Hospitality of Need with Kevan Chandler

[MUSIC] Good evening, everybody. How are you doing? Good. Good. Thank you for making time and space. We'll talk a little bit about our relationship and our friendship. But in a lot of ways, this is just a beautiful gift to share what the life has been like between us for the last 12 or so years. And oftentimes what starts out as a stranger or a neighbor has a potential to turn into a family and even more than friends. And so I believe that our dynamic is simply sharing with the bride what, what can ship can really look like and may it be a prophetic gift to the body to invite each other into the same spaces. So with that, I just want to ask some questions to my brother. I'm one of my dearest friends in the world, Kevin Chandler. So Kevin, can you give us a little backdrop or a little story of how you came and met Jesus? Yeah, hi guys, by the way. Great to see you all year here. So when I was six years old, I had spent at that point six years in the church and been around knowing here Jesus was. My dad was a dejan, my mom basically ran the Sunday school program. And I was around it. But when I was six years old, I thought I'm going to go over this way. So the podium is not there. There we go. But I thought that I should be able to wrap my head around to turn it me. Because that's a normal thing. I tried to do that with my daughter and try to teach her on the Trinity. I watched everything fall out of her head. Yeah. And so I was having trouble sleeping because I was like, spending forever somewhere and not ending. That's just weird. And my dad, who knows me better than most, he sat me down on his bed. And instead of trying to explain the turn of you to me, he introduced me to Jesus as the person that could spend your turn and be with. And so that's when my personal walk with him began. And you know, I would just say over the years with, you know, hospital stays and surgeries and friends coming and going and relationships and physical challenges. And Jesus has been the constant, which is something we can get more into at some point. But I've been asked a lot in my life, like have you ever been angry at God for being in a wheelchair? For me being in a wheelchair, not God. And although there is a verse about his throne having a real soul. But my response is I actually haven't. Just because he has been the constant. He has been the one person who has not felt me. And that's something I'm so thankful for. Yeah, I think in light of that too, you tell stories regularly about how he is your secure identity and has produced a wholeness in you that doesn't feel like there's a lack. And I remember there's one story from your backpacking years where you're, I think, in Italy. France. France, similar. There was a lot of spaces you were in, yeah, same thing. Sorry. No, and you had people constantly wanting to pray for you because of what they saw. And can you tell a little bit about that? Yeah, so in 2016, some friends and I decided that we wanted to go to Europe. And everything we wanted to do was not going to be wheelchair accessible. So we decided to leave my wheelchair at home. And these friends carried me in the backpacks that you saw Eric carrying me in yesterday. And I imagine that for three weeks with no safety net. We had four different guys trading off throughout the day carrying me. And yeah, we had an experience where this group wanted to pray for my healing. And what I, it really upset me because I was like, I've spent my whole life being approached like this. But I'm not in my wheelchair. Up until then, my friends and I had seen this as the miracle. And so it really kind of messed me up. And some of that conversation was, well, you know, I'm praying that you have the faith to be healed. And something that came back to me from Peter's first letter. I think it's at the end of chapter one, your beginning of chapter two. He refers to the outcome of your faith. And he says that the outcome of your faith is the salvation of your soul. And I was like, wow, I got that. And this all that night really wrestling that out with the Lord and that wrestling turning into a dance of being reminded that I am his and that my soul is securing him. That's what matters. Yeah, man, I get to see that from a real up close and personal basis through our time together. But can you explain a little bit more about these friendships? I think they're unique and they're special and maybe different than the way in which we've seen this conversation. Yeah, so a lot of people get to see those four frittings through photos and videos and books and stuff. These guys carrying me on their back. But really, that's kind of the extreme, you know, high-flying adventure side of it. And in the everyday life, I don't use a backpack every day. As you might wonder, but I have maybe like eight or ten guys out of time that are cycling through my day today and being part of what we call my caregiving. So we have a different guy come every morning and get me up and ready for the day and Katie and I just know where she is. Oh, there you are. We just celebrated our five-year riding in the grocery this weekend. And so things have changed a bit since being married. But before I was married, I would've drove to a couple of guys and then they helped with taking care of me and then throughout the week we'd have different guys coming to me. I would've been like, "Hey guys, come and give me up or stay overnight or hang out during the day and had a coffee shop that they hang out at that, that had a bunch of guys working that could help out as well." And it was really just this awesome community of just weaving together our lives. And it wasn't just