Okay, Turn to your neighbors. Now. Tell 'em your favorite example of friendship. Could be movie, could be tv, could be novel, graphic, novel, whatever it is. While you're looking at this, turn to each other, what's your favorite example of friendship? Go ahead. Talk to each other. You got trouble and I got 'em too. There isn't anything what you do for you. We stick together. See you too, because you got a you got a friend in me? Some other folks might. Okay. First of all, let me just say welcome to those of you at, uh, at each of our sites at Pennon Grants Trail, mid Rivers. Those of you joining us online from other places around St. Louis in the world. Let's, right here, just somebody in these sections here. Best, best example of friendship. A friendship Sandlot. It's a, yeah, guys. Say that. Yeah. Okay. Anybody liking in these sections? You got Scrubs. Okay. Scrubs. I heard you. All right. And then somebody said something over here. You got 16 candles. Okay. Anybody in these sections? Popcorn. Say it again. Popcorn. Popcorn. Okay. Alright. Anybody else? SpongeBob and Patrick. Say it again. SpongeBob And Patrick. SpongeBob and Patrick Classic. It's just classic. It works. It works. So here's the thing. Y'all have friends? Yes? Yes. Did, did like, when we talk about this stuff, are you like, oh man, I got friends. Or maybe it's an ache where there used to be a friendship or maybe it's a longing where there was never a friendship friend matter. I mean, they, they've, you know, there's all sorts of studies that show how it, it contributes to our satisfaction with life. It, it, people who have, uh, who have friends are less likely to experience depression. There's one researcher, uh, Julianne Holt, uh, Lauten, who says that, uh, when she studies it would, if you have a, she calls it a solid group of friends, you are less likely to die of anything. It doesn't mean you're bulletproof, but you are 50% more likely to withstand whatever it is that comes if you have friends. It doesn't mean you're invincible, but you got friends, you got a chance. Okay, so, so we all have friends and some of you're going, wait a minute. You've been talking about like, we're in the middle of this seven day series, this epic series. Jesus last week changes everything. So much drama, so much tension. And like no offense, we're talking about SpongeBob and Patrick. We're talking about Thelma and Louise. We're talking about Sam and Frodo. Greg, stay on point. Well, let me show you how it's on point. Lemme show you how it's going to matter to us by the end of our time together. If you'll remember last week, if you're joining us, we're walking through day by day by day this last week. We call Passion week Holy week. Last week was Tuesday. Tuesday was the long controversial day of so many debates and challenges. Jesus is in the temple complex. He's dealing with so much going on there. Y'all remember last week how our own Nathan Brown helped us understand when Jesus dropped some truth on those Pharisees in the temple complex. You remember how he did that? I would say so beautifully. You remember that? Yeah. I mean, that's, that's a thing. We should celebrate that. Yeah. And we're gonna wait for a second. 'cause Fenton's still celebrating. So, uh, so, but okay. Yeah. So now here's the thing. Uh, that was Tuesday, but Jesus wasn't done. You see, if you read the gospels, which you will see is after all that business in the temple, he takes his followers, his disciples, they leave the temple, they leave the city, they go up the hill to what's called the Mount of Olives. It's a hill that overlooks the city. And he begins to share even more truth, like some pretty heavy truth. You find this in Matthew chapter 24 and chapter 25. But we're gonna pick things up now at the beginning of chapter 26, where we read these words. Now, the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread were only two days away. So this is looking forward two days into the future Now. So it that means it's this meal that's gonna take place after sundown on Thursday. We'll get to that next week, but it's Tuesday night going into Wednesday. And then these words, the chief priest and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. We've been saying all along that there is this rumble, this undertone of something that is happening, something ominous, and it keeps growing louder. That's still ongoing. The cross is waiting at the end of this week. So where does Jesus go to catch a breath? Where does he go to just let his guard down a little bit? Where does he go to get away from this? Even for a second, what we've been saying, he goes to this place, Bethany. Now, if Jesus had a base of operations to the north, uh, it would've been Capernaum around the Sea of Galilee. But if he had a base of operations to the south, surely it was Bethany because he comes back here again and again and again. It's about two miles away from Jerusalem. And, uh, so it's close enough that you could go into the city, but then you could come back and rest there. Now, this Bethany is, it's on the other side of the Mount of Olives. So let's just