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 As they huddled together in the upper room, Christ's disciples were anxious about the future.

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 And that was understandable. There were a lot of scary things on the horizon.

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 But Jesus didn't want fear to rule over them.

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 And so, in today's reading from John 14, He reminded them that everything was going to be alright.

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 And that a great future was just around the corner.

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 Is your heart troubled? If so this morning, then you are in the right place. It's been said that

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 this text, especially the first six verses of chapter 14, are one of the most popular passages

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 in the entirety of the Bible. And the reason why is because many people come to the Bible with a

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 problem in their life and they're looking for answers. And they go through concordances and

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 Google and all these different things. Many times they arrive at this text because this text

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 promises hope that we all need. We might need it at different intervals and different quantities,

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 but in this room today, surely there is someone here, if not many someones, who desperately need

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 hope. And we see it in this text. However, we see it in the context of a dark and scary night.

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 As we said before, today's text occurs during the night of the Last Supper. And the fact that we

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 call it the last supper is somewhat foreboding in of itself. This was the meal that Christ shared

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 with his disciples in the upper room, to which John gives five chapters in discussing. And as

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 he talks to the disciples, there is a specter in the room, so to speak, a specter of death and

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 betrayal and denial that will come up many times, including the very text we're looking at this

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 morning. So in today's text, Christ's disciples, on the one hand, they're encouraged by the presence

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 and breaking bread with their Lord and Savior

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 and their Rabbi and their Christ and their Messiah.

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 That's a great night for anyone.

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 On the other hand, they had a sense

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 that something was about to happen.

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 And indeed it would, because someone at their very table

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 would be betraying Jesus that very night.

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 And the rest of them, like sheep to the four winds,

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 would be scattered eminently.

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 But it's with that knowledge of what's about to go down

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 and it's looking scared people in the eyeballs

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 that in today's text we're going to see

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 that Jesus is going to gather them close and he's going to say, hey guys, guys, guys, guys,

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 let not your heart be troubled. You have a lot of reason for it to be troubled as you might this

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 very day here in Gulfport, Mississippi, have a lot of reason for your heart to be troubled. You might

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 have anxiety and illnesses and diagnosis and financial problems, relationship problems, what

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 have you. You might have any number of that. You might have all of that. I don't know. But the same

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 words that apply to the disciples who are about to face the scariest set of circumstances they'd

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 ever faced up until that point in their entire life. The same words that Jesus applied to them,

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 said to them, encouraged them with, apply to you and I. And God willing, he'll use this time to not

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 only teach us what happened 2,000 some odd years ago, but how it helps us and encourages us with

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 what we're facing this very week. All right, let's return now to John 13. And as we usually do,

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 we're going to go through it kind of bite-sized until we get to the end of this passage. Let's

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 look at the first three verses. Let's look at verses 33 through 35. Again, this occurs during

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 the context of the Last Supper itself, as his disciples are beginning to get increasingly

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 anxious. He says this, verse 33, little children, I shall be with you a little longer. You will seek

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 me, and as I said to the Jews, where I'm going, you cannot come. So now I say to you, a new

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 commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you would also

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 love one another. And by this, everyone will know that you're my disciples, if you have love for

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 one another. All right, let's stop there. If you're a small child, and at one point we all were,

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 but if you're a small child, one of the harder things that you might hear is if your father

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 came to you, a father that you love, someone that is close, someone that is dear, someone that's

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 kind, someone that looks after you, someone that watches over you, someone that teaches you and

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 trains you and says, it's time for me to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to depart. And where I'm

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 going, you can't come too. That would be hard to hear. Well, in this context, it's possibly even

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 more hard to hear. With that said, a few verses after he says this hard thing, he's going to say,

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 but, but, but I'm not going away forever. In fact, where I'm going, it's good that I go because I'm

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 going to be with the father. And while I'm there, I'm going to be doing something that's just

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 wonderful. I am going to be preparing a place for you to join me, that where I am, there you may be

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 also. And we'll see that text here in just a few moments. But before he gets to that good news,

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 that reunions around the corner, that soon enough they'll all be together again, before he gets to