to make my life possible but really worth living in some ways. Like these relationships were and are so rich and Eric has been a part of that as well. And now being married, we still have guys coming get me up in the morning. And we also, there's a lot of responsibilities that, you know, taking care of our home that I can't physically do. So these guys actually step in in that way kind of part of our marriage and part of my role as a husband to fix this or, you know, take care of this thing or run this area. And I get to do those things because of them, which has been a really cool experience. Even just making the bed, you know, we were talking earlier about how every guy that gets me up in the morning makes the bed differently. But they're making the bed. You said a lot about that. You said a lot about someone. But through these friendships, you know, I've found, and we'll get more into this when we talk more about Eric and I and our friendship. But what starts as an invitation to take care of my needs becomes a deeper friendship, deeper relationship and brotherhood in which I get to care for them as well. Because as my needs are being met, I don't have to worry about those. Instead, I get to turn all my attention and focus on to them. I don't have to self-advocate or so. self-care. I can completely abandon myself and put them first, which as we'll talk about later, the Bible talks a lot about putting others first. So yeah, man. And I think something that everybody wants to know about you and Katie is how did you guys meet? Because your love story is pretty spectacular. Yeah. Well, we have how long? No. I'll tell the very short version. I mean, don't be too short about it, but I'm right. Right. Yeah. So as I mentioned, the guys that I went to Europe and coming out of Europe, we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go next. And we decided in 2018 that we would go to China. And part of our trip to China was to actually stay at an orphanage for kids with disabilities. And that opportunity was so that we could encourage the staff and play with the kids. And so we took some bunk beds there for a week and they'd like for them, which was really cool. And Katie was working there at the time. And so we met there. She was last minute putting in charge of keeping us out of trouble. And if she was up here, she would add as long as the Dutch fell live. And so we met then. And because she was in charge of us, we had a whole week of getting to know each other and hanging out. But she saw the guys throwing me around and putting me on their backs and everything, no wheelchair. And so she thought, oh, Kevin's really cool, but I can't do that. And so, and I was just worried about one of the other guys falling in love with a girl and not coming home. So I wasn't even thinking about myself here, but at the end of that visit, I turned to my friend Ben, we got in the van and I turned to him and I said, I've never met anyone like her. And being boys, we were like, huh. Any right? You know, we've done my turn. And oh, that's a cool song on the radio. And we stayed in touch for the next few months. And got to talk a few times on the phone and invited each other into some deeper things that were going on in our separate lives. And it came to a point where a mutual friend of ours in the States had noticed that whenever we were to talk to her, we were talking about each other all the time. And so she came to me and said, have you ever thought about asking anyone out? It's like, yeah, of course. And she said, I think you should ask Katie out. And it was then that I realized that that's what I had wanted the whole time. And so, the next time we were, well, I took a month to pray about it because she was in China. Side note, right? And so next time we texted at the end of that month, I said, by the way, could I take you out to dinner next time we're in the same country? And she said, yes. And do I keep going? Yeah, I think yeah. I'm going to feel like it. Okay. That's the new book. So we'll just wait. No, no, it's in the book. It's in the book. I did it there, but yeah, so she, I had done some other speaking overseas. And so she said, I'm going to be in Australia in September just around the corner. If you happen to be speaking there, you know, let me know. And I wasn't, but all I heard was that yes. And so, so I called my dad and a good friend of mine that had gone on the other trips and said, would you guys go to Australia with me? And so I called her and said, I'm there. I like I want to go. And so September, we met September of 2018 in China, September of 2019. We met up in Sydney, Australia for our first date. And it was just a really cool experience because we got to spend time together. But like my dad was there, my friend was there. They got to take care of me. And, you know, it was just a great experience and fish and chips on the beach, not about first date. And then a year later, September of 2020, everybody's favorite, favorite year. We got married and we have lived happily ever after for five years. And it's been incredible. Amen. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. You can. And I, if I may, our dad too, that we were talking with someone about this earlier that, you know, speaking of the hospitality of need because of my needs, now that we're married and KV is part of caregiving with me, our attachment and our, I think it's benefited our marriage. It's grown us deeper, faster and some really wonderful ways. So we're both thankful for it. Amen. Well, in light of that, Tyler said you wrote a book called The Hospitality of Need and I can testify to who you are and how I've seen your friends care for you and you care for them. And the beautiful love between you and your bride. So we'd love for you to unpack some of that book for us and invite us into a new way of living. Thanks, man. Yeah. Do you mind pull my arm up before you go? We got you. There we go. Thanks. Cool. Yeah. I wanted to take some pieces of the book and just share some thoughts with you about about the kingdom of heaven, if that's all right. Jesus said in Mark 10, 45, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And he lived out this truth even as he asked this American for a drink of water and allowed a woman to wash his feet. In these and many other human needs for he runs full of God and fully man, he stooped himself low to serve, to ransom, those who were on this surface serving him. Perhaps we should ask ourselves then what we are doing with our needs. Does looking out for number one ever good old to you, our culture screams at us that this is what life is all about. But do you ever wonder if there might be something more? In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about our interactions with each other. And more than once he says that we should be servants to each other and that everything we do should be for the sake of others. He's echoing what Jesus replied when James and John, who really, their mom, was vying for a seat beside Jesus in heaven. Paul gives us the big picture when he says on the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Meaning that in the kingdom of heaven, we're going to be praising Jesus and if we talk about anything else at all, it won't be ourselves. You will be raving about me and I'll be going on and on about you. And even that will all be in the context of praising our Creator. The Bible is chock full of this message that we should serve one another, putting others before ourselves and laying our lives down for each other. Paul writes in Philippians 2, "In humility count others more significantly in yourselves, like each of you look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus." And then later he goes on to say, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blimish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation." What I can't find in there is a caveat that I don't need to serve in the case where my need is greater or more obvious or more time-sensitive than that of my neighbor. So what are we supposed to do? How do we serve one another despite our own needs? Perhaps it's not a matter of God using us to serve others despite our needs, but actually actually through them. Paul suggests this when he gives us a glimpse into his own need and God's response to his desire to not have it. He says in 2 Corinthians 12 that the Lord told him, "My power is made perfect in weakness to which he concludes, 'I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses.'" It seems that it's all about our posture. Our perspective, our perch. I'm reminded of Luke 18 when Jesus was playing with some kids and his disciples didn't get it or like it. They scolded the children and their parents for bothering Jesus and he retorted, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. Fortes such belongs to Kingdom of God." Truly I say to you whoever does not perceive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. But Luke's account actually gives a little extra note that we should be careful not to gloss over. Because at the beginning, Luke actually says, "Now they were bringing even infants to him." This stops me from nitracks because I actually have a lot of infant-like qualities in the scope of my own personal needs. I am an adult. I'm married. I pay taxes. I could do math in my head. By airplane tickets, I can read GK Chesterton and understand most of it. But I have this disease. It's called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which means I rely fully on this wheelchair and the care of others. I need help using the restroom, showering, getting dressed, preparing food, sometimes eating that food, opening doors, blowing my nose, scratching my head when it is just getting my arm up here to scroll this iPad. And if I'm not in my wheelchair, I can't move or hold myself upright. I may be 39 years old, but my autonomy is about as extensive as that of a newborn baby. Usually, when I read this scene in Luke 18, I imagine a bunch of wiery kids around eight or nine years old, barefoot, ripped dirt behind their ears. A whole bunch of them come running and dog-tiled themselves on the Jesus. He laughs, wrestles with them, plays tag, tells them stories on his knee. And I don't doubt that this happened, too. But Luke's account is specifically, it seems, about newborn babies. And newborn babies can't do much at all. So often, our analogy is that we should come to Jesus like kids come up to their parents, trusting them to provide wisdom, safety, comfort, care, nourishment. And there is truth to this. But we're still talking about a child walking up, tugging on his dad's pants leg, looking up and asking for these things. Whether we realize it or not, we tend to assume a bit more workspace faith than our walk with the Lord than we might realize or character admit. What about when we can't walk up to our dad? What about when we are at the end of our strength and can't even reach out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment? What about when our shame won't let us look up into his eyes and ask? As someone with a disabled body and an equally disabled soul, I am in desperate need of a rescuer coming to get me, more so than a home plate to run to. I was once an intern at a prison ministry in Arkansas. God did some amazing things in my life and the lives of the inmates around me that summer. But