Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Welcome to the Least of These podcast. We reach out to those the world has forgotten. If you'd like to know more about us and how you can donate to help us fulfill our mission, go to hisloveministries.net. Thank you very much and God bless you. ♪ I'd stay in the garden with Him ♪ ♪ Though the night around me be falling ♪ But He makes me go through the voice of hope His voice to me is calling And He walks with me and He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we die, we die. None other has ever known. Amen. He walks with me and he talks with me. He tells me I'm his own. The Bible says if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that his spirit, speaks to our spirit, and we cry out, Abba, Father. And we know that we belong to Him because of His Spirit that's been given to us. Well, let's get back into the book of John today, and we're going to try to get to verse 11. Start today in John chapter 20. Actually, we'll start in verse 10. We didn't really finish that part. But anyway, as we looked at this section, we saw that Jesus was put in the tomb, he was buried, he was resurrected, and the disciples came. And last couple of weeks, we've seen that Mary Magdalene, she was the one that had the seven demons in her, and she came. was the first one at the tomb. And we see her great love and devotion. And we see that she goes and tells John and Peter that his body's been stolen. She thinks that, because she had just looked and it said it was still dark. And she just kind of glanced and looked. Peter and John came up. John beat Peter to the tomb, and John kind of glances in and really didn't see anything. All he saw was the grave clothes there. And then Peter, you know, old Peter, he barges right on in, right? He comes on in the tomb and looks around, and he sees the grave clothes still laying in the same place. But then he sees the head napkin, it was a separate piece, laying separately by itself, neatly folded, and meant that everything else was undisturbed and lying in its original place, but then the head napkin was to the side. Apparently, Peter looks at it, and they use another word, see, and he kind of wonders. He's puzzled. He's perplexed. He doesn't know what to think about it. And then finally John comes in, and John looks, and then they use another word for see, and this time that means to believe. So John looks. He doesn't really, he glances. wonders, and then John believes that Jesus has been resurrected from the grave. And then we talked about all those wonderful lessons last week, that God's always with us, God's always got a plan, God's got his people, and he uses the right people at the right time. And many times we think God's doing something else, but we don't ever know what he's really doing. And we got some more lessons today if we get that far. But let's start in verse 11 and we'll just read through verse 18. John chapter 20 verse 11 through 18. We'll start in verse 10. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And then she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And she, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher, And Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, that he had spoken these things to her. A guy named St. Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. These disciples, at this point, they don't really know a whole lot what to think. John has believed that Jesus is resurrected. But at this point, we don't know what else is going on in their minds. Mary apparently, apparently John must not have told Mary that. Jesus had been resurrected. Maybe he was so stunned and blown away by the fact that he just didn't say anything and he went away. But it says they all went back to their homes. John probably, first thing he probably was thinking was I got to go tell Mary, Jesus' mother, that he's raised from the dead so they go back to their houses. We don't know a whole lot else about it, but the fact is that Mary's still distressed. She's still upset and she's standing outside the tomb weeping as she stands there. She's rewarded because everybody else has left. She didn't realize what John, she didn't realize what John knew. But there's a Proverbs 8, verse 17, as she looks into the tomb a second time, there's a Proverbs 8, 17 says, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. And then there's another one in Psalms 30 verse 5 that says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Mary looks in the tomb a second time, and what does she see? She sees two angels in white sitting, one at the head, another at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Apparently she just didn't see them as angels. You know, a lot of times in the Bible, or the Bible says that sometimes we've entertained angels unaware. Be careful, you know, that how you treat people, you might be entertaining an angel unaware and you never know. Apparently they were dressed in white and they're sitting on each end of where Jesus lay. And think about this, they're, probably not known as angels at this time because they're just sitting there. They don't reveal their true identity. And then Mary is sitting there and they say, why are you weeping? But think about this, the angels are on each end of where Jesus lay. Anybody thought about that? It