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00:03 Good morning church. Welcome. Most of you know that uh my wife and I
00:09 came uh just a little over two years ago to build a school uh Oasis International
00:15 School down at Bandar Rimayou in Kota Kamuning and that school is now largely
00:20 done. As a matter of fact, all of our teachers have arrived now. I think uh probably on the order of 20 families
00:26 with their uh children and one of those families is uh our good brother Miles
00:32 Mloud uh and his wife Aaron. They're here today with their children as visitors. Uh they have three lovely
00:39 lovely kids. So uh all of the teachers are from the US or have US uh degrees.
00:44 So uh hope that some of them will find their way here to join the congregation.
00:50 Uh I should tell you that the uh the first service was a little bit uh choppy and the reason is last night I broke my
00:58 glasses at dinner about 10:30 and some of you know I don't see as well as I
01:03 might and so uh I hope that this goes better than the first service. So I'll
01:09 try to just talk to you a little bit. But uh John chapter 14 takes place uh with the
01:17 famous passage of scripture uh the first three verses about let not your heart be
01:22 troubled. But it's important for us to understand that contextually this passage of scripture actually is a
01:29 continuation of John chapter 13 where Jesus is talking to uh his disciples in
01:35 the upper room. And in a little more than 24 hours, Jesus will uh endure the the trial of uh
01:47 Gethsemane and praying in the garden and then being captured uh by the Roman guard, the Sanhedrin.
01:55 and he'll be mocked and scourged and walk down that via delar roa, the way of
02:03 suffering, carrying his cross to Gatha where he'll be pitilesly uh crucified.
02:10 So, this is on his mind. He knows what he's facing in very short order. And so,
02:16 John 13 really sets the scene for what takes place in John chapter 14. Jesus is
02:23 now with just 11 disciples as uh Judas's chariot the b the betrayer has uh left
02:30 to surrender Jesus over to the authorities. And so he's having this
02:36 intimate conversation with them. He's telling them that he's going to no longer be with them and that's very
02:42 soon. And of course they get uh uh frightened because they've had this
02:48 three-year public ministry with Christ. They're living in an age where Rome has
02:53 taken over the Jewish state and they're not quite sure uh I I think they've
03:00 learned over the three-year period that maybe Jesus isn't necessarily talking about an earthly kingdom, but you can
03:06 see in just a couple of chapters before this that a couple of the disciples are arguing among themselves asking, "Who's
03:13 going to sit on your right hand? Who's going to sit on your left hand?" They're jockeying for position of prestige. And
03:19 so they're still very selfishly focused and uh Jesus is trying to tell them that
03:26 he's going to go away. Uh he won't see them again in in just a short period of
03:31 time. So as John chapter 14 opens, we pick up this intimate conversation. And
03:37 uh Jesus is telling them that his life uh is is coming to an end. But he's not
03:43 going to leave them comfortless or without a helper, without an assistant, without an advocate. That's the the Holy
03:50 Spirit which he promises at the end of this chapter. And so fear is a very real
03:55 thing whether we call it fear or anxiety or uncertainty. All of us have dealt
04:01 with this fear uh in one way or another. Perhaps it's the death of a loved one.
04:07 It's an extended illness. It's the loss of a job. It's a divorce. It's a marriage that didn't uh go as planned.
04:14 And and we're troubled deep in our spirit. And uh in a moment I'm going to talk a little bit about the science
04:20 behind that. Uh and I'll try to be brief uh in that regard. But I do want to relate to you a story uh of my own. Some
04:28 years ago, I was uh at my father-in-law's house. I was a young
04:34 guy, probably early 20s. And I'm going to see if I can get this
04:39 moving in the right direction. There I am. So, uh, a lot thinner, you know,
04:46 even though I boxed in, uh, the heavyweight range, uh, in high school, I'm not nearly as big, uh, then as I am
04:54 now. And so, uh, this is about that time in my life, just so you might relate to,
05:01 uh, who I was at the time. Very, very fit. I was raised in the country, so I
05:06 was raised around guns for hunting purposes, uh rifles and that uh that
05:12 sort of thing. Just a part of uh rural country, south part of the United
05:18 States. So, not a big deal. But I had gone over to my father's uh father-in-law at that time and it was uh
05:26 towards winter, so it was cool but not cold. And uh I decided that I was going
05:31 to go hunting, but it was towards sundown and I should have known better,
05:36 but I didn't. And I took off in the woods behind his house with my gun. And
05:43 uh it in the in the US in the winter time, it gets dark very early, sometimes
05:49 5:00. And uh so I'm out walking through the woods and I'm hunting and all of a
05:55 sudden the sun starts going down and the shadows are getting long and in just a
06:02 space of a short time I find myself in the woods lost on a moonless night. And
06:09 uh I kept walking and walking and the further I was walking the more I became concerned that I'm not going to find my
06:16 way home. you know, there might be some wild animals, coyotes or or some
06:21 animals, a pack of dogs that I might have to fight. I wasn't so frightened of
06:27 men, per se, that might be in the woods, although uh just a year or so before that, one of my neighbors was shot and
06:34 killed by his brother-in-law in a hunting accident. So, those things do happen, but they're quite rare. It
06:40 didn't didn't worry me so much as just I didn't know where I was. And because I didn't know where I was, I didn't know
06:45 how to get home. And I wasn't sure when I was going to get home or if I was going to get home. And so I kept walking
06:52 and walking and uh what I discovered is that when you get lost in the woods, often times you walk in a circle. And
06:60 sure enough, I had done that and I was probably gone for a couple of hours. It was probably toward 7 or 8:00 uh at that
07:08 time. And so uh I was I was concerned because I'd lost my father's house and
07:14 our father-in-law's house. and uh you know those things happen. So I'll come
07:20 back to that and and relate to that in a moment. But uh what I want to share with you now is three topics we'll try to
07:26 cover briefly. Uh let not your hearts be troubled. Uh this is not our home. This
07:33 world is not our home. We become very attached to the world and uh it's hard
07:38 not to uh you know we need the physical things that the world provides for our
07:43 living but we should believe in God and not our resources not our own way of uh
07:51 satisfying our needs and our our desires. uh these disciples were facing an
07:57 abandonment and they didn't know uh you know what was going to happen in their
08:04 very near future. They're listening to Jesus as he's relating this story and he's telling they were going to be gone
08:10 and they're going to be by themselves. Now these uh these 12 now 11 because Judas is gone. They have uh experienced
08:19 both the highs and the lows of Jesus public ministry. For the most part,
08:25 they've witnessed miracles. They believe that he's the son of God. Uh but they're
08:30 still uncertain about the kingdom and how that's going to happen. And they're wanting to be released from the
08:36 oppression of the Roman rulersh. But I liken them to uh guys that are
08:43 following Superman around. You know, they kind of see Jesus as this superhuman, super powerful. Uh he can
08:50 command the waves to die down. He can command uh you know, lepers to leave or
08:57 not lepers, but demons to leave uh people and cast them into swine. They've seen so many miracles and they feel safe
09:04 in the presence of Jesus. They feel strong. They've boldly proclaimed the
09:10 message of Christ uh in this kingdom. Now we come to this time in their lives
09:16 and they hear Jesus say, "I'm going away." And it troubles them. And we
09:22 might understand the apprehension that they had that night. And so the concern
09:27 for their own future starts to creep in. They start uh with this fear of
09:32 abandonment that that Jesus is going to abandon them. At this point in the scripture, he's not told them about the
09:39 coming of the Holy Spirit. They're just for the first time hearing that he's going to go away.
09:46 And so, uh, we we see that Jesus is soon to leave them.
09:52 Uh, this is the, uh, the second point. Oh, sorry, three points. The second point is that Jesus is the way, the
09:59 truth, and the life. And the third point is the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so the first thing that we see is that uh
10:06 they should believe in God. I cannot read that. I'm sorry.
10:12 So let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. Okay, these are just the verses. In my
10:18 father's house are many rooms. We've heard that uh cited before as mansions. If it were not so, I would have told
10:24 you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
10:30 I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am there you may be also. And so the reasons for their fear
10:37 was that Jesus was going to leave them first of all. Second is that Judas's chariot was about to betray them. He was
10:45 about to turn them over uh to the soldiers. And you know this this issue
10:51 of betrayal is something that can hurt us very deeply. You know, some of us have had friends or relationships, maybe
10:57 even loved ones who have betrayed us. Some have gone through divorces,
11:03 uh, broken families and they feel abandoned. Uh, we know that through the ministry
11:09 here of the McCaris home that there are homeless children that we take care of that are living out on the streets and
11:14 those kids have dealt with a great deal of stress in their life because of their abandonment by their parents. And so,
11:21 the disciples were feeling that. As a matter of fact, in earlier chapter of John, uh when Jesus tells them that one
11:29 of them is going to betray them, they begin asking among themselves, "Is it I,
11:34 Lord? Is it is it me that's going to betray you?" and they're they're uncertain about how they're going to
11:40 respond to this uh reality of Jesus leaving them and and they don't know the
11:45 full extent of the betrayal or who's going to betray or or who the betrayal is going to who the betrayer is going to
11:51 turn them over to but they're concerned and so they start questioning uh is it I
11:58 finally Peter was going to lose his courage and he was going to deny Christ
12:04 uh in uh uh right after the uh well in the crucifixion scene you remember he
12:11 denies him three times and I would say that these are fears that are common to us as well you know the fear of
12:17 abandonment the fear of the loss of a loved one maybe the fear of death the fear of ill health you know your
12:24 inability to recover uh the fear of betrayal and uh the fear of rejection or
12:30 denial uh all very real fears and fear is a
12:36 natural natural byproduct of living outside of the consciousness of the presence of God in our life. It's very
12:43 important sentence living outside the consciousness of the presence of the Lord. None of us can live outside of the
12:51 presence of God in our life. He is the eternal existing ancient of days.
12:58 So God is always there. But what we forget is that he's present. Sometimes we're so in the moment, you know, that
13:05 we can't see the eternal. And God wants us to look at the eternal, look at the
13:10 uh the long picture. And so he tells them that I'm going to go away, but I'm
13:16 going to prepare a place for you and I'm going to return someday. And when I return, I'm going to take you home to be
13:22 with me in heaven. And so that's a very, very pleasant thought. Uh when you live
13:28 outside of the presence of God, the consciousness of the presence of God, you open yourself up to the possibility
13:35 of having these fears and phobias and uh it can destroy your faith if you do that
13:40 long enough. You know, we all uh face trials in our faith, challenges to our
13:45 faith. We've faced them since we've been here. We've faced them uh before at home. I'm sure you've probably dealt
13:51 with the same thing. And so the important thing is that you remember that God has promised that he will keep
13:58 uh your heart in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on him from Isaiah 26:3
14:06 because we trust in him. It's when we uh experience this fight orflight syndrome.
