Bridges of Hope - Foundation for Recovery

[0:00] Good to have you with us this morning. We've got some support group here with you and glad to see that. And visitors with us. Good to have you with us this morning. Just a few announcements.

[0:13] Deacons meeting tomorrow night at 07:00 clock for those who can do that, also the truth seekers Sunday School class will start a new study on Evangelism. You want to know how to Evangelize? Stay tuned. Come to Sunday School and do that. Jack has got a class.

[0:35] We got a class for all the children youth. We got classes for everybody. So just make plans to do that. There will be an adult outing on June 25. Ms.

[0:45] Carol, can you fill us in on that a little bit?

[1:05] Did all you all hear that? Good, because I didn't.

[1:11] I heard many night restaurant and something about eating. I got that part.

[1:16] Is there a sign up sheet back here for it yet? No. All right. Well, we will let you know. Just put that on your calendar June 25.

[1:27] Well, I'm sure we'll take the bus. We got about 15 slots, so we'll have a sign up sheet next week to get those slots. So if you want more information, talk to Ms. Carol, because I don't know. All right.

[1:41] Let's see. The new months bulletins with prayer requests and stuff are on the back back there. If you'd like to get one of these. If those of you don't know, there's places in here for if you would like us to contact you, if you got any questions or interest, you can fill that out here. I'll throw it in the offering plate place for notes and then the prayer request.

[2:06] If you have another prayer request, fill that out and put that in the offering place. So they printed out the new bulletins for this month. Sort of like how that's going. It's even got a little fancy thing you can scan on there. And I'm assuming that takes us right to the Web page, online bulletin.

[2:28] All right. We're just getting high tech more and more. So there you go. It pays to have an It guy working all this for us. Let's see what else we got here.

[2:43] We got a special treat, as I told you, if you don't know, with Bridges of Hope and Winford will announce them in just a few minutes. But Mr. Robbie and Mr. Joseph is going to do some he's hiding over here. Joseph's going to treat us with some special music.

[2:59] But I'll let Winfrey tell you all about that. We're looking forward to that. We will have our regular offering somewhere in this service. I'm just going to let them have it and they'll tell you, well, I think we're doing Amazing Grace and you all coming out just so you know what's going on. But I also would like to take up a love offering and then the end of the service will have a plate in the back back here and all that will go to our guest today.

[3:27] We want to do that for you. So just going to take up a love offering for them to come. And you all can fight over whatever you want to do with it. But no, just if you've been blessed and give generously to that and to support them, that's all I'll say about that. This is June 3 fourth.

[3:53] I don't know what day it is anymore. So we got all birthdays. He didn't plan to do Happy Birthdays. So we're just going to do it. Acapulco this morning.

[4:02] How many June birthdays do we have? June birthdays.

[4:09] Tiffany's got a June birthday. When's your birthday? When? June 15. All right, you got a June birthday.

[4:21] The hat Lady, Ms. Tony, has her birthday. When's your birthday? The 30th. How about.

[4:28] Anybody else got a June birthday? Anybody else? All right. Can I do this? Acapulco, you all got to just join in because you don't want to hear me sing it.

[4:40] Treasure. Let's sing Happy Birthday then. Happy birthday to you Happy birthday.

[5:00] How about Anniversaries? We gave June anniversary. How many years?

[5:08] 21 years. 21 years. She's put up with you. I'm telling you, there ought to be a special Crown in heaven for her now. 21 years.

[5:19] Anybody else got a June anniversary? You all got one? How many years? 45 years. Get my hand.

[5:29] Praise Your Lord. I'm not going to get into it because I imagine neither one of you can be just as honor as the other. You are a MatchMate in heaven, is all I'm going to say. Let's sing Happy anniversary. Anybody else got a June anniversary?

[5:45] Let's sing Happy anniversary to them Happy anniversary to you Happy anniversary to you all right, David, you still got your job.

[6:10] You're not going to be replaced, trust me. All right. At this time, we're going to have a word of prayer. I'm going to turn it over to Winford and let him introduce and what's going on. I think that's what's going on next, right?

[6:23] Oh, yeah. He's going to say, all right, I get it. They didn't write it down for me. And you all know me. I can't remember five minutes to the next.

[6:34] But I do know we need to praise. Let's do that. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all who have come. And, Lord, we just believe that they're not here by accident.