reminds us of the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. Y'all remember in the mercy seat, the tabernacle? If you're familiar with the Old Testament, there was the temple or the tabernacle, whatever you want to call it, and then there was the outer court, and then there was another court. There was Temple of the Women, Temple of the Gentiles, And then there was another temple on the inside where the men came. And then, of course, there was the Holy of Holies. And that was the place where the Ark of the Covenant was at. And if you know anything about that, on the inside of that Holy of Holies, they would go in there once a year. And when they went in there, the priest would go in and he had bells around the bottom of his robe so they could hear him moving around in there. Because if he went in there with sin in his life, he would drop dead in the presence of God. They would tie a rope around him because if he happened to drop dead inside of there, they had to get him out. And else they had to wait until next year. They didn't want to leave that body in that temple. And so they would drag him out. But he would go in there. And once a year, that high priest He would come in and he would put blood on that pure gold mercy seat. And if you remember in the tabernacle in that Holy of Holies, that was the place where God was at. And on that Ark of the Covenant, that was what the top was called, was the mercy seat. And we remember the Ark of the Covenant, and they had the Ten Commandments inside there, the rod that Aaron had that proved his leadership. And at one time, they also had the man in there to show that God's faithfulness. But that seat was made of pure gold. There was also in there the candlesticks, which were a picture of Jesus being the light of the world. They were pure gold. And that mercy seat was pure gold. And then the pieces that held the bread were pure gold because that picture of Jesus being the bread of life. And this mercy seat was pure gold because it pictured Jesus giving us mercy. We don't deserve mercy, none of us do. But Jesus gives each and every one of us mercy no matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, no matter how we've lived. The Bible says that once a year that priest would go in there and he would pour that blood on that mercy seat. and that would make atonement for all the sins of the people. Now today, of course, we know that when Jesus died on the cross, he provided that mercy seat, right? Because see that word mercy seat, that word propitiation in the New Testament, It's the word in the Old Testament for mercy seat. It's the exact same word. And so that word propitiation means satisfaction. That Jesus satisfied the demands of a holy God, that when he died on that cross and said it was finished, that he was paying for your sins and my sins and sins of the whole world. Now instead of a priest going in there and putting blood on this mercy seat once a year, Jesus has died on the cross and his blood has been shed for us that we might not go to hell and we might go to heaven. If you remember that mercy seat on each end of it, what were they? There was a cherubim on each end of that mercy seat, right? And their wings came out and they almost touched each other. Well, guess what? Jesus is the mercy seat now. And in that empty grave, there's where the body of Jesus was laying. And there on each end, there's those two angels. Picturing that Old Testament picture in Exodus if you want to turn over there I can read that to you. It's in Exodus 25 It says you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat Wait make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end You shall make the cherubim at the two ends of one piece of it, of one piece with the mercy seed. So the two angels sat on each end. That's what a cherub is. It's a type of angel. These two angels are dressed in white. And many times we know that the angels weren't known until they revealed themselves. But what do they say to her? Look in verse 13, they say to her, Woman, why are you weeping? So basically, they're asking, why are you weeping? The implication or the inference is that tears were not really called for. I mean, Mary feels like she's at the worst time of her life. But you know what? This is really the greatest time of her life. Her tears were for the wrong reason. She should be, if anything else, she should be crying for joy because Jesus has been raised from the grave. She thinks it's the darkest time of her life because she can't find the body. The body's been stolen. But if she had known the real reason why the tomb was empty, she wouldn't have been crying. And her weeping was inappropriate in view of the fact that Jesus had been resurrected. Remember when they say woman, this is not like this nasty term. It's a term that affectionately in the old days and the Jews and apparently still over in Israel, they call the women, they say woman. And it really means grandma or old woman. Now we don't like that term old woman. Remember over there, they respect the elderly, right? They respect their elders, and I don't know that that's so much true today here in the United States, but they respect the elderly, and it's a term of affection, it's a term of respect, it's a term of endearment. And so what they're really doing is