As they go out, we'll open our Bibles, please, to John Chapter 14. John Chapter 14 in your Bible. Aaron, you get to go to class. Run to class. Find Mrs. Short. All right, John Tampa 14. There's an old film that we've been doing, watching as a family. It's called The Music Man. And in that film, there's a, it's a, as it seems by the title, it's a musical. And so there's a lot of old songs in it. And the one is, We've Got Trouble, right here in River City. All right, and in the background, you got the choir going, I'm sure there was probably a little bit of trouble there in River City. But the fact is, about the world, we've got trouble kind of everywhere. There's trouble that is all around us. As a child, you might remember those fearful words, uh-oh, you're in trouble. You know, something maybe just broke, maybe a window or something, and somebody says those words, and you're just a little bit afraid, thinking about that. Or you might have been like me and heard somebody say, you know, trouble is your middle name. Because everywhere you go, it seems like trouble follows you. As a child, I had health issues. I went sledging, and I fell off my sledge. And this inner tube, truck inner tube that was blown up with three college guys on it, was coming down the hill, hit me, and sent me to the hospital with a broken collarbone. But another time. I had surgery, I'm in the hospital, my parents brought me a stuffed animal, it was a cow, and we named it Murphy. And it was because of Murphy's Law, and that is, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Why? Because in this world, there's trouble. We can smile about those things, but sometimes there's very serious things that happen in life, and like, that is really, really tough. One man like that, in the Bible, that we think about when we think about trouble, you're probably already thinking about him. His name is Job. And as you read the story about Job, Job, in just a day, he loses everything. He loses his livestock. He was a wealthy man. He loses his servants. They're taken captive or killed. His family's killed by a violent storm that comes and just destroys the house that they're in, and they all perish. He gets boils all over his body. He's scraping himself with a pot shirt. His wife comes to him and says, curse God. You look at something like that and say, that is trouble and very difficult. Job 5 verse 7 says, if man is born unto trouble, as the sparks You got a campfire there and it's dark out at night and you just kind of poke the fire because the sparks fly upward. That's what happens when you poke the fire. You see it. The Bible says about that, that we're born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. As it makes sense that you stick that in there, you stir it up a little bit, that is up. We might feel like sometimes somebody has stirred up our life. In the case of Joe, it was Satan that was attacking Joe. But there's just a lot going on. There's a lot of trouble. Trouble means, in this verse, difficulty that we're going to look at here in a second. Difficulty or problems. And to be trouble is to cause distress or anxiety. Now, there's a lot of trouble that we can't avoid. There might be illness that we can't avoid. I don't want to focus too much on negative. We're going to get to the positive really quickly. But illness or financial difficulty. or the unexpected, maybe an accident, or something like that happens. There's just nothing we can do about that. But what we want to focus on tonight is what we can do something about, and that is the state of our soul. The second aspect of that definition, to be troubled, is to cause distress or anxiety. And that's what we want to focus on tonight. You know, when water is trouble, it's stirred up. We did some fly fishing here on Hall Day, Vincent and Parker and I, and the locks that we were on was trouble. The water was just, I mean, we had 35, wish we had it tonight, a little bit of breeze to kind of clear things off for us, but 35, 40 mile an hour wind across those waters, and it was just boiling. but it's nice when it's calm. There's a place near where I grew up, it's called Stillwater, Minnesota. It's a big, wide river there, but as it comes through that location, it just seems common that there's a mirror-like image on the water. That's a picture of peace, isn't it? Our soul can kinda get like that, but what we wanna have is that peace that God desires us to have. And so Jesus says here in our text, in John chapter 14, your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Don't be anxious. Don't be at that state. So let not your heart be troubled. Be at peace in a troubled world. is agitated. I mean, it's kind of all over the place. Or he goes, could you save me, God? You know, honestly, I don't know how, but somehow there's a level of peace that I've got even in the midst of trouble that I'm facing. So let's pray. Ask the Spirit of God to help us. We've only got things that'll help us in this text to be at peace in troubled times, to not be troubled. Let's pray. Father, may the Spirit of God give us grace tonight as we come to the Word of God. The fact is, We're all gonna face trouble. Father, we're not being negative to say that. It's just the reality of life. Satan's gonna concede to it. Nothing else does, but the curse is upon this world. We're in this world, and Father, that means trouble's gonna come. But I pray tonight, Lord, that everybody here would really examine their heart and consider If they can answer, you know what, I'm keeping what Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. Father, there's a level of peace that they've found. There's gonna be different opportunities that we have this coming week that we're gonna need the grace of God to