In the Shadow of the Cross - Therapy for Troubled Hearts — J. Glyn Owen

I feel very much in need of the grace of God as we come to such a precious passage of scripture as the one that is before us tonight. And I think perhaps we ought to pause at this moment and just tell the Lord how much we need the illumination for which Lois prayed in her song.

Let's tell him again, shall we? Holy Spirit of God, we do need your ministry among us now. We always need your help when we come to your word, but when we come to such a gigantic passage as this, so full of precious truth, complex truth, upon which your saints have fed over the years, we in this rather superficial age are in special need of your grace that we should see what we need to see here.

Understand what we need to understand. That we may experience what we should experience. That we may live as we ought to live. Hear our cry to the glory of your own name and to the good of our souls and the welfare of others outside this church.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Therapy for Troubled Hearts. Now we're going to look at this passage tonight under a two-fold division of the material without any introduction whatsoever. We shall note first of all the problem that Jesus is here addressing, and then we are going to look at the principles underlying his approach to that problem.

So you know the way we're going, and we can pray for one another as we get on the move. First of all, let us look at the problem that Jesus is here addressing. Do not let your hearts be troubled. These same words, you will notice, come also toward the end of the chapter, verse 28.

The Universal Problem of Troubled Hearts

Do not let, I'm sorry, verse 27. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. The late Bishop J .C. Ryle describes this heart trouble which Jesus addresses in this context in these words. Heart trouble, he says, is the commonest thing in the world.

No rank or class or condition is exempt from it. No bars or bolts or lock can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward. Partly from the body and partly from the mind. Partly from what we love and partly from what we fear.

The journey of life is full of troubles. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a veil of tears. The trouble of the human heart, the troubled heart, the heart and its fears and its woes.

Now, in this particular passage, we have some indication, first of all, of the source of the heart trouble that the disciples were specifically suffering from at this time. And I think we ought to take a few moments to look at them.

Or to look at it, though it is a complex one, and there are a number of possible sources for the fear and the dread that they experienced in their hearts. In the first place, we notice the recent announcement of Jesus' imminent death.

This was probably the first thing that really shook them out of their complacency and kind of brought them up with a joke. Oh, they have been told about it for some time now. Taking our guide from John's Gospel, for example, away back in chapter 3, Jesus said that he was going to die.

He indicated that just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And that was right at the very beginning of his ministry. In one way or another, our Lord has indicated this many times over, but it never got home.

They were so absorbed with him and his teaching and his ministry and his person that thus the thought of his dying and especially being betrayed and being crucified, this was something they couldn't countenance.

But in John chapter 12 and verse 23, Jesus told them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And he goes on to make it quite clear that by being glorified, he meant dying. In verse 24, he says this, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Go on again to the end of the chapter in verses 31 and 33 of chapter 12, and you will see how Jesus makes it still clearer that this is what he has in mind. Now, he says, is the time for judgment on this world.

Now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. And John goes on to say, he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

So then the first source of the heart trouble of the disciples was this. Jesus has announced his imminent death. The hour has come. Secondly, there was the more recent announcement concerning Judas and the concerning Peter that we were considering last Lord's Day evening.

Evidently this shattered them. We saw something, I trust we caught something of the atmosphere in that upper room. And Jesus broke into the situation and said, he who shares my bread thus lifted up his heel against me.

John 13 verse 18. He who has been eating at my table. He who has been my familiar friend. And then in verse 21, he makes it still clearer. I tell you the truth. One of you is going to betray me. Now this was a shattering blow.

You imagine all of us here tonight as if we knew each other and had lived each other for three years or so. Every one of us. We knew each other by name, knew each other rather intimately. And then Jesus was to stand before us and say, now one of you, one of you, you here, one of you is going to betray me.

It would be a most shattering experience. We couldn't believe that anyone was going to do it. We would look at one another and we would probably do exactly as the disciples didn't look inwardly at ourselves.

Can I do this? Can any one of us do this? It was a most disconcerting, a most unnerving moment, a most shattering moment. And yet, I don't know whether it was any worse than what was to come. The announcement concerning Peter.

