Talk CAN everybody just say this: “God will fill us up.” Say that in Tagalog to the person beside you: “Bubusugin ka ni Lord.” Today is the last talk of our series, CITIZEN. But it’s not just a talk. We’re going to be praying for our nation. At the end of the talk, we’re going to turn over the Philippines to King Jesus. But before that, we need to have a clear vision of what the country will be if Jesus is King. Tha t’s what we’re going to clarify today. We’re going to ask the question: What will happen to a place when Jesus becomes King? What will happen to a country, a city, a province, a barangay, a home, a business, a company, a life—if Jesus becomes King? Remember the story, in Genesis, of Adam and Eve? They did not trust God. And because they did not trust God, they were banished from Eden. But from right there, from that moment, when they were banished, God was trying to bring us –all of us-- back to Eden. All throughout the history of Israel, the kings were trying to bring Israel back to Eden. But they did a horrible job. Why? Because they were far away from the Lord, and they were idolatrous, and they were corrupt. But there were beautiful, brief, moments.s What is Eden? Two meanings. I mean, I can talk about 10 things but I just want to focus on two meanings: No. 1: God and Man hanging out in the garden. Basically, it’s divine fellowship. Cross your two fingers. Twist those two fingers together. Show those crossed fingers to the person beside you, then tell that person, “Ganito kami ni Lord.”   That’s what Eden is. That is how beautiful Eden is : Divine Fellowship. But not only that. Here’s No. 2… No. 2: Man can enjoy the fruits of the garden: Abundance. Overflow. Excess. The kings of Israel tried to recapture th at. They could not-- most of the time. But there were brief, beautiful, shining moments when they were able to get a taste of Eden. A glimpse of Eden. So, here’s the reading: Put your hand on your chest and say this with me: Father, I want You to be at the center of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Be King. Amen.  Before David, there was a king named Saul. He neglected the Ark of the Covenant. They used it once in a while when they would go to battle. They would bring it—like an anting-anting, like an amulet. Do you know what happened? They lost those battles. You lose battles if you fight battles that God never sent you to fight. And what happens is, let me say this to you: that there is a huge difference between using God as a religious prop, and serving Him as King. Huge difference. I catch myself many times—using God as a prop. Going into battles that He never asked me to fight.

Talk WE’RE going to receive the Word of God. But I want you to do this together as one voice. This is our declaration of abundance that God is going to bless you today and this week. All right, let’s all come into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirt. Amen. I want you to stretch those hands out and say this with me: Let’s give honor and reverence for God’s Word, as we all sing: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path. WE are on Talk 3 of this beautiful series called Citizen: How To Build a Nation. We want to give you a message that will encourage you to think of who to vote for, how you should vote, and what are the ways that God wants us to look at the political issues from the perspective of our faith. And so, our title for our talk today is not so much of a title but it’s more of a declaration. So, I want you to declare this message with me, with one voice, Everybody, say: We are world changers. It’s a little strange because none of us ever imagined that history would repeat itself. In the sense that… How many of you had ever seen that we would experience a global Pandemic? Like, we would experience being locked down at home. Did you ever wonder that we would go through that all? These are the things that we only read in the history books, right? Like the bubonic plague, and the Spanish flue, the influenza—but let alone us witnessing people don’t go before us. And we saw that in the last two years. We’re still seeing that now— the effects of the Pandemic. None of us imagined that we would experience another war in our lifetime—where two countries would battle it out and innocent people would have to suffer-- children, women… None of us even realized that we would also experience once again history repeating itself with our country being divided again because of politics. None of us imagined any of that. And somehow you’d ask: “What is the Lord doing in all these? Lord, what is the purpose of all these?” But you know, here’s what I believe: That in the midst of all these— the Pandemic, the war, death, suffering, elections, corruption—I still believe that God is good. I still believe that God is working. I still believe that God is blessing. I still believe that God is healing. I still believe that God is orchestrating blessings in your life. And you know, when you think about it, I still believe this: That since the beginning, since the Fall of Man, in the book of Genesis, God has still been recreating Heaven here on Earth—recreating Eden here on Earth. That’s our message for today. Our message today is this: God is calling you back to Eden. We’re going to study