respecting her when they say woman, because Jesus is gonna do the same thing. Remember, Jesus has done that a couple of times. He spoke to his mother Mary also. He's done the same thing. So the last part of verse 13 It says she said to him to them Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. So she still thinks that Jesus is gone that he's been his body's been stolen and And then in verse 14, it says, now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Now we don't know why she turned around. Maybe the angels kind of went recognized. Jesus and saw him when he appeared. I don't know, maybe they bowed down, got down on their knees and bowed and worshipped him. We don't know, but something made her turn around at that moment. She turns around and she sees Jesus. She didn't know it was Jesus. Verse 15, Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? He asked the same question. And then he says, whom are you seeking? That sounds like when he was in the garden, right? They were coming to get him. And he said, whom are you seeking? In other words, are you looking for me? I'm here. And he asked her, why are you weeping? He wants to know why she's weeping. He knows why she's weeping. But he's basically saying, you know, there's no reason to weep. Why are you weeping? She looks around and she sees him, says in verse 15, she supposing him to be the gardener said to him, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Now think about this. We go, well, why didn't she know it was Jesus? Well, we don't know exactly, but we do know on the Emmaus road, today we have the walk to Emmaus, but we know on the Emmaus road that Jesus walked along with the people and he spoke to them about everything in the scriptures concerning himself. Until he broke bread with them, they didn't know who he was. So we don't know exactly why, but there's something about this new body. I mean, think about this, Jesus is, when we see Jesus in heaven, I believe he's still gonna have the nail marks in his wrist and his feet and his side, because you know what? He's gonna tell Thomas later on, he's gonna say, put your fingers in my hands and put your hands in my side and see these things, right? Because they're still there. But yet he can go through walls, and yet he can eat. He's got a resurrected body, and that's what we'll have one day. And we don't know exactly what we'll look like, but apparently there was a temporary blindness, just as the disciples on the road to Emmaus had. And for some reason or another, they didn't know it. It says in Luke 24, 16, but their eyes were restrained, so they did not know him. So Jesus apparently restrained them from knowing who he is. And then it says she's turned and maybe here she's beginning to turn in her understanding of what's happening in this gospel, what this really means. Think about this too, no Jewish author in the ancient world would have invented a story with a woman as the first witness to this most important event. Because remember, back in the day, and I know women still don't always get treated like they ought to, but you know what, back in the day, women were treated like property, they were treated badly. And sometimes people say, well, Jesus and some of these people in the Bible treat women, but remember who the first people that Jesus appeared to, or the star appeared to, was the shepherds, appears to the women, From the grave and so God is what is what is God doing? Shepherds and women were the most Lowest echelon of society at the time they couldn't witness in court They couldn't give a testimony their witness their testimony would not even be accepted but yet Jesus appears to a woman first and And so no Jewish author would have wrote this story like this if he wanted to have a credible story in his day. Jesus appears to her first. And so we'll talk about that in a minute, why all these things happen. But so we see the fact that she's looking and she doesn't think he's Jesus, but she says, if you'll tell me where you laid him, I'll take him away. And Jesus said to her, what, just one word, Mary. And at that word, it says, she turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. When she turns around and Jesus says, Mary, what does that remind us of? We see Mary's delight here, and it's sort of a trigger. Think back to John 10, 27, where he says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. So at the voice of Jesus, what happens? She recognizes him when she calls his name. The Bible says that he calls us by our names, doesn't he? He knows each and every one of us, and he calls us by our names. He knows us, and we know them. And so she doesn't recognize him, doesn't understand who he is, but as soon as he calls her name. And one man said, never was there more one word utterance more charged with emotion than this. She said, Rabonai. And that word Rabonai really in the Greek means Lord. And the Jews had three levels of teachers, Rab, Rabbi, and Rabonai. And Rabonai was the highest level, but it really means Lord in the Greek. And we Don't know, but at this moment Jesus says to her, verse 17, do not cling to me for I've not yet ascended my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. So apparently from Jesus's words, immediately she probably falls on her feet, on her knees and grabs him and is hanging on