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 that hope of a reunion, he lays down a new law. He calls it a law. It's really an old law. It's

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 one of the oldest laws that we love one another. But it has a new emphasis in the context of the

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 last supper. Love one another as I have loved you. That's how you are to be known. Remember his

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 disciples had just argued about which one of them was going to be the greatest in heaven. Literally

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 at the very table, they had been arguing about which one of us is the greatest, right? Jesus

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 says, knock it off, guys. Knock it off. Mary did the foot washing to demonstrate servanthood and

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 how this is supposed to work. Well, now he looks at them and he looks at betrayers and deniers and

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 he looks at doubting Thomases and the like and he says, all right, I'm going to go, but, but I'm

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 to come back for you. And in the meantime, let's work on this together. Let's work on this. Let's

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 work on this commandment that you would love one another. And as you love one another, as you in

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 this room love one another in the midst of what's about to go down, as you love one another, then

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 the people outside this room, they will know that you are Christians. You will know that you are

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 disciples of the Christ. They will know that you are mine. If you love them, you love one another

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 as I have loved you. Now, here's the thing. There is no law that sounds easier at face value to keep

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 than that. Love one another. All right. Check. Got it. How many of us just heard that and we

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 didn't for a moment have any problem with that? And we think, yep, yep. Love, love. Sounds good.

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 I'm all for love. Loving one another sounds fun. It's the easiest law in the world to nod your head

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 to, to accept at face value. And it is the hardest law to keep. It's the easiest law to accept in the

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 abstract. Love one another. And it is the hardest law to apply when someone is being so unlovable

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 in your world. When a co-worker, a neighbor, a friend, someone in church, what have you, is just

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 being unlovable, that's the hardest person to love. Again, in the abstract, love one another, we'll all

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 nod our heads to, but then if we say, how about that guy, that lady, that person, that neighbor, that

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 co-worker, that whoever, then our brains explode. It's much more difficult. However, however, Christ

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 emphasized the importance of this. He says, this is critical, guys. He says, I've been teaching you, and

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 you've been accepting propositional truth. Remember he asked Peter, you know, who do people say I am?

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 And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, amen, Peter, you got it.

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 Your theology is squared away. Good job, Peter. In the abstract, understanding and accepting

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 propositional truth is not the hard part. In just a few verses, Peter, he would say, I will follow

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 you to the end, I'll follow you to the end, I'll follow you to the end. And we would all say that

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 in the abstract, the difficulty is in the particular. With that said, this idea of loving

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 one another. We are to love one another even when it's difficult, even when it's hard. And when we

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 do so, more than almost anything else that we can do, that demonstrates Christ in us. That

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 demonstrates that we are Christians when we forgive one another, when we love one another,

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 when we care for one another, when we extend our arms to one another, even when we're given 10,

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 20, 50 reasons not to, which happens all the time. But that said, this is what Jesus is imparting to

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 Remember, he's only got yea much time left.

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 In hospice scenarios where someone is about to pass in a short amount of time, what do they do?

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 They concentrate their words on that which is most critical.

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 If you only had the next five minutes to tell your spouse, your child, your children, what have you,

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 the most important things to you, that which is most near and dear to your own hearts,

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 what would you say to them?

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 Well, this is what Jesus says to those who are near and dear to him with the remaining time that he had left.

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 He said, guys, no matter what comes, no matter what happens, love one another.

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 And as you do so in this midst, in the nucleus of the church, in the upper room,

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 and in the church 2,000 years later in Gulfport, Mississippi,

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 as you do this, as you demonstrate love for one another in this way,

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 that's how we convey the reality, the truth, the strength of Christendom

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 and the very faith that we profess.

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 Love one another.

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 All right, let's look at verses 36 through 38.

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 Now Simon Peter said to him,

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 where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where I'm going you cannot follow me now, but you shall

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 follow me afterward. And Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my

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 life for your sake. Remember in the abstract it's easy. I will lay down my life for your sake. And

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 Jesus answered him, will you? Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly, Peter, take

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 to the bank. Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me

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 three times. You're not going to stumble 10 years from now. You're going to stumble tonight.