Peter was quite put out because Jesus said to him, I'm going somewhere and you can't follow me just now. Arrogant that he was and full of conceit and a sense of his own capacity and his own ability to do things.

Why can't I follow you now? You notice he speaks in the singular, never mind about the others for the moment. Arrogant Simon Peter says, why can't I follow you now? I can do it. Whatever about these, that's the implication.

I can follow you. And Jesus answered him, look man, he says, will you really lay down my life for me as you say you're prepared to do? I tell you the truth, he says to Peter. Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.

What? Imagine yourself sitting there. Imagine yourself being one of the disciples. And you're hearing someone say this about Simon Peter, who in Caesarea Philippi, not all that long ago said, this is the Christ, the son of the living God.

And here's the same person turning around and telling him now, look, man, three times you're going to disown me. You can hardly believe that the prognosis, the prophecy of our Lord Jesus is true, is accurate.

Or can you? Then following that, there was the announcement concerning our Lord's pending departure and the inability of any of them to follow him. The Reverend Eric Alexander, who has spoken from this pulpit, and incidentally will be here again, God willing, on the last Saturday in April, when we are hosting a conference of the Philadelphia, hosting the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology here for a Friday evening and the whole day Saturday, concluding on the Lord's Day morning.

And among the speakers will be Eric Alexander. Well, now that was not meant to be a commercial. But the Reverend Eric Alexander, in speaking on this passage, in expounding it, he says that we see quite clearly in the background here the three classical enemies of the saints.

And indeed we do. In chapter 15 and verse 8, we see a reference to the hostility of the world and the disciples were aware of that. The world that hated the Savior and the Savior said, the world hates me.

And because it hates me, it's going to hate you. So don't be, don't, don't be, don't be taken aback. It's inevitable. Then there is the flesh and its weakness. He's referring to from verse, the passage beginning with verse 36 in chapter 13 about Peter, right on to the first verse of chapter 1.

The flesh and its weakness. And then lastly, in verse 13, verse 30 of chapter 14. And again, in verse 5 of chapter 17, there is reference to the devil. So you have the world and you have the flesh and you have the devil.

Now you bring all these things together and you have a very, very full picture, I believe, of the source of the disciples' heart trouble. It's no wonder they were, they were afraid. It's no wonder they were bewildered and troubled and sore and perplexed.

They didn't know what to think. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know where to turn. Now the symptoms of their heart complaint were many. First of all, they were perplexed at the announcement that anyone would betray Jesus.

Secondly, they were uncertain as to numerous issues that arose with the announcement of Jesus' betrayal and his pending, Jesus' removal and his intended departure. You notice the multitude of questions that seem to burst to the fore the moment Jesus has said that he's going away.

Peter has a question in chapter 13, verse 36. Lord, where are you going? Thomas has a question in chapter 14 and verse 5. Lord, we don't know where you're going and how can we know the way? Philip has a question in verse 8 of chapter 14.

Lord, show us the Father and it will suffice us. Judas, not Iscariot, has a question in verse 22 of chapter 14. But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? You notice all their latent questions now come out to the fore.

They've got so many things to ask as if something like this has happened. Jesus says, I'm leaving. They realize it. He's serious. And they realize that this is the last opportunity, possibly, to ask him the questions that have long been within their hearts.

So out did come symptoms of their sorrow. But then there was that evident grief that is mentioned in chapter 16, verses 5 and 6. Now I am going to him who sent me, says Jesus. Yet none of you asks me, where are you going?

Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. Sorrow, says the King James Version, has filled your heart. You see, they had pinned their hopes upon their Lord exclusively. There was no one else in their lives at this moment.

Jesus and Jesus only. And not only that, they had pinned their hopes upon his physical presence as much as upon his spiritual ministry. So that the notion of his being taken out of their lives physically was something they simply could not contend with.

Something they simply couldn't bargain with. They did not at first even hear the promises that Jesus made. I'm not going to pursue that thought tonight. But when Jesus was talking, and we shall see when we come to those studies in chapters 15 and 16.

When Jesus was impressing upon them the fact that he was going away, he was at the same time telling them of the provision that he had made for them. But you notice when you read those chapters, they hardly hear the promises.