my last week there, it started to rain. And I don't mean figured ably. I mean we had a good old fashioned, southern summer storm. The kind that's so massive and relentless, the you begin your wonder if this is just how it is from now on. Gray, as far as you can see and rain until Jesus comes back. But I had a job to do, so I showed up at prison gates. Going from building to building, I readied myself like Benny, the Jet Rodriguez, cracking my knuckles, stealing myself for the run of my life, through what seemed like a waterfall. My wheelchair cut like a knife through puddles six inches deep. Familiar faces threw up in the doors to our building as I coasted inside, sliding to a stop on the concrete floor. I was instantly surrounded by a congregation of white drum suits. Inmates, I had worked with all summer, came around me with piles of fresh towels to dry off my body, clothes and wheelchair. Men convicted of assault gently dried my hair and face and bent down to warm up my legs. Former drug dealers, sopped up the pools on my armrest and seat. They learned me a white drum suit while my clothes were drying and we jerked that the guards wouldn't let me out at the end of the day. They did. What's more, my motors on my chair turned out to be waterlogged. My chair was rendered useless and not meant that in many ways so was I. For the next four days while at work, I was fully dependent on society's outcast. I never thought I would have to mediate arguments between inmates over who would be next in line to push my 400-pound wheelchair. If I didn't feel helpless enough already though with a body that didn't work, this was a whole new level that I wasn't thrilled about. But this is where God rolled up his leaves and started having some fun, calling us to himself not in spite of my shortcomings, but actually through them. My friends and I had gotten to know each other over the summer, praying and studying the scriptures together, telling jokes, talking about life. We had delved deeply into heart matters and reconstructed our ways of thinking. Most of what we worked on was preparation or theory, anyway. How will I love my wife when I get out of prison? How will I nurture my kids? How will I commit to my job and work hard? In prison, we could work on submitting to authority and loving our neighbor to an extent, but even those things look different in that culture than they were on the outside. But we did a lot of talking together, a lot of work and a lot of play, and then this need arose. My need. This new one that made infants look like Jason Bourne. All that internal work we had been doing suddenly turned outward, allowing hands and feet the opportunity to act upon what hearts had been learning all along. Our theory of how to love one another took on flesh and became a reality for us to grow in and flourish. And we found ourselves in the midst of the kingdom of heaven. A group of guys lowered their crippled friend to a roof to get to Jesus and Jesus commended their faith. He sideled up next to a lame beggar by a pool and offered uncomptered to heal them. And as he cradled a newborn baby in his carpenter arms, he essentially said to his disciples, "If you don't approach the kingdom like this, you won't get in." I find comfort in this, that he calls us to come as helpless as a newborn baby, not even begun up for strong enough to crawl, carried to him or found by him, our total dead weight held in his arms because we can't help at all. Maybe that's exactly where he wants us. One of my favorite authors is a guy named SD Smith. And if you have kids in middle school, they would love his books. But there's a recurring theme that I really love in several of his books. It's a question that he poses through a teacher to a student. They'll be training the student and they'll ask, "What do you have on hand to use as a weapon?" Typically, the student will list off his sword, maybe his fists or his feet. Then the teacher will shake his head and list off ten other things around him that he could have used. That branch, bike pedal, his shoe, his opponent's size or momentum. So let's ask ourselves what we have on hand to help others in need. When asking this, most of us will list money or strength or some specific skill to offer. And if we don't have those, we write ourselves off as useless or in greater need than the other. I promise I'm not shaking my head at you, but I do challenge you to work again because maybe, just maybe, you'll find something that you should have listed among our assets in the first place. Namely, your own weaknesses and needs. And what we will find when we lean into this hospitality that needs offers is that it is an antidote for isolation, self-senderness, and impotent Christianity. As my friend, Jed Medefin, put it when breaking down the antidote for all these three illnesses, the hospitality of need, being an antidote for isolation, we ache to belong, but do not understand that belonging is woven, especially, with countless threads of mutual responsibility and sacrifice. Time for others' needs and sharing our own, nits us together as nothing else can. It draws us out from the lonely dens where we peer at the world and others through screens. Caregiving demands face-to-face, hand-to-hand, touch and sweat and sometimes blood. It wakes us from our device-fed, stupor, and puts an end to our tragic seclusion. The hospitality of need, being an antidote for self-senderness, the dance of giving and receiving takes us in precisely the opposite direction of selfishness and its pitfalls. It re-orients not only our outward actions, but also critically our thought life too. Any mindset, counselor, or therapy that turns our attention