WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.320 What is the Christian to do when the worldly nose falls in? 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:16.160 What's the believer to do in the day of great trouble? 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:22.960 Well, as always, our answer comes from the Word of God. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:30.359 And in the passage we read together from the lips of Jesus in John 14. 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:39.840 Martin Luther, a great reformer, called this passage, the best and most comforting sermon 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:41.920 that the Lord delivered on earth. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:50.960 He said, it was a treasure, a jewel, not to be purchased with the world's goods. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.240 The situation, as you know, Jesus was in Jerusalem with the disciples. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:04.560 He was just ours from being arrested and tried and crucified. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.920 He's having supper with the disciples. 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:14.879 These 12 men who for three years, maybe even a little bit more, had traveled with them. 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:19.719 They left home and family and work and friends. 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:23.000 They'd listened to them preach. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.799 They'd never heard anything like it before. 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:31.799 They'd watched them heal and perform miracles. 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:41.400 And here they were having supper with them in Jerusalem and some amazing things transpire. 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:46.039 And their world just falls apart. 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:53.040 After supper, he takes a basin of water and a towel and he washes their feet. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:54.880 An amazing thing to do. 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:59.800 They saw him as their leader, and yet that was the sort of thing a slave, a servant would 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:00.800 do. 00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:07.240 But then he begins to talk to them. 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:14.000 And he says, first of all, one of you is going to betray me. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:21.240 And then he says to Peter, the guy who always talks first to maybe sees himself as the leader 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:29.960 of the 12, he says, Peter, you're going to deny me the next 24 hours. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.400 And worst of all, he says, I'm going away. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:38.479 I'm going to leave you. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:41.560 So the world just collapses. 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:48.560 Not their outer world, they could just have gone back to their homes and what the occupations 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:50.240 they used to have. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:03:00.199 But their inner world, the very center of their personal lives has just fallen apart. 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:04.800 Because this is not how they saw the future. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:13.200 And what Jesus was doing was actually stripping away that false veneer that they had placed, 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:21.400 that they thought was coming and was going to take part, going to happen. 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:25.280 They did believe that Jesus was the Messiah. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.480 They did believe that he was the promise deliverer. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:35.439 You know that all through their scriptures and what we call the Old Testament, they had 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:41.159 been promised Israel, the children of Israel, the Hebrews, the Jews, a deliverer, a great 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.679 savior, a Messiah. 00:03:44.679 --> 00:03:48.639 And they believed that Jesus was the Messiah. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:54.439 They did months and months earlier, a way up in the north of the country at Caesarea 00:03:54.439 --> 00:04:01.639 Philippi, when they were on the road with Jesus, he used to talk to them away from the 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:07.439 crowds and he said, look, who are people saying I am? 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:12.560 Because by this stage, he'd been in modern parlance, a celebrity. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.919 He was really well known. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:20.159 And they said, well, some people think you're John the Baptist, come back to life. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:26.760 Some people think that you're Elijah, and others think you're one of the prophets, they're 00:04:26.760 --> 00:04:29.360 not quite sure. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:36.120 And then of course, he asked them, but who do you say that I am? 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.920 And Peter, speaking on behalf of them, said, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:49.240 So of course, Jesus knows at that stage that when he goes to the cross, he will have left 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.759 behind witnesses. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:55.120 He would believe in earthly witnesses. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:00.720 And as you read the Gospels, you discover that he really is just making his way slowly 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:05.720 south to Jerusalem and what's going to happen. 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:17.079 But as he sees these disciples reacting deeper and deeper in despair, he says, look, you 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.319 believe in God. 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:22.439 Do you know who I am? 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:23.800 I am God. 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:26.199 I am the Messiah. 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:29.360 You believe in God, believe also in me. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:35.199 And what he was doing was he was taking away the ideas that they had. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:42.439 They must have had of an earthly utopia, a kind of dream world. 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:50.680 This kind of escapist place where Jesus' followers, the followers of the Messiah, they wouldn't 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:53.639 know pain and illness. 