7 Demons Later // Pastor Julie Wells

We hope this message encourages you, challenges you, and draws you closer to Jesus.
#churchonline #faith #jesus #sundaysermon

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

No, I think there's supposed to be joy in the house of the Lord, right? I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Amen. There's joy here. Praise the Lord. So we're gonna go to John chapter 20. Now, I thought last week James had a wonderful sermon on the love of God. It was so good to hear about the love and the grace of God and how powerful it was. Do you remember him telling the story? I just want to review this just a little bit. In 1937, a study began on the Harvard men, and they chose 268 high school students to be a part of this study. Today, this is the longest longitudinal study of human development. Some of these people were studied for 90 years. Whoa. That is incredible. And so every two years they would evaluate each of the participants psychologically, physically, emotionally, financially. They learned all this data about them. Now, in the world of scientific research, a sample population of 268 people is really small. That's a small sample. But if you lose one person of the study, you've lost a significant amount of data. So they were able to keep up with 267 of their participants, with one person that went missing for 20 years. And his name is Art Miller. Now that's not his actual name, it's a pseudonym for him because they gave him a pseudonym to protect his identity. So Art Miller is missing for 20 years. But the man that began the study, George Valiant, found him. And he is able to catch up with him for 20 years of time to see what had happened to him and his part to play in this study. Now just put that in your back pocket. Everybody, just reach around, put that in your back pocket. We're gonna save that piece of information for a little bit later. How many would like to know what in the world happened to Art Miller? Like, where was he? What happened to him for 20 years? The greatest out of this study came this information. The greatest predictor of future happiness is warm childhood relationships. And so right now I want to ask you if you've ever volunteered for a vacation Bible school, if you've ever been a Sunday school teacher for children, I want you to raise your hand. If you're a teacher, you work with children in any capacity, way, shape, or form. Look at all these hands. Can we just give these people a hand clap today? Thank you so much. How many people remember a teacher that you loved? How many people remember? Does anybody in here remember your Sunday school teachers? I remember my Sunday school teachers. Look at all those hands. That's incredible to me. Because when you are a child, the people that develop warm relationships with you, they're changing the trajectory of your life. Think about that. They're making a powerful impact. So when you show up week after week and you greet a child or you offer a kindness to a child, you might be changing the trajectory of their life. You're actually depositing happiness. Think about this for their future. Just by being a positive person and a reliable relationship in their life. So happiness, James started telling us is love. And God is love. Amen. First John tells us that God is love. And his love is. Anybody know? Fill in the blank? Adeline, where are you? She's my Bible scholar. His love is, do you know? Starts with a P. Perfect. Everybody say perfect. Do you know anybody else that has perfect love before you answer? No, you do not. Because no one is. So verse John tells us God is love and his love is perfect. And perfect love does something powerful that. Alright, now we got Bible students. They're coming alive. All right, there now we know. Now we know. We have perfect love. God's love can do something so powerful that man has not created anything that can compare. There is no medicine, there is no treatment, there is nothing that I am aware of, and not that all knowledge will die with me, but there's nothing I am aware of that does this. God is love, his love is perfect, and perfect love casts out fear.

unknown 4:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

God's love is the antidote for fear and anxiety, it is the antidote for worry, it is the healing sub for uncertainty. Can you say amen? Somehow you just know that when you understand, okay, this is an understanding, and it's almost really an experience that you have to have. When you experience the love of God in such a profound and significant way, and you truly begin to understand that God loves you, it does make you feel safe, at least safer, right? Amen. That come what may, I know the love of God will never leave me. In fact, Paul wrote, What should separate us from the love of God? There's nothing. There's not famine, there's not persecution, there's not peril, there's not wars, there's not nothing. He concluded, nothing, nothing, no thing can separate us from the love of God. And these men had to study people for 90 years to figure that out. Happiness is about being loved. And also in the study, it said the level of happiness, how happy you are as you progress into your life, depends on two things: the amount of love that you give and the amount of love that you receive. Now, what does the Bible say about receiving? It says you reap what you sow. So if you sow love and kindness, what are you gonna reap? Love and kindness. Amen. But if you sow peril and stress and division, what are you gonna reap? Peril, stress, division. So we already know this. It's confirmed in the Word of God. I'm really glad that the researchers caught up with it. But the amount of love that you give, you reap what you sow, is part of what is a predictor of your future happiness. Another predictor, remember, is the amount of love that you