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 The very things that you say in the abstract, like you can uphold this in the abstract,

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 you're going to fail in the specifics in just hours from now. Three times you're going to do

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 this. Not even once or twice, which would be bad enough. You're going to do this three times.

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 All right. Now, the interesting thing here is in the previous verses, verses 33 through 35,

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 Jesus had just given the disciples this new commandment, this new point of emphasis, right?

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 Love one another as I have loved you, and by this all men will know that you are Christians. They'll

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 know you're Christians by the love you have. With that said, what does Peter do? Does Peter linger

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 on that for a moment? Does Peter go, huh, let's talk about love here, Jesus. Tell us more about

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 love. No. It's almost like it went in one ear and out the other, because he doesn't even talk about

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 it, refer to it, think about it. It's like he waits for Jesus to get done with what he's saying, to get

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 back to a different point that he's stuck on. And what he's stuck on is when Jesus said earlier in

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 verse 33 that I'm going, and you can't follow. Nothing about this new commandment and love and

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 all that really resonated, or at least it didn't come up in the next words out of Peter's mouth.

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 Instead, he says, what's going on? Where are you going? And if you go anywhere, Jesus, you can rest

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 assured I'm going with you. I'm your man, right? You know, I'm Peter. I'm the rock, the rock. Even

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 amongst his fellow disciples, he had to be known as the brave one, the rock. He does a lot of brave

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 things. I mean, there's no doubt he has strength and courage and character and resilience in the

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 life. And so he looks at himself and he sees himself as one. He's not going to let Jesus go

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 anyplace that he can't go. He's going to be his right hand man. So he says, I will lay down my

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 life for your sake, not realizing that the gospel is about the exact opposite. The gospel is about

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 Jesus laying down his life for Peter's sake. So Peter tries to inadvertently supplant or reverse

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 exactly what's about to go down. Now, again, that sort of courage and faithfulness is good.

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 We want to think that we would do the same thing. I mean, if you were there at the upper room,

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 you'd like to think that you would stand tall right to the end, that if anyone's going to take

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 Jesus, they're going to have to do it over your dead body, that you would be that sort of man

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 or woman. Well, I don't know how we would be, what we would do, but we know this much,

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 that Peter felt convicted, assured that he would act in a certain way. But when the moment came,

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 that's not what happened. When his courage was tested, his courage would prove insufficient,

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 weak. And Peter would deny his Savior three times. You see this, if you look in Luke chapter 22,

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 you'll see the denials, denials three times. You know, after which, what's fascinating,

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 the third time that Peter denies Jesus, you know what happens that very moment?

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 well two things really one is that jesus looks right at him jesus looked right and that look

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 had to resonate in peter's heart to the rest of his days he probably never forgot that look

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 the second thing is that the rooster crowed so with that said that's what was about to go down

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 and let me just i guess add another point as we said a few months ago you know in the abstract

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 faithfulness always seems so easy you ever hear the song the hymn we sing it sometimes you know

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 I surrender all.

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 I surrender all.

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 I tell you I'm never going to sing and then I do it.

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 What am I doing?

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 I surrender all.

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 Look at the earlier song that we sang this morning.

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 Look at the words that you sang to glorify your God

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 that said, I give you not a mite would I withhold.

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 I give you everything, right?

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 Do you?

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 You see what I mean?

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 I surrender all.

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 I give you everything.

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 I withhold nothing.

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 We sing and confess and profess and say,

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 and at a certain level we believe that we are this thing,

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 this image of ourselves, that we're these pious, devout, and holy saints,

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 and when push comes to shove, we're going to do the right thing.

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 Well, maybe, maybe, maybe not.

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 Be careful that the self-image you have of yourself

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 and how you would respond and the faith that you have,

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 be careful that you only analyze it in the abstract

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 in which it's never tested or tried.

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 And be very diligent when it is tested and tried to say,

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 how did I do?

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 When this situation came up in my family life, in my marriage,

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 when this situation came up with my children, when this situation came up in church,

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 how did I do? Did I demonstrate the love of the commandment that Jesus gave to love one another

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 as he loved me? Did I do that in this context? It's important to analyze the specifics in order

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 to see whether you are truly applying the faith that you will nod your head to in the abstract.

