As you're taking your seats, if you would turn with me in your copy of God's Word, there in the rack in front of you, to Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is familiar to many, if not all of us. Friends, I would ask now as I read and you hear, hear these words and believe. Hear now the Word of God. Psalm 23. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me. In the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And if you would turn with me to the Gospel of John, Chapter 14. Likewise, familiar words to us from the Savior, Jesus Christ. I bid you once again hear and believe the word of the Lord from the Gospel of John, chapter 14, beginning in verse one. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. believe also in me. In my Father's house are 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 be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Thus ends the reading of God's word. For the next couple of minutes, we're gonna look at those verses in John 14. Before we do so, would you join me again in prayer? Our Father, we ask now that you would speak to us, that you would open your word to us, and in just a few minutes, through the power of your spirit, we would hear, we would believe, and we would be comforted. We ask all of this in Jesus' name, amen. So every summer, thousands of bicyclists descend on the cornfields of Iowa, and they race across the entire state of Iowa. It's called, you correct me if I'm saying it wrong, the Rag Bri. I've never heard of this before, but Lloyd has told me about it multiple times. These cyclists will descend on Iowa, and for eight days, they will ride across the state. This summer, they're going to cover 462 miles. It sounds absolutely miserable, doesn't it? Lloyd loved it. I don't know if he loved riding it more or if he loved talking about riding it more. Can you imagine riding for eight straight days on the flat fields of Iowa? How miserable that would be? 50, 60, 70 miles a day clocking across this state. Imagine the relief every night when you got to your stopping point and there was music and food and a party. And they had to get up the next day and do it again. And on and on until finally, after the eighth day, you reach the finish line, and I cannot imagine the relief that you're there, that you're finally done. And you have to think that there were days when many of those riders, maybe Lloyd just wanted to stop. They were hurt, their bike broke down. I guess there's no hills in Iowa, but they were worn out. But they remembered over and over again, there's a finish line. There's an end to this. There's a party at the end of this miserable journey. And that would spur them on to go even more. In our text this afternoon, Jesus talks to some people who are discouraged, who are troubled, who are weary, who are grieving, and he tells them of the finish line. It's not the end of a bike race, of course. The finish line that he tells them is the promise of heaven. And what we see in this verse is that Jesus comforts his troubled followers with the promise of heaven. Look with me at these verses, they're printed on the opposite page in your bulletin. We see in these verses two ideas, the idea of trouble and the idea of trust. First he addresses his disciples and he tells them, let not your hearts be troubled. Now, what's going on that they would be troubled, that they would be worried, that they would be concerned? Well, a couple verses before this, Jesus has told them that he's about to leave. He's going somewhere without them, and they can't go with him. This all takes place the night before he dies. And here, in this sort of famous beginning of this speech, this time with his disciples, he tells them he's leaving, and they can't follow, and what happens? They're troubled, they're worried, they're upset, they're discouraged. And Jesus sees this in them. Now how does he see this? I mean, I guess he recognizes, he probably sees worry on their face, he might see tears in their eyes. But the way he really sees it is because a couple days before, a couple chapters before in John, Jesus himself is described as one who is troubled. Jesus, the God-man himself, who has theoretically no reason to ever worry in this life, prays to his father and he says, my soul is troubled because he knows he's going to die. He knows the pain and the agony and the separation and the trouble. And so when Jesus speaks to his followers and his disciples and his children, he tells us not to trouble. It's not someone who's never known that trouble. It's one who has walked in those footsteps. It's one who has suffered as we have. It's the one who has, just as we are, gone to a funeral and mourned and grieved. The Bible tells us that Jesus went to the death of a friend and there he wept. Jesus speaks to people that know the trouble of separation. Isn't that really what's so hard for us about facing death is the separation? The one you loved isn't there anymore. And that distance, that time, that space, it deeply, deeply troubles our hearts. And then we hear Jesus say, almost as an aside, don't be troubled, it's okay. And we think to ourselves, man, that's easy for you to say, right? What about us sort of mere humans, us suffering people in this life? You can't just tell us, let your hearts not be troubled, and all of a sudden, magically, we're fine, and all of our sorrow is taken away. See, Jesus tells his disciples not to trouble, and the verse goes on to say, believe in God, believe also in me. The word believe is the same word for have faith, or the same idea to trust. It's already been said before this afternoon that something that marked the last year of Lloyd's life was his faith. I will remember very distinctly where I was when he called me to tell me about his diagnosis. And before I could even get words of comfort out of my mouth, he began to testify of the goodness of God. He began to comfort me on the other side of the phone with his faith and his trust. That he had learned just in those few days since diagnosis the words of Jesus here that the answer to our trouble is trust. And he was learning and he learned in a deep way this past year to trust in Christ. What does that look like as we go on in these verses? Why can we trust Jesus, right? It's easy to tell someone, trust me. It's a lot harder to prove that they are worthy of that trust. So why can we trust Jesus? He goes on in these verses to tell us why. And the first reason is because he goes to prepare a place for us. This is one of those glorious verses in scripture that bring comfort on days like this. Verse two, Jesus says, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Jesus goes to prepare a house, a place for his own people. Lloyd knew about preparing a place, didn't he? He's been preparing a place up in Wolf Laurel for I don't know how long. Longer than I've known him, that's for sure. He's been working on that place. He's been crafting, he's been meticulously, bit by bit, room by room, plank by plank, nail by nail, working on preparing a place. And if you've been to the home, it is beautiful. And there's parts finished and there's maybe parts waiting to be finished, right? He worked and worked to prepare a place for his family, his kids and his grandkids to come, and it is beautiful. No offense, it doesn't compare to this house. This house that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for us. What does he tell us? He tells us it's his father's house and it has many rooms. So this is the language of a son speaking of moving back to the home of his father. Now, go all the way back to the ancient Near East and father's houses were usually expanded as their sons went off and started their own families. They would bring back their wives and their kids and they would just add a couple more rooms to the house and more sons and more families and more kids and more and more rooms and the house would just sort of expand and sometimes go all the way around with a courtyard in between. And Jesus is saying, I'm going to my father's house and there's not just a room for him who deserves a room, but there's a room for everybody else who trusts in him, who he brings with him. Some translations you may be familiar with the word mansions. I don't think that's the best word, that there are many mansions. It's not necessarily wrong, but rooms is better because the emphasis that Jesus has here is not on how rich it all is. The emphasis is that he's there. The emphasis is that there are rooms for everyone. There are rooms for you and for me who look to him in faith. Now it all sounds good, but there's one sort of dark cloud over this. And that is, how does Jesus get there? How does Jesus, he says he goes to prepare a place for us. How does he go to heaven? We know the answer. He goes first to the cross. And then he doesn't go up, he goes down to the grave, right? It's quite a journey that he takes to go before us. A journey through the grave that he himself takes so that we know that in him, when it's our time, when it's our turn, He has gone before us. He has trod that road. He has made the way for us to follow. So why do we trust Jesus when he tells us to believe in him? It's because he goes to prepare a place for us. But he doesn't just go. Secondly, he tells us he's gonna come back for us. Verse three, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. So this is the biblical teaching that our Lord has gone before us and he is going to come back. He is going to return. He's going to return for his own children, for his brothers and sisters. And he's going to bring us with him to his father's house. But where are we going? Do you notice that? He doesn't, again, he doesn't describe the grandeur and the beauty of this place. He says in very simple terms, I will take you to myself. Here's the beauty and the glory of the house that Jesus goes to prepare. It's that he's there. And of all the things we have to look for in a heavenly home, by far the top of the list is that we will dwell with God forever. We will enjoy as Lloyd will enjoy God in his home, in his place. and see the smile on his face to welcome his children there. You know when you're with someone and they're in their favorite place, right? It means a lot to be there with them. I found out Lloyd's favorite, well, one of his favorite places, I don't know if it was it, when they invited my wife and I and our kids up to have dinner with them in Wolf Laurel, and we were shown the house with lots of pride and joy, but then we were shown the workshop. in the wood shop, and that's when his face really lit up, right? I mean, that's when, I'm an aspiring woodworker, which means I know how to cut a two by four, which to Lloyd is absolutely nothing, right? He showed us around and all these tools I've never seen before, and he's just getting more and more excited, and more and more animated, and in the midst of the tour, he gives us a drink, and I have this can in my hand, and it's a little bit wet, and without thinking, I just set it down on one of the tools. keep listening to his story, and he's getting so excited, his eyes are lighting up, and then he sees that can, and mid-sentence, he just freezes. And my heart literally stops in that moment. This man's about to kill his pastor, right? What is that? Well, that was a cast-iron jointer that now has a ring from the can of my drink on it, and his face went from joy to horror, I think. But to his credit, after many, many, many apologies, it went back to joy, right? He returned to telling me and showing me around that shop. And what was beautiful about that afternoon was not the tools, right? It wasn't the cool tools and the wonderful projects. It was being with a man and his wife in a place they loved. And that's what Jesus tells us about this home. This home where we go, it's the home of our Father, where he loves, and he loves to have us and to bring us there with him. This doesn't put away all of our doubts, because in the final two verses, one of Jesus' hearers, Thomas, you know, Thomas, the infamous doubting Thomas, he says in verse five, Lord, how do we know where you are going? How can we know the way? It sounds like a great place. How are we going to get there? What if we get left? What if we don't know how to find it? Jesus, I need like a map. I need a physical map to tell me how to get where you're going. And Jesus, his answer is so telling. Thomas, you don't need a map. Verse six, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the gate, he is the door, he is the way, he ushers all in who come to him in faith through him to the home of his everlasting Father. Thomas is troubled about all this other stuff, and maybe we're troubled this afternoon. as we remember and as we mourn. And Jesus tells him and he tells us to simply trust. He doesn't give us a path to trod, he gives us a person to trust. Lloyd learns that trust throughout his life and especially in his deep hours of trouble. So I say to you what he would have wanted to say were he were here. For all who are troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we come this day with heavy hearts, but also with thankful hearts. We know that in this, our time of grief, we thank you to have such a sure confidence that the soul of our brother Lloyd is at rest in you. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father in heaven. And you are the very one who tells us that precious in your sight is the death of your saints. Though we sorrow today, we do so as we bow in submission to your good and perfect will. And so we do not mourn as those without hope. So Lord, give those who mourn today the consolation and comfort of your Holy Spirit. Give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of peace for the spirit of heaviness. May this day of grief yield in us the peaceable fruit of righteousness by drawing us closer to you. We take comfort that you mourn with us who mourn, and you weep with us who weep. Set our affections today not on the things of this world, but upon the blessed hope of our house, our home in heaven, where all who have departed in Christ await us beyond the reach of sorrow. Shine upon our darkness, O Lord. Pardon all our sins. Build us up and strengthen us in the faith. Be the rock from which we drink deeply in the desert of weariness and sorrow. You alone, oh God, have the words of life. Where else would we go? Speak to us now your words of comfort to impart hope to our hearts and to bind up our wounds. We ask all of this in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.