receive. Have you ever met someone who has a really difficult time receiving love? They may be very loving to others, but they don't feel worthy of love themselves. And the Bible tells us this it is more blessed to give than to receive. How many people prefer being the blesser? Yes, that's wonderful. Beth blessed me last week. I had a serious problem. Every day, as big as my mouth is, I was spilling coffee on myself routinely. I would get to work and I don't know how long in the day I'd be going on, and then I would look in the mirror and be like, oh my gosh, giant coffee stain. And so someone said to me, I had to start drinking my coffee out of a straw because I was having, I'm like, am I having a stroke? What is going on with my mouth? Why do I keep spilling coffee on myself? Luckily, Beth got me a beautiful cup that had a straw. Can we all say amen? Because nobody wants to work with me coffee-less, I'll tell you that. Uh, anybody else need your coffee in the morning to get your mind awake and get yourself going? So she blessed me. It is so great to give. It's a little bit harder to receive. Would you agree with that? It's wonderful when people do acts of kindness for you, but we often feel like, oh gosh, you don't have to do all that, right? So it truly is more blessed to give than receive. Let's look at John chapter 20. We're gonna study something today. And is it okay that we go ahead and talk about the resurrection again? And you know what I love about every one of you today? Every one of you, if I could just be like call every single one of your names, you are after Easter people. Woo! Come on, pat yourself on the back. You came on Easter and you came back. All right, that's great. You are after Easter. We are celebrating the resurrection at all times. Listen, if the story was and Jesus was crucified and he was buried, that would just be a sad story. Without the resurrection, we just have a sad story. It's the resurrection that brings life to me, that brings life to you, that brings power to the life that you are living. Can you say amen? Why don't you just high-five a neighbor right now? Just be like, yes, woo! Now I know who the fun people are in church. Because some of you are like, I'm not doing that. That is not happening in this pew. So we have this situation. Now, remember, um, Pastor James was teaching us about the psychological uh phenomenon of hindsight. I feel like there's another part of that word and I can't remember what it is. But basically, when you know how a story ends, sometimes we um have this tendency to, we don't feel the whole part of the story. So I'm gonna try to help you today to feel the whole part of this story. And I remember one story that I love so much is my grandmother had this very beautiful, probably she got it in Israel, is what I'm guessing. A very beautiful depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, it was like 3D, and it was in a picture frame, and there was like Jesus hanging on the cross, and it was very beautifully, it was a piece of art, truly. And I was not alive when this happened, but I have heard the story throughout my year my growing up time. And Angie Childer's little brother, Robbie, walked through my grandmother's house. Now, my grandparents were devout. My grandfather started this church, he is our church founder, and my grandmother, I like to think that I'm a lot like her. Like he was kind of steady and sure, and she was kind of wild and crazy. And she dyed her hair red, and that was very sinful in her time. And some minister asked her, How long are you gonna dye your hair red? And she said, As long as I can do this. I love that story. So one day Robbie was walking through the house and he just stopped by that crucifixion piece of art, and he said, Poor old Jesus hanging on the cross, and walked off. And my grandmother said, Alf, we gotta get that thing down. That poor baby thinks that Jesus is still on the cross. But are we living our life like that? Poor old Jesus still on the cross. He is not on the cross, he is risen just like he said. Woo! Amen. But we don't know that yet in John chapter 20. Go back to your sad face. John chapter 20, verse 1. Early on the day of early on the first day of the week while it was still dark. Now pause just a minute. What's the first day of the week? Everybody say Sunday. Close on Sunday. You're my I see y'all don't know the Bible, but you know that Chick fil A song. My God. Close on Sunday. You're my Chick-fil-A. Come on, can we get a little happy in here? You guys are like, you're scaring me. I feel a little scared up here. Sunday is the first day of the week. And you know when the day starts, according to Hebrew custom and culture? 6 p.m. You know why? The day starts with rest. Yes, exactly. That's what I think. Woo to the who. I am so happy about resting because it seems like life is just going so quickly. So it's the first day of the week. It's early, it's still dark outside. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running. She saw that stone was removed and she came running to Apostle Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. This is so beautiful about John. John the Beloved is how we often refer to him. He was the youngest of the disciples, maybe only between the ages of 12 to 14, when he started following Jesus. And when he wrote his book, the book of John, he refers to himself, not as me, not as myself, not as I was there, but he ought he always refers to himself, and this is the theory and idea, as the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. How profoundly did this young man feel the love of Jesus if that's the only way he can refer to himself? I've never seen Jesus bodily in person, but I can't imagine what kind of love that he exudes. Has anybody ever thought about that? If we could only understand how much God loves us. And