Talk 2: We Have Dual Citizenship WE CONTINUE our beautiful series, Citizen: How To Build a Nation, with Talk 2: We Have Dual Citizenship. And I’m praying this will bless you, this will change you, and it will minister to you. I invite you to say this prayer with me deliberately, as we come in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit… Everybody, raise your hands and together with me, say this: Let’s give honor and reverence for God’s Word, as we all sing: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path. Holy Spirit, use this time to speak to us. Two Questions…And More We opened this series last Sunday (March 20, 2022) with a beautiful message where we said “God likes politics.” It’s a little new message to think that, “Hey, God likes politics.” He does. Why? Because God loves you. God is concerned about you. Like Bro. Bo said, politics is one of the messiest, the dirtiest arenas in the world, and God is concerned. Because that’s where sin has infected and infested the life and heart of many. And what did we say? We’re called to what? We’re called to serve the Lord through politics. By discerning who the best candidate is for you. And looking at politics-- the issues of politics— through the lens of faith. And so, we’re called to be restorers—not  destroyers. Today, we’re going to move forward in faith with this message. But before I do that, may I share with you a personal story? I remember when I was in college, 10 years ago, I happened to pick up this book that was lying around in our home. I think it was my brother who was reading it. My brother is very intellectual. So, the book was titled Sophie’s World. It’s very deep book. I mean, it’s a philosophical book. I wasn’t able to finish it. I couldn’t get past Chapter 5 without getting a migraine. That’s how deep the book was. It’s a philosophical book that tries to answer two of Life’s most difficult questions: Who am I? Where does the world come from? Not only did I not get answers to the questions —because I didn’t finish the book. But the book also opened a Pandora’s box of other existential questions. Like, I started asking: Why was I born into this family? Why am I a Villaraza, and not a Sanchez? I mean (Bo and Marowe) I could have called you Daddy and Mommy. I could have been brother of your sons Bene and Francis. I wasn’t a Sanchez—or a Lubaton, or a Barcelona. Why was I a Villaraza? Have you ever asked those questions: Why were you born in that family? Why are those your parents? Another question for me was: Why was I born a brown-skinned Filipino? Not the light-skinned Koreans, like Jin and Jungkook of the now popular boy band, BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan).

Talk I WANT to invite you right now as we begin our talk series today. To invite God’s Presence in your life and to ask God to speak to you in a very personal way as we all come in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit. Lift your hands as high as you can and then say this with me… Everybody, let’s all sing: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path I am declaring that God is going to illuminate your path right now with the things that might be blurry, that might be confusing. I want to welcome you to our brand new series. It’s a special series. It’s a unique series called CITIZEN: How To Build a Nation. And we’re going to talk for the next few Sundays about this thing that’s happening in our country. We’re headed towards elections and I’m sure that a lot of you have a lot of questions: How do we choose the candidates? How do we know who the right ones are that we choose to vote for? I want you, for a moment, just open your heart and open your mind because God is going to speak, okay? I want God to disturb you at your comfort zone right now. And I want you to know that God is concerned about politics. Here is our title--you might be shocked a little bit by this: Did you know that? Some of you are a little bit allergic to the word politics. But God likes politics. How do I know this? Because God is concerned about the welfare of the world because God cares about you. God loves you. As early as the Old Testament, God was already showing interest in politics. When was this? When He was deeply immersed in the politics of Israel. God actually chose the kings of Israel. God chose King Saul, the first ruler of Israel. And then when Saul disobeyed God, you know what He did, He raised a shepherd boy to be king. His name is David—considered to be the greatest king of Israel. And then before David died, He chose another king—the son of David, named Solomon—considered to be the wisest king of Israel. Daniel says: So, check it out. God is the real king maker. God is the one who puts people in position. He’s the one who puts people in the place of leadership. So, if you’re the type of person, and you feel like God is calling you to lead, you better make sure that you’ve got God’s blessing in your life and God’s anointing. If God is concerned with politics, what do you need to do? Listen to this: I want you to say this to the person beside you… Say, “My friend, God is calling you to serve Him through politics.” Really? Are you sure, Bro. Audee? Because you know, like I said, some of

