Bethel Church Service | Paul Manwaring Sermon | Worship with Brady Voss, Kory Miller

Hello online family. Happy Palm Sunday. We hope that wherever you are tuning in from, whether if you're even watching it uh present or in the future, we hope that you are having the best day ever. I am Tori and this is Jory. >> Oh, that kind of rhymes. >> Hey, we didn't plan that, but we are so happy to host you this uh afternoon.

We have an incredible afternoon service planned for you. But before we dive into the service, Jory just got back from missions. We just launched our BSSM missions trip. Some of them are trickling back in. Some of them are still overseas. And I would love Jory to share some testimonies with us if that's okay. >> Yeah, it was incredible.

We took a team of about 25 students from all over the world, first, second, and third year students. And we went to Pismo Beach, California, Central Coast. And um a specific testimony I'm remembering from uh our Sunday night is we went to a church called Glory City. And a sweet lady named Ruth, she literally told us that night, she said, "I know that I'm gonna get healed if I come tonight to the service."

I mean, her faith was was incredible. Her and her husband both, they had been married 50 years. She had just had um about I think three years prior she had a back surgery. Didn't really fix anything. So, she had been in a wheelchair and she barely could take any steps and it was with without experiencing like excruciating pain. >> So, she went that night.

Um my team prayed for her, started getting better, prayed again, started getting better. And then by the third time they prayed for her, she stood up, took her, oh, feel the Lord took her first few steps that she had taken in a really long time. She was weeping and crying.

And then her husband actually got healed of sciatic pain as well. He started jumping. I just look over and he's just jumping up and down and he got completely healed of pain. So they came to the service the next night and we saw them again. They said they had never slept that good.

They slept like babies. >> Amen. >> Which is amazing. >> Amazing. That's incredible. >> So, if that's even you, if that's even something that you need like healing back pain or sciatic pain, like just hear that testimony. Know that God is healing you right now in Jesus name.

That all pain would leave your body in Jesus name. >> It's so interesting this morning, if you watched the Sunday service, you would have caught this, but Bill shared a bunch of testimonies. He had recently just took a trip as well with some BSSM students and the majority of the testimonies were all back pain related and a lot of them actually were metal um in the back and people being able to touch their uh feet for the first time.

So if that's you, if you're dealing with any back pain, even if you have metal in the back, we believe that the Lord will actually dissolve the metal and we believe that today is the day for your healing. So we release healing in the name of Jesus. >> Yes.

Absolutely. Yeah. >> Do you have any other testimony? >> Yeah. So, another testimony is we um took a bunch of u mom hug signs down. We had quite a few moms actually on our team and dads on our team. Good. So, we went to downtown slow um which is about 15 minutes from Pismo.

We went and we took all these signs. We had free uh like brother and sister hugs and we were there and I'm telling you, hundreds of people just went through people weeping saying, "I'm I haven't seen my mom or I don't have a mom." And we got to pray for them.

It was just the most beautiful thing and so simple. It was so simple just what a hug could do. The love of Jesus through our hands and just hugging people and loving on them. It was beautiful and it was so fun. That's amazing. >> And um so lots of people got prayed for and um just healed emotionally as well.

So just such a special time. >> That's amazing. That's incredible. >> So good. >> Well, we were both uh feeling something for uh you guys this afternoon. And um in our youth service this last Wednesday, I was just telling Jory the story, but in our youth service, we entered into a high praise, high celebration moment.

And I felt a shift in the atmosphere. I'm like, "Oh, the shift is here." And I was taken to the story of Lazarus, which I know that we probably all know, but the story of Lazarus where he was dead for 4 days. Jesus came onto the scene. Everyone was like, "Jesus, like if you were here uh sooner rather than later, our brother wouldn't have died." and he sat with them and he grieved with them.

He is the son of suffering. He's acquainted with our grief. He he grieved with them. But then he looked at Martha and he was like, "Hey, I am the resurrection and the life." And I felt that this is a season of the things that we thought were dead, the things that we uh thought that we needed to grieve and actually let loose of that the Lord is saying, "Hey, I'm the resurrection and the life."

And what beautiful time to enter into that like Holy Week when we celebrate his death and his resurrection. And I believe that there's actually areas within maybe some of you who are watching your life where you've actually grieved even a healing that you're like, "Maybe I'll never receive my healing."

I'm here to remind you that the resurrection in the life is here and that your time is here. And even I felt something over finances and relationships. I know that last week I touched on relationships, but I fully believe that we need to remember the resurrection and the life. >> Absolutely.

And I actually was talking to her about uh Psalm 27. I've just been meditating in Psalm 27:28 and it goes along with what she's saying. It says um in verse 12 it says um or yeah in verse 13 actually I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

It says wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. And maybe you're in a waiting season. Maybe you haven't seen that happen yet. But God is on the move. He is with you. He is for you. I pray even now that if you're in the waiting season that you'd feel his wraparound presence, his peace.

He is the prince of peace just come and meet you. Um and that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Um often times there's been a few times I can remember where God um was inviting my husband and I to celebrate before the breakthrough. >> Yeah. >> And so I just even right now we just celebrate the breakthroughs that are going to happen.

Maybe they haven't happened yet, but we celebrate what God is going to do in and through your life. even this week. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Absolutely. We would love to actually pray for you guys. So, if you have a prayer request where you are even resonating with everything that we're saying when you have even been in the season of like maybe 2026 isn't my year, I'm here to remind you that the resurrection and the life is here.

And that's actually a season of victory. Though it probably doesn't feel like it right now, we want to gather around you um as the church body and pray victory over your life. Pray victory over your finances. And I feel like um could be a word of knowledge, but I feel like maybe someone watching is in the middle of a lawsuit right now and even finances feel really hard.

Um and it's something something about finances in a lawsuit. And so we pray in the name of Jesus that there would be victory over finances that the Lord would release the finances that you need. But we would love um to see some prayer requests come through. We would love to pray with you even physical pain. >> Yes.

And I just pray for um I can't I think it's is it Moses or um but it's for stomach pain. Yes. >> And we just pray right now for all pain to leave your stomach in Jesus name. Any inflammation to leave just pray right now complete healing in Jesus name.

Thank you God. >> Yes. In the name of Jesus. And even uh over sleep that if you've been having a hard time sleeping, if you've been having a little bit of insomnia, we release peace in Jesus' name. And um even this morning as Bill was sharing some testimonies from the trip that he just went on, there's a testimony of someone with a deviated septum.

Um and I I saw a picture of a nose right now. And so if you have a deviated septum, if even allergies, I know that allergies have been insane recently. We pray healing over um allergies, healing over a deviated septum that you'd be able to breathe clearly. And even if it's related to sleep that for some reason you can't breathe that well when you're sleeping, >> we just release your breath path pathways. >> Yes.

Come on. Let's go. And any anxiety I saw some of the that pop up um as well in the chat. And any anxiety, God, we thank you that you are the prince of peace. >> That they would just rest in you, rest in your presence right now in Jesus name.

Um thyroid as well. Just pray that your thyroid would function the way that Jesus created it to right now. And I pray for supernatural energy. I actually felt that that maybe there are people dealing with chronic issues that have actually affected your energy that you that as you celebrate the breakthrough before you would feel an infusion of joy and strength fill you physically, mentally and spiritually in Jesus name.

Thanks God. >> Yes. In Jesus name. My favorite holiday is approaching us on Sunday. My favorite holiday is Easter. And it's just I something about Easter. something about celebrating Christ's resurrection and gathering with family. And I just believe that this week is actually going to be a very significant week um for us as a body of Christ.

I believe that there's actually going to be significant breakthroughs for us that as we celebrate the resurrection of our savior that there's going to be resurrection in families, resurrection in marriages, resurrection in finances, resurrection in healings, that we're going to remember that he came to give us life and life abundant in every area of our lives. >> Yes.

And I'm so excited to celebrate Holy Week with you. Um, if you are not aware, we actually are celebrating here as a local church and there's some opportunities where you guys can join us. On Monday, I believe that we have a little bit of a Zoom where you can join us and pray and worship with us.

And we're so excited. >> We love our online family. Like, you truly are. You are a family. I know many of you are joining from all over the world. And I just want to say again, we love every week that you show up that um we love getting to see um just your testimonies, your prayer requests, and that um just what a joy it is to be on the journey with you.

And um we just bless you even this week. Um that you would be filled with great hope as you set your set your gaze and fixing your eyes on Jesus. And um no matter what you're walking through that he would fill you with great joy. Yeah. >> Yeah.

And tonight's going to be an incredible service. We're going to have incredible worship and a message and we can't wait to see you on the other side. >> Yeah. Bless you guys. >> Bye. >> Hello. Hello. Hello, Betho Church. Are you guys ready? >> All right. All right.

I want to I want to invite you all to stand up if you can. >> Happy Palm Sunday. Turn to the person next to you and say, "Happy Palm Sunday. My name is Yan Matoss. I'm one of the pastors for BSSM online Portuguese. And I just got back from our mission trip in Boston.

And it was amazing. But I got to tell you, it was cold. It was really cold in comparison with the weather here in Reading. I got to especially as a Brazilian, I got to tell you, it was cold. But the Lord is good, isn't he? >> Isn't he?

Um, and I I was coming to church and I I ended up in a little rush with little kiddos between my legs and I ended up grabbing my Portuguese version of the Bible, but I have my phone. Or do you guys prefer that I'll say it in Portuguese? >> I want to read Psalms 100 with you and I'll read in Portuguese.