when Mary saw that the stone had been rolled away and she ran back to Simon Peter, she said, The Lord is risen. No, she did not say that. She said, They have taken the body of our Lord and we do not know where they have taken it. It was so beyond her natural thinking to even consider or contemplate that Jesus could be alive. Because I think we've made the death of Christ palatable so that we can endure it. I understand that. When we were studying in my daily bread, and as we were moving up to Easter, we were reading the Easter passages and the crucifixion of Jesus. And I remember when we got to the whipping of Christ, that Pastor Ron Tolson reminded us that the whip had shards of bone attached. And when they would whip someone, it would grab their skin and rip it off. So they saw Jesus literally skinned a lie. It's not in her mind that he's alive. It's nowhere in her realm of thought that Jesus could be breathing. So Simon Peter and the other disciple, they left for the tomb and they go running to the tomb. But why are they running? I always thought they were excited, but now I kind of wonder like they need to get there fast and get out of there fast. Like maybe they're still afraid. So they run to the tomb and they look in and they see that there are the linen claws that Jesus was wrapped in. They're laying there in the tomb, and they go home. It's not in their realm of thinking that Jesus could possibly be alive. And verse 9 says, For they still did not understand from the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. And then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb. Weeping. If you've lost a loved one and you've had to bury someone, can you think about there's some kind of ritual in burial, which is what Mary was going to do? She had carried pounds of spices to the garden to treat the body of Jesus. This was their custom. When we can't do our customary goodbye with our loved ones according to our culture, that is awful. Can you imagine not being able to bury your loved one because you cannot find their body? Let's just not read through this quickly. Let's try to sink in. Can we sink in for a minute and just feel what's really happening here? And I said this morning, when I get to heaven, I'm gonna give Simon Peter and baby John a piece of my mind. Because what in the world? They look in, they're like, he's okay, he isn't there. I don't know what we should do about it. And they left Mary Magdalene at the tomb weeping. She got up while it was yet dark, and I wish I would have looked this up for you. The amount, the pounds, the weight of the spices that she would have to carry, she and the other women have to carry to the tomb to treat the body of Jesus. Did they not help her carry all that back because there was no body there to take care of? So they were like, Yeah, well, catch you later, Mary. Sorry about that. I mean, what happened? I don't, I'm sure they weren't flippant, but why didn't they help her? Why didn't they stay there with her? Now we know some things about Mary Magdalene. Would anybody want to know what those things are? She grew up in a village, a fishing village of Magdala. And I had the beautiful opportunity to visit there in the last trip that we went to Israel. We've never been there before. And it's newly, it's newly being excavated, this area of Magdala. And I brought a couple of pictures there today. There is a church, of course, there's always a church that they build to um honor the person of this area, this region. And of course, they built one to honor Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene, and they also honor various women in this church. It is so beautiful. It sits on the Sea of Galilee. The back of the church is glass, and you can see the Sea of Galilee if you're sitting in the pews. There's the picture of the church, and you sit there, and of course, that is the typical um form of the fishing boat that Jesus would have fished on, the disciples would have fished on. And then there's another room with the most beautiful um pictorial. It is the size of the room. I don't know that the picture really does it justice, but can you see the feet of Jesus? And can you see the hand of the woman reaching for the hem of his garment? Oh, that picture in person is just wow, it is mind-blowing. And I love that it's all anonymous there. You could be several people in that picture, right? So I stood in there for quite some time. So in the city of Magdala, there's this beautiful, um, beautiful honor to Mary Magdalene. So we know she grew up in this fishing village. We also believe that she came from a family of financial means. Her family was not poor. Some think they were like middle class, some think they were quite wealthy. We also know something very difficult about Mary Magdalene. She was possessed with seven demons. So if she had a family of financial means, there was no money that could solve her problem. She had at least seven issues, right? Seven problems that could not be solved, seven reasons to stay alone, and seven at least broken places. And sometimes these are the people that the world gives up on, but not Jesus, not Jesus. Not only did Jesus find her, he casts those seven demons out of her, he brings her into his tribe, which is like unthinkable, right? To allow women. Jesus does things that elevate women every step of his journey. He allows her to be a part of his following group, right? And she is the very first person to witness and to see the resurrected Christ. Do you think Jesus comes out and he's like, whoops, didn't mean for it to be you, but since you're here, I think that was intentional. I think that was it that she stood there weeping at the thought of I've come all this way. How can I thank the man who drove seven demons out of my heart, out of my soul? If you've ever seen a demonic oppression or