Encounter Night | March 20th, 2026

Come on, church. I just encourage you guys. Let's just let loose tonight, okay? Let's Let's just dance with unashamed, abandoned for the Lord like David did. Let's dance with joy. Let's Let's just Come on. We can just lift him up with praise right now. God, we're so expectant of you, Lord.

We're so worthy, Lord. Come on. I'm clean. Same was on me. Was running deep. But love the build on Calvary. Oh hallelujah. I me God. How can it be? I'm ransomed and redeemed. standing in your victory. Oh hallelujah. I'm wash in the water. Wash in the blood. I'm as good as you.

Oh hallelujah. I'm wash in the water. Wash in the blood. All because of you. Oh hallelujah. I'm king. It's not what I have done, but what you've done for me. You paid it up on that tree. Oh, hallelujah. I feel your love has overcome. Your mercy is supreme.

I'm standing in your victory. Oh hallelujah. I wash in the water. Wash me in the blood. Oh hallelujah. I wash in the water. Wash in the blood. Oh, the good cuz he took away my shame and then he nailed it to the cross. He got me running out the grave.

Hallelujah. Here I come because you took away my s. You got me running out the grave. Hallelujah. Here I come. You took away cuz you took away my le. You got me running. Heat. Heat. Hey, here we go. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, cuz I've been washed in the water.

Washed in the blood. I'm as good as you. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water. Washed in the blood. I'm as good as you. Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. You wash us, Lord. You make us new, Lord. Good as new. Washed white, washed clean by the blood of Jesus.

Who's grateful for that truth today? Man, I'm so grateful to be here with you guys. What how beautiful that we get to gather as a church all across our church, all of our campuses, unashamed and worshiping God. God so amazing. I catch my breath. I'm so sorry. Tonight, we're going to take communion together.

Communion. If you don't know, as a church, we break bread. We drink wine or juice that symbolizes the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. We're in this season of prayer and fasting right now as we're running towards Easter, towards Holy Week, where Jesus comes into Jerusalem. He's beaten.

He's mocked. He's convicted of something that he didn't do. He's hung on a cross and put in a tomb. He died. And three days later, he rose from the dead, defeating death, forever setting his people free. And I just want to right now if you don't know Jesus right now if you have faith in him that he did die and he did rise you can be saved by faith you are saved.

So right now if that is you just say I believe in Jesus Christ and you are saved and you can partake in communion. This is for his church. And I just want to encourage us in this moment. It is hard to come to Jesus when we have things on our heart, unconfessed sins, but he's forgiven them.

We just have to confess them and repent. And so right now in these next two songs, that's what we're going to do. We're setting aside time for you to meet with your Lord and Savior, to confess, to repent, to be set free of that shame. Whatever happened this week, whatever happened maybe when you were 12 years old and it is just killing you, confess, repent today and be free and be saved.

The altar is open. But I want to read the scripture over us tonight as we consider the sacrifice of Jesus. It says in Hebrews 10, but this man Jesus after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until his enemies are made his foottool.

For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. That is us if we are in Christ. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says, "This is the covenant I will make with them after those days." The Lord says, "I will put my laws on their heart and write them on their minds.

And I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin." Jesus Christ was our offering. He was our perfect offering and that's why we take communion. That's why we remember because he was the perfect lamb of God slain for our sin.

His blood poured out, his body broken for us. So, Father, we thank you. We confess that we are sinners, but you have forever forgiven our sins, Lord. So today we confess, we turn back, we repent, and we fall. We want to follow you, God. Thank you for your body broken.

Thank you for your bloodshed. Wash us clean, white as snow. And for the rest of our lives as we sin and we repent and we sin and we repent, God, thank you that we can come to your feet. Thank you for Jesus who made a way for us.

We love you, Jesus. You can come and take communion as you will as we worship, as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the risen savior. I am an instrument of exaltation. ation and I was born to live the name of God. You hear the mey of all creation, but there's a song of praise that only I can bring.

Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only you Jesus. Only Jesus you he go of the aes. Yeah. You chose to make my heart. You hear my brokenness. Show me your glory.

So I have songs of thanks my angels sing. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. It's only Jesus. You're the lamb of God. It's only Jesus. It's only by your blood.

It's only by your word. Lord, do that. We come that we come into your presence. This is all that you can have in our lives. Thank you, Jes. Come on, just lift the song and pray to him tonight. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Holy Jesus. Oh, there's nothing like you Jesus. There's nothing like you Jesus is worthy. Only our king Jesus. Oh Jesus. Is worthy. There's no one only Jesus. Who le is worthy? less is worthy. There is no one only you Jesus who else is worthy.

Who else is worthy? There is no one only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is burning? >> Oh, there's no one. >> There is no one only you Jesus. You're the lamb of God. Lamb of God, anointed one who was and is and is to come seated on the throne above.

Holy, holy, rightous one who shed his blood and prove to us the father's love. Jesus Christ bely, holy. You are the lamb of God. Holy, holy, I am the one who shed his blood. He br the father's blood. Jesus Christ we live in the holy holy righteous one you come to us the father Jesus Christ bel it Right.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Only Jesus. No one like you. Jesus, the lamb of God. You are the lamb of God. You're the lamb of God. You're the lamb of God. You are. You're the lamb of God. You're the lamb of God. You're the lamb of God.

We've made this complicated more than it was ever meant to be. Hasn't it always been about the same? Lord, bring us back to simple things. Maybe I've made it. Maybe we've made this complicated more than it was ever meant to be. Hasn't it always been about the same thing?

And Lord, bring us back to simple things. You are the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. You're the one I hold on to. for the beauty of your name. My soul to say, Jesus, I love you. Teach us how to discern the moment when the sun and when to sit here at your feet. keep us awake to what's important.

Just like Mary chose a better thing for you. For you are the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. You're my savior all alone. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you.

