WEBVTT

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 Friends, I probably don't have to tell you that these days we live in anxious times.

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 For me, anxiety rears its head most often and in a most ugly way at about 3 a.m.

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 Does that happen to any of you?

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 You go to sleep, no problem going to sleep, but 3 a.m. rolls around and you're awake.

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 And all of the fears that you normally carry around are disproportionately large at 3 a.m.

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 They feel utterly unsolvable.

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 Anxiety is actually on the rise statistically.

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 There was a study done last year that focused primarily on Gen Z and millennial respondents.

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 And they found that an overwhelming 62% of people in Gen Z or millennial generations report feeling constant anxiety.

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 In other words, it just never goes away, all day, every day.

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 And they ask what are the things that people typically worry about?

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 And some of the answers are fairly common, things we would probably identify with.

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 Financial concerns are always among the top.

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 Family, like the well-being of your family, your kids, how your kids are doing.

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 People worry about health, illness.

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 A lot of worry about the political unrest and upheaval, about global conflict, about climate change.

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 I don't know if this is right.

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 You're like, I'm feeling worse with every minute that goes by.

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 You know, one parent, I thought some of us might resonate with this.

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 One parent responded to this survey very honestly.

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 They said, honestly, I worry that there won't be a world for my child to grow up in.

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 I thought we could probably identify with that.

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 In John chapter 14, which we just heard read by Hillary, Jesus' disciples are feeling tremendous fear and anxiety.

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 If you know where the story is, Judas has just gone out to betray Jesus.

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 They find out that one of their very own has been plotting to betray Jesus.

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 Peter has just been told in front of everybody that he's going to deny Jesus.

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 And now Jesus has announced that he's going to go away, and where he is going, they cannot now come.

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 And so, if you're in the mindset of these disciples, their whole world is coming apart.

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 The future that they imagined is crumbling right before their eyes, and their hearts, as it says, are deeply troubled.

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 Sure, we can identify with that, the sense that nothing is okay.

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 It's a kind of existential dread.

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 And what we're going to see this morning is that this entire passage is Jesus' response to those troubled hearts.

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 It's a passage of comfort.

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 So, Jesus comforts them, and through them us.

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 But not in the way that we might expect.

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 Not by placating them.

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 Not by offering platitudes such as, oh, I'm sure it's going to work out.

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 You know, all this will pass, right?

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 Right?

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 Even platitudes like, oh, well, I'm sure it's all going to turn out in the end.

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 No, Jesus comforts them by showing them something.

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 He actually shows us in this passage how to be at home in a world that is not our home.

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 Is it possible to be at home, to make ourselves at home in a world that is not our home?

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 That's what this is about.

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 So, let's pray, and then we're going to open God's Word.

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 If you have a Bible, we're looking at John chapter 14.

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 If not, you can simply follow along.

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 Lord, we ask you now that as we open your Word, that your Word would open us.

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 As we read your Word, that your Word would read us.

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 And that through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is here now, living and active, present

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 with us in this moment, searching our hearts, interceding for us, and the power of the Holy

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 Spirit, that as we open your written Word, we would come face to face with the living

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 Word, Jesus Christ.

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 It's in His name that we pray.

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 Amen.

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 So, the first thing that we see as we begin to understand Jesus' response is that He challenges

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 us.

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 He shows us that in order to be at home in a world that's not our home, we need to name

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 the ache.

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 We need to name the ache.

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 Why does Jesus respond to His disciples' troubled hearts by beginning to tell them about His Father's

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 house?

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 It first seems like a disconnect.

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 So, let's think about this.

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 There are a lot of fears that we can name.

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 I just named a few.

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 Surely, you can name more.

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 So, we can name things that we're afraid of, like we fear failure, we fear rejection, we

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 fear suffering and loss and death.

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 I'm sure we can think of lots of other things.

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 Those are things that I know I'm afraid of those things.

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 But see if you resonate with this.

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 Beneath all of the fears that we can name, there seems to be a kind of deeper restlessness

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 that we can't really explain.

