A Frowning Providence

Thank you all this week for your prayers, for your love, cards, stakes, I got all kinds of things, tears. It's been a hard week, but wonderful. Tuesday, we were in New Jersey driving across the country and the external thermometer of our car said 106, 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

And then as we approached, as we approached Worcester area, it changed to 56. And I thought a 50 degree temperature change as we approach home. And then I began to think about New England being spiritual tundra and the lack of love for Christ Jesus in New England.

Gratitude for the Church’s Love and a Hard Week

And then I thought, but to God's glory, that's not true at Bethlehem Bible Church. There are pockets of people that God is raising up. Christ Jesus has promised he would build his church. And even though I think as a church, we major on the doctrine side and we have a lot of growing to do on the loving side, I've experienced and been a recipient of your love the last week or two.

And I just wanna say thank you and to God be the glory that he would prompt you to love the Ebendroth family. It's been super hard to be there when mom was dying and then as she died, and then to have the family come and to see Luke as a pallbearer and all those things.

But the Lord has been wonderful and generous and gracious. And I just wanna say thank you on the behalf of a pastor for all your love to the Ebendroth family. And it's kind of neat by the way too, because my mom knew a lot of you.

Some of you have been to Israel even with my mother and have ridden camels with my mother even. Nancy and I, for those of you that don't know, and this isn't part of the service, but Nancy Yates and I rode a camel together.

And so we are bound forever as we rode a camel. And I think it was my mother and Millie Lindblom who rode a camel together as well. And so there was a man who suffered a lot in Scotland. His name was Samuel Rutherford.

And Samuel Rutherford said many centuries ago, the secret formula of the saints is this. What's the secret formula of a Christian? He said, when I'm in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines.

When I'm in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines. And we're gonna take a detour from Ephesians chapter six this week. I just couldn't bear to get back into Ephesians six, not because it isn't a glorious passage, because it is.

But I've learned a lot the last few weeks as I've seen God and his faithfulness. And so today could almost be called lessons from a grieving shepherd. What the Lord has taught me, reminded me, encouraged me with, and then I wanna make sure that you're encouraged as well as we are really one big family.

Lastly, choice wines of affliction are lessons from a grieving shepherd. One more side note, if you'd like to hear the memorial service that I delivered for my mother last Tuesday, it is on our website, bbchurch .org, and you can download that and listen to the funeral service.

I think this is an important message today because I think we're affected in our culture, Christian culture even, TV Christian culture, that we have health, wealth, and prosperity, and the Lord will give his people the very best and only the best, that somehow we should expect from God pleasure and prosperity, and there should be no suffering ahead.

Friends, that's not true at all. That's a lie. God's will, as 1 Peter says, for our life is to what? As Christ Jesus suffered, so too it is our, it is God's will for us to suffer. And Charles Spurgeon used to say, when I suffer, that's when God teaches me the most.

C .S. Lewis said the same thing. God whispers to us in his pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. If you're taking notes today or for an outline, let me give you some choice wines of affliction or things that I've learned from God, and then hopefully you can learn as well.

You can always tell a pastor if he hasn't had a lot of time to study during the week, he doesn't have the introductions down, he doesn't have the segues down, he doesn't have that transitions down. I don't have any of those down.

I'm just going to try to keep my composure as long as I can. I said during the memorial service, I said, for those of you that have never visited Mount Vesuvius, you'll probably watch one today so you don't have to fly all the way to get there.

It's supposed to hurt. We don't have to be robots as Christians walking around thinking we don't have to grieve. It's supposed to hurt. The word even to grieve or to be bereaved means to rip. And so I think of Christ standing at the tomb of Lazarus, knowing that in moments, if not seconds, he would raise Lazarus from the dead and yet he stood there and did what?

He was weeping. He was weeping. It's supposed to hurt. It does hurt. A man in Omaha said, death is but a temporary inconvenience that separates our smaller living from our greater being. But that's not true at all.