help us. I pray that this message would help. I pray, Father, that the truth of John chapter 14 would just be put into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Father, if somebody's not saved tonight that hears this message, I pray the Spirit of God would show them that there's peace to be found in Jesus Christ. As believers, I pray point us to the areas where we can find peace. In the Spirit of God, I can't speak as I ought to speak. I can't speak at all without the enablement of God. Father, I pray for boldness where I have fear. I pray for courage and wisdom and grace to preach in a loving way. Father, would you just enable me tonight? I pray tonight that the Word of God would have free course more than anything, anything that we desire tonight. We desire to know the presence of God. testimony to the truth of the Word of God that we're going to consider it here tonight. Would you do that for us? And Father, help us as we walk with you through this service. It's in Christ that we pray. Amen. Be at peace in a troubled world. I want to look at five things tonight that can help us to have peace, even when there's trouble outside, that we can, by the grace of God, be not troubled on the inside. Let me just say about that context of what we're looking at, Jesus Christ is gonna go to the cross. Jesus Christ is going to ascend. He's preparing his disciples for his departure. So he's giving them some truth that will really be solid truth to help them through that difficulty of the crucifixion, that difficulty of his departure, the sense that he was absent from them because he was no longer physically present with them. The first thing I want to consider tonight is that we need to be at peace in God's plan. I'm speaking about heaven, I'm speaking about glory, I'm speaking about that world that is to come, that location that is to come. Heaven's above this earth. Heaven's not bothered tonight. No matter what we get, we got insurance problems, we got health problems, we got whatever problems, heaven's not bothered tonight. Heaven is rock solid. There's a hymn writer, his name is William Cooper. And William Cooper himself, he fought depression in his life, and you can say about his life, he had a troubled life. If you know anything about him as a hymn writer, there are different times in his life where he despaired of life, even trying to commit suicide, but God didn't let him succeed. In the mercy of God, he got saved. But he struggled with this idea of finding peace in life, but William Cooper found peace by reflecting on that peace that was to come. He wrote the hymn, Wonderful Peace. It says that as far away in the depths of my spirit tonight, rose a melody sweeter than song, and celestial like strains, it unceasingly falls for my soul like an infinite calm. In verse 4, methinks when I rise to that city of peace, where the author of peace I shall see, that one strain of the song which the ransomed will sing, and that heavenly kingdom shall be, peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray, You know, if we're going through a difficult time on earth, this is a great time to just look ahead a little bit, to look ahead to that city that's immovable, that we've been looking at on Thursday nights, that coming city of God, the New Jerusalem, and to say, you know what? That is why eternal habitation in that place is unmoved. And so now as we think about that, there's room at God's place. That future place, there is room for anybody. Jesus says in verse two, he says, in my father's house are. Many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. You know, you think about Jesus, Jesus was born in a state, why? Because there was no room for him in the end. The world didn't make room for Jesus, but praise God, Jesus has made room for the world. There's plenty of space tonight. You know, there's mercy for anybody. I'm thankful tonight that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, one sacrifice that Jesus did when he said it is finished it was sufficient for the sins of the world sufficient for all sinners 1 John 2 verse 1 says my little children these things right I am to you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the preacher Jesus died for everybody. Praise God tonight, they may not get saved, they may not obey the gospel, but I can say this tonight, they could get saved. Why? Because the blood of Christ is sufficient for them. Have you ever had somebody not show up at your house? You had something nice planned. This happened actually to us one time. We invited some people over, put it on our calendar. I don't know if they didn't get it on their calendar. We never found out, but they just didn't show up. You know, sad when that happens. You're looking forward to fellowship. You're looking forward to the time of camaraderie. You're looking forward to the feast that's been prepared. It's all there. It's all ready. They could have come. They could have been blessed by it. But they weren't there. Tonight, it's a very sad thing to think about. There's plenty of space at God's table. There's plenty of room for anybody, but the Lord has to say to us as his servants, what he said to his servants in Luke 14, verse 23, and that is, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Do you think if this was the house of God, this was heaven tonight, that we could drill open these doors and Menlothi would be there at the doors, just busting to get in to God's house? But sadly, it's not that way. but there's plenty of space. For those that want this precious place of peace, they can have it. Jesus Christ made a way, there's room. But secondly, tonight there's reservations at God's place. There's reservations. It says, I go to prepare a place for you. There's plenty