For you, oh, for you are the center of the world. I you're my savior all the more. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your soul, Jesus, I love you. I love you. Oh, I love you, Jesus. I love you. Oh, I love you.

Oh, I love you, Jesus. I love you. Oh, we love you, Jesus. Nothing better, nothing higher, nothing greater. Oh, we love you, Jesus. Tell him that you love it, Jesus. We love you. We love you. We thank you. We bless you. And my whole life for your glory. my whole world for you all everything for the honor of your name.

And if my days tell a story it be of you every day for the honor of your name in my whole life for your glory. My hope for you all every day. For the honor of your name in my hands. Tell a story. Love you all every day. for the honor of your name.

My whole life, for your glory, my whole for you everything for the honor of your name in my day. Tell the story of you every day for the honor of your name. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. I love you Jesus. I love you Jesus. >> I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. Hope for you. Be the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. You're my savior all in all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name.

My soul will live to say Jesus I love you. Oh for you are the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. You're my savior all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul to sing, Jesus, I love you. So, I was a few weeks ago with my son Lennox watching uh the Minecraft movie.

Had not seen that one. I don't know how many Academy Awards it racked up. Uh but in my opinion, however many it got would be um too many if it got any. Yeah. But I had um it just came to my mind though cuz in in the early in the movie, Jason Mimoa is uh the character in the movie bidding on storage units and he gets to keep whatever contents are inside.

And presumably people all the time stop paying for their storage units and eventually never call, never show up and so they forfeit all their their possessions. And so it got me thinking like what a what a crazy thing to bid in this box of junk, not having any idea.

Is it all precious? Is it is it all worthless? Right. And and of course he bids the money, gets the storage unit, and inside is this special Minecraft rock that can like teleport him to where Jack Black's, you know, handcuffed or whatever. I I I lost track with the plot if there was one.

But um I I was just thinking about this just now, like just with this idea of him bidding for what's inside this this unit, not knowing what there is. And in in reality, what was inside was in incredibly valuable, even though he thought it was all a waste.

And I was just thinking about us worshiping ju just now in the moment. And we're we're singing out lyrics that are like easy to sing but but hard to mean, right? everything for the the glory of your name. Like everything for the glory of your name. My my whole life for your glory when in reality for so many of us there's there's so many things competing for that.

Just real talk in church. Like we're we can say everything everything for the glory of your name. But like do do we mean that on Monday? Do we mean that on Tuesday? Do we do we mean that in our finances? Do we mean that in our thoughts? Do we mean that in our worries?

Like everything for the glory of your name? my my whole world, my whole life for your glory. But consider how you will feel one minute after you die when you get to see God in all of his splendor, in all of his power, in all of his glory.

Even his angels were so fierce and and and and and and worthy of awe that when they showed up with mail, like God's FedEx drivers, to see one was to fall at its feet as though you were dead and to try to worship it. That's his FedEx driver.

Imagine how you'll feel seeing God for the first time. And what will you think of this life? Would you not give everything to come back and actually give it all for the glory of his name? To actually not just in word but in reality to give God your highest praise.

To get will you not in heaven want to come back and praise him all over again but with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with every ounce of passion, with every bit of enthusiasm, with every part of your heart to give God a true sacrifice and praise.

Listen, once you get to heaven and see him, you can't come back. But news flash, you're not dead yet. You're still here. So all across the church, we can praise him. So from the front to the back, all across the church, come on, give him praise. Tell him, "My whole life for you, God.

My whole world for you, God. There's no treasure like you, God. Eye has not seen. Ear has not heard. It hasn't even entered into the heart of man what you've prepared for those who love you, who are called according to your purposes. God, we're your people. Be pleased with our praise.

Come on, give him the glory. Please do my heart. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Jesus, I love you. I'm the center of it. My heart belongs to you. You're my savior, holy. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. My soul will live to sing.

Jesus, I love you. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. I love you. >> Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you. Lord, we're in this world. We're we're we're put under so many brands. We wear brands and our our clothing. We we have we drive a car that's got a huge logo on it.

God, we we we get so easily defined and caught up with with with man-made brands that that that categorize us politically that categorize us when it comes to what what what sort of exercise we like, what what diet we we adhere to. We live with so many names that we want to put on us and that other people want to put on us.

But there's only one name that's eternal. There's only one name that's life. There's only one name that's salvation. There's only one name that can save. There's only one name that can heal. It's the name you gave us. So God, God, help us to see the beauty of your name.

God, help us to see the wonder of your name. Come on, sing that out one more time. The wonder of your name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. His name shall be called Jesus. that he shall save his people from their sins. Lord, help us to see that's the one name, the one name that's above every other name in our lives, in our hearts, in our souls.

Jesus God. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. There is no only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? It's only you. Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you Jesus. There is no one. Only you Jesus. There is no one. It's only you, Jesus. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy.

He's holy. He's holy. There's no one like the Lord. No one can do the things that the Lord can do. So God, we we still our hearts to seek you. We set our hearts on pilgrimage to journey towards you. God, we live in a world of so many temptations and trials and and difficulties that all are trying to get our eyes off of you.

But we choose God as your people called by your name to declare our true allegiance is to you and to your kingdom. And let every man be a liar, but the Lord tells the truth. We worship you, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. We exalt you, Jesus. Just come on right now.

Just just lift up your own voice. Just tell God. Tell God who he is to you. Tell God how great he is. Tell God. Come and just lift up your your own prayer. Lift up your own song. Come on, let the Holy Spirit of God lead you in adoring him and thanking him and giving him adoration and giving him glory.

We love you, God. We need you, God. Jesus, we're lost without you. Let our focus be on you. You said if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. Oh, God. Draw near to us. Here we're seeking you, God. We're worship. You're the lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world.

The lion of the tribe of Judah, the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the friend of sinners, the bright and morning star. You are the resurrection and the life. You are the king of kings and the lord of lords. We revere you, God. We tremble before you.