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.560 They wouldn't know grief and distress. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:59.879 They wouldn't be troubles and problems. 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:04.959 They'd be different to other people here on earth. 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:08.680 And Jesus is saying, no, no. 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:10.839 That's not what's going on. 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:21.919 And he's reminding these disciples that Christians, those who follow Jesus Christ, are amphibians. 00:06:21.919 --> 00:06:24.479 We live in two worlds. 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:29.599 We live in the natural world, the physical world, the world we can touch and see and 00:06:29.599 --> 00:06:31.719 smell and hear. 00:06:31.719 --> 00:06:38.719 But we also live in an inner world, the world of the soul, the spiritual world, what Jesus 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:45.400 called the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:54.760 And he says to them about this inner world, let not your heart be troubled. 00:06:54.760 --> 00:07:03.200 Now you probably know there are false gospels and false teaching, a kind of polyana sort 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.000 of Christianity where once you become a Christian, well, that's all your problems. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:15.800 So you're not going to get ill and you're not going to have relationship difficulties. 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:20.959 You're going to get the job you always want and everything. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.039 Jesus never promises that. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:34.000 And what he's promising here and is reminding us all that our inner lives, our hearts, no 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:39.360 matter what's going on outside, do not need to be troubled. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:40.560 We can live at peace. 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:49.400 We can face this new year of 2024, whatever it brings with peace and content and joy in 00:07:49.400 --> 00:07:50.400 our hearts. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:59.399 Now, Jesus gives them three reasons here why they shouldn't be troubled in heart. 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:05.560 He says, first of all, he reminds them of a triumphant faith. 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:10.799 And then he speaks to them about a particular hope. 00:08:10.799 --> 00:08:16.839 And finally, he shares with them a personal love. 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:19.159 He reminds them of a triumphant faith. 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:24.640 He says, you believe in God, believe also in me. 00:08:24.640 --> 00:08:26.400 These men were Jews. 00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:27.760 They were Hebrews. 00:08:27.760 --> 00:08:30.320 They were of the tribes of Israel. 00:08:30.320 --> 00:08:37.480 So however varied their backgrounds were, they all knew the scriptures, what we call 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:42.440 the Old Testament, they called the law and the prophets. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:49.440 No matter how lightly they sat to their Jewish faith, they would have known. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:54.480 They would have known the stories of creation and the fall. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:01.240 They would have read about God's covenant with Abraham, the promises he made to Abraham's 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:02.740 descendants. 00:09:02.740 --> 00:09:08.920 They would have known how God used Moses to bring the children of Israel from slavery 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:12.599 in Egypt into the promised land. 00:09:12.599 --> 00:09:18.799 They would have known all the stories about the judges, how again and again when the children 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:28.000 of Israel built idols and disobeyed God, and then because they were invaded and enslaved, 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.199 they cried to God and God delivered them. 00:09:31.199 --> 00:09:36.959 They would have known all of that and the words of the prophets and the psalmist. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:39.720 They would have known all that. 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:46.759 David in Psalm 27, I had fainted, he said, unless I had believed, unless I'd had the 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:51.519 faith to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:59.360 And he goes on to say, but mine eyes are unto thee, O Lord, and thee is my trust. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:00.759 There it was. 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:01.759 That's what happened. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:09.039 David delivered because of his faith in God and Jesus is reminding them of that. 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:13.439 You believe in that God, believe also in me. 00:10:13.439 --> 00:10:15.439 And of course, they would have known. 00:10:15.439 --> 00:10:24.279 We read the passage in Isaiah, wonderfully encouraging passage where God says to the 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:27.559 children of Israel, look, don't be afraid. 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:28.879 I've redeemed you. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:30.439 You belong to me. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:36.360 So when troubles surround you, you know the way a water surrounds you when you're in a 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:37.360 river? 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.800 Well, you're looking everywhere and all you see is troubles. 00:10:40.800 --> 00:10:42.800 Don't be afraid. 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:49.280 Whenever they're overflowing you, like drowning you, don't be afraid. 00:10:49.280 --> 00:10:53.080 Whenever you think you're going to be destroyed because you're walking through a fire, don't 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:54.080 be afraid. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:55.240 Don't be troubled. 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:56.840 I'm with you. 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:02.480 You will be delivered because you are mine and I love you. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:05.320 That's the promise of God. 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:15.000 So Jesus is reminding them how personal faith delivers the Hebrew people, delivers believers 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.399 again and again. 