of space, but you gotta book in. My wife and I went on a date this week, all right? Went over to visit Margaret, and then after that, we just took off and went on a date. So we get down into Edinburgh, and we go to the restaurant that we're gonna go to, and it's down there just off the Royal Mile, and open the door, go in, the man comes up, and he says, have you booked in? Now, these are terms that we shouldn't get used to in our day post-COVID, but the answer was no, we haven't booked in. He goes, well, I'm sorry. You know, it was our fault. By the way, we had a great day. We found another place that we didn't have to book in, and that was fine. But you know, tonight, when it comes to heaven, there is plenty of space. It's a very sad thing for somebody to think tonight that, you know, just because I want to go to heaven, I get to go to heaven. That person has to look in, that person has to receive Jesus Christ as their savior. The Bible says it this way, Romans 10 verse 13, it says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's kind of like this, God's up there in heaven, he's got that book out, he's just waiting. He's just waiting. And somebody dials up, you know, Mac or Parker or Logan, and I'd like to be saved. I want to receive Jesus Christ as my savior. And God takes his pen, and he writes indelibly in that book, and he books us in. Whosoever is found written in the book of life, right? Whosoever is not found written in the book of life, the Bible says, is cast into the lake of fire. But those that go into that heavenly city are those that have their name there. It's a place of peace. There's room. There's reservations. Third, there's room service at God's place. There's room service. It says if I go and prepare a place for you, it's a prepared place. There's room service. God's getting it all ready. The Lord Jesus Christ is making it just right. You know, we're in a very that is very smart, and maybe you've got a car like this as well, but it's an older car, but it knows the key fob that's being used. And if it's my mom's key fob, it comes up, the chair comes up closer to the steering wheel. If it's my dad's key fob, it's further back. It's kind of nice to have a prepared place like that. It just feels comfortable. You've got those electric seats. You can move them every which way. It's nice to be able to get back in and be the same. So it probably saves a lot of arguments and things from happening. You might have enjoyed touring the Britannia, the Queen's ship. You get on there, you've got an audio tour. It's telling you all about it. You get to the Queen's apartments there in that ship, and they tell you that the maid, or the attendant, would set the bath water temperature just right for the queen, all right, with the thermometer. We think, well, that's pretty nice. You find out that somebody would wear shoes. She doesn't have time to wear in all the shoes that she has to wear for all the occasions. So she had a friend with the same size feet, and that person would walk in the queen's shoes and loosen them up. You know, we can kind of smile about that or laugh about that a little bit. But you know, the thing is, that would be very nice with it. I mean, we'd enjoy that, having something done to such a level of perfection for us. You know, tonight, God has a place just for us. like right here, and tough, or difficulties that we're facing, we need to say, hey, you'll praise God. There is a perfect prepared place that is there for those that have a reservation, that are booked in, that have room there at God's place. Lastly, as we consider this point, is there's a roommate at God's place. There's a roommate that says, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, There, you may be all surprised, but the greatest thing about glory is that Jesus Christ is there. He's physically there. He is present there, and you're gonna see him there. Jesus Christ will welcome you into that place. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17. Says this, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Again, Jesus is getting ready to say goodbye, but he's telling them hello as he says goodbye. Goodbyes are hard. We've said goodbye to our oldest. You know, she's going to Bible college. We've said goodbye to our family in the States. We come back. this way last year. You know, it's tough to say goodbye, but it's great to say hello. And it's great to say hello and know there's no more goodbyes. And see, that's the way it'll be in Boring. It'll be forever with the Boring for those that are safe. Can we look at that tonight and say, hey, it doesn't matter what the trouble is I'm facing. It doesn't matter all this that's going on. Why? Because that place is perfect. That is a place of peace. And so Jesus speaks to them about that. Be at peace in God's place. But then secondly, be at peace on God's path. Be at peace at God's path. You know, sometimes life can be troubling because we've lost our way. I don't know how you handle that as far as being lost physically. I don't handle it too well. You ask my wife, what's one of the worst things, the situation you put your husband in? That is being lost. We got on that trip to Germany two years ago, driving over and we took a ferry across from Dover, not to Glacement, the other place, and north of there, Dunkirk, I think it was, you know, and we're on a two-day trip. We're traveling hard. We're trying to get there for the service at the camp that we're going to that night. We got an hour away and had three detours with detour signs that we couldn't read, that didn't tell us where to go, didn't communicate anything to us. All they said was road closed. You know, as he faced physically something like that is very disconcerting. It's a