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 All right, so with that said here, the moment in time that we're coming to in verses 33 through 36,

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 and everything that was going to follow, as we said earlier this morning, this is the scariest

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 time in the disciples' lives up to that point. And they'd had scares. They had had all sorts of

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 bumps in the road across the three years of Christ's ministry, and I'm sure earlier in their

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 lives too. But nothing matched up with this. Nothing matched up. And part of the reason

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 nothing matched up with this is because their leader, their El Capitan, their main guide, Jesus,

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 had just said he was going to depart. And not just he was going to depart, but he had told

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 them in other intervals that this departure involved death. He was going to die. He had told

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 them this. And at some level, you had to say, if I'm a disciple of the guy who's about to die, am I

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 going to die too? And that was very possible. Why? Because the enemies were all around. Remember,

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 Peter was so worried that he might die too, that what did he do when people said, hey, aren't you

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 with that guy? Nope, not me, not me. He had anxiety and fear that he would be killed. If they went

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 after Jesus, nothing was going to stop them from taking him out. And the same was true of the other

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 disciples. They were fearful for their lives at this point. Beyond that, Jesus was going someplace

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 that they wouldn't be able to come to. And there was anxiety with that because as disciples of the

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 rabbi, they had gone wherever he'd gone for the period of three years. Literally wherever he went,

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 they went. And this is a moment of separation. And they say, oh, that doesn't sound so great.

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 Furthermore, Jesus had just explained to them

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 that I've got to go somewhere, and where I'm going, you can't go too.

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 And oh, by the way, there's a betrayer in our midst.

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 One of you is not who he says or thinks that he is.

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 A betrayer is in the midst, and oddly enough,

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 one of them had just been sent out by Jesus to go and do,

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 and whatever he'd do, do quickly.

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 Jesus told the betrayer that we know as Judas Iscariot.

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 And in a couple weeks, on Wednesday night,

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 we're going to give a whole class just on Judas.

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 So the Pharisees, the Romans are coming.

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 The betrayer is in their midst.

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 Jesus is predicted, prophesied, not only betrayal and his death,

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 but that they would fall apart and deny him even that very evening.

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 If there was reason to be anxious in their entire life, this was the moment.

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 This was the cause for that.

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 But as Jesus looks at that, he delivers this news.

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 And he can see just on their faces, you know, all the colors drained down.

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 I mean, he said some difficult things.

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 Earlier in the meal, there'd been the washing of feet.

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 You know, there's the new covenant, and my blood was shed for you, the Lord's Supper, and all that great stuff.

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 There was a lot of wonderful, tender, kind, gentle, blessed moments at the Last Supper.

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 But at this point, Jesus said, it's about to go down.

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 And so they were anxious, and Jesus looked at them.

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 He saw that they were anxious.

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 And again, Scripture doesn't say this, but I fully anticipate it would have been the case.

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 I would have expected at that moment he'd bring them close.

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 They're already reclining at table, which is not the same thing as sitting at the table.

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 Reclining at table, it's as if Jesus brings them even closer in this context.

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 He looks in the eyeballs, and he says this,

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 Let's look at these verses, our remaining verses, verses 1 through 6,

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 to see the promise he gave to them and the promise he gives to us if we are troubled this very morning.

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 Verse 1,

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 Let not your heart be troubled.

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 You've been given a lot of reason to be troubled,

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 but let it not be so.

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 Let not your heart be troubled.

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 You believe in God.

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 You believe in God.

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 Believe also in me.

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 In my Father's house are many mansions.

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 If it were not so, I would have told you.

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 I go to prepare a place for you.

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 And if I go and prepare a place for you,

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 I will come again.