We are your servant and you are our king. You are our God. You are our guide. You are our shepherd. You are our friend all the way to the end. And when we leave this world, passing through the valley of the shadow of death, we will open our eyes and be satisfied when we awake in your likeness.

Heaven is our true homeland. Your word is our guide. Your spirit is our power. We worship you. We love you, God. Come on, sing it again. Lamb of God. >> Oh, you're lamb of God. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. You might Yeah. Heat. Amen. Amen. Welcome to the Fresh Life Church Encounter Night as a part of our Lent Fast 2026, our journey towards Easter.

You made it. We're glad you're here. every location, church online. We're so glad to have you. Let us know if you are joining online, where you're watching from, where you're worshiping from. Uh, and if you're at one of our locations, come on, give a couple hugs out on your way to your seat.

Give a couple hugs out before you sit down. We're going to sing some more in a moment, but we're going to open up God's word here. If you've never been to one of these nights of worship and encounter, we're we're simply taking the time fasting and praying fasting and praying all week and then to to really just have a release vow for all that time with God and, you know, time trying to focus less on the things of this world and then to come together and worship.

And so, we're going to sing. It's going to be a little bit more free. Of course, we've got kids in. We're so glad to have kids here worshiping tonight all across the church and the chance to take communion and interact with Jesus in that unique way. I mean, he only gave us two things, right, to to do, right, to to be baptized and then to take communion.

There's only two ordinances he ever gave to the to the church. And so it's a really special privilege to get to break bread and and drink the the juice, the fruit of the vine and and encounter him in a in a unique way. That's the right way to put it.

You know, it's it's it's less than eating and drinking the body of Jesus, right? But it's more than just a cracker and and and juice. There's something magical would not be too strong of a word. Mystical would not be the wrong word. Symbolic, powerful, unique. um important and and and and solemn is good to come into communion with.

But I think if you I've always said this, if you don't end with a a cheers, like you're doing it wrong because Jesus said, "You're eating and drinking with joy until I come again." I mean, if he was just dead, if he just like if a guy pushed you out of the way of a car and got killed doing that, then you could every year on the anniversary of that remember him solemnly.

So if it was just the death of Jesus, we should be thankful forever. But there's this whole resurrection thing, right? There's this whole he he's not dead anymore thing. So, I mean, that changes the end of communion for me, right? Knowing he sort of conquered the grave and and then we're we're participating with him and keeping our our senses awake until he comes again.

I really just want to open up God's word. God gave me a very specific little devotional just to encourage you with tonight. Uh the title of it is be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you wish for. Because of course, as it's been said, you might just get it.

And what a thing to get what you asked for and to find out after you get it, it was not at all what you wanted. It was not anything close to what you needed. We're going to dovetail in if you have a Bible two places. Ephesians 5 and Numbers 11.

Numbers 11 and Ephesians chapter 5. We on the weekend are talking through the seven deadly sins. We've covered wrath. I've discovered I'm angrier than I than I thought I was. We talked about greed. Shockingly greedier than I thought I was. Uh we talked this last weekend about gluttony.

And man, God just opened my eyes up to see how much of an issue this is and how important it is for us to deal with these things. Because the seven deadly sins we've said, if you haven't been with us, are like the enemy's capacity to build wasp nests in our lives that can then be used to spawn generation after generation of wasps.

That's why they're the deadly the sins. All sins deadly. So that it's not like, you know, gluttony or lust or, you know, sloth or any of these sins are are are more dangerous in the in what they can produce in your life by way of like life or death because all sin leads to death.

But the seven deadly sins have been uniquely recognized as in as opposed to just an individual bee floating around to to to things that can actually build bees hives in your life. Beehives in your life. And so by looking at these, we deal with them and and we cut off what he wants to do through our lives being opened up to the it's it's an original Trojan horse, right?

So, as we've been talking through these, we came to gluttony this last weekend, which we of course have it in our heads is just just eating excessively, but a different picture is painted, and that is eating obsessively. And so, we took some time and we just like journeyed through Genesis to Revelation showing the the throughine of appetite and eating when it comes to sinning, right?

Just as we can't separate Jesus from eating and drinking, he gave us this meal. We cannot separate uh sinning from from from eating all the way back to the very first sin which was was of course a sin to eat what we were not supposed to eat. And I mentioned very quickly in passing this text numbers chapter 11 for I talked about the grave where you crave right the enemy wants to get us through our appetites into a grave that's connected to how we crave.

And and so what I want to do is just take a few minutes and just actually show you that story because I I I referenced it like it got two seconds of my sermon, but all week it's where God's had me just camped out. The chapter is titled the people complain.

I feel like you you feel seen now in church. You feel like like a little bit like wow, how they know how they know to come for me. The people complain. This is the first narrative progression from Mount Si. So in Numbers 10, they're about to leave. They're packing up to leave Mount Si for the first time headed towards the promised land.

Now, of course, spoiler alert, when they get there, they won't go in because they give into their fears. So even though the whole point of leaving Egypt was to go in, but first God stopped them at the mount si so he could tell them when they get in how to live, right?

Walk this way is what happened at Si. And and so now they're all ready. They got the ultimate pep talk from Mount Si. They they got this moment with God and now they're all ready. They know when they get in how to live. And they're going to get to the promised land, the edge of it, and choose to not go in.

And so they will spend the next 38 years unnecessarily wandering around a wilderness they were only ever meant to pass through. I think some of us we we end up camping out in permanently in places that God never intended us to stay there. Unlike Joshua and Caleb who had a spirit to enter, they had a spirit that was afraid.

They stared more at the giants than they did at their god. And so this this whole thing just becomes a train wreck, right? But this is numbers 11. The very first day journeying towards this milk land of milk and honey that God had promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

The last thing that just happened was they played the you know how like bands have a fight song like your college would have had a fight song. They would play it before the team would take the field. You know like that it just get everyone all riled up.

God gave the children of Israel two fight songs. One fight song for when they were to go and one fight song for when they were done traveling for the day. And now they were going to come to rest because God would lead them in the night with a pillar of fire and in the day with this pillar of cloud.

Whenever the the cloud or the fire moved, they were to keep moving. And whenever the cloud or the fire stopped, well, he would say like, "When I dip, you dip, we dip. We're doing this together. If I stop, you stop." >> And so he said, "But just so you know, I'm going to give you these two songs.

So you're going to worship with these trumpets. There was two silver trumpets that were uniquely given that were to be blown that would would that would signal to the people it's time to move or it's time to stay. And there was another blast given when it was time for just the leaders to gather.

And and the New Testament, by the way, talks about if the trumpet blast is uncertain, how will the people know what to do? That's what it's referring back to. That's why we can't just be New Testament Christians. I know you love you some, you know, Romans, but but you will never really walk in the fullness and the power of what the whole Bible says if you don't actually understand the whole Bible.

Awtoer, we found out this week said, "It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian." And and so when you read something about the trumpet in the New Testament at Christ's return, you're not going to get it if you don't have this picture in your mind of the children of Israel waiting to advance.

And then when they heard the blast of these two silver trumpets in the certain configuration, now they knew what to do. Now they knew where to go. And we, by the way, do wait, according to Paul, to the church of Thessalonica for a trumpet to blast from heaven that tells us when it's finally time to go home.

When that fight song plays, ain't no grave going to hold this body down. But that's not my sermon. I just like the two silver trumpets. And I got to I got to just say how much I think that's neat. He said, "Whenever it's time to go, the ar the ark sets out.

The trumpet's blast time to go. They're to speak out. Rise up, O Lord. Let your enemies be scattered." That's a fight song. Rise up, oh Lord. Who's going to stop us now? Rise up, O Lord. Let your enemies be scattered. We're following God. We're going with God. You can go to school that way.

You can go to You can go to work that way. You can head into your week that way. Rise up, oh Lord. May every demonic enemy that comes against me in the name of Jesus be scattered. I'm going out in worship. I'm going out in blessing. I'm going out.

I'm going out with praise. >> Rise up, O Lord. They knew the cloud was up. They knew the fire was. Rise up, O Lord. No one can come against the Lord's anointed. May your enemies be scattered. Look at this. Then they This is not my sermon. It's just cool.

When they were to stop, when they were to camp out, when they were to sit, when they were to rest, when they were to sleep, they were to say, "Return, O Lord. Return to the many thousands of Israel. Return, oh Lord. We've been going. We've been doing, but now rest on us, God.

Return, God. Rest on us, God. You've been out fighting against the enemies, but now, Lord, would you return and rest on us? Would you return to the many scattered thousands of Israel? Would you rest on us?" We can say that not just not just when we go to sleep at night.

We can say that when when we come into the house for the meal, when we come into the house at the end of the day, return, oh Lord. We've been out doing doing, but now Lord, would you return to the many thousands of Israel? Would you rest on us?

So they've been given these fight songs. They've been given the law. They've been given the game plan. They've been given everything they need. Oh, also they were given mana because they were hungry. And so God made it rain bread from on high. And when they would wake up, there would just be this magical food ready for them to eat.

And look what it says. It says, "Now when the people complained," that's the next verse. "It displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it. His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp." Then the people cried out to Moses.

And when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of the place Tabarah because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now look at this. The mixed multitude. Remember a minute ago I was telling you there might be some mixture in your hearts.

You might be crying out to God, but deep down there's a little bit of you that's crying out for something else. Living for a different There's always some mixtures in the multitude God's trying to deal with who are among them. They yielded to intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?

We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt. That's what we call an oxymoron. You can't freely eat when you're a slave and you don't have freedom. They were not free in Egypt. We ate freely. We remember how good it was in Egypt. We we we we ate freely.

We ate freely in Egypt. What do we cucumbers, melons, leaks, onions, garlic? But now our whole being is dried up. There is nothing at all except this mana before our eyes. What they prayed for in one season, they're now complaining about in the next chapter. We ate freely in Egypt.

Well, yeah, of course your captives fed you. They had to fatten you up so you could build pyramids for them while they murdered your babies in the Nile River. >> We wish we could go back, though. We had it so good back then. This is human nature, ladies and gentlemen. revisionist revisionist history, rosecoled glasses looking at a previous season.

Now the mana was like coriander seed. Its color like the color of bedellium. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones, or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, made cakes of it, and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.

And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the mana fell on it. So long story short, every nutritional need they had was contained in this in this mana. It had a oily honey like taste. It was perfectly prepared for their needs. It could be ground into different things.

But they apparently got sick of all the recipes they could think of for it. I told you on on Sunday that they had made their manacotti. They made their banana pancakes. They made their managetti manifer manac cola. and they couldn't think of any other ways to cook it.

And so they got sick of it and they they they detested it. They hated the taste. Couldn't stand the sight of it. So Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families. Everyone those this is the jokes by the way people. That's that's what we do. Everyone at the door of his tent, the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused.

Moses also was displeased. So Moses said to God, "Why have you afflicted your servant? Don't bring this to me. Why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me?

Carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers. Those are all God's promises, by the way. He's bringing God's word back to him to deal with the hardship in front of him. That's a pro tip. Where am I going to get meat for all these people?

Costco's not open and hasn't been invented yet. They weep all over me saying, "Give us meat. Give us meat that we may eat. Give us meat. Give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me.

If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now if I have found favor in your sight and do not let me see my wretchedness anymore. I can't do it. This is too much. It's the greatest thing you could tell God when you're up against something you can't do.

Tell him. Tell him you can't do it. And guess who can? He can. He's got a plan. He's up to something. You just got to tell him. He knows it. Deep down. You know it. But you need to hear you say it to him. and he wants you to say it to him because he knows you need to say it to him and then he can take over.

So the Lord said to Moses, "Gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you." This by the way is how the Sanhedrin got started which its origin story was awesome.

Now, they did end up crucifying Jesus. All voting to have him put to death, but its origin was good. And so, we have to be careful. Like, we're so mad at the Pharisees, so mad at the religious leaders, realizing they started out good, but went astray slowly just like we can, just like any of us can if we drift.

Then I will come down and I will talk with you there. I will take of the spirit that is upon you. And look at this. and I will put the spirit that's upon you, the same I will put upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.

Then you shall say to the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, you shall eat meat. You want meat, you're going to get meat. These leaders who I'm going to appoint and anoint through you and empower through you are going to tell the people, "Hey, meat's coming. Meat's coming." Because you think it was so good in Egypt.

Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat it. You shall eat it not one day. You shall eat it not two days. You sh it not 5 days or 10 days or 20 days. You're going to have so much meat that you could eat it for an entire month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have despised the Lord who is among you and you have wept before him crying out, "Why did I ever leave Egypt?"

Moses said, "The people I am are 600,000 men on foot. Yet you have said I will give them meat that they may eat meat for an entire month. Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them to provide enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to provide enough for them?

Hey, guess what? Not your problem. If God says it, it's not for you to obsess of how it's going to happen. How is it going to happen? How is the promise going to If he said it, that should settle it. Why? Well, look what God said to Moses.

Has the Lord's arm been shortened? He said, "Bro, when did I become a T-Rex? When did I get little arms? What makes you think I am unable to do what I said I'm going to do? Did I not part the waters of the Red Sea? Did I not slaughter the Egyptian army?

If I'm going to bring a meat for a month, why do you have to worry about where it's coming from? Now, you shall see whether I say what will happen to you or not. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people, placed them around the tabernacle.

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, took of the spirit that was upon him, placed the same upon the 70 elders, and it happened when the spirit rested upon them that they prophesied, although they never did so again. That was apparently a one-time thing.

But two men had remained in the camp. They didn't come out when the 70 went out. They weren't picked in the draw. They weren't picked in the draft first round. The name of one was Lad. The name of the other was Mad. And guess what? The Holy Spirit came upon them, too.

They weren't even in the group. They were just in the camp. But there was such a thickness of God's spirit pouring out. There was like almost like a ricochet overflow like when you put too much, you know, slurpee in your slurpee cup at the gas station and they got filled with the Holy Ghost.

They were not among those listed, but they did prophesy. And a young man ran and told Moses and said, "Oh, dad and me, Dad, are prophesying in the camp." to Joshua, who didn't have parents cuz he's the son of none. Moses, his assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, "Moses, my Lord, forbid them.

Tell them to quit it. Tell them to knock it off." And Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people would prophesy. Oh, that every You think I'm angry that Eldad and Midad are prophesying? I wish every one of the 600,000 men plus women and children would realize the power of the Holy Spirit that would be available to them.

I wish they would all pray. I wish God would put his spirit upon every one of them. And Moses returned to the camp. He and the elders of Israel now a wind and look at it's crazy, isn't it? We're going back and forth between what seems like two totally disconnected narratives, but it says, "Now a wind went out from the Lord.

It brought them quail from the sea, left them fluttering near the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. And the people stayed up all that day and all night.

Why? Because there was quail, it seems, up to their hips. So many quail were brought in when God just snapped that it was quail up to their hips. And they began gathering the quail. He who gathered the least gathered 10 omers and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp and they began to glut themselves on the meat.

But while the meat was still between their teeth before it was even chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. So he called the name of that place Kibro Hatava, the grave where you crave, because there they buried all the people who had yielded to their craving for meat.

I've been thinking a lot this week about my dad. And I've been thinking a lot specifically about what it was like to watch him die and what it was like to see him subdued and to see him not move. There was a moment that I kept thinking about this week in our fast where I asked the hospice nurse,"Wh can't you feed him?

Why can't you give him something to drink?" Because it was agonizing for me to watch him just think how thirsty, how hungry he must have been. And she said sweetly, kindly, she said, "But what felt cruy to me, we find it just prolongs things. It just draws it out unnecessarily.

Your dad's dying. That will just slow it down and make it worse." It was so hard to watch him not eat. It was so hard to watch him not drink. But as I think back upon it, my dad was getting ready to die, getting ready to close his eyes for the last time, getting ready to have angels fly over me as I slept by his bedside and collect his spirit and rush it to the presence of his heavenly father. where there is no hunger, where there is no thirst, where there is no sorrow.

His body didn't need more food cuz his body was done carrying around his soul for the time being until the resurrection. So, it was his soul that the angels took, not his body. His body we buried. His body's in the grave in New Mexico, but his soul is alive and abundant and vibrant in the presence of the Lord.

And I I just kept thinking as I didn't need another meal, as I didn't take the the more food into my my body this week by choice. There's food in the fridge. I have Door Dash on my phone. But every time I chose to not eat, I I I was thinking about how it's a chance and an opportunity to sort of perform a dress rehearsal for my death for the moment when I'm looking over my feet at my family, maybe unable to speak, getting ready to leave this body that I tend to care about, if I'm honest, sometimes more than I take care of my soul, cuz I can rush out out of the house with my teeth.

You know, I will never rush out of the house with my teeth unbrushed because I wouldn't want to subject you to that. But how many times have I gone out of the house in a rush with my soul unbrushed? We tend to pamper our bodies and starve our soul.

So when we take a moment to fast, what we're trying to do is flip the script. And we're trying to just for a minute say no to our body to say yes to what all the time is the most important so that we don't end up in the grave where you crave like the mixed multitude who had everything they needed from God but complained because they were under the control of their cravings.

