When Repentance Overflows | Sunday Livestream | Mar 22, 2026

2:39 Heat. Heat.

3:41 Down. Hey. Hey.

4:40 Heat. Heat.

6:25 My soul. will rise to praise though I'll singes you are faithful and your Love. You are faithful and your love endures. You are faithful and your love endures forever.

7:16 Forever. Shakes when you send your love when you speak. You're the one who sets me free. You are faithful and your love ends.

8:04 You are faithful and your love endures. You are faithful and your love forever. Forever more.

8:52 I'll sing with the I see some we'll we'll invite the folks from the foyer to start making their way in and we'll get this uh time of worship started. So, uh, first off, if this is your first time here, first time here in a while, if you're if you're a guest or a friend, an extra special welcome. We are so glad that you're here and participating with us in worship today. Um, you're in for a uh a different kind

9:38 of Sunday. Uh, so today is not going to give you a taste of what a normal Sunday is like, and that is okay because we like to mix things up every once in a while around here. Um, if you are worshiping with us online, then extra special welcome to you. We're glad that you're a part of it. The service is going to be really short for you guys today. It'll only be about a half hour. Um so uh if if uh you want to connect with us, be sure to stop at valleychapel.org/connect and uh fill out an online connect card, we'd love to to connect with you in a meaningful way and help you get engaged. Um for those who are here in the room, if if you would do me a favor, in the pew in front of you is this connect card. Would you grab that connect card and hold it up, show it to me really quick? Would you grab that connect card,

10:24 hold it up, and show it to me? No matter where you are. Yeah, you might have multiple. You just need one of them. Grab that connect card, hold it up, and show it to me real quick. Awesome. Thank you so much. This card is for your good. This card is a tool that can help you to get plugged in here if you want to get plugged in here uh to learn more about the church. It's a tool for you to uh let other people know if you've encountered Christ in a meaningful way. Uh and one key thing that I want to tell you about is that we are fast approaching Holy Week. Holy Week starts next Sunday. And during Holy Week, you're going to have a pile of opportunities to encounter Christ. That's actually our main focus for Holy Week is to encounter Christ in the

11:09 stories of Holy Week. And on Easter Sunday in particular, we're going to be holding baptisms. We have two people who are going to get baptized. One for the first time ever and one who is uh re-affirming her baptism. And if you want to participate in that, you are not out of time. You still have time. Fill out a connect card and let us know that you're interested in baptism and I will follow up with you and and we can talk about what that might look like if you are ready to take that first really powerful step into following Jesus. So, that's your connect card. Uh, please fill it out if you've encountered Christ today. Um, now I just have a couple of brief announcements to share with you. Uh, the first one is mostly about Holy Week. I want you to know everything going on in Holy Week because Holy Week

11:54 has a ton of stuff. If you are not familiar with Holy Week, Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter. The week leading up to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus being the whole point of everything that we're doing here. Right. It's kind of significant. Um, so Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. So that's next Sunday. On Palm Sunday, our kids are going to help us out uh at the beginning of worship. They're going to have palm frrons and they're going to walk through the aisles while we sing and wave palm frrons as we remember Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Um, and then the kids will go and do an activity afterwards. You'll get a palm frond yourself if you want. A lot of people like to fold them into crosses.

12:40 It's a fun tradition that we do for Palm Sunday. After starting on Palm Sunday, every single day of the week from Palm Sunday until the Saturday before Easter, we are going to be producing a scripture reading video. And that scripture reading video is done by your scripture readers here at Valley Chapel. Um the videos will show up on our Valley Chapel app. They'll be on our website. They'll be on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram. They'll show up in an email to to anybody who signed up to our newsletter. And if you want to be on the newsletter, fill up the net card. Um shameless plug, right? Um, those videos, the purpose of those videos is so that as you navigate Holy Week yourself, you

13:27 can be soaked in the story because we primarily encounter Jesus through the story of his life and of his ministry, the story that we hear in the scriptures. So, I highly encourage you when those videos pop up, they're g they're going to show up at about 700 a.m. every day. You don't have to get up at 7 to watch them. They'll be there after 7 a.m. from then on out. Watch them when you when you're ready. But I encourage you to set aside time each day of Holy Week to just sit, watch that video in whatever way works for you and reflect on the story. Reflect on the story of Holy Week. See how you've encountered Christ in that story. I'll give you fair warning. You're going to want to set aside, you know, it's only like a about two minutes