very disconcerting thing for us in life spiritually. To not have a sense of direction. To not have a compass and to see what way it is that we're going. So be at peace tonight. God's path. And so follow Jesus on the path of discipleship. Follow him on the path of discipleship. He says in verse 4, And with her I go, ye know, and the way ye know. Jesus has gone on ahead of us. He just says, hey, follow me. Follow me. Just walk the way that I'm walking. You know, tonight as we think about that, our world to follow God. You think about it, even about the Lord's Day. You know, this is Sunday, the first day of the week, the day that we worship God. But you see the advert on the bus, and the advert they used to have said this, Sunday is fun day. That has nothing to do with God. Sunday's not a fun day. Sunday is a fun day, but Sunday is the It's a day to follow the Lord and be faithful to the house of God. It's a day to honor God and not to profane the Sabbath. People don't follow God in our day. They follow sports. They follow politics. They follow their family. They follow their work. They're stressing about these things, but guess what? That's not the path of peace. That's not where it's at. some good things about those things, but not outside of following the Lord. They follow pleasure, they follow leisure. But again, they're off the path of peace. The Bible says that in Isaiah 57, 21, there is no peace sent by God to the wicked. You might look at that and say, that's a strong statement, but the thing is this, if I'm not following Jesus, what path am I following? I'm not following the path of righteousness. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. I didn't need a disciple that says, you know what, I gotta stay there in obedience to God. I gotta stay there in a close walk with God, and I shouldn't be surprised tonight to think I don't have peace, but I'm off the path. Be good for us tonight to look at and say, you know what, I just need to get back following Jesus. John 10, 27 says, They're behind the Lord. Matthew 16, 24, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. You know, I can say for sure tonight, Jesus Christ knew when he took up his cross, when he walked up that hill to Golgotha, he knew that he had his cross. Tonight, do you know that you've got your cross? You might look at our lives and say, why don't I have peace? I'm a believer, I ought to have peace. Well, have you taken up your cross? Are you following in the path of discipleship? And so then secondly, believe on Jesus and get in the path of salvation. The path of salvation. It says in verse five, Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And here it is, we call this man, sadly, Doubting Thomas, but it's the apostle that really struggled with faith, the one that, after the resurrection, said, if I don't put my hand in his side, if I don't put my fingers through the nail-pierced hands, I'll not believe. And this is the man that's speaking to Jesus, and he says, Lord, how do we know the way? And Jesus looks at him and says, I'm the way. And in saying that, he's saying, trust me, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. We praise God for our missionary, Lytton Kelly, and his ministry at New Hope Residential Center in Ireland. And as he works with those men, there's some great success stories of the grace of God at work in these men's lives, setting them free from a life of addiction. There was one man like that a few years back, you may remember, that went through the program, did very well. He ended up at the funeral of a young man that died from a drug overdose. His uncle was the mayor of that community. And as the mayor spoke with this man, knowing his past, knowing his history, the mayor said this, what happened? How did your life change so dramatically? And he said this, I tried everything. The mayor said, we gotta get you in the schools. They got him in the schools. He had an opportunity to go in and testify to how God set him free. Why? Because Jesus is the way. See, he didn't have peace in drugs. He didn't have peace in the world. He had peace in Christ. Somebody could be, you know, listening to this message and think, you know, I don't have peace. Well, are you in Christ? verse 3 says thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me because he trusted in me. It's the same for us tonight. We gotta say exercise faith in Jesus. God will save me by faith in Jesus. Exercise faith in Jesus again tonight. Say I need peace. I'm gonna exercise faith in Jesus. I claim this verse over and over again in college. When I was struggling, I was a little bit shy, I was out of my element, I had speech classes and things, I would go over this verse again and again and again. That will keep him in perfect peace. Who's mind has stayed on D because he trusted the D. That's the way of peace, that path of salvation. And then one more consideration under this point, and that is this, work for Jesus, follow him in the path of service. It says, verily, verily, in verse 12, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these Jesus said this and by the way Jesus had done incredible things I mean people had been marvelously changed by the grace of God but he said this you're going to do greater works as my disciples so he saved us to work it could be this tonight I don't have peace in my life as a believer I'm saying well the thing is And the purpose for which Christ saved us is service. And so if I'm not serving God, then there's gonna be a lack, perhaps, of peace. My dad had to retire from ministry after being a pastor for some, and preacher for about 50 years. But because of his memory, he had to retire, he had to step back from it. He said this, what I hate to give up is a sense of