Bread of Life Church of Fresno
Welcome to the Bread of Life Church Podcast! This podcast seeks to bring the Bible to life through teaching and sharing what God has given us in His word. The goal of these messages is to obtain a functional spirituality that is worked out on a daily basis through the love and power of God.
Bread of Life Church of Fresno
True Humanity | Made to Abide
What if the antidote to our anxiety-riddled world isn't found in self-care techniques or better coping mechanisms, but in rediscovering who we were truly created to be? This message cuts through the noise of a chaotic culture to remind us of a fundamental truth: we were designed for love, not hate or anxiety.
Drawing from 1 John 4:13-16, we explore how truly abiding in God's presence transforms everything about our lives. The playing field of love is completely level – whether you're naturally gifted at relationships or struggle with connecting, God's design for humanity transcends personality types and spiritual giftedness. The primary evidence of God's Spirit working in our lives isn't found in dramatic spiritual manifestations but in supernatural love that persists even when relationships get messy.
For those wrestling with uncertainty about their relationship with God, this message offers powerful reassurance. Throughout 1 John, the apostle repeatedly emphasizes "this is how we know" – providing clear anchors for our faith in a world that constantly questions truth. When we confess Jesus as Lord and experience His transforming love, we can walk with unshakable confidence that we belong to Him.
The journey from anxiety to peace doesn't come through being told "don't worry" but through experiencing the living presence of a God who is love. As we abide in Him and He abides in us, we find ourselves becoming carriers of the very love that has transformed us – not out of guilt or obligation, but from the overflow of genuine relationship with Jesus.
Ready to move beyond anxiety into the freedom of abiding love? This message offers practical pathways to experiencing God's presence in a way that changes everything about how you navigate relationships, hardships, and your daily walk with Jesus.
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once through your word in Jesus' name, amen. So I was listening to you. I didn't have, I wasn't in the room for it, but I got a chance to listen later on to Tom's message from last week. He used this term that I really enjoyed. He said true humanity means that you're designed, or you're made, to love, not hate, and I thought, wow, that's really right, because in the design of heaven, we're not designed to hate each other. We're not designed to hate anybody. We're not designed to be hated by anybody. We're designed to live in this love that translates to actual relationships between people.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but that's not necessarily our experience through daily life today. Occasionally there's people who are not loving, and occasionally those people are you. It just happens. I'm sorry, that's me. It's me. Occasionally I'm not loving. Occasionally I'm not manifesting the glory of God through loving each other. Wow, okay, okay. So we're all on the level playing field. Great, this is good. Nobody's making it harder or nobody's doing it perfectly, I should say.
Speaker 1:But he started this out of 1 John 4. Now, how many of you have had a chance to at all this week, maybe, read through some of 1 John at all. Some of you are diligent people of the word and so when we read something on Sunday, oftentimes you'll take that away and you'll talk about it in your life groups or you'll do it in your personal study. I would recommend that you do that because I would dare say this, I'm I. When I woke up this morning, I felt like God said I want you to preach the most encouraging message you've ever preached. I'm like, if you notice my face, my default is not like bright and shining. It's just like my resting face is not like a happy one. I don't know why, it's just the way my face is designed, but in my heart I am happy and I am encouraging, and so I'm going to try and translate and radiate that today, because that's the nature of what the Lord is.
Speaker 1:Through 1 John, he's trying to secure us in this identity. That says you really are made for this. You're made for love. You're made to abide in love. You're made to abide with Christ, not be separated from him. Now may have situations, and I'm just out of curiosity, you don't have to raise your hands if you're nervous about this, but I would be curious how many of you ever struggle at all with anxiety and would be willing to say, yeah, that's me All right, cool, good, you push, push hands down, so so I'm kind of freaked out. That's a lot of you. That's not true. I'm sorry, that's not true at all. Encouraging, encouraging, encouraging, right. Statistically speaking, roughly 25% of you would struggle with anxiety and be willing to admit it Roughly.
Speaker 1:Our world makes us anxious, anxious because it's broken. There was this cool garden that we all started in in Adam and Eve, that we all started in, and then our first parents, adam and Eve, decided to break fellowship with Jesus and to step out from under the love that he offered, the relationship that we could have with the Father. They stepped outside of that and then we showed up and we chose to step outside of it. We were sinners by birth and by choice. We chose that right. If we're all honest with ourselves, we do. That's what we do because we're broken and the world's broken, and that creates an anxiety. That's intense anxiety. That's not what you're designed to live in. You are not designed to live in anxiety.