14:13 for most of them except for Good Friday, which is about 12 minutes. It's a much longer story. So, you'll want to set aside set aside a good 15, 20 minutes to hear and soak in that story. But I highly encourage you to engage in that. And then when you've done so, I highly encourage you to share it with a friend or a family member. That's actually what today is going to be all about. And I said, "Today's a weird Sunday." Today we are only going to be spending about half of this service here in the sanctuary. The other half of the service we are going to be breaking out into groups that the spirit has assigned to us through those cards that you've got on your way in the room. The card is telling you what room you will go to. And in the room, you're going to find just some basic card making supplies and

15:00 some instructions that you and the other people who are in that room can follow to create a simple invitation to encounter Christ in Holy Week. Whether it's inviting somebody to watch one of those videos or inviting somebody to Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday or in the middle of the week if you got a friend who's like seems curious about Jesus but they're not so much about the whole going to church thing. That seems like a bit of a stretch. Maybe they like food. Just crazy idea. And on Monday Thursday, we are out in our ministry center, which is the building out that way. We are going to be holding a Monday Thursday soup and bread potluck meal. We're going to have our friends from West Mbury Baptist Church and from the United Church of uh Warsaw joining us. and uh

15:49 anybody else who chooses to come. I'm I'm still praying that more than just those two churches come. And we will be remembering the last supper and having a soup and bread potluck. So, if you have a soup that you're like, "Man, people just devour this soup when I make it. Please bring it. I want to try it." The folks from West Mberry uh have the best idea, and I'm just going to make sure you're well prepared. They actually show up with muffin tins so they can fill each slot with different soup. It's a good idea, right? They're clever over there, man. Um, so if you if you if you make bread or if you buy bread, if you make soup or you buy soup and you bring it along, you can bring it to that potluck. It's a beautiful time. We try to make sure we're all sitting at one big long table and we remember how Jesus we remember

16:35 communion. We remember how Jesus gave himself for us and we do that together. Um, so I highly encourage you to come out to that. That's Thursday evening at 5 on April 2nd and of course Easter Sunday where we are going to have a number of really meaningful things. We will also have communion on Easter Sunday. We will have baptisms on Easter Sunday and we will be having a we did this last year. We have a cross that we will be decorating with daffodils. Um and it's a really meaningful experience. I I highly encourage you to come and bring a friend along with. So now you know everything that's happening at Holy Week. There's more than just that around town. That's what's happening at Valley Chapel. Highly encourage you to to be prayerfully considering right now. Who in your your life might Christ be

17:22 inviting you to invite in to that experience? Now, I have one other announcement before we get started in worship, and that is about is more of a big picture free Methodist church announcement. For those who have been following, uh we have we have a new bishop. Um, his name is Frasier Venter. Uh, I had the privilege of spending some time with Frasier uh, a year and a half ago. Wonderful human being, loves Jesus. Um, I cannot express to you how confident I am in his ability to uh, help lead us as a church. This this election happened um, on March 17th. Um, Frasier uh, won the election by by a small margin. He had 51% of the votes.

18:09 Dr. Ricardo Gomez had 44% of the votes. Um, so there was it was it was kind of close there, but we believe that Frasier is the person that the spirit has has called forward. And I'll tell you an extra reason why I think that's true. I actually got to witness something back in 2023 um at our last general conference. Now, normally the free Methodist Church meets every four years for general conference. general conference is all the free Methodist churches and leaders in the whole country including our 40 different global missions districts and we come together and we vote on changes to our to our discipline. We vote on bishops who normally serve fouryear site four-year terms. Um, and at general

18:57 conference before the bishop elections happens, a gentleman named Kenny Martin was invited to come up and pray for the next generation. Now, if you've been paying attention to free Methodist stuff, you know that name because Kenny Martin eventually was at that general conference elected as our our first African-American bishop. And but this happened before Kenny Martin was elected. He was simply invited to come up and speak about the next generation. And as he was speaking, he sensed that the Holy Spirit put something on his heart that he was not to just talk to the next generation or to tell the current generation to look for the next generation, but that he was being called to literally pass down the mantle of

