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(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to
chapter 14 of our study together to the gospel of John. This is day one of our
look at chapter 14. We're going to focus in on verses one to three today.

And really the question in these verses in this entire chapter is, what do you
do when you have heart trouble? We live in a world where we have heart trouble.
And the night before Jesus died, and these words are spoken the night before
Jesus died, Jesus knew that his followers' hearts were troubled.

I want to invite you this week to sit back as we go through this incredible
chapter in drive time devotions and hear from Jesus where you find hope for a
troubled heart. Just get the sense that you're sitting there and Jesus is
looking into your eyes and he's saying to you in the midst of a time of having a
troubled heart, don't let your heart be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in
me.

In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told
you, but I'm going to prepare a place for you. Sense that Jesus is speaking not
only to his disciples that night as he was, but also to you as he was.

In John chapter 14 verse one, Jesus started this talk with his disciples then
and now by saying, do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also
in me. And the picture behind the Greek word for trouble that Jesus uses in this
verse is the picture of a stormy sea.

All of us can understand that one. What it feels like to feel like there's a
storm going on in my heart. Everyone else may be aware of it, no one else may be
aware of it, but you know what's going on.

And the hearts of these disciples were troubled that night. Why were their
hearts troubled? Same reason ours are.

They were troubled because of failure. Jesus had just spoken to them. We looked
at it last week about the fact that one of them would betray him.

They had these feelings of failure and that troubled their heart. They had
feelings of confusion. I don't know about you, but that troubles my heart as
much as anything.

Not understanding what God is doing, not understanding where things are going.
And they were confused as Jesus was talking about going someplace and they
didn't know where he was going. They had feelings of disappointment.

They had these dreams of ruling with Jesus. They had these dreams of not only
Jesus having a triumphal entry, but also a triumphant victory over all the evil
powers in that day. And they would somehow rule with him.

And now Jesus is talking about going away and they can't go with him. And they
had to be feeling deep disappointment. And they had fear.

They had fear of the Roman government. They had fear of the religious leaders.
They had fear of their own feelings.

They had troubled hearts. And I don't know about you, but I found that there are
times in my life when my heart feels rock solid. There's other times when it
seems to turn to jello.

I've got a troubled heart. And one of the questions you and I have to ask before
we really take a good hard look at what Jesus teaches us here is, what is my
strategy for dealing with a troubled heart? What's your strategy?

Do you ignore it? That's one of my favorites. Just pretend it's not there.

Pretend I don't even have a troubled heart. Ignore it and it will go away. It
never does, but that's one strategy.

Or do you hide from it? There's a lot of ways to try to hide from a troubled
heart. Seemingly good ways in terms of morality.

Oh, I'll just watch TV or I'll go to a movie. So you sit and you click through
channel after channel after channel, but it doesn't do anything for your
troubled heart. When the TV turns off, the troubled heart is still there.

Other people choose a lot more dangerous ways to hide from it. It might be
drugs. It might be sex.

It might be drinking. It might be, there's a whole list of things. Ways we try
to hide from our troubled hearts that get us in more trouble.

Some people, they try to hide from a troubled heart by giving other people
trouble. You yell at everybody around you. You try to make other people feel
worse thinking that's going to make you feel better.

At least you're not alone, you think. And none of that works. What was Jesus's
strategy for dealing with a troubled heart?

Trust. Don't let your heart be troubled, Jesus said. Trust in God.

Trust also in me. The interesting question about a troubled heart is this. Is
there anything I can do about it?

Is there anything you can do about it? And Jesus here says, yes. There is
something you can do about it because he tells us, do not let your hearts be
troubled.

There is a choice that I can make that you can make. In fact, in this chapter,
Jesus is going to talk about those choices that we can make that cause our hearts
to not be troubled. Let not.

How do I make that choice? The literal idea here is stop letting your heart be
troubled. John 14 is one of the secrets when you understand this passage for not
letting your heart be troubled.

I've been in a lot of funerals. I've spoken in a lot of funerals. And I have
found at funerals when people's hearts are troubled, there are two passages from
scripture that have the power like none other to calm troubled hearts.

Psalm 23 in the Old Testament. The Lord is my shepherd. And here, John 14 in the
New Testament.

Jesus's words, don't let your heart be troubled. John 14, it's a manual for
stress management. John 14 is in many ways Jesus's last will and testament.