Speaker 1:And how many of you have ever had somebody? You're worried about something, you're anxious about something, and someone comes along and says don't worry about that. Does that work for anybody. Has that ever been advice that you've given that's been heeded? Oh, I just don't need to do that. Oh, thank you so much. I hadn't thought of not worrying. When you tell them not to worry, what happens? They start worrying about how much they're worrying and you've just compounded the issue, right?
Speaker 1:Stupid story my first idiotic year of marriage. Sarah was fine. I said this thing twice. I told my wife to calm down. See, the barometric pressure in the room just changed because all of you went all right. You know that that's not the thing to do. You know that's not the thing to do. And it took me twice to figure it out. Didn't do it again and you can imagine the fun when I heard both of my sons make the same mistake when they got a little older and tell their mom to calm down. Now she handled it well, right, but I'm like, dude, you guys are going to learn that one.
Speaker 1:So how you handle stress, how you handle anxiety, let me tell you something as a believer because you're going to have stress, you're going to be anxious. How you handle it, how you walk in, that is a stark contrast to a world that's walking without Jesus. It is Because in Christ, you don't have to be anxious. You have this weird place where you can rest in jail, in shackles, like Paul and Silas were, like you can do that. That is not something they were naturally disposed to. That's a supernatural thing. But they love God so much. They're in his presence, they're resting with him, so it doesn't matter where they're at. Jesus sleeps in storms. He does, everybody else around him freaking out right, but that's not the message for today. That's a problem. That's a problem because the good news is that God came to us to restore us from this anxious life that we're tempted to fall into constantly and that the world drives us into.
Speaker 1:Because, by the way, if you're anxious, you're easy to manipulate. If you're unsatisfied and anxious, you are easy to manipulate. I can get you to buy something that's going to solve your problem, at least according to my marketing materials, and it's not. I can get you to spend money on the vacation that you think is going to solve your anxious. Because you need me time and no, you need Jesus time. That's what you need is you need Jesus time. You don't need me time. You really don't. You need Sabbath, need Jesus time. You don't need me time. You really don't. You need Sabbath. You need Sabbath, not self-care, right?
Speaker 1:So when we're looking at this, I want to look at this idea of we're to be truly human, restored to what life was like in the garden, restored to this place and this relationship with Jesus. If we can find that place, oh my, oh my. And the good news is it's not something that takes your effort to get to. It takes you knowing, knowing Jesus. Let's read in 1 John 4, 13 through 16. I'm going to do something kind of rare in that I'm going to camp out in just a few verses because I want to walk us through these few verses and get it really in our hearts.
Speaker 1:In 1 John 4, 13 and 16, it says by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, god abides in him and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. That is a lot of abiding. It's also a lot of knowing. We have come to know this. Now, what's interesting here? Just take a quick tangent here. For you Bible nerds, theology nerds that are in the room, right, everybody else this will be fun for you too, but the nerds are gonna like it.
Speaker 1:So 1 John is one of the latter books that's written, and what's creeping into the church is what's going to eventually manifest itself as this thing called Gnosticism. Gnosticism just means secret knowledge. The idea that is trying to creep into the early church is that if you know the secrets, then you are more holy than someone who doesn't. If you know this, if you experience this, if you have this secret stuff that's withheld from everybody else but to a certain special few, you get to know this and all of a sudden you get elevated and you're better than and you're more spiritual. Right, john basically goes to that. We'll clean that later. It's like that is not a thing, and that's one of the things Tom talked about last week as well. It's like that's not a thing as well. It's like that's not a thing.
Speaker 1:Now, in our culture today, we think that, dare, I say. In our church culture we think that. We think that, oh and I don't know if you guys have ever bumped into this before. I've bumped into this occasionally it's like oh, you're prophetic, which makes you special, so a certain set of rules apply to you that don't apply to me, so you can be uncool, you don't have to have a healthy life, healthy family, because you're prophetic and a different set of rules apply over here. Oh, you're apostolic. Oh well, in that case we will not touch your life, we will not look at the scriptures and examine it in your life and you can treat me like garbage because you're apostolic.