show it this way. It's just a couple of miles away, but it's on the other side, kind of the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, just far enough away to maybe avoid some trouble. This is where he rests. This is where he gathers himself. If you piece the gospels together, he's there Tuesday night, as best we can tell all day Wednesday, and maybe a good chunk of Thursday, he's there in the house of his friends. So there's so much here that we can look at, but I think we should pray now and let's, let's, let's ask God to speak to us through this story. Father, we come before you now, and as we always do, we ask for you to reveal things to us. Some of us, this will be really new stuff, Lord, for some of us, we'll be tempted to think that we're familiar with it all, but you have something new and fresh and, and helpful for us right now today. So I pray that each of us, Lord, each of us will take just that next step and, and allow ourselves to hear from you in these moments. Holy Spirit, move through these rooms and these conversations. Lord, we ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Now, I need to tell you this as we get started, all right? Full disclosure, we have no idea what happened on Wednesday. Seriously, the gospels are silent about Wednesday. You can piece all of this together, but most of the experts, when you put it together, Wednesday is a silent day. We just don't really know what happened on Wednesday. We can, we can sort of, uh, determine that they were in Bethany. And if he's in Bethany, he's at some friend's house, he's with some friends. Can you let that settle in for just a second? Jesus had friends. Yes, he's the king of the universe, but Jesus had friends. There were times in his life where he wanted to be with some friends. Can you even imagine that? Now, you're gonna help us imagine that at the end of our time together, were you all at each of our sites watching online. You're gonna help us imagine what it is like to have a friendship with Jesus. I'll show you what that means in just a few minutes. In fact, I'm just gonna tell you now when we get to the end, like there's gonna be a section of this where you're gonna think, oh man, I think we're done. And we're just gonna go on a ride for about another five, six minutes. And then we'll get to the end of the end. And I hope you state so that you can see and, and, and, and, and experience what you all are going to prepare for us. Okay? Now, who are these friends? Well, John 11 tells us this. If you look at it now, a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha, village of Mary and her sister, Martha. They sent word to Jesus. Lord, the one you love is sick. Alright? Now, a couple of things here. We don't have the exact timeframe when this very famous story about Lazarus takes place. We don't. But I want you to know, for many of us, it took place a lot closer to the time of Easter than we might've first imagined. A lot of times we just kind of chunk all of these stories out there and then, then we get to the end. Most biblical scholars, when you piece it all together, they're not gonna tell you exactly when, but most of them, and I could give you names like Witherington and Scott and Wright and Craig and a whole bunch of others, they will tell you that this thing that happens with Lazarus probably happens like, I don't know, a week, two weeks before Easter. I mean, it's close. So I want you to feel the tension of all of this. Mary and Martha, we know because we've seen them earlier in the gospel stories. We know they're sisters, they have different personalities. If you've been with us, you would know that John right here says, it's not just that they love Jesus, Jesus loves them. These are, these are friends of his. But then there's that other phrase. This is the first time we've heard of Lazarus, and I love that phrase. They're sending word to Jesus. He's already on his way to Jerusalem. He already knows what's waiting for him. And he gets word, Hey, you know the the one you love. He's sick. It's Lazarus, but he's not just sick, it's terminal. And it turns out he dies. And there's a whole story there that we won't go into today, but Lazarus has now died. Jesus shows up in Bethany four days after his death, four days after his death. Now, just so you understand, the, the rituals back then on the day you died, you were buried. You were buried on the day, you were the, the, the, the day you died. And then, and then begins a week of, of traditional mourning and weeping. And I mean, it was a thing, it was almost chaotic. There were people that would come in from, from other places in the community, and it was loud and it was a lot. And Jesus lands right in the middle of that week of morning. I want you to picture, he's not sneaking in to the back of a funeral home. He's walking into a scene that is loud and a little bit chaotic. First one. And then the other of the sisters gets wind that he's, he's close. And so they come to him one at a time. Jesus is going to minister to them differently because they are different personalities. Now, Martha comes to him