Because they're so full of fear and of sorrow because he's going away. We can be so taken up with our own sorrow, and sometimes so sorry for ourselves, that we really don't hear the promises of God. And though he's thundering in our ears, I've made provision for you, I'm going to do this for you, and I'm going to do that for you.

We don't hear those things. Because we're just thinking of ourselves and our problems, and we don't think they can be resolved. The disciples were in that situation. Jesus addressed them with these problems then, not as an academician talking about theory.

Christ’s Compassion in the Midst of Sorrow

But I want you to notice that Jesus addresses them as one who is himself acquainted with that selfsame kind of heart trouble. Even a more devastating heart trouble than they could possibly know. He, the man of sorrows, knew a kind and a quality of sorrow.

A measure of sorrow and a depth of sorrow. A dimension of sorrow that they simply could not know. And it's most significant that three times in these very same chapters, we are told that our Lord was troubled in spirit and in heart.

The same words exactly as we have in chapter 14 and verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. But Jesus was troubled in heart three times. He tells us himself. For example, he tells us that at the graveside of Lazarus.

Chapter 11 and verse 33. Then we read that he was exactly in that condition in chapter 12 and verse 27. At the prospect of the hour having arrived. And then we saw that last Lord's Day evening. He sensed this terrible commotion in his heart.

This deep emotion. At the imminent departure of Judas as the one who was going to betray him. Chapter 13 and verse 21. But now notice. Though Jesus had sorrow that was far, far deeper than theirs. He was able to overcome it.

He was able to master it. He was able so to master it and to forget about himself in order to minister to others. Here he is completely forgetful at this point of his own deep sorrows. And of the cross that was coming tomorrow.

And of the death he was going to die tomorrow. In order to minister to the needs of his fearful and timid disciples. Now that's all about the problem Jesus addresses here. About the source of the problem and the symptoms.

Trusting God and Christ Through Trouble

Now let's come to what I want to stay with for a little time. Some principles underlying Jesus' response and Jesus' reaction to this problem. The way he deals with it. There are three main things I would like us to notice.

The first is this. Jesus taught that the therapy for troubled hearts lay in an ongoing faith in God and in himself. Let not your heart be troubled. On what then? What's the answer to it? Believe in God or trust in God.

Trust also in me. That's the answer. So first of all in a nutshell Jesus puts it. The answer for this heart condition is found in a positive and an ongoing confidence in God the Father and God the Son.

Trust on in God. Keep on trusting in me. Now let's look at this. First will you notice Jesus told them not to let their hearts be troubled. Now this means you see that Jesus is dealing with them as believing men.

You can't tell an unbeliever not to let his heart be troubled. It's quite impossible. It's like telling a tombstone to listen or to talk or something. You know an unbeliever can't really stop being troubled.

But our Lord Jesus Christ is dealing with and is addressing his disciples here as men who have come to know the source of grace in Christ. And now he's telling them in effect look he says there's no need for you to be troubled.

Stop it. Now mark you there's a world of difference between this and the kind of cheap rhetoric. Superficial counsel in the old song that some of you may have sung. Pack up your troubles in your own kit bag and smile, smile, smile.

That's very cheap. That's not what Jesus is saying. He's not telling them to forget about their troubles. He's telling them there's no need for you to worry. There's no need for you to have this heart trouble because provision has been made.

And you know me and you know my father. Just keep on trusting me and trusting my father. The answer is there. Jesus' command to refrain from being troubled in heart then was actually based on the fact that there was simply no need for such commotion.

He the son of God who had come into the world to accomplish the father's will and it's his people's redemption. Had done or was about to do everything that needed to be done to cope for these disciples in every exigency between them and the glory.

So there was no need for them to trouble. Now of course they couldn't see it quite like that because they were submerged in sorrow. But we can see it from that vantage point. We have the privilege of looking back upon it now from the vantage point of history.

And we can see why Jesus was saying this. Don't let your hearts be troubled. How could he say that for this reason? He'd made full provision for them. And if he hadn't made full provision at that point he was going to the cross.

He was going to die. He was going to rise again. He was going to ascend to the father. He was going to send forth the Holy Spirit. He was going to do everything necessary. He had covenanted to do it and his word was as good as his bond.