possession, it's torturous. And I'm not talking about silliness. I'm talking about true demonic oppression. I'll never forget the night after church. If you want to see cool things, you need to stay at night after church, right, Pastor Allen? My dad and Pastor Allen were locking up this church and it was dark. How many people have been in here at nighttime when it's dark? And you hear something, you're like, I can't see an angel, I can't see an angel, I can't see an angel. I love the house of the Lord, but sometimes it is creepy when it is at nighttime. Well, this man who looked very nice. I don't know if you remember this, Alan. I just happened to be here with my dad. I wasn't able to drive yet. And he walked up, he had on a suit, and he looked very sane. And in a very calm voice, he said, I would like to have prayer. And so my dad and Alan said, Okay, how can we pray for you? And he said, I think I'm demon-possessed. And I was like, This is about to get good. I don't know. Because I didn't, I mean, he certainly didn't look demon-possessed, right? He didn't look crazy, he didn't look scary. He didn't, he didn't look nothing like how people look on TV, right? And nothing like that. And they started to pray for him. And I mean, this sound came out of his mouth. I you cannot, I'm just telling you, I was there, I heard it. You can ask Pastor Alan what he thinks about it, or ask my dad for surely he will tell you. He'll probably put it on Facebook for all the world to see. But you can ask, I don't think a human being can make that sound, that kind of sound. I don't think you it would be in your realm of thinking of how to even copy that sound or even to tell you what it sounded like. But I was like, oh my gosh, he really has a demon. And then I got really scared because, of course, I'm a preacher's kid and I know the Bible. Like, if somebody casts out a demon and you have not kept your heart right with the Lord, that thing can get inside of you. And I was like, whoo, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.

unknown 23:31

I was scared to death.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

But I mean, it is real. Spiritual oppression is a real thing. So when I read this about the historical account of Mary Magdalene, I have no doubt that seven demons were cast out of her. I don't think that's a cute story. I think that's a real thing. And I think it's why she was one of the only people to stand at the foot of the cross when everyone else was afraid. I think it's what drove her to the tomb of Jesus with all that weight and all those spices, no idea how she was going to move the stone. And when she realized the body of Jesus had been taken, oh, it had been taken. She began to weep and cry. This story is so powerful to me. Let's pick up. The disciples returned to their home. That was in verse 10. But verse 11 of John chapter 20. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she bent down to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet. Now, most of the time when people see angels, what do the angels have to say? Do not be afraid. Why? Because it's scary, right? Because if you look in, you'd be like, Oh my gosh, there's an angel in there, right? You know what's interesting? They don't say it to her. Let's look at what they say. In verse 13, they say, Woman, why are you weeping? Why are you crying? And she said, Because they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him. Now, do you think she knew they were angels? I mean, at some point, if she didn't recognize it in that moment, at some point she recognizes it because who else could tell this story to John and the apostles, right? Who else could tell the story? She's the one there, so she has to say, I looked in and I saw two angels. So at some point she recognizes that they are angels. And she says, I they took him away, they took away his body, and I don't know what they've done with him. In verse 14, when she had said this, she turned and there was a man standing there. And it was Jesus. But she did not recognize him. Why didn't she recognize him? She had spent a lot of time with Jesus, obviously close to this man. There's one theory that, well, she didn't, she didn't recognize him because she was crying so hard she had tears in her eyes. I mean, is that the best you can come up with? That's like the stupidest theory I have ever heard. Anybody else? That is dumb. I don't care how hard I cried, I still know James when I see him. Right? Anybody else? Like, I don't care how hard you're crying. If your kid walks in the room, you know who they are. Your best friend walks in the room, you know who they are. You're not like, oh my gosh, I didn't recognize you, I can't see you, I have so much tears in my eyes. Come on. How much money did we pay for that idea? That was wasted. Why doesn't she know who he is? It's so impossible. I can't, I can't emphasize this enough. It's so impossible that the Jesus that she saw tortured and died on the cross could be standing by her. She doesn't even recognize a man that she knows well. And Jesus speaks to her. And he says, Why are you crying? Why are you weeping? And who are you looking for? And she thought he was the gardener. So she's standing there. She doesn't recognize him in his physical form. Now he speaks, and she doesn't recognize the sound of his voice. What is going on? This seems odd to me. Does it seem odd to you? It's odd. And she thinks he's the gardener, and she said, Sir, if you have taken the body of Jesus, like just tell me where you took him so that I can do the burial rites for him. I can treat his body. Just tell me where you took him. I don't need to tell everybody else, just if you know. And then Jesus says, Mary. And all of a sudden, she knows who he is. And her response is so beautiful. She says back to him, Rabbonai, which means teacher. When he calls your name, ooh, it's okay to say, I don't know if I believe in all this. I don't know if this is true. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know the hurt that I have encountered. You don't know the demons that I have had to face. You're correct. And I can't help you with that. I can't change the central facts of your life. I can't change the past. But I know someone who can change your future. And when he calls your name, you will know that you know that you know that you know. You will know more than knowing every word of this book. And you know, I will tell you, the best thing you can do in your lifetime is read the Word of God. You can meet the real Jesus in these pages of this book. This is an anointed book. It will take you through the trials of your life and every stage of your life from childhood to death. This book will carry you through. But knowledge is not the same as having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Woo! Yes, all right, go on. It is not the same. What is it that was the predictor of happiness? It was when children had warm childhood relationships. If that helps children, can you imagine what happened, what happens when you have a warm, loving relationship with Jesus Christ? How much more powerful is it to have this relationship with Jesus? And we have her saying, Rabbini. And I think the reason she doesn't know him is because pain is blinding. Have you ever been in so much shock or so much pain that you can't. Here's something we say in our language, you can't see your hand in front of your face. If you've ever seen someone in shock, they're blank. They don't really, they may not even recognize that someone is dying or has died because it's just shock. It just comes on them like suddenly. Is it that she has so much hurt and so much pain from what she witnessed in the death of Jesus that she can't participate in this moment until he says her name? God knows your name. He knew your name before you took your first breath. He called you into existence. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He has marked you. The Lord loves you more than you could ever possibly comprehend with a finite mind. If you believe that, raise your hand. The love of God is so deep and so vast. How many people want to know what happened to Art Miller? Okay. Do tell. In 1968, Art Miller goes off the radar. Now that's a problem for this study because remember, it's a small, very small sample size, and one person missing is a huge amount of information that could impact the outcome of the study. They recognized or they knew about Art Miller that he got a college degree in Renaissance drama. What was he gonna do with that? Did Art Miller's mother never tell him, son, what job can you get with a degree in Renaissance drama? Okay, I thought that was really funny. In the early service, I said, Well, that's worse than majoring in photography. And then James said to me privately later, or psychology, because that was my major. Funny. What in the world is Renaissance drama? And he moved to Australia. He left his country, he left his family, he left his children, and he went off the grid. But George Valiant found him. And in 1980, George Valiant went to Australia to meet up with Art Miller to get the data on him. And he learns that Art Miller has been running from demons. And I think the word trauma is overused. Anybody else think that? Like that was traumatic. Okay, you got tomatoes on your salad and you don't like them. Not traumatic. Or, you know, I was in this relationship and we were trauma bonded. Be quiet. Like just shh with that. Sometimes I work with little biddies, little bitty kids that have been hurt in ways I did not know that adults would do these kinds of horrible things to children. And I try to think to myself, what's the worst thing that happened to me when I was six? And I got nothing. I got nothing to compare what this little one has been through. And it makes me feel sick. Not that I want to have trauma, right? Not that I'm I'm grateful that I am humbly grateful that I did not experience anything like that at age six, but it also makes me feel weak to be a healer. Because how could I possibly relate to what this child is enduring at this very moment in trying to heal or trying to recover? How can I possibly relate to you when I have not encountered what you have encountered? The trauma of it. Art Miller was running. And it was very hard for George, the leader of the study, to understand what in the world is going on with Art Miller. He's done some pretty bad things. He left his family. There's other bad things. There's plenty of bad things he had done. But he couldn't understand what was up with him. So he went back to the 600 pages that the study had collected on Art Miller, and he found a page that he had missed. And it was Art Miller's medical report from World War II. And it was his admission report. He was reading this 55 years after Art Miller had experienced this horrible thing. And he reads the demons about the demons that Art Miller was encountering. June 13th, 1944, it was a week after D-Day, and Art Miller arrived to an Italian field hospital, and the interviewing physician documented this admission note. And this is what he said. Patient seen three to four days after combat, he was in combat for three to four days, remembers killing three Germans. He last remembers he is attacking uphill with nearby men falling in land blasts. He woke up here two days ago, and he has no idea as to what happened in the intervening time. On admission, he was acutely disturbed. He kept his fists clenched, and he threw himself about calling. Shells, bombs, I'm afraid. No contact could be established. That means he comes into the hospital, he's fitful, he is semi-conscious, and in his semi-conscious state, they cannot wake him up to