14:13 the natural mind. Uh contemporary psychology tells us that when we're
14:18 faced with anxiety, when we're faced with a difficult situation, a challenging situation, something that
14:23 makes us fearful, the natural inclination is either to fight or to
14:29 run. And typically, it's more often that the women choose to run and the men, you
14:35 know, if they get backed into a corner, they're going to fight. And I I've actually seen some women fight, too, but that's a little more rare. Uh the point
14:43 is that we think that's the only alternatives that are left to us. But it's not the only alternative. When
14:50 you're living in the consciousness of the presence of God in your life, you have a third option. And that third
14:56 option is to stand. To stand to stand in your faith, to rest on the resources of
15:02 God and not on your own resources. It's one that we don't often uh count or we
15:08 don't realize uh that that's available to us. Uh Peter did not have to deny
15:13 Christ. Uh Christ or Jesus said that he was going to pray for Peter that his faith would not fail. And yet Peter
15:20 denied the Christ. So we have a choice in that matter. We can actually choose to stand. Sometimes in the difficulties
15:27 of life, the easy way out is to run or to fight. Maybe the enemy becomes an
15:35 employer. Maybe the enemy becomes a loved one, a spouse, uh a child or the
15:41 parent and there's great conflict and and there's discomfort in the home and
15:46 we want to escape that situation. But sometimes God says, "Stand and watch me
15:52 move. Stand and let me make a difference uh in your life." Sometimes I think
15:57 about the issue of betrayal. We think, "Well, we're not we're not Peter." But you know, there are people all around us
16:03 as believers that need the message of the gospel all around us. And sometimes
16:09 God prompts us in the Holy Spirit to take a stand for Jesus. But we're afraid
16:15 to do that. We're afraid that, you know, we're going to get in some kind of trouble. You know, the Bible tells us
16:21 that the fear of man brings a snare. Sometimes we're just intimidated by the person that we're with and they're using
16:27 foul language or maybe cursing God or, you know, uh making lewd and lascivious
16:32 jokes and and we're a believer and we don't feel like we ought to take a stand at that exact time. It's a betrayal of
16:40 your faith. I know that's a hard word, but it's a betrayal of your faith. And you don't
16:46 have to fight and you don't have to run. You can stand in the power of God in
16:51 your life. But this thing about fear is an interesting I wanted to say that was
16:56 me, but not actually. I I think I probably am looking more like that than I was the uh the teenager you saw
17:03 earlier. But uh at any rate, I want to just talk to you a little bit about the the science behind fear. Uh fear is uh
17:11 something that really takes place in the brain. It's part of what's called the lbic system and uh it includes uh
17:19 primarily the the frontal cortex and the amygdala and the uh hypocamp campus and
17:28 I want to just talk to you briefly about what these different parts are because there's something to be learned here. The pre uh the prefrontal cortex is the
17:35 part of the brain that helps you deal with complex thoughts and behaviors. And I know some of you ladies think that
17:41 your husbands don't have any complex thoughts, but they do. Okay? They may not give voice to it like you do and may
17:48 not be as articulate as you are in a explaining things. I know my wife is far
17:54 more articulate than I am when it comes to discussing affairs. Uh but the thing
17:60 to learn is that your short-term memory is affected when you're under stress,
18:05 when you're under anxiety. And so you tend to forget things or you shove them in the background so you don't have to
18:12 deal with them. Part of that fight or flight uh syndrome. And then in the uh
18:18 amygdala and the uh hypocalas
18:23 wrong uh when you're in a stressful situation uh you think about this flight or fight
18:30 possibility. that the the amygdala is that part of your brain which actually controls your emotional responses
18:37 especially fear and it helps your brain to store memories. And so when you're
18:43 under stress even as a young child like perhaps some of these homeless children or or maybe you were raised in a home
18:49 was wasn't always loving. Maybe your father was an alcoholic. Uh maybe you were abused as a child. Maybe you were
18:56 abandoned. uh maybe your father traveled and and you were raised as a in a home
19:01 with an absent father. Uh this adds a element of stress in your life. But the thing that's interesting is what happens
19:08 during the stress. When you experience a stressful event, the amygdala and the uh
19:14 hippocampus connect more strongly. And the longer that stress goes on, the more
19:19 strong these connections are. and they actually have the ability to cause
19:24 neurons to die in your brain. It kind of hardwires you to a response uh that's
19:31 very normal and natural for you. And if that goes on long enough, it can
19:36 actually affect your behavior in later life and can cause you to have uh uh
19:42 let's say strange responses. Maybe you've met somebody who's been in a stressful
19:49 situation and they laugh nervously. You know, uh it's very inappropriate for
19:56 them to laugh at that moment, but they're nervous and and they laugh or
20:01 they they uh tend to look away in shame, you know. Uh maybe they were abused as a
20:07 child or abandoned, you know, but this behavior repeats itself as you learn to deal with stress. And the stronger and
20:14 longer that this condition lasts, the more it becomes hardwired into you.
20:21 And so the way that the disciples had to overcome their fear,
20:26 excuse me, was that they had to realize that this is not their home. Do you
20:31 remember me talking earlier about the consciousness of the presence of the Lord in your life? If you're so into the
20:38 here and now that you can't see the eternal, you can't see what is seen through the eye of faith alone, then you
20:45 become very shortsighted. You know, we as Christians have to take the long view that we're just passing
20:52 through this earth. This earth was made for us, but it wasn't our final destination. Our final destination is be
20:59 to be united with God in heaven. And so Jesus doesn't necessarily tell these
21:05 disciples what they're wanting to hear. Uh he's not going to establish Israel as an independent nation again. He's not
21:12 going to redeem the Jewish sense of honor and pride that has been destroyed at the hands of the Romans. Uh they're
21:18 not going to receive positions of great power and influence and perhaps celebrity, statue, wealth in this life.
21:25 It's not going to happen. He's leaving. and he's leaving them by themselves as
21:31 far as they can see. And so his focus is what's going to happen, namely the cross. His focus is on the future and
21:38 their ultimate home in heaven. He said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again and receive you
21:46 unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." You know, home conjures a
21:52 lot of uh a lot of imagination. I was thinking earlier about some of the
21:58 movies that I saw in which part of the theme had to deal with home and just a
22:04 few of the titles that came to mind were uh the man from Snowy River. I don't know if you've seen that. I think it's
22:10 an Australian movie. Uh likely some of you have. Another is the gladiator. You
22:15 remember he's doing battle outside of Rome. I think in Gaul in in present day
22:20 Germany or something like that. And when he returns home, his family is slaughtered and the the kingdom of Rome,
22:27 the the uh the emperor is usurping uh his authority and Rome is breaking down,
22:34 as a matter of fact. And so he he tries to battle to restore what was what was familiar to him, what was the honor and
22:41 the glory of Rome. There's Braveheart where he loses his uh uh new bride and
22:48 then he fights for the restoration of his homeland. And these are very strong
22:54 uh feelings that we have about home. It forms our identity. And what we have to
23:00 take from this is that our identity should not be so well defined by the home here and now as the eternal home in
23:07 heaven. We're citizens of another land and that needs to uh shape our our uh
23:14 our identity here on Earth. But perhaps the most important movie or at least maybe the most prominent movie about
23:20 home is The Wizard of Oz. I think probably most of you have seen that. And we hear Dorothy saying over and over
23:27 again, there's no place like home. There's no place like home. You remember in the story she left in a uh a tornado
23:34 in Kansas. very common in in the central part of the United States. And she has all these misadventures, you know, uh
23:42 the monkeys and the witches and everything. And she's she's traumatized
23:47 by a lot of that, you know, not something she would expect. And it turns out in the end that she's dreaming.
23:54 She's never really left home, but it incites in her uh the beauty of home.
24:00 And home is a place where you're accepted. uh where there's unconditional love uh
24:06 there's purpose that's instilled in you as a child and you generally experience peace. You know the world they kind of
24:13 put us on a performance pedestal and we're judged by our value for what we
24:19 do. This is not the way it is in our home. You know our parents accept us if
24:24 it's a healthy home. Our parents accept us and they love us and they they try to give us good lessons for life and
24:30 adjusting and coping with the stress of life. But uh not a home not all homes
24:36 are good homes unfortunately and some people suffer greatly at the hands of those who are their loved ones.
24:44 One of the things that we learn about heaven is is our home ultimately is in Hebrews 13:14. It says, "For here we
24:51 have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come." May I ask you
24:57 what city you're seeking? What are you living for? Are you living for the short game? Are you living for
25:04 the long game? 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,"For we know
25:10 that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed in death, we have a
25:15 building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven." If if you
25:22 wear sometimes this life like a ill-fitting suit of clothes, you're just
25:27 not comfortable in your body or in your environment, in your element. Perhaps
25:33 that's a echo of the past. Perhaps that's God speaking to you, saying,
25:38 "This is not your home. You're made for another place. Your citizenship is
25:44 elsewhere. It's in heavens." Philippians 3:20 says, "Our citizenship is in
25:49 heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."
25:56 One of the other ways that they overcame their fear was to take stock to take an
26:02 acknowledgement that Jesus was going to prepare a place for them. This place was a place especially for them. Uh in the
26:11 in the uh language of the King James, it said that uh in my father's house are
26:16 many mansions. And so sometimes we conjure up the thought of a mansion. Uh
26:21 my wife and I happen to be married in the largest private home in the US called the Builtmore Mansion. And uh Mr.
26:29 Mlo Mloud is from North Carolina. I think he's he's probably been there or
26:34 seen it. Uh we weren't married in the house, but on the property and uh it's a
26:40 beautiful mansion. 175 rooms I believe. That's 175,000 square ft. 250 rooms. the
26:49 largest private uh mansion in the United States. And so we get that idea that our home in heaven is this great big
26:55 mansion. But I think more faithful to the scriptures, we're actually saying that in my father's house are many
27:02 dwelling places. This same word is used later on in the same chapter. And there
27:07 it's rendered as a dwelling place. And so whatever it is, we don't know for sure. Whatever it is, Jesus has been
27:14 preparing it now for 2,000 years. He has the resources of heaven to prepare this
27:20 place for us individually. He knows us. The hairs of our head are numbered. Our
27:26 days are numbered. He knows us and he's been preparing to be reunited with us in
27:32 heaven. As a matter of fact, Hebrews 16:19 tells us that Jesus is the
27:37 forerunner and he's an anchor for our souls. The word there forerunner is the
27:44 word uh padramas or prodramis. And what that means is it's really a position of
27:50 a reconoider or a scout in the army. He goes on ahead. He makes sure that the way is safe. And that's what Jesus does
27:58 for us. But only when the way is safe does he return to the the main army and
28:04 tells them follow me. I know the way. When we look at what Jesus did on the
28:09 cross, he went and he fought Satan. We're going to see this at the very end of this chapter. Nothing that he was
28:15 about to endure took him by surprise. He knew exactly what he was facing. And
28:21 yet, he went in obedience. A personal faith in a personal God
28:27 provides a personal strength. Some of us don't have a personal faith. We have an
28:32 intellectual faith. We don't really know God. We've heard about him. You know, we
28:38 we think that uh we know something about him, but we don't know him.