It's not a temporary inconvenience. Death hurts, suffering hurts, trials hurts. So what do we do? How do we respond? Let me just give you several that I came up with this week as God was working on me and I hope he works through me through his word to you.

Trusting Christ and His Word in the Face of Death

Number one, even though death is cruel, scary, and vicious, you can still trust Christ Jesus and his word. Even though death is cruel and vicious, you can still trust the Lord and his word, can't you?

I mean, what are my other options? God, how could you? I was in the room with my mother that Friday morning and she died at about 140 and she had had breathing problems and a variety of other things. And most of the other family members left and they left the room and the nurses were very generous and very gracious.

I think that was actually an answer to prayer how sweet the staff was to our family and to my mother. And so they just pulled down the curtains and they said, you can stay with her body as long as you'd like.

And I thought, I'm never gonna be able to see my mom's body again except at the calling hours in the mortuary. So I just wanna stay, I have no rush. In the old days when grandma died in the back room, she would just stay there for a while until everybody had said goodbye.

So I was holding my mom's hand as she died. And then I thought, I'm just gonna keep holding her hand until I've just had enough. And so it was probably four o 'clock in the morning when I finally left.

And I just thought, I wanna hold her hand until she's not warm anymore, until her body's just cold. And I just was thanking God for her and for her salvation. And I thought, death is horrible. Death hurts.

This whole thing about, well, let's just have a big celebration service. I think it is a celebration service because my mom's in heaven. As one man said, when you're born, you cry and people rejoice. And when you die, if you're a Christian, other people cry and you rejoice.

But I was sitting there holding my mom's hand thinking, this hurts. Death is unnatural pre-fall. Death is not supposed to happen before the fall. It wouldn't have happened. The wages of sin is what? Death.

And without Adam sinning and we in Adam sitting, there'd be no death. It is a graduation. It is a coronation, but it's supposed to hurt. Yet we can still trust Christ and His word, even though we can't see Him.

And even though sometimes we don't feel like trusting Him. Charles Wesley said, Christians die well. And why do they die well? By the grace of God, as they still trust in Him. Even as Job said, yet He what?

Slay me. About four days before my mother died. By the way, if you're looking for a verse by verse sermon, there's about a thousand on the website. So you can just order those. I'm just gonna share what's on my heart today.

A few days before she died, she began getting very nervous. And so I said, mom, do you have questions about your security? Do you have questions about your assurance in Christ Jesus, your salvation? That you will persevere to the end?

That Christ has saved you? And she said, no, I'm just frightened of death. And so I pulled out Pilgrim's Progress and turned to the very back of Act One when Christian had the same kind of experience.

Here's what Christian, here's what Pilgrim's Progress said. The great book by John Bunyan. And I read this to my mother. Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river and there was no bridge to go over.

By the way, the river's death. And every saint has to cross that river. And the river was very deep. At the site, therefore, of this river, the pilgrims were much stunned. But the men that went with them said, you must go through or you cannot come to the gate.

The pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to the gate. To which they answered, yes, but there have not any save two to wit, Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that path since the foundation of the world.

Nor shall enter the last trumpet shall sound. The pilgrims then, especially Christian, began to despond in his mind and look this way and that. But no one could be found by them by which they might escape the river.

Then they asked the men if the waters were all of a depth. They said no, yet they could not help them in that case, for said they, you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the king of the place.

Then they addressed themselves to the water and entering, Christian began to sink and crying out to his good friend, Hopeful. He said, I sink in the deep waters. The billows go over my head. All his waves go over me.

Then said the other, be of good cheer, my brother. I feel the bottom and it is good. Then said Christian, ah, my friend, the sorrows of death has encompassed me about. I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey.

And with that, a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian so that he could not see before him. Also here in a great measure, he lost his senses so he can neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage.

But all the words that he spoke still tended to discover that he had horror of mind and heart fears that he should die in that river and never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here also as they that stood by perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim.

