What Does Jesus Mean？ My Peace I Give to You — Tim Conway

Jesus’ Final Words in the Upper Room

John 14. So I've been preaching through the Upper Room Discourse in Manchester. Just to bring everybody up to speed, basically, what we have is the Lord's last words to His disciples before He goes to the cross.

The Upper Room Discourse and Jesus’ Departure

So we call this the Upper Room Discourse. Basically, John 13 through 17. It's unclear exactly when they leave the room, but that's not really important. The real issue is Jesus is going to leave His disciples.

He's going away. So we dive in today. V. 27 of chapter 14. John 14 .27 is where I want to read from. Peace I leave with you. John 14 .27 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard Me say to you, I'm going away. See, there it is right there. He's going away. But then He says, I'll come to you. That almost seems contradictory.

I'm going away. He doesn't mean I'm going away and then I'm going to come back to you and so I won't be away anymore. The real issue here is that He tells them He's not back up in 18. I'm not going to leave you orphans.

I will come to you. And what's He going to do? He's going to send the Spirit. And when He sends the Spirit, then what's going to happen? Things like v. 21. We're going to be loved by the Father. Christ is going to love us.

Christ is going to manifest Himself to us. V. 23, we have the Father is going to love us and the Father and the Son are going to come to us and make their home with us. And this is all going to happen by the Spirit.

That's what Jesus means here when He says I'm going away. He's going away bodily. He's going away physically. He's going to be seated at the right hand of His Father. But when He goes to His Father, the Father's going to send the Spirit.

And so this is how the Father and the Son are going to come to them. They're going to make their abode. But see, they're troubled. They're all messed up about this. You heard me say to you, I'm going away and I will come to you.

If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father for the Father is greater than I. Now look, obviously that verse does not say Jesus is not God. Some people, it's like that's what they see there.

That's not what that says. Basically that is saying that the Father is more prominent than the Son in a certain way. And look, all you have to do is read 1 Corinthians 15 and you find what? Everything is going to be put under Jesus' feet and yet not everything.

It accepts the one who puts everything under His feet. There's obviously a prominence order here. That doesn't undo the fact that in another place that Jesus says I and My Father are one. So we don't need to get all bent out of shape over that.

And now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe. And notice, He's coming to the end here and there's finality. I'm no longer going to talk much with you.

The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me. So, these guys feel staggered. And you would too. Listen, we all are attracted to people who love us. No? We all are. There's something very attractive about that.

And imagine, you just imagine if you walked with three years with Christ who loved His own to the end perfectly. Can you imagine? And now He says to you, I'm going away. You're like, no! All their hopes and expectations are collapsing.

What do you mean you're going away? You know they were asking Him. Is it now? You're going to set up your kingdom now? They thought just like everybody else, all the Jews, that He's come. He's going into Jerusalem.

He's going to set up. What? You're not going to talk much with us anymore. What? And these guys are troubled. That's why He says something like He says in... Basically, I'm preaching to you today, v. 27.

That's why He says, let not your hearts be troubled. You know why? Because their hearts are greatly troubled. These guys are really troubled. And Jesus is basically saying to them, men, things are good.

You guys are troubled, but things are good. Things are exactly on course. They're afraid. And you know what's remarkable? It's Jesus isn't. I mean, there's a steadiness in Him. He's facing the cross. These guys are facing the loss of Jesus, at least physically.

Jesus is facing the wrath of God. Jesus is calm and cool and collected right here. They're afraid. He is not afraid. Listen to this, He says, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

I mean, Jesus has 10 ,000 times more reason to be afraid. And you can imagine, imagine, put yourself there. We don't know what He looked like. But when He says, My peace, do you think His hand was shaking like He was all afraid?

Do you think He was full of all sorts of nervousness and dread just engulfed Him? No, He's... Imagine, man, My peace. And they're looking in His face. There was something staying just in His look, just in the tone in His voice.

I give My peace to you. And brethren, the big thing is this, that one of the things that ought to jump out of this is that Jesus does not count peace as a trivial aspect of the Gospel. This is a central issue.

My peace I give to you. Now, let's think. My peace. Let's think of a definition. What does this mean? Peace. So, what's the opposite of peace? Problems? Anxiety? Fear? What else? Turmoil? War? Okay, so basically, peace is used two prominent ways.