28:44 And I submit to you that he wants to know you more desperately than you want to know him.
28:50 Sometimes the storms of life can make shipwreck of our souls. And yet we can
28:56 know because of Jesus that our anchor will hold. He is our anchor.
29:02 And so the important thing is that uh Jesus is our anchor because of who he
29:07 is. He's the son of God. He's God in the flesh. He's our anchor because of what
29:13 he's done. He's paid the sin debt. He's met the enemy. He's conquered him. And
29:18 he no longer poses a threat to us. That's what is meant by the word to tell us, which is what he said at the very
29:25 end of his suffering on the cross when he said, "It is finished." He said, 'I've met the enemy. I'm the prodramus.
29:33 I've searched out this path and you can safely follow me because I've defeated
29:40 the enemy. And so I say to you, uh,
29:45 brothers and sisters, let not your heart be troubled. Jesus is faithful. He's
29:50 gone and he's prepared a place for us and he will return to take us to our
29:55 eternal home. So whatever we have to endure in this life, we only have to endure but for a moment. If it's ill
30:03 health, if it's a a a fatal disease like cancer, it's only for a moment. It will
30:10 pass and we will face eternity. And the most important thing we can ask ourselves is how are we preparing for
30:18 our eternity? So Jesus again says don't let your heart be troubled.
30:26 Second point is that uh he said in verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the father but
30:33 by me. You know, it's very popular for us to think that uh let me see, got to
30:40 make sure I'm at the right point. Yeah. I am the way, the truth, and the
30:46 life. No one comes to the father but by me. And he says, if you had known me, uh
30:51 you would have known my father also. And from now on you do know him and you love
30:57 him or you've seen him because you've seen me. You know this particular uh
31:03 chapter chapter 14 is one of the most prominent chapters about the trinity and the nature of the trinity and it's not
31:10 something that's often examined in this particular uh section of scripture and I don't have time to do that today.
31:18 But Simon said or not Simon, Thomas said to him,"Lord, uh, we we don't know where
31:23 you're going. H how can we know the way?" And in response to that, Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the truth and
31:30 the life. I am the way." You know, it's very common for us nowadays to think
31:35 that there are many ways to heaven. When Jesus said, "I am the way," you know,
31:40 there is a uh exclusivity in what he said. I am the way, not a way. I'm not
31:48 one of many ways. He said, I'm the one and only way. Himself,
31:54 not a system of religious belief, not a systems of philosophies. Uh, you know,
32:01 it's a good thing that the human mind is hardwired to recognize absolute truth
32:07 because the world religions contradict themselves on so many matters. Our uh uh
32:13 friends who observe Islam say that Jesus was never actually crucified.
32:19 Christianity says that he was crucified, that he literally died and rose again.
32:25 Only one of us can be right. Judaism says that Jesus was not actually the Messiah, the son of God. He was a a
32:32 prophet, you know, a good teacher, a very moral man. Christianity says he was
32:38 God incarnate, God in the flesh. uh we can't both be right about that. Hinduism
32:44 says that God has often been incarnated and Christianity says that God was only
32:50 incarnated once in the flesh of Jesus Christ there in the manger. They cannot
32:57 both be right. Buddhism says that the world's mi uh mysteries will end when we
33:03 do what is right. Christianity says we cannot do what is right. We need help.
33:09 we're defective. We're on our own incapable of doing that which is right.
33:16 And so uh there all these uh contrarian views, all these conflicting views, they
33:21 they can't all be right at the same time. And yet that's a very common thought that there are so many ways to
33:27 heaven. And Jesus answered uh uh Thomas and he said, "Thomas, the way to the
33:33 father is not a system of creeds. It's not a behavior list of dos and don'ts. I
33:41 am the way to the father. What you know of the father, what you know of god, you
33:46 know from me. And I remember when uh Peter uh confessed that Jesus, you are
33:52 the Christ. He said, Peter, who do men say that I am? And he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And
33:57 he said, flesh and blood could not reveal that to you, but only my father which is in heaven. So I ask you today,
34:04 who is Jesus Christ to you? Is he the way? Is he the one and only
34:10 way? Are you trusting in something else, something other than Jesus Christ? Your
34:15 religious credentials, your resources, your personality,
34:21 uh your behavior? Are you trying to please God by keeping this list of dos and the avoid the list
34:29 of the don'ts? Are you thinking that's the way to heaven? Because I'm telling you, it's
34:35 empty. It's not the way. There's only one way. Jesus is the way. And so at the end of
34:42 it all, there's a lot of confusing comments about religion, about the way to heaven. But the one thing that we can
34:49 take stock in is that Jesus said, "I am the way."
34:55 The scripture tells us in Proverbs 14:12 that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the way of
35:02 death. So many people believe they're right, that they're following the right thing. Do you know you could be following
35:08 something that you absolutely believe to be right and it could be absolutely wrong?
35:14 And so I trust today that as I speak to you that the Holy Spirit will minister
35:20 power and truth into your life, that you'll evaluate your life honestly. that
35:26 you'll come to the conclusion that if you're hoping anything less than Jesus
35:31 Christ and what he did on the cross is the payment for your salvation and the way you're reconciled to God, I hope
35:38 you'll put that aside, that you'll repent of your sins, that you'll turn to him in faith, thank him for what he's
35:44 done for you on the cross uh in paying your sin debt and bringing you back to God. That's my prayer for you today.
35:53 So these ways are all at conflict with one another and they can't all be right.
35:59 So we're left with the conclusion that either Jesus is truthful in what he's saying, he's the way, the one and only
36:05 way, or there's some other way. And I'm telling you, your eternal destiny uh
36:11 depends on where you come down on that equation.
36:17 Jesus is the source of all truth. He said, "I am the truth. I am the way.
36:23 I am the truth." And when he said, "I am the truth," what he was saying was he is the very manifest presence of God.
36:31 Everything that we know about God, we know through Jesus. In uh Colossians
36:36 1:15, he says that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He embodies what we know
36:44 about God. In verse nine he said have I been with you so long and yet you don't
36:50 know me philillip he said he who has seen me has seen the
36:55 father so how can you say show us the father if you've seen me you've seen god
37:04 that's a very neat part of the trinity and the whole uh uh study of what the
37:09 the trinity means so uh they are one and Jesus is the
37:15 truth. He's the way and the truth. It also tells us something about all the biggest questions of life, namely, who
37:22 am I or my identity? Well, the Bible tells us that we're created in the image of God. And you can never fully grasp
37:28 your identity as God intended it until you embrace a deep and intimate
37:34 relationship with Jesus. We ask ourselves the question, why am I here? What's my purpose? You know, what
37:41 am I supposed to be doing? what are the big goals of my life? And discovering your purpose and living out uh the key
37:49 to the meaningful life is to know that your purpose was to honor and glorify him and to serve him all of your days.
37:57 And the last big question of life is where am I going? What's my destiny or my fate? And there is a place called
38:04 heaven. There is a place called hell for the wicked. And sooner or later all men
38:10 will die. Hebrews 9 uh 27 says it is appointed unto man once to die and after
38:15 this the judgment. Do you believe that Jesus is the way? Do you believe that he
38:21 is the truth? Not telling us the truth. He is the truth. The living truth.
38:28 When Jesus says, "I am the truth." He means to say, "Trust me on this topic.
38:33 Trust me. Count on what I'm telling you. I will soon pay for your forgiveness
38:38 with my blood. I can't love you any more than I do. I can't love you any more than that.
38:45 What I'm about to do on the cross is all that is needed to restore you to God.
38:52 And you'll only cross it by believing in me. I'm the only way. And you have to
38:57 trust what I've done for you that it'll be right and that it'll restore you to God. There are a lot of people out there
39:03 who tell you that they know the truth. Hear me clearly. Jesus is saying, "I'm
39:09 not giving you a truth. I am the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
39:16 truth." And when you contrast the circumstances of your life, the trials and tribulations of your life, and you
39:22 don't uh uh examine that in the context of who Jesus is and what he's done,
39:28 you're making a dreadful mistake. You can trust him without any doubt because
39:33 he is the truth. And he says,"I am the life." Jesus is
39:39 the source of all life. Uh all physical life, all spiritual life and eternal
39:44 life. And there is no other source. The Bible tells us that he was the very creator, the one who spoke creation into
39:53 existence. Back in the council halls of eternity past, the triune God stepped
39:58 out into nothing and spoke the world into existence, created out of nothing.
40:04 And the one who spoke was Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate one of the ancient of days, the God of
40:10 all gods. And so when he says, "I am the life," he means that your current life, if it's
40:18 lived without him, is just a shadow of what God created it to be.
40:23 Life without him sounds like a distant echo of something that's fading.
40:29 It's not a reflection of the real thing. here for a moment and then gone. It's
40:35 not what God intended. The life I give to you is abundant and eternal. It
40:40 outlasts the few years that you have here on earth. Don't live for this life alone. So many of us are influenced. The
40:48 scripture tells us the fear of a man is a snare. It's a trap. And so many of us are influenced by friends and loved ones
40:56 who don't have our best interest at heart, who don't want to see us uh live for God, to live an abandoned life for
41:03 God. And we need to consider that he said, "I am the life." If you want to
41:08 know fulfillment, if you want to know peace and purpose, then you have to
41:13 trust that Jesus is the very life of God in you. He said, "I didn't come to point
41:19 you to any other kind of life. I am your life. Are you living your life for him?
41:25 Are you living your life for yourself? Very very powerful question. Uh Thomas
41:32 A. Kimpus uh wrote the following. I'm a little bit behind here. He wrote this
41:38 quote. I am the way. He's talking about Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way, there is no
41:45 going. Without the truth there is no knowing
41:51 and without the life there is no living. I am the way which you should pursue,
41:58 the truth that you should believe, the life that you should or thou should hope
42:04 for. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by
42:10 me. We're told in Acts that there is no other name given under heaven among men
42:15 whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ. It's a powerful and
42:20 exclusive statement but it's a true statement and we all need to take that to heart. We cannot trust in our works.