Hopeful therefore, here had much ado to keep his brother's head above water. Yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down and then ere a while he would rise up again half dead. Hopeful did also endeavor to comfort him saying, brother, I see the gate and men standing by to receive us.

But Christian would answer, it is you, it is you they wait for. For you have been hopeful ever since I knew you. And so have you said he to Christian. Ah brother said he surely if I was right he would now arise to help me, but for my sins he had brought me into the snare and has left me.

And then finally the book ends. Then I saw in my dream that Christian was an amuse a while to whom also hopeful added these words, be of good cheer, Christ Jesus maketh thee whole. And with that Christian break out with a loud voice.

Oh, I see him again and he tells me when thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee, Isaiah 43. Then they both took good courage and the enemy after that was as still as a stone until they got over.

Christian therefore presently found ground to stand on and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow, thus they got over. And I said, mom, you can count on the promises of God. You can still trust in the Lord.

Listen to John chapter 14. Why don't you turn there? I guess this is a Bible teaching church. You should open your Bibles today. John chapter 14. What do we do when we're in trial? And it might be not be the death of your mother.

It might be any other trial. Can you still hope in God? Can you still trust in him? Can you trust in his word? That's the essence of faith is trusting in something we cannot see. Someone we cannot see.

John chapter 14. You're in a trial, mom. You can still trust the Lord. You can still trust it that when Jesus said, John chapter 14 verse one, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.

My father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

And you know the way where I'm going. And so it is true for the Christian that when we are in a trial, when things are going the wrong way, according to our plan, we can still trust the Lord and trust in his word.

Turn to Revelation chapter 22 if you would. Can we trust the Lord when we have the hope of this heaven? Of course we can. Revelation chapter 22 at the very end of your Bibles, Revelation chapter 22, again with the big theme here, we're in a trial, can you still trust the Lord?

And specifically looking at the promises of heaven. Not only what Jesus said in John 14, but what Jesus is apostolic messenger, John said in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22 verses one and following.

My mom was very sick one day and she said, just read me something about heaven. And so where do you open your Bible? Revelation chapter 21 and 22, tell me something about heaven. There's not a whole lot about heaven.

Did you ever ask yourself that question? Why is there not much about heaven? I think it's too glorious to know about. The main thing to know about heaven is God will be there. And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb.

In the middle of a street and on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit. Healing its fruit in every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it. And his bondservants shall serve him. As one man said, there's no barbed wire like curse preventing access to the Lord.

The saints are serving him over and over and over and they shall see his face. Question, what are we missing in our worship service right now? Many things, but one is seeing the face of God as we worship him, but not so in heaven.

And his name of possession, personal possession will be on their foreheads. God owns these. And there shall no longer be any night and they shall have no need of lamp or light nor of the light of the sun because the Lord God shall illumine them and they shall reign forever and ever.

I sat there and as mom died, I looked at her and I didn't wanna be morbid about it or anything but I thought I wanted to see my mom's eyes one last time. I just thought about the sparkle of her eyes and how she looked.

I thought, I need to look one more time. It was probably 3 .30 in the morning and so I just kind of peeled back her eyes, her eyelids. And when she was dying, of course, her eyes weren't all the way shut and her mouth was kind of open as she was taking those last breaths and I had closed her eyes and her mouth and I thought, I wanna see her eyes one last time.

And so I peeled back her eyelids a little bit just to look and they were my mom's eyes. There's no life in those eyes. I thought, she's not there. This is just a shell. The kids flew into town and we went into grandma's house and Kim was very insightful and she said to our four kids, she said, we got to grandma's house and she's no longer in the house.

And it's just the same way with her body tonight. When we see her body, she's going to not be there. That's her body, that's her house, but she's no longer there. And as I stood there looking into my mother's eyes thinking, it hurts to lose a father, it hurts to lose children, it hurts to lose people, but right now, how do you deal with the loss of a mother?