WE’RE going to give you-- I know we said this last Sunday that that we’re going to give you a special new series about the political arena, the elections coming up in the month of May. But we are going to park that for just one Sunday. And we’re going to talk about something special today. So, with that, we invite all of you, especially if it’s your first time, this is a beautiful way to declare God’s abundance over your life. Join me in doing this, as we signify the symbol of our faith. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Everybody, just lift your hands out, stretch your arms, stretch your faith, and stretch your voice. And say this with me: Everybody, lift one hand, and if you’re online, please stand up to give honor and reverence to God’s Word, as we sing: Thy Word, is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path. We invite the Holy Spirit to come and descend upon us. Friends, this is your Upper Room right now. And I believe God is going to speak a message to your life. ‘I Am the Vine’ We’re going to take a reading from John 15:5. It’s very famous and some of you have already known this: A lot of people ask the question: How do you sustain your connection, your relationship, with God? This is the answer: Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches. So, what is the answer to that question? How do you sustain your relationship? You stay connected. Okay, it’s easier said than done… Because anybody who’s been in a retreat or a spiritual event, know this… that after you’ve attended a retreat or maybe after you’ve attended The Feast, you come home, you’re spiritually high. You know, you’re walking on Cloud 9 and you feel like your untouchable. Everything that you do is good. You feel like you’re on your way to sainthood. And then the second week comes, and then third week comes, and then Life happens. You know, work happens. Our children happen. Neflix happens. And you’ve got all these distractions. You’ve got all these noises in your environment. So, what happens is that you slowly backslide to your old ways, to your old habits. You know, you go back to who you are. So, how do we really sustain this connection with Jesus? Okay, I love that Jesus used this analogy using plants. Shout out to all plantitos and plantitas, and plantlolos and plantlolas! We Need Structure Jesus used Botany which is the science, the study of plants, to give this analogy. He says, I am the vine, and you are the branches. Let me show you this picture. This is a picture of a vine. It’s a good-looking healthy, luscious growing vine, don’t you agree? What makes a vine healthy? Anybody? “Water.” Yes, you feed it with water. What

Talk LET’S sing: Speak to us Lord, we’re listening. Let’s give the Lord a big, big hand. Today is our last day of our study of the Book of Matthew. Could you imagine: 26 months! And it has been such a journey through the Pandemic and today. Just in case you won’t notice, we’re ending our 26-month long series. How about we give a big, big hand for that season. We really studied, dove in, and wow, it has been beautiful. And we need to move forward. I think it’s God’s call for us to move forward today. But you know, the more we know about God through the Gospel of Matthew, the more that I feel also anxious. Why? Because I realized, the more that I’m so far from the Lord. The more that I know more about it, the more that I feel… Hmm, there’s so much work with you Didoy, and I’m so far away from God’s heart. But I think of the greatest distance -- from here (in the mind) the message needs to travel to here (in the heart). What am I trying to say? The goal of this Bible study is not to know more but to love more. So, take a pause today. You’ve been attending The Feast online, or now live? Has it brought you to love more people? Did it make you love yourself more? Not just about our religious practices but our relationships? Today, we’re going to talk about the greatest event that happened in the history of human kind and that is the Resurrection of Jesus. And the big message today is: Your story is not over. Before we go there, which is the second part of the Talk, try to notice that Jesus included specific people—groups of people in the movement, in this gathering, in this faith that we have. The followers of Jesus are very, very different. The first thing we would like to reflect on is that the Kingdom of Jesus includes women. Women in the house make some noise, please. During the time of Jesus, there were many other Rabbis (Teachers) like Him. Too many teachers actually. But there’s a big difference with Jesus. Because the other rabbis, the other teachers, had male followers. Jesus was CO-ED. He was open to have followers who are women. Because in Asian culture, women were designated to be at home. They were supposed to be silent in affairs. They were supposed to be just taking care of the children, managing the household. It was very, very radical that Jesus brought in women to become His disciples. Jesus saw them as equals—as God bearers, God carriers. And remember, the followers of Jesus, they were  there, throughout the journey of Jesus’ ministry. They saw Him preach. The women saw Him perform miracles. But they also saw Jesus die. They also saw how painful it was. To see your teacher, your rabbi crucified-- and you cannot do anything about it.