mainly to ourselves will yield only anxiety and unhappiness in the long run. Sully and lifting our eyes beyond ourselves to God and to others are we freed from the terrible burden of self-focus. In Christ, we trade it for the light yoke of self-forgetfulness. In the hospitality of need as an antidote for shallow and potent Christianity, whenever we follow Jesus into one another's need, joining him there in the dance of mutual care, we never emerge the same. We are formed anew, especially by small choices, frequently repeated, studdly growing more like Jesus. And we experience this hospitality, this antidote, by going to the source in prayer and obedience to God. We must ask Him to help us see our own needs more clearly and invite others into them, and to see and respond to others' needs more fully too. And once we've since God pointing us toward an action, we must give no place for delay. God designed us to rely on Him and not just on Him but on one another as a means of pointing each other and the world to Him. Need is one of the instruments God has given us, on which to play our testimony of who He is and what He has done. This is the case whether we are stepping into someone else's need or inviting someone into our own. In Galatians 6-2 Paul tells us to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We live in a culture obsessed with self-advocacy and self-care, but those routes are desolate and will leave us empty and alone. I think that picture that Paul paints back in 2 Corinthians is pretty amazing. As believers, a day will come for us when our selfishness will melt away in the presence of Jesus, and our focus will be solely on Him and everyone else. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, including maybe especially ourselves. We won't be weighed down anymore by the worries of our own preservation or accolades. We will never again be scared, proud, jealous, annoyed, lustful or grievedy. The last of us will be first and the first will be last, and we will reap with laughter to see who exactly that ends up being. He drives this point home in Colossians 1 when he says to the church, "We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope you have for us, and of the love you have for us." And I tell you something odd, I don't think we'll miss being selfish at all. I don't even think it will be a word or a memory to us in that marvelous city. And if some greasy peddler could sneak in and whisper it into our ears, we would swat him away like a nap. That's what Jesus' presence does. He turns our priorities on their heads. He makes us whole so that there is nothing left to advocate for ourselves. And in that wholeness, we are set free to turn our full attention on him and on others. And can I tell you one more odd thing? This little life he has called us to not just on streets of gold far off in the future, but here and now, it will be made perfect in the end because sin will be out of the way, but we still have the Holy Spirit now. And Jesus said he's with us too. So let us live in the wholeness of his presence, behold his glory, and put others before ourselves. This is where we will find satisfaction, rest, and peace together. [Applause] I want to give you just a little bit more of a picture of how that plays out between us and maybe a quick encouragement. You know, Kevin, his sister Connie has SMA also, and she started attending our fellowship back in Fort Wayne. And we really got invited into need through our relationship with her. And it became one of the more precious relationships, but Kevin would come and visit here and there. And as he visited, we sparked a relationship. As we sparked that relationship, things kind of became more and more beautiful. Oftentimes, Kevin, who would be in this apartment or this house with these other guys, would be found walking, riding, rolling down the street of our downtown, finding a next new coffee shop that gets sit in, talk to someone, listen to their story, and he really became this constant presence in places that needed presence. That makes any sense. He would leave his signature drawn by another friend. It might be Batman who bought that coffee drink or Superman or Spider-Man, leaving his imprint wherever he went. It was gorgeous. Then we moved to Maine to plant churches and be a part of the city there, and then moved back. My wife was just like, "Hey, can we get a spot that's a little bit out of the phrase so that you're not running into the fire all the time?" I said, "Well, I'm not super comfortable with that, but we can try." And so we find this house in the suburbs, and then Kevin and I start hanging out again. One day, he said, "Hey, man, would you come over and get me ready for the day?" And like I said yesterday, it was absolutely. Your friend, your brother, and I'm your neighbor, and Jesus is inviting me to love you, just like you're going to love me. Now, I had no idea what that would turn into. But what was crazy was where we bought our house was probably a 90-second drive, a four-minute walk from his house, him and Katie's house. And so I'd get in my big truck. If you've ever seen the big truck, it's too big for me. And it came that way. I did not super charge that sucker to look like something, but many people make jokes about it. I jump in, jump out, and we call that a day. And so I would drive around the corner up the driveway where the door would be cracked. The welcome was already set before I pulled in the driveway, knowing that I was going to a place where I belonged. And so I'd walk through that front door, drop my keys, kick off the door, my shoes, knowing that there'd be a coffee with some special sauce that I would get to add to