And I looked into her eyes and it was nothing but cold and blank and staring off. And I thought, never before have I trusted God so much to say my words are true, what are my other options? Here's the one who's victorious over death.

And I said to mom before she died, I said, absent from the body, mom, present with the Lord. To live is Christ, to die is gain. I said, mom, I firmly and resolutely believe those things and you do too.

One time when I was talking to her, one of the last words she said in a kind of a morphine haze, she said, D .L. Moody used to say for his obituary reading, quote, you will read in the papers that D .L. Moody of East Northfield is dead.

Don't believe a word of it. At that moment, I shall be more alive than I am now. Atheists can't believe that. The infidels can't believe that. The pagans can't believe that. But the word of God teaches that.

And Jesus was not the first to be raised from the dead, but he was the preeminent of all. He was the firstborn. He conquered death. We have to trust him. And that's when we can't trust our feelings. I mean, how many times as Christians do we go on our feelings over the word of God?

At a time like that, you have to submit your feelings to actually the word of God. Martin Luther used to say, feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God. Not else is worth believing.

My mom would always send Christmas cards out, and this was her last Christmas card. You can't see it, and I'm not into props or PowerPoint preach or anything like that, but it was her with all the grandkids.

And here's what it says. As an example of how God can work through someone and still let them trust in the Lord, even though we're having a hard, difficult time. Shortly after Christmas last year, my life's pleasant bubble burst.

My life was in such fine working order, playing with the grandchildren, et cetera. Suddenly, chaos. A doctor discovered a tumor in my lung, adenocarcinoma. It's been a tough year of chemo and radiation and the effects of those on my body.

But God is good, and in him, I have found security and comfort. Everyday activities are difficult, but I have so many friends and family who help me and encourage me daily. I haven't been able to get back to work, but I have resumed my participation in Bible City.

She was the lady's teacher. I've enjoyed the pool this summer and even traveled some. Now I have more time in God's word and more time with my family. Would you believe it if I told you that I thank God for this cancer?

It's true. Whatever the storm is, God is in control. Wherever we are, whatever we're up against, when we cry out to God in our trouble, when we trust him, he will hear us. He will calm the waters. God teaches me, I'm learning.

What is there for me to do but to praise and to thank him? Psalm 107 .21. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Stop in for a visit if you're in my neighborhood.

I love seeing you. And then she tells some about the gospel. What do you do when you're in a trial? How do you respond or how do you react? It can't be by sight, especially if we walk by faith. And all these things, when we fall short of, a good prayer would be, Lord, I can't do this on my own, so increase my faith.

Help me not to rely on my feelings. Help me to trust in your word. After all, Christ Jesus said he didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And he said, I tell you in Matthew 5, unless heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

In the Hebrew, there's this little tiny thing that's about, well, it's like a period at the top of a sentence, a comma. For us, it's about that size. There are about 66 ,000 yodes in the Old Testament alone.

Not one of those will pass away because it's the word of God. By the way, where else would we turn in a trial? Even though death is cruel and scary, you can still trust Christ Jesus and his word. Even though you're in the trial that you're in, you can still trust the Lord.

Preaching the Gospel Before Death Comes

Number two, death is a certainty, so you must preach the good news to your lost family and friends. Death is a certainty. George Swinnick, the old Puritan said, against this arrest, there is no bail. Everyone's going to die.

And I sat there looking at my mom's body, thinking there could only be one thing worse than this, that if I knew theologically, unless for the grace of God at some last minute rescue, if what would be worse than looking at my mom's corpse, it would be looking at my mom's corpse thinking, contrary to all popular opinion, that salvation is by death.

You die and you're in heaven. Oh, they're in a better place. What if she wasn't in a better place? What if she was in hell? Americans don't like to talk about death. Think about that little Arab boy who had a bunch of dates and he'd hold the dates up to a candle late at night and he'd see a worm in it.

Pick up a different one, worm in it, worm in it. He couldn't deal with it anymore, so he just blew out the candle and stuffed his face because he was hungry for those dates. That's the way it is, I think, with America and death.

