Good morning. I love singing that hymn just
before I get up to preach. Because for me, there's not an
hour in the week where I need the Lord more than this hour. And how hopeful I am that he'll
be pleased to meet with us and speak to our hearts this morning.
It's good to be back with you all. your brethren in Florida
asked me to express their love and their forgiveness. It's taken
three years, but they finally have reconciled to y'all taking
the Hickmans away. Let's open our Bibles together
to Luke chapter 22. I know from my own personal experience
that what a sinner needs more than anything else is a word
of hope and comfort to be spoken by God to their hearts. And when
the Lord told the prophet Isaiah to comfort his people, He told
them to tell them that their warfare is accomplished and that
their iniquity has been taken away. And Isaiah, you remember
in that passage in Isaiah chapter 40, asked the Lord, he said,
well, where do I begin this message? What do I, where do I start?
And the Lord said, tell them their grass. That's a good place
to start. Tell them they don't have anything,
they can't do anything, they don't know anything, that they're
completely dependent upon me. And that's when the Lord speaks
comfort and peace to our hearts, when we can find nothing in ourselves,
and we find all that we need in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus, who himself put away our iniquity and accomplished our warfare. I want to try to bring a message
from the last miracle that our Lord performed before he went
to Calvary's cross. Thirty-six miracles are recorded
in the Gospels that our Lord that our Lord performed. And
John tells us in John chapter 20 that there are many other
things that were done by our Lord that weren't written, but
he goes on to say, these have been written unto you that you
might know that Jesus, that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ and that believing you might have life through his name. Whenever the Lord performed a
miracle, it was never It was never for the purpose of impressing
or convincing skeptics of his power. The God we worship has
no need and he has no interest in proving himself to the interrogation
of any man. When our Lord, everything our
Lord did and everything he said was for the purpose of showing
forth his grace and his glory for his people. And so when we
look at these miracles, we must ask ourselves, what is the meaning
of this miracle? Miracles are, in a way, parables. They are physical events for
the purpose of communicating a spiritual truth to the hearts
of God's people. You remember when our Lord took
the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, and after having
sweat great drops of blood, and the beginning of his work as
our substitute began there in the garden. In departing from the garden,
Judas shows up. with a band, a band of soldiers
and temple priest. And well, we'll read the stories
together because they're recorded. Luke records this story and so
does John. And so let's read them as the
Lord has recorded them in his word. Luke chapter 22, beginning
at verse 47. And while he yet spake, behold,
a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve,
went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus
said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?
And when they which were about him saw that would follow, they said unto
him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant
of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered
and said, Suffer ye thus. And he touched his ear and healed
him." This is the last miracle. that our Lord performs is the
replacing of this man's ear. And Jesus said unto the chief
priests and the captains of the temple and the elders which were
coming to him, be ye come out as against the thief with swords
and staves. When I was with you daily in
the temple, you stretched forth no hand against me, but this
is your hour and the power of darkness. Then took they him,
and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house.
And Peter followed afar off." As I have already said, every
miracle and every word that our Lord spoke was for the profit,
for the benefit, and for the salvation of his people. His enemies said to him one time,
show us a sign. Prove yourself to me. And the
Lord responded to them by saying, a wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. I have no interest in proving
myself to you. I have no need to do that. Our God reigns. He reigns over
the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth.
