It doesn't mean just present tense, and it doesn't mean just future, but it means all three and all ways. He is the I Am, so I'm very thankful for that tonight. So if you're able, let's stand together and read the first six verses of John chapter 14. Very, very familiar scripture. I've preached out of this several times, and you've heard several messages out of it, but we'll see what the Lord has for us tonight. John 14 verse number 1. The scripture said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. But where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer tonight. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity, Lord, to be able physically to be here tonight. Thank you, Lord, for our spiritual birth. Lord, how that when you saved us, you put a desire in our heart to be in your house, be around the family of God, and be about your business. God, help us tonight to glean from these verses, even though they're very familiar to all of us. Most of us could quote several, if not all the verses. Lord, let not the familiarity of the text cause us to miss what you want to say to us tonight. And Lord, these seven times that we've been looking at that you have said that you are the I Am. And Lord, I'm so thankful tonight, even during this Christmas season, as we think about you being the great I Am. Lord, while there are many tonight that are all busy in the hustle and bustle and going through the season without even thinking what it's really about, I'm glad we that are saved this evening, we know the I Am. And I'm glad we know you personally, Lord, and we know that you are who you say you are, and you're so much more. Help us rejoice in that tonight. Help us leave the service this evening, Lord, knowing that you are the way, and being reminded again, Lord, that you've given us some promises that'll never change. Father, we'll thank you and praise you, for it is in Jesus' name we ask. Amen. Thank the Lord for the reading of his word. Now, in John 14, of course, back in chapter 13, I want to mention just a couple things about chapter 13 to get us into chapter 14. I think it makes a lot of difference when you realize what's going on in these chapters. In chapter 13, we find that the Lord and his disciples are at what many call the Last Supper or the Last Passover. And Jesus is headed to the cross on the next day. and he's with his disciples and he's wanting to eat this Passover meal with them. He begins by washing their feet before the feast of the Passover. The Bible said in verse 1 of chapter 13, When Jesus knew that his hour was come, he should depart out of this world of the Father, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And chapter 13, all the way up through the Garden of Gethsemane, is really the love relationship of our Savior being shown to his disciples. You'll find no text as intimate as you will from John 13 up through about John chapter number 17, chapter number 18. Very intimate text between Christ and his disciples. And there's many great blessings in those chapters. Now in chapter 13, he washes the disciples' feet after supper was ended according to verse number 2. He tells them of his betrayal. down about verse number 21, and he begins to tell them that he's going to have to go away. Now at this time, Jesus has made some mention of the work that he's going to do on the cross, but at this time, the disciples do not fully understand what is going on. They don't have a full grip, and they've not seen everything, and they will not see everything until after the resurrection. So they really don't understand everything as Jesus is laying it out to them. but they know that something is about to happen and there's some fear and there's some concern that is in the heart of the disciples. So in verse 36 of chapter 13, you find that Jesus tells Peter of his coming denial. Of course, Peter, a man that was a very strong, outspoken, robust man of God. He was a fisherman. I picture Peter sometimes being just a big brawny man, strong and stout, and a man's man. I mean, a man that wouldn't shy away from anything. You find Peter so many times being the first one to jump into the midst of trouble. And now the Lord tells Peter he's going to deny him, and of course Peter says, there's no way, Lord. The pride in Peter says there's no way that's going to happen. So these disciples are tore up on the inside. They know that somebody's going to betray the Lord. Jesus has washed their feet, something very intimate that they had never had happened before. And you remember what Peter said. Peter was such a man that he said, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. Jesus said, well, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me. Peter said, okay, Lord, well, just wash me all over then, if that's what it takes. Amen? And of course, the washing of the feet was not indicating of salvation. It was indicating of one getting the dirt of daily Christian living off of their life. That's why the Lord told Peter that you need not be washed all over, save your feet. You get washed one time in the new birth. One salvation, amen? One Lord, one baptism. But that continual washing, which is illustrated by the washing of the feet, is that daily sanctification. Now, all these things have happened so the disciples now are on edge and they know something's about to change. So, when you go into chapter 14, that makes sense why Jesus opened up chapter 14 with the verses that he did. You'll notice the first verse in chapter 14. He said, Let not your heart be troubled. Now, why would the Lord say this? He said it because their heart was troubled. He knew them. He was their Lord and their Savior. Not only had he been with them for over three years, yet he was still God, and he knew the very intents of their heart. He knew their emotions. He knew how they felt and their fears and their concerns. So the Lord now wants to calm his disciples. in illustrating something here in these six verses. He wants their hearts to be at rest even though they're going in a troubling time. And that's my thought for this passage of Scripture tonight. I want to preach on this, on truths for a troubled heart. There are truths in these six verses tonight that will help a troubled heart. Now, I have used this passage many times in a funeral service. A lot of times God has directed me to this when a loved one has passed away and sickness has come into a home or tragedy has struck and took someone's life. And what a great passage of Scripture it is for that. But I also believe we can look at it just in our everyday life. And just in things that we face, and things that we fear, and things that are unknown, and things that are coming that we don't have any assurance of, there's some great assurance that are found in these six verses. So I want to try to get them out to you tonight before my voice fails. In verse number one, notice tonight, we're going to look at four things here. And in verse number one, notice their uncertain future. Now, Jesus had told them some specific things in chapter 13. But for the big picture, they did not know everything that was going to happen. And so it is in our life. God doesn't let us know everything that is going to happen. I've heard people say, oh, I wish that I had some way of depicting the future, telling the future. Wish I had a crystal ball. Wish I had some way to where I could know what's going to happen tomorrow. You don't really wish that. Because if you did, I'm going to tell you what we'd do. If we knew what was going to happen in our life from right now till the day the Lord took us home, we'd all go to the house this evening, lock the door, stick our head under the pillow, and never come out. because there's trials and heartaches and troubles and unexpected problems in our life. So that's why the Lord doesn't let us know everything. We have to walk by faith. We have to trust Him and believe Him that He sees the end from the beginning, and He knows the way that we take, and He'll take care of us. So the Lord now is trying to teach the disciples that even though they have an uncertain future, He is going to help them. Now, their hearts are mentioned in verse 1. Jesus said, "'Let not your heart be troubled.'" Now, you can be troubled in your mind, and we've probably all been there. You can be troubled in the body. Many of us have faced that here in the past few days. But when you're troubled in the heart, it is a different thing. The heart is the seat of emotions. The heart is the very person of who man is. And when our hearts are troubled, our hearts are heavy, it is one of the greatest troubles, if not the greatest trouble, that mankind faces. So they had heavy hearts, troubled hearts. They didn't know what was coming around the bend. They didn't know all the things that Jesus had told them. Even when Jesus told Peter he was going to deny him, I'm sure Peter in his mind was still trying to process the thought of himself denying his Lord and Savior. Matter of fact, he had told the Lord, he said, Lord, I'll go all the way to death for you. And we see that evident even in the Garden of Gethsemane and a few chapters later that he steps out with that sword while the other disciples, no doubt, are either turning tail and running or hiding in the shadows. He steps out with that sword and he tries to cut off the head of the servant of the high priest. He got his ear, but I believe he is aiming for his head. I believe he wanted to stop them and then, of course, things begin to happen. after that, and Peter did deny the Lord. But all these things had come to a point to where their hearts were troubled. Many times in our life our hearts are troubled. We don't know what's around the corner. We don't know what another day may bring. We don't know what another year may bring. Sometimes we go through trouble. and then we suspect more trouble because of that trouble, and then sometimes we see trouble coming, sometimes it's the sickness of a loved one, it's things going down in a person's life, and we begin to walk, and that discourages us, the body ages and things begin to fail, Things begin to happen in our families. Sometimes maybe a wayward child or a problem arises in the home and you begin to see things multiply. So none of us know exactly what we're going to face as far as uncertain trouble in the future. So Jesus speaks of their hearts and then also He speaks of their hope in verse number 1. He said, you believe in God, believe also in me. And I thought about this today. I really had not paid a whole lot of attention to this part of the verse until I was looking at it some more today. Now, Jesus said, you believe in God. And of course, we know that he is God and they knew he was God. But yet He's going to the cross. Every time we read about Christ, we always read about Him with the mindset of the death, burial, and resurrection already happening. But as the disciples are watching Him, even though they believe, He has not done this yet. He has not went to the cross yet. He has not given up his life yet. They have not placed him in that borrowed tomb yet. They have not seen him arise on that third morning and then come into that upper room on that Sunday night and visit them. So all these things are future things for them. So there's some troubling there. There's some uncertainty there. Even though I believe they do believe and they do have a hope, Jesus is trying to tell them here, listen, you believe in God. He said, believe also in me. I'm going to do what my father has brought me this way to do. I'm going to finish the work by going to Calvary and giving my life for your sin. So even though there's an uncertain future in our life, I'm glad that the Lord can help us along the way just by knowing who he is. Just by knowing that he's never left us, he's never forsaken us, he's never failed us, he's never lied to us. We've never read the Bible in one place or another and come back to find out that it was not true. He's always been faithful in everything he said and done. So that's something that helps us even though we live in days of an uncertain future. Now, some things are uncertain to the future of the child of God, but not everything. There are some things that are certain. Now, when you get to verse number two, notice the second thing that Jesus is going to give them to help their troubled heart. In verses 2 and 3, he turns now their attention to some undeniable facts. I love facts tonight. I'm a factual person. I love to read historical facts. They stick in my mind. I've never been a fiction reader. I've never enjoyed that. Some people do. If I read a book, and I do try to read, I had a preacher tell me a long time ago, readers are leaders. And that's true. And I'm a person that has to really push myself to read anything outside of the Bible. That's just the way that I am. It's not that I necessarily read the Bible as much as I ought to. I ought to read it much more than I do. And I do read a portion of it every day, every day that I possibly can. I try to read a portion of the Scripture of God's Word. Sometimes there's other things that are good to read, and I've never been a fiction reader. I've always liked to read historical things or things that had facts about them because facts help me, and I understand facts, and I'm able to hold on to facts. Well, Jesus now in verses 2 and 3 is not only going to give His disciples some tremendous spiritual facts and also physical facts, but he's going to give us tonight some facts. Now their hearts were troubled because of uncertain days. They didn't know how everything was going to transpire. They didn't know how it was all going to come out like you and I do because we have the Word of God. So here they are troubled in heart and Jesus said, okay, I understand that you see that uncertainty in your future, but I'm going to give you some undeniable facts. In verse number 2, notice the first undeniable fact that he gives them, and it is the fact that we as a child of God, we have a place. Amen? Now everybody wants a place. Everybody likes to have a place. You've got a place tonight, I've got a place. My place is 11 Valley Drive, Mars Hill, North Carolina. You got a place very on early in your life. You remembered your address, didn't you, when you went to school and you had to learn your address? That way, in case you got lost or something, they knew how to get you there or one thing and another. So we learned our address from a very, very early age in life. We had a place. I was very blessed as a child to grow up in the same place. Matter of fact, I grew up in my great-grandpa's house. So our family has had that place for many, many years. And I was blessed to be able to grow up in that place. I know sometimes people have to move a lot for one thing and another, and they have several different places. But Jesus is talking about a spiritual resting place. He's talking about home. He's talking about heaven. He's talking about the home of the soul. He's talking about where the child of God spends eternity at. And he said in verse number 2, "...in my Father's house are many mansions." That's the place, amen? Now the word mansions here means a dwelling place, a place to rest in. So Jesus is telling his disciples, right now you're in turmoil. Right now you're in trouble. Right now you're in uncertainty. Right now you don't know what the next day is going to hold in your life. But Jesus is saying this, I'm promising you that there is a place as a child of God. And you know in our life tonight, we do not know what another day may bring. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring into our life, or next week, or the next week. We don't know how long we're going to get to live on this earth. We don't know that if our days are going to be like the book of Job, just a few days and full of trouble. We don't know if God is going to make major changes in our life before we get out of here. But one thing we do know as a child of God is we have a place. And that place is in the Father's house. Amen? That place is in a place called heaven. Not the first heaven that we see with our eyes during the daytime hours. Not the second heaven that we see with our eyes at night when it's not rainy like it is tonight. When it's clear, especially in the wintertime, you can look up and see the second heaven. See the stars and all the things that the Lord put up there. But it's the third heaven. It's beyond the natural realm of man, beyond our naturalized vision. But there is a place where it's always daytime. There's never night. There's never sorrow. There's never uncertainty as the disciples were in. There's never a flu virus going around. Say amen right there. Amen. My wife called me the other day and said, what do you need? And I said, I think I need to die. Amen. I think it'll help me just a little bit. You ever been there before? I've been there a time or two in my life, and one of them was Sunday evening, amen? I thought, Lord, help me, I'm just getting older and this is hurting worse. Because I've had it before, but it was years ago. And I don't remember it being quite that bad, but it's the way it is. But thank God tonight we have a place, amen? No matter what goes on down here, no matter what kind of troubles we face, No matter how life may throw us a curve and turn us upside down, for the child of God tonight, we have a place. And that place is always going to be there, and we're going to spend eternity there with the Lord. Then he tells the disciples something else in verse 2. Not only the undeniable fact of a place, but the undeniable fact of a preparer. Notice in verse 2, he said, "'If it were not so, I would have told you, He said, I go to prepare a place for you. Isn't that a blessing? Most of us, if we had a place, we had to prepare it. We had to do something about it. Even if you bought a house, it was already built. You had to pay the money to buy it, and you had to go through the footwork, and the lawyer's work, and all that stuff. You had to go here, there, and everywhere to get the house bought. You had to do some things. And if you got a place, you got to keep it up. And there's always preparation when you've got a place. But Jesus said, not only do you have a place, but you've got to prepare. Jesus said, I'm going away. I know you don't want me to go away. I know you don't want me to leave you. I know you don't want to be without me physically there with you. The disciples had had the Lord for three years now, side by side with Him, and they were fearful because of His desire to leave and go to Calvary and go on and prepare this place. But He promised them that, hey, I'm going to prepare a place for you. He is a preparer. I think about the bridegroom in the days of Jewish history and how the bridegroom would propose to the bride and say, okay, we're going to get married on such and such day. And then that bridegroom would leave the bride and he would go to that place and he would prepare that place. He'd get it all ready. He'd make sure the house was right. He'd make sure the land was set up. He'd make sure all the legal things were right. And then when everything was exactly the way that it should be for that new bride, that bridegroom would come back and take that bride, and the betrothal would take place, and they'd go into the house and be happy ever after. Well, thank God tonight we have a preparer, and that's what he's doing right now. He's went to prepare a place for us. And when he gets done, and when he gets fixed up, and when it's all ready, he's coming back to get the bride, amen? And take us to be with him. You say, what kind of place it's going to be? I don't know everything about it, but I know it'll be good, amen? It'll be better than anything you can think of down here. I heard Brother Billy Kelly talk about this scripture one time. He said, bless God, I'm going to have a mansion in heaven that'll make the Biltmore House look like a shoebox. Amen? If you've ever been to the Biltmore House, that's a tall statement. Amen? That's a big place. But I'm glad we're going to a place that is prepared by one that loves us, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine how the disciples must have felt when Jesus was taken away from them and he went to the cross and they put him in that borrowed tomb? How lonely they must have felt. We get just a little bit of insight on that in Luke chapter 24 when he's walking with those on the road to Emmaus and their hearts are broken and they're downtrodden and life as they know it is over. You can imagine how they felt and how much sorrow would have been in their hearts and uncertainty about this. But when Jesus said, listen, I'm going to prepare a place for you and it's going to be everything that is needful for you to spend eternity in, that was a fact that could help them in these times of having a troubled heart. So remember tonight, we have a place, amen? And nothing can change that. No matter what you go through or what I go through, no matter how bad this world gets, No matter how much the worldly system as a whole hates the church and the child of God and the Word of God, no matter how rough this thing gets, before we leave out of here, we've got a place, and we've got to prepare, and that cannot be changed. Nobody can vote that out. Nobody's going to change that. Nobody's going to