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 You can't point to the thing and say, this is where this feeling is coming from.

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 It's the sense that even when life is going well, we don't feel fully secure.

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 You know, we're kind of always looking over our shoulder, when's the next thing going to

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 happen, you know?

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 Even when we're surrounded by good things, we're not fully satisfied.

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 I was recently talking to some people who used to live in D.C.

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 They moved away from D.C.

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 And I was just talking to them recently about that whole process.

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 And basically, they were living in D.C.

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 And they kind of felt, after a number of years, they still felt displaced.

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 And they still felt rootless.

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 And they still felt unsettled.

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 They never really felt like D.C. was their home.

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 And so, they talked about it.

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 And they said, well, maybe if we move back to the hometown where one of them had grown

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 up, maybe then we'll feel that sense of rootedness.

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 And so, they decided that's what they were going to do.

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 So, they packed everything up, and they moved home.

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 And then more time passed.

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 And they said, you know, there were a lot of good things about being at home.

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 It was great to be in a place that was familiar.

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 There were familiar places.

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 It brought back a lot of old, good memories.

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 They had family connections there.

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 And all of that was great.

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 But then, after a number of years more, they kind of realized that wasn't the answer.

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 And they still felt that sense of restlessness.

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 And the reason is because there's a kind of homesickness that we carry with us wherever

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 we go, even when we're home.

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 Because the deepest homesickness in the human heart is not geographical.

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 It's spiritual.

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 And listen, many of our greatest philosophers, ancient and modern, have kind of tuned into

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 this and written about it and pontificated about it and wondered about it.

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 So, Plato, centuries ago, observed that earthly desires seem to awaken in human beings a longing

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 for something more, a longing for something eternal.

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 Why, when I see something beautiful, do I ache?

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 Why does it point me towards something beyond it, some eternal form of beauty?

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 Blaise Pascal talked about the infinite abyss in the human heart.

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 Martin Heidegger described anxiety as a kind of not being at home in the world.

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 That strange feeling that the world is at the same time familiar and yet also alien, that

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 there's an alien quality to it, that it's familiar, but it doesn't quite fit.

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 It's not our true home.

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 The philosopher Charles Taylor says, and this kind of thing is something that everybody experiences,

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 not just religious people, but even committed, ardent agnostics and atheists.

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 He says, even non-religious people are haunted by the longing for something more, something

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 transcendent.

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 You know, now in our culture, last few years, a lot has happened in technology and particularly

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 in the realm of AI, as we all know.

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 And what's fascinating is to see that more and more people, and this has nothing to do

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 with whether you're religious or non-religiously inclined person, more and more people are turning

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 to AI, not simply for convenience or meal planning or managing email, but for companionship,

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 for intimacy, for counsel and guidance, even for spiritual guidance.

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 I think roughly half of younger generations say they would trust AI as much as any human

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 being to offer spiritual counsel.

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 And I think that there's an interesting question that this poses, like, what are people looking

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 for?

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 Why such a massive shift?

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 And I think it's telling us the same thing, that there's something in us that longs to

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 connect to something or someone beyond us, a longing to connect to something ultimate.

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 And I think for a lot of people these days, AI kind of is the closest thing they can imagine

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 to that ultimate thing, that ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom.

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 It's actually quite dangerous.

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 There's a reason why we have this longing.

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 C.S. Lewis writes, if we find in ourselves a desire nothing in this world can satisfy,

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 the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

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 That, my friends, is the ache that Jesus is speaking to.

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 This is the reason he responds to his disciples' troubled hearts by telling them about his father's

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 house.

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 He's saying our troubled hearts are not merely emotional problems that need to be managed.

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 They are signs.

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 When we feel that kind of existential unrest, that's a sign that is pointing us to the fact

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 that this world as it is, is not our home.

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 You know, some of you may remember the movie The Terminal.

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 It's a Tom Hanks movie.

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 It's a wonderful movie.

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 It's actually based on a true story.

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 But in The Terminal, Tom Hanks plays a man named Victor who gets trapped at the JFK airport.

