As we come to John 14, we find ourselves in the upper room. And this was on the night that Christ was betrayed. And we have a unique account in the upper room, and truly unique. This is not recorded in any of the other Gospels. So we get a glimpse into those final hours of Christ's life. His public ministry has come to an end, and now He picks up His private ministry here with His disciples. He begins with the Twelve, and then Judas is dismissed, and by the time we're here in Chapter 14, He's with the 11 faithful disciples. And it's a privilege for us to be here, be something like a fly on the wall to see what was happening and what Christ was saying and what he was doing those final hours to prepare his disciples. And that's what he's doing. He's preparing them for all that is about to happen for his departure. And when we come to chapter 14, the emphasis of the entire chapter is comfort. for His disciples. He's comforting them, He wants to give them peace, and there are multiple grounds of comfort that Christ points to in chapter 14. So, if you're looking for some reading, maybe this afternoon, read through chapter 14 and note all the grounds of comfort that Christ gives to His disciples, but also to us as His disciples today. So let's read, and we'll be looking really at the first three verses of John 14. Jesus says, 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 to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Well, let's ask the Lord for help as we look at His Word. Our Father, we come to You again in prayer, and we pray that You would help us now as we open Your Word, these precious words. We ask, Father, that You would bring Your Spirit Lord, that You would help us in this time, that Your Word would penetrate our hearts, that we would find the comfort that You have here for us, that we would know the truth, that we would embrace that truth, and that we would know the hope that is set before us because of Christ and all that He's done for us. Lord, we ask that we would see more clearly on account of your word. So, Father, bring your word with conviction and with comfort today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, few words are as well known and as precious as these words that we come across in John. And they resonate so well with the human experience. So we are born into a world of trouble because of the fall. With the fall came sin, and with the fall came misery, and all the consequences of that. So we are those who are often troubled in heart. And that's what Jesus is addressing. He's addressing the trouble of the disciples. And as we think about that, and I'm guessing that everybody here today, has something that is troubling them, something that is concerning their hearts, that's weighing them down. And that word that Jesus uses, the picture is of being agitated, like waters that are stirred up. It's of being perplexed and unsettled and troubled and disturbed. And we know that many people And I'm not sure it's worse today, but some people would say it is. But many people are anxious. Anxiety overcomes so many people. And I've heard it said before that to be modern is to be anxious. We live in an anxious time, so we're all struggling with this. Many people are sad. Sad, they're lonely, they're depressed, and we've all experienced those things. And you may be experiencing those things now. There is something that's weighing on your heart. There's something that is troubling you and Christ is addressing us here this morning. So the disciples, they feel as though their world is falling apart. They are deeply troubled by what's happening. And just like today, if we think about what is it that most often troubles people, and most greatly troubles people, is the loss of somebody they love. And Jesus is saying, I'm going away, I'm departing. So it's here that they are thinking about all that that means for them, and they're deeply troubled by that. So we find that they're here, at this time, troubled. And Jesus has just said, He's leaving. He's just said that Peter is going to deny Him. So there's a lot there for them to be troubled. He said that Judas is going to betray Him. And all that's going to happen, Christ knows, is going to be very, very difficult for them. They're about to go through the greatest trial of their life. It will be a test of their faith. And Christ even says that they will all stumble. So he commands them in verse one, he says, let not your hearts be troubled. And it's interesting, he has just said himself that his soul is troubled in verse 27 of chapter 12. And we read in chapter 13, 21. When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." So what's going on here? Jesus is saying, don't be troubled at the very time that he is deeply troubled. Do we need to say to Jesus what He said, Physician, heal thyself. Does He need to take some of His own medicine here or is there something different going on? And clearly something different is going on and what we see here is that Jesus is troubled so that we don't have to be troubled. Jesus is troubled so that we don't have to be troubled. He is going to the cross to bear our sins. then you don't be troubled because I'm taking that for you. So notice first in the text that one sure remedy for faith, for trouble, is faith. Look there, he says, you believe in God, believe also in me, in verse one. And that's in the present tense. So he's saying you need to keep believing in God. Go on believing in God. I know you believe in him, but keep on believing. He is our refuge and He is our strength, as we read in the Psalms, a very present help in trouble. So