[6:43] But you have led each and every person that you would want here to be here. And I pray, Father, that as we come together to worship you in song and to hear the testimony and to hear Your word, Lord, that you'd be honored and glorified that you would lead and guide. And all that is said and done here this morning, for Your honor and glory, we just thank you and praise you for the privilege to come and be able to do this, to live in a land that we are free to worship you. Father, I pray that you would just be with us today. Bless us as we worship you, as we come together in fellowship.

[7:21] In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

[7:30] Hey, y'all. Good morning. Hey, my name is Joseph Wolf. I'm a resident at the Bridges of Hope. I've been there about a year yesterday, and it saved my life twice.

[7:42] It's been a real blessing to be back there. And I'd like to thank Mr. Winford, Mr. Robbie, for getting me to come up here and play a little music for you all going to make a joyful noise this morning. So if you'd stand with me and turn in your hymnals to page 343, I'm going to do my version of Amazing Grace.

[8:01] It may be a little bit slower. We're going to sing versus one, two, four and five. And I'll start it out, play a little intro for you all like me.

[9:22] I walked away.

[14:43] Thanks, Shaw. That's a good way to start the day right there.

[14:52] All right. This is one I grew up with. It's always really resonated with me. I'm going to play it for you all on the violin.

[17:06] Thanks, y'all. I'm a little nervous, a little warm this morning. All righty, well, this song here, Mr. Winfred, just introduced me to it a few weeks ago. It's called Wine Into Water, and it's come to mean a lot to me because it's about going through addiction and saying that prayer.

[17:29] I've said that prayer before where I was like, God, help me. And then he did. And that's a miracle right there. We say all the time down at the Bridges of Hope. We're in a room full of miracles.

[17:43] And that to me, God answering that prayer and giving you the chance to turn your life around. That right there speaks to me and tells me I have a purpose. So I want to do my best to honor some of that today.

[19:30] So I'm free in one More's not too much to ask once upon a time.

[21:13] Now I'm on my knees.

[22:33] Sometimes I'm guilty of trying to do a little too much at once.

[22:38] I'm working on that.

[22:42] All right. This next song, Mr. Winterford just introduced me to this one. It's called I Want to Be Just Like You. It's about a father and him looking to the Holy Father to be an example to his son.

[22:58] And I don't have children yet, but I really want to have a family one day. And the Bridges of Hope has given me an opportunity to do that, get my life right, and God will work everything out if we're doing the right thing. So this song will go out to my future song.

[25:11] Lord, I wanna be just like you want to be like me.

[27:38] Thanks, y'all.

[28:25] Joseph. Thank you. I asked Joseph to come sing two weeks ago. He hadn't heard of one of them songs, and he's worked hard and got them down. One more song he's going to sing.

[28:42] I really like it, too, and I think you all like it, too. It's one of my favorite religious songs he's going to sing. But Joseph came to us a year ago. God was looking out for him. He was in a bad wreck.

[28:59] Luckily, nobody was hurt. Bad guy was done for him. When he couldn't do for himself because of that wreck, he ended up at the Bridges of Hope and he'd been with Robbie for a year now. I'm so proud of you, buddy. Love you.

[29:21] That last song kind of choked me up when I hear it every time that song was gave to me whenever I came out to Bridges, I Hope and an older woman gave it to me and she told me when I didn't think it was worth it to listen to it. And I would guarantee I relied on that song a lot. Most kids were young and it's very inspirational song to me.

[29:51] When I fell down and running them cows up one morning and finally told the Lord, I'm tired. I'm so tired. Can you please help me? And he answered my prayers. He got me to the Bridges, I Hope, and by making it August 15.

[30:11] It's been 15 years since I've had to take a drug.

[30:22] I want to give you a few statistics.

[30:27] I want everybody to close their eyes first. I'll tell you when to open them up.

[30:42] Okay? Open your eyes. Somebody died in the world from alcoholism or drug addiction. Every 22nd, somebody dies in the world.

[30:58] In the United States since 2020, there'd be more people die from drugs and alcohol than all the wars in the United States.

[31:15] If you got somebody out in the community that you know and it touches everybody, everybody knows somebody, whether it be a friend or coworker or family member or something that this disease affects, it is a disease. If you get cancer or what have you, you go to a doctor. Well, our medicine is AA and finding God because he will help you.