19:43 leadership to the next generation. And mid sermon, Kenny Martin says, "All right, spirit, were you inviting me to call up here to represent the next generation?" And he looks down in the crowd. And he sees one person and he invites him up and has him sit in a chair. He sits in the chair and Kenny turns around and says, "Take off your shoes and socks. You're sitting on holy ground right now." He takes a mantle off and he lays it on the man's shoulders and prays over him as a representative of the next generation. That man was Frasier Venture. This is before Kenny Martin was elected as a bishop. And now Frasier is stepping in to fill out Kenny's term that he is was unable

20:31 to finish because we extended our bishop's terms. I can't imagine a a more clear sense of what the spirit is doing in the free Methodist Church. And I want you to be encouraged by that story. Um yeah. So now, uh, I want to invite you to just briefly turn to a neighbor and just tell them how glad you are that they're there worshiping. I'm glad you're here worshiping. Alrighty. As our first uh our uh first

21:19 words of worship we want to give to the Lord. So would you uh read this call to worship with me this morning? This comes from Psalm 30:es 4 and 5. Sing praises to the Lord, oh you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. And now I uh as our first act of worship, we're going to step into stewardship. And I've got a pre-recorded video for some instructions about at Valley Chapel. We believe everything belongs to God. So when we give, we're not being generous with our things.

22:04 We're practicing faithful stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. And and we don't give to the church. We give with our church community as we learn to steward God's resources together. And and learning to become faithful stewards. It's a journey and and it's not one that you're meant to do alone. God has given you community to walk with you as you learn, listen, and grow. And one tool that we use for this is our into stewardship card. It helps you to pause and to ask if God is inviting you to take a next step of stewardship. And the beautiful thing is when you fill it out, it allows us to be praying with you as you take that step of faith. So take

22:52 a moment right now as we begin worship and ask the Lord, Holy Spirit, are you inviting me to take a step of stewardship today? I want to be faithful to your lead because we don't all give in the same way or at the same time. We don't pass a plate here. uh you'll see different ways to give here on the screen. And and however you give today, this moment itself is an act of worship, a way of saying with our lives that God is God and we are not. So let's unite our giving by praying this giving liturgy

23:38 together. Would you pray this with me? I will do the leader part and we'll all join in for the all part. God, you created everything out of an abundance of joy rooted in love. We believe that your love for us is beyond our imaginations. The pinnacle of your love was shown to us in Jesus and his self-sacrificing love toward us. You loved us even when we couldn't accept it. Lord, help us to follow your example, giving our love out of the abundance you have shared for the well-being of our community. Help us to show the world

24:24 your love through the way we share your resources. Amen. Won't you stand and join us for worship this morning? >> As you stand, let's just pray out. Come Jesus, come fill this place. We need you so much, Lord. Sometimes I fall. Try that again. I apologize.

25:17 I fall >> to my knees and pray Jesus come. >> Sometimes I feel I'm holding on >> to a hope that won't fade Jesus. We've been waiting so long

26:06 >> for the day you return to heal every hurt and write every wrong. Deep down I know this world isn't home. Come Jesus come. >> There'll be no chains

26:52 when Jesus comes. Let be the day come for the weak >> and the strong just the same >> and all will >> come Jesus come. Come Jesus come. We've been waiting so long. >> For the day you return to heal every hurt and write every wrong.

27:43 We need you right now. I know. Come Jesus, come Jesus come >> and we'll stand face to face. lay it all down.

28:31 >> The time is right now. There's no need to wait. Your path will be >> by rivers of grace. Yes, they will come. Jesus come. >> Come Jesus, come. We've been waiting so long for the day you return. To heal every hurt and write every wrong. We need you right now.

29:16 Come and turn this around. Deep down I know this world isn't home. Come Jesus come. Jesus.

30:08 Thousand generations fall down in worship and all who will Singes to your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name

30:54 stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and position your name above them all. And the angels cry. Holy all creation cries. Holy. You are lifted high. Holy, holy forever.

31:40 If you've been forgiven and you've been redeemed singed >> sing forever. Forever and amen. And the angels cry, "Holy, all creation cries. Holy,

32:26 you are lifted high, holy forever. Hear you people sing to the king of kings. Holy you will be holy. Holy forever. >> Your name is the highest. Your name is

33:13 the greatest. Your name stands above them all. Allions, all powers and poss stands above them all. Your name, >> your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and position your name stands above them all. And the angels

34:01 cry all creation cries. Holy you are lifted high. Holy, holy forever. >> Hear your people sing to the king of kings. You will be holy.