We don't talk about death, we can't handle death. It's like Woody Allen, I'm not afraid to die, I just don't wanna be there when it happens. And people are going to die. When we stood at the calling hours and it was a closed casket except for family and I opened up the casket and I showed the kids and we brought the kids all around and I said, why don't you just touch Grandma Carla's hand and her face if you'd like, and she was as hard as a rock and cold.

I said, one day, kids, every one of you is gonna lie in a casket just like that. Why did I say that, to be morose, to be weird? No, because we never see death. You don't see anything dead except maybe a chipmunk on the street.

We will die and then comes what? Judgment, and for the believers, the judgment is this. The advocate Christ Jesus steps in, the risen one, and he says, I have paid for all the sins of this one. Let them into your presence, God.

We have the right hand of God, the intercessor, the high priest on our behalf. For everyone else, damnation. And beloved, when someone dies, when there's a tragedy like that, it kind of just levels everything out and it makes me want to encourage you by saying, if you don't have family members who are saved and you haven't preached the gospel to them because you think they might not like you or you might cause some ripples and waves, it's just a good time to have them preach because one day they're going to be stone cold dead and they're going to think that their life on earth was at a veritable heaven compared to the hell that they're in.

Jonathan Edwards used to say that. If you're living a great life here on earth now and you die and go to hell, or you do die and go to heaven, you'll think your great life on earth was practically like hell compared to the excellencies of heaven.

On the flip side, can you imagine thinking you're going to go to heaven and then ending up in hell? And now's a good time to preach the gospel to your friends and family, and if they revile you, then bless God.

They reviled Christ, they reviled Peter, they reviled Stephen, and we walk around, and I'm probably the biggest one, so remember when I preach, I preach to you because hopefully the Lord has preached to me first.

And when you are dealing with family members, they're going to die and then what? You're the Christian. You're the one who's been taught. We have to preach the gospel to them. I turn to Matthew chapter seven and let me just remind all of us that there are those who call themselves Christians who only are Christians by name.

I don't want to read too much. It's homiletically not right to read too much from a book and a sermon, but I'm not after homiletics today. I said I read the last paragraph of Pilgrim's Progress. I was in error.

This is the last chapter of the first act with Christian. Now, while I was gazing upon all these things, this is Bunyan's view of Matthew seven. I turned my head to look back. Bunyan's Christian is in heaven and he's rejoicing and blessing God, but he turns his head to look back and saw ignorance come up to the riverside, but he soon got over.

So now ignorance dies and stands before God. And he got over without half the difficulty which the other two men met with, for it happened that there was then in that place one vain hope, a ferryman, that with his boat helped him over.

So he, as the other I saw, did ascend to the hill to come to the gate. Only he came alone, neither did any man meet him with the least encouragement. When he was come up to the gate, he looked up to the writing that was above and then began to knock, supposing that the entrance should have been quickly administered to him.

But he was asked by men that looked over the top of the gate, whence come you and what would you have? He answered, I have ate and drank in the presence of the king. And he has taught in our streets. Then they asked him for his certificate that they might go in and show it to the king.

So he fumbled in his bosom for one and found none. Then said they, have you none? But the man answered never a word. So they told the king, but he would not come down to see him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted Christian and hopeful to the city to go out and take ignorance and bind him hand and foot and have him away.

Then they took him up and carried him through the air to the door that I saw on the other side of the hill and put him in there. And here's the punchline, if you will, the last words. Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of heaven, as well as from the city of destruction, a porthole to hell at the gate of heaven.

And Jesus said it this way, if you'll look at your text, Matthew 7 21, not everyone who says to me, even fervently, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

You don't get saved by works, but if you are saved by faith alone, through grace alone and Christ alone, your life will show that. This life didn't show that, it didn't reflect that. The God of the universe has changed you, you'll be a different person.