to him. and worshiping him and she's not going to let go. And some of your Bibles, the old King James Version I believe says, do not touch me. And some of them say don't stop clinging to me and there's other things here but Some of the wording, this is kind of hard to translate, but I think he's saying, do not cling to me, because some people seem to think that, and I was always confused about this in the past too, I never really had a good understanding of this particular section, because some people would say, well, because Jesus had not yet ascended to the Father, He was going to the Father, it says in Leviticus 16, where they do the sacrifices and they're supposed to put that blood on the mercy seat, that Jesus had not risen to heaven yet and presented His blood to the Father. That's why she couldn't touch it. Well, that's not a good view because Jesus' blood was presented when He died on that cross. And so some people would say he literally went to heaven and presented his blood to the Father. And I've heard that before, maybe you've heard that taught. And now that I think about it and have studied this passage, I believe that that's right, that Jesus, when he was on the cross, he was shedding his blood, right? That was the presentation of the blood, because otherwise he would not have said at the end, it's finished. If there was something left for him to do, he would not have said it's finished. And so he's not saying, well, you can't hang on to me, don't touch me because I got to go to the Father and show my blood and show him I've committed the sacrifice. Cuz he knows, he's already seen it when he's on the cross, right? And so that's not what's going on. So he says that, but then he said, and later on, remember, he's gonna say to Thomas, put your finger here, examine my hands, put your hand into my side. So why would he say that to Thomas, but then tell Mary not to touch him? That doesn't make any sense, right? Second, this isn't really a command, and it's a present command. It means that Jesus is not trying to prevent Mary from touching him. He's trying to make it clear to her that he's gonna leave this world, return to his father, and that she should not suppose by clinging to him she can prevent his departure. She's probably hanging on to the past. Remembering Jesus how he was, right? Remember their relationship is going to be changing. It's going to be different. He's going to be leaving. She's hanging on to the past. She's hanging on to Christ before the resurrection. She's looking for him in a tomb and she's holding on to who he was and who he is and what he's doing now has changed. And then he also tells her don't hang on to him because guess what? Not only is the relationship different, but guess what? She has a job to do. Because he says, I have not ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending. Go and tell them I'm resurrected. Go and tell them I am going to the father. She has a mission now. And you know what? Until we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a personal contact, then at that point we have a mission. And that's to go tell others about Jesus. Notice the others, they didn't see Jesus. They didn't have that renewed relationship on the other side of the cross, so they just all went home, didn't they? But Mary, because she hangs around, She gets to see Jesus, and now she sees it in a new light. And now she has a new mission, just like we do, to go and tell others about Jesus. The Bible says if you confess that Jesus is Lord, and that God has raised you from the dead, then thou shalt be saved. That's what the Bible says, that we gotta believe that Jesus has died, been buried, and resurrected. She's going on a mission. And that's what we're to do. She used to carry that message that Jesus is going back to the Father, but he's not going right now. Remember, he's going to be around another 40-something days, right? Till Pentecost. He is going to hang around for a while, and he doesn't really want her to be clinging to him. At this point, what does he say? He says, Go to my brethren and say to them, I am descending to who? My father and your father, to my God and to your God. He's showing the difference in the relationship. And you could look up a couple of verses and I'm just going to read them because I have them written down here. But Romans 8 15 says for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear But you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba father the spirit of self bears witness that we are bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And in Hebrews 2, 11 and 12 says, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will sing praises to you. And then Galatians 3, 26 says, we are sons and heirs for you're all sons of God. through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, no longer did He call us servants, right? Back in John 15, but now He calls us what? Friends. He said, I'm going to my God, because there's a different relationship between Him and the Father. He says, my Father and my God. You know, I was singing about that. You know, people say, well, why did He call Him my God? In His humanness, in His human side, He's relating to him as God because he has to die on the cross, right? He's the God man. But in his spiritual side, he's equal with God. So