, you can't fix everybody. I don't want to share I don't want to share that because you can get discouraged when you try to help people. Or you can also open yourself up in such a way that it monopolizes your life and ends up just consuming you and that that can become very unhealthy.

You've got to understand you can't fix everybody. I have a friend. I've known him for almost four decades in Rock Hill.

I'm not going to mention his name. A little bit younger than me. And um back in the early and into the mid-90s, he actually came regularly to church here.

He was talented, had a skill, had a good career. But he started making bad decisions. Lost his family.

Lost his career. Became addicted to drugs. He's I mean, he's strung out.

His family, his siblings put him in a facility. When he got out, the very first day he got out, you know what he did? Bought drugs.

Bought drugs. Couple years ago I was walking to my car in the parking lot after buying groceries at Food Lion. Heard someone call my name.

I looked around and it was him. He rolled up on his bicycle. Homeless sleeping in the woods.

What do you think he wanted? He wanted some money for food. I said to him, "Listen.

You pick it you you you you pick right over here there's there's uh let's see there's um uh uh sandwich place. I can't think of the name of it right now. Subway, there's Subway.

There's McDonald's, Mary's Cafe, Bojangles, KFC, and a few other places. And I will go with you right now to any of those. I'll buy my lunch.

I'll buy you however big a lunch you want. Sit down, eat together, talk with you. And then we'll go into the grocery store and I'll buy you some groceries.

What do you think he did? He cussed me out. I CAN'T BELIEVE I NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D BE THAT HARD-HEARTED AND WOULDN'T GIVE ME WE ALMOST GOT INTO A SHOUTING MATCH THERE IN THE PARKING lot of Food Lion.

Well, actually we kind of did. And I told him, "I'll never give you a dime, but I will buy you food right now." What would he have done if I'd given him money? Yeah, he bought drugs.

Rarely do I ever give anybody cash. You're You're You're in You're in You're empowering their addiction, whether it's alcohol, drugs, or gambling, when you just give them cash. I'll pay their bill.

I'll buy them food. I put someone I'll I'll I'll sometimes put people up in a room for a night. Get them off the street when it's cold.

But I'm not giving cash. You can't fix everybody. Some people don't want to be fixed.

Remember, the chief talked about that last Sunday. We're talking about homelessness and stuff. There's The ones that give them the most problems are the ones who don't want help.

That That doesn't mean we don't try to help people, but you've got to understand you are not God. You can't fix everybody. And the reality is many of you in this room right now have members of your family, relatives, or close friends who are just like that, right?

And it it breaks your heart. But you've got to understand you are called to love, you are not called to fix. Cuz you can't fix everybody.

And and if you carry on your shoulder the the pressure of I've got to fix them, I've got to fix my grandchild, I've got to fix my you're going to kill yourself cuz you can't. Here's the last lesson. Well, let me go back.

Deuteronomy 15 verse 11. For the poor will never cease to be in the land. Therefore, because of this, I command you saying, "Freely open your hand." So, be generous.

Now, when he says the poor will never cease from being in the land, that's not an excuse for us not to care, not to give, not to volunteer, not to help. But this When when he said Notice this, when he said the poor will always be in the land, this is in the same passage where he says every 7 years you were to forgive the debt of your fellow Jews, but even if you do that, he says you're still going to have poor people. Why?

Because even the people you forgive, some of them will go back and make the same mistakes, and there's not a thing you can do about it. You're always going to have poor. You're always going to have people who make bad decisions.

Jesus quoted this same verse more than once. On one occasion he was in the home of a man named Simon the leper reclining at a table enjoying a meal when an unnamed woman came into the room and poured a bottle of very expensive perfume on his head. Since this was just a few days before his crucifixion, she was anointing him for burial.

And some people got upset and said, "Oh, that was a waste. They should have sold that perfume and used the money to help the needy." And Jesus said, "She has done a good deed to me. For you always have the poor with you." Alluding to Deuteronomy 15:11.

But you do not always have me. Listen, Jesus is our priority. Jesus is our priority.

Whenever you make anything other than Jesus your priority, you get sideways. What we do is not our priority, our service is not our priority, the church is not our priority, the ministry is not our priority, Jesus is our priority. And sometimes we can get so passionate about stuff that we become less passionate about Jesus.

Jesus is our priority. To worship him, to honor him, to love him. And that leads me to my last point.

To my last point. Our purpose is to love Jesus and make him known. It's that simple.

Sometimes you'll hear people say something like, "You know, the church's mission is to to get rid of poverty or hunger." Instead of spending money on ministry events or building buildings, we should give it all to the poor. And here's the truth. If we love God, we're going to love people, and that means we're going to care about the needy.

We help the poor because we care, because they're created in the image of God and have value and worth. But Jesus did not die on the cross to rid the earth of poverty. Did he?

He died to end a greater poverty. A spiritual poverty. I think Siri talked to me again.

She said, "Yes, mhm." He died on the cross because sin makes you an addict. Sin kills. Poverty is horrible.

It's devastating. We are to care and we are to help. But poverty ends when this life ends.

Spiritual poverty? Hell? That's eternal.

We give and are generous and help and serve and volunteer because we care. Listen, we invite people to church and we tell people about Jesus and we do evangelism and we do discipleship for the same reason. We care.

Both matter. But one is temporary and the other is eternal. And don't ever forget that.

It doesn't mean you don't do the other. You hear me? It's not that we love less.

It's that we love more. It's not a lack of love. You love there.

It's an increased love here. And it's easy when serving to forget what the greater need is.