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 I will receive you to myself,

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 that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. Verse 5,

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 Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? And Jesus

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 said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

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 All right, and my Father's house are many mansions. Different translations will render that slightly

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 differently, but no matter what translation you use, it sounds pretty grand. But it's still hard

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 to understand, if we just linger for a moment, let's talk about heaven just for a moment before

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 we circle back to the rest of it. When you think about heaven, what do you picture? What do you

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 picture? Well, whatever you picture, whatever you might imagine is far insufficient or far less than

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 the reality. If you remember the thief on the cross, the thief on the cross, the one who came

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 to faith, not the other guy, the one who came to faith and looks at Jesus and says, Lord, Lord,

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 remember me when you come into your kingdom. What does Jesus say to them? Truly this day you will

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 be with me in in paradise in paradise now the reality is whether you're talking about paradise

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 whether you're talking about mansions whether you're talking about streets of gold to come up

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 in revelation the reality is that these are word pictures to express something that you cannot

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 understand in a way that you might understand you can picture of mansions and streets of gold and

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 the like but these are terms these are terms that christ uses to express something far greater than

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 itself. I've said before that streets of gold, when we get to heaven, will there be a street of gold

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 somewhere? Probably. But, but the real picture of streets of gold is not so much that there's

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 literally asphalt that's made of gold everywhere in heaven. It's not so much that as it is to

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 express to you and I that that which is most mundane, when you go out in the parking lot,

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 you will not give a second thought to the parking lot. I mean, you might now that I'm bringing it up,

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 but otherwise you wouldn't have given a second thought to the very stuff you're trotting upon.

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 not a second thought as you left the church and went out on the road. Even as you're driving on

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 it for the next 5, 10, 15, 30, 40 minutes, depending on where you're coming from, you will

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 not think once about the pavement. Why? Because it is mundane. Well, in heaven, that is which most

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 valuable here, gold, is that which is most mundane there. So when you hear about, you know, hell being

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 hot, the reality is far worse. When you hear about streets of gold, the reality is far better.

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 Paradise, mansions, it's the same thing.

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 These are words you can sort of understand to express something far beyond your ability to understand.

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 So that's what we see there in those first few verses, this talk of mansions.

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 Whatever that looks like, it's going to be good.

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 With that said, verses 1 and 2 talk about the destination, where we're going, what's going to happen.

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 However, verses 3 through 6 talk about the way we get there.

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 You see, it's one thing for me to open up a travel guide to some wonderful Tahiti or someplace grand

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 and say, hey, it doesn't look so grand.

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 You'd say, yeah, it looks great.

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 But in the back of your mind, you're going, but I'll never get there.

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 I'm glad such a place exists, but I'll probably never get to Tahiti.

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 Well, here in these verses, Jesus is saying, not only does such a place exist,

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 and my Father's house are many mansions.

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 It's great. It's paradise. It's grand. Streets of gold.

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 And my Father's house is this.

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 He's not only giving you the travel guide and saying, this is what reality holds,

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 but he's saying, this is what reality holds for you.

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 And the way to get here, you know.

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 Of course, Thomas says, sir, we don't know where you're going,

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 and how do we know the way?

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 And again, verse 6, Jesus says, Thomas, I am the way.

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 I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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 No one comes to the Father but through me.

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 Although Jesus was about to depart and leave his disciples,

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 and although that had to freak them out,

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 although that had to trouble their hearts in a sense,

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 Jesus says, look, reunion is right around the corner.

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 I am going to go for a bit.

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 And later on in chapter 14, they'll say,

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 if you knew where I was going and that I'm going to my father,

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 you'd know this is wonderful what's about to happen.

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 But I see you don't see it with those eyes,

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 so let me just express it in a way that, again, you can relate to

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 and know this much, that when I go and where I go,

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 I'm going to be busy preparing a place for you,

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 that where I am, you may be also.

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 Have you lost a loved one?

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 Have you lost a loved one that's in the arms of Christ?

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 imagine this, that when that loved one was ushered in to those pearly gates, when the loved one was

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 ushered in to whatever that heavenly courtyard looks like, know this much, that Jesus ahead of

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 time had prepared a place for that one, and he has prepared a place for you. What does that mean?

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 What does that look like? I don't know, but this is the promise that Jesus gave to his disciples.

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 I'm going to prepare a place for you.

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 And if he did it for them, he's done it for our loved ones,

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 and he will do it for us in his time.

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 You ever know the picture?

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 I don't know if we still do it in this day and age.

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 It was something that was more done by a few generations past.