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:23.480 And of course, Jesus isn't only speaking to his disciples, is he? 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:26.759 He's speaking to us as well. 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:33.120 So if you're a Christian here this morning, I hope I pray you are, don't let your heart 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.319 be troubled about outward things. 00:11:37.319 --> 00:11:45.559 Your Heavenly Father is possessed of infinite power and wisdom and compassion and goodness 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:47.919 and love. 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:52.600 He knows what is best for you. 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:58.920 He is working all things out for your good. 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:06.920 Believe in his absolute sovereignty, his unfailing faithfulness as we sang about earlier, his 00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:13.040 infinite wisdom and above all, his wondrous love. 00:12:13.040 --> 00:12:15.720 But not just believe in your Heavenly Father. 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:18.420 Believe in Jesus because he says you believe in him. 00:12:18.420 --> 00:12:20.279 Believe also in me. 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:24.319 I am the one who took your place. 00:12:24.319 --> 00:12:27.799 I'm the one who paid a debt you could never pay. 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:33.199 I'm the one who took punishment that you wouldn't have to take it. 00:12:33.199 --> 00:12:39.439 I'm the one who went to the cross for you and I'm the one who rose again to new life 00:12:39.439 --> 00:12:45.319 so that you could have a new life, that your heart could be transformed and changed. 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:51.160 You could have a life living in the kingdom of heaven. 00:12:51.160 --> 00:12:54.920 What a God and Savior we have, men and women. 00:12:54.920 --> 00:12:59.400 But let me urge you to remember. 00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:06.440 Remember because it causes problems if we don't, that the faith of which the Bible speaks, 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:12.640 the faith that God and Jesus is a matter of the will. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:22.399 This faith will bring us comfort in time of trouble but does not lie in your feelings 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:25.000 or your emotions. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:28.679 They can always play you false. 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:37.240 How you feel at any one time is no great guide and there's certainly no great help. 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:38.240 Emotions are feelings. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:39.240 They come and go. 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:40.799 They rise and fall. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:42.319 They flare up. 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.600 Sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel not so good. 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:49.280 We're not really quite sure why that is. 00:13:49.280 --> 00:13:55.200 Our faith depends on the willed tendency of the heart. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:59.120 Jesus said, whosoever will may come to me. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:04.840 You have to will to believe and God will help you to do that. 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:13.960 The late Reverend Eric Alexander has a wonderful couplet about the danger of Christians trusting 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:15.800 in their feelings. 00:14:15.800 --> 00:14:23.200 He says, fact and faith and feeling walked along the wall. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:29.560 Faith looked back to feeling and soon began to fall. 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:30.680 That's it. 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:40.439 Do not trust in your feelings but in the promises of God and what Jesus had said to you. 00:14:40.439 --> 00:14:48.959 In his wonderful book, The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan has a great picture of how we 00:14:48.959 --> 00:14:54.679 can claim the promises of God in faith to help us in times of trouble. 00:14:54.679 --> 00:15:01.439 John is on his way to the Celestial City but he's daydreaming and he wanders onto the 00:15:01.439 --> 00:15:10.799 estate of the giant despair who captures him, takes him to Doubting Castle, throws him in 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:19.159 a dungeon, beats him, starves him and Christian is nearly at the end of himself. 00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:24.399 Then he suddenly remembers and he says, what a full life being. 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:33.319 I have in my breast, he says, the promises of God which are a key to get me out of here. 00:15:33.319 --> 00:15:39.840 He uses the promises of God to open the cell door and the castle door and how he gets on 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:42.519 his way to heaven. 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:53.559 A reminder that the promises of God are true and we should lean on them every time we are 00:15:53.559 --> 00:16:00.599 in trouble of whatever kind and not allow our feelings to bring us to despair. 00:16:00.599 --> 00:16:02.759 Let not your heart be troubled. 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:05.839 You believe in God, believe also in me. 00:16:05.839 --> 00:16:07.679 A triumphant faith. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:13.079 He spoke to them also of a particular hope. 00:16:13.079 --> 00:16:22.839 Last week apparently over 37 million people bought lottery tickets hoping that last night 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:26.240 they would win millions of pounds. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:33.759 Now today their hope is dashed apart from a few I suppose but all the rest of them, 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:37.480 millions, their hopes are dashed. 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:40.000 Christian hope is not like that. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.040 It is a sure and a certain hope. 00:16:43.040 --> 00:16:51.800 Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and take you to my cell. 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:59.799 Now Jesus is speaking to them about the thing that is immediately troubling them. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:02.000 He is a wonderful savior. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.119 You know, he doesn't deal with problems that we don't have. 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.319 He deals with the problems that we have. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:11.240 They were concerned about the future. 