42:28 We cannot trust in our reputation. We cannot trust in our resources for our salvation.
42:35 How am I doing on time? Okay.
42:40 The uh the next thought and the last thought is the Holy Spirit is our comforter, our helper, and our advocate.
42:47 And in John 14:15, it says, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." Well,
42:53 I want to submit to you that if you love Jesus and Jesus abides in you, you have
42:59 the Holy Spirit and you can keep his commandments. Do you remember when I talked to you
43:05 earlier about living in the consciousness of the presence of God? You have a choice as a believer. You can
43:12 live in the strength of your flesh, the strength of your own personality, your own wisdom, your own resources, or you
43:20 can live in the strength of the Holy Spirit, which is supernatural. A supernatural God lives inside of us.
43:27 And because he lives inside of us, we can live beyond our means. We don't have
43:33 to respond to fear with fight or flight. We can stand and we can stand securely
43:40 in him. And because he indwells us, because he says, "I will ask the father and he will give you another helper." Uh
43:48 this is the word uh pariclete. And I'll get into that in a moment, but it's another of the very same kind. He's
43:55 sending somebody, the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, to uh be
44:00 with these guys who are soon going to be without Jesus to empower them, to strengthen them, to give them courage to
44:07 stand in a time when it's going to be very difficult to do that. The fact that many of them fail in that effort is only
44:15 an indication even though they walked with Christ for three years and they saw him. It's an indication of their
44:21 humaness, their humanness. And these guys had the choice after they
44:27 saw all that Jesus did, they saw him die on the cross. They had the choice to live in their faith that he tried to
44:34 instill in them or live in their flesh and their resources. And so dire was the
44:39 circumstance that the reality of their trial, their personal trial, their
44:44 personal challenge of faith was so real that many of them failed. And Jesus was
44:50 trying to give these words in the last 24 hours of his life to them. Do you
44:56 know in this uh passage of scripture, Jesus mentions the father 23 times.
45:02 There is no other place in scripture where Jesus talks about the father as much as he does in these short 31
45:09 verses. 23 times he mentions the father. And as he's at the end of his own mortal
45:15 life here on earth, what's the foremost thought in his mind? The father.
45:22 That's remarkable to me. He loved his father and he knew what he was facing.
45:28 And out of obedience, the scripture tells us in this passage, the last half of the chapter, that he's willing to
45:34 endure death on the cross to be obedient to his to his father.
45:42 Verse 17 says, even the spirit of the truth, the way, the truth, the life, even the spirit of the truth, whom the
45:48 world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know
45:53 him, for he dwells in you, and he will be with you. This is the Holy Spirit. I
45:59 want you to know, you cannot honestly say that you love Jesus,
46:04 that you're at one with the Father. You can honestly make that claim if you willfully continue to deny him and
46:12 disobey him. Do not delude yourself. It's very easy for us to do that, to
46:17 play games. But if we're not committed to loving Christ and defending him, even at the
46:24 personal risk of our reputation, our resources, think about these 11
46:29 disciples. Most of them died horrible deaths because of the name of Christ. If
46:35 we're not willing to make that stand and live under the power of the Holy Spirit,
46:41 we need to ask God to forgive us and to help us. Very interesting verse. Ezekiel 36:27.
46:52 little bit behind here.
46:57 Very interesting verse. It says, "And I will give you a new heart." This is God talking. "And I will uh and a new spirit
47:04 I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." A heart
47:10 that's sensitive. A heart of stone is not very sensitive. It's not very approachable. It's not very uh touched
47:18 by emotion. And Jesus says or God says, "I'm going to give you a heart of flesh and I will
47:24 put in you my spirit. It'll be within you and I'll cause you to walk in my statutes and I'll cause you to be
47:31 careful to obey all of my commands, my rules. Is that your relationship with Christ?
47:38 Do you have that kind of love relationship that in humility you submit
47:43 yourself in obedience to him and the leading of the Holy Spirit?
47:48 Jesus uh was obedient, the scripture tells us, even until the death of the cross. Are you willing to be obedient
47:57 whatever it costs? You know, I I've gotten to the point in my life, as you get older, I think you
48:03 you deal with this your mortality and you start looking at things a little
48:08 differently, but I know that anything of value that I have in my life came from God and he can
48:15 take it at any time. He can take my life at any time.
48:22 I don't know how many days I have left. I'm not in ill health, but the at at nearly 60 years of old, I
48:32 I know that I have le less life in front of me than I have behind me.
48:38 And the greatest desire, sorry,
48:44 the greatest desire of my heart is to please my father.
48:50 I'm not ashamed of that. I know the power of God resting on my
48:55 life brings the greatest satisfaction. I know not following him, not choosing
49:03 his way brings the greatest conflict. And so at my age,
49:10 I've decided I'm going to follow him. I'm going to be obedient. When he
49:15 prompts me to say something to somebody who's offending the the cause of Christ, I'm going to say something.
49:21 When he asks me to help somebody who's sick and injured or somebody who's poor
49:26 and doing without a meal, I'm going to try to be instantly obedient because I
49:31 want to please my father. And I'm not saying that you have to uh see things as
49:36 I see them or experience the spiritual life as I experience it. But I am
49:43 telling you that if you don't have something of that desire in you, you
49:48 really need to consider what the nature of your relationship is with Christ and
49:54 what you believe about him and whether you're willing to submit yourself to him.
49:60 I want to just share one last thought and we're going to close. I'm going to skip a little bit here.