And it's the same in Scripture. It's basically used two different ways. On the one hand, we have things like, think about this, Ephesians. Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, you know the text?

You were far off. We were far off. We've been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is what? Our peace. And you know what it says? It says that He got rid of the hostility. He's reconciled us both to God in one body through the cross.

And what He's done is He's destroyed the hostility. You see, there's hostility. There was war. He is our peace. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to you who were near. That's the opposite of war.

And then of course, you have that which is opposite of anxiety. And you know how it says in Philippians? What's it say? We're not to be anxious. See, there's not the opposite of war. There's the opposite of anxiety.

And how do we avoid being anxious? By doing what? In all things? Through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving? We make our requests known to God. Right? Through Christ. Don't want to forget that part.

Well, it's our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So basically what you have here is you've got this first piece which is peace with God. And then you've got the second piece which is the peace of God or the peace of Christ.

And that's what He says that He's giving them. Now, look, it's possible to have peace with God. You can be here today and be saved and you actually have peace with God, but you feel anxiety in your heart.

Is it possible to have the peace of Christ if you're at war with God? You see, there's two kinds of peace. And the reality is that one is outside of us. It's got to do with whether we're at war with God.

One is inside us. One is subjective. One is objective. One is subjective. One is inside me. Whether I feel anxiety, it's got to do with my experience. One is outside. And the reality is that my subjective peace is built on and based on the subjective peace.

You cannot have the peace of Christ if you're at war with God. It can't exist. The fact is that if you have any kind of peace whatsoever, then you know what? It ends up being in this category. Jesus says, peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives.

The Peace of Christ in the Midst of Tribulation

You know, the world gives peace. If I'm at war with God, the only sort of peace that I can ever have, and you know what, people are fighting for it all the time. And when you were lost, you were too. And so was I.

We fight for this peace when there is no peace. But you know, the world has this way of giving peace. And Jesus says, I'm not giving it like that. Now, we're going to get back to that in just a second.

But here's the thing. So often it's common to do exactly what I've just been doing. We talk about peace from the standpoint of the negative, like the opposite, war or anxiety. But the fact is, do you know what the positive aspect, the main aspect of peace is?

It's not just an absence of war. Do you know what it is? It's in harmony with God. That's the positive. Or, when you think about the opposite of anxiety, I mean, what we really are talking about is this positive state of well-being, this tranquility of soul.

Why? Because my sins are... I mean, I have this total salvation. It's just an assurance that resonates within me because of all that Christ has done. So, let's think about this. Christ calls it My peace.

You want to learn something about this peace? Jump over to John 6 .33. Because Jesus references this again. Now, this is key. Because this hits all of us right where we live. This peace. Jesus comes back at these guys in the next chapter.

And what you want to notice is there is such a massive essential characteristic of Jesus' peace that jumps out at us right here. Look at this. I have said these things to you, that in Me, there it is, His peace.

In Him, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart. I've overcome the world. Do you see what's happening here? Jesus' peace. You see what He's telling these guys? You guys are going to have My peace.

Despite the circumstances that come in your life. Because what are the circumstances? You're going to have trials. You're going to have tribulations. You're going to have difficulty. But you know what?

You're still going to have My peace. Guys, I'm going to go to a cross. I'm going to go to a Roman cross. I'm going to die like a criminal. I'm going to be scourged. I'm going to be spit on. I'm going to be mocked.

No, I'm not going to go take a throne in Jerusalem. No, I'm not going to overcome the Romans right now. I'm going to suffer and you guys are going to suffer. But guess what? His peace trumps all of that.

It rises above. That's the idea here. You're not going to somehow fall prey to being victimized by your circumstances. And that's the beauty of being a Christian. I mean, one of the things we can face is whatever is coming at us.

And oh, brethren, you've lived long enough. Such things come at us that we did not want to come at us. I did not want my daughter Charity to fall away. I mean, things come that tear us deep, but you know what?

In the midst of it, He's promising there is a peace. My peace. I'm going to give you a tranquility of soul that is going to fill you no matter what events come into your life, no matter what you face.