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:15.279 What was going to happen when he went away? 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:23.200 And the writer to the Hebrews when he is talking about Jesus and his role as a priest for us, 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:29.720 you know, bringing God to men and men to God, he says, we do not have a great high priest 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:35.480 who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities but was in all points tempted 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:37.359 like as we are. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:38.799 That's a double negative isn't it? 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:41.160 It gets a bit complicated. 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:48.560 What he is simply saying is, look, we have a high priest who feels what we feel, who 00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:52.240 knows what it's like because he was fully human. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:54.440 He lived our life. 00:17:54.440 --> 00:18:01.120 He knows our life so he can give us sympathy and mercy and hope. 00:18:01.120 --> 00:18:03.000 And that is what he is doing here. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:10.040 He is telling the disciples, look, don't be worried or anxious about the days to come. 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:12.279 Your future is assured. 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:20.039 Yes, I'm going away but I will come back and I will take you unto myself. 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:24.759 You will come and you will be with me. 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:26.680 That hope of him. 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:31.960 Is there a better description of heaven to be with him? 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:36.399 That's the best description that we have. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.280 I know in the book of Revelation there is a description of heaven. 00:18:40.280 --> 00:18:46.320 It was a beautiful place with the river of life running through the middle and trees 00:18:46.320 --> 00:18:48.600 of life adorning it. 00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:52.240 There's no pain or illness. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:56.840 There's no crying or mourning or death. 00:18:56.840 --> 00:18:58.480 All will be light. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:18:59.640 There will be no darkness there. 00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:02.480 Jesus will be there. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:10.240 That's what it's, you know, it's being prepared for us by Jesus so that when our body sees 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:18.400 the work and our mortal life is over, our souls, our spirits will go to be with him. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:24.120 Now, for many people, of course, that's one of their problems they think with religion 00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:28.559 in general and Christianity and pretty much, it's just escapism, you know? 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:35.399 Die in the sky when you die by and by and yeah, you're just running away from life. 00:19:35.399 --> 00:19:36.399 No. 00:19:36.399 --> 00:19:38.559 The Christian isn't running away from life. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:45.279 The Christian is running towards life because the life that is to come for you and me is 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:51.039 a better life by far than any that we have here. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:57.200 And of course, we're challenged, aren't we, that while we are still in this world, in 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:04.440 this mortal life, we're the work, we're the labor, we're the witness to show people how 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:09.640 good is our God and to honour him in the world. 00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:16.840 And of course, this great hope takes away, doesn't it, the sting of death? 00:20:16.840 --> 00:20:20.519 It takes away any fear of death. 00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:29.839 You know, if you were a poor man or woman and you knew that after you slept, the next 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:34.879 morning you'd wake up and you'd be rich, you wouldn't be afraid to go to sleep, would 00:20:34.879 --> 00:20:35.879 you? 00:20:35.879 --> 00:20:42.480 Or if you were in pain and really ill, bad health and you knew the next morning after 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:47.000 sleeping, you'd be well, you'd be fit and healthy, you wouldn't be afraid to go to 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:48.000 sleep. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.359 Well, it's the same with the Christian. 00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:56.719 You knew fear death because it's really just a passing through, a passing over. 00:20:56.719 --> 00:21:02.799 Going back to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you know, he has a wonderful picture of what 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:03.799 it's like. 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:11.119 At the end of the book, he has a number of people going to the celestial city to heaven. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:17.959 And he says about Mr. Valiant for Truth that was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant for Truth 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:21.000 had received the summons. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:26.240 And when the day arrived, a great crowd went with him to the river. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:33.360 And as he took a step in, they heard him say, oh death, where is thy sting? 00:21:33.360 --> 00:21:40.120 And as he went further, they heard him speak and say, oh grave, where is thy victory? 00:21:40.120 --> 00:21:42.759 And so he passed across. 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:50.039 And all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side. 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.240 That's all death is. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:58.079 That is our hope in Christ that we will just simply pass across. 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:03.440 So he spoke to them of a triumphant faith, a particular hope. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:15.279 And you know, this is the heart of our faith here whenever we think of it. 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:20.160 And he's telling the disciples about this hope. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:25.080 And he goes on to speak about a personal love. 00:22:25.080 --> 00:22:31.640 He says, I go to prepare a place for you. 00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:33.320 For you. 