first, and we'll get to her in just a second, but when Mary gets to him, Mary just drops to her knees and weaves like, it's just so, it's just heartbreaking. It's like, oh Jesus, if you'd have been here, you could have, you could have, you could. Oh Jesus, he's gone so much trust, so much sadness. She's showing so much emotion. And Jesus sees this and he begins to express some of his emotion. A lot of it really. So I don't know that the English helps us much, but what we read is he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. He was deeply moved in spirit and trouble. And we can just blow right past that. Please understand, this is in the original language. This, this is not Mary, just a just weeping at his feet. Just, and, and Jesus just saying, yay verily Martha, I am deeply moved and troubled. It is not Jesus patting her wrist and saying, there, there, there, it's better. There. There. Just come on. Come on. No, no. It's not that at all. Jesus. In, in the original language, that word there, the root word actually means upset. It means like you're so disturbed that it's down deep. In fact, the, the, the, the root word there goes back to the idea of an animal that is snorting or roaring or grumbling. 'cause it's just upset. That's the sound. It's just, you ever been so upset that it wasn't pretty? You ever been so sad that it didn't sound pretty? Ah, ugh. That's what's going on. So what is he so upset about? Because some would say there's even like a almost an outrage that's woven into there. Well, what could Jesus be so upset about that he's outraged? He, it can't be Mary. He's not upset with her for weeping. He's not upset with his father. So what is it? Could it be the evil of death? Could it be the fact that that was never the plan? Could it be that God is looking around and going, y'all are just heartbroken? And it was never supposed to be this way. It's an obscenity. Paul says that death is the last enemy that will be defeated. You get to Revelation 21 and it's the last enemy that will be defeated. Jesus is looking around and going, it wasn't supposed to be this way. In Genesis, we learn that when we move away from, when we rebel against the author of life, we die. Romans three says that the consequence of our sin is death. And Jesus says it wasn't supposed to be this way. And then we read really famous words. He wept. So Jesus, now, you know, in the middle of all of this, he's, he's getting closer to the action and it says, Jesus wept. And if you've been at any church for more than a cup of coffee, you've heard a message about this verse or you've at least growing up heard a joke about this verse, Breacher, I don't, I don't memorize a lot of scripture, but I got one verse memorized. Jesus wept. Now, I've taught messages on this Jesus weeps. Here's the question I want to ask today. What if he hadn't? And what if Jesus hadn't been moved? What if Jesus, the creator of all things, just looks at all of this and says, yeah, That's, That's tough kiddo. But he's looking at it from a distance as if he doesn't really care, as if he's like, like distanced himself from it. Gang, I want you to hear me. Some of you're going through grief right now. Right now you're going through grief and there is a lie that is being whispered into your ear that he doesn't get it and he doesn't care. And you've got to deal with that lie because it's not true. The miracle of the incarnation is that Jesus chooses to not watch this from a distance. He moves up into this life. He walks as one of us with us. Jesus knows this pain. He knows what it's like. He knows what it's like to lose loved ones. He knows what it's like to, to see all of this happening. And it was never supposed to be. He knows what he's about to do, but he loves this family. And in the moment he grieves with them and then he gets even closer and it says another wave of emotion. He's look, I mean, it just says that he's, he's uh, he's once more deeply moved. Anybody here ever noticed in grief that it comes in waves? I think I got it. I think I got it. I don't got it. And it's right back on you. And then he says, y'all are gonna need to roll that stone away. Now this is totally me. I can't give you a chapter in verse, this is me. You can take it, you can leave it right here. I wonder if he was thinking of another grave and another stone that was gonna be rolled away. Not too far from there, not too long from there. You gotta roll the stone away. Martha. Ever the practical one, ever the practical one. Oh Lord, that is not a good idea. Like etiquette. All of it. Just mm-hmm. No, uh, Lord, he's been dead four days. There's a bad odor. Now, the King James version, the old timey translation that some of us grew up with every now and then, it just says it so much better. In the King James version, it says he stinketh Stink. You ever been there like you've been like hunting or camping or, uh, I don't know, fishing. You've been out, you've been away from places and maybe you've just been sick for a few days or, or you were just working out really long work, or maybe you just working out in the yard or project or whatever. I