enablement of God for ministry. As he served God, there was that sense of God just using him. And you start serving God, and you see God give you wisdom what to say if you evangelize. You see God give you grace to do something for God. And guess what? It encourages your heart in this area that we're talking about. There's satisfaction in it, in serving God. It's just like Jesus and his satisfaction in the will of God. John 4, 34, Jesus said it this way, my meat, is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. What satisfies Him inside was to do God's work. And you know what? There is great satisfaction for us tonight if we're serving Jesus. There's a hymn. It's called Little is Much when God's in it. And it says this, in the harvest field now ripened, there's a work for all to do. It says, does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Are you laid aside from service, body worn from toil and care? You can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God's in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you go in Jesus' name. You can be somebody like Paul that can say, I fought a good fight. I have finished my course. And that person is gonna have peace. That person's gonna have delight because they're on that path. It could be tonight that the peace that we're lacking is we're not on God's path. We're not on that path of discipleship, following Jesus. We're not on that path of salvation, faith in Jesus. We're not on that path of service, saying, hey, I wanna do something for Jesus. God help us to be on the path, God's path of peace. And then third tonight, be at peace in prayer. your life just to let it be known that you need help. I'm thinking about a story when I was a teenager, late teen, early college age, and I think teen years, I was with Van Haskin and we were out early in the season on Lake Malibu and the water temperature was about, I gotta think it's Celsius, five or six degrees. Temperature outside, about five or six degrees. It was rainy, misty, nobody else was out there. And we're on the backwaters of this lake. And so there are some houses around the lake. But we're back in the back area of it. And we're playing with our paddles, throwing them down at the water. They're bouncing up. We're grabbing them. And Dan dropped his paddle. That was a fatal moment that caused everything else to go bad. his paddle, I grabbed it, I sent it along the side of the canoe, it hit the side of the canoe, it bounced out a little bit, and I just was leaning a little bit to see what was happening back there, and Dan leaned a lot of it, and he reached out there to get his paddle, and I was leaning to watch, and we flipped. You know, I was supposed to have a life jacket on, if you know the story, I didn't have mine, that's another part of the story. I said to Dan, I said, should we swim for it? And he wisely said no. And I didn't ask the next thing. I just, help! Screamed like a girl. You know, I was unashamed. Does it cry out? Somebody rescues, praise God. There was a guy outside. He heard us. He also had a motorboat. Very quickly, they were out there to get us out of the water. I mean, I was just, I couldn't do anything. Dan put the canoe in the car and we jumped back. I was just shaking. But you know what? I was unashamed. That trouble made me just cry out. for help. It's a good thing tonight. If the trouble that we're under makes us do what David did, that's cry out to God. Psalm 108 verse 12 says, give us help from God. Why is he praying this? Because the pressure's coming and so he's going to God, he's crying out to God. 2 Samuel 22 verse seven says, in my distress, I called upon the word, I cried to my God, and he did hear me in my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. It's a wonderful thing tonight to know that, hey, if I'm troubled, I'm starting to get anxious in my soul, that I can cry out to God, God, I wanna encourage us tonight in this area of prayer to use the signed check that God's given to us. Use the signed check that the Lord has given to us. You know, on our church checks, we've got two signatories, all right? Both of us have to sign. And if it's signed by both of us, it's a live check. You gotta be careful with something like that because if somebody could take it, I mean, it's ready to be used because that name And tonight, I can tell you, Jesus Christ has signed his name in this area of answered prayer. He says it emphatically. If you study John 14 through 17, there's some six times or seven times that he states this idea of verse 13, where he says, whatsoever you shall ask in my name. That what I do. It's like what Paul said when he wrote to Onesimus or, I'm sorry, Philemon, the master of Onesimus. Remember, he led Onesimus to the Lord. He was a runaway slave. He sent him back to his master, Philemon. As he sends him back, he says this. He says, if ye have wronged me, or oweth me odds, put that on mine account. I call it written, and with mine own hand, I will repay it. Listen, Jesus Christ wrote it with his own hands. He signed it with the blood of his life. He signed it that not just for our salvation, not just tonight for our forgiveness, praise God, it's good for that tonight as well, but it is good for anything that I need. He signed his name. You know, tonight, are you going to prayer like that? It's not in Jesus' name I pray, amen, but Father, I'm here because of my Lord. I'm here because of what he did. He has said that if I come in his name, that God, you will hear and that you will answer my prayer. Guess what? Tonight, the check is good. It's good. It's signed by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's also a blank check. It's a sign check, but it's also a blank check. Notice what it says, verse 13. It says, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, whatsoever, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. It's kind of like this tonight. We had a billionaire that was here. And he said, Church, I just care about you tonight. I just want you to know, whatever you need, I've got it. And whatever anybody else needs, I've got it. Whatever your church needs, whatever your community needs, if you know the need and you come to me, listen, anything, whatsoever, you've got it. Now, you sit there, you think about it, you think, all right, you know, what's the right need? You come up and you say, you know, could I have 20 pounds to go, I just wanna go get some groceries. I mean, some people might look at you and say, wait a second, wait a second, this guy's a billionaire. How about a thousand pounds? and take him by. This man's very generous. I mean, he wants to, I mean, he really wants to put it out there. He'll do anything and he's ready. He wants to, if it's legitimate. You tonight, that's what God has done for us. Jesus Christ said, hey, if it's legitimate for you, your family, your community, your country, this world, it's okay. Go to me and I will answer according to what you ask. But you might have to say to us tonight, you know what? He had not because he, Say tonight, we might look at our life and say, man, my life's tough. Have you prayed about it? And I'm not saying tonight that if you've prayed about it, you're not gonna have any trouble. But have you prayed about it? Have you gone to God and said, God, we're burdened about this. We're burdened about it as a church. We're burdened about it as a family. We're burdened about it individually. I am really struggling here. God, would you please meet my needs? You've got a blank check that's signed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, I can say to us tonight, you know, there's peace found in answered prayer. And then for tonight, there's peace in God's presence. There's peace in God's presence. You know, God worked in Mack's heart about salvation. And part of that was me getting with him at night. He'd say, Dad, I don't wanna have bad dreams. I have bad dreams. Come in and pray with me. So I pray with him and ask God to help him. I still do. I pray that with him at night. You know what he's seen God do? He's seen God help him. You know, the thing is, my presence is comforting to my son, but God's presence is more comforting to him because I'm not with him all the time, but God is. And there's peace. in God's presence. You know, tonight as we think about this, how do we experience this peace that comes from the presence of God? Well, the first thing is we've got to love God. We've got to love God, love Him. Look at verse 15. It says, if you love me, what? Keep my commandments. old, all right? Four years ago, when we're training her, I read about socializing your dog. You know, you got to take it out, got to meet and greet other dogs and whatnot. So I take her across, and the neighbor's there. The neighbor's coming with his boxer. The thing about boxers is you can't tell what they're thinking, all right? And the dog's coming, and Duchess is kind of like, you know, happy-go-lucky, and everything's great. She's a puppy, and she's so excited. And she comes up, and the boxer looks like really, like, still, you know? And then all of a sudden he goes, and he nips her on the nose. Do you know what she's never forgotten? If you want to make friends with Duchess, do not have the boxer with you, because she won't go near the boxer. She won't go near the man with the boxer. She has not forgotten. That was offensive to her, and she wants nothing to do with that dog. You know, tonight our sin is an offense to God. If we wanna get close to God, we can't go to God with our sin. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Bible says the Lord will not hear me. If I say tonight, I've got fellowship with God and I'm walking in darkness, the Bible tells me in 1 John 1 that I am lying. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not truth. If you really desire tonight to know the presence of God in your life, the first thing to do is to get on your knees and to plead the blood. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can't bring the offense with us and say, God, you gotta dwell with me. God, why aren't you revealing yourself to me? God, why do I not know your presence? I don't know the presence of God because God is distant because of my sin. And so love him. And so secondly, if you do that, he will love you. Verse 20 says, at that day, you shall know that I am in my father, and he in me, and I in you. Okay, it's talking about, there's more to it in the text, but it's that relationship that's growing. You'll see it here in these verses, but you love God, obey God, ascend the experience. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him. See, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Does God love the world? Yes. Does the world know that God loves them? I have to know tonight that God loves me, God cares about me, God's meeting my needs, I'm seeing God work in my life because my life, by the grace of God, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, is right with God. And so I begin to experience God. You'll know of his presence. Look at these verses tonight, several verses here, verse 16, about the presence of God. I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. It's the Holy Ghost, by the way, if you don't know that. What? Forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth it. Okay, the world doesn't get it. They don't see God, they don't perceive God, but notice what it says about us. But ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. What does it say at the end of verse 18? I will come to You know what spirit we've got inside of our hearts? The spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. When you got saved, you began to experience the presence of God. We can offend God, drive Him away, as far as relationship, or I'm sorry, fellowship, not relationship. But when that's restored, we know that He's there. We know that He loves us. Verse point two. Judas said unto him, not a scary thing. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us? How will you make yourself known to us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. My father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Okay, just let me ask you tonight, when's the last time you had somebody stay at your house? It might be hard to remember because of COVID-19, but thinking back, they stayed at your house, and you didn't know they were there. Ever happen? I mean, that would be unusual, right? I mean, they come and they stay at your house, and somebody's like, hey, do you know you got someone staying at your house? It doesn't happen. Tonight, if you've got Jesus Christ staying at your house, you know he's there. You know he's there. If he's abiding with you, and you're abiding with him, there's an awareness that God is there. Listen, if God is there, it doesn't matter what trouble you're facing. If God before us, who could be against us? Why am I worried? Why am I anxious? Why am I troubled if I know that God is present? So what do I need to do tonight? Love Him. Love Him and receive Him. Love Him and obey Him tonight. And then lastly tonight, be at peace through God's promises. Be at peace through God's promises. We recently took the boys to a play park down at Meadows, and I'm sure maybe some of the other kids have been there as well. But there's a rock wall that's there, and Mac again, he's the little guy, so I'm trying to help him a little bit, and he's wanting to go around the rock wall. And so there's handholds there, and his dad, I'm standing behind him, I'm not grabbing him because I want him to do it on his own, but I'm telling him, look, to the left, to the right, there's this grip, grab it, you know, he's trying to get up to the end of this thing, and he kinda has to go like this to get around it with some little handholds, and he did it, he got to the other side, he's all excited about that, because he grabbed hold of it and made it. You know, tonight, God's promises are those handholds. God's promises are those things that we can grab a hold of. Faith is the gripper. And so for us tonight, we don't have peace, well, let's look at some promises real quick as we conclude. Because if I don't have peace, there are promises that God has given that can give me peace and help me not to be troubled. First of all, death tonight doesn't have to trouble you. I think I can say it tonight, my world's terrified. The pandemic has brought that to the light, but there's this panic about, oh no, I mean, and I'm not downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic, I'm not downplaying the seriousness of death, but I'm saying this tonight, a believer doesn't have to fear death. A believer doesn't have to be anxious. A believer doesn't have to lay their head on a pillow at night to be afraid of death, because death has lost its sting in Christ. That's where a text says tonight, Verse 19, yet a little while, the world seeeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall live also. Because I live, ye shall live also. Listen, tonight, death is just a doorway into eternity. I'm not scared tonight to go to sleep, but the Bible, when it speaks about death, for a believer, it speaks about sleep. I look forward to sleep. The only thing when it comes to the sleep of death that we might regret is the fact that we wanna be there for our family, we wanna meet our family's needs, we wanna care for our family. Can I say this tonight? God's gonna take care of our family. God's gonna meet the needs. I don't have to be anxious about this at all because he lives, I'll live. I'm gonna rise up on that day of resurrection. I'll be forever with the Lord. But tonight, if somebody's not saved, death is the gateway to hell. It's a doorway to eternity in the lake of fire. And I'd say this, tonight, there are a lot of unbelievers that need to fear death a lot more than they do. Because no man knows the date or the hour of their death and that death could come. And if death comes, death will usher them to the presence of God, to the judgment of God, and to eternity in a lake of fire. But again, praise God, tonight as believers, we can just say, hey, in care of death. Hebrews 2 verse 15 says, Jesus came to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. There's many people tonight, again, they're in a panic, they're stirred up about not just the pandemic, but all the things taking place in this world, and they're just afraid, afraid. And praise God, Jesus could come to them tonight and say, this could be it. You could get rid of this burden, that's troubled you your whole life. Just get on your knees, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And because I live, thou shalt live also. Praise God. There's peace in that for us tonight. Grab hold of that promise of life. The second of doubts do not have to trouble you. Verse 25 and 26. It says, these things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. And the disciples could have been afraid, you know, Jesus is leaving and we're not gonna know what's right, we're not gonna know what to do. Jesus, if we've had a question, we asked you, but Jesus says, don't worry about it. because I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit. Whenever there's a question about something, the Spirit of truth