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Aiming for God-Centered Parenting (Luke 2:21-24, 39-52)
15 Plays4 months ago
Sunday Message recorded 18 August 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction and Gratitude
00:00:06
Speaker
Thank you, John. Thank you, Church family, for the prayers. I appreciate that so much. It means a lot. I remember one thing that my dad said whenever I told him that God was calling me into the ministry, he said, well, it's a long road to hope. And so anyway, that's the that's his way of saying it. I'll be praying for you, buddy. But anyway, I appreciate the prayer so much.
God-Centered Parenting in Luke 2
00:00:29
Speaker
I want you to look with me at Luke 2 verses 21 to 24 and then we're going to skip up a little bit and go down to verse 39 to 52 and we're going to examine the parenting paradigm of Joseph and Mary as presented in Luke 2 21 to 24 and Luke 2 39 to 52 and when you look at Jesus I think they did a good job on parenting Do you remember any lessons that your parents passed on to you? I recall when Jody and I were in Canada, we were going through a transition in our ministry there. and We felt like God was calling us to another country, which turned out to be Japan, but at the time we didn't know it. But anyway, we were seeking the
Trusting in God's Timing
00:01:15
Speaker
Lord.
00:01:15
Speaker
And I remember my father-in-law came up to visit us and he said in Isaiah 49 verses one through three, it says that he made me a polished arrow in his quiver. He hid me away. And so he said to me, he said, don't worry. He said, when the time is right, your heavenly father will pull you from the quiver, place you in the boat, and he will aim at the target and he is a marksman and will hit a dead center.
00:01:46
Speaker
you know Psalm 127 verses three to five actually celebrates the blessing
Children as a Blessing
00:01:51
Speaker
of our children. I know that we started back to school, so kids and teachers, parents, how many fingers am I holding up? I just want to make sure you're still with us today. But anyway, it celebrates it and it it calls children a heritage. It calls them a reward. Do you look upon your children that way?
00:02:12
Speaker
The psalmist chose a metaphor and he compared our children to arrows in a quiver. And so whoever holds the bow you know determines the direction of the arrows.
00:02:26
Speaker
When I was in the bow club in Fairview, Alberta, we would shoot at many different kinds of targets. Sometimes it would be like a bag target. Sometimes it would be a round veil, either a straw veil or maybe even a foam veil. Sometimes there were 3D targets.
00:02:43
Speaker
that were in the shape of animals and so we would shoot at those. Other times it was balloons. I know when I first got started it was balloons and we had a few tense moments there when I couldn't get the the string back. It was 60 pound and I was trying to get it back and they said, little pastor's got the bow, you know, everybody duck. And so anyway, I was trying my best to get that the that string back. But the question is, mom and dad, what target are you aiming at in your parenting? Do you have like a vision of what you want your parenting to be like? You know, Joseph must have taught Jesus carpentry or stone cutting, whatever he was whatever it means when it says he was a carpenter. But I believe that Joseph and Mary's bullseye
00:03:30
Speaker
was parenting that would focus on God himself, on God himself. As we study their parenting, I want you to consider aiming at God-centered parenting. Just to say, God, I really want you to be the center of everything that I'm aiming at with my kids.
Jesus' Early Life and Growth
00:03:50
Speaker
Would you stand with me as I read Luke 2, 21 to 24? Then we'll break we'll skip and go down to verse 39.
00:03:59
Speaker
But it says in verse 21, and at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
00:04:22
Speaker
As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now if you would go down to verse 39, and when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.
00:04:51
Speaker
and the children grew And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.
00:05:17
Speaker
His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
00:05:34
Speaker
After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them,
00:06:03
Speaker
Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they did not understand the same that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom. and in stature and in favor with God and man. Let's go to the father in prayer.
Prayer for Parental Guidance
00:06:31
Speaker
Oh Lord, please speak to us today from your living word. We know that you can connect with us at any point. And so I pray that you would speak to us. I pray especially for encouragement for the parents that are in the room.
00:06:44
Speaker
I know it's so hard these days to know which way is the right direction for parenting. That's why I thought that we should look at Joseph and Mary's example. I think that they were a spot on with their parenting paradigm.
00:07:00
Speaker
So Lord, use these verses, use their example to inspire us. None of us are perfect parents, but we wanna be growing parents. We wanna be parents that are at least moving in the right direction. And so for that, we need your word to guide us. So please speak to us this day, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.
Instilling God-Centered Practices
00:07:25
Speaker
A traditional archery target has five color has a five-color face with 10 concentric scoring rings. Joseph and Mary's target contains six concentric circles of God-centered parenting.