Speaker 1:Where is that in the Bible? The manifestation of the spirit of God in the heart of a believer is love, not tongues. It's not Prophecy, is not the manifestation that John is talking about here. When it comes to, I'm filled with the spirit of God. It's evidenced by love. If you can do all of those other things and you don't have love, you're just noisy. That's what Paul said.
Speaker 1:Now I'm a big fan of and I want to walk in love and be prophetic. I want to walk in love and be apostolic. I want to walk in love and operate in healing. But if I have a choice and you do, how I'm going to measure your spirituality is by your love. The truth is that's how the world measures our spirituality. They will know you're my disciples. By what your healing? No, by your love for one another. For who? For them, no for one another. Church is where we walk out our spirituality in the family of God and we walk in love.
Speaker 1:Now here's what's a bummer about that. It's easier to prophesy than it is to love. Words of knowledge are easy compared to love. Spiritual gifts that God gave, that you didn't earn, are easy compared to love. That's just your gift. So what you didn't earn, it God gave it. Why are you taking credit for it? Why don't we work on love? Let's work on love, right. So what's good about this is the playing field of love is completely even. You don't get to be absolved of. I'm not that gifted, so I don't have to love very much. Nope, nope, you can be the least gifted person in here and I'm not absolved from loving you. My unkind words are not exempt because of my giftedness or lack thereof, because the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead quickens us, works in us and all of a sudden we behave like him, because we're empowered by him and because we abide in him and he is in us Now.
Speaker 1:There's a subset of you in here that are exceptionally uncomfortable right now. It's probably those of you who argued on the way to church in the car. I only say that because I've experienced that. It's like I'm gonna go put on my spiritual hat here for a few minutes, but I'm gonna be snapping at the kids in the back saying things I shouldn't have said to them. You know, and I'm not going to say it's their fault, but it certainly wouldn't be mine. So some of you are uncomfortable in this moment. It's okay, that's just repentance away. Just if you argued with somebody on the way to church today, just look at each other and just wink. We'll all close. The rest of us will close our eyes, I don't know. Just resolve it and that little wink or that little blink or that little squeeze of the hand says I'm sorry, I love you and we'll talk about this later, right, just do that. Do that All right, because love is the evidence that we even have the spirit. We even have the spirit. So that's for you. Sorry for you, bible nerds.
Speaker 1:Gnosticism is a wicked root heresy that tried to invade the early church for hundreds of years and is still around today, manifesting itself in all kinds of reformed, charismatic Catholic nonsense. All of it, all of it, because it's trying to say that there's something you can know that will make you more saved than the guy next to you. Ain't true, ain't true. The other thing that's really fascinating to me on these three verses again, bible nerd time is, you see, trinitarian theology in this. The Son, the Father and the Spirit are all commented on in this and revealed in this.
Speaker 1:We live in a culture who says, well, actually the nature of God is he's one, 100% true, but he's only one, okay, 100%, not true. There is a relational nature that is a mystery of the Trinity that says the father sends the son and sends the spirit, and the son only does what he sees the father doing and his spirit bears with our spirit. And there's a relational nature to the nature of God that's revealed in scripture and this is a beautiful passage for that. So if you're ever talking with somebody who's like, yeah, there's only Jesus, was just God showing up in a different suit that day, it's like, no, let's look at the Scriptures and see what the Scriptures has to say, but the main thing is that encountering God means I encounter that love that is present in some mystery, in some way between the Father, Son and Spirit as their one, that now I get to touch and all of a sudden I get to walk in love so deeply and I get to abide just as they abide.
Speaker 1:I mean, jesus came and he prayed this prayer. He said, father, I pray that they, meaning his disciples, would be one as we are one. Can you picture the son getting really ticked off with the father? Can you picture the spirit going, yeah, no, I'm not gonna do that, just not gonna do that, not my jam. This is why the enemy, by the way, fights against churches hard, because if he can get one, two, three, four, however many there are of us here to love each other, he'll give you ecstatic experiences and hot meetings all day.