mess that up. Jesus said it to his disciples well over 2,000 years ago, and it still stands true tonight to you and I. So we have a place, we have a preparer. But then look at this in verse 3, we have a promise, amen? Not just a man's promise, but the promise of God. It's a promise you can take to the bank tonight. Look in verse number 3. He said, "...and if I go and prepare a place..." Now that is what they did not want him to do. They didn't want him to go. I don't blame them. I wouldn't have wanted him to go either. I would have enjoyed spending that time with him and listening to him expound upon the Scripture and watching him raise the dead and heal the sick and all the healing that he did, and they didn't want him to go. There's something about... Having a visible leader in front of you that's a blessing to you and a help to you. Something about seeing someone out front, leading the way, knowing that everything's going to be alright. That's what they had in the Lord. But he said, listen, I'm going to give you a promise. He said, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. I like that. He didn't say, if I feel like it, I will, but he said, I will come again. It's a definite truth here. He said, and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. You see, that's what you and I look for tonight. Now, we know we've got a place and we know in Christ Jesus, the I am, we have a preparer. But then we also know tonight we've got a promise, amen? And that's what we're looking for is that promise. I believe the disciples, after they stood on that hillside and watched Jesus ascend to heaven, I believe that after they went to that upper room and were endued with power from on high, Every day after that, they kept wondering, is this going to be the day He's going to come back? Even the Apostle Paul believed in the imminent return of Christ. Could this be the day? Could this be the day? And you and I have that wonderful promise in our hearts tonight that today may be today. And if not today, tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the next day. We have a promise that Jesus said, I will come again. I don't know what day, you don't know what day, and by the way, nobody else knows what day it is. Anytime you find somebody that puts a date on the return of Christ, you can mark them off right there, amen? Because the Scripture plainly tells us that that's not going to happen, amen? He's not going to reveal that day until the time that Jesus is ready to come, and we'll see him when he comes in the air, amen? So you find there's some undeniable facts for the child of God in these verses. Now, let's look at the third thing tonight. We're talking about truths for a troubled heart. We live in days of an uncertain future in many ways, but yet we have some undeniable facts. But then in verses 4 and 5, notice we find here a picture of understandable fear. Of course, we see this fear in the disciple Thomas. Old doubting Thomas. He's always the one, it seems like that. The negative light is shined upon. But look at what happens here as we begin to look at these fears that I believe are very understandable. In verse number 4, we see the fear of distance. As I already mentioned to you, they didn't want the Lord out of their sight. They didn't want Jesus to leave. They didn't want him to ascend to heaven. They didn't understand how good it was going to be. Jesus tells them in chapter 13, he says, it's expedient that I go away. He said, if I don't go away, or maybe that's in chapter 14 when he said that. Yeah, it's expedient. It's in chapter 14, later on in chapter 14. He said, if I go not away, he said, the Comforter cannot come. What they don't understand is it's really going to get better. But in their mind, it's going to get worse before it gets better. And in their mind, they can't get a hold of it. They're thinking of that distance of Jesus being with the Father and they being left here on earth. And of course, nobody would want that, but thank God for the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. Because of Jesus living and leaving, we actually have a closer walk with Him than even the disciples could have had. because we have the indwelling of the Spirit of God. He lived on the outside near them, right beside them, but as close as they could get to Him was to touch Him. But because of the New Testament and the New Covenant, the indwelling of the Spirit of God lives in our hearts, and He's closer with this dispensation than any He's ever been, thank God. So the distance is definitely a fear, and you find that in verse 4. Verse 4, he said, whether I go, you know, and the way you know. So he's talking about putting a distance between him and them. But then also there's a direction that's mentioned here. In verse number 4, he told them they knew the way, but I believe they were thinking of a natural way. Notice what Jesus said in verse 4 again. He said, in the way you know. He said, where I'm going you know, whether I go you know. He said, in the way you know. And they're confused. They're thinking about, Lord, what do you mean? How do we know the way? Where are you going? You remember some of the Jews, when he talked about his death, burial, resurrection, they said, is he going to take his own life? What do you mean we can't follow him where he's going? They didn't understand the truth of it either. And I don't believe these disciples had a total grasp on what the Lord was saying to them. They were thinking with a natural mind. Lord, how do we know how to get to where you are? Of course, Jesus in verse 4 is leading them up to verse 6, which is the pinpoint of the message tonight. We'll get to it in just a minute. But you see this fear. was in their life because of a distance it was going to happen. It was in their life because of direction. But then notice in verse 5, through Thomas, we see the real distress. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way? Thomas said, now Lord, how can we know? Lord, you haven't been very explicit with us, is what Thomas is thinking. Lord, you haven't given us directions. Lord, we don't have a map. If we're going to go somewhere, we've got to have a map. Now, we live in the days of Google Maps. Praise God for that. Amen? Anywhere I want to go on planet Earth, I can type it in, and it'll get me there. Sometimes, I play with it sometimes, and I'll type in crazy locations in foreign countries, and it'll say no route found. Amen? Because it's way over here or something, you know. And of course, you can get there. You just got to go different means than the way that they're talking about. But Jesus is telling them, listen, you can know the way. I'm going to put your fears to rest. You see, when Jesus was going to go back to the Father and ascend back to the Father, they had that fear of, how are we going to get there? How are we going to spend eternity with you? How are we going to get to that place? These men had never been out of their local area. These men had never been out of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and that area. They didn't know anything about that outside world, especially the heavenly world that Jesus was talking about. So you've got to imagine how fearful these men were in this situation. Now let's look at the last thing here. Jesus answers this fear, or calms this fear, with the fourth and final thing, which is the unmistakable faith. found in verse number 6. This is really the point of the message tonight. Now we're talking about help for a troubled heart and getting help when you have a troubled heart. And when things down here in this life go bad and problems arise and the troubles of this world mount upon us, I'm telling you, you look all around and it doesn't seem like you can find any help. It really doesn't seem like there's any help out there. And as we get older and we realize that we're not going to live here forever, we realize there's a much better place for us, and we see the world decaying and decaying. Listen, I'm not an old person tonight. I'm what you'd call middle-aged. I'm 45 years old. But do you know already in my short lifetime, this world, I found out quickly, it's not my home. It's not the world I grew up in. It's not the country I grew up in. Things are different now. I mean, things are not like they used to be. I can't imagine if God lets me live another 45 years, if I make it to 90 years old, I cannot imagine what kind of shape this world is going to be in. I cannot imagine how foreign this world is going to be to me because just the time of age, just living on this earth for so many years. But notice here what happens. In verse number 6, we find this unmistakable faith. And as you look at this tonight, I've looked at this so many times as I preached it, but as you look at verse 6 tonight, I want you to notice three things in Jesus' answer here. Three things in this sixth I Am that gives us a roadmap, if you will, of where Jesus is at and us spending eternity with Him. I'll give you these three things real quickly and we'll be done. The first thing tonight is the path. Notice what Jesus said. Here's that sixth I Am. He saith unto him, I am the way. Now the way is a route, it's a path, it's a road, it's a trail. It's the way you go. If you know how to get to Asheville, you know how to get on I-26 and go that way. If you know how to go to Burnsville, you get on I-19 and you go that way. If you know how to go to Marshall, you get on I-213 and you go that way. It is a way that you know to go. And Jesus said, I'm the path. Number one on this roadmap. I am the path. I am the way. No other way. You can't go by any other man. You can't go by any religion. You can't go by any God. You can't go by any ideology. We've got so many people today that they'll break their neck to find a different way than the prescribed way. I was talking to a fellow the other day, and he's been trying to witness to somebody that's off the deep end. I'm talking about fell off backwards, amen? And this guy came to him, and this guy began to tell him. I'd never heard this before. And this guy began to tell him that the only way to get saved in this day is to get saved through Mother Jerusalem. And he starts to look at Jerusalem and God as a mother figure. And finally, this friend of mine found his belief system and looked it up, and there's actually a certain religion that believes this. I'd never heard of it before. I thought I'd heard everything, but I sure never had heard of that, amen? But you know what one thing I found out? Just like every false cult and every kind of false religion, he was tying works with faith. He was tying those works, and you've got to do this. You've got to go this route. Jesus said, I am the way. Amen? Do you know why I don't worry about what Mohammed said? Because he's not the way. Do you know why I don't read what Confucius says, or Buddha says, or Joseph Smith? I've read a little bit just historically about him. just because I wanted to see just how bad of a nun he really was, and he was a nun, amen? And reading about him and all those other cult leaders, I'm not concerned with what they say. Their words have no weight in my heart. It doesn't mean anything to me. Why? Because I found the way. The way is Jesus. Amen? There's not many ways. It's not all roads lead to heaven. They said years ago, what was it? All roads lead to Rome. No, sir. We're not going to Rome. We're going to heaven. Amen? Only one road leads to heaven, and that is Jesus. And he told his disciples, he said, listen, boys. He said, I'm the way. Just follow me. I'm the way. All right? That's the path. Notice, secondly, the perception while on the path. He said in verse 6, Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth. Now, once you get in the way, you'll have the truth. Once you get the right way... Somebody said this one time, I think they made a little song about it. It said, if you want to go to heaven, just turn right and then go straight. Amen? And they were talking about getting right with God and then going straight. And that's the truth tonight. The truth is found in the Word of God. That's the perception. So the way is Jesus. And when you and I got saved, we got in the way, we got on the way, the way of Christ, the path of Calvary. And then when we got on the way, He opened our eyes to the truth, amen? And that truth is found in God's Word. Now these disciples, they had some of the Word of God, but they had the spoken Word of God as far as personally from Jesus. during their day. And then you and I have the inspired Word of God, which is still spoken, amen? God breathed. But we have the inspired verbal Word of God in our hands through our Bible tonight. We have the truth, amen? I don't have to worry about where to find truth at. Sometimes I'll research different topics that are not biblical topics, and I'm concerned about the information. Because you can find anything you want on the internet. I mean, you can find any kind of crazy idea. You can get anybody to side with anything and twist something up. You search long enough, you'll find some kind of kooky thing out there that two or three people will follow and agree with. But when we get into the Bible, thank God, we don't have to worry about the source. I don't have to worry about the author. I don't have to go back and research the author. There's been times that people have given me books to read about men, about the Bible, and I've had to research the author and say, okay, where's this guy coming from? Because that's the way he's going to present his material, depending on what he thinks. I don't have to do that with the Bible. You don't have to do that with the Bible. I take the Bible at face value because it is the truth. Jesus said, okay, I'm the way, I'm the path. He said, then I am the truth. which Jesus, we know, was the truth personified in the person of Christ. He said, perception comes through me and me alone. If you want to see clearly going down this path, you look through the Word of God. If you want to know what God wants you to know that's out there in front of you, here's the lamp to your feet and the light to your path. It's found in the Word of God. So Jesus said the path is the way, the perception is the truth. And then notice this, I like this part. He said, "...and the life." Why is the life so important? Well, the life is the power to get you from point A to point B. Amen? There's been some times in my life that I knew the way and I had a map in my hand and I knew the truth. See, that map won't lie to you. They taught us this in the military. You orient a map. You take that thing and you turn it the right way where you're facing northeast. You get that thing disoriented and you're not going to know where you're going. You'll stumble around circles. But if you get that map oriented right, and you get that thing laid out right, you'll know exactly where everything is at. It puts everything in perspective. But you know you may know the way, and you may know the truth, but yet you can't get there without the power which is the life. Amen? Do you know there's people tonight that head knowledge, they know the way, they know that Jesus is the only way, and head knowledge, they know the truth, they know the Bible's right, but they're not going to get to heaven until they have the life. And that life is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So tonight, as believers, we have the way, we have the truth, and we have the life. And it is all wrapped up in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody might come and say, well, preacher, how do you know you're going to get to heaven? It's because I have the life of God living in me. You see, it's not me that gets me to heaven. It's not my two feet that get me to heaven. It's not my hands that get me to heaven. I turn my back. on keeping my salvation a long, long, long time ago. And I struggled with that for a little while. Some 25 years ago, probably, I struggled with that. And I just couldn't lay