don't care who you are. I do not care how put together you are. Eventually we all stinketh. And I want you to hear me. It doesn't even compare to what Martha was worried about. Martha's like, Lord, please, we can't go. We can't, we can't. No Martha, we're we're gonna do this. I told you you were gonna see something today. Now we're back to that, that conversation that he had had with her. Martha is so frank with Martha. You know what you get? She and Jesus have the most beautiful frank relationship with each other. She comes at him with just the really blunt, direct questions and Jesus helps her. It is a beautiful relationship. I love Martha and I love watching Jesus help Martha. But at some point he says, Martha, there's gonna be a resurrection. She goes, oh, I know, I know, I know. I believe that in the last day, at the end of history, it's gonna happen. And Jesus is intimating something else. He says, no, Martha, you're gonna see something today. I, this is the famous line. I am the resurrection and the life. That's where this happens. Right here I am. This is like one of those I am statements that's in the, the gospel of John that we've talked about. I am, this is an echo of the Hebrew phrase that God gives to Moses. A I am that I am. I am the sovereign, eternal, unchanging God who was and is and is to come. I'm the one who is in charge of everything. Jesus is saying. Here I am the one who's gonna make things right. I am the one who's gonna have the last word. Martha. I am the resurrection and the life. Do you trust me? You can have that life now, do you believe me? Are you with me? Martha, he loves this family so much. He prays, he cries with a loud voice. This is the voice that's shaped the cosmos. This is the voice that caused you, the universe to explode into existence. Jesus says He Jesus cries into a place you and I like. We have so many questions about so many doubts, about so, so many worries and anxieties and fears about Jesus calls out into the grave Lazarus. Now, Augustine centuries later said, Jesus had to use his name or by his power when he cried out, he'd have emptied the whole cemetery. I don't know if that's the way it worked or not. All of these people, yeah. Oh no, go back. He just wanted Lazarus. Just Lazarus. Here's what I know. The God who speaks and things happen that got spoken to the grave, Lazarus come out. And I think there was a moment like the one we just awkwardly experienced. I don't know how long it was, but Jesus has never been this far out on a limb publicly with a miracle. He's like speaking into the grave like this guy can hear him and everybody's going, oh, what does he expect to happen? And the next verse, the dead man came out. Y'all that'll preach. The dead man came out. He was wrapped in these linens because they're, they're not Egyptian. The Egyptians would embalm the, the, the Hebrew people would just tuck these spices in. But Lazarus is alive again. The dead man came out. Now let's just be clear. Lazarus will die again. He's resurrected, but he will die again. When Jesus experiences his resurrection, he has defeated death for evil. That is it. And we, we clinging to that promise one day that we will experience that. But in the meantime, Lazarus is alive. Now at this point, some of you are like, man, ooh, that's good. Some of you're like, I want it to be good. Like my heart is with you Greg. But my head still thinks y'all are a little bit crazy if you believe this really happened. And if that's you, I want you to know you're in the right place. Welcome to the Crossing. There is a reason we have this, uh, multi-week experience called explorations. And I'm just gonna take a second and invite you one more time to be a part of this class. It's a, it's a, many of you have heard about this. In fact, you've heard about it so many times that you've kind of built up an immunity to the invitation. But I'm asking you right now to consider what would it be like to come join us, invest in your life, your friendships, your eternity. Come join us for this class. You get to ask whatever questions you want. And some of us are thinking, well you know what? I think I'm probably beyond that 'cause I think I know pretty much everything. Well, okay, that's a problem. But if you are someone who already believes, this is a chance for you to learn how to articulate your faith to people who are, who are wrestling with this. I just wanna say to each of you, like right now, you could grab your phone. Some of you have already registered. We've got, I think we still have some room. You should reach out to one of your friends and say, Hey, let's do it together. But this is a chance you need to know, we believe Lazarus was, was raised from the dead literally. And I don't think people looked at him ever the same again, we know that scriptures tell us that they looked at Jesus differently. But I'll go you one further. I don't think Lazarus ever looked at Jesus the same again. 