[31:51] I've never asked a five year old what he wanted to grow up to be, and he told me he wanted to be alcoholic or addict. So I firmly don't believe nobody wants to be one. They just got to find a way to get out of it. So if you have somebody out there in the community or somebody that you know, ask yourself, what would Jesus do? And I assure you he would go to them and try to help them.

[32:19] If anybody needs any help, my number. Call me anytime. I'd be more than glad to help, too. Our speaker today, he has truly blessed me. I hired Robert five years ago, his manager at the Bridges of Hope.

[32:37] And God puts people in your lives. He went to the Amass, and I've seen a change in Robert when he done that. And whether he knows it or not, it had a great effect on me. And I thank him and thank Lord for bringing Robin into my life, but I'm going to let him. Come on up here.

[33:02] Come on up, Robert. Love you, buddy.

[33:20] See if I can get turned on here. Everybody hear me? All right. Well, my name is Robbie Horsley, and I am most certainly an alcoholic, a drug addict, and amongst many other things, I have been sober seven years like Mr. Winford, like Joseph, like a few others.

[33:38] There the bridges I hope did save my life, did lead me to God to give me the freedom I have talking with my pastor and kind of preparing for this and what testimony meant. And my job today is to talk about God's Grace. And for me to accurately do that, I need to talk a little bit about how my life was, how I got to Christ and what my walk with Christ is today. And that's according to Acts 23, 20 when it talks about giving you testimony in the Bible. So I will be a little nervous, but I'll invite God into the room and I'll stick to what the Bible tells me to do, and I think we'll get through it.

[34:22] I grew up in a great home. My grandfather was a preacher. He was a preacher at Crossroads Baptist Church, which is not really that far away from here, I don't think. I couldn't say maybe 30 minutes. I grew up with all the love in the world.

[34:39] Christian Holme had basically two fathers, had a stepfather, a father, just had a loving family, had loving aunts and uncles. We were close, net. So kind of what I'm trying to get out is I wasn't a victim of circumstances. I wasn't a victim of not being taught the right way. I wasn't a victim of not being shown the Godly path.

[34:59] As a young child. I most certainly had all of that at my fingertips. And I started drinking and drugging at a very young age. It took a hold of my life. By the time I was 15 years old, I was in full blown drug addiction without any regards to anything else other than filling my body with something that made me feel different.

[35:28] It was a false tense of hope. It was a false tense of ease. It relieved my shortcomings. It's really a deceptive disease. I'm trying to fill that hole inside with drugs and alcohol and later to learn that that was God's job, not mine.

[35:46] But at that age, at 16, I did get in some trouble. I was telling this last night, and at that time, I was so far off the deep end when I got in trouble, I got arrested. I was at school. One of the narcotics guys asked me. He didn't feel like I was taking it real serious.

[36:06] He just said, Robin, you don't seem to be bothered by any of this. And at 16, I looked up and I told the man, I said, you're probably saving my life. So that disease had taken my life and had such a stranglehold on it that I was relieved, even at that young of an age. I was relieved to be in that trouble because just maybe it was a necessary means to an end. I had that desire to be sober at that young of an age.

[36:36] I got sober at 35. So you can imagine what 20 years of being weighed down by alcoholism and drug addiction brought. It brings a lot of shame. I feel that God gives us the power to choose. I feel like drugs and alcohol take that from us.

[36:56] I lived a life that I didn't know that I was capable of living. I lived a life that I didn't want to live. I got up every day and would beg and plead and swear and promise that I wasn't going to do it, only to find myself doing it again. So to be in the complete grips of addiction is hell on Earth for me. It's my help.

[37:21] It caused me to be a father. I didn't want to be. It caused me to be a son. I didn't want to be anybody that cared about me that loved me. It caused them harm and heartache and sleepless nights.

[37:35] I did have a family. I lost my family. I lost my relationship with my children. We went through evictions. We went through just all the things over a period of this for 20 years.

[37:51] You can imagine that the man that those life circumstances would build and where it all ended up for me was lifeless, hopeless. I was in a place I didn't have the desire to live anymore. I didn't have the desire to do drugs anymore. I didn't have the desire to get better. I was just existing.

[38:11] I was in a space that I didn't ever think I would come out of. I was given a little bit of glimmer of hope in going to get some help. And I finally came to terms to go get some more help. And that's what led me to the Bridges of hope. And that's where kind of my journey with the Grace of God starts.

[38:36] Like Mr. Wearford said, I rekindled my faith. I had the great experience of going on walk to Emmaus and basically that weekend and that three or four days. What it was was the overwhelming love of God. Aape love, unconditional love.