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:38.720 It's probably the case that most of us when we read that passage, and some of us have 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:47.240 read it a lot, we concentrate on the promise that Jesus is going to prepare a place. 00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:50.919 And we think what will heaven be like, you know? 00:22:50.919 --> 00:22:58.679 But if we were to focus on the words for you, I go to prepare a place for you. 00:22:58.679 --> 00:23:00.879 What would that do for our souls? 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:07.000 Because we wouldn't be concentrating on the architecture or the landscape, but rather the 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:13.120 fact that he's going to prepare a place for each of us. 00:23:13.120 --> 00:23:19.240 It would be the promise that in that great home of our heavenly Father, where we will 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:29.640 one day reside, there is a place prepared just for me, just for you. 00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:32.560 Personal, personal. 00:23:32.560 --> 00:23:39.480 God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten Son, you know, the rest of the verse. 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:45.720 He loved John Gazondice in his first letter, hearing his love. 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:49.759 Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:55.840 And this is the heart of our faith and beliefs and inner life. 00:23:55.840 --> 00:23:56.840 God's love. 00:23:56.840 --> 00:23:58.520 Jesus' love. 00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:03.639 I go to prepare a place for you. 00:24:03.639 --> 00:24:07.799 There's God's promise this morning as the new year begins. 00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:14.799 It's for us, just for me, just for you, to know that we're loved by Jesus. 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:17.480 What does that do for your spirit? 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:22.639 He's thinking of each one of us. 00:24:22.639 --> 00:24:28.480 Many years ago when our two sons were very young, sometimes Mary and I. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:32.079 We needed babysitters. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:38.759 And there's a story from back then that I've never, ever forgotten. 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:42.039 And I feel the pain of it still. 00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:45.440 A young woman babysat for us. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:49.000 And it was a very sad situation. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:50.599 She was very devoted to her parents. 00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:52.799 She wasn't married. 00:24:52.799 --> 00:25:00.839 And they both died very suddenly and unexpectedly within a month of each other. 00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:04.399 I mean, her world really just fell apart. 00:25:04.399 --> 00:25:08.319 She had a brother, but he was married and lived away. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.119 So she was on her own. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:15.519 And one time we were just talking together. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:24.759 And she said, you know, there's nobody in the world to whom I'm really special. 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:27.720 Don't not break your heart. 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:32.879 There's nobody in the world to whom I'm really special. 00:25:32.879 --> 00:25:37.000 Well, for the Christian, there is. 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:40.639 Because each one of us is special to God. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:46.520 I, you know, here in St. Columbus, we think of Derek and Katrina, we think of Corey and 00:25:46.520 --> 00:25:49.280 Heather, think of some of the elder and that. 00:25:49.280 --> 00:25:51.240 We think they're special. 00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:56.560 You know, they're really, they are powerful Christians, you know. 00:25:56.560 --> 00:26:02.360 But actually in God's eyes, you are every bit special. 00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:09.240 And he shows his love for us when we're in affliction, when we're in trouble, in times 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:11.240 of great sorrow. 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:17.680 And then there is that he comes and he supports you and he gives you strength and he delivers 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:18.680 you. 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:27.079 And above all else, it was his love for you that took him to the cross. 00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:33.480 Each Sunday morning and evening here in St. Columbus at the end of the service, when the 00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:41.720 announcements have been made and our ministers send us away with this admonition, guard your 00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:44.120 heart. 00:26:44.120 --> 00:26:46.640 That's advice from the scriptures. 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:53.720 In Proverbs chapter four, the wise man says, guard your hearts with all diligence, for 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:57.880 out of it are the issues of life. 00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:04.000 There's probably no better advice than this in the whole of scripture. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:11.200 But in that passage and in those few verses in John 14, Jesus tells us how to guard our 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:20.320 hearts so that in the midst of all that's going on, we will be at peace with our Lord. 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:29.039 He tells us have faith in him, trust him and his promises, for they are for you. 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:38.559 Look forward in hope for the days that are yet to be, for they're prepared for you. 00:27:38.559 --> 00:27:47.480 And know that you're loved with the most wondrous love by your Savior, the Lord of Heaven and 00:27:47.480 --> 00:27:48.480 Earth. 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:56.039 Let's pray together. 00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:04.200 Our loving Heavenly Father, all through this new year, help us, we pray, to know Jesus 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:13.200 better, to trust him with all our hearts, to look forward in hope and Lord to know that 00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:22.120 we are loved and help us to make him better known by yielding to him in all things and 00:28:22.120 --> 00:28:25.759 our lives to the service of others. 00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:28.039 In Jesus' name we pray this. 00:28:28.039 --> 00:28:44.119 Amen.