he's fully God and fully man. We don't understand that. It's hard to understand that, isn't it? And everybody's given all kinds of illustrations, but you just can't understand it. And there's really no illustration that fully describes it. because all at the same time, Jesus is God and Jesus is man. Mary, he says, I'm ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. So the relationship has changed. And let's talk about a couple of things here. It says verse 18, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. So let's talk about a couple of lessons. and then we'll be finished. So Mary goes to the disciples and tells them that she had seen the Lord, not Jesus, but the Lord, right? And there's a new relationship. He's Lord now because of the fact that she's first at the tomb. Guess what? And she's the one that hangs around. She's the first to see the risen Christ. So she's also the first one to get to share the good news that he's been resurrected, right? He's going to the father. And not only that, but she goes and reports, not only shares the fact of his resurrection, that she'd seen him personally, but she also reports the words he had spoken to her. And so here we see the importance of the word of God, right? I mean, the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, right? You don't get saved by some weird dream or some whatever, but you get saved by hearing the Word. It says in Ephesians 1.13 that you heard the Word of your salvation, the Gospel, the truth that you believed, you heard, you understood, and then you were saved. It says in Romans 10 how beautiful are the feet that share the good news of the Gospel. Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, he was buried, and he rose again the third day. And so she shares the word. It's the word that generates faith. The living Christ shared his living word. So first of all, his appearance is not to the 11 disciples, but to Mary Magdalene. She'll never be one of the apostles. She'll never write a gospel. She'll never be a great preacher or leader. Nevertheless, the Lord chose to show himself to her. So why do we think this is? First of all, she had a great love for her master. The Bible says, if you draw near to me, I'll draw near to you, right? The Bible said, I mean over and over, there's a special love for those that love God and draw near to Him. If you seek me, you will what? Find me. You seek me what? Diligently. Ask and seek and knock and you will find. And second, she seemed to be the one that had the greatest measure of grief. You know, it says in Matthew 5, for blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And so she's not only the one that has the greatest love, it seems at the time, she's the one that hangs around, has the greatest devotion, she has the greatest grief. Jesus did not promise blessings to those who were the greatest or the most powerful, but to those who were in the greatest need with the greatest spiritual longing. You know what that old Matthew 5 talks about that? Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who weep, blessed are those who are mistreated and all these saints for they, theirs is the thing in the kingdom, right? And then lastly, the third reason, Mary was there first, right? And so she came to the tomb early and actually that's one more lesson. Fourthly, I think it's because she was a woman and he always appears to those who are most downtrodden. Bible talks about the love that God has for the widows and the orphans, right? For those who are mistreated God the poor and spirit those people guess what? Here's a couple of lessons Here's one of the lessons when we get to heaven one day and we come to see things as they really are, one day we're gonna come to realize that many of the tears that we have here on earth were really unnecessary. Just as Jesus said to Mary, why are you weeping? Her tears were unnecessary. If she had seen the things the way God wanted her to see them, she would have understood that her tears were unnecessary. And you know what? The angels asked, why was she weeping? And you know what? The truth of the matter is Jesus wasn't dead. He had been resurrected and his body wasn't missing. Jesus did not need to be found by Mary. Jesus found Mary. And you know, the Bible tells us in Revelation 21, 14, there will be no more tears. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will not exist anymore. Any mourning or crying or pain for the former things have ceased to exist. So why will there no longer be tears in heaven? First of all, there will no longer be those things that cause us to cry, right? No more suffering, no more sin, no more injustice, no more death. But then the second reason, I believe, would be because we'll see all of our sorrows in a different light. We shall see them in the context of the perfect work. of what God was trying to achieve in our lives. We all know Romans 8.28, right? And God's working what? All things together for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. He didn't say He's working some things. And so we cry and weep and we get over set over things that God is using. He says, count it all joy when you fall into various tribulations. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And let patience have its perfect word. In other words, don't say, get me out of the trial. But God, what do you want me to get out of the trial? A lot of our sorrow is a result of an inadequate knowledge of the will of God or what God's doing in us and through our adversities. And when we get to heaven one day, we'll see that everything's happened for our good and for his glory. So no wonder there'll be no tears in heaven. It reminds me of a story. Any of y'all ever used to do any needlepoint, what do you call it, when you look at those things? where you're tying all those knots and you got all those different cross-stitches, is what I'm thinking, the cross-stitch. And when you, it's kind of like paint by numbers almost, but it's cross-stitch. My sister used to do that. She loved to do that. And on the back, you know, you got all these different color strings and this mess and you tie them all together. You turn it on the back and what do you see? A mess. You know, that's the way it is. We're down here and we just see this mess. All these knots and all these different colored things and all this junk we're looking at going, that's a mess. But God's up there watching, putting one spot at a time, and up there he's watching this beautiful picture form on the other side. You know, Ephesians 2.10, that one of those forgotten verses, he says, we are God's masterpiece. We are his workmanship created to do good works. You know, masterpiece, a workmanship, it's that word poema in Greek. That sounds like poem, doesn't it? Well, you know what? You can't write a poem overnight. You can't come up with a masterpiece overnight. But you know what? God's working in us and through us. And that's, he's slowly creating that masterpiece. And one day we'll be taken up to heaven and we'll be complete. But until then, we gotta endure that one stitch at a time, that one thing at a time, until God's finished with us. So we gotta ask yourself, what would you do with the evidence? All of these disciples died for this truth. Do you think, would you die for a lie? I don't think he'd lie and then die for it. So if Jesus didn't really die, then these soldiers who dealt with death all the time really missed it. And if they stole the body, why didn't they just produce it and say, here's the body? But it was never produced. And so the question is, is are we going to believe that when Jesus died, he did everything that was necessary for us to get into heaven? There's none of us too bad. Nothing we've ever done, ever could do, could ever keep us out of heaven if we trust Jesus Christ. He says, whoever trusted me, he paid for all our sins. Everything I've ever done, everything you've ever done, everything we've ever thought about doing, everything we ever will do, he's paid for on that cross. And the old song says, Jesus paid it all. He didn't pay some of it, he paid all of it. And if we'll take him at his word and trust in him today, he says he will forgive us and save us and take us to heaven one day. So you take him at his word today, God said it, you need to believe it. And that's the way it is. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he did pay it all. Because if he hadn't, we'd be in trouble, Lord. Because none of us could get to heaven on our own. There's no way to get to heaven but by Jesus. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one gets to the Father but by me. But we thank you, Lord, where there was no way to get to heaven, Jesus made a way. And we, Lord, we ask that if there's one that doesn't know, you'd help them to understand today, to know the truth, that Jesus came to set them free from the burden of sin, because there is power in the blood. Father, we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Please help us reach out to those the world has forgotten. Everyone we minister to is locked up in some way, shape, or form. Those in the nursing home facilities are locked up in bodies that do not work, in a wheelchair, or in a bed. We minister to children and youth who are locked up because of behavioral problems. Some have told us we want to have a real family because their parents have lost or given up custody of them. Other kids are locked up because they've committed crimes. We also minister to those locked up at the jails and the prisons, to those locked up in addictions to drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicidal thoughts, to those locked up in a variety of other things that keep them from becoming who Jesus wants them to be. He came to give us abundant life, joy, and set us free. And these people that we minister to are not free. Our desire is to show them, whatever their background, no matter what they've done, to see how much God loves them. We seek to help them receive forgiveness and freedom from their sin in Jesus Christ. We minister in the local area of Savannah, Georgia and surrounding Effingham and Chatham area. We have recently expanded our ministry to the Lexington, Columbia, South Carolina area. We do over 2,000 services every year. We hope and pray that you will support us in some way so we can continue our mission. Go to HisLoveMinistries.net and click on the Donate Now button or send it via regular mail to Post Office Box 1881, Lexington, South Carolina, 29071. We hope and pray that you will do that. Thank you and God bless you. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8.32.