[38:52] And after living the life that I lived for so long, I was unlovable. I was unworthy. I believed in God. I had faith of God. But for some reason, I wasn't shiny enough for God.

[39:04] And I think that was just life puts that on us because I see it. And the men that come through our facility all the time, they don't feel worthy. Lo and behold, the Bible doesn't teach anything like that. It teaches unconditional love. In that weekend, I got to rekindle what it meant to feel unconditional love from Jesus.

[39:25] I got to feel and see the face of Jesus over that weekend. And around the same time, some other really great God moments of my life was we have a dock out on a pond, and I used to go out there at nighttime and right around the same time, I'm really terrible at remembering the timing of events in my life. When you go back, that memory is just not there. But it was right around the time of walk to Emmaus. I think it was a little bit before, actually.

[39:50] And I was out there praying, and I was just kind of lost and I just wasn't feeling inspirational. And at this point in life, I still really didn't see a path for me to success. I was doing good at the time, but I've always thrown it away. And I was kind of talking to God about that. And I was talking to my grandfather and kind of praying to him.

[40:13] And this night it stormed so bad. That was it. Just darkness all out. And I'm sitting on that dock and I'm praying to my grandfather and I'm talking to God. And all of a sudden, through the clouds of the full moon just pops.

[40:28] Just Bam, it's right there. Like, I can touch it. It's right there, all right. And then my phone dings. I looked down at my phone and I hadn't been listening to Christian music at this point.

[40:40] And there was an Advertisement for a song called The Light of the World. Bam, the moon, the light of the world. Right. Okay. Like, well, that's kind of weird.

[40:50] It takes a lot of convincing for somebody like me to say, okay, well, that's God. I'm like, well, that could be God, but it's probably not that's kind of funny. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, well, that's pretty overwhelming. And I opened up that song and it was a Lauren if I could Dangle song. And it was called The Light of the World.

[41:12] And she starts off and she starts singing about Emmanuel. Emmanuel is my middle name, named after my grandfather after I just got done praying about being lost. And at that point, like I said, I'm a skeptic. That's a coincidence. But at that point, it was a sure sign that I was where I needed to be and that God had me and that it was going to be okay and to continue down that path and then proceeding.

[41:42] That was my experience of forgiveness and my recommitment to Jesus on that weekend of the walk to the MAS. And I walked out of that weekend guilt free. And I think that's the biggest thing about God's Grace is that what we don't realize and what we don't realize that our purpose today in this world is to show that same unconditional love. Because I'll tell you, if it was just up to me. I would have never got there.

[42:10] So what I'm saying is that it took people along the way to show me the same amount of love that Jesus gave us on the cross, but in real time, in real person. And they gave me that forgiveness, and they didn't judge me. And they loved me back to health, they loved me back to Christ. And I hold that today just in the highest regards, because had it not been for so many people along the way showing me the love of Christ and what it meant, I would have never had my redemption. I never would have felt worthy enough.

[42:46] So it's extremely important that we carry God's word, but we also carry the forgiveness and the love that he gave us the day he died for our sins. And I will forever take that in one scripture that kind of came to mind. And you always think about when I talk about that unworthiness is Paul. And nothing in the Bible teaches us. It's amazing how many men come to our facility and we all kind of have the same thing, like, views on God.

[43:14] Like, you do good, you get good, you do bad, you get bad, and it's just not that way. It's unconditional love. And if you need an example of that, look at Paul and the scripture and acts where it goes. And he's talking about and he's in jail, and he's had an attempts on his life. And Jesus comes and stands beside him, right?

[43:34] Not an angel. Jesus comes and stands beside him, and he says, I might not be able to handle your pain and suffering, but I promise you, I am with you, and I will be with you to the end. And I'm going to make sure you see this through. And he's talking about going to Rome, but I kind of look at that like my life. Jesus has been there through my struggles, and I had to go through my struggles to get to where I'm at today.

[43:59] But in the end, Jesus has led me where I needed to be, right? So the pain and the suffering is going to come with the bumps and bruises, especially the way I live my life and the things that's the obvious results of being an alcoholic, being a drug addict. There's just a lot of baggage that goes with that. There's a lot of shame that goes with that. There's a lot of everything.