00:07:42
Speaker
Unless you think that, oh, that can't work today, just want to share something with you. From time to time, Jodi will show me some things that she's seen on her phone, on social media. One of those was a Christian mother who had taught her children to meet with God five, five, five, every single day.
00:08:02
Speaker
And so she put it on there while they were observing their five, five, five. It showed these three kids, they all were under 10, and they were standing in front of the TV and a praise and worship song was playing and the words were there. And it showed those kids just standing there, just praising the Lord with everything they had. She said, they do this for five minutes.
00:08:26
Speaker
And then they do this for five minutes, and it showed them spread out. Each one on his own, one was sitting on the floor in his bedroom, another was, I guess, in the kitchen or somewhere. But anyway, each one found a different place around the house, and they had their little head bowed, and they were just praying. And she said, they do this for five minutes. so And then she said, and last of all, they do this for five minutes. And it showed all three and the one child sitting in the middle had the Bible open and he was reading the passage for five minutes.
00:08:58
Speaker
And I thought, there's a mom that says, I really want my kids to be God-centered as they grow up. So if they're going to be God-centered when they grow up, we have to help them to get there. We have to point them in the right direction. And so I want us to look at Joseph and Mary and see how they pointed Jesus in the direction of the Father.
00:09:22
Speaker
The first thing I would say, if you want to point your child in the right direction, is lift them up in prayer. Lift them up in prayer to the Lord. Look with me at verse 22. We're going to skip verse 21. We'll get it in a moment. But at the end of verse 22, it says that they went there to present him to the Lord. That's what we do during a baby dedication. Sometimes we have you know young families and their children lined up all the way across the front. of this sanctuary. And we pray over them. We encourage them with scripture. But what they're doing is they're saying, God, we are presenting our child to you. It doesn't save them. At some point, they'll have to make that decision for themselves. But what these parents are saying is, Lord, please, would you guide my child? Would you bless my child? Would you protect my child? Would you help them to get to know you?
00:10:14
Speaker
And that's what I think they were doing here at this ritual purification ceremony that is mentioned for us in verse 22. If you want to look up the background on that procedure, it was found in Leviticus 12, one through five. But I just wanted to point out but by verse 22, Jesus is no longer eight days old. He's 40 days old.
00:10:37
Speaker
And they haven't stopped praying for him. They haven't stopped presenting him to the Lord. Have you stopped praying for your child? You may say, I don't know what to pray. Well, let me give you a few ideas. How about praying for their faith, praying for their salvation?
00:10:53
Speaker
You could pray for their character. You could pray for their health. You could pray over their friendships. You could pray for their safety. You could pray for their purity. You could pray for their joy and their peace. You could pray over their future. There's all kind of ways that we could talk to the Lord about our children. So the first thing, if you want to have God-centered parenting to say, Lord, I really need your help in this. So that's the first thing. Lift your child to God in prayer.
Raising Obedient Children
00:11:21
Speaker
The other thing is to launch your child to obey the Lord. We have to help them know this is the right way. Whatever says it says in the scriptures, that's the way you should go.
00:11:33
Speaker
Verse 21 says, and at the end of eight days, so Jesus is only eight days old, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Now, why was he circumcised? Well, Genesis 1712, the Lord instructed Abraham a long time ago to circumcise all the baby boys. But why on the eighth day? Have you ever done any study on that? Yeah, I was shocked. when I learned this a couple of weeks ago, that vitamin K and another, I don't know exactly how to describe what it is, but it's called prothrombin. That's it. You ladies could probably help me out on that one. But anyway, what it means is when your blood plots,
00:12:25
Speaker
So the coagulation, do you know that up until like day six or seven, it's just forming. So if you get a cut as a child, there's it's a big serious issue. But if they cut you after day seven, day eight,
00:12:40
Speaker
then you're okay. So just think about how God way back in Genesis already knew I'm going to send my son to be born as a baby and I don't want him to bleed out because they're going to try to do circumcision too early. So he told Abraham I want you to circumcise all the males on day eight, whenever the vitamin K and that P word, whenever they're all in place there together. Isn't that amazing? I think it's also amazing that not only did they obey that, but the angel brought a message from God. And the angel's message said, I want you to name your son Jesus. And it says right here in verse 21, that's exactly what they did. They named him Jesus.
00:13:25
Speaker
You know, I believe that if we will take that important start of launching our children in the direction of obeying God, it'll keep going for the rest of their lives. But we also need to remember The standard for obedience is the word of God. If you notice from verse 21 down through verse 24, several times it says, according to the law of Moses, as it is written in the law of the Lord, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, they were trying to do what God said in his word.
00:13:58
Speaker
Have we thought about that as we go through this week? You know, we just started school. I thought it's a great time to remind all of us. We should say, Lord, if I don't do anything else right, help me just obey what your word says. You see, it's not based upon cultural trends. It's not based upon political threats. It's not based upon relational ties. What it's based upon is biblical truth. What did God reveal in his word?
00:14:28
Speaker
So what he revealed in his word, look at verse 39, when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord. This is way on down the road now in verse 39. By the time you get into verse 41, it says Jesus is 12 years of age. And so they just kept on going and say, let's keep taking steps.
00:14:49
Speaker
in the direction of obeying God. And notice that they weren't they were not doing a Bible buffet. It says that they when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord. Are you trying to look at God's word as though it were a buffet? I think we need to say, oh Lord, help me to launch my child in the right direction that they would want to obey you.
00:15:13
Speaker
Help me, Lord. I need your strength. And that's why every day I'm going to take some time to lift up my child in prayer. But I want to give you a third thing that I see in their example. They were leading their child to worship the Lord. They were leading their child to worship the Lord.
00:15:29
Speaker
You see Luke fast forwards now from infancy back there in verse 21. Now he's in childhood. I mean, we'd even say almost in adolescence. Today we call them tweens. You know, someone is a tween when they're like anywhere from eight years of age into maybe 13 years of age or 12 years of age. Somewhere in there would be the tweens. But what's happening is they're saying, I want to be consistent.
00:15:57
Speaker
with worship. Are you consistent with worship? I think it's so important. That's what our children are watching. As dad and mom, are they consistent in their worship? I encourage you to write these two verses down, Acts 2, 46 and 47, and Acts 5, verse 42, because we think that we're doing God a great favor when we come to church on a Sunday. But you know, the early church meant every day.
00:16:25
Speaker
daily, they were in the temple, it says. Day by day, they were worshipping the Lord and so forth. So I just want to encourage you, help me be consistent in pointing my child toward worship. Also notice the cost. You know, it says in verse 41, now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover.
00:16:47
Speaker
went to Jerusalem. What's so big about that? What's big about that is they lived in Nazareth. So what it's saying is they walked or else they took a donkey, something like this, for 65 miles. Why don't you try going to Haiti next time, you know, when you got to pick up a few things and just walk or better yet, take a donkey and see how it works out for you. You know, this was amazing. It would have cost them time. It would have cost them energy.
00:17:14
Speaker
You know, though I'm sure it was not comfortable. They had to pack ahead of time, you know, different meals and so forth. But it says that it was their custom to go. Is it your custom? Is it something that you've already established as a habit? Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says that, you know, there were some people back then that had a habit of not going, not assembling together with others. But he said, don't follow their habit. You continue to gather together and don't miss it when God is wanting to move.
00:17:45
Speaker
You know, in the way to worship, they actually prepared their hearts by singing certain psalms.
The Search for Jesus
00:17:51
Speaker
These psalms were called the Psalms of Ascent, like you're going up. The Psalms of Ascent or Songs of Ascent, but it was from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134. And the reason was they wanted to teach their family how the Lord is worthy. Do you know that the word worship comes from worth ship, worth ship. So what we worship, what we consider to be valuable. That's why part of the journey when they would leave Nazareth and go to Jerusalem, do you know that they probably sang Psalm 122 verse one. Here's what it says.
00:18:33
Speaker
I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Were you glad that you could come? Do you feel like it's an obligation or do you feel like, no, it's a joy. It's a joy because I value God so much. I want to worship. Whenever we have that kind of attitude, our kids catch it.
00:18:55
Speaker
It's contagious when they see us worshipping. And we're so excited about God's grace and His mercy, His blessings and love that He has poured out upon us. But then something happened as they were there in Jerusalem. And what happened was Jesus stayed behind. They leave to go back home to Nazareth and they go a whole day and they never noticed. And then suddenly they're looking around and saying, has anybody seen Jesus?
00:19:23
Speaker
You know those 12-year-olds? Yeah, I keep a close eye on them. You know, I'm kidding. If you're 12, please don't don't send me any hate mail, you know. But anyway, they were saying, where is he? And so they looked and they looked and then finally they said, we got to go back. He must still be there in Jerusalem.
00:19:40
Speaker
But what I saw in that was, you know why they went back? They could have said, look, look, you know what? We're going to have other kids. Let's just let Jesus, let's just cut him loose. Let's just go ahead and let him stay there. No, they loved him and their love for him drove them to seek him, to search for him. Have you ever lost a child?
00:20:03
Speaker
It's scary whenever you can't find someone in a department store or maybe like us when we were in Tokyo, Japan and we would you know get separated from our kids. That's a big deal. There's millions of people that go through those train stations.
00:20:18
Speaker
But it says three times that they searched for him. They began to search for him. They were searching for him. She says when she finds Jesus, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. You know, ah they searched for him first among the people. They searched for him second in a certain place back in Jerusalem.
00:20:41
Speaker
But finally, when they found him, there he is in the temple, and what she articulates to him is, son, don't you know how much you mean to us? You mean everything to us. Maybe there's a son or a daughter, and you're not sure how much your your dad, your mom, how much you mean to them, your grandparents. But I assure you, there's no money in the world that could replace you. They love you so much.
00:21:06
Speaker
But I just thought to myself, you know, you can see the seeking love of the Father whenever you read Scripture.
Children Serving the Lord
00:21:14
Speaker
You know, Jesus gave a purpose statement and He said, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
00:21:22
Speaker
You know, that's why he came. He came looking for you. And he puts his father heart inside of us. And it's like we just want to keep seeking. Have you ever heard the long and Lauren Daigle song, Rescue? In that song, she says, you are not hidden. There's never been a moment you were forgotten. You are not hopeless. Though you have been broken, you're innocent, stolen. I hear your SOS.
00:21:51
Speaker
You know, God hears your SOS, you're crying out. And in that song, Lauren Daigle says, I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night. It's true. I will rescue you. He sent his son to rescue us. And that's the way parents are in their love for their kids. What about letting your child serve the Lord? You know, it was hard for my parents. It was hard for Jody's parents. I'm sure it's hard for Jeff. Tammy Coleman, others of you, Stephen and Brenda Tice, who have kids that are serving as missionaries. Some of you, it's maybe not a missionary, but your child doesn't live near you. And so you have to share that you have to let them pursue the plan, the purpose that God has for them.
00:22:40
Speaker
You know, Joseph and Mary were given a glimpse of a coming turning point. It wasn't there yet. Jesus is only 12 years of age. He's not going to leave home until he's 30 years of age, but they saw it and they were reminded, uh-oh, you know what? We won't get to keep him here forever.
00:22:59
Speaker
And so when I looked at these verses in verses 49 and 50, I saw three things that I wanted to say to parents that that it's hard to hear it, but we have to hear it.
Preparing for Separation
00:23:10
Speaker
And this is the first one. We have to accept the preparation of our child.
00:23:16
Speaker
We're not gonna own them, we're only preparing them for what's ahead. And so we have a limited amount of time. And so what we have to say is, Lord, help me do the best I can to prepare my child for life, for all that's gonna be out there. It's like a stewardship. But the second thing I noticed was the acceptance of the separation of our child. There's gonna come a day, there came a day for Joseph and Mary when Jesus turned 30.
00:23:44
Speaker
And he left the home, but until then it says he went and he was submissive again to them. But there's coming a day. I don't know when that day will be for you. Maybe that day's already coming on.
00:23:55
Speaker
But I just want you to know, I'll never forget getting a little choked up when my girls were young, when I heard this song about the little water-colored ponies that they draw, and they put it on the fridge, and it said, one day they're gonna get on those water-colored ponies and ride away. And I was like, okay, well, let's go ahead and get busy out in the garden, you know? But anyway, it's just tough to think about that someday God's gonna come calling. And when he does, just know that we don't always understand There's also in the acceptance of a maturation of our child. We do them a disservice when we think of them as as a baby or as a child, when they're already an adult child. You know, it says here that even though he was 12 years old, verse 50 says, and they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. You know, Jesus says, why are you looking for me?
00:24:47
Speaker
It's like, don't you know where you'd find me? I've got to be at my father's house. It's a sense of obligation and necessity. It's why he came. He has to be there. Sometimes we don't understand, but you know, our children will be accountable to God as they mature. But we have to say, Lord, I know there's coming a point. where they're going to move forward in your call. I just wanna remind you that Jeremiah said that God's plan began for him before he was in his mother's womb. Listen to Jeremiah. He said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Do you know that God, before you were born, before you even in the womb, God already had a plan for you.
00:25:35
Speaker
As a matter of fact, Paul went on to say in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.
00:25:46
Speaker
beforehand that we should walk in them. I'm going to blow your mind. I think that before the foundations of the earth, God already saw every one of us in this room. He already knew the purpose that your life would have. And so that's what we're trying to do is parents were saying, there's God's target. So I don't know exactly what it is. So I'm just going to, I'm going to shoot and direct to my children in the direction of the one who knows why he created them.
Holistic Child Growth
00:26:13
Speaker
Let me close with one last one. Longing for your child to grow in the Lord. Do you long for your child to grow in the Lord? Look with me at verse 40. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. Look at verse 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Wow, two verbs there.
00:26:39
Speaker
The child grew and Jesus increased. Do you know that those are the in the imperfect tense? And it means that it's like they it's continual progression. They're like cutting their way through this jungle and making a path forward.
00:26:58
Speaker
You know, when it says of Mary that she treasured up all these things in her heart in verse 51, I think that's so amazing that she treasured up these things in her heart. It's very similar to back in verse 19. Did you see the connection? Verse 19, which is way earlier, but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And so she's still doing that. She's still reflecting. She's still thinking about it.
00:27:26
Speaker
But I think there's a vision here of a well-rounded growth, growth and training. How should we be training our children? Well, let me give you four things from verse 52. Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature.
00:27:44
Speaker
and in favor with God and man. So if you break it down, it's like he was increasing mentally and wisdom. He was growing physically in stature. He was progressing spiritually with God, and he was developing socially with man. It's really hard to keep it all bounced out. And so I encourage your parents, aim for that target right there. That's why that target is there.
00:28:11
Speaker
But you know, it takes dedication from the child. The child, it says in verse 51, he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And then in verse 52, it talks about maybe some of those things married with treasure in her heart. She thought, Lord, I want him to grow with you, but I also want him to know how to relate to other people. But I also want him to be healthy and strong.
00:28:38
Speaker
But also, Lord, I'm asking that you help him to grow in wisdom. You know, that's a great balance. But did you notice that it says in favor with God and man in favor? You know, that word's in verse 40 as well. You know what favor means? Grace. It means grace.
00:28:58
Speaker
So it's all about God's grace. God's grace helps us to keep a steady hand that we can aim at that target. God's grace helps them to move forward. There's no perfect parent. There's no perfect child. And so we have to say, okay, Lord, but you know, I just want you to know that sometimes we get tripped up and we blame God for things God didn't do.
Closing Prayer and Reflection
00:29:23
Speaker
You see, David one time was out fighting the battles of the Lord and he comes back to Ziklag and you know what happened? His wife and his children, they were gone. As a matter of fact, all of his men and their houses were burned. So at first they just sat down and cried about it. I believe we'd all cry about that. But you know what? the The Lord at one point when David sought him, the Lord said,
00:29:48
Speaker
What are you doing, David? I want you to lay that burden on me. I want you to pray about it. And when David prayed about it, the Lord said, get up, get up and go after them. So David told the other fathers and the other husbands, he said, you know what, God, we need to get up. We need to rise up. We need to saddle up. We need to pursue our family and we need to rescue them.
00:30:10
Speaker
And you know what, when they went, the Lord, out of grace, he helped them find everything that had been taken. Everything that had been taken was brought back. But what our responsibility is, we can't control our kids, we can't control circumstances and all the other influences that are out there, but what we can control, which direction am I aiming in how I'm raising my kids? Lift your child up in prayer.
00:30:37
Speaker
Launch your child toward obeying the Lord. Lead your child to worship the Lord. Love your child by pursuing them in the Lord. Let your child serve the Lord. Find that place that God has for them and long for your child to grow in the Lord.
00:30:55
Speaker
I think there's a lot that we can learn from Joseph and Mary. So I want us to stand together. I want to give an opportunity for you. It may be you just need to pray with your spouse or pray as a single parent right there in the pew. Or maybe you have something you want to come and lay lay on the Lord's shoulders down here at the altar. That's fine too. But I'll be i'll be here. the The role I'd like to play during this is do you need to be safe?
00:31:21
Speaker
Is there a decision you need to make on how to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Maybe you'd say, I don't even know where the target is. God can help you with that. God can help you pull back the string if parenting seems so hard. But I would be glad to help you to know how you personally could trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for passages like this.
00:31:47
Speaker
We know that there are some things that don't apply, but there are many that do apply. We can see the overall shape, the overall target. We see what Joseph and Mary were trying to do. They were trying to give their son the right direction. And so help us, oh Lord.
00:32:03
Speaker
None of us are parent are perfect parents, and so please forgive us of our failures. Please forgive us of those. The Lord, we ask that you would give us clarity. Help us see the where the target is. Help us to aim our children toward God-centered living, and help us to be God-centered parents with God-centered parenting. We love you, Lord. We want to give you this time. We pray that you would have your will in your way in this invitation. In Jesus' name, amen.
00:32:38
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.