Turn back to John 14. The title of the message is this. Is your heart troubled? I know it. If it's not now, it
will be, or it has been. I know that. I know the answer
to that question. I live in the same world and
in the same type of body you live in. Our Lord says to his disciples, in the face of his own suffering,
in the face of his own death, approaching death, he's concerned
about their heart. He feels their heart. He feels
them. I had a guy say that. It worked
for you. I feel you, man. That's what he'd say to me. I
feel you. Our Lord honestly feels us. He felt their heart. He felt
their trouble. Just like Mary and Martha at
the grave of Lazarus. He felt their pain. He felt it. their hearts were troubled look
in chapter 16 in chapter 16 look in verse 6 but because i have said these
things to you sorrow has healed Your heart, your heart is completely
full of sorrow right now. He knew that he wasn't, he wasn't,
uh, unsympathetic to them. Look in verse, uh, 22 and that
chapter in the 1622, look in verse 20
and you know, and you now therefore have sorrow. You have sorrow,
but I will see you again. That ought to lift your heart.
And your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you when I see you again. But for a little while, you are
not going to be able to see me. You're not going to see me. They'd
been looking at him for three years. They'd left all, and they'd
been following him. Now he's telling them he's going
away. But look in verse 33, these things I've spoken unto you that
in me you might have peace, not sorrow. I told you these things
not to make you sad, but that you might have peace. In the
world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. Whatever trouble you and I are
going through in this world, the Lord says, I have overcome
it. Take him at his word. Take him at his word. Their hearts
were troubled over what he had told them. He said, one of you
will betray me. And we know it was Judas. But
they didn't know that, except I think John did when the Lord
whispered it to him. You know, Peter said, ask him
who it is. And they all said, is it I? And Peter said, ask
him who it is. And then whenever he dipped the sop and gave him
that piece of bread to Judas, and he went out, they thought
he went out, what? To buy something for the feast
or to give to the poor. And then when he said to Peter,
you shall deny me three times. I never thought of this before,
but I wonder if Peter thought, it is I. It is me. Because he never said another
word after that. And he didn't say another word. And I think
Peter might have said, hmm, am I the one? So it troubled their hearts.
And he said, he's going away. I'm leaving. I'm leaving you
right now. Where I'm going, you can't come. And he was talking
about the cross, because he said later, you can't come now, but
later you will. And that broke their heart. They
were sorrowful. They were perplexed. It troubled
them. And our Lord knew that. And our
Lord knows our hearts. He knows what's troubling our
hearts. Some of you have some real difficult trouble. I look
at Paul, and I know Paul, and I know you all have some tough
trouble. The Lord's given it. The Lord's given it. and has
given it for our good and His glory. That's what it's for. It's for His good, your good,
your eternal good. Maybe not my temporal good. I mean, because temporally it
hurts. You know, pain is pain. I don't
care if you're a believer or not a believer. It hurts. Sorrow
hurts. Whether you're a believer or
not a believer, it hurts. Now, if we're a believer, we know
where to go. We have a throne of grace to go to. But the Lord
gives these things. Our hearts, our hearts are troubled. And we ought to expect trouble,
shouldn't we? We live in a world of trouble.
We ought to expect trouble. Job said this, man that is born
of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. He said again,
yet man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward. Whether
you believe it or not, you're going to run into trouble. You
know, Paul said this concerning a young man and a woman. He said,
let them marry, but know this, they will have trouble in the
flesh. There's no marriage. There's no marriage where there's
not been some trouble, not been some disagreements. I'm not talking
about fighting and throwing stuff at each other. I'm not talking
about that bad, but even believers, they have their differences.
But they know where to settle. They know how to settle. They
settle them in the word of God. That's how they're settled. But
no one's exempt from trouble. It touches every home. It touches
every heart. It touches every life. Every one of us at one time or
another have cried, about cried ourselves to sleep. Every one
of us. You know, the scripture says he's put our tears in a
bottle. You know every tear that we'll ever cry, God has waited
out in eternity before He created the heavens and the earth. He
has waited out in wisdom, and He's given it to us. He's given
it to us. And it says, our tears are in
His bottle. That means He takes notice of
every teardrop of His children. If He knows how many hairs are
on my head, you think He doesn't know how many tears I cry? Oh, why so? But no one's exempt
from it. And the cause of heart trouble,
the cause of these troubles, the root cause of it is sin.
It's sin. That's just the root cause of
it. Indwelling sin, it has affected our minds. How much unbelief
is still in us who believe? Heart trouble comes when we begin
not to believe God. Because he's going to tell us
the cure for heart trouble here in just a second. It has affected our mind, it
has affected our bodies. Go read Ecclesiastes 12. He says,
remember thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil
days come not. What are those evil days? Old
age. That's what it is, old age. And
you watch, you go read that. He describes, he describes the
decline of the body. That's what he describes. The
decline of the body and of the mind. He describes it. Old age brings its own, it brings
its own, my mother tells me this, old age is not for sissies. She's
told me that a thousand times. But she never told me that 40
years ago. But at 91, she tells me that. When the evil days come not,
golden years, no. You know, I wouldn't go back
and be young. I would not go back and be young
for nothing. Someone said one time, there
was a kid running through the aisle after the service, and
they said to me, wouldn't you love to have that kind of energy?
I said, not in this body. It'd be a train wreck. You'd
have to give me another body to have that kind of energy. I wouldn't go back to be young.
I like where I'm at. Vicki said that the other day.
She said, I like where I'm at. And that's grace. That's grace. You like where you're at. But
our Lord gives us the remedy here for heart trouble. Let not
your heart be troubled. the high priest over the house
of God he felt their troubles listen to Hebrews 4 15 for we
have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we
are tried as we are yet without seeing there's nothing we go
through that he hasn't already dealt with himself but here's
the cure for heart troubles And it sounds simple, but do it. Faith. You believe in God, believe
also in me. You know, people want to be told
something to do. They want to be told, go climb a high mountain.
It'll cure your heart trouble. Then do it. He says this. Just believe me. Just trust me. Just rest in my word. Take me
at my word and rest. Just do that. Just do it. You believe in God? He knew they
believed in God. He knew that. He's not saying,
do you believe in God? He says, you do believe in God.
I know you do. He knoweth them that trust in
him. That's why he could say that to them. He knows everyone
who believes in him. And he says to everyone who believes
him, believe me. Trust me. Trust me. You believe all things are of
God? There are 2 Corinthians 5, all things are of God. You
believe that, don't you? You believe everything concerning
you right now is of God. I do. I believe everything right
now concerning me is of God. Everything's ever happened to
me, even before I believed God is of God. Everything, all the
way to the end. You believe in his power to keep
you, don't you? I believe God's able to keep me. If he's able
to create a world, if he's able to just say, let there be light
and there's light, and he creates all this, and he controls all
things, he's able to keep, I believe in his power to keep me. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. You believe in his mercy. You
believe in his grace. You believe in his faithfulness.
You believe God's faithful, don't you? You believe that. You take
rest and comfort in God even though you've never seen him.
And our Lord is saying this, exercise that same faith in me
when you cannot see me. I've never seen him. I've never
seen him. And this is one of the strongest
declarations that our Lord makes of his deity. You believe in
God, you exercise that same faith in me. That's a strong declaration
of deity. Trust Me, the same way you trust
God, because I am God. Listen to what Peter said in
1 Peter 1.8, Whom having not seen, you love, you love. And whom though now you see Him
not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. I've not seen Him, you've not
seen Him, but you love Him and you believe Him. Now he's saying
exercise that faith continually. You know how faith grows? You
know the disciples said, give us more faith. Give us more faith. You know how more faith grows?
You know how it grows? The same way your muscles grow.
Exercise. It's not something you just pour
in. It's not something the Lord just
opens your heart up and pours more of it in. It's the exercise
of what's there. That's it. He makes us exercise. He gives us trials and we have
to what? Exercise faith. He makes us exercise faith by
the trials that he gives to us and what he puts us through. In my father's house, you know,
he says, now, believe me, trust me, the cure for heart trouble
is faith. I don't care what heart trouble
it is. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He says, trust
me, I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. In my
Father's house are many mansions, many abiding places, many dwelling
places. Here is the wisdom of our Lord.
He's taking their mind off the things of this earth, and He's
setting their minds, their hearts on things above. Now He's going
to speak about His Father's house, which is our house. He's going
to tell us about home. He's going to describe home a
little bit here. In my father's house are many mansions, many
dwelling places. Home is a place where family's
welcome, isn't it? It is. You know, I don't go to
other people's house and just go walk in, sit down on the couch,
open the refrigerator up and get something out of it. I don't
do that. But I do when I walk into my
mother's house. When I walked into mom and dad's
home, and even now over at mom's, when I go to visit her, I just
walk in and walk over to the refrigerator, open the refrigerator
up and see what's in there. I don't do that at anybody else's
house. You see, you can do that when you're at home. When you're
home, you can do that. Your children come into your
house, they feel at home. Home is a place where your children
ought to be able to come in and feel comfortable. I'll tell you
something else a home ought to be. Our heavenly home is, but
where a home ought to be, it ought to be a place of safety.
It's a place where they can come out away from the world, away
from that mess out there, and come into that home and feel
safe. Just feel safe. And here's another thing that
ought to be happening in a home. It ought to be a place where there's
quiet. A place where they can get away from the hustle and
bustle of this world and come home and there is no fussing,
fighting, carrying on. That'll be a home. There's none
in heaven going on like that. Ain't nobody fussing and fighting
in heaven. Ain't no brothers and sisters in heaven fussing,
fighting with each other. That's home. Home is a place
where the family's welcome. It's a place where the family's
loved. If it's a good home, And especially if this is a believer's
home. This is a believer's home. This
is what it ought to be. It's a place where you're provided
for. Children, you know, I grew up with seven of us kids in the
house. We didn't provide anything growing up, except noise. That's about all we provided.
Mom and dad provided everything. The meal was cooked, I mean,
breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, it was big breakfast,
lunch, and dinner for nine people in the house. It's a place where
you're provided for. God has provided all things for
us, hasn't he? He's provided everything for
us. We're not gonna bring, it's not like a, I don't know how
they call this potluck, I don't know where that came from, but it's
not like a potluck dinner where you bring your own dish. You're
not bringing any dish. It's the banquet is set. He's
provided it. It's a place of joy. The Father's
house is especially, but it ought to be a place of joy. A place
of perfect rest there in our Father's house, place of safety,
sin and all trouble is not allowed there in our Father's house.
It's not allowed in our Father's house. You know, my mom and dad,
I can only speak from experience. They didn't allow us to fuss
and fight at home. They didn't allow it. And we don't do it
now. Me and my brothers and sisters,
as old as we are, you know, dad passed away and there's things
to be divided up. Nobody said a word to each other.
Have what you want. Take what you want. We didn't
fuss and fight over anything. I told my mother, I said, you've
given, you and dad have given me the best things. I don't,
you don't have anything I want. I said, you've given me the best
thing. You've given me good memories. I said, that's as good as you
can give me. That's as good as it gets. Our father has given
us everything, everything. And sin and trouble is not allowed
in our father's house. And not only that, we get a new
body to live in, in our father's house. And then he calls it an
abiding place. Abiding place shows the permanency
of it. Here we're pilgrims, aren't we?
Do any of you believe you're not gonna die? I assure you,
unless the Lord comes back, you and I are gonna, we're gonna
bury this body. This body's gonna be buried.
In our Father's house, in that place, it's permanent. We'll never think of death no
more. We'll never think of funerals no more. My pastor said to me
once, as we was leaving a funeral, He said, I'll be glad when we
quit dying. I'll be glad when I don't ever do another funeral.
I couldn't tell you how many I've done. I'll be glad when
I don't do any more. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Listen, he ought to know he came
from that place. He came from that place. He says
in John 18, 37, that he came to bear witness of the truth.
I'm telling you the truth. If it were not so, I tell you,
I go to prepare a place for you. He said, this is what I'm going.
I'm leaving. I'm leaving. And where I'm going right now,
you can't come. The cross. See, he's got to tread
the winepress of God's wrath alone. But what I'm doing is
preparing a place for you, a place of acceptance. We lost our place
in Adam. It's restored in Christ. Man's place was on this earth.
When God made Adam, where did he put him? He put him in a garden
on this earth. But where's the second Adam?
Seated at God's right hand. Where's he going to put us? at
God's right hand in heaven. You see the first Adam was put
on earth, the second one is in heaven, and all his children
are in heaven. They're in heaven. Our Lord, who's called the Forerunner,
has entered heaven, and listen, our Lord has taken possession
of heaven for us. He's taken possession of that
place for us He's called in Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 20 whether
the forerunner is for us Entered he I've the forerunner has entered
the Holy of Holies for us Even Jesus made a high priest
forever at the order after the order of Melchizedek You know,
God has never taken his people to an unprepared place. Isn't
that something? But when he created the heavens
and the earth, he did not create man till last. After everything
was prepared, after the garden was prepared, after everything
was done, perfect, perfect. At one time, this earth was perfect.
Hard to imagine it was perfect. This earth, what we stand on,
live on, it was perfect. God created Adam and he put him
in a perfect garden. He brought nothing into it. God created his own wife and
brought it to him in the garden. Adam, if you look back, Adam
didn't do anything. He's just standing there, a recipient of
all the blessings. Listen here in Deuteronomy 6
and 11. And it shall be, When the Lord
thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware
unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give thee great
and goodly cities, listen now, which thou buildest not, and
houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells
digged, which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees which
thou planted not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full. And you
know what he says after that? Be careful that you don't forget
the Lord thy God. Be careful. You know, the Lord
has blessed us. He's blessed us so much. Be careful
that you don't forget who gave you those things. Be careful. You know, if God makes you rich,
be careful. Don't forget, God made you rich.
I make the rich, I make the poor. I lift up, I bring down. And
that's what he said to them. When I bring you into this promised
land that I've given to Isaac, I promised Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, don't you forget, you didn't build any of it, you didn't
fill any of it, and you didn't plant any of it. I did. You're
the recipients of it. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, and you get that for you, particular people, I'm not
gonna go prepare a place and see who shows up. Really? That's Arminianism. We'll see
who shows up. No, he said, I'm gonna prepare
a place for you. You. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again. You can be sure of this. If Christ
has prepared a place for you, He will come and take you to
that place. But you know what He's doing
right now? Every person that, all you who believe, and I pray
God there's more who will yet believe. But right now, you and I are
still on this earth. He's preparing us for that place. You see, He's already prepared
a place, now He's preparing us for that place. And once he has
prepared us for that place, we're ripe for the picking, he says,
I'm gonna come again and receive you to myself. I'll come again,
I promise you, I'll come again. And receive you to myself that
where I am, there you may be also. There you may shine as
trophies of my grace throughout eternity. That's what he's saying.
WHERE I AM, THERE YOU SHALL BE ALSO FOREVER, Paul said FOREVER,
TO BE WITH THE LORD, NEVER TO DEPART. Our Lord said this in
John 17, 24, FATHER, I WILL THAT THEY ALSO WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN
ME BE WITH ME WHERE I AM. You know, He didn't say where
I was, He was in the bosom of the Father at the same time He's
on earth, and He said that over in the Gospel of John. I want
them to be where I am. If I go and prepare a place for
you, you're going to be with me where I am." He was in the bosom of the Father
while he walked on this earth. And whether I go, you know the
way you know. He said that to bring out their
ignorance so he could instruct them. Remember Peter had asked him,
where the ghost thou? And in these last few verses, he
answers that question. He's going to his father's house
by way of the cross. That's what he's doing. He's
going to go by way of the cross. He's going to his father's house
to prepare a place for you. And he says, and you know the
way, you know the way. They didn't know they knew the
way. They didn't know they knew it, but he's telling them, you
know, the way, you know, the way, the way, the way is through
Christ, Christ and him crucified. They just didn't know the crucified
part yet. They didn't understand it. And Thomas said unto him,
Lord, we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way?
If we don't know where you're going, how can we know the way? We've never been there. We've
never been there. He's talking about the father's
house, and they said, we've never been to your father's house.
Oh, yes, you have. Yes, you have. The father's been
with you all along, you just don't realize it. You see, they're
still thinking of an earthly kingdom. And where's this earthly
kingdom at? Where's the father's house at?
It's a heavenly kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. That's
what it is. How can we know the way? If you
leave us, we'll be lost. We won't know how to get there.
And Jesus said to him, and I'm not going to elaborate on this
one because I want to do more of that next week. And Jesus
said to him, I'm the way. Boy, that's so plain. I'm the
way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father,
but by me. Here's one of the clearest revelations
of salvation in all the Word of God. I am the way to God. I'm the way to the Father's house.
I'm the way to heaven. I'm the way to acceptance. I'm
the way to forgiveness. I'm the way to righteousness.
I'm the way. The law is not the way. Christ
is the way. I think most of today's preaching
has left the way, trying to find a better way. There's not a better
way. If Christ is the way, then don't
try to go another way. Don't add anything to the way.
Don't take anything on the way. Christ is the way of God. He's
the way of acceptance, the way of reconciliation, the way of
righteousness. If he's not the way, there is
no way. There is no way. Christ is the truth, the embodiment
of truth. He didn't just tell us the truth.
He is the truth. He is the truth, he's full. Christ is the full
revelation of God. You've seen me, you've seen the
Father. Who says in John 1, 17, for the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And he said, he's the
life and I close. I am the life. Make Christ a
part of your life. I'm glad I don't sit under that
kind of preaching. Make Christ a part of you. Make Him a part
of your heart. Accept Him as your personal Savior. Let Him
be a part of it. Let Him be a part. He's either
the whole or He's nothing. He's not a part of anything.
I'm telling you, He's not a part of anything. He said, I'm the
life. It says in 1 John 1 verse 1 and
2. For the life is manifesting,
and we've seen it. Have you seen life? Have you
seen life? If you've seen Christ by faith,
you've seen life. The life was manifested and we've seen it
and bear witness and show it to you that eternal life, which
was with the father and was manifested unto us. He says in John 5, 26,
for as a father has life in himself, so have they given to the son
to have life in himself. Let not your heart be troubled.
And listen, I know you and I have troubled hearts. And he says this. When your heart's troubled, trust
me. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
I know what I'm doing. Just trust him. Trust him. All right.