And if they had been given melons and leaks and onions and garlic, guess what? it would have just shifted to something else. Which is why for many of us when we fast, we're tempted to spend even more time on our phones. We'll find the the pressure pushes somewhere else.

I don't know if it if it's you too, but I have been so crabby this week. So crabby, so easily complaining on a hair trigger. Why? Because Richard Foster said, "Fasting reveals what controls you. You just don't get to know as long as you're giving it to yourself.

It controls you blindly. So when you take it away for a while, when you don't when you when you when you because think about it that the the flesh is willing. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We hold on to God. I I was thinking about how like holding on to God is almost like sometimes with like two fingers.

Our spirit wants to but it's weak. And our our our our flesh we we got a strangle hold on this life. Everything we eat, everything we watch, everything we see, we just like this. So fasting just momentarily just just pulls a few fingers off of this life and latches another finger on to eternal life.

It allows us to focus more on the bread we can't see than just the bread we can see. >> And if we find something bubbling up like range ra like rage or or or lust or complaining or the just just just just crankiness, we've we've realized through our complaining what's been controlling us in our cravings.

And so so so the juxtiposition of the text is there for us to remember what is available to us all the time in God's Holy Spirit. Which is why I had you also turn to Ephesians chapter 5. And if you glance at verse 18, Paul tells the church at Ephesus something that face value doesn't have any connecting but is actually in one verse the entire chapter of Numbers 11.

In one verse Paul says it took him one verse. It took Moses the whole chapter. Here's what it is. Not a competition. And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Don't get drunk. That's putting yourself under the control of a craving.

Instead, put yourself under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. You had a choice. You had a choice that day. It was a mixed multitude. You had a choice. What am I going to do? There's quail up to the hips out there. It wasn't on the menu when God selected the menu, but we knew better and demanded it get added to the menu.

That's like walking into a a Michelin star restaurant and demanding they put a a corn dog corn dog on the bottom. I know it's a 28 course meal picked by a chef from France, but I want corn dogs. Uh, God gave you something that doesn't even exist. A perfect meal with every fortified nutrient you would need for your wandering.

It's like the MRE mission ready to eat. Meal ready to eat on your mission. And they're clamoring for meat and onions. And so you want meat so bad. You want meat so bad. I'm like Arby's. I'll give you the meat. You want it? But be careful what you wish for.

Because every commentary I've read agrees there was actually no judgment on them. The plague that God unleashed on them was go ahead and give into your own appetite. Watch what happens. And they ate until they burst. The buffet effect till it was coming out of their nose in their teeth.

Still hadn't even swallowed the last bite. They dropped over dead. That is essentially a picture of sin. If we fully give ourselves over to our appetites, our our cravings are a banquet in the grave. And here's the worst part of it all. That's outside the camp. Simultaneously inside the camp, the Holy Spirit's pouring out in such a a a chocolate waterfall of glory that there's ricochet.

It's just landed on randos who just walking around like whoop, thus sayaith the Lord. Like I is that me dad. Me dad normally like d you know bless me dad's heart. But now all of a sudden m me m me m me m me m me m me m me m me m me m me m dad be like holy holy hol.

He's speaking out God's truth to his gen and and and Mo Moses, his assistant, the assistant to the original Moses, tries to shut that down. He's like, "We need to put a kibash on that." And Moses says, "Listen, this is the key, I think, to the whole chapter.

I wish that all God's people would enter into the fullness of the spirit." How easy in this world to be fattened with quail and to be drunk with wine when the Holy Ghost has been poured out on all flesh >> has been Moses's prayer. Listen to me. I wish all God's people could.

They couldn't then. Only the 70 and the lucky two and Big Mo got it. >> That was a different dispensation. But check it out. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on every flesh. Young women, young men, old men, old women, middle-aged, bucktoothoth, bold cut, it don't matter.

The Holy Spirit is for every Christian. And there ain't no JV. >> Every one of us can have all, listen to me, all of God that we want. >> You are as full of God as you presently care to be. as much as you're willing to say, "I don't want the quail.

I don't want the I don't want the drunkenness. I just want the bread that came from heaven." And guess what? The bread's got a name. His name is Jesus. He is the bread of life. So why are we setting aside food? Why are we choosing hunger? is so we can remind ourselves I was made for more and I don't want my life to end up in a grave where I craved.

I want to be in the camp where the Holy Spirit is pouring out from a spout that God has turned on all the way. And in these days we can be filled with God with the fullness of God. The love of God is wider and deeper and higher and past finding out.

But we will only experience him to the degree that we are willing to crucify the passions of our flesh. And so in this season, we're saying, "God, I want you. I don't want that Turkish delight that the queen gave Edmund." Remember that? And the the the the narrator says, "If Edmund had been allowed, he would have kept eating till he died."

Because no one who eats the bewitched food will ever feel satisfied. They'll keep eating and eating and eating and eating and eating. They will eat themselves to death. But the bread that comes from heaven is the only substance on earth. That the more you eat, the the more room there is for him.

That somehow he magically opens up your capacity. Your satisfaction can can continue to grow. Your capacity for God can continue to grow. so you could forget everything you ever thought you knew about him. He's a he's prepared in a moment to blow away your preconceived notions of what's even possible.

Because the word impossible is not a word that is in God's dictionary. So as you continue to feast on him, as you continue to delight yourself in him, you will watch as he just continues to unrolled unroll and unfurl who he is to you. And so the more of him you eat, the more of him there is to feast on.

Our desires that the cravings we feel thinking if I could just get this, if I could just get that, I'd be happy. They're pointing us like a signpost to the only thing that we were meant to actually feast ourselves on. That will never make us sick. That will never leave us hung over.

That will never end with us bloated. That the sweetness remains in our mouth like honey. And so the question is what is it? The question is what is it? You know that's what mana means. They named it what is it? Because when it fell they had never seen it before.