34:47 Holy forever. >> You will always be holy. Holy forever. >> Amen. He is holy.

35:41 God, I'm on my knees again. God, I'm begging again. I need you. Oh, I need you. Walking down these desert roads, water for my thirsty soul. I need you. Oh, I need you. >> Your forgiveness. >> It's like sweet sweet honey on my lips. >> Like the sound of a symphony to my ears. like holy water on my skin.

36:39 >> Dead man walks to sin. I want to know about being born again. I need you. >> Oh God, I need you. So take me to the river. Take me underapt. I need you. >> Oh God, I need you. >> Your forgiveness >> like sweet sweet honey on my lips. >> Like the sound of a symphony to my ears. like holy water on my skin.

37:30 >> I don't want to change your grace, God. I need it every day. It's the only change. >> I don't want to abuse your grace. God, I need it every day. It's the only thing that ever makes me want to change. One more time. I don't want to abuse your grace. God, I need it every day. is the

38:16 only thing that ever makes me want to change. Your forgiveness >> is like sweet sweet honey on my lips. >> Like the sound of a symphony to my ears >> like holy water. Your forgiveness Like sweet sweet honey on my lips. >> Like the sound of the symphony to my ears. >> It's like holy water on my skin.

39:05 >> It's like holy water on my skin. like holy water. Let us pray. Lord, help us to have joy when we are sick, when we are anxious, when we are in deep sorrow, when we are uncertain where our next meal comes. Thank you, Lord, we can come to you with these needs. Help us to see those who need you to give us the right words, the

39:53 right actions to give your hope. Let us as a church be one with you as you are one with the father. Amen. Good morning Our first scripture will be Psalm 30. I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. Lord, my God, I

40:41 called for you to for help and you healed me. You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead. You spare me from going down to the pit. Sing the praises of the Lord, you faithful people. Praise his holy name, for his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure, I said, "I will never be shaken. Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm. But when you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, Lord, I called. To Lord, I cried for mercy. What is gained if I am silenced? If I go down to the pit, will

41:28 the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me, Lord, be my help. You turned my welling into dancing. Remove my sackcloth and clothe me with joy that my heart will sing your praises and not be silent. Lord, my God, I will praise you forever. Then our next reading is from John 21 15-19. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I

42:14 love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep, my lambs." Again Jesus said,"Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you?" Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else

43:01 will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me. Thank you, Laura. And kids, stay right where you are today. Stay right where you are today. Uh, today's going to be a little bit different. I'm going to be sharing a very brief few words with you guys, and then kids, I actually need your help today. You see, what we're going to do with the grown-ups is kind of like what you guys normally do. You get a short message and then you go and do an activity, right? That's what you guys are used to. The grown-ups are not used to that. They're used to just sitting here and listening to me talk and not having to do anything. Um,

43:50 so you guys got to show them how. Okay, sound good? Can I get some thumbs up from the kids? Willing to help? Awesome. All right, grown-ups, follow their lead. They know what they're doing. You don't. You are learners. Uh, so Lent, Lent so far has taught us this rhythm, this rhythm of repenting. And that's what we've spent the entirety of Lent doing is focused on repentance. And it it starts with uh encountering Christ in a meaningful way, typically through scripture. But there's a ton of different ways that we can encounter Christ. But when we encounter Christ, we inevitably notice that there is a gap. There's some kind of gap between who we are and what we do and who Jesus would have us be and what Jesus would have us do. A difference, a gap.

44:37 The third step or after so the second step is we confess that gap. We say what that gap is. The third step is that we move toward Christ. We we try to close the gap. We move in the direction of Jesus after we've recognized a gap. And that means moving our bodies normally, not just our minds, but our bodies in some meaningful way. And when we come closer to Jesus, he typically has something for us because we can't get to Christ on our own. We can move in that direction, but we can't get there without Christ. He actually has to come to us. And as he comes to us, he often offers us invitations. Those are like invitations for us to obey him, to do what he told us to do.