That's the point you see. Don't let your heart be troubled. Because the provision is adequate. It's in the covenant. It's in the promise. It's in the making. How much more, how much more relevant this is to us tonight.

When Jesus comes to us and tells us let not your heart be troubled. There's nothing more that he needs to do. Objectively he's done everything to take away our troubles and our fears. He's died. He's risen again.

He's already ascended. He sits at the father's right hand. He makes intercession for us. And he has sent forth the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has given us the word. And the Holy Spirit has given us the church and the fellowship of the saints.

There is nothing we need outside of the provisions that God has already given us. Other than trust and obey. That's all. Jesus told them not to let their heart be troubled. Don't let it. As if to say there may be a tendency in all our hearts to worry about things.

Don't let it he says. And if you're a Christian tonight and if you're in Christ tonight. This is the picture I would like to give you. If you're in Christ. In Christ. And you share in his wealth and you share in his life.

And you share in his prospects. Let not your hearts be troubled. It's unnecessary. But now let's move on. In place of perpetuating such a condition of heart. Jesus bade them to go on trusting God and trusting himself.

Simply trusting every day. That's exactly it. Trusting in a narrow way or a thorny way. Trust in God. Trust also in me. Now we have the same Greek word. Used concerning our duty of trusting God and of trusting Jesus.

The same word exactly. The same tense and the same mood. The King James is a little bit misleading when it says. You do believe in God. Believe also in me. No we can't change them. It's the same mood for both.

Either it says you do believe in God. And you do believe in me. Or it says you should believe more in God. Or continue to believe in God. And you should continue to believe also in me. It's exactly the same for both.

And probably it's the imperative mood that we have here and not the indicative. Meaning this. Go on trusting in God and go on trusting in me. This is the answer. Brothers and sisters. You've heard this a thousand times before.

So have I. But don't we forget it? Doesn't it make you feel as if there is a devil who like the birds of the air. Comes to get the seed that has been sown on our hearts. And we believe it's necessary to worry.

Now we wouldn't put it quite like that but we act like that. Notice that despite his full knowledge of what was coming his way. Jesus had no doubt as to his being the son of God. And as to his ultimate victory.

So much so that he's able to tell his disciples. Now look here. Trust me. Believe in me. Rest in me. Depend upon me. Just as you depend upon God. Tomorrow you'll wonder what's going to happen. I'm telling you trust me.

When you'll hear them cry crucify him crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over us. You'll wonder what's happening. You think the whole world's going mad. Well that may be true. But trust in me.

I'm not going mad. There is no knowing of God the father. In a saving way. Saved through Jesus Christ his son. We noticed that this morning. And you notice how Jesus brings the two things together as belonging.

Together here again likewise. Believe in the father. Believe in me. In verse 20 of chapter 13. Jesus said something that corresponds to this. Whoever accepts me. Accepts the one who sent me. When you accept Jesus you accept the father.

When you reject Jesus you reject the father. Now he says. As if this were one act. With two dimensions to it. Believe in God. Believe also in me. The moment you believe in the one you believe in the other.

You can't have the one without the other. Keep on trusting the one and the other. I and my father. Trust me trust my father. The therapy for troubled hearts. Was an ongoing faith in God. As revealed in Christ.

Brothers and sisters. We need to pause here. How often do you. Check out the measure of your trust. A lot of influenza around these days. And people take their temperatures to see whether they've got.

A fever. I've seen so many people do that recently. Do you take your spiritual temperature every now and again. It's a good thing to do it from time to time. Don't do it every day. Or three or four times a day.

Certainly not. But there are times when one needs to do it. How many of my troubles are due to the fact that I simply do not trust. It's easier to talk than to trust. Secondly. Jesus encouraged and inspired such ongoing faith in God and in himself.

The Promises That Feed Faith

By the promises he immediately and dare I say now. Though we can't deal with them. Later. Also. Made. You see Jesus tells them there's no need for you to doubt. There's no need for you to worry. Believe in God.

Believe also in me. And then you see. The perfect teacher and the perfect Savior. He is and was. He goes on then to feed the flame of faith. It's just like him. He's telling us to do something. And then he makes the provision for that which he demands.