John MacArthur, I don't know if this was original with him or not, but he basically said the heart's calm. Christ's peace is the heart's calm after Calvary's storm. And that is so good. Imagine the storm of the wrath of God.

God, He's crushed His soul, poured out like water, and you come take refuge in the shadow of that cross. And there is peace no matter what happens in your life. And you know what the question is for all of us?

Do we know it? Do we experience this? Do you enjoy this very peace that Jesus Christ is talking about in John 14? That's the question. What's it like in your life? What's it like in your heart when a trial comes?

When difficulty comes? When there's a crisis? You know what the question is? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I mean, this hits us right where we live. What does your Christianity do for you when things get really, really, really tough?

I mean, that is a question to ask, folks, because when Jesus says, My peace I give to you, He means for our Christianity to carry us through the darkest hour. That's what He's saying here. Brethren, are you able?

You can kind of look at it like the tyranny of circumstances. Like these things are just some terrorizing thing that comes. Are you able to escape this? Does worry, despair? This is such a practical test.

Such a practical. It's so far removed from just this abstract realm of theory. I mean, this hits us right where we live, folks. Things are happening to you. You're in this place. You're in this position.

You didn't ask to be here and this is happening to you. And it hurts. It's not comfortable. This is the issue. What's your faith worth at that point right there? Are you different from everybody else?

You know what I read? I mean, we read across these things. Sometimes you have to stop and you have to think. You read about David and you can hear about his sorrows and his difficulties and his struggles.

But you just think about this. Psalm 3, Oh Lord, how many are My foes? Now, think about this. If you have one guy in your life that's really difficult to you, you feel like he's against you, he's attacking you.

I mean, you've got that neighbor, right? Barking dog and he throws junk in your yard. Whatever! Whoever you have in your life. If you had one guy like that, that can be difficult. He has foes. And listen to this.

How many are My foes? Many are rising against Me. Many say there's no salvation for them and it's God. I cried aloud to the Lord. He answered me from His holy hill. And listen to David. I lay down and slept.

I will not be afraid. There it is. It's that peace in the midst. You know this. Wesley. Ah, he was part of the holy club and he thought everything was good with his soul until he got on a ship and went to Georgia.

You know what happened to him? They got in a storm. Can you imagine one of those? I mean, you were talking early 1700's? You remember the kind of ships they had in that day? And they're going across the Atlantic?

And they get in a storm. Guess who was on the ship? Moravians. And you know what he saw in the storm? His own heart was panicked. He saw these Moravians, even the children, they're over there singing psalms.

You know what? God used that to convict him. He did not have the peace of Christ. He was lost. Maybe some of you know the story. And then, I read the story about a guy, there was a Christian man that was on the Titanic.

And I came across this story years ago. He found a piece of debris that he was able to get his body up out of the water. You know, if they couldn't get their bodies up out of the water, they succumbed very quickly.

The people that made it generally were in the boats or they were able to climb up on top of something. And this guy was able to do that. So he's on this piece of debris. And you know what? His words there in the dark, North Atlantic, going up and down in the waves.

He said, Lord, there's no reason for both of us to stay awake. And he went to sleep balanced on that. But that is the peace of Christ. It is the peace of God that passes understanding. And Jesus said, I give that to My people.

I give that to you. My peace. And I would just say, I mean, you can probably go on and on with the list, but I would say it's His peace for at least three reasons. He gives it, He earned it, and He had it.

He has it. The fact is, He gives it. He says, My peace, I give to you. It's His for that reason. He gives it. Listen, we're talking about something supernatural. This is a supernatural gift. This is not just something anybody can conjure up in the power of His flesh.

This is a supernatural present of being one of Christ's people. And then there's this. He earned it. I mean, my inner peace is based on the fact that we know Romans 5 .1. We know that we're justified by faith.

We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, He earned the very basis for our peace. But the other thing is He had it. And what I mean by that is when you watch in the pages of Scripture, watch Jesus.

When He's confronted by His enemies, He is so calm. It's just like they throw stones at Him. He just disappears into the crowd. He's so calm and cool and collected. He's faced by the cross. Do you recognize in that upper room?