'cause Lazarus knows that he knows that. He knows that Jesus is enough. Now, my guess is none of us have had a miracle like that in our life. But I can imagine that many of us have experienced Jesus coming through for us. That family never forgot how Jesus came through for them. This is what I'm gonna ask you to help me with. Now, would you, at each of the sites online here, would you take out your phones? This is where we use the app. I'm gonna ask you if you would, the apps free. It's easy to get wherever you get your apps if you want to join in. But I'm gonna ask you if you would, as you have this conversation with each other win like in a few words, 'cause we're gonna share this. We're gonna testify at the end. Oh, it's gonna be so good. When has Jesus come through for you? How has Jesus come through for you? So I want you to text and I want you to talk to each other. Would you share with each other? And by the way, if you're new to the journey and you're going, man, I don't know that he's come through for me yet, you can say that out loud and say, y'all talk in front of me. I want to hear about this Jesus. But let's do this. Now. How has he come through for you? Go ahead, talk to each other. Text. We'll be back in just a second. Hey, for those of you joining us online, I can imagine it's for a lot of different reasons. Uh, some of you, this is how you always engage with us. Some of you, uh, physically come to the crossing, but for one reason or another, you can't. This weekend we're so grateful that you're here. Uh, and we can't wait to see you, uh, in person. So come and say hi. Come join us as soon as you can. But for some of you, this might be like your first, second, third time of even experiencing this, this, uh, service with us. And so you're like at this point and you're going, man, I think I got about all I can take today. And you're about to leave. If that's you we're so glad you joined us. Thank you for being here. Come back next time. Uh, we have some resources available for you if you wanna reach out, if we can help in any way. I will tell you, if you hang in there, you're going to hear a story from a young man that I think it'll do your heart good. But I'll just say this, whether I see you in a second or I see you next week, we are really glad that you joined us today. So thank you. Okay. I can't wait to see your answers in just a minute. It's six days before Passover. Okay? So what does that mean? It means it's Saturday before Palm Sunday we're in Bethany. There is a dinner that's being given in honor of Jesus. Martha is serving 'cause that's what she does. Lazarus is there, remember really very recently now all of this miracle had hap so can, he's sitting at that table. And then Mary breaks open what John says is about a pints worth of this really expensive ointment oil. And she anoints Jesus and begins to mop up the drippings with her hair and the fragrance filled the house. Now for many of us, we've heard this story. For some of you, it might be your first time to hear this story, but no matter who you are, when we like really settle in and try to imagine this story, sometimes the reaction is that's just weird. Now, you're not gonna say it out loud, but that's the struggle. 'cause we don't know the context. We don't know why these things matter. It's kind of like the guy who like blew up the internet this week with his early morning workout. Anybody see him? Yeah, y'all saw him. You know who I'm talking about? Like, he gets up, he's got tape on his mouth, takes it off. He does his pushups at four in the morning. You guys know who I'm talking about? Ashton? I don't know his name. It's a, it like all over there were so many memes and like, you know, he puts all of his jewelry on before he does his workout. He eats a banana smears, the peel all over his face. I dunno what that's about. Um, and and, and the, the, the thing that became the meme was this. He would put a bottle of sparkling water, blue bottle. It was always a blue bottle, right? Product placement. He would put a, and then he would put his face in the bowl of sparkling water. The gang, I'm just telling you, I don't get it. I don't know. Dude was put together. I'm gonna say that. Okay, so he, okay, so something's working. I just, nobody explained the sparkling, I don't get the banana peel either, but I didn't understand it. So to me, I'm one off and it just seemed kind of, I don't know, odd, weird. It could, you could have that reaction when it comes to this story if you don't know why. So here's the reason why we've gone over this. But in that day, water was a scarcity. Like it is in a lot of places in the world. But you were washing your hands and you'd, you know, you, you'd do your best to wash your feet. And uh, then if you were the host, you would give your guests a little bit of something to just kind of, you know, help. Uh, and it served you and it really served the people who were gonna be sitting near your bare, sweaty feet. So it was just kind of one of those things that you did. But you didn't have to use the expensive stuff. John says she went all in with the expensive stuff. It was costly. And if Matthew and Mark are telling the same story from different angles and many scholars believe that's what's going on here, then she didn't