45:26 Which is why after we receive those invitations, the last step is to do it. To do what Christ told us to do and that's what we are going to focus on primarily today at that last step. If you if this is your first time, you're like, man, there's like a whole thing here. I can tell you're right. There is a whole thing here. We got all those sermons online. You can go and watch them later. But don't worry, you will be able to engage in this today without having seen the other stuff. Um because here's the reality. If repentance only makes me feel better, it is incomplete. If repentance only makes you feel better, it is incomplete. So kids, this how this relates to you guys. Sometimes saying I'm sorry when

46:14 you've done something wrong feels like there, got it off my chest. I feel better because I said I'm sorry. But Jesus doesn't stop with just making us feel better. He wants to help us love other people better. So when we say sorry, it should help us to love other people better. There's a uh what Laura just read in the scriptures there. Uh if you guys want to turn with me, feel free to. I'll be moving through this kind of quickly. We're in John chapter 21. Um John 21 and the verses will be on the screen as we go. But John 21 is the story after Jesus rose from the dead. So we're reading an after Easter story today. We're reading it on purpose because Jesus is talking

46:59 to his friend Peter. Peter had a you know we talk we talk about our gap, right? Peter had a gap. Peter had just been through the ringer. You see Jesus was getting taken away by all these officials and soldiers and Jesus was killed. And on the way, Peter had three chances to say, "I'm with Jesus." And all three of those chances, he denied him. He said, "I'm not with him." He said, "I'm not with Jesus. Don't hurt me." He denied him three times. And now Jesus is back. Imagine how Peter feels. Whoops. Right. I bet he feels awful. It

47:46 feels awful that he denied his best friend. He said, "I'm not with him." Because he was too scared of getting hurt. He didn't want to associate with him. Sometimes you like pretend you're not friends with somebody because it would be embarrassing to you to be friends with them or somehow it would be bad for you. And that's kind of what Peter did. But Peter does this interesting thing or Jesus does an interesting thing. He does something for Peter that he did when they first met. See, the first time Jesus and Peter ever met, Peter was fishing, wasn't catching anything. And Jesus says, "Throw your net on the other side of the boat." Peter's like, "Okay, but I'm not going to catch anything. I've been out here all night."

48:33 And he catches so many fish, he can't even get in the boat. The boat starts to sink. And Peter's like, "Whoa, you're special." And Jesus said, "Follow me. I will make you a fisher of men. So instead of fishing for fish, I'm gonna have you fish for people is what he means. Instead of fishing for fish, you're going to fish for people. And now Peter and Jesus are sitting by a campfire eating some fish. So this is interesting. Jesus starts asking him these questions. He says, "Peter, do you love me?" I'm sure Peter's like, "I do, but I just

49:20 proved you that I didn't because I denied you." But yes, I love you. And Jesus asked the question three times. And these questions are not a test. Jesus knows that Peter loves him. Who is it that isn't so sure? Peter. Yeah, Peter. Peter's not so sure he loves Jesus. So Jesus asks him three times to show him that I know you love me. But Jesus is asking a question. He's saying, "Do you know why I am picking you? You know why I've chosen you?" He's not picking Peter because Peter

50:05 does everything right and never makes any mistakes. And he's not trying to get Peter to prove that he feels bad for what he did. Because grown-ups, as we do this rhythm of repenting and you notice your gaps, Jesus is rarely just trying to make sure you feel enough remorse for what you did. He's normally inviting you to see how the bad behavior that separated you from him doesn't have to be. And he's inviting you towards the kind of life that he wants for you. He's not asking Peter to prove his remorse. He's inviting Peter Peter to step forward in trust, to come closer to him. Jesus already knows Peter made a

50:51 mistake, but he doesn't make him feel bad for it. Instead, he gives him something to do. Peter's not being restored just so that he can feel better. He's being restored so that he can love better. Your rhythm of repenting is not present just so you can feel better about your sin and feel like you're healing. It's present so that you can love others better. So that you are more capable of representing Jesus to the world around you. Every single time Peter answers Jesus's question with, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus responds not with, "I know." But he responds with, "And feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Care for these people."