He's pointing them to God and He's saying, you know that refuge, you know that strength, and as we sing, a mighty fortress is our God, and that's what He's reminding them of. You have a mighty fortress, trust in Him. So He's calling them to faith in God and saying that God gives us what we need. He gives us all the resources that we need, resources greater than everything that troubles us. So as believers, we have greater resources than anything that we will face in this life that troubles us. And that's what he's reminding us to. But you see also, secondly, that Jesus is saying, you believe in God, but believe also in me. So he's directing their attention to himself and saying, have faith in me. And clearly, he's identifying himself with God. And as we look here, if you Look in chapter 14, after verse 6, he goes on and he's explaining how he's one with the Father. I'm the Father of one, I'm in the Father, he's in me. So he's very clearly telling us who he is, that he himself is God. So faith in God is faith in Jesus. He's saying, you can look to me. So God gave his only Son as the one sure remedy for our troubled hearts. And fundamentally, He gave Christ to deal with all that troubles us, and at the root of that is our sin. But also, it's not just that, but He gives Christ to us so that we can have God's peace amidst every storm. And we think about that and really Christians of all people should be the most composed in the face of trials, in the face of storms. We ought to know because of the hope that we have above everybody else, we ought to be able to say we can endure this because our hope is in heaven. And that's why we can be here on earth as troubled as we might be and persevere. we have to ask, what are we going to do with our heart trouble? What are we going to do with our heart trouble? Who or what will we go to? And in particular, it's the who here, it's the Christ. So, this morning I want to look at three related truths that Jesus speaks to his disciples, and we see those in verses two to three. And the common thread here is our hope of heaven, and that's the theme for this summit. It's our hope of heaven that we're directed to. So first, we see that heaven is home for believers. Heaven is home for believers. He says, in my Father's house are many mansions. Now, Jesus' hour had come. He knew this was the hour that the Lord was sending him for. And he knew he had to depart from this world and go back to the Father. And he knew where he had come from. He knew where he was going. He was aware at all times when this was happening. But he says in verse 13, 36, he says that they didn't know where he was going and that they couldn't follow him. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. And the place he was going was his father's dwelling place, it was heaven. Now, he says, my father's house. In my father's house are many mansions, but John has already revealed to us a wonderful truth, and that's as believers that we can call God our father. We read in John 1, as many as received him, that's Christ, to them he gave the right to become children of God, that those who believe in his name. So believers can pray as we're taught, our Father in heaven. So this is familial language, it's homely language that he's saying, in my Father's house and also our Father's house are many mansions. So we can say that heaven is where Christ's father is and it's where our father is. It's Christ's home and it's our true home. Now maybe you have in the world some place that you can call home. When that word, when you hear that, you think of some place and that for you is home. And what makes home home? It's a place that we're generally loved We're accepted, we can be who we are, we don't have to explain ourselves to anybody, and we're welcomed at all times. We can be ourselves. Now, I am from Oklahoma, and I go back and visit from time to time. When I think of home, I think of my parents' house. And I have a key to my parents' house. And I know that any time that I want to go back, I have that key. I can go in. I'm welcomed. And that's home. I don't even have to give them any advance notice. I know that I am welcome there. So that's home. But it's possible maybe you've never had a place in this life to call home. So I've never known what that is. We have a homeless shelter ministry that we do in Louisville. And as I think about that, You see these men who are homeless, and it makes you think, well, what is true homelessness? Really, the only truly homeless people are unbelievers. The only truly homeless people are unbelievers. That's what our test is telling us here. So if you are a believer, you have a true Father in heaven, and you have a home in heaven. More than that, Jesus says that His Father's house is a home for us with plenty of room for all of His children. He says, in my Father's house are many mansions. There are many mansions. Now that word, mansions, it simply means dwelling places, right? There's many rooms in my Father's house is what He's saying. And one commentator says this, we need not doubt that there's an intentional contrast between the unchanging, unvarying house in heaven and the changing, uncertain dwellings of this world. So that's the contrast. We have a home in heaven, and here, it's temporary. Jesus is reminding us that this world is not our home. And whether you're a Christian or not, you are only passing through. this world. We speak of being pilgrims, right? Of being foreigners, of being temporary residents of this world. Now if you're taking a vacation, some of you went to Boston recently and Think about the times you've been