He's instructing these guys. He's preparing them. He's faced with the cross. And He's so calm. There's this extraordinary calm that just held Him absolutely steady. If you just simply... One of the things popped in my mind when I preached this in the UK was just the account with Pilate.

Jesus’ Peace Before Pilate and the Cross

Pilate had him scourged. Look up on the Internet about Roman scourging. And anybody that's looked into it, you know it had a wooden handle. It had these leather straps. They tied wire and metal and glass and stone fragments in there.

And when they hit, guys, it didn't just leave a mark like a rod. It ripped flesh to pieces down to sinew, exposed bone, ripped open. I mean, your bowels basically were exposed or even fell out. These Roman soldiers.

Let me just ask you, what if you got hauled into a court situation where you were dealing with the man who was basically your judge and you knew that he could have you scourged? Pilate, what accusation do you bring?

And the Jews said, if this man were not doing evil, we'd not have delivered him. Pilate called Jesus and said, are You the King of the Jews? And you know, the thing about Jesus is He was not uncertain about what was going to happen.

He knew what was going to happen. There's a steadiness for Jesus to answer. Think with me. To answer this way, do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say it to you about me? That's the way a man answers when he is at peace.

Pilate says, am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests delivered you over me. What have you done? Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants, they would fight.

But My kingdom's not of this world. Pilate said, so you're a king. Jesus said, you say I'm a king. For this purpose, I was born. For this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who's of the truth listens to my voice. Pilate says, what is truth? He's mocking. Pilate went out to the Jews and he told them, I don't find any guilt with Him. You have a custom I should release one man at Passover.

Do you want the king of the Jews? They cried, no, Barabbas. Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. Scourged Him. His back is shredded. The soldiers twist together, crown of thorns, put it on His head, arrayed Him in purple robe, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

They struck Him with their hands. Pilate, see, I'm bringing Him out to you that you may know that I don't find any guilt in Him. Jesus came out wearing crown of thorns, purple robe. Pilate said, behold the man.

They cried, crucify Him. Pilate said, take Him yourselves. I don't find any guilt in Him. Jews said, we have a law. According to that law, He ought to die because He's made Himself the Son of God. Listen to Pilate.

When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. You know what that sounds like? He was afraid and now he's even more afraid. Wait, we expect that from Jesus who's being flogged and about to be crucified.

Why is Pilate the one afraid? It's like Jesus is just exuding stability in the midst of this. Pilate entered the headquarters and said to Jesus, where are You from? See, now he's concerned. Of course, you remember the account where his wife says don't have anything to do with that righteous man.

Jesus gave no answer. Mark says Pilate was amazed. Pilate says, You'll not speak to me? Don't you know I have authority to release You? Authority to crucify You? So Jesus just goes silent. He's not pleading for it.

You know what condemned criminals are like? I'm guilty! I didn't do it! Jesus said you'd have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above. So the idea here is just so calm, so controlled, Pilate's disturbed.

You just have this serenity about Christ. This is Jesus' peace. This is what he's talking about in John 14 .27 when he says, My peace I give to you. I not only give it to you, I not only earned it, I have it myself.

Like I'm able to face the cross for the joy set before me. Like I'm stable here, guys. And I'm giving that to you. Supernaturally endowing that. And you know what? You can look in Scripture and you find things where there's an absence of that peace.

Just a place that maybe it doesn't jump right out at you that would be obvious where that takes place. But remember this, parable of the soils. You have in Luke's account, a sower went out to sow his seed.

Some fell on the rock. As it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Jesus explains that. He says, the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the Word, they receive it with joy, but these have no root.

Peace as the Test of Genuine Faith

They believe for a while, but in a time of testing, they fall away. Well, how does this have to do with peace? Just this, testing. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when you get into a really difficult place and all of a sudden you find the peace of Christ, that carries you through.

You see, it's testing. Because the guy that gets into the difficulty in life, the test. What is the test? Testing. The test is testing what exactly happens to you when you get in the test. Does that peace grip you?

Are you stable? Is your faith locked in? Is there something foundational underneath you? That's what a test is. It proves the very character and nature of your Christianity. What's going on? People who fall away when they're tested, they can't find this peace.