[44:22] But what I have found is that in that freedom of the unfaithful love, the unforgiving love of Jesus is that I can walk a free man today. I can mess up today, and I can go to bed tonight, and I can still walk a free man. I didn't know that. I thought I had to keep a nice tidy list. Right?

[44:43] We're not perfect people. My understanding there was only one perfect person to walk the face of the Earth. And that was Jesus, most certainly not him. And I had to ingrain that into even now and even today and into my sobriety. I had to learn that I'm a working project on a daily basis.

[45:00] But at the end of the day, I am loved. I am cradled with Jesus'love and forgiveness, and I just didn't know that. And like I said, I can't stress enough that if it had, it not been for four or five, six different people in my life that showed me that same kind of unconditional love face to face, I probably never would have been able to come to terms with it, with Jesus. And it's important. And alcoholism and drug addiction, like Mr.

[45:29] Winford said, is running rampant. There was 108,000 people died last year, right? So either somebody in this room has dealt with it, their family's dealing with it, and it is a very hard thing to deal with because you have to love them and at the same time, you got to let them go. I'll tell you that through dealing with it and having to get to do what I do for a living today. And I've been there seven years and dealing with families and where the point that my family got to was they let me go.

[46:03] And it was the best thing they ever did for me because I had no hand to turn to, but the hand of God, that's the only hand that was there. I was flat on my back. I was broken. I didn't have the desire to breathe to loyal and live a successful life. I was done.

[46:21] And mom and Daddy weren't there to help me try to pick up the pieces anymore. We love you, son, but you got to figure something out. We've said our goodbyes. We've come to terms with we're going to lose you, right? And in that moment, it provided me the opportunity to reach for the hand of God.

[46:41] And life hasn't been the same since. I get the opportunity to work with men on a daily basis. And it's not me working with them. It's God providing me with what I need on a daily basis. I will suffer from alcoholism.

[47:01] I won't say suffer. I will have alcoholism for the rest of my life. But I will never take another drink. Right. As long as I stay grounded in God's word and doing God's work, I can say that today, four years of sobriety, five years of sobriety.

[47:15] I would have told you I probably was going to mess it up at one point. But in the search and in the walk with God, I have grown confident in the fact that if I don't let go of that hand, I will never go back down that road again. And I can guarantee that. And I feel that way today. I have confidence in that today.

[47:33] God has changed me from a person that felt like I was unworthy felt like I couldn't serve to now into a person that is actually probably called to do so. And I got to sit. When they hired me as a manager, there was also at that same time the assistant manager I picked, and I hired him, and his name was Drew Gibbs. And we're involved in our Church back in our community. And they had a dinner for us that night.

[48:01] And to just kind of congratulate us not to welcome us. We already knew them, but just kind of celebrate our new venture. And that night, it was our pastor and some of the Deacons in the Church and the pastor's father and a lady that we're real close with. It's a family to meet named Lauana Mattox. And they were there, and they all kind of just said their little piece going around the table.

[48:25] And when it came, I don't even remember whose turn it was. But this moment will stick for me for the rest of my life. They congratulated me on the position. They told me how excited they were for it, and they told me I was ordained by God. And I thought in my head, do those people know who I am?

[48:45] They don't know who I am. They think they know who I am, but they really don't know who I am. I'm not I believe that statement today, right? I believe that I'm ordained by God to carry his message, the program of alcoholics not on us, the message of recovery. That is my obligation in life.

[49:03] And I don't even like to say obligation. I say responsibility. If you're obligated to do something, you kind of really don't want to do it. But it's our responsibility to carry what God has so freely given to me. And I am grateful for that opportunity today.

[49:19] And I do want to touch a little bit on the bridges of hope and what we do and what it's about. And it's provided a place since 1987 for men. Early 2000s is when the Wind facility opened, and there's this guy all over it. It doesn't work. Our facility and what's unfolded over 30 something years doesn't happen.

[49:43] Right. It's not a business that somebody can just build. One of the greatest things is when you hear past residents come back, we have a speaker meeting, and they come back and I hear this all the time, and they tell me, I can feel the presence of God on this property. And I can tell you that our program has definitely been God's definitely had it in his hands the whole time and always will. And those men and get to see, I don't know, thousands and thousands of life that have been changed over 30 years.

[50:19] And the men that come in and they go home and they take God to their families and the kids, and they get to the Church, and then they go to somebody else and to somebody else, and it just grows and grows and grows. So one little small farmhouse, 30 something years ago has turned into me a great Ministry for recovery. We are a twelve step program, but for me, in my opinion, my twelve steps gave me a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When I couldn't do it, it just laid it out there for me, as simple as it can go to confession, make some amends, grow spiritually, carry the message right. And if I can stick to those past, I will be able to continue to stay sober and help others.

[51:05] And I am grateful for that. The scripture I was talking about with Paul, it says the Lord himself, not an angel, stood before Paul to encourage him in his difficult assignment. Be of good cheer. Meaning take courage. Meaning to take courage is a phrase Jesus often used when his followers were suffering.

[51:27] While Jesus did not tell the Apostle he would avoid suffering, he assured Paul he was not done with him until Paul served him in Rome. And I believe that's all of us, through the hard times, through the good times, at the end of the day, God is not done with us. We all have a purpose to serve. And really, outside of that, in my life, I try to let nothing else matter. And in return, I get all kinds of the blessings in my life are tremendous.

[51:57] I'm on my way here this morning, and I'm hearing about you can't outgive God. And people used to stand up and come to speaker meetings and they would say things like, I could write a list down. And in five years from now, God would outgive me. Or I could get my list. I would have been wrong and I would call him crazy.

[52:16] I can come up with a lot of stuff on that list that I want and can have and that I think I need. But I've experienced now. I can't outgive God. I never will outgive God. The money doesn't matter.

[52:27] The success doesn't matter, that God's Grace is all that matters. That's the greatest gift that can be given. That's the greatest asset I can have. And it ties me into being everything I've ever wanted to be. I get to be a good father.

[52:43] I get to be a member of society. I'm a good family member. I get to be all these things that God desired for me to be only through his Grace. And so that's just my take on where I fell short was the lack of God's Grace and the overwhelming power of his Grace. And the love that he has from us is second to none.

[53:06] And I would read the Bible and I would be like, parted the Red Sea. Right? Really? Did he really part the Red Sea? That seems kind of impossible.

[53:15] Well, let's look at what God has done in my life on a daily basis. I'm sober, right? Remember I told you for 20 years. I'd wake up every morning begging to be sober, and I couldn't do it. And I tried every which way.

[53:29] God has part of the Red Sea in my life. He does every day, and I'm grateful for that. And I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. And I'm going to, I guess, turn it back over to Mr. Joseph.

[53:43] All right. Thank you all.

[53:59] Thank you, Mr. Robbie. That was awesome. Mr. Robbie's helped me out a lot down there.

[54:03] We've been down there together for a year, and I was still strong in my faith when I was out there. But I knew I wasn't living up to my purpose. So those feelings of unworthiness and not living up to what I was supposed to do in life, because God called me a long time ago. And I've been running from it for a long time. But it feels good to be getting back on the path.

[54:37] I want to follow that purpose that God's laid out for me and follow God's will, because we're all worthy. We're all worthy of that unconditional love and that forgiveness. And it's a beautiful thing. This last song is called I Believe. I think I'm just going to play it for you all.

[55:38] When I see the sunrise in the morning, when I hear the wind blow across my face, when I hear the sound, the children playing, I know it's all part of God's amazing Grace. And I believe there's a place for heaven. And I believe in a place called Calvary.

[59:21] Believe in a man who see. I believe that he gave his life for me. And I believe there's a place.

[60:56] I really enjoyed being there, being around the guys.

[61:01] But you know what I noticed a lot, just like I've noticed this morning? Just the humbleness of those men. I'm touched by that. Why are they so humble?

[61:21] They're so respectful, so humble. And I've eat with them. I've talked with some of them and just really enjoyed the time out there with them. And just like he shared with us and he shared with Winfrey, share with us. I believe God, when he takes us to the lowest points and takes everything away, we realize who we are without Him.

[61:47] And that ought to humble you.

[61:51] And I won't preach a message, boy. I just sit there and it's just stronger. My Lord, don't let me say it if you don't want me to. But John, chapter four. There's a woman that was humble.

[62:03] She went to a well in the middle of the day because she felt like she'd be rejected. She felt like she wasn't worthy. She was at the lowest point of her life. This is a Samaritan woman. At the well.

[62:19] She went all alone to get water to satisfy her flesh. She needed that water. She was at a rock bottom. But when she got that well, she saw Jesus.

[62:37] And I don't think she found Jesus. I think Jesus found her. He told the disciples long before that, we're going to Samaria. I've got something to do there. And this woman is who he found.

[62:56] He found me. He found you. And when she went to that well to get water to satisfy her flesh, but she walked away with the living water that satisfied her soul. That's what Jesus can do. I'm thankful for what Bridges of Hope does.

[63:16] I believe it's a tool that God uses to get through these men and women that have a real problem.

[63:27] And I think we need to be praying for them, need to be encouraged. I'll say one more thing about this woman. When she met Jesus, Jesus satisfied her soul. She was no longer felt unworthy. She no longer cared what the town people thought.

[63:43] She ran back into town and said, Come see a man that loved me unconditionally, told me everything about me, but still loved me. And he gave me living water, and she brought the whole town back. But you know, the disciples, the Church members, I'll say that again. The disciples, the Church members, all they brought back was food. This woman brought back every soul in town that their souls would be satisfied.

[64:20] Good lesson there. Good lesson in these guys. In their testimonies Church, we need to be about the Father's business. He has water to satisfy the soul, and that's what it's all about. Thank you for sharing with us.

[64:36] That just really touched my heart today.

[64:40] I want to pray for these ones. And I know that if you know, you never name it me before, but these people know me. I'll put you on the spot. I want to do one more thing. I want you to stand and I want you to just pick on your guitar.

[64:55] Don't even have to be a song. Just quietly pick whatever you want to do. But I want us to stand and I want to bow our heads in prayer. And I want to ask you, you're here today.

[65:13] Have you had living water that satisfies your soul, that only Jesus can give?

[65:22] All you do is go to him and he'll make things right. All you do is ask him to. Lord, I'm a sinner and I need to be saved. I believe you died for my sins on the cross, and I'm trusting you as my personal savior. I hope each and every one of you can say that today.

[65:44] And he'll give you the water that satisfies your soul. The things that you've been looking for all your life.

[65:56] Father, as we close this service today, we just thank you for the testimony we've heard. We thank you for all your blessings and goodness to us. Lord, I just pray that right now that everyone under the sound of my voice would experience the love of Jesus, would experience that he loves them unconditionally. No matter where they're at, that when they're at rock bottom. Jesus can bring them to the top and give them purpose and give them hope that they live for him.

[66:32] Father, we just thank you and praise you again for this day and for the experience of just being humbled once again being in your presence. We pray for these men as they go through this journey of life and they look to you for guidance and leadership. I just pray, Lord, that you would just give them strength, give them peace, give them the wisdom to just keep on keeping on and serving you and loving you and telling the world about the good news of Jesus Christ. Just thank you for this day. We pray for the Bridges of Hope Ministry that you would just continue to bless that Ministry, that you would just lead the leaders of that to bring honor and glory to yourself as you help these young men and women to overcome these illness that they have these problems, these struggles that they go through.

[67:36] In Jesus name, I pray Amen.

[67:43] As we close, I guess we could do long invitation and all that, but I won't do that. I just don't feel led. You can keep playing whatever you want. That sounds good, but I would tell you if maybe today you first understood that you need a savior, that you need that living water. You may be at rock bottom.

[68:05] Come see me. We're going to go out here in a minute and have a Fellowship and eat, have a good time. But I'd rather talk to you about Jesus. So if you need to talk, just come see me. I'll help you through it.

[68:18] I will answer your questions, whatever you need, but I just want to know you're being prayed for. We're here to encourage you no matter what you need, and we're not going to look down on you.

[68:33] We're going to love you like Jesus. Love you. So thank you today. Thank you for coming, Winford, for having us and Joseph for playing. What a town, brother.

[68:45] Keep it on and don't be nervous. I'm nervous every Sunday, too, right? Thank you, sir, for coming, being with us today and sharing your testimony. Winford and your support group here. I see him.

[68:59] Good to have you with us today. Like I said, we're going to lay an offering plate in the back back there. If you feel Led to support these people and what they do, give generously is all I say. Dig deep. They're doing a great thing for the Lord, and I think we ought to be part of that and encourage them on that and pray for them.

[69:20] Let them know we're praying for them and encourage them. Okay, I'll shut up now, but let's just say the blessing in here and then we can just go up there and eat. Well, that sounds like a plan to go. Everybody's invited. Everybody can come and we'll just close out with that.

[69:42] Darryl, would you bless our food with us real quick. And then we can go out and seeing and the family of God if you want to. But that'll just close our service. How about that.