Speaker 1:You can have those, you can have this, you can have that, you can have some healings, a little salvation, all that stuff. But if you get a body of believers who love each other and live life together and go through the bloody mess that is this life and all the pain of it, and love each other through it anyway, that's a testimony. Like you don't all look the same and all the pain of it and love each other through it anyway. That's a testimony. Like you don't all look the same and yet you're getting along. Your kid just kicked my kid and I'm not punching you over it, you're getting along. You love my kid the way I love my kid. Wow, that's weird. What's that? Like you cut me off in traffic and I saw it was you with your little Jesus bumper sticker thing, and so I know you're not really saved because you cut me off.
Speaker 1:And now I'm going to harbor resentment in my heart for you. For a while you told my business to somebody else and gossiped in the church. I'm not going to forgive you and I'm never going to trust you again. That sounds an awful lot like love, doesn't it? That's rhetorical. That's not okay. Just to be clear, in case my face didn't communicate it. No, that's not the way that works. You get the opportunity to forgive. How many times? How long? How much? 70 times 7 in a day. I've messed up a lot in my life. I've never messed up that much in my life. 70 times seven, the same sin in the same day, that's the standard. And Jesus is going. Yeah, you're going to love anyway. If we can love in here, we're a testimony out there. If we can't love in here, the rest of the stuff is just noise. Let's not do noise. Amen, all right. So the Father sent the Son to die for us. The Father gave us the Spirit to live in us. So encountering God is to be changed. Encountering God is to encounter love, and when I encounter love I cannot help but have my life changed. Amen, awesome.
Speaker 1:So in 4.13, I want to point out the one of the things that John says here which I really love. He says in the NIV I think. It says this is how we know. Look at your neighbor and just say this is how we know. So in John there's like 10 times in 1 John where he's talking about this is how we know or some variation of that. Because what's he doing? He's like a good dad or a good mom, coming along, going. I know you're not confident, I know you're a little confused. This is how we know, this is what's true. And he's coming along and he's saying let me tell you what the truth is, because he wants you to be sure of it.
Speaker 1:If you're in this room today and you've given your life to Jesus and you're not sure if you're saved. You're not sure if you prayed the prayer right. You're not sure if you've done it all right. You're not sure if you qualify for heaven. John is speaking to you. Here's some of the things he's saying.
Speaker 1:In 2.3, he says this is how we are sure that we have come to know him. In 2.5, he says this is how we know and are in him. In 3.10, he says this is how God's children and the devil's children are made evident or are known by the way. That's by their love, not by their words. We know that we have passed from death to life. This is how we will know we belong to the truth and the way we know that he remains in us. In 4.2, it says this is how you know the spirit of God in us. In 4.2, it says this is how you know the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1:Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from is from God. He keeps going. There's so many places you need to know today there are in a world that says, eh, that's your perspective, that's your truth. This flies in the face of that, because John says this is how we know Each time he's reinforcing that God wants us to live in clarity, not confusion. He's reinforcing that God wants us to live in clarity, not confusion. If the enemy can get you confused, he can move you.
Speaker 1:How do I know that? Because that's what he did. Did God really say it's the original question Did God really say, or when he goes to Jesus and says, if you are the son of God, do thus and such, if John's coming to them and saying no, there is no. If there is no, did God really there is what I know, you can know God, you can abide with God. Isn't that cool. Look at your neighbor and just say that's awesome, it is, it's awesome. How do I know? Because he gave me his spirit. How do I know? Because I confess his son as Lord? How do I know? Because I confess his son as Lord? And we could talk about the fruit check of your spirit all day long. By the way, I just love preaching to Holly's mom. She's back there. I just love it. She's a lot of fun to preach to because she knows all the passages better than I do. She just does. And again, she's lived them and she's walked through life and so whenever she nods, I'm like all right, I'm cool. The rest of you may think I'm crazy, but she's fine, so I'm good, it's all right.
Speaker 1:We abide in God's love and he abides in us. That gift is eternal. That salvation is eternal. Walking with the spirit, like walking with God now, is only going to get better in eternity. This right now, right now, this day, right now, is the farthest, is the farthest, is the most ignorant you will be from here on when it comes to following God, when it comes to walking with the Spirit, unless you just reject him. But if you just wake up every morning and say, lord, I need you, I'm following you, it only gets better from here. It really does you. It only gets better from here. It really does so.
Speaker 1:In John 14 or John first, john 4, 14 and 15 talks about the. Actually, I'm going to read that we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, god abides in him and he in God. What I love about that, what I love about that, is that translates us from the private sphere of my own personal conviction and my own personal relationship with God and takes me into the public sphere. Confessions are not something you make between you and God, not confessions like this. Confessions are made in front of others. We testify, we confess. We testify about the goodness of God. We testify about the goodness of his son.
Speaker 1:So, even if I've had a rough week this week, I still confess that he's Lord. He's Lord of my good week and my bad week. He's just Lord. That's just the way it is, and he's transforming me so I can love in the middle of my good week and my bad week. I can walk in that. And there's 2.9 to 3.something billion people of my good week and my bad week. I can walk in that. And this there do you guys? There's 2.9 to 3.something billion people on this planet who have never really heard the gospel. That's a lot. Now, what are you gonna do about that? I'm gonna confess that Jesus is Lord when, all the time, all the time, I'm gonna confess it to the nations, like Kyle just did, and I'm going to confess him to my neighbors.
Speaker 1:Now, what's great is when my confession with my mouth matches my life filled with love, because I'm confessing that I know God, who is love. I'm confessing that I'm walking with him. That's what I'm doing, I'm walking with God. Now, what's really a bummer is when that confession and that reality don't match. Because then how many of you ever said you know what? What you do matters more than what you say? I told my kids that you told me you were going to clean your room. You didn't clean your room. How would you like me to judge this? It's not that hard. But if I know God and I'm abiding with God, then I'm transformed and I become like him in my very nature.
Speaker 1:So in the middle of this, what could be considered? Just this wonderful ooey-gooey moment of encouragement saying I'm in God, it's so great to be in him, I'm with him, I'm walking with him. It's awesome, I'm experiencing his presence, I'm manifesting his love in my life, around me, I'm operating in the gifts that he's given me. It's awesome. And in the middle of that is this idea of we need to be confessing and testifying to who Nick knows. I love Jesus. I don't need to tell him that every single day. My life should shout it in our relationship. Right, if I go out there and I express supernatural love to someone who doesn't know Jesus, that's awesome. What's better is if I express supernatural, true love to someone and I say Jesus is the reason that I'm like this. Can I pray for you? Jesus is the reason I'm confessing in that moment that says the transformation that happened in me can happen in you as well.
Speaker 1:You don't have to live hating people. You don't have to live hating people. You don't have to live broken. You can live walking with God. You can live secure. You don't have to be anxious If you've got 25% of the population that is bordering on or on medications for anxiety or counseling for anxiety. That is what we refer to as a target-rich environment.
Speaker 1:If social media and being on social media causes young people to be very insecure and anxious, one of the moms just said get them off of it. Yes, but not every child goes to my house. I don't have control of their devices, so I just need to know that they, the ones that maybe aren't around me. They are incredibly anxious all day long and if I can love them and then tell them you don't have to live this anxious, you don't have to live this lost, and then I bring the gospel to them, that's a good day. It's a famous I forgot who said it, but famous guy once said the good news is only good if it gets there on time. There on time.
Speaker 1:I don't want to just love people and have them experience the love of God poured out through my life, but never have heard the gospel, never heard my confession. That's a problem. I'd hate to have someone who, hypothetically, I've shown God's love to but I didn't preach to and they don't end up in eternity with Jesus. I'd hate to have that moment in my heart or in my mind where, if only I'd said something. Now here's the thing, that phrase right there, and what I just did there.
Speaker 1:What that can produce in you is guilt. Guilt does not preach the gospel. Have you ever had somebody show up at your house and they were obligated to be there? I've done that where it's like they didn't really want to come to my house. They just showed up because it was the right thing to do, right? Somehow they got guilted by somebody else to show up. They really don't want to be in the conversation, they don't want to be there. They would rather be somewhere else. Right? If you are motivated by guilt to preach the gospel, congratulations. Everybody knows it, especially the people that aren't saved. If you genuinely love people and that's what's motivating you, oh, they're confused by that, because you're not asking them for anything. You're not asking for them to validate your ministry by saying yes to your prayer. You're just there with an open hand saying, man, I love you. And then they're confused and wonder why. And then you tell them why and all of a sudden there's a different conversation that's happening.