What happens? They get in the midst of the trial and they're unhappy. They're frustrated. They're uncertain. They're fearful. And you know what they want to do? They want to control things. You get the person, oh yeah, when everything looked really good, when everything about Christianity, yeah, this is really good.

But you see, it's like they want it on their own terms. Oh no, I didn't sign up for this. Well, if God's going to do this, I'm checking out of here. Folks, what about you and your walk? I mean, this is what we need to ask.

What's it like in a crisis? Because the thing is we all have these theories. We all have these systems. We all have these ideologies. I mean, it's great when the birds are singing and the sun's shining out there and you've got money in the bank account and everything is good.

Then we have all of our theories about Christianity. Yeah, what happens when it gets hard? And I'm talking really hard. Like God comes and takes something away from you that you just don't feel like you can live without.

Your health, your spouse, your child. What happens when things get really hard? What happens when you lose your job? Difficult. What then? This is the test. Are you able in the midst of it to find a comfort?

To remain untroubled? Do you know a peace that passes understanding? That's how the Scripture talks about it. Are you helped by your form of Christianity? That's what we're asking. I mean, it's like you feel like there's very little that provides such a thorough test of our faith.

It's one thing to say we believe. It's another thing in the midst of the trial to see our faith triumphant and victorious and we come out in a state of joy. I mean, look, if you've been a Christian any amount of time, I'm not talking about something you don't relate to here.

You get in that difficulty and it's like, wow, God is real in the midst of this. I can lay my head down. I can go to sleep. I'm not going to be afraid. I mean, didn't we see something with COVID? That like shook.

I was amazed at the number of professing Christians that it just seemed like in the midst of that, they had no steadiness and peace. They were just gripped by fear and anxiety. I mean, listen, we want to be honest.

Is there a sense of security? Is there an anchor for our soul? Or when we get into difficulties, is there a foreboding? There's no rest? Listen, we used to have a guy in this church that every time he would approach overpasses, he got nervous because he thought they were going to fall on him.

You can look at that. Listen, I'll tell you, we live in a world today that is riddled by all these phobias. It seems like there's just all this demonic stuff and people unrest. And is there a peace? Do you know this peace?

You know what happened to Melody Green? You know who she is? Keithreen's wife. You know what happened when her husband and two children crashed up in North Texas? If you ever watch her testimony, you know what?

She had no peace. After that crash, she said, I was very troubled. She said, I thought that if I had been in that plane, I'm not sure I would have gone to heaven. You see, no peace. It was absent. I remember Ruby and talking about just the prospect of her mom dying.

And she didn't know how she was going to weather that storm. And you know what? It came. Her mom died. And it was like this great big tidal wave that she was expecting to hit her. It never came. It was like peace just carried her through.

Brethren, this is one of the most glorious. It's one of the glories of the Gospel. This peace. The peace of God that passes all understanding. You can't understand this peace. You can't imagine it, yet it takes you.

You experience it. It's real. Do you see what this means? The Gospel is not mainly concerned about your circumstances. You are going to have tribulation. And it's like the Gospel doesn't even care about that.

It cares about you weathering, going through it. Peace. That's the issue. Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. I heard Ryan Fullerton talk about just all the problems, being in the ministry, all the problems in the church, and then being able to go home at the end of the day and play with his kids.

Just peace. I remember, some of you probably heard this, he talked about his wife. His wife had these little Tibetan girls. Ama, Ama. And it describes how if the lamas took those girls back, they were going to do unspeakable things to them.

And how his wife would be in tears, and he would come back, and that peace just had a hold of her. Resolute, at peace, going to walk before the Lord. Brethren, this is real. I mean, we have this triumph here.

And no matter what our circumstances, we're kept right, we're kept peaceful in the midst. The thing we fear, it might or might not come. A lot of things we fear don't come. But you know what? Some of them do.

And whether it does or doesn't isn't even the issue. Not the issue. Because in the midst of whatever does come, in fact, you know what you find? Is typically you tend to know this peace much more strongly when things are difficult.

It's like God, He very uniquely... I remember, again, Ruby talking about her sister when she was going through chemotherapy and she had cancer. And just how difficult a season that was. And yet, the hardest day of the two-week cycle, it's like God would come in and just smother her with this peace.

This is real. One of the things I would never want to do is I would never want to see a man in the ministry who hadn't gone through difficulties and see how he's tried and tested. I would never want a guy to marry one of my daughters who hadn't gone through some kind of testing like this either that I can see firsthand or at least hear about.

Why? Jesus promises peace to His people. And so the question is this, are you helped by your Christianity? Do you know this? I remember, I tried to look this up. Don't you hate when you read... James, you read all the time.

Don't you hate when you read something and then you think about it later and you want to find it and you can't find it? Anyway, I remember this story. It comes from the Scottish Covenanters. And I remember that the Dragoons, the English and the Scottish Covenanters, they had a battle and the Scottish lost and they were captured.

Many of them were killed, but some of them were captured and they're thrown in the dungeon. And one of the guys, it said he had like seven mortal wounds. Any one of which was going to kill him. This guy was dying, he was bleeding to death.

They just took his broken body and they threw it on the floor in the dungeon and they took a pile of chains and just threw them on top of him. And as he was laying there, the guys that weren't so broken, they were chained to the walls.

He said to his buddies around there that, I don't know that I'm going to be able to bear this much longer. And you know, if I remember the story correctly, the issue was his face was beaming and it wasn't that he couldn't bear the wounds.

He said, I don't know that I can bear the glory of God much longer than I'm feeling. It's like that piece of Christ just multiplied. How many ever fold and just lavished upon Him? We sang it. Here's Horatio Spafford.

The captain says to him, this is where the ship went down and it took the lives of your four daughters. Lost them all. You remember the story. The telegram. All lost. I alone am saved. The captain said, here's the spot, Mr. Spafford.

He stood out there on the railing of the ship when peace like a river. There is a peace. And Jesus promises this to His people. I just kind of mark my own life. I remember one situation where I had to go to a funeral.

A situation with a will. And you just watch how people fight and wrangle over wills. And I remember something happened with my dad's will. And it was like I wasn't going to get something. And it was like that morning, I sat down and I read Hebrews 13.

And I am with you. I'll never leave you or forsake you. And it was like this peace came over me. And you know what? Nothing in this world matters. I remember the first time I ever took a pulpit, I was absolutely terrified.

My legs barely carried me. And I came up and I stood right here and I looked out at the people. And a peace. I was immersed in... I remember when I was in turmoil over my daughter Grace and I walked out on the front porch at the house over there on Rosary and just peace.

These things are real. I remember when Ruby, she has a lump in the breast and it's just peace. Peace. You get in this situation where you have this sense, you're aware of this curious calm. Martin Lee Jones tells the story about this Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter.

Their daughter was sick. And you know what? When they prayed, they could not pray that God would heal her. Neither the father or the mother. And she was obviously very critically sick. All they could pray is that, Lord, You can heal her.

You're able. But they never asked Him to do it because they never felt the liberty. Six weeks and she died. And they both said exactly the same thing that we were aware of this strange, curious calm within.

Look, we can't explain these things. It's a peace that overpowers us. It's God overpowering our circumstances with this peace that passes understanding. And you know what Jesus says? Not as the world gives.

The World’s False Peace

We probably should think a little bit about that. How does the world give peace? The world does. Jesus is saying, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

The Lord is emphatically stressing here that His peace is not like the world's. Did you know the world does make its attempts at giving peace? That's what Jesus says. It ought not to surprise us when we look around and what do we see?

What do we see all around us? We see a world that's out there. This whole world is given to try to construct this peace. Is it not? When you were lost, did you not do that? Some kind of security. Something to put you at rest.

The world is constantly offering you substitutes for the Prince of Peace. Constantly. And what's one of the big ones? Denial. Peace, peace, when there is no peace. It's just flat-out denial. I will never forget.

Now, you can ask me why I went to this. I can tell you another time. But Ruby and I went to my mom's Episcopalian church that has a female priestess. Anyway, there's a whole story that goes with that.

But she preaches this message for like 15 minutes on Winnie the Pooh. That's another part of the story too. But she stood up and she said, like one or two people had died in the church. It was an old church in the mountains of North Carolina.

And there were people that were sick. And you know what she did? You know what her approach to bringing comfort to the church was? She just declared, these things need to stop! I'm sure that helped everybody.