hold of the fact that you're eternally kept. I thought, I've got to do something to keep myself in the good graces of God. I've got to make sure I don't cross this line. I heard a well-meaning but sincerely wrong preacher one night say that the Christian life was like playing a game of football. He said, it works real good until you run out of bounds and then you're in trouble. Boy, I tell you that cut me for a flip. I didn't know my Bible. I didn't have any kind of foundation in my heart. It cut me for a flip. But I thank God for the day that God put all that in perspective. I thank God for the day that I saw that I'm eternally kept by the power of God. It is not my life that's going to get me to heaven. It is not my success or unsuccessfulness as a pastor that's going to get me to heaven. It's not how well I preach or how bad I preach or how well I do this or that. What's going to get me to heaven is the life of Jesus Christ that moved into my heart nearly 27 years ago. That life, that perpetual life of Jesus Christ, it's going to go on and on and on forever and ever and ever. He's not going to fail. Amen. Could I fail Him? Sure, I do. But His life in me is not going to fail. Amen. That's why the just man falls and rises again seven times. He's not going to stay down. Why? Because he has the life of Christ in him. He may wobble a little bit. He may get off the straight and narrow a little bit. He may mess it up every now and then. But if he's really a child of God, I'll promise you one thing, he is going to make it to the city of God. Amen. Why? Because the life of Christ lives in us. and he is going to live for eternity and eternity and eternity. Amen. Well, I appreciate the Lord tonight. I could go on and on. My voice's throat's kind of opened up a little bit, but I'm not going to do that tonight. I probably won't be able to speak in the morning. But anyway, I thank God that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And I'm glad tonight that no matter what we're going through, no matter what we're facing, Jesus Christ is truth and help for a troubled heart tonight. I know all of us have troubles. All of us have trials. Some of you have some real trials, and I've been thinking about you. Some of them are not here tonight, but hopefully they'll get the message, or at least watch and know that I've been praying for you. Some of you's got some serious things coming up in your life, I know that. Some of you's got some tragic things that are around the corner, and you see it, and I see it with you, and I'm praying for you, and I'm asking God to pad the blow a little bit when it comes your way. I'm asking God, Lord, you know, you see things in your people's lives, and I'm saying, Lord, please help them when this comes into their life. Please, please do. But I'm going to tell you something tonight. No matter what we go through down here, no matter what kind of trouble, we're getting ready to go into 2018. Isn't that amazing? Seems like just yesterday it was 1990-something. My kids think I'm old, but that don't seem very long ago. And here we are, getting ready to go into 2018. I don't know what this next year is going to hold. You don't know what it's going to hold. I don't know what tragedy may come into our life or into our church family. But one thing I do know, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And one thing I do know tonight, He's promised us He's got a place for us. And that's a promise tonight. And we're going to be there one of these days, and all these other things are going to just be passed away. All these trials and heartaches, Paul said in Romans chapter 8, he said, I reckon that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be counted. I'm probably misquoting that tonight. Talking about the glory that's going to be revealed in us is what Paul said in Romans 8. Thank God for that. That's going to happen one of these days. So be encouraged tonight, child of God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And if you know Him tonight, and I believe you do, if you know Him, then you're in the way. And it's all right. We're going to make it. Nothing can stop us. Just like Jesus, when He told those disciples before they crossed the Sea of Galilee, He said, let us go to the other side. That was a big storm. That was a dangerous storm. But there's no way that storm could have stopped them from going to the other side because they had God's Word on it. Jesus said, let us go to the other side. They were going. Now, they might have had to go fearful, and they might have had to go wave-battered and wind-battered, but they made it to the other side. And you and I tonight have the promise of God's Word. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And we will make it if we're in Him tonight. I appreciate it. Thank God for His Word. Good to be in the house of God tonight. And let's stand this evening and heads bowed just a moment. If anybody needs to come to the altar, I'll give you just a moment to come before we dismiss tonight. God spoke to you, or maybe you came tonight troubled, maybe you came with some heaviness on your heart and you need to come do business with the Lord tonight, then you do that. This altar is open for you to come and lay your burden upon the altar. If you need somebody to pray with you tonight, we'll come and do it.