Turning Confusion to Celebration

A little over a hundred years ago, May 7th, 1915, a British ocean liner called the Lucitania was struck by a German torpedo from a German submarine. It sank within minutes, killing almost 1200 of the little over 1900 passengers on board. In her book entitled Lucitania, An Epic Tragedy, author Diana Preston recorded the observations of one of the passengers on the boat, a bookseller by the name of Charles Lariat. Here's the way she tells his story. As the ship was sinking and his Lariat looked around to see who needed life jackets, he noticed that among the crowds now pouring on deck nearly everyone who passed by him that was wearing a life jacket had it on incorrectly. In his panic, one man had thrust one arm through an armhole and his head through the other. Others rushed past wearing them upside down. No one had read the little signs posted all over the ship as to how to put them on. Lariat even tried to help some of the folks but some people thought he was trying to take their life jackets from them and they fled from him in terror. Preston continues in her book, dead and drowning people were dotting the sea like seagulls. Many bodies were floating upside down because people had put their life jackets on the wrong way up so that their heads were being pushed under the water. How tragic. And yet I think we face similar things in our lives pretty consistently. In sudden crushing events take place in our lives, we tend to be thrown into chaos and confusion. And all of us at some point will face a sudden crushing event and we will be called upon to respond to that event. Now that's exactly what the death of Christ did to the disciples. Despite of many warnings by Jesus, the disciples never grasped the fact that he was going to die. They thought as he went into Jerusalem that last week of his life that he was going to set up his kingdom. They were still hanging onto that. In fact the night Jesus was arrested the night before he dies. They're in the upper room arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. They still have not grasped that he's going to die. They were convinced. Everything else was going to happen. And so his death threw them into chaos and confusion. They could not grasp what was going on. And that confusion spilled over into Sunday morning. The morning that we know of as resurrection morning. All of their great plans, all of their excitement, all of their expectations had come crashing down in the most horrible way as he died on the cross. And now they come to the tomb. They feel like all is over. There's nothing left, nothing left but fear and a sense of disillusionment and helplessness and shame at their desertion when he needed the most and Peter's denials. But now it's Sunday morning. And we're in John chapter 20, which is well known as one of the resurrection accounts in the gospels. But these men, these people on this day have no idea when they begin that Sunday of the transformation that will take place in their lives because of what happens on that day. Their confusion will be turned to celebration on that day. And that can be our experience too. Some of you have come here this morning and you're confused. Your life is in chaos. You're not sure why what is happening is happening. And you're struggling to wrap your mind around your life's events. Are they chaotic today? Is your life full of chaos? Are you full of confusion today? Please go back with me to that Sunday morning. And let's see how confusion can be turned in to celebration. When we approach John chapter 20, the first 10 verses will describe for us the confusion at the tomb. And there is plenty of confusion. In fact, the day will begin in a way that only adds to the chaos and confusion the disciples are already feeling. So what happens? Well, verse 1. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. She goes along with three other women, the other gospels tell us, and they come to the tomb wondering how they're going to roll the stone away. They are coming to finish the process of anointing a person for burial of preparing the body with spices and so forth. They're coming to finish that process that was so hurriedly done on Friday evening before Sabbath started. And they're wondering, according to Mark's Gospel, how are we going to get the stone away? And when they arrive, it's already rolled away. It's gone. It's moved. And more than that, Christ is gone. His body is gone. And so that leads to tremendous confusion. Notice if you will, you see, first of all, in verse 2, the panic. Make that ensued. Verse 2. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. That's obviously John, and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb. And we don't know where they've put him. So she is in panic mode. The other women stay at the tomb. And they will see the two angels that actually appear and announce to them the message of Christ's resurrection. Why are you looking for the living among the dead? They will say, he is not here. He's risen as he said. He told you he would rise again. They begin to explain things. But Mary doesn't hear that. Mary's first response is to turn and run and try to find the disciples, and she does find Peter and John. But she is in a panic. All she can see and all she's been able to grasp is that they have evidently stolen Jesus' body. The stone has been rolled away. His body is not there. And we don't know where they've put him, she says. Panic. I think we so easily read through these stories because we read them from 2020 hindsight. We know the rest of the story. And it's difficult for us to put ourselves in the moment. So let me try to do that for you this morning. Let's imagine that you're going to the cemetery where your loved one has just been buried two days ago. And you're going back to the grave side to take fresh flowers to leave there. And as you walk up the hill toward the grave side, you notice something strange. It looks like a mound of dirt beside the grave. Dirt has obviously been moved. You get a little