50:05 The very final verse of this chapter, even the last half of verse 31,
50:11 Jesus makes a statement. Now, he is God in the flesh and he knows what he's going to suffer in the uh 12, 15 hours
50:20 ahead, less than 24 hours. He knows he's going to die this humiliating death on
50:25 the cross. And he makes this statement, arise,
50:31 let us go from here. That statement is an offensive statement.
50:37 He knows full well what he's going to endure. And he says, "I'm going to go meet Satan and we're going to do battle
50:45 at the cross and I'm going to do that for you." That's what he was telling the
50:50 disciples. He said, "Let us go. I'm confident in what I'm doing. I'm
50:58 confident in who I am. I'm confident in why I'm doing it.
51:03 And he tells them to follow him even at the very end. Follow, arise, let us go
51:10 from here. It's a symbol of great power and great courage and great confidence. And that's
51:17 the kind the kind of confidence that we ought to have in him. I want to just wrap up and close today by telling you
51:24 how the hunting trip ended after I got lost in the dark. I was uh you know
51:32 carrying my shot no not shotgun it was a 30 six a rifle and uh I was probably in
51:37 the dark for two hours. It was a moonless night. I had been walking through streams and fields and forests
51:44 and I uh came out of the woods at one point and I saw a house in the distance and there was a light. I don't know
51:50 exactly how far it was, but it was some distance. And I had to walk across this field. And uh I realized as I approached
51:58 the house that, you know, it was a it was a path to the house. The light that
52:03 was shining was a an indication of life in the house. But I realized I had this
52:10 uh this rifle in my hand. And if I just went up to the door and knocked on the door and somebody came to the door and
52:16 saw me with a rifle in my hand, they might be scared and do something silly like shoot me, you know. So I said, I'm
52:24 going to put the rifle down by their truck in their driveway and I'm going to go knock on the door. And I knocked on
52:30 the door. And I said, I'm a hunter. I'm uh I'm lost and I don't know my way
52:35 home. And uh the guy opened the door and he said, "Well, you know, uh where is it
52:41 you're trying to go?" And I told him uh as best I could where I was trying to go. And he said, "You're really not that
52:47 far away." He said, "You've got about three left-hand turns to make." Now, I was about three kilometers from where my
52:54 father-in-law lived, actually. And he said, "Just just start down this road at the first left, turn left. Next left,
53:01 first time, turn left. Do that three times. Take you right into the subdivision." Well, when I got about
53:07 probably a quarter of a kilometer away, the police car was coming down the road
53:12 in the very dark of night. Sirens were on. I did not know this, but they had
53:18 been out looking for me for nearly two hours, the sheriff's department, because I didn't I I knew this, but I didn't
53:25 know what my father-in-law was thinking. A couple of years earlier, his son-in-law
53:30 from his second daughter, my wife was the third daughter, uh his son-in-law
53:35 was killed in a car crash and he was 24 years old. And uh it was
53:42 traumatizing to him because he had to go identify the body and he was he was harboring these thoughts. Where's my
53:48 son-in-law? He's lost. He's got a gun. There's any number of bad things that could happen to him. and he called the
53:56 police and he sent them searching for me. It reminds me of our heavenly father.
54:03 He's searching for us. He doesn't give up. Some of you are sitting here and he's
54:09 been searching for you your entire life and you're trusting in something other
54:17 than him as the way, the truth, and the life. You're saying, "I was born in a
54:22 Christian family." you know, I I've done all the deeds that the church requires
54:27 of me. It's not enough. God's still searching for you. The Holy Spirit is
54:34 still searching for you, and he wants you. When the sheriff uh deputy uh
54:41 rolled down his window, he could see that I had the gun in my hand. And for a fleeting thought, I thought maybe he's
54:47 going to shoot me because I've got the gun in my hand, a rifle for hunting. and he he knew that I was a hunter and that
54:54 I was lost. And so he just rolled down his window and he said, "Uh uh you're not far away. Can I can I take you
54:60 home?" Well, when he took me to my father-in-law's house, obviously they were celebrating, but I was humiliated.
55:06 You know, here's this country boy, a boxer, really tough guy in my young years, you know, used to hunting. And I
55:14 got lost. Stupid thing. I went out in the woods at dark or nearly dark and I
55:19 got lost. And so I was humiliated, but my father-in-law and my wife embraced me
55:26 and they took me into their home and I felt very comfortable and safe for being
55:31 there. That's what God wants to do for you. You've seen a light.
55:38 There's been some kind of Christian witness in your life, something to draw you
55:43 to that heavenly home. You need to respond to that. Perhaps you
55:48 have. If you have, that's fantastic. That's great. Are you living the life
55:54 that Christ wants you to live? He loves us. And even though we might be
56:01 denying him and betraying him and failing him, he says, "Let not your heart be troubled." He says that in
56:08 verse 27 at the front of the chapter and at the end of the chapter. Don't let
56:13 your heart be troubled. You do not have to impress me. I love you for who you are. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank
56:21 you. There is no God like you.
56:29 Lord, you are remarkable in how you passionately pursue us.
56:37 Lord, how you freely love us to the point of laying down your own life.
56:42 Lord, I hope I never get over that. Lord, I pray for every soul in this room
56:48 today. Lord, may they know the reality of an intimate personal walk with you
56:56 because you are the way, the truth, and the life. And we give you glory for who you are in Jesus name. Amen.