Talk OPEN your heart to the way that the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you loud and clear today. Let me give you our big message and I want you to preach this to somebody near you. Say this: God wants to love through you. Isn’t it amazing? We have been studying the book of Matthew for over two years and through the Pandemic. We have been studyin the Book of Matthew verse by verse, line by line-- and it’s really blessing us. Thank you, St. Matthew, for enriching our walk with Jesus. And you know, what better way to culminate this series, to end this whole series, by talking about what’s so relevant right now. We’re going to revisit in the next few weeks the death of Jesus. As we are about to end studying the Gospel of Matthew, we are going in and journey with Jesus step-by-step towards Calvary. But you know, one thing I got to say is that nothing happens by accident in God’s Kingdom. Everything is divinely appointed by God. God orchestrates the blessing that He gives into your life. And so, in good godly timing, you know, Holy Week is just around the corner. So, there’s no accident in God’s Kingdom. We’re talking about the death of Jesus, and then Holy Week comes. We get to experience and encounter Jesus— suffering Jesus, giving His life. Holy Week Traditions Speaking of Holy Week—just a little quick sharing. I remember, when I was in my teenager years—about 10 years ago. No, okay, 15 years ago. That sounds better, right? So, I remember, I loved Holy Week—because of the Station of the Cross. I lived in a small town in Taytay, Rizal, and we had a very old-school Catholic tradition. Our Station of the Cross meant that we should go around-- in the middle of the hot day-- we would pray each Station in one house after the other. And then we followed by what we called Pabasa (sung-through story of the Passion of Christ) from Friday, 3 p.m., all the way to Saturday, 3 p.m. We would be singing the Psalms in Tagalog, and it was amazing. But before some of you might say, “Wow, ang religious mo pala, Bro. Audee…” listen to me… I loved Holy Week but not because I was religious-- far from it. The reason I loved Holy Week was the Station of the Cross meant everybody would be joining—including my crush… It’s strange when you’re young to experience Holy Week. Because there were a lot you didn’t understand, a lot you could not do. Like, you couldn’t watch action movies, comedies, romance—at least not in my family. The only movie we were allowed to watch was the re-run of the never-ending The Ten Commandments, the old film by Cecil B. DeMille, which takes 16 hours to watch. You couldn’t go out-- you couldn’t go biking, you couldn’t play basketball, you couldn’t go swimming, you couldn’t go skateboarding …

Talk WE’RE in the climax in the Book of Matthew. Today, I want to preach the simple message, Get up. Let me start with a very big question: Your answer to this question is crucial. Mark this on stone: How you deal with guilt will determine your destiny. Hey. As long as we’re breathing, we’ll still sin. The Bible says, “the godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” (Proverbs 24:16 NIV, emphasis mine). Sadly, some fall and don’t get up. Alas, they don’t even admit they’d fallen. People have different ways to deal with guilt. 4 Wrong Ways To Handle Guilt Tim Mackie, co-founder of the BibleProject (a nonprofit animation studio helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus), says that the four characters in our Bible story today dealt with guilt in different ways. They are (1) Judas, (2) the Priests, (3) Pilate, and (4) the Mob… Let’s start reading the story: Last week, we read how Jesus was condemned by the Jewish Priests and Elders in a sham trial. But because the Jews had no power to impute the death penalty, they had to bring Him to the Romans for another trial… But in between, Matthew talks about Judas who does the first wrong way to handle guilt. 1.Judas Judges Himself Judas became his own Judge and Executioner. Matthew said: Repentance consists of two steps: Judas did Step One; He didn’t do Step Two. He had remorse but he didn’t return to the Lord. Instead of getting up, he wallowed in the mud of his guilt. Let me clarify this: Guilt feeling isn’t repentance. There are two kinds of guilt—holy and unholy. Holy guilt pushes you towards God, unholy guilt pulls you away from God. Dear friend, don’t follow Judas. Don’t become your own Judge and Executioner. Let God be your Judge; He is more merciful than you are. Some of those who become their own Judge don’t kill themselves physically. They kill themselves psychologically. They punish themselves by sabotaging their relationships, saying no to growth, accepting mediocrity-- because they believe they deserve to be cursed. May I share more personally? I get this comment a lot: “Brother Bo, after 40+ years of following Jesus, you must be so holy.” Here’s how I answer: “It’s actually the opposite. In the early years, I felt I was so holy. But today, I see my sins more. But instead of being discouraged, I feel encouraged. Why? It’s like my joke: If you see me 20 meters away with no other light source but the moonlight above us, you’ll say, “Gosh Bo, you look so young and Gwapo. Are you 42?” But if you’re 2 inches away from my face and we’re both under the blinding noonday sun, you’ll say, “OMG, Bo, you’re 55 going 68!” I repeat: After 40+ years of following Jesus, I see my sins more today than ever

Talk WELCOME back to Matthew. News Flash: We’re about to end. Four more talks and we’re done. And during these last four talks, I’ll keep reminding you of the big message of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus is an Upside-Down King building an Upside-Down Kingdom. Why is Jesus an upside-down King? Think about it: His throne is His Cross; His crucifixion is His coronation; His execution is His exaltation. Today, I want to preach the message, Protect your Kiss. Warning about our readings today: As Catholics, we tend to easily zone out when we read again how Jesus was arrested and tried, blah, blah, blah— because we’d read these before. Especially during Holy Week. But I ask you to read like it’s the first time. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll discover. And I pray that God will speak to you in a fresh way. What Does a Kiss Mean? Let’s start: Why would Judas kiss Jesus? Why not a hi-five? Or a fist bump? Just kidding. Granted, they didn’t do those gestures 2000 years ago-- but why not a wave or a handshake or even a hug? Or point to Him and say, “Jesus!” Why specifically a kiss? Bible scholars think it has something to do with Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is the Psalm about the Messiah, the Anointed One, the coming King. And 2:12 (NIV) says: Since Jews knew those verses by heart, it’s very possible that Judas used the kiss as an ironic insult. Perhaps, the same way the Roman soldiers, a few verses later, would crown Jesus with thorns and kneel before Him in mockery and say, “Hail! King of the Jews!” (27:29 NLT) Here’s my guess. Jesus is asking us: Yes, we pray. And go to church. But does that mean we actually obey Jesus? Not necessarily. That’s why early in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said: Fake or Faithful May I give a rough analogy? One day, after The Feast, a woman walked up to me and said, “Brother Bo, I follow you on Instagram (IG) and I see how romantic you are to your wife. My husband is like you. He loves giving me flowers. He likes telling me he loves me. And because he’s a singer, he likes serenading me…” As she was telling me this, I knew there was something wrong. Because I saw deep sadness in her eyes. She continued, “But Brother Bo, a long time ago, I knew it was all fake. Because three times, I caught him with another woman.” That’s the day when it dawned on me that romance and love are two different things. Both are important, but one more than the other. A kiss is a symbol. In the same way that all our prayers and worship and novenas and Bible studies are symbols. But underneath them all, what do they mean? Do they still symbolize your love for God? Let me say it again: “Protect your kiss.” Later on, we’ll meet a few folks who lost the

Talk I WANT TO welcome everybody watching The Feast at Home today. Thank you so much for joining us. You are going to be blessed with today’s talk. It’s called CRUSHED. Today, I want to preach the simple message, “Want what God wants.” I got a question for you: What does God want? Have you ever asked that question? What does God want? I know that you know what you want. For instance, you want a career as a culinary chef, or maybe some of you want to be a lawyer, or a pilot, or a banker. You want a house with a great view where your wife and your two beautiful daughters and your amazing son and your golden retriever can enjoy. Am I right? Or maybe you want to be President? Some of you? But the more important question is this: How do I know if what I want is what God wants for me too? That’s the billion-dollar question, right? But really, what does God want? Have you ever asked that? You want my most honest answer? Okay, here it is. Get ready for this: It depends. Okay, I wish I had a better answer than that. But let me explain first. For example, if you want God to give you a step-by-step blueprint of what He wants you to do, I’m a sorry to say, but there’s no such thing. Because life is not like it’s a Lego toy where there’s a diagram on how you build your life. NO. Ever notice that God doesn’t like unveiling the details? You know, it would be so much easier if God would just give us a clue on what will happen tomorrow, right? But you know, He doesn’t. Why? Because God is not into the details. I remember the story of Jesus walking on water that night and He asked Peter, if Peter could go to Him. But then Jesus gives this instruction that, to me, it was so crazy. Jesus Walks on Water 22 Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. 23 After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. 25 About three o’clock in the morning[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” 27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here![b]”28 Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and