closer and the top of the vault is lying beside the grave side. And now you're really wondering what is going on here. And so you rush up to the grave and look over into the vault and you notice to your shock and horror that the lid of the casket is open and the body of your loved one is gone. Now do you sense a little bit of the panic that Mary must have been feeling? There's no thought in her mind of resurrection yet. She hasn't put her mind around that yet. She's feeling the same thing you would feel if that happened to you at the grave side of your loved one. And so she's full of panic and that leads to shock. With the other disciples, a specific Peter and John versus three through seven, notice what happens. And just understand as you read this, the shock they must be feeling. So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciples outran Peter and reached the tomb first. You probably know that John was the youngest of the disciples. Actually, he's writing this book 60 years after the events. And so he was probably early 20s at best. He's a young man. Peter's a little bit older. And so John is the wide receiver. He sprints to the tomb. Peter's a linebacker. He kind of lumbers toward the tomb. And so John is standing there waiting for Peter to catch up. Verse five. He bent over. That's John. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Now, you're going to find three different times that you, the John or Peter, looks at what's happening, but there are three different words used in the original language. So the three different ideas here, the word for look here for John, John bent over and just gave a casual glance inside the tomb. Didn't really look at much. Didn't really pause to process what's there. He just gives a casual glance. Verse six. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. Now, John hesitates. There is no hesitation button on Peter. There's no pause button on Simon Peter. He rushes into everything. And so when he gets there, there's no stopping him. He just rushes right in to the tomb. And notice, he saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Now when it says that Peter saw the strips of linen, linen, second word for see here, which we actually get our word theater from. The Greek word theater and it means to look for quite a while and to really investigate, to look with interest, to take it in. And so John just gave kind of a casual glance inside waiting for Peter, but when Peter gets there, he's really trying to process what he's seeing and what he saw must have shocked him. We read that the strips of linen were lying there, the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head, still lying in its place. Now, you have to understand what they're seeing to understand the shock that must have registered with them. Forget all the pictures you've seen of the empty tomb. I don't think any of them are accurate. You know, usually we see the linen strips carefully placed there as though someone had decorated the room or maybe even thrown to the floor on the side. I don't think that's what they saw. I think what's being described here is they saw the linen strips still perfectly wrapped in the shape of Jesus' body with the head cloth which either wrapped around the chin and the head to keep the mouth closed or may have wrapped around the top of the head. Either way, it was separate from the linen. It was still in place, not lying down still in place. What they are seeing literally is like an empty cocoon. They are seeing strips still in place as though they are wrapped around the body of Jesus, but there's nobody in there. And they're seeing the head cloth still in its place, but there's nobody there. There's nothing there to hold this stuff up. The reason I believe that's what they're seeing is because remember the linen cloths had 75 pounds of spices interwoven in the folds of those cloths. Anyone who would have stolen the body would have ripped that off and would have destroyed the linen cloths because those spices would have already started to mesh together with the cloth. Jesus did not unwrap them. Jesus' body passed through them. Just like later in the evening, he would pass through the walls of the upper room and suddenly appear Jesus' body passes through these strips of linen and Peter and John are left looking at an empty cocoon of linen cloths just like they were wrapped around the body, but there's nobody inside. That would be shocking to see. And so they're full of questions, not understanding what's happening and that leads me to the next part of this confusion that is misunderstanding versus eight and nine. Finally, the other disciple, that's John, who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed, the word saw here is an entirely different word from the other two. It means to see with understanding, to see with understanding or aught, to see with understanding. He saw with understanding and believed. What did he believe? I think he believed the resurrection. I think he believed the only way I could explain what I'm seeing with these cloths still wrapped in perfect shape, but nobody is if the body must have passed through them. That's the only thing I can recognize here. You say, well, if he saw with understanding, why did you entitle this point misunderstanding? Because of verse nine. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. So they're still trying to process this and John sees that evidence and believes that Jesus must have passed through them, but he doesn't understand how. How could this have happened? And he certainly did not tie it back to Old Testament prophecies about the resurrection. And so he's still misunderstanding the whole thing. He's trying to put the information together, but doesn't quite get it. And that leads to questions, or sin, then the disciples went back to where they were staying. They went back to where they were staying, but they went back with their head full of questions. Luke chapter 24, verse 12, Luke's account tells us this extra little tidbit. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb, bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away. Notice the next phrase, wondering to himself. What had happened? So they go away from the tomb, still with questions in their mind. John doesn't even understand, even though he thinks there must have been some kind of resurrection, he doesn't understand what it is or how it happened or how it ties into prophecy. Peter doesn't understand anything yet. He just got questions. And so they are still totally confused. And for several hours throughout this day, confusion will reign. Chaos will be the order of the day. The disciples will scramble to put bits of random information together. This is what somebody saw. This is what somebody heard. This is what somebody told us they saw. And they're trying to put all that together, but this is a day of terrible confusion. And a life does that to us. Life's circumstances can throw us into chaos and confusion in a split second. A loved one suddenly dies unexpectedly. And all of a sudden, you're left in panic and shock, not being able to understand what's happened with all kinds of questions your life has thrown into confusion. Your home burns to the ground and you lose everything in an hour. It's gone. No way to replace some of those things. You've been told you have cancer and you have six months to live. You had no clue what about your plans, what about your family, your life is suddenly thrown into confusion. You suddenly lose your job. You walk in, they tell you your job is no more. And everything you've built through that job is now gone. Or an accident or sudden illness changes your whole life. Life can get very chaotic and very confusing very quickly. I've told you before that my favorite channel is the weather channel. Pretty same. Except for fat guys in the woods, I can relate to that. But anyway, I'm getting to the point where I have to be reminded of the local forecast every 10 minutes. So that's a good channel for me. And so I like the weather channel. They've got a program on there called Tornado Alley. I've seen a couple of those episodes and it's really pretty gripping stuff. It's the true story of tornadoes that have hit various parts of the United States and the story of survivors. And some of it has dramatized, some of it they show the actual footage. But it is gripping to see folks whose homes and lives are shattered in five minutes. And they crawl out from under the rubble. Those who do survive sometimes seriously injured and their lives are changed by that. But also wondering where is my town? Where is my neighborhood? My house is gone. Where are my kids? Where is my family? Where is my garden? They begin walking around. It's an eerie thing to see. They're just kind of walking around like zombies. They're in shock. And I think that's the way the disciples are on this day. They're in shock. They're in confusion. Their life has been turned upside down. And they don't understand what's happened. The tomb is empty. What's going on here? And they are full of panic and shock and misunderstanding and questions. Their life is in total confusion. It happens to many people. But it doesn't have to stop there. Because that's not the end of Easter Sunday. There are a few more verses in our passage today. And what happens next is the celebration at the tomb. At least for Mary, the disciples will get it later. But at least for Mary we're going to see today, her confusion begins to turn in to celebration. And the celebration happens this way. Three things happen to Mary on that day. Confusion is turned into celebration when number one, despair meets revelation. Iar to spare meets God's revelation. God's revealed truth, his word. Now notice what happens in verse 11. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. And by the way, that's the word for loud whaling. This is not just she's bent over with her head down on her hands. No, she is loud whaling. The typical Jewish mourner would mourn that way. It's the same word used for the mourners at Lazarus tomb. Loud uncontrollable whaling. From the depths of a broken heart, indescribable anguish is just pouring out of her. This is a woman whom seven demons had been cast out of by Jesus. She had been forgiven much. She loved much. She had watched him die. Unspeakable horror. She had experienced on that Friday. And now to come to the grave and to think on top of everything else they stole in his body. And so she just lets the grief flow freely. She's whaling loudly. As she went, verse 11 says she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head, the other at the foot. If she had hung around long enough, earlier in the day, she would have heard what they had to say. But she left before that happened with the other ladies. And so she just looks in and sees them there. And as we said, in the previous verse 13, they asked her, woman, why are you crying? Now remember, angels are God's messengers. In fact, the word angel literally means messenger. Angels are God's messengers sent to give his message, sent to give his word, sent to bring a divine perspective into a human's agony and chaos and confusion. That's what angels do. And they're beginning that with Mary. They begin to draw her out by asking her a question. Now, actually the message will be finished by the Lord, but they start the process. They are God's messengers to produce and give us God's message. And so what the first thing that happens to Mary is that her despair meets God's revelation. And that's exactly what must happen to us if our confusion is going to be turned into celebration. We must, in moments of utter confusion and chaos, when life is turned upside down, we must immerse our minds and hearts in God's message, in God's word, God's truth. And when we do that, our mind is renewed. We begin to think differently. We process what's happening to us differently. We begin to look at it from a heavenly eternal perspective. We begin to look at life like God does, not because we've suddenly become God, but because we know His message. We see His perspective on things. And so it is getting into the Word of God, immersing our hearts and minds in God's word, that renews our minds. And we begin to look at life and see events rather than being confused by them, we begin to process them biblically with an eternal perspective. Our despair must meet God's revelation in order for confusion to turn into celebration. But secondly, confusion turns to celebration when distress melts in the world. Melt's into recognition. Notice what happens to her. They've asked her the question the angels have, woman, why are you crying? They've taken my Lord away. She said, and I don't know where they've put Him. You can just hear the distress, again, in her words coming from her heart. She's deeply distressed over what's happened to Jesus, her 14. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. Why did she turn around? Did she hear a noise behind her? Did the angels, rather than proceeding with their message, just point? There's somebody behind you. I don't know, but she turned around and she saw Jesus, but she didn't recognize Him. And that's kind of strange, but when you think about it, it's not really strange. Her eyes are full of tears for one thing. It's early in the morning. He certainly doesn't look anything like he looked when she last saw Him on Friday. But maybe more than that, there are three other occasions where Jesus appears to people after His resurrection, where they do not immediately recognize Him. One of those, yes, the two on the road to Emmaus, they were withheld from recognizing Him. God did something supernatural there to keep them from recognizing Jesus. That may have happened here, too, but we don't know. But for whatever reason, she doesn't recognize Him at first. And so notice what she does. Verse 15, he asked her, woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? By the way, I love that tender, compassionate address of Jesus to her. He doesn't rebuke her. He doesn't chastise her for not believing in the resurrection. Come on, get up to speed. I told you about this. No, nothing like that. He simply asks her lovingly, intenderly, graciously, and compassionately, why are you crying? He's drawing her out. Why are you crying? He knows why she's crying. Who is it you're looking for? She's looking for Him. And He knows that. But He tenderly pulls out her anguish and grief. And then notice what it says, thinking He was the gardener. Yeah, of course. Who else would be there that early in the morning, but the guy who takes care of the place? Thinking He was the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you put Him. And I'll get Him. Jesus said to her, Mary. There was something about that use of her name. That she recognized. And she turned toward Him, lit a wheeled around, and cried out in Aramaic, Rabbonai, which means teacher, or my teacher. Evidently, she just kind of glanced backward to see who she thought was the gardener, and then turned back to the tomb to express her anguish over what she was seeing there. But when she hears her name, spoken like no one else has ever spoken with grace and forgiveness and love. She recognizes, that's Jesus. And she turns around, my rabbi, my teacher. She recognizes Him. Friend, you've got to be able to see Jesus in the midst of your confusion. When life hits you in a way that is chaotic and confusing, you have got to see Jesus in the midst of your distress. And not just the casual glance, but to recognize who He is, to recognize His presence with you, to hear His voice tenderly calling you to Himself, to understand the grace and love that's flowing from Him, to hear His words of grace, to trust that He is God, to be still and know that He is God, that He evidently, providentially in some way, has a purpose that He wants to work out through this chaos in your life. See Jesus in the midst of your confusion. When distress melts into recognition of Christ in the midst of our pain, that is when confusion begins to turn to celebration. But thirdly, something else happened to her. Confusion turns to celebration when devotion moves to response. Notice what Mary does next in verse 17. Jesus said, do not hold on to me. Literally, it's stop clinging to me. She'd evidently thrown her arms around His feet and was just grasping Him, holding on to Him. As though if she let go, He would leave and be gone. So He says, stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to the Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord. She told them that He had said these things to her. Now Mark's gospel tells us they didn't believe her, but she did what she was supposed to do. I love this scene here. Mary grasping onto Jesus, clinging onto Him as if to keep Him there so that He won't leave again. And she can be there with Him in His presence, recognizing that it's Him and He's alive. She wants to hold on to this moment forever. And Jesus says, stop clinging onto me. I haven't ascended yet. I'm going to be around for a while. It's going to be 40 days actually before He ascends. So I think that's what He's talking about. I don't think this is a... You know, I got to go to heaven and offer my blood. Jesus offered His blood on the cross. There was no need for any more symbols in heaven. I don't think that's what Hebrews is talking about, by the way. She just wanted to hold Him there. And He's saying, no, I haven't ascended yet. I'm going to be here a while. Don't hang on to me. Instead, I've got something for you to do. The overflow of our hearts sometimes just wants to hang on to Jesus. Just wants to hang on to an experience that we've had with Him. You know, there's mountain top experiences. Times when He has just met you in your time of despair and distress in an amazing way. And you just want to hang on to those feelings and want to hang on to that truth that you've gotten out of the word. You just want to hang on to that worship service, hoping that you could just stay there in that way forever. But God says, no, no, that's not my plan. Yes, those moments are great. But