just anoint his feet, she anointed his head, which means he's got this stuff all over him now and she's mopping up the rest with her hair. This is such a humble act of love. Now this kicks off a discussion about, whoa. And it's always a theoretical discussion. Don't you love those? Well, we probably could have splint that money differently and better. Now John is the one who tells us that that whole discussion was kicked off by a fellow named Judas Iscariot because he was the one who was the keeper of the money bag for the disciples. And then John offers this detail he used to help himself to what was put into it. So there's this whole posturing thing going on and everybody's like, well there's a brother. Where's burden of money? And Jesus, essentially, if you read this, goes knock it off. She's preparing me for my burial. What he's been telling him this for a long time. Now Mary doesn't understand all of this. She doesn't understand what's gonna happen in just days. She, she sees the look on his face, she hears the murmurs, she sees the, the clouds like gathering on the horizon. She could tell something's about to happen and she wants to tell him how much he matters to her. So she just does what she could never forget that that that that Mary had just seen her dead and decaying brother walk out of a tomb because Jesus just said the word. Never forget that Mary was known for sitting at his feet as a student, as a disciple. Never forget that Jesus treated her that way with honor and taught her. Never forget that she loved him and he loved her. This is a bold act of love. Y'all remember last week, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. So we love God with how much of us, all of us. That's what Mary's doing here 'cause he loves her. So, but then the rest of that, if you kind of put it all together is that Jesus said, we are to love God and love people. Now he's about to turn up the notch on that when he says, I don't want you to just love your neighbors as yourself. I want you to love each other the way I have loved you. Woo. So we boldly express love to God. That love begins to change us as we realize God has loved us. So, and we begin to love others in a way that reflects that love. Have you ever been on the receiving end of that kind? Love? Have you ever been on the receiving end of a love that you're like, man, that just reminds me of Jesus. You ever seen that happen before? I'm asking a friend to come out and help me with this. Uh, Steve is an integral part and for so many years has been just key part of our, uh, our technical team, which is why he's coming out of all of that back there. And you always back here and you got your headset on. And so I'm gonna pray that nothing falls apart while you're out here. They got this. Okay. They got this. Alright. Alright. Um, would you give us a little bit of background on you? Sure. So grew up, um, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Grew up in Ferguson. Um, born in the church. Raised in the church. Like my mom sang in a choir. My dad actually served in the tech area also. Um, found Jesus at that church. Was baptized at that church when I was uh, nine. And what I discovered after I was baptized is I just kept learning about Jesus. But I also found out that my dad wasn't perfect. Um, he had been hiding an addiction to drugs and alcohol from me, but not from the rest of my family. I found out like he was just hiding it from us kids. Um, that really started to just eat into his life and how he could not parent well or be a good husband. And that my mom and dad separated, um, around age 11 for me. And then they divorced around age 12 and he stepped outta my life completely at age 13. Now when was the last time you saw him? Age 12 or 13. Okay, so that's been it. That's been it. Yeah. Um, what happened after that is some of my dad's friends who didn't understand why he had succumbed to those addictions and some other youth leaders stepped into my life and started reminding me that Jesus still cares about me. Um, that my anger while being completely, if you can say justified, didn't have to define me. Like Jesus could still define me, Jesus could still push into my life and be there for me. And so all through those teenage years we'd meet and we'd talk about life and we'd talk about how there's more out there. One of those guys, I mean I was seriously debating dropping outta high school and he's like, you cannot drop outta high school. You will get nowhere without a high school degree. Mm-hmm. And I stayed in high school, got a high school degree, went on to college and got a college degree also. But So, so all of this is going on though, but let's go back just a little bit. Yep. At some point in your teen years, these guys are pouring into you, but your mom said, Hey, for a variety of reasons, we're gonna, we're gonna, we need to look for a different church for you, you guys to I think she called it, you need to finish growing up there. Yep. So talk about that. Yeah. So junior year, um, of high school for me, my mom was, is telling us that it's time to try and find a new church for us. And