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 He essentially flies in, and there's a political crisis in his home country, and it happens when

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 he's in the airport, and so he can't actually leave the airport to enter the U.S., and he

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 can't return home.

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 And so he gets stuck in this kind of political bureaucratic limbo, and he has to live in The

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 Terminal for years.

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 It's a great film if you're looking for like a family movie night film.

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 This is a good one.

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 But he has to live there for years because there's nowhere else for him to go.

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 And what's interesting about an airport terminal is that an airport terminal has almost everything

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 you need to survive.

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 That's the key.

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 That's what makes the movie work.

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 He has food.

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 He figures out a place to live where he can sleep, a kind of home that he makes for himself

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 there.

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 He finds very meaningful work that uses his gifts and skills in really cool and creative

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 ways.

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 He develops a wide community of friends.

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 He even gets a little romance thrown in.

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 So he makes, I won't spoil it for you, you know, but he makes a life for himself there.

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 But all that time, he never stops trying to get home.

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 Now, why would that be?

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 Because a terminal is not a home, right?

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 That's why the movie is funny and absurd and why there's tension and why you want to watch

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 it is because a terminal is by design not a home.

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 By design, a terminal is a place of transit.

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 You pass through a terminal on your way home.

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 You pass through it.

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 You don't live there.

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 So when we have troubled, anxious hearts, the first thing that we can do is to simply

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 recognize where we are.

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 This is the terminal, right?

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 This world, this life as it is, is the terminal.

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 This world is not our home.

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 And even though we can make a life for ourselves and we can find work and a place to live and

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 friends and it all feels very close to home, it's never going to be home.

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 There's always going to be that sense that we're missing something.

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 So you can hopefully find meaningful work that pays you enough to live and to get your

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 needs met, but you're never going to find a job that fully satisfies your need for meaning

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 and identity.

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 Friends, a lot of people move to D.C. looking for that very thing.

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 Looking for that very thing.

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 If I don't have it here, I'm going to have it when I move to here or when I move up to

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 here.

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 I want to make this lateral move over to here.

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 And then finally, I will be able to network my way into a job that actually gives me a

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 me.

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 You're never going to find it because this is a terminal, right?

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 When you start trying to get your identity from your work, your anxiety is going to skyrocket.

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 Okay?

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 Because what happens?

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 If you need your work to give you identity and meaning and justify your existence, you're

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 going to be terrified of failure.

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 You're going to work all the time.

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 Some of us work seven days a week.

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 We work 100-hour weeks.

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 We're always going.

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 We don't have time for friends.

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 We don't have time for family, for kids, because we're always going.

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 If you're deriving meaning and identity from your work, you're not going to be able to take

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 constructive criticism very well because it's all going to feel very personal.

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 They're attacking you and your worth, right?

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 You can, in the terminal, you can hopefully find stable relationships and friends and, God

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 willing, maybe have a family, but you're never going to get all of your needs met through

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 those relationships.

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 When you try to get all of your needs met through your relationships, through your friends,

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 through your spouse, through your kids, anxiety is going to skyrocket, right?

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 You're going to end up being, and we see this a lot of times in ourselves, right?

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 You're going to end up being overly controlling.

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 You're going to be overly critical of those people.

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 Why?

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 Because they're not giving you what you need.

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 You may end up crushing the people you most love under the weight of your expectations

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 because this is the terminal.

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 So, a troubled heart is like a spiritual alarm.

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 When our anxiety is going up over these things, that's like a spiritual alarm, and we need to

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 listen to that because it's a sign that in some area of my life, whatever I'm anxious about

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 at 3 a.m., chances are if I follow the thread of that anxiety down, there is something that

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 I'm looking to to give me what only God can give me.

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 There's some way where I'm trying to turn the terminal into home.

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 I'm trying to turn the terminal, this world, into my own personal heaven.

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 And whenever you do that, your anxiety and your fear is going to skyrocket because everything

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 hinges on this being perfect, right?

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 So, this is the first thing.

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 Troubled hearts, fear, anxiety.

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 We have to be honest and we have to be able to name the ache, right?

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 Then, as we follow Jesus into his response, we see that not only is he sort of naming the

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 ache, friends, the reason you have troubled hearts is because you're longing for your father's

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 house.

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 But then he goes on to talk about that, and in verse 2 he says, essentially, don't worry.

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 In my father's house, there are many rooms.

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 What's he saying?

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 It's an amazing response.

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 This is the terminal.

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 Yeah, and it's going to be hard here.

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 It's never going to be perfect.

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 But guess what?

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 You do have a home.

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 There is a place out there where you're going to find complete security, where you're going

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 to find complete belonging, where your needs are going to be fully satisfied, where you

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 can finally rest, right?

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 It's going to be a place where you can be fully known and fully loved.

00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.580
 All the things you're looking for in the terminal, they're in my father's house.

00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:57.820
 And he's saying, he goes on to say, you know, if this were not so, would I have told

00:15:57.820 --> 00:15:59.600
 you that I go to prepare a place for you?

00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:00.920
 He says, I'm not just leaving.

00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:02.220
 I'm just going on vacation.

00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:03.620
 I have a mission.

00:16:04.040 --> 00:16:07.080
 The whole reason I'm leaving is to prepare a place for you.

00:16:08.680 --> 00:16:10.120
 Now, this is a very famous passage.

00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.300
 A lot of times, I remember growing up, I used to read this passage.

00:16:13.540 --> 00:16:16.180
 I go to prepare a place for you in a room in my father's house.

00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:19.320
 And first of all, if you've ever read the King James, with all due respect, this is one

00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:21.820
 of the places where the King James just totally whips it.

00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:26.580
 It uses the word mansions, which is just a bad image.

00:16:26.700 --> 00:16:30.820
 But some of us grew up singing songs about God's going to build me a giant mansion, you

00:16:30.820 --> 00:16:34.800
 know, like a big heavenly McMansion in the suburbs of heaven.

00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:40.700
 And this is not at all, you know, with all due respect to King James, they just whiff it.

00:16:40.700 --> 00:16:43.240
 The word is room.

00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:48.820
 And what this is really telling us here, you know, we sort of imagine Jesus leaving and

00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:50.920
 doing some kind of like interior design work.

00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:55.400
 Like, it's like when the hotel says, like, your room's ready, but it's not, you can't

00:16:55.400 --> 00:16:56.120
 give you the key yet.

00:16:56.220 --> 00:16:57.680
 You know, they still have to clean it.

00:16:58.340 --> 00:17:00.520
 And then, and check-ins at three.

00:17:00.780 --> 00:17:03.740
 And so, come back at three, and then you can have the key card, and we'll store your

00:17:03.740 --> 00:17:04.360
 luggage, right?

00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:06.220
 So, that's not what Jesus is saying.

00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:08.579
 Here's what Jesus is saying.

00:17:09.620 --> 00:17:13.339
 The reason that you can't find your way home, the reason that we can't find our way home

00:17:13.339 --> 00:17:14.799
 is not because we don't know the way.

00:17:16.180 --> 00:17:18.579
 He actually says, we'll come back to this, He says, you do know the way.

00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:22.519
 The reason is because the way home is blocked.

00:17:24.140 --> 00:17:24.880
 It's blocked.

00:17:26.980 --> 00:17:28.100
 It's blocked by sin.

00:17:29.259 --> 00:17:33.940
 It's blocked by the power that deceives and enslaves humanity.

00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:36.600
 It's blocked by death.

00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:40.360
 So, we don't need a map.

00:17:41.259 --> 00:17:45.320
 We need something that can break through those barriers, right?

00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:48.500
 What Jesus is saying is you can't find your own way home.

00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:50.460
 You cannot think your way to God.

00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:52.120
 You can't reason your way to God.

00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.559
 There's no book out there that you can read apart from Scripture that's going to kind of

00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:58.900
 unlock the way home for you, right?

00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:04.800
 You can't find some guru out there who's going to finally spill the beans on how to find God.

00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:05.860
 You're not going to find it.

00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:07.600
 You can't meditate your way to God.

00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:10.180
 There's no way you can pass that barrier.

00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:17.680
 So, when Jesus says that He goes to prepare a place for us, He says that He's going to open

00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:23.380
 the way back home by defeating the powers that keep us from home.

00:18:24.120 --> 00:18:25.220
 That's what He's saying.

00:18:25.820 --> 00:18:30.320
 So, when He says, I go to prepare a place, He's talking about the victory that He is about

00:18:30.320 --> 00:18:34.580
 to achieve on behalf of all humanity, right?

00:18:34.600 --> 00:18:40.860
 That's why He says in verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life.

00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:45.299
 It's why He goes on to say, no one comes to the Father except through me.

00:18:46.639 --> 00:18:48.539
 He's not saying through my teachings.

00:18:49.059 --> 00:18:56.859
 He's not saying through the example I set, through me, through my very flesh, right?

00:18:56.899 --> 00:19:01.879
 So, He says, I am the way and the reason He says that is because He's the one who opens

00:19:01.879 --> 00:19:04.279
 to us the way back to the Father's house.

00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:04.639
 How?

00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:05.080
 How?

00:19:05.080 --> 00:19:10.240
 Through His life, through His death, through His resurrection.

00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:15.360
 So, Jesus, as I said, is not merely a guide handing us a map.

00:19:15.800 --> 00:19:19.800
 We have plenty of those in the world, on every street corner, on every Instagram feed.

00:19:21.300 --> 00:19:27.180
 Jesus is the victorious rescuer who breaks through every enemy that keeps us from home.

00:19:28.180 --> 00:19:33.160
 And when He goes on to say, I am the truth, He's not just saying, I have interesting truth

00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:34.440
 for you to contemplate.

00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:41.480
 He says, I am the only one who can expose the lies that keep us enslaved.

00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:48.680
 See, in John's gospel, if you read this in context, John's gospel connects evil to deception,

00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:50.240
 right?

00:19:50.340 --> 00:19:55.560
 So, the devil in John's gospel, in John 8, is called a liar and the father of lies.

00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:00.240
 So, Jesus is saying, I'm the only one who can counteract those lies.

00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:00.880
 What lies?

00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:08.200
 Well, lies meant to separate us from God and from one another.

00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:11.960
 The lie that God is not good.

00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:19.079
 The lie that living for ourselves instead of God will lead to freedom and happiness.

00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:25.599
 The lie that deep down, you are not worth loving.

00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:29.519
 And if anybody knew the truth about you, they would flee.

00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.099
 The lie that we can save ourselves.

00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:36.319
 The lie that it's not really a big deal.

00:20:36.619 --> 00:20:38.399
 We can figure it out, right?

00:20:38.699 --> 00:20:40.859
 We could go on and on and on and on and on.

00:20:40.899 --> 00:20:42.980
 But all these lies are designed to do the same thing, right?

00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:47.220
 If the entire purpose of our existence is to love God and love our neighbors, ourselves,

00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:51.880
 what we just heard in the liturgy, the lies are meant to counteract those things.

00:20:52.700 --> 00:20:58.319
 To love myself, to reject God, and to, if necessary, exploit my neighbor for my own gain.

00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:02.680
 And that's the reality of the world that we live in, right?

00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:08.740
 Jesus is the only one who can shatter those lies because Jesus, in every breath he takes,

00:21:08.740 --> 00:21:10.960
 shows us the very face of God.

00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:13.799
 He says, if you know me, you know God.

00:21:13.859 --> 00:21:17.960
 If you know my character and what I'm like and how I respond to sinners and how I respond

00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:22.180
 to outcasts and how I respond to the needy and how I respond to all of the brokenness of

00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:24.279
 this world, that is the heart of God on display.

00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.359
 So he says, if you see in me the truth of God, what do you see?

00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:29.559
 God is good.

00:21:30.539 --> 00:21:32.160
 God made us for himself.

00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:36.019
 Our lives are never going to make sense unless we know that.

00:21:36.019 --> 00:21:41.799
 And in Christ, we see that God loves us so much that he's willing to lay down his life

00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:43.819
 to set us free and to bring us home.

00:21:43.940 --> 00:21:45.240
 He says, I am the truth.

00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.359
 And then he goes on to say, I'm the life.

00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:56.079
 Jesus is the life because he enters death and destroys it from within.

00:21:58.279 --> 00:22:02.680
 In John's gospel, Jesus repeatedly identifies himself with life.

00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:09.680
 I came that they may have life and have it abundantly, abundantly, right?

00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:14.740
 I am the resurrection and the life, right?

00:22:14.840 --> 00:22:18.360
 Because I live, you also will live, right?

00:22:18.620 --> 00:22:21.279
 Jesus is the life because death couldn't hold him.

00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:29.940
 Jesus is the only one who enters the grave as a victim and comes out as a victor.

00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:35.000
 And this is what sets Jesus apart from every other religious leader in history.

00:22:35.100 --> 00:22:39.700
 With all due respect, every other religious leader and philosopher, all these religions

00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:44.539
 and philosophies were started by someone who is pointing the way to God, right?

00:22:44.580 --> 00:22:49.200
 Do this thing, follow these teachings, adopt these practices or principles or prove your

00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:50.620
 devotion in this or that way, right?

00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:51.720
 They all have that in common.

00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:53.900
 Only Jesus says, I am the way.

00:22:53.900 --> 00:22:57.940
 He's saying, I've opened the way to God.

00:22:58.019 --> 00:22:59.640
 By knowing me, you know him.

00:22:59.820 --> 00:23:03.900
 And so, therefore, as he says, no one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:10.860
 Not because God is stingy or choosy with his mercy, but because Christ is the only one who

00:23:10.860 --> 00:23:11.940
 can open the way home.

00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:14.220
 Now, friends, that is very important.

00:23:14.220 --> 00:23:20.680
 Because when Jesus says, no one comes to the Father except through me, modern people hear

00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:25.759
 in that arrogance and exclusion and intolerance.

00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:29.319
 How can anybody claim to know the only way to God?

00:23:29.360 --> 00:23:30.860
 And that feels so exclusionary.

00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:34.100
 But notice what Jesus is not saying.

00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:38.779
 Jesus is not saying only the best people get to come to God, right?

00:23:38.779 --> 00:23:43.799
 Now, that's, again, with all due respect, that's what most other religions are saying in one

00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:44.460
 way or another.

00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:48.160
 And they all define best differently.

00:23:48.619 --> 00:23:52.460
 But at the end of the day, most other religions are saying only the best people get to come

00:23:52.460 --> 00:23:53.240
 to God, right?

00:23:53.639 --> 00:23:58.700
 So, depending on how you define that, that can actually be pretty exclusionary, pretty intolerant.

00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:01.779
 Jesus is saying something different.

00:24:01.899 --> 00:24:05.660
 He's saying no one can defeat sin and death and evil except me.

00:24:05.660 --> 00:24:09.460
 And yet he's saying, but I've done that on behalf of everybody.

00:24:10.540 --> 00:24:17.380
 So, that actually makes Christianity at the same time radically exclusive, but also radically

00:24:17.380 --> 00:24:17.960
 inclusive.

00:24:18.800 --> 00:24:22.279
 It's, I would say, the most inclusive faith in the world.

00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:29.240
 Because if the way open to God, if the way to God, the way to the Father's house was based

00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:35.559
 on moral performance, friends, most of us wouldn't make it.

00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:36.579
 Let's just be honest.

00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:38.599
 There wouldn't be a lot of hope for me.

00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:40.859
 I'll speak for myself.

00:24:42.140 --> 00:24:43.579
 I'd be on the outside looking in.

00:24:45.460 --> 00:24:51.200
 If it were based on intelligence, many of us would be excluded.

00:24:51.200 --> 00:25:03.039
 If it were based on religious achievement, devotion, many of us would be excluded, right?

00:25:03.120 --> 00:25:05.819
 We've got full-time jobs and kids and bills to pay.