say, You're okay, you are safe. If you've ever had a toddler, which this is normal, if you've ever had a toddler have a night terror, has anybody witnessed a child having a night terror and you cannot wake them up from that night terror to tell them, mommy's here, you're safe, you're okay. That is a horrible feeling, right? That is a horrible feeling. This is a grown man. I mean, he's having these fit and he's in semi-consciousness, and they can't bring him out. No one could establish contact. He was restless, disturbed, over responsive to minor stimuli, crawls under the covers and into a fetal position at the sound of planes. After reading this short report, George Valiant wrote this. But I finally understood Art Miller's whole life as evidence of post-traumatic growth. Now, 70 years ago, post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD was not a diagnosis. It was not a thing. But I think what George wrote was that it was fair to say that art was responding to painful things that he had experienced in his whole life. You can only understand this if you've had a certain depth of trauma. His whole life had become a painful reaction to the hurt that he had experienced. Can I tell you that this breaks the heart of God? God created a beautiful garden for you. He created a safe place for you to be in. This was not God's plan for your life. But here you are. And you might be like Mary Magdalene standing and weeping, or like Art Miller running, trying to survive day after day. Research says that most of us have had a few painful experiences. And research also says that our lives can become a painful reaction to the things that were done to us or the things that have been done by us. Anger, shame, bitterness, fear, doubt, all of these things become weights. Our lives can end up being an endless attempt to solve the problem, erase the pain, and fill a void. Are you familiar with that? If not in yourself, with other people? Your whole life is about that. Erasing pain. Your whole life becomes about dealing with the past. Some of us we don't like our key facts, and I can invite the musicians to come. Some of us we don't like the key facts about our life. I mean, if there are things that I could take out of your life, if I could edit your past, I would help you do that if I knew how. But I cannot, and you cannot. But your problems, those demons that were plaguing Mary Magdalene, had nothing to do with the future that God had written for her. Do you know? I did not know this about her. And I don't know why I never thought of it this way. Mary Magdalene is the first apostle. She's the first woman to see the resurrected Christ. And do you know what they called her? I did not know this either. Do you know what they called her in the early church? They gave her a title of esteem. And they said she was the apostle to the apostles. Woo! I mean, if I was her, I'd probably have a name tag that said that. Like, listen, I'm gonna have to introduce myself to you. I am the apostle of the apostles. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, what she experienced in Christ Jesus was so powerful that she began to bear witness to his healing power. And can I invite you today, if you're dealing with pain and hardship, to meet her? Can you imagine? There's a thought that she married John the Beloved. Some theory about that. Isn't that cool? Because after this scene, we don't hear anything else about her. It's like the ending of a great book or a good movie. And then you get to the ending and you're like, what? We're never gonna know what happened. We're gonna have to find her right on the other side of heaven and be like, what happened to you? Some say she went to Ephesus and she began to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some say she spent time in France sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some say she stayed in that beautiful Galilee that you saw that picture. If I was her, I would stay there. I mean, it is just the most peaceful, beautiful place. Some say she stayed there and she became a central figure in the early church. Well, I guess so. If I told you today, Mary of Magdala, we're bringing her all the way from Magdala, and she's gonna give you her first hand of count of meeting the resurrected Jesus. There wouldn't be a seat in this house. But you have the opportunity to meet her right here. You get to hear her testimony that I had seven, seven demons. But Jesus called my name. And he called me out of that pit, and he introduced me to his love, and his love is perfect, and perfect love casts out fear. I can rest in Jesus. Can I ask you to stop playing for just one second? One song that I want to sing to you. The snow shadow, he won't light up. Come on. Come on. Mountain he won't climb up. Coming after me. Right? The snow wall he won't kick down. No lie he won't tear down. Coming after me. Oh, the overwhelming stand with me. Never ending, reckless love of God. It chases me down fights till I'm found. It leaves the ninety nine. I couldn't burn it. I don't deserve it. Still you give yourself away. Only overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God. I'm gonna invite you to the altar today. To just know that love. I want you to know it. I want you to have that relationally. I don't want you to know it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Knowledge is one thing. But really knowing is a heart condition. It's it's guttural. You can know the love of Jesus in this way. And every one of us can know it more, right? Anybody here think I I've reached it? I mean, I know all there is to know about God. I know all of his love. Of course not. That's silly, isn't it? We can all know him more. Snow shadowy won't light up. Mountain he won't climb up. Coming after me. Thank you. What a great God.

unknown 45:26

What a great God. What a great God.