you use those as fuel to go out and do something for me. That's what Jesus is telling us. Just like He told Mary, God wants our worship. Yes, He wants us to come to services like this and enjoy praising Him to share our hearts with Him, to open up our hearts to His Word, and to receive whatever He has for us and the Holy Spirit to move in our lives. He wants that. John chapter four, He very clearly told the woman of the well, this. He said, yet a time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. And I notice this next phrase for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. And then the warning that we're to worship in spirit and truth. But that phrase, these are the worshipers that God seeks. It's an amazing thought when you pause over it long enough to realize that God is seeking our worship. He longs for us to be here and he longs for us to come with hearts that are focused on Him, not us, but Him. That are focused on praising Him, that are focused on seeking His direction, that are focused on letting Him speak to us, focused on Him. He seeks that. He wants that. He longs for that for us. Yes, but He doesn't want us to leave it there. He wants us to take those mountaintop experiences, those incredible times of worship, those times when the Spirit of God moves in our hearts and we know it has never been the same. And we want to hang on to that and keep it and always feel that way. No, no, He wants us to move on from there to serve, to give His message to other people. Devotion must move to service, must move to response. One of the best things you can do when you're hurting, when your life has been struck by chaos and you're in times of confusion. One of the best things you can do is reach out to some other people and start serving them. God uses that to heal our own hearts. When we become self-absorbed, we become self-pity. But when we reach out to other people who are hurting, we use the comfort God has given us, second Corinthians one, we use the comfort God has given us to comfort others. And that's reason to celebrate. I'm convinced these three steps to overcoming spiritual disorientation and confusion are critical for us to make it through life victoriously as conquerors, not as victims. If you will meet God's revelation, get into His Word, understand what's happening from a biblical perspective, you'll end up celebrating. If you recognize Jesus in the midst of your tears, you'll end up celebrating. If you then move on from that moment of recognition and that powerful time of meeting with Jesus, if you'll move on to serve others, you'll end up celebrating. Now, for some, this transition is quick. It seems almost seamless, seems almost automatic. For this transition from confusion to celebration, it happens seemingly so easy for people. Why is that? I think it's because they're already consistently practicing those three things. They're living there. And so when confusion comes, they're already looking for Jesus and His providence and His purpose. They're already in the Word, seeing how God is putting all this together. They're already looking for ways to use what God's done to serve others. For others of us, we need these reminders and challenges over and over again. One of those who has had something chaotic and confusing happen in His life recently, is our brother Kenneth Metas. I don't want to embarrass him, but I would put him in that category of people for whom this transition has been quick, and I might add genuine. When I first visited Kenneth and Ronoke, he was already talking about how he wanted to use what had happened to him to serve the Lord. And he said, when I do get back to church, I've got some things I want to say. Well, the conclusion to the message is going to be delivered by Kenneth Metas. Kenneth, would you come now, my brother? I don't know about Lucas' driving there. I could do it myself and I'm a firm believer in child labor. It's good to see everybody the same height as me right now. I saw a husband came down to the house the other day and did some work. I looked up and said, isn't it Mayor? Did you get taller? You don't take yourself too seriously now. I think we all take ourselves a little bit too seriously at times. We'll try to attend to hold this and use my Bible to the same time. One of the main things, the reasons why I told John that I wanted to say something is, he already said a lot of what I needed to say. And I thought that Jerry was going to steal some of my thunder too and he's talking about the trials. That's one of the verses and passages that come to my mind. But the first thing I want to do is to thank John's chapel and the people of it. The thing that kept running through my mind and I told John is the family of God. You know, what it is to be a member of the family of God. And the example that this church has shown our family has been tremendous. Just very with me for a minute. If I say something a little off the wall or I told John that I did have a brain bleed so I'm using that as much as possible. But and I won't try to read a little bit here in a second but my vision is still not quite up to par yet. But what I've seen through this church and I'm grateful that the Lord has brought us here however long ago it was. It's been a while. And his providence. You never know what he is working out. You all have helped us financially. We've had people come and do work at our house. Friends are coming to plant and working our garden and. The prayers of course has hit more than anything and that's something we can cover it. We have to continue to cover your prayers for we still got a little ways to go. But he's going to see us through it. There's no problem about that. I know that he's just altered our life a little bit right now. That's all. We just have to live differently. It's really not that big of a deal. Although we really look at it that way. It's really not. What came to mind one of the passions came to mind. His in James that's starting into second verse in the first chapter. Where I said to consider all it all