on a vacation, and maybe you've stayed with somebody who's a resident there. But you are very aware that that's not your home. You're just passing through this city. So you have a different mentality that you bring there than the person who lives there. And that's the way that we ought to think of this world, that we are passing through this world, and we're passing through to the Heavenly Kingdom, as we sung, to Emmanuel's land. So there's a sense we could say that we're here away on business. This isn't home. We're just away on business, the Lord's business, as we're here in the world. So the idea here is a Pilgrim perspective. And one of the places we find that clearly laid out for us is in Hebrews. And we see that the Old Testament saints were embracing the promises of God, by faith they were embracing these things, and they were seeking a homeland. And they were looking forward to a different country, a heavenly country, their permanent dwelling place. And we read in the news about the refugee crisis. You're familiar with that, and how the Syrian civil war has led to millions of refugees, millions of people who are leaving their homes and having to pack up everything and go. And you think of the distress of that. You think of the crisis that that is for people, and just having to get up and go. And you don't know where you're going to be able to settle down. So we need to try to put ourselves in their shoes and think about that and let that help us as we consider our own time in this world. And as you imagine that distress, think of Abraham. That's essentially what Abraham had to do. He was called by God. to get up and to go. And he persevered by faith. We read, by faith, this is in Hebrews, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country. He was a pilgrim. dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." And then here's why he persevered, how he could persevere. "'For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.'" That's what Abraham was doing as he was sojourning in this world. He was waiting for that city, which we've read is the homeland. It's our heavenly country. And that's the perspective that we are called to, that pilgrim perspective, and we are always in danger of losing it. Always. We live, all of us, relatively comfortable lives, some more so than others. But if we think about how blessed we are to live at this time in this country, all of the comforts that we have, and the security that we feel even this morning, We are in danger of losing the pilgrim perspective because generally we're happy and we're healthy and we are satisfied and that can tend to blind us from our need, our truest, deepest needs and also to keep us from looking to heaven and longing to enter into there. But some of us, some of us have been recently and painfully reminded that this world is not our home. Some of you, those trials come and they remind us and they teach us that truly this isn't our home. And all of us in a general sense are reminded daily as we read the news and we interact in the world and we see the effects of the fall and our hearts are broken. We see that this world is not as it should be. This is not our home. God is remaking all these things and we have a heavenly homeland to look forward to. So let your troubled heart find rest in the hope of heaven, the fact that we have a home and we'll be there soon enough. Think of soldiers in the battlefield. Soldiers in the trenches know that they are not home. And they are encouraged by thoughts of home. They might carry a picture with them, they might carry letters with them, and they're reminded of their home, and that helps them to persevere. And in a sense, that's what this text is encouraging us to do, to think about home, to lift our eyes to heaven, and to bring that into perspective so that we might persevere whatever happens. There's a great hymn, you've probably heard it, it starts, Weary of earth and laden with my sins. I wonder if any of you are there, if you feel weary of earth, you're laden with sins. And then it says, I long to look heavenward, I look heavenward, that's homeward, and long to enter in, but there no evil thing may find a home, and yet I hear a voice that bids me come. So that's what this is. We see our first truth, our hope of heaven, is our hope of home. And Jesus assures us of this. He says, if it were not so, I would have told you. I would have told you. He says, this is true. So we're invited to let go of our troubles and to trust in Christ, to trust that He is making promises that He can keep. that He will keep. So if you're a child of God, one day everything that troubles you will be gone. All of your sin, all sickness, all pain, everything will be gone. Because it will abide forever in our Father's house, in our heavenly homeland that's in heaven. So, heaven's the believer's home. But secondly, we see that heaven is a home for believers that's prepared. It's a prepared place. Everybody wants to go to heaven. I have not met a single person who does not want to go to heaven. And most people think that they'll get there. And most people hold on to a false hope. It's generally taken for granted that so-and-so will be in heaven regardless of how they lived. Whether they denied God, Didn't matter how they live, it's assumed they'll be in heaven. We hear someone say, she's gone to a better place, no matter what. Or just picture him golfing. You know, all the things that he used to do and love, and even in some cases, sadly, his idols. Just picture him driving his sports cars and hitting home runs and those sorts of things. So we hear these things from people. And if you would suggest otherwise, it would be highly offensive to suggest that somebody wouldn't make it to heaven. So the world says that we can get to heaven on our own terms. But Jesus is saying here that we certainly cannot get to heaven apart from Him. We can't do it on our own. It's the place of God's perfect glory, where His beauty, where His goodness shines brightest. And we, we think of ourselves, we are sinners. We've all sinned. And we have fallen far, far short of that glory of God. We cannot stand before God on our own. No amount of deeds that we can do is going to tip that scale. That's the way the world thinks. There's some sort of scale and maybe I can tip it and get my way into heaven. But we cannot prepare a place for ourselves in heaven. But Jesus says, in verse 2, the second part, I go to prepare a place for you. You can't prepare a place, but that's why I'm doing. He's saying, you will have no place in heaven unless I go from you. Now when we think about this, this imagery of a prepared place is encouraging to us. In and of itself, you think of the comfort and how that reminds you of home. When I go home, I know that preparations have been made. When I go home, I know that my room's going to be clean, I'm going to have clean sheets, there's going to be clean towels, and my mom will have gotten my favorite breakfast food. She'll have gotten fresh fruit and milk and all those sorts of things. So preparations have been made for my arrival. And we see here, when Christians come home, preparations have been made. Our arrival is anticipated, and in a sense we can say that reservations have been made for us. Remember what Peter says in 1 Peter. He says that we have this living hope. It's an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. So we have reservations in heaven. You will enter a prepared place and you will be a known entity, you will be expected. But as comforting as that is to think about, there's more here than just the imagery. We really see the gospel in this. And it's the promises of the gospel that shine here. Why did Jesus have to go to prepare a place? We already said it's because we could not prepare that place. We could not prepare it. We could have no dwelling place in heaven with God apart from Christ. So clearly we see bad news in this, that our sins have separated us from God and made it such where we can't draw near to Him except to receive His wrath and His just judgment. As the psalmist writes it, you, Lord, should mark Iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? Who could stand if you were to mark iniquities? And he's saying nobody could stand before you. Not a single person could stand. And we're reminded then that we have all earned hell and not heaven. That's what we've earned. We've earned a place in hell and not in heaven because of our sins. Without Christ, we have no access to heaven where God's glory shines brightest. But there is good news. Jesus is saying, I go to prepare a place. Jesus has done that in heaven for us, for all who believe in Him. Now we have to ask, how has Jesus done this? How has Jesus prepared a place? How has He gained access for believers in heaven? And it's simply by removing that barrier of sin. He deals with the thing that separates us from God, the thing that defiles us. We find in Hebrews the imagery of Christ being our forerunner. And it just means that he goes on ahead of us, he runs ahead of us, and Jesus is saying, if I did not go to heaven ahead of you, you would have no hope. So Jesus is going before us, and he goes before us as our mediator, the only one who can reconcile God and man, bring them back together so that we might be at peace. So he goes as the mediator, but he also goes as our high priest. He enters heaven as a priest, having offered a perfect sacrifice once for all, and of course that's His own body. He has sacrificed Himself. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. So what do we need to enter heaven? What do we need to get into heaven to gain that access? And it's first that we need our sins taken away by Jesus. We can't deal with them ourselves. We need them taken away. But we also know that forgiveness alone won't make us acceptable in God's sight. We would come before God and we would have nothing in the way of righteousness to offer to Him. So what we need is new clothes. We need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And that's a truth that we love and that is so rich, because we see this wonderful exchange that happens, that our sins are placed on Christ. He bears them, and then He puts His righteousness on us, so when God sees us, He can say, welcome. He can say, come in, because he sees the righteousness of Christ upon us. Now, in this sense, we think of heaven as a prepared place, but in this sense that we need to have the righteousness of Christ, we can also say that Jesus is not only preparing a place, but he's preparing us for that place. He is making us fit for heaven. You remember the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22. So Jesus is describing what the kingdom of God is like, what the kingdom of heaven is like. And those who were originally invited were not worthy. They didn't come, so he says, invite the others. And eventually the wedding hall is filled up with guests. And we read this in Matthew 22, beginning in verse 11. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. So you see, you cannot enter heaven without the king's garments, without the righteousness of Christ. So heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. So our second truth that we see is our hope of heaven rests upon the fact that Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place in his Father's house. And what could be more certain than that? As we're thinking about our hope, what will we hold on to in all the storms of life? What could be more certain than what Christ is saying, I have prepared a place for you? Believe that Go on believing it and hold fast to those truths. So we've seen that heaven is the believer's home, and secondly, that it's the believer's home prepared. But thirdly, heaven is a home prepared for believers to be with Christ. Prepared for us to be with Christ. And you see in verse 3 of chapter 14, Jesus says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. There's much about heaven that we don't know, and exactly what it will be like is beyond our comprehension. It's simply too wonderful for us to know what heaven will be like. And this has led to, it's at least contributed to the many false ideas of heaven that are out there. I mean, think of you as a child and what you thought of heaven. And we all had some idea, and I hope it came from scripture, but there's a good chance that there were some false ideas that crept in there. Now Jesus, gives us here a simple and a powerful corrective to all of the mistakes, all of the errors that I once believed about heaven, and it's in this simple fact that heaven is where He is. Heaven's where Jesus is, where we can be with Him. And if we would remember that, I wish somebody would have told me that as a child, maybe they did and I wasn't listening, but to say, heaven is where Jesus is, above all, It's where He is, and you get to be with Him forever. So Jesus says, I will receive you to Myself. And we can even say, I will receive you toward Myself. The idea here is of closeness, of friendship, and of fellowship with Christ. So we can say even that Christ will receive every believer to be face to face with Himself. So that's the blessing, the greatest blessing of heaven is that we get to be with Christ face to face with Him. In Emmanuel's land, we get to be with Him. Now if you look at the New Testament, it's interesting, the emphasis when the writers of the New Testament speak of heaven is not on going to heaven, but it's on going to be with Christ. Two examples, the thief on the cross, you remember what Jesus said to him? Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. And then Paul, when he spoke of dying, he was very torn, whether he wanted to stay on earth or wanted to leave this earth. He said, for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor. Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I'm hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." He knew it was far better for him to depart because he would be with Christ. So when a believer dies, we can have hope that he or she is in a better place, in a better situation. And we can say that with all the confidence that many people, when they say that, are assuming they have calm, oh, he's in a better place. No, we can say that and say, truly, he's in a better place, she's in a better place, with Christ. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, as Paul tells us. So in the midst of our troubles, think of that. and make those realities more prominent. That's what we have to do when we face trials. Pray that the Lord will help us to have that perspective, to move those trials into the background, bring to the foreground these promises, these wonderful promises. It's weighing, right, the weight of glory outweighing all the troubles, all the things that cause us pain. Now the fear of death, when we think of that, the fear of death for the Christian should not be overwhelming. And Calvin says something that I want to read, and I think he gets it exactly right. And it's talking about the perspective and the hope that we ought to have, and how that can help us in really what for most people is the greatest fear, and that's death. Calvin says, but monstrous it is that many who boast themselves Christians are gripped by such a great fear of death rather than a desire for it, that they tremble at the least mention of it, as if something utterly dire and disastrous. Surely it's no wonder if in the natural awareness, that awareness in us bristles with dread at the mention of our dissolution. Do you recognize this? There's going to be some natural fear there. It's a significant event when our body separates from our soul. But he says, it's wholly unbearable that there is not in the Christian, in their heart, any light of piety to overcome and suppress that fear, whatever it is, by a greater consolation. And that's what we're looking at tonight. That's what Jesus is telling them. Don't let your hearts be troubled. There's a greater consolation. For if we deem this unstable, defective, corruptible, fleeing, wasting, rotting tabernacle of our body to be so dissolved that it is soon renewed unto a firm, perfect, incorruptible, and finally, heavenly glory, will not faith compel us ardently to seek what nature dreads? If we should think that through death we are recalled from exile to dwell in the Fatherland, in the heavenly fatherland, would we not get no comfort from this fact? So we are in exile. And he's saying, should we not consider all the promises, the promises of the gospel and our hope of heaven? And should that not change the way we live and remove these fears from us? So that's the heavenly Fatherland that Jesus is pointing us to. And it's not just that we'll be there, and this is a wonderful truth, but it's that Christ wants to be there with us. He desires to be with