So they called it what is it? And the name stuck. Literally its name is what is it? And I ask you what is it? What is it that you're settling for when true riches are being offered? What is it? What makes you cranky? What what what what has more control over you than it should?

What lust do you need to leave at the foot of the cross so you can pick up that cross and carry it and follow him? What is it? Your your complaints reveal what is controlling you. God's spirit is open and fully available to you. These are my points.

I am going backwards through them. Only the bread of life can satisfy you and your appetites are slowly killing you. The Father will give the Holy Spirit if we ask all the power we need to do all the impossible things God's called us to do. If we Amen.

If we ask the God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who who who ministered through Moses. the God who poured out on the 70 and these two these two bros who got lucky that day that that God is is in your story in your life willing to pour his life out upon you.

So would you pray with me in a posture of receiving? You can open your hands. You can stand up. You can you can kneel. Just whatever receiving means to you. God, would you give me eyes to see the real feast is you? I let this week be a little dress rehearsal for the end, God.

There's joy to be found in food. We're going to there's going to be times of delight and blessing. there. It's not like food's bad, but we do this now in this season like your word says to draw near to you so that our eyes can can be open to what has unnecessary control and power over us.

God, we don't want to settle for quail or booze when your spirit's offered. We want the only thing that controls us to be the spirit and power of almighty God. So we ask Lord like you said we could for you to give us your Holy Spirit. Come upon us, fall aresh on us.

We want nothing more than you. Oh father, give us clean hands. Give us a pure heart. Help us to not swear allegiance to any idol, any lesser thing. We crave for you. We seek after you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have sought for the Lord like the deer pants for the water.

We We crave you, God. We crave you, God. We need you, God. Pour out your spirit. Pour out your spirit, God. as we sing. If you would say, "Man, I don't want to be in the mixed multitude. I want to be I want to be in that number.

I want to be in that number when the saints go. I want to be in that number. When the saints go marching, I want to I want to repent of some cravings. If there's some things that just have unnecessary control over you, the the space at the front of our of our gatherings, we're going to call an altar here in this moment as we sing.

If you just need to say, I I repent for some for some hankering, for some meat. I want to crave after God." If you if you know you need to just have a moment at the front, a moment on your knees, a moment just repenting as we sing.

God can't fill what's already full. God can't bless what's already distracted. Turn from those things. Come on, let's sing out. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. To worry. What are people going to think? Some of you know you need you need to get out of your seat. Some of you need to to leave those old idols behind.

Just just come to the altar. Come to him. Come and and humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. Oh, in my heart burns. for you and my heart in my Oh, and my heart burn you all in my heart. Oh, in my heart. Heat.

Heat. N. Oh no. Oh miracle. be in my heart to my heart. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, you burn in my Oh, burns clear and my heart burns. Thank you Lord. You are worthy.

You are worthy to be worshiped. We love you Lord. We don't want to despise you. We want to desire you. We don't want less of you. We want more of you and less of us. We hunger for you, God. We thirst for you. We're desperate for you. We need you desperately, Lord.

Thank you, God. I pray that our hearts would burn for you, Lord. Thank you for your presence in Jesus' name. Well, this is beautiful. and we're going to just turn into a time of prayer together as a church. And I love when we as a church gather when we've been fasting and praying, when we've been gathering on our on our prayer Zoom calls early in the morning, and then we just get to be together all across our church at every location online.

It's just like like a sigh of relief. And we're gonna take some time now and pray. And what I want to to do is spend some time together praying out loud together. And um I kind of want to get into a gear if you would go with me of pleading to the Lord.

Last year we went through this series called All kinds of prayer. And my my message that I got to preach on was about supplications. Philippians calls about supplications and prayers. And in the Greek, that word is pleading with everything that you got, praying with your abs. And I just believe that God has something for us as we just surrender to him, as we pray specific things together.

And thank you, Levi, for that word. lifechanging. And God calls his church, his house, his house of prayer. And this is who we are, Fresh Life. This is this is what we do. And um he just led us in a time of of confession and and repentance. And I believe that revival doesn't happen unless there is confession, unless there is repentance.

And God wants to revive our hearts. He wants to awaken our hearts. And so in this time, the band's going to play loud. So you can just be yelling out. You can be crying out to the Lord and believing that he's going to to move and he's going to change things in your heart, change things in your mind, change things in your life.

We have been learning some of the hardest things ever in this church on the weekends. We've been learning ridiculously crazy things that are pointing to deep deepseated things in our souls and to get to have a chance to just confess to him. And this should be something that we're doing on our own, but we want to do this now where we're confessing our need for God, confessing our sins, repenting, saying, "God, I have not made the right choices.

I have not done well. I've not done good. I I need you. I want you. And so now, let's let's pray out loud together. And it's going to feel weird, but let's just all raise our voices. And we won't feel weird when we're raising our voices because we're all doing it together.

And the band's going to play loud. So, don't worry about that. And here we go. Let's Let's pray. Let's confess. Let's repent. Let's tell the Lord we're sorry. We're sorry. Just cry out to the Lord. God, we need you. We confess that we can't do anything on our own strength.

We are nothing without you, God. And Lord, we thank you that with you all things are possible. You take the impossible and you do something beautiful. You are good. You are God. And we just say that we repent, Lord. We repent of our sins. We repent where we choose ourselves, where we choose our idols instead of you.

Lord, would you take the center stage of the throne of you on our hearts? Lord, be the king of our lives. Be the Lord of lords. Lord, we don't want to do the things that we do, but we want you. We want more of you and less of us.

More of you and less of us. We say yes, God. Yes, God. And we need you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. In this next in this moment, we just have a few little prompts, but um I just want to pray us together for revival. We know that we've learned that revival starts when we draw a circle around ourselves.

