Matthew 7:21-23

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

“The Innovator”, “The Originator” and "Architect of Rock and Roll", Little Richard, passed away last week. Although we knew it was coming, we were still saddened by the news. We hated to lose someone who was so important to our community and so loved by the world during this quarantine period. This chart-topper deserved a funeral fit for a king. However, because of this pandemic that would not happen. There would be no star-studded cast of attendees. Paul McCartney would not gracefully step out of his limo in sunglasses. There would be no pictures caught by the paparazzi of the beautiful Diana Ross viewing the casket. No fans would be lining the highway hoping to catch the sight of the rich and famous. Instead, Little Richard’s funeral would be a graveside one with very few guests. I wished things were different.

When Puck was asked by Little Richard’s brother if he would officiate, we were honored. His brother wanted Little Richard’s funeral to be filled with dignity and respect and it was important to us even though it was just a graveside service that Little Richard got just that.

The funeral was at 11 am on Wednesday. We live in Nashville, TN and it takes 1 hour and 54 minutes for us to get to Oakwood University Memorial Gardens from our house. We decided that leaving at 8:30 would get us to Huntsville slightly before 10:30 am. We wanted to be on time. Since Puck was officiating, he wanted to get there in time to have his ducks in a row. Despite our best efforts, we could not get out of the house. One thing after the other made us have to run back into the house. First, we had to retrieve our forgotten masks that were critical to the safety of the service, and then we had to retrieve Puck's notebook that he needed to officiate. By the time we left our driveway, it was 8:45 am. Yikes, now we would arrive more like 10:45 am. It was way later than we planned but it wasn’t awful.

We got on I-24 headed towards I-65 south and the I-65 south exit was closed! Oh my goodness! This was going to make our Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) later! We drove through town to find another out-of-the-way exit to I-65. Finally, we made it on the highway. We drove with haste. We anxiously watched the GPS’s ETA. We celebrated when we were able to shave off a minute or two. Eventually, we made it to Ardmore (the exit that takes you to Huntsville). We had shaved off enough minutes to arrive at Oakwood at 10:45 am again but suddenly the traffic came to a complete halt. There was a worker with a stop sign in the middle of the street. The town picked that day to cut down trees on the side of the road. Didn't they know that this was the day of Little Richard's funeral? We waited for what seemed like forever for the oncoming traffic to use our lane to get across.

This was awful! Little Richard’s funeral would not be filled with dignity and respect if it didn’t start on time! It would not be filled with dignity and respect if the officiant was late. But there was nothing we could do.

Then our gas light came on. This couldn't get any worse! It's one thing to be late because of things that are outside of your control. It's a whole other thing to be late because you didn't think about getting gas earlier! We carefully calculated the miles from that spot to the funeral and decided that we could make it.

Now our ETA was dismal. We drove in silence. My heart was beating fast. I wasn’t worried about not getting there early anymore. Now my prayer was only “Lord, please don’t let us be late!”

At last, we got to Wynn Drive. The road was blocked with a Private Service Sign and a police car guarding the road. The policeman got out of the car and came to our window. Puck told him that he was officiating Little Richard’s funeral. The policeman asked us for the password. We told him that we didn’t know the password. Truth is, we didn't even know that there was a password! He told us that he couldn’t let us in the funeral if we didn’t know the password. We pulled out the program and showed him Puck’s name on it. He said that we needed a password. We pulled out Puck’s license so that he could match the name on the program with the name on the license. The policeman carefully inspected both items and then told us that we still needed a password.

We got on the phone and called someone in the funeral caravan. They didn’t know the password either. They didn’t need one. They were with the family.

We could not get in.

The policeman did not know us. I don’t know if he thought we took the time to print a fake program and add our names to it, but he would not let us in. We didn’t know the password and he didn’t know us.

You have to understand that Oakwood University is our school. Both Puck and I graduated from Oakwood. That’s where Puck and I fell in love. Puck was the Student Government President and I was Miss Oakwood and we were both Presidents of our class. This was our school! But he didn’t know us.

We have come back to minister on our campus. Puck has preached several times there and I have preached there too. We sent our oldest son there. We are in and out of campus all the time. The campus security waves at us and greets us by name. But none of that mattered. The policeman did not know us.

We proudly wear our OU t-shirts! We send Oakwood our money! We attend Alumni Weekend. We vote for Retool your school! We could pass any pop quiz about Oakwood Trivia. But the policeman didn't know us.

We were respectful! We addressed the officer with "Sir"! We didn't raise our voices. We had pleasant expressions on our faces. But he didn't know us.

I really believe that our ignorance of a password would not have mattered if the policeman had known us.

This situation reminded me of the story in Matthew 7: 21- 23.

The Bible says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of heaven. but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?

"Have we not spoken about You? Have we not spoken for You?. Have we not explained prophetic timelines? Have we not written devotional thoughts and preached sermons for You? We've even shared the good news that You were coming again. Surely, that should suffice for a password."

But Jesus said, "I never knew you.

Then they said, "And in thy name has cast out devils?" "Surely, that should get me in. I've been a Christian for a long time. And I know a lot of powerful men and women of God, but I know very few who have cast out demons. And I'm one of them. Don't you remember Lord, the girl who was foaming at the mouth? That was me. I put it out. "

"Access denied. Inauthentic password. I never knew you."

"Ok God, exorcism doesn't do it for you. I also did many wonderful works in your name. You name it, I've done it. Seriously, name it. I bet you can't name anything that I haven't done for you. Go ahead try. Test me. Try me. I promise you I've done it."

"I never knew you."

It's hard for me to fathom that someone can do all of those things for God and not be in a relationship with Him. It seems that "doing the will of my father" is way more than making a list and checking it twice. Doing the will of my father is a daily conversation, a daily surrendering, a daily check-in to see what his agenda is for you. Doing the will of our father even if it is in his name can not be separated from actually being in a relationship with him, talking to Him, and getting a directive from Him every day.

That's it. There is no password, but Him knowing you will absolutely get you in.