us. And as we think about this, think of the sinners that we are, that He delights to call us His own. You remember His prayer in John 17, His high priestly prayer. He says, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. I desire that. I want them to be with me. Christ wants you to be with him. And why is that? Why does he want that? He says that they may behold my glory, which you have given to me. So again, what do you picture heaven like? We ought to picture being with Christ and beholding His glory. That's the great hope of heaven, the great joy of heaven. We find in Revelation 21 that John gets this vision of a city, and he calls it the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. And he's shown this vision, and there's something surprising to him. especially as a Jew, is very surprising to him. We read this, Revelation 21 verse 22, he says, But I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. Christ and His glory are central to our hope of heaven. The Lamb is the lamp of heaven. He is central. So the third truth, heaven means being with Jesus, the Lamb who lights up heaven. And there we will no longer see darkly, we'll see clearly, we'll see Christ face to face, we'll see Him as He is and we will behold His glory, we'll worship Him forever. So that's the great hope that we find in this text. We find that heaven is home for us, truly home for those who believe in Christ. But it's also a home prepared, and it's a home prepared for us to be with Christ forever. Well, if you look at John 14, as I mentioned, the theme here is comfort for believers. He begins by saying, let not your heart be troubled, in verse 1, and then he frames this whole chapter, really. If you look at verse 27, he ends there, nearly at the end. He says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And one commentator says, it's absolutely true, Christ furnishes the only adequate grounds for that exhortation, let not your heart be troubled. Only he could say that and that have its full effect. He's not just saying it's going to be okay. He's saying, I know that it's going to be okay because I have been troubled so that you will not be troubled. So we as believers, we have a comfort and a peace, as Christ has said, that the world cannot offer. And Jesus is lifting our eyes there in this text. Those of us who regard these truths as precious are always in danger of losing sight of them. He's saying you need to go on believing these things. You need to continue trusting in God. You need to continue trusting in me. You need to pray that God will drive out all doubt in your heart. that there might be, that there isn't this hope for you in heaven. It is a sure hope, an anchor of the soul, as we read. And pray that the Lord would help you to grasp this even more. So this hope of heaven is the best medicine for the troubled heart. But the world is going to say that this is just pie in the sky. It's all unrealistic hopes. You die and many people think nothing's going to happen. But we realize that these are not unrealistic hopes. These are the great truths of the Christian faith. These are the great realities of the world, of the universe, that we have this hope. And the world is also going to say it's of no practical value that you think about these things. But we realize how practical this is to have this hope as we walk in this sin-cursed world and we feel the pain and the misery that comes about from sin What else will help us to cope but these truths? So they are very, very practical. That we can have no fear of death because of what Christ has accomplished. The world will also say, and you've probably heard this before, that he's too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. And I don't know about you, but I have never I have the problem of being too heavenly minded. I have always had the problem of being too worldly, of my mind being set too much on the things of this world. And if we would be more heavenly minded, we would be more useful in this world because we would have a clearer sense of the true hope that we have and the only hope for this world as we go out into the world to make that hope known. Now, if you don't have this hope, where is your hope? When your heart is troubled, where do you go to deal with that heart trouble, with that anxiety, that depression, and all the pain that you're going to face in this world? And the world has many remedies, and they all over-promise. Drugs, alcohol, you just wash it all out with entertainment, You name it, the world is saying this is what it is, but it's not going to bring hope and peace. Tragically, there are many in the world who are even saying it's better just to end your life. You read of suicides too often, I heard of one even recently. And that is the ultimate expression, it seems to me, of hopelessness. And these people need hope. And what we're saying, what Christ is saying is there's only one remedy and it's offered freely to all people. It's to believe in Christ and the hope of heaven will be yours. You will go from being an enemy of God to being a child of God and having a home in heaven. And you can for the first time have true peace, because you have peace with God, a peace that the world could never give, never offer. Only Christ can do that, because only Christ can reconcile us to God. Only Christ has lived that perfect life, and died, and risen again, and now is reigning, having ascended to the right hand of God, there to prepare a place for all who will trust in Him. So my prayer this morning is Paul's prayer in Romans 15, 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray.