Even the way in which we preach and hear your word would worship you and praise you as best as we can. Lord, may the honor we ascribe to your name now through what we do be filled with faith and absent of hypocrisy. Lord, as we receive your word today, may our hearts be ready to submit to what you have for us. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be soft to your truth and our minds would be sharp and ready to discern what you have revealed. Lord, we pray that you would reveal yourself to us today through your word. We pray through our time together in your word, we might see Christ more clearly. Lord, besides your own glory, if there's anything that we could pray for of the utmost importance, it would be that you would grow our faith through this time. In fact, Lord, I pray that if there's anybody here today who doesn't know Christ in a saving way, There's someone here today who's never put their faith in Christ, who's never been given this gift of saving faith. I pray that this would be the very day on which they would believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And Father, for those of us who have believed, Lord, we pray that you would deepen our faith. We come to you with weak faith, we recognize that. We know we're like the father that we read about in Mark chapter 9, who cries out to Jesus, I do believe, help my unbelief. And so what we pray in this hour is that through the working of your spirits, with the instrumentation of your word, that you would strengthen our faith, that you would help us in our unbelief. Or this is our prayer, we pray it confidently, not because we deserve these requests to be answered, but we pray these things confidently because you have invited us to come boldly before your throne of grace and to do so in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. And so that's what we do. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's a pleasure for me to be able to be here with you this morning. What a wonderful invitation from your dear pastor, Pastor Joey, for me to be able to come and worship with you and minister alongside of you. I am just so grateful to be able to be here. This is such an important work that all of you are doing. This is so important for there to be gospel influence in this community here. And I know that there are a lot of sacrifices that go along with being part of a new church, a church plant. And there's a lot of work that has to be done. And a lot of people have to wear a lot of different hats. But I am so thankful that so many of you have committed to being a part of this work and come along. Pastor Joey, let me just tell you, you know this already. But I will remind you what a gift God has given you in your pastor I'm sure you feel that even with his brief absence for vacation and and maybe Probably even some of you are disappointed to see me in his pulpit this morning instead of joey Uh, and I understand that I understand it and joey said hey, come on come to church and listen to me preach. I said i'm gonna do that What a gift you have in a faithful, faithful pastor who loves God and loves you. That is a gift that you should never take for granted because there's a lot of churches that don't have that. And so for you to have that gift from the Lord, What a blessing that is. And I know in an equal way, you as a congregation are a blessing to him and his family. That's why I'm so excited to come and be a part of this for a Sunday. And as we worship the Lord together, I want to invite you to turn with me to John 14. John 14 for we're going to be this morning. We're going to look at the first three verses of John 14 and I've titled this morning's message truth for troubled hearts This passage is part of what Bible teachers refer to as the Upper Room Discourse. This is Jesus' really final instructions to his disciples before he's going to be arrested and crucified. You'll remember they went to celebrate the Passover together and it was there that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, and then there that Jesus gave his final words of discipleship to the men who would be the apostles of his church, and all of it happened in that famous Upper Room. That's why it's called the Upper Room Discourse. In this passage, really from John chapter 13 to John chapter 17, in these final parting instructions, you read some of the most intimate and personal times of teaching that Jesus ever had with his disciples. And in particular, as we've come to John chapter 14, Jesus is taking this time with his disciples to address the issue of anxiety, or as he'll call it, a troubled heart. Look at the passage, verse one. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. other's house or many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may also be. Anxiety is an important topic for us as believers to think about together, especially as we come to God's word. It's important because God's word does address this issue, but then it's also important because our hearts are constantly having to deal with this issue. Anxiety is not only a difficult issue of life, it's a common issue in life. In fact, recent cultural events have made that even more clear than it already was before. At the height of the pandemic, for instance, prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs increased exponentially to the point where over 10 million Americans were on prescription for anxiety symptoms. It's estimated by medical professionals that somewhere between 20 and 25% of men and somewhere around 40% of women in America exhibit some signs of clinical anxiety disorder. These are acute symptoms that go along with anxiety. That's a large percentage of the population, 20% of men, 40% of women. And it's probably 20% men and 40% women because 20% of men are liars. It's probably 40% of men and 40% of women. And then just anecdotally, from our own perspective, you take all the kind of the medical research on how many people are anxious, and then just anecdotally, when we talk about it amongst ourselves, and you add to this category, all those people who would just say they're quote, stressed out. Now, all of a sudden, the percentage of people who deal with anxiety jumps all the way to 100% of us. I love what JC Riles wrote many years ago, Commenting on these verses, he said this, heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank or class or condition is exempt from it. No bars or bolts or locks can keep it out, partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear. The journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a veil of tears." In other words, we're all going to deal with anxiety at some point and at some level. And so given the impact of anxiety on our lives, It's no surprise that Jesus addresses this issue with his disciples in the upper room. You see, John 14 is a passage that is all about addressing troubled hearts. Jesus is trying to comfort the troubled and anxious hearts of his disciples. There's all kinds of wonderful theology that you'll find in John 14. There are all kinds of subjects and issues that you could trace out and profit from, but the one issue that unifies this entire chapter is how can we as believers find comfort for our troubled hearts? Chapter begins with Jesus commanding us, let not your hearts be troubled. If you were to skip all the way to the end of the chapter, verse 27, Jesus says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give you. And then again, he commands, let not your hearts be troubled. The very subject that the chapter begins with, it closes with, and everything in between is aimed at comforting our troubled and anxious hearts. John 14 is a chapter that many of us believers, if you've been a believer for any amount of time, you're familiar with this chapter. In fact, if you've been a believer for any amount of time, it may even be that you have John 14 verse 6 memorized by heart. I am the way and the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And as believers, we say there's a verse the world needs. And that's absolutely true, isn't it? If you don't know Christ as Savior, what you need to know more than anything else is that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. That there's no way to be right with God apart from who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. There may be no more important evangelistic verse in all of the Bible than John 14 6. It's right for us as believers to say, this is what my unbelieving friends need to hear, that Jesus is the way. That's absolutely true. But Jesus did not first utter these words in an evangelistic revival, did he? Jesus did not first utter these words in some kind of old school tent revival. He first uttered these words in a small, intimate upper room to 11 men who were already saved. So yeah, unbelievers need this truth, but so do believers, especially anxious believers. You see, really this chapter reminds us that if we're going to address our troubled and anxious hearts, we must look to Christ and His truth. We need the certainty of who Christ is and the certainty of what He has told us if we're going to address our anxieties. Part of the reason why that's important, by the way, is the nature of anxiety. Really, anxiety is our flesh's response to uncertainty. Anxiety is our flesh's response to uncertainty. We hate uncertainty. We hate it. And we see it all over the place. One of the things that our family participates is youth softball. We've got girls who play softball. So I coach a lot of softball. And one of the interesting things that I'll see is often young ladies are very anxious and afraid to strike out. There's some, coach, I'm gonna strike out, I know it. Well, with that attitude you are, right? And sometimes girls will go up there so afraid to strike out that you can see the nervousness on their face. And then you know what happens? They strike out. And they walk back to the dugout with almost a look of relief on their face. Like, well, at least it's over now. In other words, the uncertainty of whether they were going to strike out or not was worse than actually striking out. And how often does a similar scenario play out in our own lives where the thing that we're afraid of, the very fear of it happening is actually worse than when it happens? What's going on there? We hate uncertainty. Our pride hates it. Our flesh hates it. We want to know what's next. We want to control what's next. We hate any kind of uncertainty because then we're fearful we might not get what we want. Which, by the way, in this regard, anxiety is very similar to sinful anger. You say, in what way? Anger is how our flesh responds when it does not get what it wants. James 4 makes it clear that sinful anger is a response to unfulfilled desires. I wanted something and I didn't get it. That's why I'm angry. In fact, one of the little self-disciplines I've tried to cultivate in my own heart over the years is if I find myself angry, I will just stop and try to ask myself, what is it that you wanted that you didn't get? And if it's the glory of God and His righteousness on earth, then it's righteous indignation and I'm fine. But it's not usually that, is it? In fact, I don't know if it's ever been that. It's usually some dumb thing that I wanted and I didn't get and now I'm stewing over it. Anger is how the flesh responds when it doesn't get what it wants. Anxiety, similarly, is how our flesh responds when it's afraid we won't get what we want. Anger is looking back, I didn't get what I want. Anxiety is looking forward, I'm afraid I won't get what I want. That's the nature of anxiety. It's our flesh responding to uncertain circumstances, which means If anxiety is our flesh's response to uncertainty, then the best remedy for anxiety in our life is the certainty of God's word. We need truth that we can use to battle fear and anxiety, and not just general truths. The world has platitudes, right? Oh, it'll all work out in the end. Give me more than that. I need specific truths to deal with the specific issues of my heart. I need specific promises, specific principles, specific precepts from God's Word that will address the specific anxieties that I'm dealing with. I need specific truths for specific heart troubles. We need this. That, by the way, is why you as a church are committed to such a thorough exposition of God's Word. I, from time to time, have the opportunity to preach kind of all over the place and get invited to preach. And I always ask, how long should I go for? And it's rare that I find a church where the pastor says, go as long as you want. But maybe to your disappointment, that's what your pastor told me this morning. We might have to get some Uber Eats in here, drop some stuff off. No, I can't, like the Apostle Paul, heal anyone who falls out of a window and dies, so I limit how long that I preach. But the point is, there's a hunger for God's word here, why? Because we recognize the need for specificity in our understanding of God's word, because we have specific issues in our heart that need to be dealt with. And this is the very paradigm that Jesus is using as He's addressing the troubled hearts of His own disciples. In this passage, Jesus provides specific truths aimed at specific anxieties in the hearts of His disciples. In particular, John 14, verses 1 through 3 provides three truths that disciples can look to to cure an anxious heart. Three truths. That's how we're gonna organize our study of these three verses together this morning. Three truths for an anxious or troubled heart. And we find the first of these truths in verse one. In verse one, Christ assures his disciples of his trustworthiness. As you're battling anxiety, here's something true that you need to consider. What you need to consider is that Christ is trustworthy. Christ here in this passage is comforting his disciples with the fact that even in the midst of all the uncertainty that they're facing in this moment, they can rest because he is trustworthy. Jesus is essentially saying to his disciples, guys, trust me. And you know, I've had some friends in the past who when they look at me and say, Paul, trust me, I know in that moment I should not trust them. You've had those friends as well. But Christ isn't one of those friends, is he? When Christ says, trust me, we can trust him. And really, this gets to the heart of anxiety because faith in the trustworthiness of Christ is the key to dealing with anxiety in our heart. The disciples needed to hear this. Disciples needed this reminder that they could trust in Christ because they were actually already in an anxious state when Jesus said this. The way Jesus phrases this, the grammar of the passage as it's been given to us by the Holy Spirit implies that their hearts were already in a troubled state. You could even loosely translate it as saying, guys, stop being troubled. Guys, stop being anxious. I see where your hearts are going right now. I see where the temptation is. Let's put a stop to that right now. That's what Jesus is saying here. And you say, well, what were the disciples anxious about? What were their hearts troubled about? Well, To discover that, you have to really understand what happened in chapter 13. In chapter 13, verse 33, Jesus looked at his disciples and said, little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. In other words, what were the disciples starting to freak out about? They were starting to freak out because Jesus had just said, I'm about to leave you. These were men who had given up everything to follow Christ. These were men whose very heart was, I want to be with you. In fact, in the beginning of John's gospel, when these disciples, some of them had been following John the Baptist, they heard Jesus speak and they came up to him and their only question to him was, where are you staying? Why did they ask Jesus, where are you staying? Because wherever he was gonna be, that's where they wanted to be. I'm going to relocate so I can hear more of this, is essentially what they're saying. All they wanted was to be with Christ. And now Jesus is saying, you are going to look for me and you're not gonna find me. And not only that, They understood they were in the city of Jerusalem. They understood that the religious establishment was out to get Jesus. They understood that the trap was closing in around Christ. And they must have even surmised that what Jesus was talking about was the fact that he was going to die. In fact, in response to this, do you remember what Peter said to Jesus? Peter said, you're not going anywhere. And Peter said, I will lay down my life for you. You're not gonna die, Jesus. I'm gonna die for you. And I am so glad that Peter's plan did not come to fruition. Peter thought he could die for Christ, but Christ needed to die for Peter, right? But what does that illustrate? It illustrates the fact that they recognize, wait a minute, Jesus is talking about his own demise. Jesus is going to die. And then to add to the stress of the moment, Jesus looks at Peter and says, die for me, you're not going to die, you're going to deny me. You said you're gonna die for me, you mispronounced deny. So now the disciples are saying, wait a minute, the guy we left everything to follow is going to die and leave us. And the very boldest of all the disciples, Peter, the loud mouth of the group, is going to deny Christ? You can imagine the anxiety of that moment, can't you? As a result of all this, the disciples' hearts were in a troubled, agitated, anxious state. This word here for trouble, it's used earlier in John's Gospel to describe Jesus' own heart as He faced death, the turmoil that was going on in His heart. It's a word that's used earlier in John's gospel to describe waters that had been stirred up. This is not a word that's used to describe a tranquil reflection pond. This is a word that is used to describe troubled and angry seas. were anxious. The temptation was welling up in them. It was becoming overwhelming because they were afraid of losing Christ. In order to address this anxiety, Jesus begins by assuring them, guys, you can trust in me. In fact, notice Jesus says in the ESV, believe in God, believe also in me. Now, because of the way that this is written in the original language, there's some difficulty in understanding exactly how we should interpret these words. Really, there's three primary possibilities for how we can understand what Jesus is saying here. One, this could be interpreted as a double statement. Guys, you believe in God. Guys, you believe in me. that he's making two statements and no commands here. I don't think that's the best way to understand it. Another way we can understand it, the way it is written, is it could actually be a double command, which is kind of the way the ESV translates it here. Guys, you're tempted to be anxious. Here's my command. Believe in God. Second command, believe in me. And that's one possible way of understanding this, but you know, I don't think that's exactly what Jesus has in mind here. I think there's a third way that we could understand this passage, this phrase that might be the best, and that is to understand Jesus' first words as a statement. Guys, you believe in God. You're followers of Yahweh. You're good Jewish men. You're devout. You've trusted in Yahweh your whole life, even though you can't see him. Statement, you believe in God? Second part, command. Now men, you need to believe in me in that same way. I think that's what Jesus is saying here. Jesus wants them to know that in the same way that they have always trusted in Yahweh, they can trust in Him. J.C. Ryle, commenting on this verse, says, they did, as pious Jews, believe in God already. They needed, as young Christians, to be taught to believe more thoroughly in Christ. And you know, if this is the best way to understand this statement, which is actually, there's a footnote probably in your ESV that shows that possible translation and interpretation there. But if that is in fact what Jesus is saying, that would make this one of Christ's most direct claims to deity in the entire book of John. Believe in God, believe also in me in the exact same way. Why? Because I am God. This is Christ's most direct claim to deity, and it's also where our hearts need to go when we're anxious. You see, addressing a troubled heart, addressing anxiety, it starts with trusting in Christ. There's two commands here in verse one, but really there's one command. Two commands, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe also in me. Two commands. Guard your heart from anxiety. Trust in Christ. But really, that's not two commands. It's one act, isn't it? If we're going to protect our hearts from anxiety, if we're going to guard our hearts from being troubled in a sinfully anxious way, how might we do that? We do it by trusting in Christ. The first step in dealing with anxiety is not some kind of coping mechanism or changing our circumstances. That's often what we do, right? I'm stressed out, I just need to relax. I'm stressed out, I just need to decompress. I'm stressed out, I just need to blow some steam. All coping mechanisms that really all they do is distract us from the real issue, right? Or if we don't first go to some coping mechanism, we think, I just need to change my circumstances. What I need is a different job. What I need is a different circumstance. What I need is a different something. Well, you might need a different whatever, but that doesn't change the fact that your heart should be able to deal with what you're going through now. Coping mechanisms, changing circumstances, it won't work. If we're going to truly deal with the root of the issue, we have to turn to faith in Christ. Life is filled with all kinds of uncertainties. If you rely on some coping mechanism, once that's done, once you're done blowing off that steam, once you're done with your run or your hobby or whatever it might be, guess what's still going to be there? Those anxiety-inducing circumstances in your life. Life is filled with uncertainty. You change the circumstances of your life right now, guess what? Whatever you change your circumstances to, there are going to be more uncertainties and anxieties over there too. Life is filled with uncertainties. If we're gonna deal with anxiety, if we're gonna deal with our flesh's response to uncertainty, it's not about coping or changing circumstances, it's about looking to the certainty of who Christ is. We as believers can look to the character of Christ and know that it is absolutely unflappable, unshakable. And you know what? Sometimes Jesus doesn't give us all the answers that we might want for our circumstances, but He always offers us Himself as the rock of our faith. Jesus, in this circumstance, didn't say, guys, here's what's gonna happen. In about three hours from now, the Romans are gonna come, they're gonna arrest me, then I'm gonna go to this trial, and I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die on the cross, and then I'm gonna be raised from the dead three days later. He had explained all these things in general terms previous to this, but in this moment, he didn't give his disciples all the details. He just started by saying, men, you need to trust me. And this is a reminder that the anxiety that is caused by our fear of uncertainty can only truly be cured by faith in the certainty of who Christ is. Isaiah 26, verses three and four, speaking to the Lord, Yahweh, it says, you keep him in perfect peace. Stop there, do you wanna be in perfect peace? I do. Right, when do we find ourselves receiving this peace that Isaiah talks about and that Christ talks about? Well, Isaiah goes on and says, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Minds and hearts that are fixed on the trustworthiness of Christ. That's a source of peace that we need to tap into. Isaiah goes on to say, trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Unmovable. There's not a lot of uncertainty in a rock, is there? It's just a rock. Well, Jesus isn't a rock in all the negative sense of what a rock is, but He's a rock in the sense of He's absolutely unchanging and unflappable. We can trust Him. And it's when we're struggling to trust Him with the circumstances of our life that we often battle anxiety in our life. It's when our minds aren't fixed upon Christ and trusting Him. When we live our lives as if we're practical atheists and we get so inundated and overwhelmed by the circumstance of our life that we forget that we personally as believers know the author of all life and the one who's sovereign over our circumstances. Or maybe to put it another way, just a warning for my brothers and sisters. Neglect of Christ in your heart will be a great source of anxiety in your life. Neglect of Christ in your heart will be a great source of anxiety in your life. For instance, if you neglect the real and spiritual presence of Christ in our life as believers, if you forget about the fact that Christ is always with us through His Spirit, you're constantly going to be anxious about facing uncertain circumstances alone. How many times do we fall into that? Nobody understands it. Nobody's ever been through what I've been through. I'm all alone in this. Well, if you're a believer, you may have no other brothers or sisters right there with you in the moment, but you always have Christ with you by his spirit. Have you forgotten that? Or how about this? If you neglect Christ's sovereign power in specific areas of your life, then you're constantly going to battle anxiety as if God wasn't in control. And look, we all have common temptations in our life. There are all areas in our life where it's harder for us to trust that Christ is in control than others. Interestingly enough, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon was a man who eminently trusted the Lord in so many areas of his life. But would you know, he was deathly afraid of crossing the street. He was afraid of traffic. And all they had were a horse and buggy. Imagine if he had to cross the street out here. Imagine Spurgeon trying to cross Third Avenue. It was an area of his life where he had to struggle to say, I know God's in control even when I'm crossing the street. Okay, what's crossing the street for you? You come to church, you say, I know that Christ is in control. Man, this is great to hear this sermon and sing the song. Okay, what area of your life are you struggling to remember that Christ is in control? I guarantee you that will also be the area where you're struggling with the most anxiety. Neglect of Christ in your heart will be a source of great anxiety in your life. The most debilitating forms of anxiety will plague us if we create areas in our life that are not submitted to the Lordship of Christ Jesus. And the areas where we struggle the most to recognize Christ's sovereignty and trustworthiness in our life, those are the areas where uncertainty will lead to anxiety, which is why when we find our hearts are troubled, we have to run back as believers and remind ourselves, wait a minute, Christ is trustworthy. But then secondly, here's a second specific truth that might help you with specific anxieties in your life. We find this in verse two. Here, Christ assures His disciples with His provision, Christ's provision. The truth of Christ's provision is a source of comfort for us. And that's what we find as Christ is comforting His anxious disciples here. He's reminding them of the fact that he is going to provide a way for them to go to heaven. In other words, the disciples did not need to be anxious about Jesus leaving them and dying because that was the very thing that Jesus had to do so that they could one day join him in heaven. Jesus is encouraging his disciples, look, what you are anxious about is what I am doing for your provision. And notice the nature of this provision. The provision that we have from Christ that can anchor our hearts in the troubled seas of anxiety, it is a provision that is a heavenly provision. Jesus says, in my Father's house are many rooms. Where's his Father's house? He's talking about heaven here. He's talking about heaven, and he's saying that there are many rooms in my Father's house. And maybe if you learned this passage maybe a long time ago, or you grew up with a King James Bible, you're saying, wait a minute, I don't have a room, I have a mansion. Well, mansion's not the best translation here. The word that's translated here, rooms, It's actually a rare word in the Greek New Testament. The only other place that this word is found is actually in chapter 23 of this chapter, where it says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Later in the chapter, Jesus is saying, look, we're gonna make our home with you But here he's saying, I am going so that you can make your home with us. I'm going to prepare a place for you in heaven. And the imagery that Christ uses here is actually quite beautiful. He uses the imagery of a young man who's come and asks for a young lady's hand in marriage. And in this culture, all of that would have been arranged through the family. And the only way that the father would sign off on it is if that young man proved that he could provide for his daughter. You go out, you build a physical home, a physical structure, and show that you can support my daughter, and then that's when you come out and we'll have A wedding. And so the young man would go back to his father's estate, and then he would build a home on that estate, so that once that home was prepared, he could come back and take his bride. That's the imagery Jesus is using here to say, guys, I am bringing you into this family. In fact, not only am I bringing you into this family, but like a bridegroom preparing for his bride, I am making a home for you in heaven. And what a thought that is, isn't it? I mean, think about it, where do you call home? Isn't home just a comforting word? We use home in different ways. When I get done here today, I'm going to go home to my house. But then when it gets really, really hot outside like it was yesterday, I say, you know what? This makes me feel like my home where I grew up in Tampa, Florida. Boy, it feels like home out today. And in a sense, very often when we speak about home, we speak about where our family is. I can speak of my house as home because that's where my wife and kids are. I can speak of where I grew up in Tampa, Florida as home because I grew up there and all my family is still there. And in the same way as believers, we can call heaven our home because through Christ, we have been brought into this family of God. We're no believer. We're often so worried about our earthly provisions and circumstances, so worried about these things that we forget about this heavenly home. And when we're tempted with anxiety, we need to remember that city that's not built with human hands. We need to remember the provision that we have in Christ. We need to remember that this is not our eternal home, but we have that waiting for us. We need to remember that as believers, if we were to starve to death, the very day that we would die, we would enter into our home and be in a much better place than the richest person on earth who without Christ would die and go to hell. Friend, how often do you think about heaven? When you're anxious, how often do you think about your heavenly provision? Ephesians 1.3 says that we've been blessed with spiritual provision, with all these blessings from the heavenlies that come from God, and they're oriented back to heavenly praises of God. Colossians 3,2 reminds us that we need to set our mind on things above. We need to remember this heavenly provision that we have. And we also need to remember this heavenly provision is an abundant provision. I love what Christ says here. He says, in my father's house are many rooms. For a guy like me, I think that word many might be my favorite word in the passage. Because if it was only a few rooms, guys like Pastor Joey would get there and not me. If it was few and select, so many of you would get there before little saints like me. And yet Jesus doesn't limit it in that way. He says, no, no, there are many rooms. He doesn't give us the details about what it will be like in that day. If you wanted to, you could read through the book of Revelation and read a lot about what it will be like. He doesn't tell us that here. He just says there's plenty of space. There was certainly room for all the disciples, which is interesting because right before chapter 13, when Jesus says, hey guys, I'm about to leave you, I'm about to die. Right before Jesus washes their feet, you know what the disciples were arguing about? They were arguing about who is the greatest. And they are quickly learning none of that matters. They learned it in a negative way because they learned we gotta wash one another's feet. But here they learn it in a positive way, that heaven is not limited to the best of the best. Heaven is not like the Marines, the few, the proud. It's actually the many, the humble. In fact, for us today, the truth still stands that there is enough room in heaven for every soul that believes in Christ. I refer you again to the words of J.C. Ryle, who says, there will be room for all believers and room for all sorts. for little saints as well as great ones, for the weakest believer as well as for the strongest, the feeblest child of God need not fear." Why? Because Christ has made abundant provision for our salvation. And it's abundant in every sense of the word. We have abundant life now in Christ and the joy that He provides. We have abundant blessings in all the ways that He prepares us for heaven. And it's certainly abundant in the sense that there's room for everyone who would believe. Which means if the provision of Christ is that abundant, it's certainly abundant enough to deal with our anxieties, isn't it? And this abundant provision, it is so secure. Anxiety is our flesh's response to uncertainty, right? Jesus is saying, guys, this is certain. He even says, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Guys, do you think I'm a liar? You know, sometimes in our anxiety, it's almost like we're allowing our flesh to say, actually, I think Jesus is lying. God said he would work together all things for good to those who love him and been called according to his purpose. Jesus says, I'm preparing a place for you. Jesus says, I'll come back to get you. In our anxiety, we say, the world's coming to an end. And Jesus is saying, do you think I'm a liar? Of course not. I'm going to prepare a place for you. Which by the way, just a quick note, when he says I'm going to prepare a place for you, it's not like he's going and then once he gets to heaven, he's gonna start cleaning up the house so it'll be ready for company. You know, sometimes on Saturday night, my wife says, hey, by the way, we've got a family coming over for lunch afterwards. We need to kind of get the house in order for company. What do you do? You know, you just grab everything and throw it in the basement and tell everybody don't go in the basement. No, that's what I do. My wife actually cleans the house. But the house needs to be put in order that way. And you could read what Jesus is saying here as if he's saying, I've got to go get heaven in order for you. Heaven's in order, it's fine. Doesn't need to be swept. So what is Jesus saying? What Jesus is saying here is that the going is the preparing. And when he says I'm going, he's referring to his death, his burial, and his resurrection. The very thing that you guys are afraid of, me dying and leaving you, that's the preparation that you need. And that's what guarantees this heavenly home for you. In other words, if we were to simplify verse two down to just basic, basic principle, it's this. This verse is a call for us to remember our salvation in anxiety. When you are anxious, if you're a believer in Christ Jesus, you need to stop and say, wait a minute, I'm a saved person. Wait a minute. My sins have been forgiven. Wait a minute. For the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, I've been saved and made right with God. When you're anxious, you should start thinking about what Christ has done to secure heaven on your behalf. There are many uncertainties that we may fear in this life, but the provision of the gospel is absolutely certain, isn't it? And really, what's more important than this? As hard as life is right now this moment, and I'm not trying to minimize that, I'm not saying just believe in the gospel and your life's gonna be easy. I'm saying the opposite. Life gets more complicated when you're a believer, doesn't it? Because now you're worried about sin. Unbelievers aren't worried about sin and they try not to think about death. I'm saying think about what happens to you when you die and battle sin in your life, way more complicated. So I'm not saying life is easy, but in the midst of all these uncertainties, all these battles, all these difficulties, don't forget what's most important. And what's most important is the salvation of your very soul. If you're a believer in like a billion years from now, the anxieties of this life are going to evaporate into the vast expanse of Christ gracious provision. whatever that anxiety is now, I guarantee you, if in a billion years, when you're praising the Lord and enjoying His new heavens and new earth, if you even remember this anxiety that seems like the biggest thing in the world to you today, you'll only remember it in the context of, and Christ provided for me in it. Believer, you need to look to the trustworthiness of Christ in your anxiety. You need to look to the provision of Christ in your anxiety. And then thirdly, verse three, you need to look to Christ's return. Christ's trustworthiness, Christ's provision. Verse three, Christ assures his disciples with the promise of his return. Christ is assuring them that even though He will be leaving for a time, He is going to come back for them. The Lord had to leave His disciples so that they would have a home in heaven, but He was not going to abandon His disciples. He wanted them to know that His return was certain. Which is why he says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may also be. He will not abandon those whom he has saved. In verse 3, the ESV in most translations translate, and if I go and prepare a place for you. This is not the if of uncertainty. It's not like, look, if all this happens, I might come back. This is an if of certainty, which means in English, we could translate it with the word when instead of if. When I go and prepare a place for you, then I will come back to you. Jesus has not gone through all the effort of preparing a home for his bride only to leave that bride standing at the altar, has he? I remember my wife and I were dating, and I knew I've got to put a ring on this gal's finger. I had a professor in college that said, Everything's fair game until there's a ring on her finger and I'm thinking I do not want some other guy coming along here I've got to marry this gal. And so I remember taking her dad out for breakfast at Chick-fil-a We got our meal and I said Gordon I I'd like to ask permission to ask for Elisa's hand in marriage. And about that time, he was taking bite one of that chicken biscuit, which I love chicken biscuits. We'll eat them in heaven, I'm certain of it. But they can be on the dry side. And when he took that bite and I said, I want to marry your daughter, he must have gaffed so hard that that half of that chicken biscuit went down his throat and he immediately started choking at the table. He's coughing up a storm and all we had was piping hot coffee. So he grabbed his coffee, rips the lid off of it, and now he's trying to wash down an entire chicken biscuit with boiling hot coffee, which he proceeded to spit out as it burned his mouth. And at this point, the entire restaurant has stopped and is looking at us and wondering, is this man going to survive? And when he finally collected himself, he just sat there. To which I finally said, well. And of course, you know what must have happened next because I'm here with that gal. My point in telling that story is, I didn't go through all of that at that breakfast just so that I could then leave that gal behind and not marry her. And if that's true about my silly little chicken biscuit story, how much more true is it of our Savior who has died on the cross, been raised from the dead, ascended into heaven for His bride? Do you think He's gonna go through all that and then abandon the church? Of course not. Jesus will come back for his bride, and our eternal dwelling place will be guaranteed by Christ, which means if anxiety is a response of our heart towards uncertainty, then the second coming is a certainty we can look to and comfort our hearts. Jesus is coming back. And when he does, it will be awesome. There's so much that could be said about what there will be for us when Christ comes back, but let me just highlight the best part of the second coming of Christ. You know what the best part of the second coming of Christ is? You know what the best part of our eternity after that day will be? Best part about the second coming of Christ is Christ. He says that where I am, you may be also. Sometimes we think about heaven, we think about being with Christ, we think, man, I can't wait for that trick knee to not hurt so much. I can't wait for this physical limitation to be gone. Hey, I'm right there with you. I'm looking forward to that as well. But you know what's gonna be even greater than all that? We are going to be with Christ. Revelation 21, verses 3 and 4 says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Now, I'm not a psalmist, but if I were, I'd put the word Sela there. Stop and think about that. The dwelling place of God is with man. And then it goes on to say, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. All that's done, and now we're in the unending ending presence of our Savior. What a comfort this is. The disciples were about to go through what was likely going to be the hardest 24 hours of their lives. But it was okay. Jesus was about to depart from them, but it was okay. Jesus was about to die, but it was okay. Why? Because at some point, Jesus is going to come back. All of his disciples are going to be raised from the dead, and we are going to be with him forever. And whatever the Lord might be doing in your life now, he's only preparing you for that day. Believer, when you're tempted to be anxious, start thinking about when Christ comes back. You may be facing extremely challenging uncertainties in your life, but even in the midst of those anxieties, you can be certain Jesus is coming back and he's gonna come back anytime now. You may not know what's gonna happen at the end of this day, but as a believer, you know what's gonna happen at the end of history. Jesus comes back. which means when you're anxious about the uncertainties of life, you can rest confidently in the person of Christ. Friend, He's trustworthy. You can rest confidently in the provision of the work of Christ. His death on the cross, His resurrection, it's enough for your salvation. And you can rest confidently in the fact that Jesus is coming back. Believer, you don't have to be anxious about these truths. But you know, if you're here today, you're listening to all this, I do want to let you know, there might be something that you should be anxious about. There might be something that you should be afraid of. In fact, the disciples were afraid, they were anxious about the one thing that you should be fearful and anxious about, the absence of Christ in your life. As I mentioned before, all these disciples really wanted from the beginning of their ministry was to be present with Christ, and now they were about to lose the presence of Christ. And if you don't have that presence of Christ in your life, you should be anxious about that. If you're here today and you do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, you should be worried about that. The worst thing, the very worst thing that can happen to anyone on planet earth is that they would be eternally separated from the Savior, Jesus Christ. If you do not know Christ as Savior, if you have not believed in Christ, you should be anxious about that. But friend, you don't have to be. The scriptures teach us that you can believe on the Lord Jesus this very day. Through faith, you can receive his salvation. And as a believer in Christ Jesus, you will never have to worry about being separated from him ever again. The promises you read about in this chapter will now be yours through faith in Christ. And if you've already done this, If you know Christ, if you're a believer, then friend, the only thing that you could legitimately be anxious about, you no longer have to worry about. You'll never be separated from Christ and His saving love in your life. This is the truth that we need. And these truths are the ultimate way of addressing our anxiety. This is truth for troubled hearts, isn't it? Will you pray with me? Lord, we do thank you for these truths. We thank you for these gospel reminders. And I pray for this sweet congregation in the work that they are doing. Lord, may they cast their cares upon you, knowing that you care for them. And may you powerfully use their efforts in gospel ministry. Lord, I pray that You would bless their gospel efforts in exponential ways, in ways that make it clear that Your Spirit is at work in their midst. Lord, I pray that You would bring about the growth of new conversions. I pray that this church would have so many baptisms that they would have to work through, that it would be a testimony of Your graciousness. Lord, I pray that you would unify the members of this church in such a sweet way that body life is clearly a gift from you. And Lord, I pray that you would continue to support and use their pastor, Pastor Joey, as he powerfully proclaims the word. May his family be encouraged. May his ministry be blessed. And Lord, may this church benefit from his work. Lord, I thank you that I can come to you with these things. I thank you you've given us your truth. And I thank you that you have given us your church so that we can share in these things with one another. Thank you for this time. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.