That's where revival starts, where we're choosing Jesus for our own, where we're loving him with our whole hearts. because we can't love others until we are fully in love with Jesus. Until he his love is pouring out on us. We can't do the things that he calls us to do with our whole heart until our whole heart is his.

And so I just want to ask us tonight to pray for revival that God would awaken our hearts. Like my husband said, like awaken our senses. We don't want to be asleep. We don't want to be lulled to sleep by what the enemy so easily can can sway us with.

And so, let's pray for revival in our hearts. Let's pray for revival in our church. Let's pray for revival in our cities. Let's pray for revival in the prisons where we get to preach Jesus and share God's love. Let's pray for revival. And let's call out, let's plead, let's give our supplications to the Lord.

Let's pray with all our abs as we just say, "God, bring revival. Heat. Heat. Lord, revive our hearts. Awaken our senses. Awaken our spirits. We don't want to be found asleep at the at your return. We don't want to be found asleep at any given moment. We want to be able to wake up in the morning and say, "Maybe this morning.

Wake us up, Lord. Revive our hearts. I pray this over the youth in our church, Lord, specifically. And I thank you so much for what you are doing within the youth in this house. The the youthled movement that is just beautiful to behold. And I pray for more.

You've lit in a fire. Continue to fan the flame. Fan the flame in all of our hearts, Lord. We want to be on fire for you. We want our hearts to burn for you. Thank you that you don't leave us how we were, but you are so good and so faithful to be our shepherd, to keep leading us, to keep guiding us into all that you have for us.

And I just pray for someone right now who is maybe struggling with that very thought. maybe just believing that where they are is where they are. They're they're stuck. But I just want to say over you that you're not that God is with you. And you might be stuck in some quick sand or mud in the in the valley.

Or maybe it's good. Maybe you have some green fresh grass around you, but you're stuck. And only Jesus can get you unstuck and help you keep walking with him. Thank you, Jesus. And in this moment, I want us to plead on behalf of others. And we all know people who are hurting.

We know families who have been struck by suicide. We know um people who are aching, who are desperate, who are anxious. We know people who are struggling with illness, with cancer. We all know somebody. And so in this time, I just want us to cry out to God, to lean in to those families who are grieving and to pray for them.

So let's now let's pray pleading on behalf of others, the people that you know. Yes. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, heat. Hey. Lord, we do plead on the behalf of others, the people who are close to us, the people who we don't know as well, but who we they're just on our hearts.

And Lord, I pray that we would also be aware that we might be the answers to our own prayers. The people that you put on our hearts, Lord, maybe you're you're asking us to reach out. Maybe you're asking us to sit with them. Maybe you're asking us to pray and to plead and to intercede for them.

And we want to be your church mobilized to obey you and to walk in everything that you call each and every one of us to do. And I thank you that it's unique. I thank you that you look out into this room, into every single location, and you see the one that you love.

And you see that you have a specific calling on their lives. Yes. In work and in school and in family, but also to just reach out to the people in their lives to to be a part of this house to building a bigger table so that more people can be a part of it.

And so God, we just want to be aware. Help us to be pleaders, pleaders, asking you to move cuz you want to and you want us to be a part of it. So would you help us? Would you help us to be aware and to pray for the people in our lives, Lord?

And we also pray for for movement. And Lord, we pray for for students, for family groups, for youth groups who don't even know that they're coming yet. We pray that you would instill in them just a hunger and a thirst for you just a an the idea of I'm going to be in Montana this summer and my life is going to be changed.

And we've known that every single year there has been a call to to youth to stand up and to ra rise up in their calling. And so we just pray now that you'd be softening their hearts. And we just believe that you are going to move in power in ways that we have we have yet to see that we have never seen.

We love you Lord in Jesus name. And we're going to sing a song. Bless God. And um and I really just want to encourage you to give God worship to give him the worth do his name with the everything that was just instilled in our hearts. Not despising the Lord but desiring the Lord with a posture of prayer.

I want us church to grow in our posture of worship. I believe that as we move around and you may not be a mover, but I believe that as you move your position, as you kneel before God, as maybe you raise your hands a little higher than before, as you move and as you just lean into him, that things can be shaken from your life as you do.

And that I believe that. And so I want us to grow in how we worship. And it isn't don't think, "Oh, I got to do all this stuff to be awesome." It's our response to a holy, perfect God. When we go to football games, you better believe people are doing crazy stuff.

They they're painting their bellies. They're painting their faces. They're screaming like you've never seen anybody scream. They're raising their hands. They're yelling. But that is for football. We serve the Lord our God, the creator of heaven and earth. So why aren't we like that with our God? And I just want to encourage us, church.

Let's grow in this. Let's worship our God. Let's bless our God forever. Blessed are those who run to him who fixing confidence in Jesus. They won't be shamed. And blessed are those who seek his face, who bend the knee and fix their gaze on Jesus. They won't be shen.

Come on and praise the Lord with me. See if you love his name. Come on and lift your voice with me cuz he's worthy of all our praise. Yes. Blessed are those who walk to him whose hearts are set with Jesus. This is his glory. Blessed are those who died.

What joy it is to give it all for Jesus and for him only. Oh Jesus, all for your glory. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Bless God in sanctuary. Bless God in the fields of plenty. Bless God in the darkest valley. Every chance I get, I bless your name.

Bless God when my hands are empty. Bless God with the praise that calls me. Bless God when nobody's watching. Every chance I get, I bless your name. Bless God with the weapons for me. Bless God. Bless God for he goes before me. Every chance I get, I'll bless your name.

Bless God to the victory. Bless God for He's always with me. Bless God, he's always worthy. Every chance I get, I miss your every chance I want. Heat. Heat. Call it your offering. Sing if you've known his grace. Come on and lift up your holy hands. He's worthy of all our praise.

Oh, he's worthy of all our praise.