Believe in God. Trust in God. Trust in me. And you know what he does? Just look at it. He feeds them with promises. He tells them what he's going to do. And he tells them what is going to happen. And what he's doing is feeding their faith with facts.

Oh may the Spirit of God bring this home to every one of our hearts tonight. If we've never seen this before. Please God let me let us see it tonight. Now look at the first thing he says. There's no need for you to worry.

Well. No need to worry. No he says. I'm going to my father's house. I'm going home. And I'm going to my father's house. And I want to tell you he says first of all there's plenty of room there. So that when the time comes for you to come home.

You don't need to worry. There's plenty of room in my father's house. I'm going to leave you temporarily. But when the time comes for your arrival. I've told you you can't follow me just now. But when the time comes for your arrival.

I want you to get this right out of your minds. There's tons of room. Plenty of room. More than adequate. In my father's house. There are many abiding places. Not mansions. It's not mansions. Abiding places.

Now Jesus earlier you remember had spoken of the temple. The earthly temple. The Jerusalem temple. As his father's house. You remember that. When he purged the temple in John chapter 2. At the beginning of his ministry.

He did it later at the end of his ministry. It would appear. But in chapter 2 of John and verse 16. He says how dare you turn my father's house into a market. That's the new international version reference.

And I think it's pretty good. Turning his father's house into a market place. That's exactly what they were doing. Now why did he speak of the temple as his father's house? Well it was the place where God's glory dwelt.

And it was the place where God and man met. Around the mercy seat. But that father's house there in Jerusalem. Was patterned after the heavenly reality. The reality is in heaven. The real father's house.

Not in the heavens of the sky or of the birds. But as Jesus says in heaven. I came from heaven he says. The place of God's dwelling. Heaven is the father's house in truth. After whose design the earthly structure was made.

But it has many more rooms than the earthly structure. You can go into the Jerusalem temple. Or you could go into the Jerusalem temple of that day. And even though it was a magnificent place. It didn't have room for many people to live there.

You see what Jesus is telling them is this. That the home in the sky. The home in the heavens. The home in the heaven of the heavens. Is a massive place. And there's plenty of room there for all the people of God.

He assures his worried followers therefore. That there's no need for them to get worried about all that. He's going ahead of them. But in due course he'll come back. And there's be room there awaiting them.

But now he goes beyond that. Follow the next step. Jesus says that he is personally going there. In order to prepare a place for them. I am going there he says. To prepare a place for you. His terminus.

His destiny is the father's house. His home. His father's home. And his pledged purpose is going there. In order to prepare a place for his own. So then according to Jesus. I don't know what you've been reading recently.

But according to Jesus. Heaven is a place. Not simply a state. But a place. A location. A real location. Jesus doesn't give any details about heaven in this context. Save that it was his father's house.

His father's house. And therefore his home. He'd come from there. And he's going back there. It's a location. Elsewhere he added such thoughts as these. That he himself had come down from heaven. John 6 38.

He taught his disciples to pray to the father. Our father who art in heaven. And if we are really praying as Jesus taught us to pray. We are focusing our minds upon heaven. Every time we do so. Because our father is elevated.

Above the earth. The earth is his footstool. The heaven is the seat of his glory. His real glory. And Dr. James Boyce has a very helpful passage on this in one of his books. He refers to two problems that people have with a passage like this.

Stating that heaven is a place. Now there are more than two problems. But I think Dr. James Boyce very helpfully. And incidentally he will be with Eric Alexander on that last weekend in April. I'm really having another moment in delight aren't I.

And they will remember these things usually. Now. He mentions two problems concerning heaven as a place. That really worry people. Some people are worried about it. And the way in which the problem comes to them is this.

They say. God is spirit. Not a spirit. But spirit. And a spirit has no flesh and bone. God is an incorporeal being. He hasn't a body like you and I. And therefore God is everywhere. How then can you think of God being located in a place.

Yes says Dr. James Boyce. But that's not all the truth. That is true. God is spirit. But Jesus. Who has ascended into the father's presence. Does have a body. A glorified body. But a body. And he said that he was going into the father's presence.