it made by Katie. Then I would turn to the left past the piano to another door that was cracked, where she would be sitting there normally with the Bible, another book, in her lap, and then Kevin just waking up from his slumber, normally growling as I said, "What it is?" And he'd say, "Well, it is." And I'd walk in there, and we spend about 20, 30 minutes breaking down life for one another. And what I want to do just for a few minutes is invite you to see a picture of what he just spoke about. So as I walked in there, there were several things I'd have to do to get him ready for the day. But one part was to get him to the bathroom. And as I would get him to the bathroom, what would be interesting for me is I went to serve Kevin's needs. My whole goal that morning, every morning of every we are, that morning of every week, was to simply serve him. But as I got him ready for the bathroom and sat on the edge of their bed, he began to ask me questions about myself. How you doing, man? What's going on with you? How's your wife? How are your kids? How's leadership? How's your heart? And what I started watching was this invitation to serve his need, began to be an invitation for him to serve my needs, just like he spoke about. And eventually, this invitation to serve his need was twisted for him to serve my need before long. Simply, all we were doing was sharing our need, our wholeness and friendship and brotherhood and kinship and what kind of melted away was the reason that I was there and the reason that was he was there was simply for each other. And for three and a half years, that was our morning rhythm. And randomly, he would give me a call or a text to say, hey, bro, can you get over here right now? I need to serve Katie. I need you to get over here and I would peel over around the corner and get to do that. It wasn't about me. It was about the invitation of kinship or brotherhood, where we depended on one another, related to one another, and gave our lives away for one another. And like I said before, the greatest miss, I miss my kids, I miss my grandkids, those are all rhythms that I longed for and desired regularly. But the one that pierced my heart and molded me most was walking into Kevin's need and his walking into mine. And so I just want to quickly give you a few thoughts of what I think could happen if we enter into each other's needs. And John 13, 34 through 35 is a new command that Jesus gives us. He says, you know, as the fathers love me, I've loved you. If you would love one another, all people will know you're my disciples, by your love for one another. About five years ago, another man said to me, it's reciprocal love. It's giving and receiving. And most relationships, we only have one valve on. We either give or we receive. But what if the body was built off of people who give and receive in the midst of need and through our need back and forth to one another, just like the father, the son, and the spirit? His promise is this, that if you would do like the father and me and the spirit, if you would live in this dance with this love, that all people would know you're my apprentices. The whole world would know you're my people. He carries that thought on at the end of this upper room discourse in John 17, 21 and 24. He said, man, if you would be one, like the father, the son, and the spirit, if you would be one, people would believe that I was sent by the father. It's the gospel. Not only that we're his apprentices or his followers or his disciples, but that Jesus actually came as a man, lived a real life, walked to the cross with joy before him, was buried in a grave, resurrected on the third day, ascended to the right hand of majesty, that that would be believed by our reciprocal love for one another. And lastly, he would carry on in verse 24 and say this. If you would be one as we are one, they would believe that the father loves the world. I just want you to think about that for a minute, because what Kevin has displayed and invited me into and now is inviting us into, has this incredible promise tied to it, that if we'd come in our weakness and in our need and give and receive love back and forth through such need, that the world would know that we're his people, that Jesus actually came and did what he said he would do, and that the father actually loves the world. And why I say all that is because I sat in a room with a buddy for a handful of years, and what I thought I was going for wasn't what I was actually going for. I was actually learning how to do community life in kinship with someone in a way that I had never learned before. And so I don't know what the spirit might say to you tonight, but I can tell you that this brother has taught me and informed me in a new way of walking with Jesus. And my prayer is for him and I and all of us here that we'd walk that way all the way home. And so before Tyler and Bethany come back on up here, I would love for him to bless us and pray over us and I'd be given you last final thoughts that you might have. I'm good with that. You good? Yeah. Yeah. Father, I pray for this community, I pray for the use of friends, this family, or it is a step into what you have called them to be, that you will give them boldness, that you will give them humility, and you will give them joy. Yes, you bless them in that. And now to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory, with great joy. To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, the glory and majesty, the minion and authority before all time and now and forever may he bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he turn his face towards you and give you a peace the past is understanding. Amen.