joy my brother. When you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect results that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. Tries are going to come to us. It's just the fact of life. It's just the way it is. Also think about it in the thing is the fifth chapter of Romans where it talks about tribulations will come. I know that's a little bit different than trials that comes from following Christ. As I was looking up that word tribulation it talks about how it's used like a press. Disquease the Jews how the others or the graves it talks about. I think that's what the Lord wants to do. I know that's what the Lord wants to do with us. He wants to squeeze us. What he wants to squeeze out of us is the impurities. He wants to continue to work on us. But do we allow that to happen? So often we do not. It's because we get caught up in our own worlds. I was caught up in my own world on that day of May 19th. I was busy working. I had plans on this and that and we always do that. And there's nothing wrong with that to a degree. And we often even though we may be a child of God, we get caught up in what we're doing. And we're leaving him out of the picture. And it's so easy to happen. Not I pray that not any of you all have to be reminded in the way that I was reminded. I told someone he could have easily just nudged me a little bit or hit me in the head with a two before. And it just broke a two before and not hurt me. But that's okay. It's a reminder to me that he has to be first. He's definitely squeezing us right now. But that's okay. What he did for me without asking was the moment that... And I've shared this with many people that I came to evidently I was knocked out. But when I hit the ground I came back to... He gave me perfect peace about the whole situation. I knew what was going on. But he's giving me a peace. One of those freebies that he gave us. But we have to continue to pray for him. First, when I kept thinking about the family of God, the first group of people that I kept thinking of is the people who may come to this church regularly. They may come to many churches or hear the gospel many times. But they, for some reason, refused to become a member of the family of God. They look at maybe the don'ts, the things that they maybe can't do anymore. But they forget the joy that can come was being one of his children. The peace that he gives you, which truly does transcend all understanding as it tells us in scriptures. We don't know why. But people continue to refuse. I don't know why. You know, if you are here and you may have been here forever and for some reason you continue to ignore the calling that he is saying to you. It's kind of like what John was just talking about when he was talking to Mary. It's like you hear a general call to you when I was reading that passage when he said, woman. It was like a general call, but then he made a personal when he said, Mary. It was a personal call to her. And that's what he does with us. But then once we become a child, we get busy and we make plans. The two things that come to my mind is either pride keeps us from completely committing to him. And I mean completely committing to him or fear. Fear of what may happen fear the unknown fear of not having enough money to retire fear of not having that position in our jobs or even in the church. Fear of not keeping up with the challenges I would speak. And that's kind of what the steel is thunder a little bit what he will be preaching about next week. As you look on and you see where the disciples are in that room when Christ does appear. They are in there with the door shut because they are afraid. They are afraid of the Jews. And we all can have that fear so easily. But we haven't been given a fear to fear, have we? There should be no fear. It tells us, and I think it's in 1 John and I'm sure John will correct me from wrong. It tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. There's no reason to have any fear whatsoever. He has done for us more than I can ever dream of him doing. And it's just starting. You know, he blessed us richly with way we were before. But the riches of his blessing are yet to come. He has just changed avenues for us. He has decided to use us in a different avenue in a different way. Just as he wants to do with each and every one of us here. There's always something different, something more that he wants from us. And I think of that squeezing that out. He wants to squeeze out the impurities of this world that we cling onto. So we can glorify him and be more effective for him because all that matters is his glory and his love. But that's all I was going to say. But especially I just wanted to thank this church for being such a great example of what John was talking about. You have shown us the compassion and the comfort to us. And it's been tremendous. And we actually kind of, well, I don't know if I'll speak for Gene, but I look forward to what he has in store. And I know she does too. It's going to be a fun ride. But that's all I just wanted to thank you all. Kenneth and I did not script this. Although I knew he wanted to speak and I wanted him to speak when he first got here. God put the message with what he wanted to say. I don't know. He didn't know what I was going to preach today. But you know what I heard? I heard God's revelation. I heard a lot of scripture in there. Didn't you? I heard someone who's looking at this from a biblical perspective. I heard a lot of recognition of Jesus in the midst of this. That God is at work and he's going to accomplish his purpose. And I heard a lot of response. I heard a lot of the fact that Kenneth wants to use what has happened in his life and the fact he'll be paralyzed from the waist down unless God intervenes miraculously the rest of his life. But he wants to use that for God's glory to serve him somehow. So what you see and what you heard today is just an illustration of what we've seen in the scriptures today. And I hope it will be a challenge to all of us to respond in the same way.