we try a few different churches around town. And then we land at this church in Chesterfield meeting at the YMCA at the time called Windsor Crossing Community Church. Uh, we immediately connected with some people there. We knew some people in that church, um, from the church we had just left, but we were there one week in August or September. And the very next week as a 17-year-old, I stepped back into that. I stepped back into the YMCA to serve at 6:00 AM to help set up and get things ready to serve people we don't know the names of Yeah. Every week. And I did that all through Yeah. High school and college until we moved into this building. But it it wasn't just tech team like you got into a small group. Yep. So got to be a part of the first youth group. The first youth pastor was one of those mentors of mine that was turning into way more than a mentor. Um, but he invited us to have a small group outside of the weekend service. So it was a choice to go to. And we just kept pushing each other into Jesus, into life. Um, some of those guys became some of my closest friends in my twenties. And we, we did all the high school things you do. We watched movies, we played music together. And then at somewhere along the way we started telling each other We love you. And for me that was like, it just hit differently when these people who aren't blood say, I love you. And there's, and you know that there's a friendship in there that wants the best for both of you. You want the best for them and they want the best for you. And it's just So now let's fast forward to your wedding. We all rem many of us remember that day and what a sweet day that was. But there was something that happened right before the wedding. Yep. So one of the mentors who way more, same guy who'd been way more than a mentor, I asked him to be my best man and he set up a dinner with a few other men who had walked with me through different stages of life. And we got to sit down and I felt celebrated. I felt reminded of Jesus' love for me and Jesus' love for this new marriage and this new family that it was gonna create. Um, and it was just one of those holy experiences that I didn't see coming. Like it was a little bit of a surprise. He just said, Hey, we're gonna go to dinner. Some other guys are joining us. I was like, okay, cool. What are we doing? But it was one of those moments I'll remember forever. So in the meantime, you've like, there have been people who've like noticed who lost track of you, who are like, wow, I was worried how you were gonna turn out Steve. And it's just been so beautiful for them to see you and your family and all of that. But I wanna go back now and connect the dot and give you a chance to say something. Mm-hmm. So this, this, there are these mentors, these men that have poured into your life at a time really of loss. And they, they, they filled the gap, they stepped in, right? Yep. And one of those guys, uh, is here, uh, and he's your former youth pastor. Mm-hmm. And now he's sitting on the front row 'cause he's one of our pastors. Mm-hmm. And I just want you to have a chance to say to those men, 'cause I think some of 'em be at the other sites and to that man right there, what do you wanna say? Thank you. Thank you for being patient with me. Thank you for not letting me sit in my anger for pushing me to good Christian counseling. Thank you for loving me the way Jesus loves. Thank you for reminding me that Jesus loves me so I can love my wife and my two girls. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you brother. Thank you. And Pastor Randall. Thank you. Um, guys, this is how the world changes. Uh, but I, I just need now we're on the ride. Here we go. Here we go. We're right at the end. Here it is. This is how the world could still change. But I just want you to understand, we can't offer this love unless we have received this love, until we have experienced this love. It's the kind of thing that heals and changes and restores. But it has to be personal before you pass it on. On. So what does that mean? So we're now in that, that night that Jesus is betrayed, it's that place where, where, where we just heard that Jesus is, is saying love each other the way I have loved you. And then he says these extraordinary words in John 15, I have called you friends like I haven't held anything back. I've called you friends. I want you to understand Jesus is the king. I'm telling you he's the king. He is the Lord of all. And somehow he has invited me to to be his friend. Like how can that even happen? Do you ever just kind of wonder like, how could I be that important to Jesus? He's got so many people to worry about. He's got way more stuff that he's dealing with and many, many more people who can bring more to the game. How could I rank at all? How could I be, how could I matter that much? Anybody else here wonder that? Do you ever wonder that about your own friends? Ooh, that's a dangerous road to go down. Like where do I stack up with my friends? Like am I number one, number two, number three, where am I on that list? Did you know that Snapchat plus will help you with