An Untroubled Heart

Well, no introduction is needed. I simply will say to you that it's a blessing to have someone speak from this pulpit who is older than I am. Ten days.

Ten whole days. Thank you for being here tonight. It's been a beautiful day.

We trust we'll have another good day tomorrow if the Lord Jesus doesn't come back. If he comes back, it'll be the best day. But to have you here is really an encouragement.

Churches don't have Bible conferences anymore. We used to have them run for two weeks. You have a reputation across the country.

People know that this is a Bible-teaching, Bible-loving church. Years ago, Brother Estep quit calling it Sunday School and started calling it Bible School. And that made sense because what we studied was the Bible.

Well, we're talking about the difference it makes in our lives because we know we're going to heaven. There is an approach to evangelism that perhaps some of you use. It works where you say to somebody, if you were to die tonight, what good reason could you give to God for him to let you into his heaven? But the unsaved could come to us Christians and say, now you tell me you're going to heaven.

How do you prove it in your life? What is there different about me because I'm going to heaven? Now, we have found in the Gospel of John, four times Jesus uses the phrase where I am. He's talking about heaven. In John chapter 7, he shows us that when you know you're going to heaven, you have an uncompromising witness.

No equivocation, no wishy-washiness, no beating around the bush. We just simply have a loving, uncompromising witness for the Lord. Not arrogant, not militant, but we know where we stand.

And then in John 12, we discovered last night that when you know you're going to heaven, it will give you an unselfish life. We are like seeds and no seed wants to be planted. It's much more fun to be here, but you're all alone and you're not producing any fruit and you're not fulfilling the purpose for which you came.

And so when we are planted by the Lord and the life comes out and the fruit comes out, then he is glorified, an unselfish life. You and I as Christians are living in a country, and I love America, but we're living in a country that is pleasure mad. If you want to make money, invest in creating experiences for people.

The biggest thing you can do today is manufacture experience. Disney World is doing it. Lots of other places are.

I'm not against innocent entertainment. I'm just saying that we cannot live on manufactured, synthetic experiences. And our Lord tells us that the only way to really experience life is to die, be planted.

Now, tonight it's John chapter 14, a familiar passage, and Jesus tells us here in the upper room that when you know you are going to heaven, you will have an untroubled heart, an untroubled heart. You know John 14, these first six verses, you could recite them. Let not your heart be troubled.

Now, if you turn the page to verse 27, in the last sentence, Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And so between verse one and verse 27 in John 14, our Lord is talking about an untroubled heart. Now, it doesn't mean an unburdened heart.

Sometimes my heart gets burdened. I get burdened and I pray. You do the same thing.

You do the same thing. You're working away. Maybe you're at home doing something, or even at the office, and you suddenly get a burden.

That's not what he's talking about. We need people with a burdened heart. We need people who are caring people.

But that isn't what he's talking about. He's talking about the kind of trouble in the heart that just pulls us apart. Not physical heart trouble, that's bad enough, but spiritual heart trouble where we just are so torn apart that we can't operate, we can't function, can't sleep.

And the doctor gives us something maybe to sedate us or quiet us down, but that takes care of the symptoms, not the causes, as good as it may be. Let not your heart be troubled. Our Lord is teaching us in this chapter the resources that we have as Christians that prevent us from getting a troubled heart.

We're so good at covering up. You ask people, how are you? I'm fine. But they aren't fine.

They didn't sleep the night before. They aren't fine. They're worried and concerned.

Our English word for worry comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means to strangle, and worry does strangle. The Greek word used in the New Testament for worry or anxiety means to be pulled apart, gets in there and pulls you apart. And it's easy to have worries today and cover them up.

Well, what are these spiritual resources that we have in Jesus so that we can have peace in a troubled world? Not complacency, not indifference, but peace. You know what peace is? Peace is the possession of adequate resources. That's peace.

George Morrison said that. I've been quoting it for years. Peace is the possession of adequate resources.

When you have adequate resources, you have peace. Some of you remember back in the 70s, early part of the 70s, when we had the gas crunch. We had left Covington, gone to Chicago to Moody Church, and the gas crunch moved in.

And I recall having a funeral, and I did not take time to fill my tank. Now, in Chicago, they don't bury you in Chicago. There's no place to bury you.

You've got to go often. And I hope the Lord can find those graves, because I don't even know where we were sometimes. And I did not take time to get fuel in my car.

And I went to the funeral home, and we had the service, and I got my car to follow. If I'd have been smart, I'd have gone with the undertaker in his car, let him spend his gas. But I had some other things I had to do.

And as I was driving along, that little gauge was moving, close to no. And I began to lose my peace, because I didn't have adequate resources. Now, chapter 14 says you have all the adequate resources you need.

Let's look at them. First, we have a heavenly home. Let not your heart be troubled, says Jesus.

You believe in God, believe also in me. That means he's saying, I am God. If I went up to you and said, now, you believe in God, I certainly do, then believe in me.

There's something wrong with this man. He needs to be put away someplace. Jesus equates himself with God, because he is God.

Hallelujah. In my Father's house are many dwelling places, mansions. Let me pause to say, get rid of the old idea that's in different songs and jokes, that as we live down here, our lives are building a mansion up there.

I've got a mansion all over the hilltop. I come from Chicago area, and our great black singer was Mahalia Jackson. Oh, some of you remember Mahalia Jackson.

She knew how to sing, and her theme song was Rusty Old Halo, Skinny White Cloud, Secondhand Wings Full of Patches. Well, her picture of heaven was, if you live the poor life down here, a disobedient life, that's what you got in heaven. A lot of folks say, you know, well, I don't care if I don't have a mansion.

I'll just be satisfied with a bungalow. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that your life is building a home up in heaven.

He's doing the building. In my Father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know.

Why were the disciples troubled to begin with? Well, when you read chapter 13, you find out the problem. Our Lord had just said, one of you is a traitor. Suppose Pastor Wagner came to the platform after the meeting and said, now close the doors, guard the doors.

In this congregation right now is a terrorist and he's a member of this church. How would you feel? You'd be shocked. And our Lord had just said, one of you is going to betray me.

It was Judas. They didn't know who it was. If Peter had known who it was, he would have pulled his sword out and killed him probably.

The second reason why they were troubled is because Jesus said, I'm going to leave you. Now they loved Jesus. They weren't perfect, neither are we.

Sometimes they broke his heart. One day he said, how long am I going to have to put up with you? The Lord Jesus loved these men and they loved him. He said, I'm going back to heaven.

Who's going to take care of it? So they were troubled because he was going to leave them. And then he said, Peter, you are going to deny me. Now, Peter was the number one apostle.

Whenever you read the list of the apostles, number one name is Peter. He was the rock. And they looked up to Peter.

Peter walked on the water and Peter was a great man, a man, but a great man. And Jesus said, Peter, you're going to fail. You're going to fall flat in your face.

Now, if your leader is going to do that, you're going to be troubled. Those are three good reasons to have a troubled heart. One of our number is a traitor.

One of our number is going to deny the Lord and the Lord himself is going to leave us. We are not adequate for this. Jesus says, oh, yes, you are.

The first resource you have is a home in heaven. Where I am is where you are going to be. Now, most of you have traveled, either driving or flying, and you've discovered, as we have discovered, we've traveled so many places, you've discovered that the best trip is a trip home.

We got in the plane on Friday and flew down here, and I'm always concerned, is the luggage going to arrive? And by the way, they have discovered that Saturn's rings are made out of lost luggage. But you know, the trip home is the best trip, isn't it? If the band says, now we're going to be delayed an hour, you don't fuss over that. I'm going home.

So, Lord willing, Thursday morning, we'll get in the plane and we'll fly home. If there's some delay, I won't like it, but hey, it's not like when you're coming. In fact, years ago, James M. Gray, when he was president of the Moody Bible Institute, wrote a song that you rarely ever hear.

I'm going to put together a book called Hymns You Used to Sing, Hymns You Hate, number eight. James M. Gray wrote a marvelous song called The Road Leads Home, The Road Leads Home. Oh, who could mind the journey when the road leads home? And now he was saying, look, regardless of what happens to you men, I want you to know something.

You've got reservations in my father's house. Heaven is a real place. Heaven is not a state of mind.

Heaven is not an imaginative entity. Heaven is a real place, my father's house. It's a loving place.

The Father is there. In this Upper Room Discourse, chapters 13 through 16, and in our Lord's Prayer in verse 17, 53 times, five, three, 53 times in these chapters, our Lord uses the word Father, Father. Now, you don't find that much in the Old Testament.

The Jews called him Lord, Adonai, God, El, Elohim. They did not want to pronounce Jehovah, Yahweh. That's too dangerous.

They're not Father. In his High Priestly Prayer in John 17, Jesus said, Father, I've revealed your name to them. What name? Father.

The God that I worship is a Father. And so my Lord is telling me here, now look, why are you going to be troubled? I know there are international problems. There are subversive activities.

There are economic problems, all sorts of things. Your body is falling apart. The older you get, the more difficult it is.

When you get old enough to enjoy life, you start falling apart. He said, now look, don't get troubled. The doctor says the baby is not going to live.

Don't get troubled. You're going to be hurt, but don't get troubled. Don't fall apart because you have a heavenly home.

It's a real place, and it's a prepared place. Now, I'm not preparing it. Jesus is.

When our Lord Jesus came to earth, he had to have an occupation. The Jewish people did not allow their boys to be lazy. Even if you were going to be a rabbi, you learned to trade.

Paul learned how to make tents, so Jesus had to have a trade. Well, Joseph, who was not his father but was his foster father, Joseph was a carpenter, so Jesus became a carpenter. They said one day, is this not the carpenter? Perfect vocation.

I remember years ago, and you heard it, Bob Ketchum, Dr. Robert Ketchum preaching his famous sermon on why Christ was a carpenter. Could never forget it. Did you ever hear him preach it? Great sermon.

Great sermon, and his whole thesis was this. The father said to the son, you're going down to earth. You're giving up everything, everything, so I'm going to let you keep one thing just to remind you of heaven.

I'm going to make you a carpenter because Jesus had built the universe. He's building a church, and he's building a home in heaven. You're not building it.

Don't let anybody tell you about this craziness you hear in songs and poems about building a mansion or a shack. No, no, Jesus is building it. He knows what you're going to get, and knowing that I have a heavenly home gives me a quietness in my heart.

Knowing that my loved ones have a heavenly home, that's where they are, gives me a peace in my heart. It does same thing for you. That's our first resource.

We have a heavenly home, and Jesus is going to come one day and take us to our heavenly home. Now, somebody here says, well, I don't think I have a heavenly home. I don't know where I'm going.

Well, you can know. Thomas said to him, Lord, will you not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I want to tarry on that just a minute. That verse is found in no other gospel except the gospel of John. Matthew didn't write it.

Mark didn't write it. Luke didn't write it. John wrote it.

That little statement, I am the way, not one of many ways, I am the truth, I am the life, is really a summary of the whole gospel of John. In John chapters two through six, Jesus performed all kinds of miracles, and he preached some sermons, and he met with some individual people, and you'd think the nation would have said, this is our Savior, this is our Messiah. But John chapter six says, in verse 66, from that day forward, many of his disciples left him and would not walk with him.

Jesus is the way, but they wouldn't walk with him. In chapter seven through 12, our Lord preached, he performed miracles, he pled with sinners. In chapter 12, it says, though he had done so many signs among them, they would not believe in him.

He's the way, they wouldn't walk with him. He's the truth, they wouldn't believe him. Chapters 13 through 19, our Lord met with his disciples, and he was arrested, beaten, and though he was the life, they crucified him.

And by the way, people are doing the same thing today. Some of you know that Jesus is the way, but you're not walking with him. You know Jesus is the truth, but you don't believe in him.

You know he's the life, but you've crucified him. Therefore, you don't have a heavenly home. Now, in verses seven through 11, the Lord says, now here's something else that'll give you peace in your heart.

You have a heavenly Father. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. To know Jesus is to know the Father.

He who has seen me, said Jesus, has seen the Father. God the Father is revealed by God the Son, and God the Son is revealed by God the Holy Spirit through the Word. And so, when I pick up my Bible and I say to my teacher, the Holy Spirit, please teach me now, open my eyes, open my heart, and I read my Bible, I see Jesus, and in seeing Jesus, I see God.

People have such crazy views of God. But when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you see God. You see the Father in the Son.

When Jesus says to a mother, let me have your baby, and he holds that baby and blesses the baby, there's God with a baby in his arms. That's our God. He goes to a wedding.

He's sociable. That's God. God goes to weddings.

Jesus goes down to a Jewish hospital, John chapter 5. There's a man lying there, been sick for 38 years. That's God going to the hospital to heal a man. And so, when you see Jesus, don't just think this is the way Jesus was on earth.

No, this is the way God the Father is in heaven. Some years ago at the Moody Church, I was teaching a sermon on the mount and talking about our Father, the fatherhood of God. After the service ended, I always stood at the front in case people wanted to come talk, meet some of the visitors, and go down to the visitor's reception.

And a young man came up, very nice fellow, very polite. He said, sir, you say that God is a father. I said, he is the heavenly father.

You know what he said to me? He said, if God is like my father, I'm not interested. Turned around and walked out. But God isn't like his father.

God is not like any of us as fathers. He's far beyond us. No matter how much we love our children, he loves more.

No matter how much we do for our children and grandchildren, he does more. And Jesus said, now don't let your hearts be troubled. Because you have a heavenly home, I have a heavenly father.

He loves you. When I pray, I come to the father through the son. I can't come in my own name or my own character.

I come through Jesus. And I ask the Holy Spirit to help me pray as I ought to pray. But I come to my father.

Jesus said, if you fathers, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the father in heaven give good things to them that ask him? And Jesus himself said, now ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened.

Now, that's not vain repetition. Each of those is different. Ask.

That's the father's wealth. All the wealth of my father is available. All of it.

So, ask for the father's wealth. But seek the father's will. Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Seek what? The father's will. My father in heaven will give me his wealth if I'm doing his will. That's the mistake the prodigal son made.

And he says, knock. Now, in the Bible, an open door speaks of service. So, if I asked for the father's wealth, I had better be doing the father's will and finishing the father's work.

And my father loves to give. So, if your heart's troubled tonight, just relax and say, I have a home in heaven. And I have a father in heaven.

Which leads us to verses 12 through 15. Now, I would not go this quickly, except I know you know these passages. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also.

And greater works than these he will do, because I go to my father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, keep my commandment. So, we have a heavenly home. That quiets my heart.

We have a heavenly father. That quiets my heart. And we have a heavenly privilege, the privilege of prayer.

I live on earth, but my citizenship is in heaven. I live on earth, but my savior is in heaven. I live on earth, but my hope is in heaven.

We live on earth, but our treasures are in heaven. We are a heavenly people on earth. Now, we don't belong here.

Have you ever stopped to think that everything in this world, just about everything is out of place? Jesus is out of place. He belongs on the throne of David down in Jerusalem. That straightened the mess out.

The devil is out of place. He belongs in hell. Church is out of place.

We belong in heaven. That's where our citizenship is, where our home is. Excuse me, but sinners are out of place.

They belong in hell. And they'd be there, except God is not willing that any should perish. And God is long suffering to us.

So, we're living down here in alien territory. You and I, as saints of God, citizens of heaven, are living in alien territory. We're like scuba divers.

God didn't make us to live underwater unless we're in a diving bell or a submarine or we got scuba equipment. You can live underwater if you've got connections above. Now, we're the same way here.

Do you have a rough time living in this world? I do. First place, I get sick of what I read and see and hear. It just makes you sick.

And the battles are heavy. The devil fights us. And if I didn't have a connection with my Father up in heaven, I couldn't make it.

Neither could you. And so, Jesus says, now, look, I know you're down here in alien territory, but I left you here to rescue as many people as you can. Talk to as many people as you can.

Rescue. Bring them along with you. But while you're down here, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I'm giving you the privilege of prayer. And you can come at any time in the name of Jesus. Go right through, past all the secretaries, past all the receptionists.

You can go right through and come into the presence of your Father. And we don't do it. We don't do it.

You announce a banquet or a dinner in a church, people come. Churches like this, you announce a Bible conference, people come. But oh, so many churches, you announce a prayer meeting and folks don't want to come.

And you wonder if they realize what a privilege it is. I was with some of our college kids for lunch today. Sorry I couldn't stay with you seniors.

And we drove up near the place where that drunken driver almost killed me. Back in 1966. I was going to put a plaque up there, but I didn't have permission.

But I was going around the curve. He came right at me going about 80 miles an hour sideways. I got two windshields in my face.

And the seatbelt saved my life. If you don't wear your seatbelt, you're stupid. I have spoken.

And I remember being in that ambulance and being driven to St. Elizabeth Hospital, not the new one, the old one. Did you ever pray in an ambulance? You hear, red light, you know, and the guy's making sure you're getting laid. Oh, bless the Lord for those people.

And one of our members was at my doctor's office that night. And when he got the call, she got the call, and she got on the call, and she called people. Some of you here tonight showed up at the hospital.

If I had had to go through some ritual, some routine, have a preacher or a priest or a rabbi or anybody, I couldn't have prayed. But I'm lying there. I can talk to God.

It's wonderful. And Jesus says, why would you have a troubled heart when you have a heavenly privilege of prayer? Well, he goes on to tell us that we should not have a troubled heart because we have a heavenly helper, verses 16 through 18, the Holy Spirit. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper.

That word is translated so many different ways. It's the Greek word perikletos, which means called to your side to help you. It's translated advocate, which means a lawyer.

My heart goes out to the lawyers. They all make jokes about them. Preachers get jokes, too.

But the word advocate means one who represents you, one who is at your side to help you. The King James Version, which is so beautiful, says the comforter. The trouble is people don't know what that word means.

People think of a blanket. The word comfort comes from two Latin words that mean with strength, fort, fortification, with strength, the comforter, the one who comes with strength. You know, my problem is I'm weak.

Samson, strongest man alive, weak, weak. David, who killed a giant and who fought multitudes of soldiers, weak, weak. And we're all weak.

Do you ever notice in your Bible, I'm sure you have, that when God's people fail, they fail in their strength. You ever notice that? Abraham's greatest strength was his faith. That's where he failed.

He lied about his wife. David's greatest strength was his integrity. That's where he failed.

He lied about his sin. Peter's greatest strength was his courage. That's where he failed.

A little girl said, aren't you one of those disciples? I am not. That's where he failed. A strength that knows itself to be strength is weakness.

And weakness that knows itself to be weakness is strength. When I'm weak, said Paul, I'm strong. And our Lord says there's no reason for me to have a troubled heart because I have a heavenly helper.

I will give you another helper. And the word another means another of the same kind. The Holy Spirit is to us what Jesus was to his disciples.

He said, I'm going back to heaven, but I'm going to send you another one just like myself. The difference is I have been with you. He is going to be in you.

So you'll never, never be without him. That's marvelous. So when I opened my Bible, the Holy Spirit's there to help me to study.

When I face temptation, the Holy Spirit's there to help me overcome. When I'm praying, the Holy Spirit's there to help me pray. Jude said, praying in the Holy Spirit.

When I seek to witness the Holy Spirit's there, you shall receive power and you shall be witnesses. Why should our hearts be troubled? We are never without the power of God. Unless we're sinning, unless we're rebelling, unless we don't take time to be holy, we have a heavenly home.

And because we have a heavenly home and our names are registered up there, then we have a heavenly father. And because we have a heavenly home and a heavenly father, we have this heavenly privilege of prayer. And we have this heavenly helper.

Verses 19 through 24. Now, some of you are going to say, is that in the Bible? What's there? It's been there a long time. 19 through 24.

Jesus says to us, now don't let your heart be troubled because you have a heavenly love within. This is an amazing paragraph. We'll not expound it in detail.

19 through 24, a little while longer and the world will see me no more. After his resurrection, Jesus was seen only by believers, except one situation where he appeared to one of his half brothers and led him to salvation. You will see me no more, but they will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you will live also.

Here is our Lord talking about his manifestation to his disciples. At that day, their day of resurrection, you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you. This is a marvelous thing.

It's beyond comprehension. The theologians have a big name for this, the reciprocal indwelling of Jesus and his people. What he simply means is that in the Holy Spirit who dwells with us, we are in Jesus and he is in the father and therefore we are in the father and Jesus is in us and the father is in us.

He's talking about a remarkable love relationship. Now, we Baptists don't like this. We're God's frozen people, but I want to affirm to you that I would much rather tone down a fanatic than resurrect a corpse.

Now, some folks have carried this too far, but some of us haven't gotten far enough. He who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. That's a remarkable statement.

People say, Jesus is not real to me. He says, I want to be real to you. I will not manifest myself to the world until I return.

When he comes to reign on earth, he's going to manifest himself. But I can manifest myself to you, not in a vision, not in a voice, no, but in that inward fellowship and communion of love. We have a heavenly love.

Look at verse 23. If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him, we, my father and I, and make our home with him. That's what Paul prays about in Ephesians 3. He said, I'm praying that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

And that word dwell means settle down and feel at home. Is there a relationship between you and the father and the son through the Holy Spirit, through the word, so that you, in your own quiet time, experience that love and share that love? That's a part of our heritage. Oh, you say you're getting fanatical.

No. Betty and I were with a couple whom we love much. And he looked at his watch and said, oh, I've got to make a trip.

I have to leave now. Reached over and took his wife's hand, shook it and left. I said, has it come to this? I don't know what he was thinking about.

Maybe he was just joking, but you don't do that. Can you imagine Pastor Wagner conducting a wedding? And when he comes to the time to pronounce some husband and wife, he says, you may now shake her hand. But that's our relationship to God.

We keep God at arm's length. Oh, no, no. I think some of the emotional problems some people have could be solved.

Just learn to love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, not just love for one another, but love for God. And so we have a heavenly love.

Why should I have a troubled heart when the father says, let me dwell in you? The son says, let me dwell in you. And then through the Holy Spirit, they dwell in me and I experience their love. Paul says in Romans 5, and we skip over it, that the love of God is lavishly poured into our heart.

It's not a drip, drip, drip kind of a thing, lavishly poured into our heart. Which leads us now to verse 27. Because of all of this, we ought to have a heavenly peace.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Now remember, peace does not mean the absence of war.

Peace does not mean the absence of trouble and storm and difficulty. No. Peace means the presence of adequate resources to meet this.

One of my favorite preachers is Phillips Brooks. Now, most people don't remember Phillips Brooks as a preacher. They remember him as the author of, the composer of Old Little Town of Bethlehem.

But Phillips Brooks could preach. Pastored a church in Boston that is still standing. In fact, there's a statue of him out in front of that church, addressing, preaching.

And behind him is a statue of Jesus with his hand on his shoulder. That's preaching. That's preaching.

Phillips Brooks looked at his congregation one Sunday, and this is what he said. Do not ask for easy lives. Pray to be better men and women.

Do not ask for tasks equal to your powers. Ask for powers equal to your tasks. I think of that every once in a while.

I say, Lord, I can't do this. Lord, why did this happen? You know I can't take this. And my father says to me, do you expect to grow? You want to be a baby all your life? I put you into this circumstance that you might draw upon all the resources that I've given you, and that's how I give you my peace.

Quickly, you notice that Jesus says, I don't give you this peace as the world gives. How does the world give peace? Through money and all these external things. How does Jesus give peace? Through relationships.

He says, now look, you get in the right relationship with God. He has everything you need, but don't expect what you need if you're not in a right relationship with him. The world gives peace by substitution.

Your grandson cries and says, oh, my dog ran away, or oh, my little toy broke. And you say, I'll get you another one. Good way to raise a juvenile delinquent, but we say, oh, I'll get you another one.

The world gives peace by substitution. Jesus gives peace by transformation. He doesn't take away that burden.

He transforms that burden. Jesus used a beautiful illustration. He says, you know, when a woman's about to give birth, she's in pain.

She's crying. She's in pain. And then a baby is born, and she's rejoicing.

The same baby that caused the pain caused the joy. See, it's not substitution. It's transformation.

And those of us who are carrying burdens and fighting battles, it's pain, pain. But that same burden that causes the pain will bring the joy. God brings peace by transformation, not by substitution.

And so there's no reason why I should not have peace in my life. All around me is war. Jesus said, in the world, you're going to have tribulation.

Now, some people don't preach that. You get the right people on television and radio, and you'll hear just the opposite. But my Bible says, in the world, you're going to have family tribulation, medicinal tribulation, economic tribulation.

But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. And here are all these resources you have.

And they start with a heavenly home. If I didn't have a heavenly home, I wouldn't have all these heavenly resources. And who can the journey when the road leads home? It's having your home.

When you get to the end of the way, is that where you're going to be? Or don't you know? Now, if you don't know, you better find out. And tonight's a good time to do that. Jesus says, I am the way, not one of many.

I am the truth. Don't go searching anymore. I am the life.

I can give you that life if you'll believe my truth. And then you'll have a home in heaven. Heavenly Father, we rejoice that we can call you Father.

And I pray now that this word will be applied to hearts and that people will make the decisions they need to make. Some of us, Father, who have been excusing our lack of peace, blaming it on everything else except our own unbelief, help us to draw upon these resources. And thank you, Father.

Thank you that heaven is our home and that one day we shall leave this world and be with you. Hallelujah. What a Savior.

Amen.