He's going to die the next day. And if you look through John 14, study it
carefully, and you look for the words I will or you will, you'll find that the
word will is used 27 times in John 14. Jesus is saying in this chapter, this is
what I will do for you.

This is my will for your life. That's why I call it Jesus's last will and
testament. He says, here's how to not let your heart be troubled.

And it's important to understand as we begin our look at this that Jesus is not
condemning our troubled hearts. He's instead commanding us to look to Him to
calm our troubled hearts. Is it wrong to have a troubled heart?

Would Jesus condemn that? Well, absolutely not. Jesus's heart was troubled.

Just last week in John chapter 13, we took a look at the fact that Jesus said,
my heart is very troubled, using the same word that He's using here. Jesus is
not saying you'll never have a troubled heart. He knows we will from time to
time.

Jesus is telling us what to do when it happens, how to stop letting your heart
be troubled. When you feel like you're going to break down or blow up inside, what
do you do? Jesus says you trust.

That's the best advice you'll ever receive. And then He gets more specific. In
fact, the next five days, we're going to look at 12 specific things that Jesus told
us to do when our heart is troubled to stop letting our heart be troubled.

Beginning with number one in these first few verses of John 14, what do you do
when your heart's troubled? When your heart is troubled, you think about home.
Think about home.

Here's what Jesus had to say in John 14 verses two and three. In my father's
house are many rooms, many mansions. 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, also where I am. Jesus here is
talking about the fact that we can look forward to home.

Home is a place of security. As a child, we all look back to either a place of
security that we were given by our parents, a great gift, or a place of security
that we did not get. But here's the good news.

The greatest place of security in our lives is not the home that we look back
to. It's the home that we look forward to. It's our hope for the future.

It's our home together with God. Jesus says in my father's house are many rooms,
many mansions, not separate, many. Now some people look at this and they have
questions.

Many rooms, does that mean I just get one room? Or does this mean a whole house?
Does a mansion mean a really big house?

What does this mean? And that's not really the point. The point is there's
plenty of room for you.

Many rooms. There's plenty of room for all of us. Enough room to enjoy eternity
together with him.

And when Jesus talks about this place that he's preparing for us, he says, he's
the one preparing this place. He's preparing a place for you. Now I don't know
all that that means yet.

I don't know if it has something to do with the purpose that he has for you and
for me and all of eternity. I don't know if it has something to do with the
exact place that I'm going to live and it's designed around my dreams and hopes and
aspirations. Some of them that I may not even know yet, but I do know this.

I do know that Jesus is the one saying this. I will prepare a place for you. And
Jesus, he knows me better than anyone else.

And he is the one that's getting a place ready in eternity that exactly fits
you. It's home. Where is history headed?

It's headed right here. John chapter 14 verses one to three. I am preparing a
place for you so you can be with me where I am.

Sometimes you open up the papers in the morning or click onto an internet news
service and you get a troubled heart. You read about things that are happening
around the world. You read about things that are happening in your own city and
it troubles your heart.

What Jesus is saying in John 14 one to three is that this is where history is
headed. The final headline for all believers is a single word, home. That's the
headline of your life for all of eternity.

And that is hope for a troubled heart. There's not one of us when we talk about
heart trouble, they can't think of something that we're facing right now that
troubles our hearts. Our hearts get troubled in this world.

And it may seem little. I've noticed that the heart trouble that tends to stay
with me the longest can be the little things. That's embarrassing, but it's
true.

The truth is God knows that your heart is hurting right now. He knows it. It may
be the biggest issue, the biggest struggle you've ever faced in your life.

And he knows your heart is hurting over that. And Jesus says, don't let your
heart be troubled. Why?

Because you have a home to look forward to. Let's take a moment to talk to him
about that right now. As we pray, envision Jesus sitting down with you as he sat
down with those disciples that night.

Envision Jesus looking you in the eye as he looked those disciples in the eye
that night. And hear Jesus saying to you, let not your heart be troubled. Trust
in God.

Trust also in me. Jesus, help us to trust you. Help us to trust you with our
troubles.

Instead of pretending that they're not there or running away from them, help us
to trust you with our troubles. Because you are a God who can give us peace. We
pray for your peace.

In your name, Jesus. Amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to hear Jesus answering some questions about home in verses four to
11.