51:41 Sheep are people in the Bible. Sheep are people. This is this is a metaphor. This means others, the people that Jesus has put in your path, the people that Jesus is calling you uniquely beyond any other person in the world to be there for, to care for. I don't think this story is just for Peter. This is a story to Peter, but it's a story for you as well. Who are the sheep that you are called to feed, to care for? And I want you to throw out what our contemporary culture calls sheep. Our contemporary culture likes to use the phrase sheep as a derogatory term. Like people who are just mindless and do whatever they're

52:27 told. No, sheep as in the way Jesus meant it. As in people who need someone to care for them. And Jesus has sent you to care for them and to love them. G love for Jesus. Love between me and Jesus always moves me outwards if it's true. Jesus doesn't restore Peter back to comfort. He restores him back to calling. So kids, that means that Jesus loving Jesus means feeding the people that Jesus loves. It means taking care of the people that Jesus loves. This means thinking about your friends and your family, thinking about the people you go to school with or the people that you spend time with and caring for them

53:14 really, really well. And that's something that kids can do, that grown-ups can do. And to feed Jesus's sheep is to help people come closer to Jesus. Because what do the sheep need? They they need the true shepherd, right? They don't need some pastor. They don't need you. They need Jesus. But they do need us to help them get there to walk with them toward Jesus who is the one that they really need. So when we repent, we when we encounter Christ, confess the gap, move toward him oursel and receive our instruction, the final stage, step five, is to do it.

54:02 to actually do it. Do what Jesus told us to do so that the repentance can become real because repentance that stays private is incomplete and if it's real it will overflow to the people around us. That's my lesson for you today. Now I'm going to move into some instructions. I'm going to give you a a way to practice this today. So when you walked in, you got a card and on the card there is a name of a room that is in this building. You don't not have to go outside. If you are outside, you have gone too far. Turn around. Um but if you don't know where to go, don't sweat it. There is somebody nearby

54:48 who does. You can ask somebody near you. Or on your way out of the sanctuary, if you unless your room is the sanctuary. If your room is the sanctuary, we're going to set a table up for you right here. Um, if your room is not the sanctuary and you go out the doors, the connect center can point you to the room that you need to go to. Here's what you're going to do in that room. In that room, you we did not decide who is sitting with who. We did not decide who is at which room with who. We have asked the Holy Spirit to put the right people together. So, the name of the room that you have is the room for you to go to. Here is your task. In that room, there is a onepage three-step instructions

55:35 to build a simple invitation to to something throughout Holy Week. Here's how I want to invite you to pray. I invite you to prayerfully consider who Jesus already seems to be working in. Whose heart does Jesus already seem to be working in? you to think about them as you make the invitation. And there's instructions that talk you through how to make the invitation. You're going to do this together as a group. So, you're going to share with the group a little bit about who the spirit's putting on your heart and maybe why the spirit's putting on on your heart. Um, there's a number of ways to invite. They'll all be in the instructions. If you're not a cra if you are a crafty person, we've got supplies for you. If

56:21 you're not a crafty person, you do not have to become one today. That's good, right? Um, but I do encourage you if you're not a crafty person, you're like, "Man, handwritten note, not my style." Okay, pull out your phone and start working on that text message you're going to send or start writing down on a piece of paper what your plan is for how you're going to go and reach out to somebody so that you can engage with the the group. The goal today is really to identify who does the spirit want you to feed and take care of by helping them encounter Christ in holy. Um so I'm going to pray for you as you go. If you have questions, there are

57:09 um uh volunteers around who are able to help talk you through it. If you can't find somebody who can help you, find me. I'm going to be wandering the hallways. When you get to the end, the end of your instructions, there is a benediction. If you don't know what a benediction is, it is a a sending blessing. I'd like you to pray for each other. Say it out loud together. And when you're done in your group, worship is done. But I do want you to consider this group time a part of your worship. This isn't like let's let's all just talk about our day there. This is intentional. Be intentional in the way that you engage in this. Um, yeah, there's all my instructions for you. Hopefully that fire hose was soft enough to drink from. Um, I'm going to

57:54 pray for you before you break out into your groups. Holy Spirit, we trust that you have gone before this activity, that you've put the right people with the right people. Help us to be focused on the task at hand. Um, help us to be uh alert to what your spirit is doing and how your spirit is inviting us, who your spirit is inviting us to, how your spirit is inviting us to invite. And Jesus, may we continue to encounter you in this so that Holy Week can be