that? It is a horrible idea, but here's how it works. They will take how often your friend contacts their other friends and they will rate it and they've put it into essentially a solar system metaphor. Do you know what that means? That means that you can tell where you rank. Like you could be, uh, you could be like, uh, uh, by the way, I think this guy's a little bit of a creeper, so watch out. But like you could tell how close you are to him. The friend is is the son. And if you're Mercury, oh I'm like his Mercury. Or you could be Neptune like way out there on the edge, almost out in the cold. Like you could totally, you could totally tell how you supposedly mattered to someone else by Snapchat. It's horrible. It's destroying relationships. It's creating anxiety in teenagers and 20 somethings. Listen to me, listen to me now. Jesus says, I call you friends, you come on. I call you friends. Jesus says, I choose you. You don't have to worry about where you stack up compared to other people. I choose you. I came for you. What A thing. It's the kind of thing that sometimes honestly the old hymns say at best. And again, we're on this ride right until the end. I wanna show you something. But first, uh, y'all lead us in this old hymn. So it's a stunning invitation. Jesus is saying, I want you to come in so close that we could be considered friends. But as soon as I say that, I know that some of you're going, you have no idea what my life is. You have no idea what I've done. There's no way he's interested in me. Well then you've either forgotten or you've never heard that one of the insults that was hurled at Jesus was that he was a friend to tax collectors and sinners. And it was meant as an insult. And I'm telling you, Jesus flat out owned it. I am a friend of sinners. He would say that's me. I mean, not because they deserve it, but because I choose them. Because I love them. That's the wonder of the gospel. We don't deserve any of it. Jesus chooses us. Go ask, uh, go ask Mary Magdalene about her past. Ask Zacchaeus about his corrupt ways. Ask Paul about the blood on his hands. Ask Peter about one of the first times he ever encountered Jesus. Like he sees the power of Jesus, the power of God working through Jesus drops on his knees and essentially says, you gotta get away from me. 'cause I'm an I'm a sinful man. Ask Peter about the time he failed his friend the night of the betrayal. Ask him about the love and the grace that restored him. You see, Jesus is his friend. And part of what that means is that no matter what you've done, no matter what it is that's bringing shame or regret or hurt, whatever it is right now that you're like, I can't even get close to it, in my mind, it brings so much regret. You need to know, God knows that God knew that when it happened. God hates that you did that. God hates that sin. And now he hates how it's breaking your heart. And Jesus says, I wanna take care of that. I came for you. I choose you. In that same passage, he leaves us with these words. Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. This isn't sentimental, it isn't fuzzy that this is our way out. Jesus knowing how close he is to the cross says, I will pay everything for you my friends. Now we don't know exactly what happened on that Wednesday, but we're pretty sure that Jesus was with his friends. And I'm guessing that there was a time of prayer. I'm guessing that he spent some time alone with his father. I could imagine them even reminiscing about some things. These guys are kind of clueless. I don't know what's going on, but I could almost, almost, um, can't guarantee you. But it sure seems right to me that at some point in Bethany, there was one who looked at Jesus with a different kind of look. I could imagine Lazarus looking at Jesus and like laughing man. He knew, he knew that Jesus was enough. May maybe I'm making too much out of this. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it. But I have to think as the dark clouds began to roll in on Thursday and we'll get to that next week, that this is the kind of day Jesus desired with his friends. And it's certainly the kind of day they needed with him. So I would just say this, let's love God boldly. Let's receive that love humbly, and then let's begin to share that love extravagantly with others. If you don't know who this Jesus is and what it means to move in that close today could be the day that you take the step. You can find any of us at any of our sites or reach out online or take that step towards explorations and let's figure this out together. But for some of you, honestly, you have received that love. But these days you, you've forgotten how real it can be. You've forgotten that He's with you. Some of you're going through a season right now, and I just want you to know you're not alone. You are not alone. It's real. And the power is real and God's not finished with you. And I am saying to you once and for all, Jesus really is the resurrection and he's the life and He's for you. He is for you. So now behold, the wonder of your testimonies, behold the wonder of a God who loves you as a friend.