No, I'll read it in English. And it says, "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It's he who made us and we were his. We are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. I was praying for this service service this um earlier today and I started to to be overwhelmed by this vision in my mind.

And normally like I I'm not the kind of guy that sees things in my imaginations. You know, sometimes I have to kind of like to force it, but I suddenly I just started to to think about hosana, hosana in the highest. And I was I was overwhelmed by this picture in my mind of the multitude just like shouting for joy because the hope that they were hoping for was entering the city and they started it.

I don't think honestly it was just like hosana and telling somebody next to them like hosana hosana. They were shouting. They were shouting for joy. They were praising him, saying, "Hosana, hosana." Probably they were bothering some people around them like that. That was too loud. But they were so excited because the king, the king of the Jews, the king of the whole earth was coming into town.

So I want I want to invite you all to to lift up your hands and start to picture that in your mind like the king of glory. He was coming into town and he was entering in. He was entering in entering in in every step of the donkey.

They were shouting louder and louder and louder. >> Jesus we thank you. >> Come on in. Come on in. Just come on in. We praise you, Jesus. We praise you, God. We praise you, King. Hosana. Hosana in the highest. >> Hosana. Hosana in the highest. Say that with me.

Hosana. >> Hosana in the highest. One more time. Hosana. Hosana in the highest. Jesus, we praise you. Jesus we praise you. Jesus we praise you. Hosana we welcome you in Lordana. Oh he's worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our praise. Hosana in the highest. Oh, welcome.

Hos in the highest. How sweet it is when you show up. I'm lost for words when you come. I get caught up in the mystery of every single thing you're doing. And we welcome you in tonight. And I lift my eyes and there you are. I cast my cares into your arms.

I won't forget. I must respond to every single thing you're doing. We praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let everything within me bless his name. You're worthy of my praise, my heaviness. Oh my he burdened light.

You fill me up with joy inside. I cannot help but testify of every single thing you're doing. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let everything within me blesses him. Hosana. Oh, he's worthy of it all. M and I will not forget your benefits, your goodness. Who forgives our sin and who heals our sickness, who redeems the broken with a crown of compassion.

Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. I will not afford who benefits your goodness and who forgives our sins and who heals our sickness. Who redeems the broken with a crown of compassion. I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it and I will not forget.

You manifest your goodness. Who forgets our sins and you heal our who redee with the cry of compassion. I cannot be silent. I can't help sing. Oh, praise the Lord. He's worthy of it all. Praise the Lord. All everything. Praise the Lord. I will praise praise the Lord oh my soul.

Let everything within me. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord, Jesus. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord. We lift you high. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord.

It's Jesus. Bless the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord. Who your goodness? Who forgets our sins and who heals our sickness? Who redeems the broken with a crowd of compassion. Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. Oh, I can't help but respond to who you are, Lord.

Hos in our Oh, help us remember what you've done and help us see what you're doing. Help us believe for all you're going to do. Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. It's true, Lord.

Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. Oh, I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing. Oh, isn't he worthy of our praise? Oh, we lift your name higher, Lord. You are. Oh, lift it all up. Lift it up. He's worthy of a song.

Oh, he's worthy of a song. And I will not forget your benefits, your goodness. Who forgives our ses and who heals our sickness. Who redeems the broken with a crown of compassion. Oh, I cannot be silent. want you all forget. Oh, not forget. You manifest your goodness. Who forgets our sins and who heals our sickness and who redeems the broken with the crown of compassion.

I cannot desire it. All I can help is we praise the Lord. Oh my soul, let everything. >> Well, praise the Lord, >> oh my soul. >> Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord. >> Let everything within me bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Let everything within me bless his name. Always worthy of praise. We bless your name. You're never going to let you're never going to let me down. And you're never going to let it. You're never going to let me down. You're never going to let it. You're never going to let me down.

You're never going to let You're never going to let I will not forget this, Lord. You're never going to let You're never going to let me down. And you're never going to let You're never going to You're everything I need tonight. You're never going to let You're never going to let me down.

You're going to Oh, you're never going to let You're never going to let You're never going to let me down. And you're never going to let You're never going to let me down. Yes. You're never going to let You're never going to let me down. And you're never going to let Sing it one more time.

This is who you are, Lord. You're never going to live. You're never going to You're never going to faithful and true. You are never going to let me go down. You are good. You go. Oh, you are good. You're good. You are good. So good. Oh, you are good.

Oh, you're never going to let You're never going to let me down. You're never going to let You're never going to let me down. I trust you. You're never going to let You're never going to let me down. And you're never going to let Oh Jesus, you are good.

You're good. Oh, you are good. You're good. Oh, and you are good. So good. Oh, and you are good. Let's sing. I will not forget. And I will not forget. Your benefits your goodness. Who forgives our sins and who heals our sickness. who redeems the broken with this crown of compassion.

And I cannot be silent. I can't help but sing it. Oh, we love to sing it. >> One last time, let's sing. Praise the Lord. So we praise the Lord, oh my soul, everything within me, bless his name. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, let everything within me bless his name.

We love you. We love your name. We love your name. We love your name. We love your name. We love your name, Jesus. Jesus, we love your name, Jesus. Jesus, we love your name, Jesus. Jesus, we love. Oh, pour out your love. Jesus, Jesus, we love your name, Jesus.

Jesus, we love your name, Jesus. Jesus, we love your name, Jesus. Jesus, we love your name. Jesus, Jesus, we love Jesus. Jesus, we love your name. We love your name. We love your way. Oh, we pour our heart out to you. you. We give you all the glory.

Yeah. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. We love yours Jesus. Jesus. And I could see your name for all my life and still find more to love each time. Jesus be the name ever on my heart.

It's sweeter every time that I call on. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy. You have been the friend who never left.

I won't forget your faithfulness. Jesus be the name ever our minds. It's sweeter every time that I call it. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name, Lord. There's just something about your name. It makes me cry. Holy. There is no other name. There is no other name.

There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy, Lord. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name, Lord. There's just something about your name. It makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name, Lord. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy.

Yes, you are. You're so worthy. You are the wildest praise, the wildest race. We pour our love out on you, Lord. Oh Jesus, your name is like the morning light. The one the darkness can't deny, the resurrection and the life. Jesus, Jesus, your name can save. Your name can heal.

Your name can make the storm be still. You never fail. You never will. Jesus. Jesus. The bread of life broken for us. The wounded and the worthy one. the first, the last and soon to come. Jesus. Jesus the king over the grave. The Lord who will forever. The name above all other names.

Jesus. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the day. Jesus be the day that Jesus be the name. Jesus be the day. Jesus be the day. Sing it again. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. Jesus be You get all the you see Jesus. Jesus be the name.

Jesus be the name. Yeah. Jesus be the name that gets all the Oh Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. Oh Jesus be the name who gets all the glory. Oh, give him glory. Give him glory. Give him glory. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

We give you all the glory. Just let it out. Let it out tonight. Let out your praise. Let it out. Let it out. Oh, let it out. Let it out. Let your praise to the one we love. To the one we love. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name.

Jesus be the name that gets all the glory. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name that gets all the glory. Sing that again. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name that gets all the glory. Jesus be the name.

Jesus be the name. Jesus be the name that gets all the glory. >> Would you let out a song worthy? >> Oh, let out a song to the Lord tonight. Oh, your We love you. We are you Lord. So worthy is your name. Jesus, you deserve the praise.

Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. Jesus. You deserve the praise. So worthy is your name. And worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. So worthy is your name.

Jesus, you deserve praise. is your name. Is your name Jesus? You deserve the praise. Worthy are your name. Worthy is your name. You get it all. Worthy is your name. So worthy your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise.

Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve praise. Worthy is your name. is so worthy is worthy. You deserve our praise. Oh, tonight on a Sunday night. Lord, here's our worship. Just tell the Lord, "Here's my worship. M you will always be holy holy forever.

Yes Lord, you will always be holy. Holy forever. Jesus, you will always be holy. Holy forever. You will always be. You will always be holy. Holy forever. and holy is the Lord. Holy is the Lord is seated on the throne in the train of Israel. It fills the temple and worthy is your name. and worthy is your name.

Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad and say among the nations. Sing our God and our God reigns. Our God reigns forever. Your kingom reign and our God reigns. Oh our God reigns. Forever. Your kingom reign. Worship and adore. Jesus we adore. The perfect lamb was slain and risen from the grave.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Our God. Yes. Our God forever. Your king. Yes. Oh. Our God forever. Your king. Oh yes. Our God reign Jesus. Oh our God forever. Oh yes I sing. He reigns. Yes. He reigns. He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God.

The only one who saves forever. He will reign. He reigns. Lord over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God. The only one who saves forever. Jesus reigns. He reigns. He reigns. Yes. Over all the earth tonight. He reigns. The only one true God, the only one who saves forever.

Jesus reigns. He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God. The only one who saves forever. Jesus. Hey Lord, find us on our knees. Have mercy on us, please. Lord, our hope is in you. Yes, we believe it's true. that God can save a nation.

Let's sing that verse again and find us on our knees. Oh Lord, have mercy on us, please. For our hope is in you. Yes, we believe it's true that God can save the nations. Oh, there is no one like Jesus. I am. There is no one like Jesus.

Let's sing. Our God reigns. Oh, our God reigns. Our God. Yes, Lord. Forever your king Jesus your kingdom forever. Yes. Our God reigns. We believe. Yes. Our God reign forever. Your kingom reign. Our God. Our God. Hallelujah. And our God forever. Your kingom reign. Sing. He reigns. And he reigns.

He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God. The only one who saves forever. He will reign. He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God. The only one who saves forever. Jesus reigns.

He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God. The only one who saves forever. He will reign. Let's sing that bridge again. For he reigns. He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. He reigns. He reigns. The only one true God.

The only one who saves forever. Jesus reigns. He reigns. He reigns over all the earth. Lord, you reign. He reigns. The only one true God, the only one who saves forever. He will reign forever. He will reign. Forever Jesus reigns. >> Forever Jesus reigns. >> Such good news.

Forever Jesus reigns. It's time to turn your eyes. Forever Jesus. Let the things of this world will strangely do. Forever Jesus reigns. Look up. Look up. Forever. Jesus reigns. Forever. Jesus reigns. Look up. Look up. Forever. Jesus reigns. Oh, we turn our eyes to you tonight, Lord. All the sins of the world, they will fall away forever.

Jesus reign. Yes. Yes. We agree tonight, Lord. Oh, and of the increase of his government there shall be no word forever. Jesus reigns. So we say amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Forever Jesus reigns. and all hail King Jesus. All hell the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus.

All hail the savior of the world. All hell keep Jesus. All hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hell king Jesus. All hell. The savior of the world. The savior of the world. Forever. Jesus reign the savior of the world. >> Let's sing that chorus again. All hell king Jesus and all hell king Jesus and all hail the Lord of heaven and earth.

All hail King Jesus. Yes. All hail the savior of the world. All hail King Jesus. In all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. In all hell king Jesus in all hell savior of the world. Oh, the savior of the world. Sing all hell in all hell. King Jesus.

All hell is Lord of heaven and earth. All hell Jesus. It all the savior of the world. It all help Jesus. All am Jesus. We all have the savior of the world. Oh, the single every so compound before the king of kings. Let every tongue confess the he lift up your shout.

Let us join with all of heaven singing. Oh, you are every compound before the king of kings. Let everyone confess that he is the Lord. Lift up your sh. Let us join with all singing for you are. Oh yes you are. Oh yes, you are and all hell king Jesus.

All hell, the Lord of heaven and earth. All hell king Jesus and all hell. The savior of the world. The savior of the world. Oh yeah. Yeah. The savior of the world. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm getting a little excited. because of who God is. He reigns. Hosana. Hosana in the highest, our savior.

And I was just reading in Revelation, Revelation 5, it says, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.

Our God reigns. He is here. Hosana in the highest. And I just felt this like stir of just great faith of like who our God is. What he paid for. He can do the impossible. And so I just church, can we lift up our hands and I want us to go into singing this again?

God, I pray even right now would you fill us with great hope, reminding us of who you are, what you've done, and that we are your children. Thank you, God. Come on. Just want you to lift up a shout of praise. Yes. We thank you, God. You reign above it all.

You reign above it all. You reign above it all. You reign above it all. You reign above it all. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. You heat. All in all hell Jesus all hell of heaven and earth all king Jesus all the savior All Jesus all Jesus all the Heat.

Heat. the Savior of the world and all hell keep Jesus and all hell the Lord of heaven and earth and all hell Jesus and all hell the savior of the world. >> Thank you God that you reign over our marriages. You reign over our children. You reign over our churches.

You reign over our nation. You reign. You reign. You reign over every situation, over every circumstance. You reign. Hosana, the one that has come to save us. We thank you, Jesus. We set our gaze on you. We remember all that you paid for, all of who you are.

Thank you, Father, for your goodness, for your faithfulness. We look to you. We look to you. Thank you, Jesus. And during service, I was just thinking about this scripture in Psalm 27, verse 13. It says, "I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." A lot can happen in three days. A lot can happen in three days. And I felt like maybe there's people here tonight that have not maybe seen something that they've been praying for and contending for.

And I feel like the Lord wanted to fill us with great hope as we wait. they'd fill us with great strength. And so, if you're watching online or you're in the room right now and you're like, "Man, that's me. I actually feel like it's been a a hard season and I just need I need the strength of the Lord in the midst of my waiting."

Is that you? Would you just raise your hand? I know. Wow. Thank you, God. It's quite a few of us. So, if you're even around them, would you just go and just put your hands on them? Just begin to pray. If you're on watching online, just pray right now.

An infusion of his strength and joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. I just see a realignment happening right now that as we're waiting on him, as our eyes are fixed on him, he's realigning our hearts and that we are hoping in the Lord. The Lord is our stronghold.

The Lord is our strength and our joy and our salvation. So I thank you, Father, right now. Fill them with great hope. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. God, I pray you lift off the previous seasons of any heaviness. And I thank you, God, that your burden is light and easy and that there would even be a joy in the waiting.

And God, I thank you that nothing is impossible with you. Nothing is impossible. Thank you, Father. We set our gaze on you. Thank you, Father. Thank you for encouraging your bride. We love you Jesus in your precious name. Amen. Can we just give another just shout a praise to the Lord of who he is and what he will do to celebrate even the breakthrough before he starts.

Sorry I didn't give you much time but let's actually do it on the count of three. You ready? One, two, three. Let's just praise him. Yes. We thank you God. Thank you God. Amazing. Why don't you just turn? Well, first when can we just thank this amazing worship team as well.

So grateful for you guys. And why don't you turn and find a couple of people you haven't met before and greet them tonight. I want to welcome the amazing Cassie and Tori tonight to welcome us. Hello. Hello. Welcome to the 6 pm. Baby, give us a wave after you've hugged your your buddy.

Hello. Hello. No one's ready. Hello. Oh, I see the waves. Hello, online family. It's great to see you. Um, who is here at Bethl Church for the first time? Can you just give me u just raise your hand for me? >> Welcome. Are there any other >> Welcome.

Where are you from? >> Sacramento. Welcome. The long drive up. >> Anyone else? Is that a hand? >> Where are you from? >> Sweden. Yes, welcome. >> I was gonna say something in Sweden, but or Swedish. I didn't know nothing. >> Tuck, right? Okay. See, I know one word.

I think it's thanks, but it's okay. Um, anyone else here for the first time today? >> Well, if you're just joining us because you're part of this local church. We love you. We're so happy that you're here. Oh, I see a hand. Where are you from? >> Canada.

Welcome to America. >> Amazing. Welcome. >> Welcome to Bethl Church. Um I want to share one quick heavenly announcement. Why don't you just turn to your neighbor say good news is about to be released. >> Good news is about to be released. >> Um all evening I've heard that um anxiety is breaking in Jesus name. >> And I don't know if you came in here tonight.

Did anyone come in and you you've been struggling with anxiety? It's been maybe greater than normal. Yeah. Quite a few of you even in some pockets here. Um I'm always reminded of Matthew 6 when I think about anxiety. But the Lord spoke to me about Luke 12 and um I'm not as familiar with Luke 12, but it says,"Do not be anxious for anything."

And it says, "Who of you could add a single hour to your life?" Right? Who of you with this kind of anxiety could add a single hour to your life? And so, if you are one of those who uh is struggling with anxiety, can you just put your hand on your head?

And church, why don't you just extend a hand to those who have their uh hands on their heads? And Jesus, we just thank you that you said anxiety was breaking in Jesus name. And God, I thank you that it breaks tonight, God. any areas where there's been heaviness, where there's been anxious thoughts, God, we just say get out in Jesus name.

And we bless them, God, that you would cover them with peace, God, right now that your peace would flood people. If you're watching online, do the same exact thing. But God, we pray that your peace would flood people right now in Jesus name. And I want you just to take your hand off and imagine that you're lifting off that anxiety.

And I God, I thank you that you give us an easy yoke. How many of you can actually feel a difference in your head even now? Just give me a wave. Wow. Thank you, God. That's like 10 10 11 people. Thank you, Jesus. Let's just thank Jesus that he is breaking anxiety.

And um Tori's about to give us another announcement. But if you came in the room and you had anxiety um anytime throughout this night, you have full permission to get healed. And God just touched 10 or 11 other people. That doesn't mean that he's not wanting to touch you, but man, the healer is in the room.

So, I just bless you to receive that at any moment tonight. Yes. Amen. How about you turn to the neighbor next to you and say, "Happy Holy Week." Happy Holy Week, guys. Easter is my very favorite holiday above Christmas, which is crazy. But we are entering into Holy Week starting today and we are celebrating as a church and we are honoring Holy Week.

And so the next following days, every morning up until Thursday, we will have prayer and worship from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. And so we would love for you to join us. If you go to our website, you can find the rooms and the location on where they will be.

And then on Monday and Wednesday evening, we'll also have prayer and worship celebration starting at 700 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. But a little exciting caveat on Wednesday, we will have a little snack and fellowship time. and we're going to be the local church and we're going to connect before we worship together.

So come feel free to join us, grab a little dessert and snack and just connect before we worship starting at 6 here in the sanctuary. And then for online, we actually have some Zoom connects for you on Monday and you can check your email. We'll have some special information besides just Monday um afternoon Zoom.

But we are so excited to celebrate. And also on Friday, we will be gathering with all of the other local churches in Reading at the Good Friday service 400 p.m. 6 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at the Civic Center. And we would love for you to join us. That's it.

It's good news. That is good news. Let's welcome up Yan for the offering. >> Great job, guys. Wow. Great, great, great job. All right, it's offering time. Let's send up church. Oh, wait. Let me let me go back. back. I don't see some excitement. All right, guys. It's offering time. >> Oh, there we go.

There we go. We're going to continue to worship the Lord. We have our tithes and offerings and we're going to read the offering declaration number two. >> All right. Come on. I just see. Okay. Let's go. Let's do it. Uh All right. Let's do it all together as a family, right?

One, two, three. As we receive today's offering, we are believing you for heaven opened, earth invaded, storehouses unlocked, and miracles created, dreams and visions, angelic visitations, declarations, impartations and divine manifestations, anointings, giftings and calls, positions and promotions, provisions and resources to go to the nations. souls and more souls from every generation saved and set free carrying kingdom revelation.

Thank you, Father, that as I join my value system to yours, you will shower favor, blessings, and increase upon me so I'll have more than enough to co-labor with heaven and see Jesus get his full reward. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I really love this declaration. because especially in a time like this that we are um in this window of the of the year we have so many teams going throughout the world.

We have if I'm not wrong more than 50 um teams that went around the world and in almost 40 nations at the same time to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Um this is so amazing. I get to see my own nation receiving a couple of the teams um in Brazil and they're getting whacked by the Holy Spirit.

We see so many healing, salvations, leaders being refreshed by the Lord. And this is so amazing. But we get to do this because as a body, we get to sew into what the Lord is doing in this house. So if you're not part of this house, um your tithe belongs to your your local church.

Um but beyond beyond that, you're more than welcome to sew into what the Lord is doing in this house. Um we're as we pass the buckets around, um I want to pray for us real quick. Lord, I thank you because everything that we have comes from above, comes from you.

And Lord, we want to to give back to you everything that you've been given to us. And Lord, help us to be generous like you are. Help us to sew into what you're sewing into, which is the salvation of the nations, God. And we thank you so much for that, to be part of that in Jesus mighty name.

As we pass around the book, I want you to help me to welcome up on this stage the one and only Paul Manoring. Thanks. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. It's good to be uh good to be home. Really, that's the only way I can describe it.

I don't have any other words. So, if you don't know anything about me, I'm uh British with a messed up accent because I spent 15 years living here. So, people haven't sometimes got a clue. And uh my first career was a nurse. I was psychiatric and general nurse and uh still a first love cuz you just can't beat saving someone's life.

You know, if somebody's dead and then they're alive, that's just a good day. Same applies spiritually. It's just a good day. Just save lives. And um my second career was a prison warden. Prison governor we call them in England, but you have to translate yourself here. So I was uh I was a warden for 19 years and uh and then 4 days after 9/11 uh because of my wife actually it was really nothing to do with me.

I didn't come to Bethl for me. I came here for her and uh 4 days after 9/11 we got on the first plane out of London Heathrow and uh and landed here in I think one of America's finest hours was united around a common purpose and stood in this church on the first Sunday after 911.

Do you remember it? We sang the battle hymn of republic. But here's the thing we sang the battle hym of the republic and we meant it. >> That's what made it different. You're very quiet tonight. I mean, the battle him of the republic should get a few Americans excited, you know.

I mean, come on. And uh I spent 15 years here and uh and then in 2017, we moved back to England. I call it my fourth career. And uh but I keep coming back here and I'll keep coming back here as long as uh I can get on and off a plane and uh and I can walk through these doors.

So that's that's probably in my late 90s cuz my mother just passed at 103 and she was as strong as an ox and so there's no reason not to. So and uh this is home and uh it forever will be home. It's cliche but uh it saved my life literally.

I had prostate cancer in 2008. I probably wouldn't have got diagnosed in England. So it did save my life. It saved my wife's life and uh it gave us a completely new life and that's the truth. And uh you can't rob me of that. Simple as that. So >> that's true. >> So yeah, it's just the truth.

Yeah. And I'm sure there's many other people who would say exactly the same thing. And uh so and always a privilege to stand here. This is a little low for me, but >> can I put it up? Is that a risk? Is it going to go? I feel like I need a qualification to do that.

It's like that'll do. Yeah. It's not like in Holland where you stand you stand behind pull pits in Holland and they're too high. Like they're just that they're they're literally they're up here and you think, am I really that small? Anyway, uh I title of my message tonight, which I don't always necessarily start by saying a title, but I I ended up with a title that that I kind of quite like it.

And I've called it the ambition of friendship. And um my my problem is I I love the Bible so much and I I start a message and I start studying and and I find myself jumping around the entire Bible. I just adore I adore the synergy of it.

I I adore the connection of it. I and uh you know I just see patterns in the Bible. I just absolutely love it. So my problem is usually that messages evolve into quite a lot of scriptures and and seeing patterns and um I I've been on journey is always a bit of a strange word because we're all on a journey but the last four years I've been particularly on a journey about friendship.

And um it's become really important to me. And then I I was teaching it in a very sort of almost not casual way but just a sort of a a personal uh sharing way. And then I started just to study it in the Bible. And I kind of put the two together.

And um so I've called it that the ambition of friendship. I have a scribbled note in the front of the Bible. I I read I read my Bible for answers for my soul and help my mind help my mind will catch up later. And it honestly is the truth.

I feel like I read the Bible to feed my soul to feed my spirit and I I hope my mind will catch up later. And sometimes I feel like when I share I'm sharing the nourishment my soul and spirit got, but the logic hasn't quite fitted in yet.

If that's if that's reasonable way of saying it. So, um, you can I I'll give you scriptures. Um, I I've got quite a few. You don't have to run with all of them, but, um, I'll start with one Thessalonians 4. Um, finally then, brethren, we we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just note that please God, just just lock it in your soul.

Just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. For you know what commandment we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. And there's there's a list of things there.

And then go on to verse nine. Now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. You yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are all in Macedonia.

But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more. I love that there's always more in the kingdom. I I love that. and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you so that you will behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need.

Now the real reason for reading that is to is to extract this ambition because it it's connected in uh to relationship. It's connected in to loving each other. is connected into excelling more. And I think sometimes we get nervous about the word ambition, but there is legal ambition.

And the legal ambition is outlined there. And I also want to suggest to you tonight that there is a legal ambition for friendship. >> And I'm going to try and unpack it in a few uh different ways. You know, we I I I don't bring it up here. on my phone, but if I had it up here, I would hold it up and I would say, "What a crazy world we live in that we spend so many hours a day talking to a machine, communicating with a machine, and we're looking at times for that machine to give us empathy, connection, and courage. >> It won't. >> It won't.

We're we're the most connected generation there's ever been technologically and we're the most disconnected generation there's ever been relationally. And that's why I want to challenge you tonight to make friendship your ambition. And I'm going to unpack it in a few different ways. I I've come to see perhaps more clearly and interesting that we were praying just at the end there of the announcements for anxiety because if you start to look at our world along with being disconnected, we're anxious, we're depressed, we're struggling with purpose, we're lonely, we're isolated in a world where we think we're more connected, We've got more of those issues and those problems going on.

And I I'm I don't have a factual research document to tell you this, but I believe it with all my heart that the keys to much of that lie in relationship and friendship. Our world is struggling stuff with stuff that it didn't used to struggle with because we were connected to other people.

We had friends and relationships. I I won't go into all the details, but a few years ago, I was going through an extremely difficult scenario. Um, not of my own making, but I I had no choice but to be in it. And it was occupying large chunks of my day, my time, actually my night because I was talking uh to people in America and Canada.

And it it was it was drawing on me, my my capacity. And uh I I actually had some gastrointestinal problems as a result of it. And then I discovered what I as a nurse really should have known that your gut affects your mind and your mind affects your gut.

And you got to get out of that cycle because it's it's a cycle. And um the Lord started to show me some some things around that time. But more importantly, he started to give me an awareness not just of the friends that I had, but but other friends that would step into uh my life.

I think that friendship has keys to mental health, has keys to avoiding burnout, has keys to accountability, has keys to fulfilling purpose, has keys to providing us with encouragement, and has keys to providing us with protection. That's friendship. The purpose one's fascinating. I just uh uh came from CFAN Christ for all nations uh school of ministry, Reinhardt Bonkey's ministry where you can still taste his fire in the room.

You really can. It's just a a beautiful thing. Uh you can't help but walk out of there and be thinking souls. And uh but I I preached there and actually I I finished preaching, went into the green room and on the on the screen was the person after me that I had only briefly met.

And it was as if he he just added this one point to my what I'd been talking about with friendship and and he just said you know in 1732 men met in Oxford Wesley and Whitfield friends. You see it friendship's even a key to our purpose. >> Two men met in Oxford University in 1732 and they changed the world. friends.

They actually had a major disagreement o actually a theological disagreement over Armenianism and Calvinism. But they settled it. And they settled it for this reason. They did not want to damage revival. Friendship. There is an incredible power in it. And I want to just go through four uh four aspects of friendship.

And I want to start here. And this is where some of the pattern fascinates me. I want to start here with Abraham. If you want a title for your life, lots of people wrestle over titles, give titles, argue about titles. I'm really not that interested in them whatsoever.

I don't mean that rudely. I'm just not. But this one, I'll take friend of God. What a title. Abraham a friend of God. The father of our faith is known as friend of God. You can go to um go to James and uh extraordinary. Let's go to James 2:18.

But someone may well say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow?

That That's pretty strong, isn't it? My wife be upset with me if I called somebody a foolish fellow, especially when I'm driving. Which is not usually foolish. The first word that I think of you foolish fellow that faith without works is useless. Was not Abraham our father when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled which says and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God. He's the friend of God.