is gonna guide you into all truth. You'll praise God tonight as believers. We don't have to doubt. We don't have to be in despair. And by the way, doubt is very unsettling. What's over is not a faith, it's sin. We gotta deal with unbelief tonight and say, God, I'm just gonna trust in your promises. He'll never leave me nor forsake me, so I may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do unto me, that God, trusting the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. Praise God tonight. You can just grab hold of that. Say, I wanna grab hold of that promise, God, that you've given. I don't have to be troubled tonight. And then lastly, disturbances. Do not have to trouble you, disturbances. And so verse 27 says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world give, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you love me, you would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And it's kind of like this, and he's giving a message that we've looked at and said, peace, peace, peace, found in these different areas, but if you don't have it still, he says, my peace I give unto you. And I'm leaving, but my Father's greater than I am. And He's gonna keep you. Tonight, it's this. If you don't have peace, God will give you peace. My peace I give unto you. He's the Prince of Peace. There's been times in my life where I've gotten to experience this. And partly because of what God's called me to do. God called me to preach when I was scared to death to get up in front of people to speak. I've shared this story many times in our church of getting the letter in my poll box that said I was gonna pray in chapel at Bob Jones University with a student body of about 4,500 and an amphitheater that seats 7,000, all right? And for me, I mean, I don't know how that'd be for you. For me, that was terrifying. I went down with tears to my prayer place. I said, God, God, I can't do it, but I will do it because I've told you whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. And I remember very distinctly walking into the back of the FMA, having perfect peace, getting up on the platform, sitting with those obscure men of Bob Jones University, and being in perfect peace, and walking up to pray, and praying, and wanting to be there more than I wanted to be anywhere because of the peace that God gave. You know, as you step out by faith to obey God, you might step into troubled water, you might step into things that you can't handle, but you don't praise God tonight, you can expect that you can have peace there, because God is a God of peace. God gives peace. You know, this world's got trouble, not just in River City, all right? It's all over the place. And those things happen and they will happen to us. It's gonna be there. But there are certainly things tonight that we've considered that we ought to say, you know what? I ought to be able to find peace in these things. And we gotta go to these things. First of all, God's place. Just remember, heaven's above us. It can be all topsy-turvy down here, but that's me set. I've got that security if I have it. Now, praise God, again tonight, if you've got your reservation, you're set. But if not, you need to make that reservation because nobody's gonna show up there with a room ready for them that hasn't looked into that holy place. And then that path of peace following Jesus. But tonight, you might like peace because you've gotten a spray of it. Gotta get back to that discipleship, got it? Maybe come, and for the first time, salvation. Maybe it's serving God and just saying, use my life for God, get back in it. You know, sometimes Satan just robs us of, you know, troubles the water just to get us away from serving God. And serving God is the thing that's gonna satisfy us and make us sense, again, the peace of God. You can certainly tonight find peace in prayer. It might be tonight when God said, God, forgive me for being anxious. Your word says to be anxious for nothing, but in everything to pray. Be at peace tonight in God's presence. Obey him so that he can come and say, I love you, I'm for you. I'm not gonna be anxious. I'm not gonna be worried. I'm not gonna be afraid. I'm gonna grab hold of the promises of God. Let's pray. Father, may the spirit of God take the truth of the word of God and put it in our hearts tonight. Father, if I were to ask the congregation tonight, have you been troubled in your heart this week? Father, if you're like me, they'd have to say yes. But this text is a comfort. Father, we ought to listen to our Savior tonight and say, you know, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in me. All the things that we just looked at. Father, it might be somebody tonight for the first time saying, you know what? I need Jesus Christ as my Savior because I don't have peace. Father, there's no way tonight that anybody that's unsaved has peace. But Father, the peace that you give It's from God, but it's internal. It's a gift. Father, I just pray tonight, I pray for peace for our congregation. Father, that we would cultivate a right relationship with God so that we know the presence of God. Father, we need revival. We need to walk in the presence of God. Lord God, would you meet every need here tonight, no matter what it is, and I just wanna be calm here before you. Father, just let the Spirit of God work whatever you want to do in our hearts. I just pray right now, if there's something that we need to do this as with God, I pray that we do. Father, we thank you for the wonderful peace that the New Writer spoke about. Peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down from the Father above. Father, I ask for your peace upon our congregation tonight. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen.