Our Gospel reading is from John chapter 14 verses 1 through 12 and then again 24 through 27. Here's God's word. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father that that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. Verse 24, He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me all I have spoken to you while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Let's pray together. Lord, as we come to Your Word, we ask that You would bless the teaching, that You would open our hearts and minds, that we would believe and be more like Jesus, in whose name we pray. One of the things I have noticed about Nova Scotia, it can be cold outside and I am still warm. So I am taking off my coat. It has something to do with humidity. At the beginning and the end of our passage, Jesus says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. What is it that troubles your heart? There is a different kind of heart trouble. The disciples have heart trouble because it says they have troubled hearts. They have troubled hearts partly because of what has happened just previously that we read about last week in chapter 13. Verse 21 says, After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in His Spirit and testified, Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke. Then later, in verse 36, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered, Where I am going, you cannot follow me, but you will follow me afterwards. Peter said, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. So the disciples were troubled. They were troubled about the things that they had heard Jesus say. They are still in the same room. And the word says, Jesus told them, Do not be troubled. Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in Me. Jesus is talking about leaving. They have left home and family and sacrificed financially, and even put themselves in danger for Him. And now He is leaving. And you have to believe their hearts were troubled. What is it that troubles your heart? What is it that when you think about it, twist your insides out? It could be an illness, either of yourself or a loved one. I know my mom died a long time ago, 15 years ago, but for several years before she died, she had arthritis. It was really bad. She had to take about 25 pills a day. My dad just was constantly troubled about her. So it could be a loved one. It could be you have an illness, and your hearts are troubled. It could be your career, or your lack of one. It could be a relationship that has gone sour, maybe with a spouse. You might think, I married the wrong person. Or maybe you are afraid that you will never meet anyone who will marry you. It could be a relationship gone bad with a friend, or with a parent, or with a child. It might be the state of your finances. All of us are concerned at one point or another. At least most of us are about our finances. And if we allow it to, it can trouble our hearts. It might be the state of things in the world. You don't have to look very far to notice in the news that there is trouble almost everywhere you look. Ukraine is still under attack from Russia. People have died. Families are threatened. People have come here to get away from it, but are troubled in their hearts about the situation back home and with their families. Gaza is the same way. It has been an ongoing difficulty for decades. And there is trouble there still. The places become almost uninhabitable. Other places in the Middle East have fallen on hard times, Lebanon for one. Here at home, we have our own troubles. We have an election coming up at some point. We might have troubled hearts because of the economy. Now there is the threat of tariffs from the US. And people are troubled about that. I've noticed that there are a lot more Canadian flags out than usual. Either that or I'm noticing them now. It seems like there's more. Some things that are less important and trivial. Maybe your sports team isn't doing well and you're troubled about that. Sorry about that, Canada. In case you missed it, the US beat them last night in hockey. You could be afraid that you might lose your job or not find a job. All of these things, all of them, can turn us inside out when we think about them. What does Jesus have for our troubled hearts? Remember, as we've said, the disciples are in a very precarious situation. In modern day language, they have totally identified with Jesus. They've been seen with him everywhere. They have left their jobs. They have given their loyalties to him. And now the chief priests are determined to kill him. And they're thinking probably us too, if we're the closest to him. They want to stamp out the rebellion as they see it. And now Jesus seems to be saying he's leaving soon. And they're naturally thinking, well, what's to become of us? And so their hearts are troubled. Well, Jesus, in our passage, has three things for his disciples. And I think they apply to us as well. He offers these three things for their troubled hearts. First, he offers himself. Then he offers his home. Then he offers his peace. He offers himself, he says, trust in God, trust also in me. He says he will send his spirit. And what Jesus is saying is, I'm enough for you. Whatever it is that troubles your heart, whatever it is that you think is so important, I'm enough for you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you, he says at the end of Matthew. In Hebrews chapter 13, that same idea is repeated that he will never leave or forsake us. So whatever troubles your heart, whatever turns you inside out, he says, I am the answer. I am enough. Trust in God. Trust in me. I will send my spirit. Is this hard for you to believe? It was for the disciples. Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have sent Him. And even though Jesus says this in response to their troubled hearts, Philip says, Lord, show us the Father, it's enough for us. In other words, Jesus, you're not enough. You're not enough for us. We want to see the Father. Jesus said, don't you know me, Philip? Even I've been with you for such a long time, Philip has seen all the miracles. He's seen everything, as we've said before. He's seen Jesus walk on the water. He's seen Him still the waves and the wind. He's seen Him feed 5,000 and 4,000. He's seen Him heal disease, leprosy, other things. He's seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead. And He still says, show us the Father, it will be enough for us. Jesus says, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Philip thought he needed more than Jesus. Jesus plus. And we're very much like that. We need Jesus plus. Some of us think Jesus plus a great marriage. Complete romantic fulfillment, whatever that means to you. Jesus plus children that behave. Good luck with that. Children plus the perfect church or the perfect pastor. Jesus plus. Jesus plus health. You know, the saying goes, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Well, the answer is, if you don't have Jesus, you don't have anything. Maybe your Jesus plus is Jesus in a job I like. Jesus in a full bank account. But you see, Jesus plus doesn't work. There's all kinds of religions that some of them call themselves Christian and they say, yes, you Jesus important. Jesus plus, you have to do these rituals. We're studying Galatians and the men's Bible study. And that's what they had come to. Jesus plus circumcision. Jesus plus keeping the Jewish dietary laws. Jesus is important, but you need the other things too. So it's Jesus. Excuse me. Jesus plus. Jesus says you've been with me so long that you do not know that I am enough for you. One minister tells the story about a teenage girl who was particularly down. She'd grown up in the church. She'd been in the church. She'd gone to church with her parents her whole life. She had professed faith in Christ. She'd been baptized. She had taken communion. She was going to youth group at the church. But she was troubled. So she asked. She was 15 or 16. She asked to meet with the pastor. So she came in and she was telling the pastor her woes. Apparently she had never been asked out on a date. And for a 15 or 16 year old girl, that's maybe not the best thing for her in her own mind. And the pastor said, let me see if I understand you. You believe that Jesus is the son of God, don't you? She said yes. You believe he lived the perfect sinless life in your place. Yes. You believe that he died on the cross for your sins. Yes, I believe that. Do you believe that he rose from the dead on the third day? Yes, I believe that. Do you believe he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father? And that he intercedes on your behalf? Yes. And you believe when you finally leave this earth that you will join him in heaven for all of eternity? She said yes. But what does it matter if the boys won't date me? She had turned her social life into her highest good. Into that which is most important to her. It's not that it's unimportant, but she had made it most important. And when you make something most important, other than Jesus, it's an idol. You see, when we think of idolatry, we think of the Old Testament where Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments and when he came back down, the Israelites had made a golden calf and they were worshipping that. We think of idols like that. We think of idols like Baal. We think of statues. But we can have idols. I mean, none of us would ever sit in front of an idol and be occupied with it for hours on end, would we? So none of you have a television, right? You see, we can make an idol out of anything. The thing that's most important to us, the thing that is our highest good. If it's not Jesus, it's an idol. And all of us are guilty. All of us are guilty at some point or another of idolatry. But Jesus says, I'm enough for you. You don't need all of that. It's nice if you have it. There's nothing wrong with having some of it. But it can't be the most important thing to you because Jesus is enough. So first he offers himself. The second thing he offers is his home. He says, in my father's house or many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you, I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may be where I am. Has the thought of heaven thrill you? Do you look forward to it? I think the older that we get, certainly that's the case for me, the older that I get, the more aware I am of much more life has passed me by on this earth than I have left on this earth. At least I assume so. That would be quite a trick if it's otherwise. But does the thought of heaven thrill you? Do you look forward to it? The Scripture says, I has not seen, here has not heard all that God has prepared for those who love Him. If you're the average North American Christian, heaven doesn't excite you. Why? Because we still think, a lot of us do, that we can make a heaven on this earth. Heaven equals for us this earth just the way I like it. Tracy and I remember when we were on staff at Campus Crusade for Christ many, many years ago in the middle 80s. And we were at a conference, a retreat with all the other staff at the end of the year. And this one young woman was talking about her problem. She said, my problem is that I have to have my optimum comfort level at all times. See, for her, she could have heaven on earth if that was the case. We want the right people, the right music, the right place, all the things I like. That's heaven. Jesus can be there too. John Owens, famous preacher from hundreds of years ago, had 12 children. He and his wife had 12 children. They lost 11 of them before adulthood, before the children reached adulthood. And the one girl that survived died in her 20s. You might say, people were used to that then. I have to tell you, you never get used to it. My grandmother experienced the loss of a baby. And I think the reason that older people tend to be more comforted by the thought of heaven is not only because they think they're closer to it. That's part of it, but it's not all of it. It's because they've seen the reality of life and all its disappointments and tragedies. And they realize there must be something better. My grandmother died when she was 84, and she had lost a baby boy when she was in her 30s, so it had been 50 years. And the last time Tracy and I saw her, we were talking to her, and for some reason that subject came up, and she started crying. It had been over 50 years since she lost that little boy, and it still broke her heart. Still troubled her heart. But Jesus offers his home, and heaven should excite us. The thought of going to heaven should motivate us. It should put earth in proper perspective. It should help us realize that spending all of eternity with Jesus is because he's enough. So he offers himself, he offers his home, he also offers his peace. He says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. The peace that Jesus Christ is born to bring is the peace between God and us. I'm going to read a passage from Ephesians chapter 2. Paul writes beginning in verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He is, he himself is our peace. Who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. By abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one man, thus establishing peace. And might reconcile them in one body to God through the cross, having put death to enmity. And he came and preached peace to those who were far away and peace to those who were near. The kind of peace he's talking about is the peace between God and man, the peace that exists because of what Christ has done in his life and his death and his resurrection, because all of us are at enmity. Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we were enemies of God because of our sin. And because of Christ we now have peace with God because we've been reconciled, because our sin has been taken upon our Savior and the wrath of God has been poured out on him. Paul goes on to write in verse 18, chapter 2 of Ephesians, For through him we have both access and one Spirit to the Father. So we're no longer strangers and aliens, but are fellow citizens of the saints and are part of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God and the Spirit. There's always a cost to peace. The cost was the cross. Peace with God. Peace of mind. Peace between peoples. These are all obtained through Jesus Christ because of his life, death and resurrection. Do you want that peace? Do you want Jesus to be your highest good? Do you want to be looking forward to going to heaven, the home of Jesus, to be with him? Do you want the peace that only he can offer? Revelation 3 says, I stand at the door and knock, Jesus speaking. If anyone hears my voice, opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him and he with me, the one who conquers, and this is amazing, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also have conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He was an ear to hear. Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Jesus says, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for the peace that is ours in Christ Jesus. Thank you that you are enough for us. Thank you that we can look forward to going to your heavenly home. And we pray that as we celebrate your salvation in the song that you will bless us. In Jesus name, Amen.