What fascinates me as well, and there's this is dangerous minor rabbit trail, but I'll risk it. His his faith was perfected by his works. And there's a sequence I've started to notice. Abraham's faith was perfected by his works. God's power is perfected in our weakness and his love is perfected in us.

Not only that, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you want love, faith, power, and wisdom, you cannot escape that it is perfected by God in us, through us, with us, in partnership with us. It doesn't happen apart from us. His power is perfected in our weakness.

Our faith is perfected in our works. His love is perfected in us. And wisdom starts with us recognizing reverent fearful awe of God. It's a rabbit trail, but it fascinated me as I'm going through this. It's like I I wristwing this. There is nothing of God that is perfected without our involvement. >> That might be a scary statement, but I'll leave it there and you can go away and pray about it and see if what you think.

The father of our faith felt the pleasure of God. The father of our faith is known as a friend of God. What an extraordinary, beautiful, and stunning title. You see, in the garden, God said it's not good for man to be alone. I get it that the context is man and woman.

It appears to be about man and woman, but it's more than that. And it wasn't when God said it's not good. It wasn't like, you know, Bill has an idea and I go, well, I don't know whether that's a very good idea. Here's a good idea. It wasn't that.

It it was that it wasn't good for man to be alone because it fails to meet the standard of the created order of heaven. created out of the relational order of the Trinity, it will fail to meet the standard to leave man on his own. Which means that every place that we see relational order put in place, we are restoring the created standard of heaven.

It is not good for man to be alone. Is not reference to an idea. It is reference to a standard. It is reference to the created order of heaven. It's not good for man to be alone. That's why friendship is so vital that we walk together. And here we have this extraordinary example of Abraham being a friend of God.

I'll come back to that. We then have friends of Jesus. And you know this week is a is a beautiful week for just stopping and thinking. There are two extraordinary examples really in this holy week. The the first example is to Judas. And now I I have um I think probably Bill you probably taught me to think principles maybe more than anyone else but I I live with a principle and that is the principle that Jesus will never leave me worse off. >> Couple of you agree with that.

He'll never leave me worse off. See, a principle gives me a lens through which to view things. So, I I take the principle and I can view things. So, let's look at Judas, the night in which Jesus was betrayed as Paul stunningly describes it. A man who wasn't even there who describes it as if he was there that night.

That night, Jesus says, "The one that to whom I dip the bread in the wine will betray me." I've wrestled with that my entire Christian life until about six years ago. I wrestled with it. Why would Jesus have a word of knowledge of the one that's going to betray him?

That doesn't seem like him. And then I discovered from a man called Kenneth Bailey who's written uh two amazing books, Jesus through Middle Eastern eyes and Paul through Mediterranean eyes. Stunning books. And in one of them he in the Paul I think it is he describes that the culture of the day meant that when you dipped bread in the wine and gave it to someone it was an invitation to deep friendship.

That means that the last act from Jesus to Judas was friendship. And you know when Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus even called him friend. He said friend, see Jesus is in pursuit of friendship this Holy Week. And and so we see Jesus offering friendship to Judas and although it's not completed and I I'll go there in a m a minute but the other act of this week is that Peter denied him.

We'll come to that in a moment because Jesus ends that with the invitation to friendship. See Jesus is in pursuit of friendship. John 15, he says, "This is my commandment that you love one another." And scribbled in my Bible, not this one, but my my the one before.

I changed my Bibles recently. "This is my commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends." Then scribbled alongside are your words, Bill, "A friend is what you qualify to be when you learn to love.

You are my friends. Abraham, a friend of God. Jesus is now saying, "This is how you become a friend of mine. Keep my commandments." What's the commandment? Love one another. A friend is what you qualify to be when you learn to love. He's looking for friendships. He's in pursuit of friendships.

See, his offer to Judas was friendship. His invitation to the disciples is friendship. He's in pursuit of friendship. We get to be friends of Jesus. What an extraordinary privilege. >> Friends of Jesus. utterly beautiful. And of course, we see another incredible example with John the Baptist. And I again, this links in.

It's like I love the synergy of the Bible. John the Baptist who says that, you know, he who has the bride is the groom. But the friend of the groom, John the Baptist is a friend of the groom. He's a friend of Jesus. The Bible is full of these examples of friendship.

But the end of John, we have another scenario that I think needs the principle applied. Jesus leaves you better off. So, we've got Peter who's denied Jesus during this Holy Week. He's done the unthinkable. He's denied Jesus three times. And then we have this incredible scenario where Jesus says to Peter, "Do you love me three times?"

I don't know how many times I've heard that preached. I've heard different people try and give me different reasons why there are two words for love in that dialogue. The two words for love are agape and fileo. And Jesus starts with saying, "Do you have agape love for me?"

And Peter says, "No, I have fileo love for you." And I've heard different preachers give give different arguments to this, but here's all I know. Jesus leaves Peter with fileo love. You see, agape love is unconditional. Agape love is I love you. I lay down my life for you.

I don't I I don't expect anything in return. But fileo love is an exchange of trust. It's shared value love. So I think the church has got a bit confused over this to be perfectly honest. I am only required to give agape love to to the rest of the world.

I'm only required to do that. I am required to do it though. Sometimes people in church you know they maybe they you know they've had a position in the church and they decide that they are going to walk another way in their life. They reject the principles of the Christian faith and they go and then they write letters to say you don't love me anymore.

And it usually means you're not letting me stand on a platform with a microphone or do something anymore. No, it's that's right. We're not because we actually only have to offer you now unconditional agape love. We fileo love ended when the shared value and the exchange of trust and love changed.

See Jesus says, "Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?" And and it ends with, "Peter, do you have fileo love for me? Yes, Lord, you know that I have fileo love for you. I have brotherly love. I have friendship love.

I have trusting love. I have the love that exchanges love one to another. It's not one-sided. It's not just a lay down your life. I'm in this with you. Then feed my sheep. The pattern is beautiful. Abraham, the founder of the faith, the father of faith. Peter, the founder of the church.

Friends, friends of Jesus. And then friends with the Holy Spirit. I've mentioned John. John, a type of the Holy Spirit without any shadow of a doubt to me. A type of the Holy Spirit because he he's the friend of the groom. Now, my understanding is that in Jewish culture that when a man and a woman get engaged to be married, that's the legal part.

And and then there's the gap to the consummation. At the point of the legal betroal, the man does two things. He leaves his best friend with the bride as the guardian of the bride to make sure that the bride comes to the consummation pure. And then the man says, "I go to prepare a place."

And and some would say that the inheritance that somebody receives, you you receive it at the point of marriage and you use that inheritance to go and build an extension on your father's house or start a business. And that's why Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you."

But I'm I leave you the Holy Spirit. I leave you my best friend. So John the Baptist was a type of that friendship. And of course, we know in Revelation, I've covered the whole Bible tonight. Genesis to Revelation. There we go. In Revelation, the spirit and the bride say, "Come, Lord Jesus." >> You see this this thread, this beautiful divine golden thread runs through the whole of the Bible.

This thread of friendship. >> And here we have this beautiful example that Jesus says, "I'm not going to leave you in lack. I'll leave you my Holy Spirit." The word is orphans, but it doesn't really it's not orphans like we know orphans. I won't leave you in lack, which incidentally is virtually the whole purpose of the whole Bible is that the heart of God is for us not to be in lack.

I believe you can read the Ten Commandments through the lens of this. They are not a God who wants to control us, but a God who wants to make sure that we live in abundance, not in lack. And he knows that those principles when we live them out will keep us in abundance and will keep us from lack.

He's a God who doesn't want us to live in lack. And he left us his Holy Spirit, the best friend of Jesus. Friendship. Abraham, a friend of God. Jesus in pursuit of friends. The Holy Spirit. The best friend of Jesus. The ultimate example of friendship. He is the tutor for us to learn to be friends in the middle of what I was going through a few years ago.

It was it was strange experience and and I lost some personal friends and uh I was driving one day and I I was listening to a podcast. I I I loved the podcast Diary of a CEO and uh if you if you if you listen to it, you'd love it.

If you haven't listened to it, listen to the one with Wes Huff, Steven Bartlett interviewing Wes Huff, who is a Christian apologist. It is utterly stunning. Utterly stunning. It would challenge you no end. Beautiful. And uh Wes Huff is a believer. And I mean Steven Bartley, this is a site.

Steven Bartley asked, "Am I going to hell?" And he said, "Yes, you're going to hell." That's brave on a podcast. It's one of the biggest podcasts in the world. But I'm listening to a podcast and Steven Bartlett is interviewing Simon Synynic. Now, many of you will know Simon Synynic for the TED talk, The Power of Why.

You might not know Simon Synynic for loneliness. So he's on a podcast talking about loneliness and uh he he's I don't know whether this is still true but on the podcast he said I've never had a relationship that lasted more than 10 years which when like I and I've been privileged to be married to my wife for 47 years and been dating her for 52 years a relationship that no more than 10 years is is a little strange to my brain.

But he started talking about loneliness and uh he he began to give a definition to friendship. He got my attention. I actually stopped the car and and scribbled down some notes because I I knew that there was something for me. And he began with this. He said, "Friends, sit in the mud with you."

I love that phrase. I love it so much. Sometimes the pressure is on us, isn't it? That somebody's going through a crisis and the and the pressure is give an answer. It's like, no, get in the mud. >> Sit in the mud. >> He said, "Friends, they get in the mud with you.

Sit in the mud." He said he and his friends, now this is a guy whose friends are probably governors and senators and maybe presidents, I don't know. He said, 'We coined a phrase, "My friends don't cry alone." Boy, I like that. The season that I was going through, um, I'd been given somebody to help me walk through what I was going through.

And, um, I actually had already knew him. And we coined a very simple phrase, my friends answer the phone. I don't know whether you know this, but those smartphones, you can actually talk on them. It's quite fascinating. Revelation can talk to other human beings on them. We just coined this phrase, my friends answer the phone.

I I've been tested out by a few friends, you know, I've had the the the dial that you don't intend, you know, and they've answered it and they said, "Well, you've said your friends answer the phone, so here I am." It's like, "I'm really sorry. That was a mistake."

You know, I loved that phrase. Little while actually uh after that I heard somebody else talking and and describing a situation in their life where a friend of theirs had texted them and said um that they were in a really bad place, borderline suicidal. And uh and they said, "Well, why didn't you tell me?"

Oh, I did. I told you. Well, what did what did you say? When did you say? And they scrolled back through the text and there was just the casual message of, "Hey, it'd be good to catch up sometime." So, those two friends coined a phrase, "Have you got eight minutes?"

Boy, I like that. Have you got eight minutes? Some of you might want to do this. I like practical preaching. Some of you might just want to do this and decide, especially if you're going through some tough stuff. If you get a text from me that says, "Have you got eight minutes?"

It means, "Would you drop everything for me?" Your friends sit in the mud. Your friend Simon Synynic said, "They know you. >> They know you." I like that. Sometimes I, you know, my wife will sometimes take a gift somewhere for someone and I, you know, to be honest, there have been times when I've looked and thought, "Gosh, that's not very much."

And then you get to the place she's gone to and and and she'll give a gift over and the person will go, "Oh my gosh, how did you know that I like, you know, spotted green butterflies?" You know, or or whatever. Something that is like, "Oh, it's because you know them." >> Yeah. some years ago here when you know back in the day when we used physical media as I understand it's called my four-year-old granddaughter calls it that because she's got into Blu-rays which is great I love it that's because of Luke who's her dad and he's a bit of a film geek but I a few years ago I bought a Blu-ray player from Best Buy when I was here and um you know with it came the you can buy a box set for9 $99.

And I bought Planet Earth. I love Planet Earth. I'd rented it previously, a DVD. I'd rented it. And uh when I got the Blu-ray, I was not happy cuz the Blu-ray didn't have the making of Planet Earth on it. And that's what I really liked was the making of the thing, especially the snow leopard on Christmas Day in Afghanistan.

That was like for me that there was a cameraman who was camped out in the snow who got the snow leopard on Christmas Eve. I buy the Blu-ray, it's not on there. A year later, two of my team bought me the DVD series, and they claim I was more excited over that gift than any other gift they'd ever given me.

And the reason was because it was a demonstration that they knew me. >> See, I wouldn't have bought it for me cuz I've already got a Blu-ray set. I mean, and it's not that big a deal, but they thought it was. Your friends know you. Your friends have the difficult conversations with you.

Faithful of the wounds of a friend. By the way, you don't become friends by somebody wounding you. You become friends who then earn the right to wound you with the feedback. Got to get it the right way around. Your friends will have the difficult conversation with you and your friends will always remind you of a higher purpose for your life.

Always will. See, I stopped the car, scribbled down. Anyone that knows me, I like quadrants. There happened to be four points. I drew four points in my moles skin. There were four points. But I knew that Simon Synynic, although he probably didn't realize it, was talking about the Holy Spirit.

He just described the Holy Spirit. As sure as anything, he described the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit comes alongside to help. He gets in the mud with you. He gets in the mud with you. Do you know I I've learned something in life. If you get in the mud with someone, you'll get mud on you.

Did you get that? >> You'll get mud on you. I mean, if your dog or your puppy gets in the mud and you get your dog out, you will get mud on you. >> You'll get mud on you. The Holy Spirit's willing to get mud on him. He'll get in the mud with you.

I love this. I love the verse that says, "He lifts me up out of the mary clay. He set my feet upon a rock and now I know." We focus on being set on a rock and now I know. But in order to pick you up out of the mari clay, he was willing to get mud on him and he sent Jesus willing to get mud on him to lift us up out of the mari clay.

The Holy Spirit is the one who comes alongside to help. He's what Simon Synynic described and he is the great example of friendship. >> He gets in the mud. He's the one who comes alongside to help. Which incidentally is the same word that is used in Genesis when God says it's not good for man to be alone.

I will make for you a helper. It's the same language as we now read with the Holy Spirit. the synergy, the continuity, the beauty of the Bible. The Holy Spirit knows us. He knows us. I can give you references. John 14:16, he comes alongside to help. Romans 8:27, he knows us.

He searches our hearts. John 14:17, he's the spirit of truth. He'll have the difficult conversations with us. And he always, always, always, John 14:26 serves Jesus. He always will lift our heads up. You see, when we learn to sit in the mud with our friends, when we allow some tears to flow from our eyes, those tears may start to be useful to clear the mud from our friend's eyes.

As we let the river that Bill referenced this morning, the river of living water that flows out of our bellies, as we let that river flow, it will lift people up out of the muddy sediment. see that pressure to give an answer. If we can hold off the pressure to give an answer and and just get in the mud, pick up the phone, answer the call for have you got eight minutes to make sure that our friends don't cry alone.

The Holy Spirit, the great example, the exemplar of friendship, is teaching us friendship. Get in the mud. get to know each other. I I've been struck recently partly because, you know, my my wife's mother passed in August, my mother, 103, passed in the end of January, and I've just been struck by the importance of making sure that the people around me know me, that my family know me, know my story, know our story, that I know their story.

Holy Spirit knows us. He'll have the difficult conversations with us and always reminds us to lift our heads up to Jesus. And I believe the call and the challenge is for us to learn to be friends. See, I started a journey three or four years ago of really tapping into some friends.

Now, you can't have hundreds of them. I'm talking about the half dozen. The ones that you've agreed I'll get in the mud with you. The ones that you take time to get to know. The ones that you allow to have the difficult conversation with you and the ones that you have confidence in will always point you to Jesus.

My grandfather when he died 1987 six months before he died he was he was about 96 years a we got good longevity in my family that's why I plan to be coming back here into my 90s you know 6 months before he died he called me to his bedside I wasn't I was his grandson I wasn't his eldest grandson and he had a son but he said to me Paul would you would you do something for me would you give the tribute at my memorial.

And I said, "Of course I will." And he said, "You just must promise me you'll do one thing." And he took out of his wallet a letter. It was a letter that was written to him during the First World War. It was written by my mother's mother, who died when my mother was three years old.

My grandfather had carried that letter his entire life. He'd had an a a second marriage, but he carried that letter. It was a letter from Mabel written to my grandfather Nest in the trenches of Epra, Belgium. I've now got a box of those letters. It's this big. I don't know what to do with them really.

But but this one letter, see Mabel, she loved the Lord. Every letter had a scripture. Every letter had the verse of a hymn. Every letter had a prayer. Every letter had some sort of story. I sent one to Bill uh once it actually was a record that in a prayer meeting uh there was a a report of people seeing angels over a church that actually appeared in the local newspaper and that found its way to the trenches.

But my grandfather's letter he gave to me was this and it had the words of a hymn. Give to the wind thy fears. Hope and be undismayed. God hears thy cries and counts thy tears. God shall lift up thy head. And he said to me at my memorial, I want you to tell them he's lifted up my head for the last time.

You see, there there's something about friendship that that it's so powerful. You see, I I want to challenge you to get hungry for friendship. You see, in that in that season, I I started to gain such an awareness of the people that God had put around me. I started to give people permission.

I started to get on the phone a and and sort of develop some patterns of certain people that I would call much more regularly than I'd ever done before. I I sat actually in a coffee shop in Windsor overlooking Windsor Castle and a man I'd never met before.

My wife knew him um through another friend and uh I'd never met him. He came down with his wife, his three children. They'd said, "Would you know, would you have coffee with us?" I said, "Sure." I looked at him across the coffee table. I felt like the Lord said, "You don't make friends with him."

We swapped phone numbers. I started exchanging odd messages to him. Two weeks later, he he said, "Paul, can you get to London on Tuesday?" I said, "Yeah, sure." We arranged a restaurant to meet in and uh I'm sitting in the restaurant. I said, "So, what are you here for today, assuming he had a business meeting in London cuz he lived three hours train ride away."

So, what are you doing here? He said, "I I came to see you. Came to have lunch to you. You got on a train for three hours to have lunch with me." Couple of weeks later, he lost his job. Highpowered CEO lost his job. I've called him, texted him probably more than once a week for a couple of years, maybe longer than that.

But here's the thing. You have to make friends. You have to make friends. That's a word. M a ke. It requires effort. I guarantee you this, moms and dads. You take your little four-year-old to school on the first day of school. You meet them at the school gate at the end of the day.

And I'll guarantee you, say this, "Did you make any friends? Did you make friends? Did you put any effort in? Did you talk to the person next to you? Did you try and find out a little bit? Did you make some sort of effort? Takes work. Make friends.

Work at it. Put some effort in. As I've started sharing this, I've had people come up to me and say, "How do you know? How do you know who you can trust?" Like where you can't you don't know. You just got to test things out. You got to walk a little bit of a journey.

You got to you got to see whether there's some sort of exchange, whether you have some shared values, whether you can trust each other. It will take some work. It might end in disappointment, but as Bnee Brown says, vulnerability is not about winning or losing. It's about standing up when you can't control the outcome. >> Which means that faith is vulnerable.

See, we can be friends of God. We can be friends with Jesus, friends with the Holy Spirit and be friends with each other. And there's something about being friends with each other that qualifies us to be friends with Jesus because he said, "Love one another." And e even in that is this challenge to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life which I don't think means a quiet life in terms of not doing anything.

It's a quiet life where where you've got rid of some of the contention and the disputes and the pain and you're living on purpose. There are so many beautiful verses in the Bible about friendship. There are some that don't quite mention friendship, but iron sharpens iron, I'm pretty sure, is about friendship. >> There's a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Wow. Friendship. What kind of friend are you? What kind of friends do you have? I think we need friends more than any other time in history. And God set us up for this. You can't just suddenly show up one day and find these perfect friends, this perfect match.

But putting in some work has been one of the greatest privileges of the last four years of my life. People I started to invite in at a level into my life to know me, to ask questions, to have permission to ask me questions has become a part of the way I'm learning to live.

The interesting thing is the better friend I've become, the more aware I've become of friendship, I become much more aware of friendship with my wife. And we were doing pretty good, really good, actually. But it just started to open up my myself to friendship. See, I I don't need fair weather friends.

Now, I'm not inviting storms. Trouble is, you can't choose the storms, but you can choose how you respond to storms. And you can set yourself to have the kind of friends that are with you in storms. I I I find sometimes I look around, I think some people are like fairy godmother friends.

They want to wave a magic wand. In fact, fact, sometimes people almost have that approach to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was much more than a, if I can put it this way, fairy godmother. He's the spirit of truth. He gets in the mud. He knows you.

He reminds you you're serving Jesus. friendship. Will you work at it? Will you put effort in? Will you make it your ambition to be a friend of God, a friend of Jesus, and to learn friendship with the Holy Spirit? When I first started sharing this, I started standing and making a public confession.

My public confession was this shocking. Brace yourselves. I only read Good Morning Holy Spirit two years ago for the first time. Maybe maybe there aren't many of you that have read it because I usually get much better response than there. See, I I didn't read Good Morning Holy Spirit because I was a little bit offended at Benny Benny Hinn.

But then I read chapter one and Benny Himn was offended at Katherryn Corman. So suddenly I felt we're tight. But I read it and I realized what my friend John Luke Traxel was constantly telling me. The Holy Spirit's my best friend. I started to learn that lesson of friendship with the Holy Spirit.

I've tried to discipline myself. I have three lines as far as possible. It doesn't happen every morning, but I try. Good morning, Holy Spirit. Not because Benny wrote a book about it, but because it's the best way I know to start the day. To invite him to be my friend, to learn how how I can be his friend, he can be my friend.

My second phrase every day is, "Thank you for saving me." I have a really good friend. His name's Andy. It's beautiful man. He was saved. I think it was Jan I know it was January the 21st. I think it was 2011. He's done more in the last 15 years than most people I know.

He was saved from drug addiction, suicide, homeless on the streets, mentally ill. One day in a meeting he was preaching and he said, "There's never a day of my life goes by that I don't shed a tear and say to Jesus, I'm thankful that you saved me." >> I got up from the front row, walked up, took the microphone off him, and said, "Stop right there." >> I think 75% of us in this room don't live like that, Andy.

So I invited, it was a leaders meeting. I said, "If there's anyone who doesn't live like that, come to the front." Threearters of the room came and laid on the floor at the front. Thank you for saving me, Jesus. It's pretty simple, really, isn't it? You know, one of the problems with a lot of us is we don't think that we were radically saved because we listen to the evangelist who has a more dramatic story than us, but the truth is we're all radically saved.

It's just your story might not sound so dramatic, but you're radically saved. I've checked. >> You're saved from hell. In fact, Wes Huff on that podcast gave the best definition I think I've ever heard because there was sort of the conversation of, "Well, if God's a loving God, wouldn't he sort of demand that you come to heaven?"

And Wes Huff basically said, "Look, if you've spent your life saying that you want your will, God will let you have your will. Hell is basically when God lets you have your will." I thought, "That's pretty good." Good morning, Holy Spirit. Thank you for saving me. And thank you that you're a good father. >> Do you know Abraham was a friend of God?

Moses, Moses used to talk to God face to face as a friend. There's a clue there. Friends talk face to face. >> It's a clue. It's in the Bible. The description of how Moses and God speak is how friends are meant to speak face to face, which means presence to presence.

It means there's something about being present with our friends that's really, really important. And the greatest enemy of that is our technological world that's preventing us from being present because we're too busy, too distracted, too distant. No, being present. I have a whole message about being present. And the five times that I've done surprise transatlantic trips where I've flown somebody over, I've flown over.

I even risked flying over for my mother's 90th birthday, which is a little risky, but she lived another 13 years, so it didn't affect her. It's the greatest gift that you can give someone is presence to be present. And we see the great example with Moses who speaks to God as face to face as a man speaks to a friend.

And you can skip over that verse and just think, "Oh, Moses and God were face to face." No, it's meant to teach us how to be friends. The Holy Spirit, the great example of friendship. Moses, the great example of friendship. Abraham, the great example of friendship, are to teach us how to be friends.

How to be friends with God. How to be friends with Jesus. How to be friends with the Holy Spirit. But how to be friends with each other. And that's my challenge to you. I'm going to challenge you. See, I I know that I become a better friend to Sue because I become a better friend to God, to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus.

Jesus only wanted to do that which pleased his father. And it was that Abraham pleased God that made Abraham a friend of God. These things are all interrelated. We need to work at it. We need to make friends. I want to challenge you. Make it your ambition to be a friend of God.

Make it your ambition to be a friend of Jesus. The ways of Jesus. Because the way of Jesus is love. And he said, "You are my friends if you do what I've commanded you." What did he commanded us to do? To be like Jesus and to love. Abraham's a friend of God.

It's righteousness. It's faithfulness to the word of God. Jesus invites us to be friends which becomes that we walk the ways of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our friend and the best friend of Jesus and we are to be friends with each other to walk in fellowship with each other to walk with this incredible word coinonia which has no decent English equivalent.

It is deep, deep intimate relationship with each other. That's my challenge to you, friends of God, friends of Jesus, to have friends and to be friends. It's inevitable, I guess, that I quote things to do with my mother at this stage, but I I got to the memorial.

I sat in the back of the limousine with her minister. She'd been in that church for 53 years. It was funny because he said that he'd known her the least of all the ministers and he'd known her 16 years. Got in the back of the limousine and I said, "My mom never did self-pity."

He said, "No, I've got that written down in my notes." When he stood up to speak, he said, "My mother never knew self-pity." And he said, "Why?" He said she knew she was amply supplied. And then he called her the mother of the church. Do you know why I'm mentioning that?

She lost her mother when she was three. A hundred years of her life, she never had a mother. But she became a mother. You see, the challenge for all of us is to become what we never had. That's the challenge because he doesn't leave us in lack. The challenge is become what we never had.

Don't don't sit and say I I haven't had friends. No, become what you never had. That's the intro. That's the challenge. That's the invitation. Become what you never had. Cuz he he doesn't leave us in lack. No, he left us the greatest example of friendship, the Holy Spirit that would enable us, empower us to become what we never had.

And I want to close by giving you five questions, five challenging questions. And all of us, because we're Christians, we're leaders. You can't be a Christian and not be a leader. I don't know if you didn't know if you knew that. November last year, I was at a uh a small conference.

Young man spoke to me about 24 25 years of age. I I've known him for a few years. In fact, I knew him when he was messed up, did a little bit of coaching of him, and now he's being promoted in ministry, doing incredibly well. And he said to me, he said, "Paul, what advice do you have for me now?"

Now, he's asked me for advice before in the difficult times. Now, he says, "What advice do you have for me?" I said, "Uh, get a friend who'll ask you the difficult questions." And then he said what no one had said to me up until that point. He said, 'What are the difficult questions?

I said that is a brilliant question. So I went away and I wrote five. I want to leave them with you as a challenge because I believe that as leaders, these are five questions that we should allow in our lives. Number one, who am I becoming when no one is watching?

I um 2012 I went to uh school of evangelism, oneweek school of evangelism. One of the greatest experiences of my life. I got there. I went into the hotel room. I have never had a problem with pornography or anything like that on TVs. I went into that hotel room and I pulled the plugs out the wall.

I did it because I will watch news and sport. I'm there and I'm like, I am not messing this week. I pulled the plugs out and I realized that I was doing two things. I was one disciplining myself, but I was also learning whether I could trust myself.

Now, actually, I have a pretty high level of trust for myself, but it was just a useful exercise. See, it's it's kind of related to this question. Who am I becoming when no one's watching? Can I trust me? But allowing people to ask that question. It doesn't have to be, you know, wild sinful behavior.

But who am I becoming? Question number one, the question of integrity. Is there anything I am defending that the Holy Spirit may be confronting? In other words, inviting friends to say, "Have you got some still small voice going on? Are you are you constantly just having some nagging thoughts about an area of your life where you're you're being challenged, but you're resisting?

Number three, who has the power to say no to me and when did I last listen? The answer to that underneath is my wife. For sure. That whenever I preach, my wife will send me odd texts here and there and she'll say, "That's probably not a good idea to mention that or say it that way or do that."

At first I was like, "Oh gosh, how many texts am I going to get after this preach?" You know, but I grown to value it. She's nearly always right. Probably always right. Number four, am I leading from love or fear of loss, failure, rejection, or relevance? So easy to do that.

And number five is my family closest circle paying a price for my calling. See, faithful are the wounds of a friend. You're trusting a friend and giving them permission to wound you in those five areas. To walk in a level of accountability. See, I believe that we have been given what we need to live this life, to walk this life, to deal with some of the mental health issues, to deal with the loneliness, to deal with the pressures to run off in different directions, to blow up our lives, to burn out our lives, to cover up our lives, to self-destruct our lives.

I believe we've been given in friendship. We have been given an extraordinary key, an example. You see, it is not good for man to be alone. We weren't designed that way. We were designed by a family, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Let us make man in our image.

It is not good for man to be alone. that Jesus left us the Holy Spirit, the helper, the one who comes alongside to help, to help us, the bride of Christ, to be presented, a pure, spotless bride. He's not coming back for a prostitute, and he's not coming back for a divided bride.

He's coming back for a glorious, beautiful, united bride. He left his Holy Spirit as the example of friendship. And he invites us to walk in friendship with each other, with the Holy Spirit, with God, and with Jesus. That's my challenge to you is friendship. >> Will you be brave enough to risk it? to look across a table and allow the Holy Spirit to prompt you to go, I I'm going to work a friendship with this person.

And just to be clear, I'm talking about half a dozen people probably. I'm talking about wisdom. It's going to be same sex. But let's not walk lonely. Yeah, >> let's not spend so much time asking a machine to provide something that a machine can't provide. Empathy, connection, courage, feedback.

I mean, I've noticed that after a while, AI is answering the questions the way AI thinks you want to know the answers. >> Have you noticed that? I don't need friends that do that. Let's be friends of God. That means faith and works. That means that our works perfect our faith.

Let's be friends with Jesus. Let's love each other. Let's find a way of pressing through the differences and loving each other. Let's be friends with the Holy Spirit. And let's allow our friendship with the Holy Spirit to teach us how to be friends with each other, to get in the mud, to know each other, to have the difficult conversations, and to keep on reminding people we're doing this for Jesus, to serve him, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

You know, if you get in real deep mud with somebody, do you know what you need to do? keep their head up. Literally to keep their head up. Why don't you stand? I'll get those questions. I've got a fuller version of them. I'll get them to Rich and they can go somewhere if anybody wants access to them. >> But let's work at this.

Let's decide we're going to be friends. Many churches have family church and fellowship on the outside. The question is, is that what you feel on the inside? Do you find family? Do you find fellowship? Do you find friendship? I think we just need to work harder at it.

So, Father, I'm asking you that you would just give us an increased awareness of the power and the value of friendship. That Abraham was a friend of yours, God. That Moses spoke to you face to face as a friend speaks to a friend. that Jesus invited Judas to deep friendship before he betrayed him.

That Peter after denying here's the words of Jesus. Are you my friend? that Jesus left us the Holy Spirit, his best friend, and you've put us with brothers and sisters in Christ. I just invite you to accept the invitation tonight of friendship, the pursuit of friendship, to make friendship your ambition in life.

There are keys to mental health, keys to purpose, keys to partnership, keys to avoiding burnout, keys to avoiding blowing your life up, keys to avoiding cover up, keys to avoiding isolation, keys to walking hand in hand through the challenges, the mud, and the disappointments of this life. It's not good for man to be alone.

Father, would you release courage to pursue friendship? Holy Spirit, would you come to each one of us now? Prompt us. Even put names in our head. Cause us to think of people that we need to do more than just text. How are you? cause us to decide we're going to make friends.

We're going to work at it. We're going to take a risk. We're going to risk vulnerability. It might not quite work out. It might not be the depth of relationship with that person, but I am going to go on a journey because I want to have friends in my life that know me.

Get in the mud with me. Have the difficult conversations and keep on pointing me back to Jesus. Holy Spirit, would you prompt us? Because we want to be present on that glorious day when the spirit and the bride say, "Come, Lord Jesus." Amen. Such a great word. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello.

Oh, there we go. Yeah. Such a powerful word. I think also maybe a such a timely word for us, a healing word for us. Wow. Well, we'd like to invite our ministry team forward and invite you for prayer if you'd like to come forward. Um, we have ministers, I believe, coming in.

Maybe just the We're a slow We're a low population of staff today since so many are out on missions. Y'all are all waiting on The Holy Spirit is just here right now just answering us to to be connected to be in community. I don't feel like anybody really wants to move.

Such a powerful word for us. So, Father, we just thank you that you're sealing this word to us, to this congregation tonight. Amen. Hello again. Wow, >> what an incredible uh needed message from Paul. Every time that he comes, I'm like, that is profound. You unpack that in uh a beautiful way. >> I wrote down some of the points.

So, if uh you're like me and you're like, "Oh my gosh, that was amazing. I don't know if I caught all of them." There was five questions that at the end of his message um that he asked us and I wrote them down and I plan on tonight just asking myself these questions. >> Good. >> I think it's wise that you would do the same.

But question number one is, who am I becoming when no one is watching? Question number two is, is there anything I'm defending that the Holy Spirit may be confronting? Which is so real, huh? >> Yeah. Absolutely. Question number three is who has the power to say no to me and when did I last listen? >> Uh also very provoking. >> So good. >> Question number four, am I leading from love or fear of rejection, failure, and relevance? >> And question number five is is my family or close friends paying a cost for the calling on my life? >> And I know that as I wrote these down, I'm like, "Oh, I know that there's things that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to me in."

And it's just good to check ourselves on every level. And I don't know about you, but the friends in my life know me the most and they call me out. And I think it's just so good to to just sit down and reflect with ourselves, things that we're protecting ourselves from or things that we're not being honest in. >> Yeah. >> But me and Jory actually wanted to pray for you guys that we know that this message could be a little bit provoking and maybe sometimes a little bit triggering depending on where you're at in life.

And we know that the Lord never leaves us alone, that he's never forsaken us, and that he is actually our comforter. He's our friend. He's closer than a brother. But also sometimes the reality is is life can feel lonesome. And I remember I was remembering a story in my life.

Um when I was just coming out of a transition and a season and I felt so lonely. There was no one around me. I didn't have any friends. And I remember laying in bed. It sounds so dark and depressing, but I remember laying in bed. I'm like, God, like I need friends.

I'm an extrovert. I love people. I love having fun. And I just feel so lonely. And it was a long drawn out season. And I continuously look at my life now and I'm like, I am surrounded by friends now who are godly, who call me out, who point me in the direction of Jesus, who champion me.

And I constantly think, I'm like, my life is rich because the Lord answered my prayer. And we believe um that the Lord is going to answer your prayer too. And also we just want to pray for you and just pray that you would feel the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

And so Jory wants to pray for you. >> Yeah. Just if you are experiencing any any any loneliness in your life. Maybe it's just been, you know, as again as Paul was sharing, maybe it just kind of brought up like, man, I actually don't have those group of friends in my life that I actually um need right now. and you've been feeling lonely and um maybe there's been like um issues with um not being able to get out of the house for disability reasons or or other reasons, but I just feel like the Lord, he he sees where you're at right now.

And um and I just want to pray if that's anyone watching right now that you would um yeah, just first receive his peace and his love and his joy to fill you and that that you are a friend of the Holy Spirit. you are a friend of the father and Jesus and that he wants to meet with you just even right now wherever you're watching right now he wants to meet with you as a friend that you are his beloved and God I I also pray for um connections divine connections that would lead them to people um that would be deep connections and friendships for them God so I just pray that you lift off any loneliness and I pray that they would feel seen and known ultimately by you but then they would also feel seen and known by just a trusted community that you'd gather around them.

And so God, we bless every single person watching right now. Um that um and even I even pray God that people that have actually felt hurt by friendships, God, I I you are redeeming. I actually feel like God wants to redeem and that you're able to trust again.

You're able to actually like let those walls down again to be able to trust. Um, and I really feel like God's gonna knit you together with some really key people um, in this season that are going to help you on the next leg of your journey. And so God, I bless them right now in Jesus name.

Thank you, Father. >> Yeah. In Jesus' name. Yeah. Holy Spirit, I thank you that you are the comforter. Holy Spirit, I thank you that you come and that you wrap around us like a blanket. And so I pray for anyone who feels lonely, who feels isolated, that they would feel the comfort of the Holy Spirit and that they would feel uh the comfort of hope.

Lord, I thank you that you are the God of all hope and that you are our God. And Lord, I ask for an injection of hope over lonely hearts in Jesus name. >> Yeah. >> And guys, it as we said earlier and as you are aware, it is Holy Week and he came to bring life and give it abundantly.

And we just want to pray over your week that you would feel the abundant life, that you would feel the joy of the Holy Spirit, as Jory was saying in the close of worship, the strength of of the joy of the Holy Spirit. And so we pray and bless you guys as you go about your week, as you celebrate Holy Week with us or with your local church, wherever you are planted, that you would feel the strengthening of the joy of the Holy Spirit.

That you would feel him surround you. That you'd feel him over your marriages. That you'd feel him over your families. That you'd feel him even over your mental clarity. That this would be the clearest week of 2026 that you've experienced. >> But we bless you. We love you guys.

And we hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful week.