And he hath done whatsoever he wills. No man can stay his hand. No man can say unto him, what
doest thou? No man can interrogate God. And
the comfort for the believer is that we don't want to interrogate
God. We just want to know, we want him to speak to us. Our Lord's not looking for a
following, he's not running for an office. We don't make him Lord, he already
is. We're reminded in Psalm 2, why
do the heathen rage? Here's our Lord speaking to this
world. Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? It's a vain thing to imagine
that you can stand and question God and hold him in contempt. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed and they say, let us break his bands asunder and
let us cast away his cords. And what's the Lord say? He holds
them in derision. He laughs. He laughs. And then what does he say to
his people? Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Our Lord is never the victim
of circumstances. He's never He's never worried
about anything or had a plan B or tried to. He's always in
absolute total control. And I believe that's the message
of this miracle. I've tried to divide our thoughts
this morning between the meaning of the miracle and the message
of the miracle. I hope that it'll be a message. even in the meaning. But we just read from Psalm 2,
the kings of the earth. We come into this world holding
ourselves on the throne of God. We've made ourselves to be kings. And we'll live our entire lives
with our fist raised to heaven, proclaiming to a sovereign, all-powerful
God, in vain, foolishly, I'll not have that man reign over
me. Second Thessalonians chapter
two, the Lord says that evil has set itself up on the throne
of God. Here we are by nature, the kings
of the earth. It's interesting because in this
miracle, well, before we do that, let's go to John, the gospel
of John, chapter 18. Because John, though he does
not record the miracle of the restoration of this man's ear,
he gives us some details about this event that shed light, I
believe, for us as terms of the meaning of this miracle and the
real message of the miracle. And so in John chapter 18 verse
3, Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from
the chief priest and the Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns
and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all
these things that should come upon him, went forth and said
unto them, Whom seek ye? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am."
And if you're looking at your scriptures in the King James,
you'll see that the word he is in italics. Our Lord is using
God's name to identify himself when he says to these band of
men who have swords and lanterns and have come to violently arrest
him, He said, I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. And as soon as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then
ask ye them again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. therefore you
seek me, let these go their way." Can you imagine a band of police
officers coming to arrest a criminal today and the criminal telling
those police officers what they will do when they do it? Oh,
our Lord's in complete control of all the circumstances surrounding
this event that is otherwise very confusing and very Very
tumultuous amongst men involved. Then that the same might be fulfilled,
verse 9, which he spake, of them which thou gavest me, I have
lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it. Luke didn't tell us who it was.
John tells us it was Peter. a fisherman, a disciple of Christ. He had told the Lord the night
before, that night at the Last Supper, I'll die for you. We
often are reminded of Peter's denial of Christ this same night,
but here he's, when he pulls that sword, he knows that he's
committing suicide. I mean, some have interpreted
this band to be a legion of soldiers, Roman soldiers, up to 400 Roman
soldiers. Scriptures aren't really clear,
but the disciples were clearly outnumbered. And Peter knew when
he drew this sword that this was suicide. He drew it and smote the high
priest's servant. This wasn't just any servant,
a lowly, servant. This was the bodyguard of the
high priest. He would have been the first
one to step forward to take hold of the Lord Jesus. He was a man
of influence and power and Peter wasn't going for his ear. He
just happened to duck and missed taking off his head. And the servant's name was Malchus. Malchus. Malchus translated means
king. I hope this morning that you
and I will be able to see ourselves in Malchus. There was a time in the Garden of Eden when we
walked with God in the cool of the day. We had an ear. We had an ear for the voice of
God. Yes, we did. We were there. We were there. You often hear of Adam being
referred to as our federal head, and he was, but he was more than
that. He was our seminal head. The
President of the United States is my federal head. My father
is my seminal head. I came from the loins of my father.
And every person in this world, other than the Lord Jesus Christ,
came from the loins of Adam. We were there, literally there. In his DNA, we were there. And
everything Adam did, God charged all of his descendants for. We
walked with God and we had an ear. And then God spoke. And he said to us, in the day
in which you eat of this tree, you shall surely die. And we
raised our fist to heaven, and we set ourselves up on the throne
of God, and we thought that we knew better than God, and we
took of that fruit, and our ear was cut off." The sword clearly
is a picture of the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit is the
Word of God. And when the Lord Jesus comes
in the day of judgment, the scripture tells us that his tongue will
be like a flaming sword. And so here we have a picture of
what happened when we fell in our father Adam, when we sinned
against God. We did exactly the same thing
Malchus did. We reached out our hand against
God, and God took off our ear. And then Jesus said unto Peter,
verse 11, put up thy sword unto the sheath, the cup which my
father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Then the band and the
captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and
led him away to Annas first. For he was father-in-law of Caiaphas,
which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he
which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one
man should die for the people." I believe the other picture in
this miracle is that it was Malchus' right ear. We find all throughout scripture
at God's right hand is grace, at God's left hand is judgment.
And though John doesn't tell us that the Lord reached out
his hand and restored the ear of Malchus, we know that that's
exactly what he did because we read it in Luke. Here we have a picture and the
meaning of this miracle of what the sword of the Spirit does.
It's a double-edged sword. It has to cut before it can heal.
It has to kill us before we can be made alive. We have to be
lost before we can be found. We have to be made a sinner before we can have any hope of
being found in Christ as a saint. And this is exactly what the
Word of God does. And that's every time we go to
God's Word, It exposes our sin and reveals to us as a sinner
the Savior, reveals to us the successful work and glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ who put away our sin and gave us an ear to hear the
Word of God. The most often quoted passage
of scripture from the Old Testament in the New is found in Isaiah
chapter 6. And that's that chapter where
the Lord tells Isaiah that he's to preach the gospel. And Isaiah
asked him, how long do I have to do this? Because the Lord
had told him, when you preach the gospel, They will have ears,
but they will not hear. Eyes they will have, but they
will not see. And Isaiah, frustrated, said, Lord, how long until the
cities be wasted without inhabitants and the land be utterly desolate?
Isaiah, you just be faithful to preach Christ. Because I've
got some lost sheep out there. That though they lost their ear
in the garden, and though they've raised their fist to God, and
though by nature they are the kings of the earth, the Malchus. I'm gonna reach forth my hand,
my right hand, and I'm gonna touch them, because the hearing
ear, the hearing ear and the seeing eye comes from the Lord.
And faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of
God. I believe that's the message
of this miracle for us. It's a miracle of grace. I believe
it is significant that it's the very last miracle that our Lord
performed out of all the miracles he performed before he went to
the cross. It's the last one. And it will cause us to say,
oh Lord, unstop my ears. Lord, speak to me. or reveal
yourself to my heart. So many people read the Bible
for the wrong reasons. They really do. The Lord rebuked
the Pharisees for that, didn't he? He said to them, you search
the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life,
but these are they which testify of me. In the volume of the book
it is written of me. So when we go to God's word,
we're looking for the person and for the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ because he is our life. He's our hope, he's our
comfort. And all that's given to us in
the word of God, in the written word, is for the purpose of revealing
the living word. In Isaiah chapter 28, the Lord
tells us that he has revealed himself line upon line, precept
upon precept, here a little, there a little. We take in the
word of God like honey, small portions. We don't try to take too much of it at one time. And little by little, the Lord
reveals that the revelation of his grace is slow and progressive
for the child of God. The growth in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ comes little by little, doesn't it?
It's like the growth of a tree. The roots go down into the darkness
of sin and as the same time the limbs grow up toward the sun. And that's just the way the Lord
works. And yet in that same chapter
in Isaiah chapter 28, the Lord rebukes the Pharisee because
he said, you thought that my word was nothing more than precept
upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little,
and you have stumbled over it and fallen. And you have made
for yourself a covenant with death, and with hell you made
yourself in agreement. But I'm saying unto you, when
the overflowing scourge comes, and he's talking about the final
wrath and judgment of God, that it's going to sweep away your
lies. It's going to sweep away your lies. Here's what the natural
man does. He goes to the Bible looking
for rules and regulations, looking for precepts and principles that
he can follow in order to try to improve his life. You're not
looking for the living Christ. And I believe that's what this
miracle is encouraging us to do. Lord, restore my ear. Restore my ear. Lord, forgive
me. Forgive me for my rebellion against
you. Forgive me for believing that I know better than you know.
Forgive me, Lord, for so much unbelief. I've titled this message,
The Patience of Jesus Christ. The Patience of Jesus Christ.
How impatient we can become. Why? Because we lose control
of our circumstances, and because we have this old nature of Malchus
still in us, we want to try to get control of things, don't
we? So that we can feel like, you know, I've got everything
in order. When the fact is, we're not in
control of anything. He is. He is. And here's our sinful nature
that burst out every day as we find ourselves taking our hand
and trying to take hold of the Son of God, make Him do something. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
one, Revelation chapter one. Look with me at verse 9. I, John,
who also am your brother, I love that. I love that when I can
hear a man preach not at me or down to me or making me feel
like, I've listened to men preach and I thought, well I guess if
I had it all together like you do, you know, I'd be alright. I don't want to listen to a man
preach like that. I need a sinner to preach to me. I need a man
who knows my struggles. And that's how I want to preach
to you. That's the comfort that I get.
And that's what John's saying. You're a brother. We're in this
together. Who also am your brother and
companion in tribulation. I'm your companion in this. well the same trials and tribulations
and troubles the Lord may ordain the circumstances different for
each one of us as we as he sees fit that we need them But there
hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to all
men. God is faithful. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able, but will provide with
the temptation the way of escape that you might be able to bear
it. Now, I've heard people take that verse of scripture and say,
God won't give you more than you can bear. That's not what that
scripture says. If he never gives you more than
you can bear, you don't need him. And if he ever puts your
sin on you, you're going to have more than you can bear. You have
a burden you can't carry. What that passage is telling
us is that when God puts a burden on us, with that burden he provides
the way of escape. Who is that way? The Lord Jesus. I am the way. I'm the way. And that's the purpose of these
tribulations and trials and burdens, to force us, because we would
not look to Him. We would not rely upon Him. We
would go back to our old malicous nature. We'd take out our hand
against God. We'd try to control everything.
We'd forget our need. And the Lord mercifully and lovingly
afflicts us. David said, before I was afflicted,
I'd gone astray, but now, now I've kept thy word. What is it
to keep his word? It's to look to Christ. It's
to rely upon Christ. That's what it is to keep God's
word. Lord, you've used this. James put it like this, count
it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into divers temptations. And that word temptation there
in James chapter one is not just a reference to doing something
evil. It does include that, but it's
all the trials and troubles of this world. Knowing that the
trying of your faith worketh patience, and when patience is
complete, it makes you perfect and entire, lacking nothing. Now, when is a believer perfect
and entire, lacking nothing? There's only one time that happens. When we're able to look to and
rest in the one who himself is perfect and entire and lacks
nothing. That's what this miracle is.
The Lord, by his word, has cut off our ear, and then in his
mercy. And I think it's significant
that Peter, you know, Peter's the leader of the disciples,
and the Lord has commissioned them to preach the gospel, and
every time we preach, we're wielding the sword of the Spirit. We're
not aiming to cut people, God does that. God does that, but
here it is. Your brother and companion in
tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. The patience of Jesus Christ. Oh, how impatient we can become. This scene at the Garden of Gethsemane,
at the rest of our Lord, and the cutting off of Malchus' ear,
is the beginning of a cascading of events that, from a man's
perspective, seems completely out of control. Completely out
of control. There's going to be a mock trial
that will last all night long, and the Roman governors and the
religious leaders will not be able to agree on anything. Peter's confused. He goes from
risking his life. He wasn't just risking his life.
He knew when he drew that sword, this is it. But I'm going to
die. I just said I was going to die
for him. This is it. I'm going to die. And in a couple of hours,
a poor servant girl accuses him of being a disciple of Christ,
and three times he denies the Lord with cursing. What confusion
there must have been in Peter's heart. He's so conflicted. Do
we not find ourselves going from one extreme to the other when
our circumstances change? We can go from high highs to
very low lows very quickly. Why? Because we're not patient.
We're not patient. We need to anticipate and control
the events and the outcomes of our day. And when we lose control,
we get anxious and we get worried and we get fearful. And this
message is to say to us that the Lord Jesus is never that
way. He's never that way. He's never
felt that way. He's never been that way. He's in absolute total
control. Those words, I forgot what they
were now in the Luke passage, but they translated, they mean
stop this right now. When Peter took off Malchus's
ear, the Lord Jesus says stop this right now. Restores Malchus's
ear. Peter put away your sword. Says
to the police, the band of men that are there with swords Lanterns
let these disciples go. He's taking complete control
of all the circumstances surrounding this very otherwise chaotic event. And the same thing's true in
every event concerning your life and my life. He's in absolute
control. Absolute control. What comfort
it is to the believer's heart when filled with fear and conflict
You know what, Malchus, what did he think? He was the first
one to show forth his authority, and now he's a bloody mess. I mean, we just saw when our
president got shot in the ear, the blood. I mean, his whole
ear's been cut off. And he's thinking, what just
happened? And then all of a sudden, within the next minute, his ear's
restored. And Malchus is confused. And
later on, the scripture said these priests that are there,
the Lord tells us that not a few of the priests believed. When
the veil was rent, not a few of the priests believed. Sixteen hours or so after this
event, there will be an earthquake. The sky will be completely black
for three hours. The soldiers will be confused. The graves will be opened. The
graves will be opened. And in between this event and
that event, we find our Lord taking complete control of everything
regarding his death. while he's carrying the cross
and falling and stumbling under the weight of it and there's a band of women that
are weeping and he stops and he looks at them and he says
very clearly, don't weep for me. I'm not the victim here. I'm the one in control of all
of this. Don't cry for me. I'm not doing this to make you
feel sorry for me. You weep for yourself and for
your children. You're the ones that have the
need, not me. I've got this right. This is
happening exactly as I purposed it. Step by step I'm fulfilling
everything that my father gave me to do to accomplish the salvation
of my people and restore to my Malchus's their ear so they can
hear the Word of God and believe on Christ. These have been written
unto you that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and
that believing you might have life in his name. The Lord Jesus never shows a
hint of confusion. In spite of the fact that all
these other conflicted, erratic circumstances seem to be happening. Judas. Judas has just pocketed
30 pieces of silver. He's, you know, he's on his way,
and then not long, he's going to hang himself. And yet the Lord calls him the
son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled. And in Psalm
41 and in Psalm 55 and Zechariah chapter 11, Judas is prophesied
by God to do exactly what he did. Was Judas responsible for
what he did? Absolutely. Absolutely. Did God purpose? What he would
do? Absolutely. Was there any surprise
on the part of our Savior as to what Judas was doing? He told
him, he said, go do it quickly. Go do what you must do quickly.
Oh, our Lord is in total control
of everything happening. This is the patience of Jesus
Christ. And when I become impatient,
when I become confused, I need a savior. I need a God who's
reigning sovereign and who sees everything from beginning to
end and is fulfilling his purpose through all the trials and troubles
of this world. And I can rest there. I can rest
there. So many events, we see this being
carried out with the disciples. One time they were on a boat
in the Sea of Galilee in the middle of a horrific storm. Cares
not, Lord, that we perish? Where is the Lord? He's asleep.
Now I've been in some bad situations on the ocean. I love the ocean.
I've been in some small boats in bad situations, life-threatening
stuff. It's scary. almost drowned a couple times,
scuba diving. The ocean is a very fearful place. And the Lord's asleep. He's just
asleep. And what's he do? Peace be still. And that turbulent sea becomes
a placid lake. And the scripture tells us in
one of the Gospels, and immediately they were on the other side.
That's where we need to be, on the other side. And he's the
only one that can take us there. And he's always faithful too.
He's always faithful. And he knows, he knows the exact,
you know, we discipline our children. you know, and oftentimes we're
too harsh sometimes, we're too soft sometimes. The Lord's never
that way. He knows exactly what each one
of his children need, and exactly what measure they need it. He's
so full of mercy. He's so loving to bring us to
himself. That's always his objective,
to bring us to himself. Even at 12 years old, when we've
lost sight of our small children, our young children maybe, for
a little bit, and become very anxious, very anxious. Mary and
Joseph went three days, they couldn't find their 12-year-old
son. Can you imagine the conflict that they are experiencing? And
when they find him in the temple, he looks at them Did you not know that I must
be about my father's business? He was in, he was in, he knew
where they were, he knew where he was, he knew what was happening. Why? Because he was in control
of everything. Whenever the Pharisees, whenever
the Pharisees tried to trap him with a question that they thought
he couldn't answer, He turned it around on them, and they're
the ones that walked away in shame. They're the ones who couldn't
respond to his words. When our Lord was on the cross,
in all the agony of that, he had the wherewithal to pray for
his people. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. He wasn't just praying that for
the men that had nailed him to the cross. They don't know what
they did. He's praying that for every one
of his people because the truth is that when we sin, we don't
have a clue what we're doing. We have no idea how bad it is. The Lord just shows us a glimpse
of our rebellion against him and our sin and our unbelief,
just enough to cause us to say, Lord, help me. But he's the only
one that could see it for what it is. He's the only one that
experienced the ugliness and the blackness of sin. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. He had the compassion for his
mother in that time of agony to say to her, behold thy son,
and to John, behold thy mother. He had the love to say to that
thief, this day you shall be with me
in paradise. He restored his ear right there
on the cross. That thief was cursing with,
both thieves were cursing Christ. And the Lord Jesus, symbolically, spiritually, obviously
he didn't touch him like he may have Malchus, but he reached
forth his hand. And he restored that thief's
ear. And that thief, when he heard
what the Lord Jesus, all that he said on that cross, He said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. I know you're
sovereign over all of this. I know you're in control of what's
happening here, and I know that you came to establish a kingdom,
and I know you're going to be successful. Just, Lord, have
mercy upon me when you enter into your kingdom. This day you
should be with me in paradise. Perhaps you've watched people
die as I have. It's very sad. The body struggles. It's very difficult to have any
control over what you say, or what you think, or how you act
in those final moments of life. The Lord Jesus had complete control
before he gave up the ghost. He said, it is finished. Everything that the father sent
me to do, I have accomplished for the salvation of my people.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He was confident that
he had perfectly obeyed his father and that the father would receive
him back into glory. Complete control right to his
dying breath. I don't know why the Lord allows
certain things to happen in our lives. Children die, family troubles, cancer, all
sorts of things. I can't explain it. I'm not here
to justify anything or try to excuse God for anything. I just
know God is sovereign in all those things. And I know that
in our tries and troubles that he will bring us to himself. Turn with me in closing, if you
will, to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. Look at verse four. I'm sorry, verse 24, forgive
me. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. And what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then Do we, with patience, wait for it? All the things that we've read
in the scriptures, we weren't there. We look upon those things which
cannot be seen. The things which cannot be seen
are eternal. These are the eternal matters.
They that are after the flesh, they do mind the things of the
flesh, and they look after the things which are seen, but the
things which are seen are temporal. How oftentimes we mind the things
of the flesh, and we're controlled by the things that are seen.
I believe this miracle is given to us to say to us, there's one
that you may not be able to see with your physical eyes, but
by the eye of faith, In faith, there's no boasting in faith. If a child trusts a parent, that
child can't take any glory in that. All the glory, all the
glory in every act of faith goes toward the object of the faith,
not the person having the faith. The person who has the faith
is confessing by that faith their dependence, their weakness, their
inability. That's what faith is. To make
a work out of faith and to try to impress men with faith. And
when the Lord Jesus said, when the disciples said, Lord, increase
our faith, Listen to this. The Lord said, if you had faith
as a mustard seed, you could say unto this mountain, be you
cast into the sea, and it would be removed. What was the Lord
saying? You don't need more faith. You
need more of me. I'm that seed. Don't worry about
how much faith you have. Worry about what the object of
your faith is. Because he's the one. He's the
one that can restore our ear. He's the one that's in control
of everything. And he's the one that's bringing
everything together for our good and for his glory. Pastor.