Many, did you get that? Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name, cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles. And Jesus, if you notice, did not say, no, you didn't.

You didn't prophesy, you didn't cast and you didn't perform miracles. They might even been able to do that through some weird demonic power. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. As election is called for knowing, for loving.

Here, he's saying, I never knew you in an intimate way, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I got up to do the memorial service and I had no sleep the night before. And I thought, how am I gonna get through this?

I'm just gonna ball the whole time. And I wanna make sure I preach the gospel. And my mom and I were raised in a Lutheran church and many, many Lutherans came that day to the service. And I'm sure there were many others who believed in sprinkling water on the head will somehow make you right with God.

You can go down the list between Protestants and Catholics. There are many that think if you get a little water sprinkled on your head, somehow you are in. I could even read the passage this way. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, I got baptized at a Trinitarian church.

Lord, I went to confirmation. Lord, I went to church. I even went to a church where they preach the gospel. I even went to Bethlehem Bible Church. They try to preach verse by verse through Ephesians in 19 years.

I went to that church. I know the word of God. I know justification. I know sanctification. But friends, and I can look you square in the face because I need to. There are some of you here who aren't Christians.

And when you die, you're going straight to hell. And you try to sit here and you think, well, I'm getting in on my parents' account. I'm getting in here on my friend's account. I just know all the words of God and I'm just gonna get in.

If you don't act like a Christian, you're not a Christian. What do I mean by that? If God saves you, you will respond by the grace of God. And in a even baby step fashion, obey. Not by your own strength, but of course the strength that God provides.

James knew it when he preached. Do you think James was so naive to think that everybody who attended church was saved? I don't think there's just one or two people here who aren't Christians. I think there are many who are in this church today who aren't Christians.

And what is the claim to salvation? The only claim to salvation is to say my own self and my own self-righteousness and everything that I am. How about this for Jesus to preach the gospel to someone?

When you wanna get saved, hate yourself, have nothing to do with yourself. Say, you know, my own self is so wretched and vile. I'm glad we sang a song today about our vile nature. I hate everything about me.

God saved me from myself. Saved me from your wrath, but saved me from myself as well. I'm frightened that people don't build their house on the rock. And I'm frightened because I, as a Lutheran, grow up saying, if I die, I know I'm going straight to heaven.

And I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I could recite the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and I knew the Bible, but I thought I could just have God as kind of my genie last minute thing.

And so I could live my life of immorality, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, licentiousness, everything that I wanted to live the way I wanted to live. And then what? And I could not believe one day in the car coming home from church, a guy had the audacity to look me in the eye and say, you call yourself a Christian?

You've got another thing coming. Friends, that was the most loving thing probably ever said to me in my entire life. My first response though was, who are you? It's loving to tell people the truth. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, love rejoices with the truth.

And I'm not gonna go off on some kind of, you know, ogre tangent, but I'm kind of done at least, I hope for the rest of my life playing these games of, you know, you're okay, I'm okay. There are many here that I wanna meet with and just say, how do you call yourself a Christian?

I've been here eight years as a shepherd and you think you're a Christian? I see no fruit in your life, I'm not your eternal judge, but how could you be? And if it makes people leave, then it makes people leave.

They'd leave any, they need to leave because sitting here in this incubation chamber, oh, I'm good to go. I don't want that false assurance. I sit there and look at that dead, cold body and think the only hope for that soul in that body that's no longer there, the soul's no longer there, is Christ Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection and a believing faith in him.

Beloved, there is a faith that does not save. Demons believe the gospel. People that don't believe the gospel, Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7, 25, of the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on rock.

No, that's the people that respond. Here's the ones that don't, verse 26, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall.

Self-Examination, Sorrow, and the Who Question

Thirdly, we're starting to run out of time but I even thought to myself this week, you know, there's always the time restraints and time constraints. I'm just gonna start preaching until I'm done. If we go an hour, we go an hour and if people don't like it, I love you anyway but it's called the Bible teaching church for a reason.