Speaker 1:So, in the midst of abiding in Christ, is the mission of the gospel Amen. Jesus came to reveal eternal life, to cleanse us from sin, to advocate on our behalf, to be our example, to propitiate our sins, to destroy the works of the devil, to sacrifice his life so we could live. It's that simple. Why did Jesus come? Because he loves you. Why are you telling me? Why am I telling you about him? Because I love you too, and as much as I want you to experience God's love in this life, I want you to experience God's love in eternity, amen. So in 4.16, he repeats this idea of God is love. How do we know that God is love? Well, for one thing, he gave his son. For another thing, he gave the spirit. He transformed us. We know he loved because he gave.
Speaker 1:Is there such a thing as selfish love? No, no. Check 1 Corinthians. There's no list. Selfishness is not in there at all. Right, you are not designed to be selfish. You are not designed to be selfish. You are not designed to be alone In your original design as a human being made in the image and likeness of God, you are designed to walk in experience, be transformed by and show the love, the very nature of God in your life, and you know what you can do to earn that Nothing. You can't improve on it. If you're saved, you don't get to get more saved, you're just saved. What are you saved from? Eternity without God or eternity with God? It's a binary choice. You're either in, you're out. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 1:I can't get more in. I can become more like him. I can reflect his nature. I can walk through hallways and walk through businesses and walk through my home expressing his love in a different way. I can show off his love because with other people that I'm joined with, I can walk in love with. I can care about people that aren't in my own household to such a depth that I'm willing to give and sacrifice for them, to pray for them, to open up my home to them, to allow them to come and fellowship at my table, even though they don't belong to me, but they belong to Jesus, which means they belong to me. I can find people that are nothing like me at all and love them anyway. Those are the things I can do, because he loved me first, because he gave, so now I get to walk in real love and I get to abide in it.
Speaker 1:This is going to be really dumb. So sorry, can you just do this thing? Give yourself a hug for a second, like like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some of you are better at this than others. Other users are like dude, I ain't doing that, relax, the camera's not on you, the camera's on me. A couple of you dudes are like yeah, that ain't happening. All right, that's okay. You're not huggers, I get it. I'm not really a hugger either, but that's what it's like. It's like I'm so close, I'm abiding, I'm living in and I'm changed by him. Can you live that way? Can you live that way? That way, john says yes.
Speaker 1:John says you can know him, you can know that you belong to him. I'm going to do this for a moment If you could. I'm just going to ask if you could close our eyes, just for those of you who know Jesus. This is an affirmation that you know and are known by him. Can we get better? Yes, but we're never going to get more saved. We're just going to get more like him.
Speaker 1:For some of you, you may not know Jesus, you may not know his love. I'd invite you if you would just lift your hand, because after the service I want to pray for you. If you don't know Jesus, some of you are so tenderhearted right now you just lift your hand anyway. It's like no, no, I know your life, I know you know him because I know you love. But if you're like I don't know him, you're going to lift your hand. All right, I see that one. All right, I see that one. What I'm going to do is, after the service is over, I'm going to ask you to find Greg and Stephanie Steen. You can lift your eyes now again, but Greg and Stephanie are sitting right over here and for those of you that lifted your hands like that after the service is over, I just want you to go sit next to them or find them wherever they are, and ask them to pray for you.
Speaker 1:There's nothing worse than being saved by grace through faith, being reconciled to the Father, but then having days where you don't know, you can know, you can know and you can abide in Him. This doesn't make you perfect, but it puts you at peace and rest. You can know him. True humanity is being restored to the way we were created to be. It's abiding in him, his love is constant, his spirit is present and his grace is sufficient. His love is constant, his spirit is present and his grace is sufficient.
Speaker 1:I'd like us to stand as we get ready to close here. I'd like you to reflect as you stand. Are you abiding with him today? Is that real for you?
Speaker 1:If you're wrestling with anxiety or fear or doubt, and because of where I stand, when I asked that question earlier, I saw a few hands go up what I'd invite us to do is to express love for one another before we go, and because there's enough of you that we're saying you know what Anxiety sometimes camps out at my door. Sometimes I struggle with worry, because there's enough of you like that. What I'd like to do is just turn us loose for a couple of moments and if you've got a prophetic word for somebody, now is not the time. If you've been a prophetic word for somebody. Now is not the time. If you've been looking to pray for somebody and talk to them about something, now is not the time. Now is the time for you to be able to join hands and encourage your brother, encourage your sister, encourage your sister. Encourage them that they can know and they can abide with Christ today and that His love can be manifest in their lives even more today than it was yesterday.