00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:10.000
 We don't have time to crawl on our knees as pilgrims up flights of stairs, right?

00:25:10.059 --> 00:25:14.220
 Or flagellate ourselves or meditate for hours on end, right?

00:25:14.380 --> 00:25:15.180
 We wouldn't make it.

00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:23.220
 But if Jesus is the way, if by simply knowing and believing in Him, we can come into direct

00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:27.960
 relationship with God, what that means, friends, is that anyone can come, right?

00:25:28.140 --> 00:25:34.580
 Those who are ashamed, those who have been rejected, those who are right now in the throes

00:25:34.580 --> 00:25:41.200
 of addiction, those who have been utterly forgotten, those who would never be accepted in other

00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:42.720
 religious communities or traditions.

00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:50.480
 Christianity is exclusive in its Savior, but because of that, it is radically inclusive

00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:51.759
 in its invitation.

00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:53.900
 Anyone can come.

00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:58.400
 Christ alone has opened the way, and He opens it for all.

00:25:59.660 --> 00:26:03.839
 So this question that we're wrestling with, how can we be at home in a world that is not

00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:04.339
 our home?

00:26:04.660 --> 00:26:06.400
 Listen, let me just tell you this directly.

00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:08.819
 God does not want you to live in fear.

00:26:08.819 --> 00:26:13.299
 God does not want you to live in the throes of anxiety.

00:26:14.159 --> 00:26:17.899
 And I believe, and I've seen this happen, I believe that God can set us free.

00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:25.980
 It may even be that some of you are here this morning, and God can and will set you free from

00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:28.019
 fear that is right now gripping you.

00:26:28.899 --> 00:26:31.939
 God does not want you to live in constant fear and anxiety.

00:26:31.940 --> 00:26:37.860
 So the next time that begins to rise up in you, instead of simply trying to tamp it down or

00:26:37.860 --> 00:26:41.960
 minimize it or numb yourself or distract yourself from it, listen to it.

00:26:43.340 --> 00:26:45.240
 Let it point you to the truth.

00:26:46.340 --> 00:26:47.799
 Let it point you to the fact.

00:26:49.220 --> 00:26:51.120
 Be willing to name the ache.

00:26:52.420 --> 00:26:52.580
 Right?

00:26:52.680 --> 00:26:55.580
 This is, oh, I forgot, but now I remember.

00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:56.820
 This is not my home.

00:26:57.639 --> 00:26:58.779
 This is the terminal.

00:26:59.819 --> 00:27:03.079
 I'm passing through this life in this world on the way to my home.

00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:08.460
 And the more we accept that, then actually, paradoxically, it doesn't pull us out of the

00:27:08.460 --> 00:27:08.579
 world.

00:27:08.639 --> 00:27:12.379
 It means that we can actually engage and live in the world, and we can receive all of the

00:27:12.379 --> 00:27:16.019
 good gifts of the world without demanding that they save us.

00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:20.679
 You know, so you can enjoy your work without expecting it to give you meaning and identity,

00:27:20.740 --> 00:27:21.539
 because this is the terminal.

00:27:22.159 --> 00:27:25.919
 You can love your family without setting the full weight of your soul on them.

00:27:26.819 --> 00:27:27.559
 This is the terminal.

00:27:28.299 --> 00:27:31.980
 You can engage the world without needing it to fully satisfy you, because this is the

00:27:31.980 --> 00:27:32.240
 terminal.

00:27:33.639 --> 00:27:39.139
 And then instead of putting your hope in the terminal, put your hope on your true home.

00:27:39.379 --> 00:27:42.439
 Rest in the promise that Christ gives us.

00:27:42.700 --> 00:27:43.539
 Here's the promise.

00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.859
 Jesus has made a way for us to come home to our Father.

00:27:47.299 --> 00:27:48.679
 He is the way home.

00:27:49.460 --> 00:27:53.339
 And friends, this is not some future reality where you say, well, I'm glad that's taken

00:27:53.339 --> 00:27:53.779
 care of.

00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:54.559
 Check it off the list.

00:27:54.559 --> 00:28:01.700
 Now I just got to make it from A to B. By living lives connected to Jesus, how?

00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:08.779
 Through prayer, through Scripture, by coming together with your brothers and sisters and

00:28:08.779 --> 00:28:15.559
 worshiping, by coming around and receiving Christ at this table, by living lives connected

00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:21.059
 to Jesus, we can actually experience the rest and the security of home here and now.

00:28:21.059 --> 00:28:25.440
 One of the ways we might think of it is like one of the journeys we're on as Christian pilgrims

00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:29.659
 in the terminal is learning how to be at home in a world that is not our home.

00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:34.579
 In other words, it's moving from being homesick to being home secure, right?

00:28:34.579 --> 00:28:39.720
 Because I'm secure in that home, I'm not going to struggle with homesickness here because

00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:40.720
 I know where I'm going, right?

00:28:40.819 --> 00:28:43.279
 So you can move to being home secure.

00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:46.500
 And it's interesting, we don't have time to dive into this, but at the very end of this

00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:51.039
 passage, do you know how you can tell when a Christian is living out of that security?

00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:55.379
 When you encounter a Christian who's, they're connected to Jesus, right?

00:28:55.399 --> 00:28:56.960
 They're praying, they're worshiping, right?

00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:00.379
 They're connected in and they know that and they're home secure.

00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:05.319
 The way you can tell is that they pray the most audacious prayers.

00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:09.559
 They pray the most insane-sounding prayers.

00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:12.500
 They expect massive things from God.

00:29:12.859 --> 00:29:15.439
 And that's essentially what Jesus says at the end of His passage.

00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:22.099
 He says, Christians who believe in Me, who are resting in this promise of home, these are

00:29:22.099 --> 00:29:28.000
 the Christians who are able to ask God to do not just great works, but greater works even

00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:31.480
 than what happened when Jesus was in His earthly ministry, right?

00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:33.000
 There's a lot of audacity in that.

00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.099
 But then he goes on with him crazier, he says, and God will do those things, right?

00:29:38.180 --> 00:29:42.220
 Those are the kinds of things God wants to do through His people, but not if we are living

00:29:42.220 --> 00:29:45.000
 in bondage to fear, right?

00:29:45.019 --> 00:29:48.119
 So I want you to imagine if God were to set you free right now, right?

00:29:48.140 --> 00:29:52.160
 If at some point somebody prays for you or you come up and you receive the Eucharist or

00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.660
 in some way and you feel that unburdening of your soul, you begin to feel that fear lift,

00:29:57.359 --> 00:29:59.440
 what prayers would you then pray?

00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.000
 What risks would you then take?

00:30:04.140 --> 00:30:08.000
 What might God do through you, through this community?

00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:09.000
 Let's pray.

00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:12.259
 Lord, thank You.

00:30:12.500 --> 00:30:14.920
 You don't want us to be captive to fear.

00:30:15.420 --> 00:30:16.580
 You've made a way home.

00:30:17.340 --> 00:30:18.820
 You're calling Your people home.

00:30:18.819 --> 00:30:28.480
 Lord, we pray that even as we gather around these truths and sing them and pray them into

00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:35.000
 our hearts, even as we gather around Your table, Lord, that the truths that are now primarily

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:42.079
 conceptual would become flesh and blood reality in us, that we would be actually experientially

00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:48.099
 and palpably different, that we would leave here unburdened, Lord, that we would leave

00:30:48.099 --> 00:30:53.559
 here secure in the home that You have prepared for us, and that we would be known and marked

00:30:53.559 --> 00:30:55.779
 by that, Lord, by our fearlessness.

00:30:57.939 --> 00:31:00.859
 Lord, we pray all of this for Your glory in Your Son's name.

00:31:01.139 --> 00:31:01.339
 Amen.

00:31:01.339 --> 00:31:01.439
 Amen.

00:31:01.439 --> 00:31:01.500
 Amen.

00:31:01.500 --> 00:31:01.500


00:31:01.500 --> 00:31:01.500