And he was going to into the father's house. In his glorified body. And the angels have bodies so we read in scripture. And we are going to be with Jesus so we read in scripture. So therefore there must be a place.

A location. But the second reason why some people have difficulty. In thinking about heaven as a genuine place. Is linked with scientific considerations. Let me read to you a few words from Dr. Boyce.

These people he says are aware of the vast distances of our universe. As well as the fact that no one using any of the gigantic telescopes of our time. Has ever seen anything like a heaven. They say if Jesus had ascended into heaven beginning in A .D. 30.

And if he had accelerated until at last he was traveling at the speed of light. He would not yet have reached the furthest star. Let alone heaven wherever heaven may be. How then are we to imagine that heaven is a real place.

That Jesus went there and that he's coming again to take us to be with himself. And take us there. Nothing is nonsense people say. Now this is an important problem. Dr. Boyce concedes that and we would all have to concede that.

For if there is no material spatial heaven. Then the Lord Jesus Christ did not ascend into it. And if Jesus Christ did not ascend into it you and I will not ascend into it. And we are almost back where Paul says if Christ is not risen then is our faith vain.

You're yet in your sin. But why on earth asks Dr. Boyce. Must we thus limit the creator. And then he refers to an incident in the experience of his one of his predecessors. Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse who was asked this very question.

A question about ascending at the speed of light. To which Dr. Barnhouse replied. As only Dr. Barnhouse could I guess some of you heard him at any rate. Why do you wish to slow the creator down to the speed of light.

He who created the universe is able to move with the speed of thought not light. And it is possible to think from here to the remotest point of the universe. As quickly as it is to think down the corner drugstore.

We readily admit of course that we do not understand how this operates. We cannot think clearly beyond known physical laws. But God is not bound by the laws that he has created. Consequently let me say my what I believe.

All things are possible to the God who made us. Otherwise he is not the God of the Bible. So heaven is a real place a real location. And though there are many many mysteries about it. That I do not understand and the Bible does not even reveal.

Jesus says very little here. As much more said elsewhere of course. But Jesus himself says very little as if the only thing we need to know is this. It is his father's home and the father sent him to be our savior.

And the father gave him to us. And he is going to the father and he is coming back from the father. It is enough for us to know it is his father's home. His father loves us as he loved us. And that should be enough.

All our hunger and thirst for knowledge that we do not need. Is sometimes an inquisitiveness that needs to be condemned. The basic thing that Jesus saw his disciples needed was this. Heaven is your father's house your father's home.

I am going there to prepare a place for you in my father's house. And I am coming again for you that where I am in my father's house you too may be. That should be enough. But now I find a special comfort in these words.

I am going to prepare a place for you. A place for you. There is something intimately personal about this. Imagine that Jesus looking at this handful of men and he is saying. Now look fellows he says.

I am going to prepare a place for you. And my friends if you are believers in the same savior. If you are trusting the same savior as the ten the eleven did. Then the truth applies as much to you tonight as it did to them.

He is gone to prepare a place for you. A place for you. There is a place there prepared by Jesus for you. For you. See. There is something there is some hankering in all our souls for a place of our own.

He is gone to prepare a place for you. Some of us may never own a home of our own. And pay for it. But listen here is a place prepared for you. For you. Prepared for you. One of man's basic problems since the fall is this.

It is the problem of being alienated from God. And the problem of homelessness. You can't feel at home anywhere. It arises from the expulsion of man from the early paradise. Man was expelled from paradise from Eden.

And God put cherubim on duty with flaming swords to bar the way to the tree of life. And though we don't see these flaming swords today. They are still there. And the sinner cannot move into the presence of God.

For communion with him. And to enjoy him. And to partake of the tree of life. The way is bar. But Jesus says. I am going to prepare a place for you. Inside the father's house. I am going to pass the flaming cherubim.

I am going into paradise. I am going right inside the father's house. And inside the father's house. I am going to prepare a niche for you. Hallelujah. Can I put the emphasis on the other word for a moment?

I am going to prepare a place for you. This question has been asked a number of times. And I am not sure how I've answered it. But I think I know how I ought to answer it now. What does it mean when it says that Jesus was going to prepare a place for them?