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 You know that picture where after a wedding,

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 going back to the new house or home,

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 that the husband, the groom, will take the wife in his arms

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 and cross the threshold?

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 Has anyone ever done that?

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 I'm not seeing enough hands.

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 Any hands?

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 Oh, all right. There's one. We got one. Pastor Fish, well done. All right. So with that said,

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 what's that a picture of? Well, it's a picture of a whole lot of stuff. It's a picture of a whole

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 lot of stuff. But at the least, it's a way of saying, you're mine. I care for you. I give you

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 everything. And we cross into the threshold of this new life together. That's a picture of what

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 Jesus is saying here. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come, and I will receive you to

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 myself. And we will cross the threshold together. That's the promise that the bridegroom gives to

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 the bride, to the church. We will cross the threshold together. I make a covenant, I promise

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 you that I will never break, and it will culminate on that great day, and it's coming. It's coming,

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 even as you're troubled, even as you're anxious, even as you're fearful, even as you're scared,

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 that day is on your horizon, and it's never been closer than it is right now. There's a lot of

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 reasons to be encouraged in this text. With that said, when a lot of us think about mortality,

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 we tend to process it more like Thomas in verse 5. We go, I know I've heard some of this before

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 in church. I know, Jesus, you've said this sort of stuff, but I'm not sure. I don't know the way,

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 the path. When I was younger, we lived in California for a few years. My grandparents

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 lived down in Southern California, and we would visit them a lot, but especially around Thanksgiving

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 and the holidays and such. But I remember there was a convenience store. It was probably only

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 maybe 90 yards away from my grandparents' house, but it was sort of around the corner.

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 It wasn't far at all, really, not far.

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 And I remember, I don't remember the age, I was maybe 10, something like that.

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 My dad says, hey, would you run over and get such and such from the little convenience store and bring it back?

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 And I remember nodding, yes sir, happily, I'll do it, I'm your man.

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 I remember thinking, yeah, I've got this, cool as a cucumber, yeah dad, I'm on it.

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 But I remember just being petrified because I knew where the thing was, but I couldn't see it from where I was standing.

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 And I knew sort of had to get there, but there was still all sorts of anxiety about the path

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 and what's going to happen.

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 Is everyone going to come and grab me?

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 What's going on?

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 It was a safe neighborhood.

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 He didn't send me out to the wolves or anything.

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 But nevertheless, I remember being anxious about it, even though I had really no reason

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 to be.

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 I remember being anxious because it was something I hadn't done before.

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 Well, in a sense, that's what Thomas is saying.

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 Jesus, this dynamic of what is about to happen with you and what you say it's about to happen

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 to us is not something we've ever experienced.

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 Remind us about this way, this path, what have you.

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 And Jesus stops and says, I'm the way.

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 I've always been the way.

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 I'm the way, the truth, and life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.

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 This morning in closing, this morning, whether he's speaking to Thomas,

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 whether he's speaking to Peter,

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 whether he's speaking to you and I through his text,

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 the message is the same.

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 Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life,

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 and I'm with you every step of the way.

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 Even though I depart, I'm going to send you a helper,

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 And even though I go, I will come back.

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 This is akin to a father going on a business trip

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 and saying, I'm gone, but I'm not really gone.

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 And a reunion is coming.

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 Come here, son.

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 I'm holding you close.

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 This morning, if you have anxiety

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 about the next step for you,

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 going around the bend on something

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 that might seem kind of scary,

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 know this, you're not doing it alone.

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 That is the great promise of the shepherd's psalm,

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 that yea, that we walk through the valley

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 of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil.

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 Why?

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 Because thou art with me.

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 Our confidence is that the one who went up comes back

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 and that while he is there at the right hand of the Father,

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 he has sent us the helper so we're not truly alone.

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 There's no step you will take on this earth,

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 no matter how dark, no matter how scary next week,

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 next month, next year might be,

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 there's no step you will take apart from the shepherd

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 and overseer of your souls being right there,

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 lockstep with you.

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 And that's an encouragement,

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 whether you're disciples in the upper room

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 or you and I in Gulfport 2,000 years later.

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 Let's pray.