The return of Jesus Christ is Promised.
Acts 1:11 - "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Hebrews 9:28 - so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The return of Jesus Christ is Imminent.
Matthew 24: 27, 36 - For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man... But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Luke 12:40 - You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
He’s Coming Back:
- Be Comforted by faith (John 14:1)
- Be Hopeful by faith (John 14:2-3)
- Be Settled in faith (John 14:4)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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This is the Sunday after Easter.
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And I think it was Dale and I were talking last week.
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Easter is sort of like the Super Bowl in the church, right?
00:10-00:11
If I can use the sports analogy.
00:12-00:24
This is our Super Bowl and Dale said, "Yeah, but the difference is we go into it already knowing who won the victory, right?" So, we had our Super Bowl last week.
00:24-00:28
We had our Easter celebration or Resurrection celebration.
00:28-00:30
I don't even like the word Easter, but...
00:33-00:42
You know, we had people come as far as India, as far as China, to come here and join us last week, and...
00:43-00:51
Now it's the week after Easter, and a lot of our people are on vacation, Kung Fu camp, out of town...
00:52-01:42
Seriously out of town on business and maybe in your house The decorations are down Maybe if your house is like my house you're finding everywhere halves of those plastic eggs You know what I'm talking about those eggs that you put the candy in well I see them throughout our house under the couch or beside the bed. You'll find like half of one here half of one there But those plastic eggs are all empty and we've had our ham right you have your Easter ham So the question is what's next And somebody here this morning would say well next is Mother's Day Right. Is that next?
01:43-01:54
Mother's Day actually in our house next is kids birthday, which is Tuesday But we're people We're a people that live from event to event, right?
01:55-01:55
Is that true?
01:56-01:57
Do we live from event to event?
02:00-02:10
Well maybe I'm more convinced of this than you because I spent four and a half long years, long years working for Walmart.
02:13-02:15
And you talk about living from event to event.
02:17-04:12
know when February you know the you know summer things would start coming in the summer shoes and the bathing suits and the the beach toys all that stuff would be coming in in February while we're freezing and then you know you know sooner get that stuff on the shelf that you are preparing for back to school right and then as soon as the back-to-school season is over what's next? Halloween, we're talking Walmart world here right? And then after Halloween comes Thanksgiving and then after Thanksgiving comes Christmas which really starts what now? Like in June we start putting out our Christmas stuff but we just are people constantly looking forward to the next event and I was thinking about that as we celebrated Easter Resurrection Day what's next on God's calendar you know God has a calendar and he has a date circled in red his next big events and what is it well that's actually what we're going to be talking about the next two weeks. It's the return of Jesus Christ. See, Jesus Christ had come and he died for our sins and he rose from the dead to give us eternal life and he ascended into heaven and church we sit back and say okay what's God going to do next and we're going to see the Bible says the next thing that God is going to do it's the return of Jesus Christ he's going to come back. But we just went through another cycle of thoughts about the end of the world.
04:12-04:37
Didn't we go through that several months ago? And it was a period that lasted several months prior to that. But didn't we just go through a cycle of everybody thinking about the end of the world? Reminder, the Mayan calendar. You know about the Mayan calendar? Predicting When's the world going to end? When's it scheduled to end?
04:38-04:42
What's that? December 24th? Christmas Eve? Really?
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And a great debate arose amongst the congregants.
04:52-04:56
I don't know. Somebody right now is getting on their smart phone and trying to find out.
04:57-05:09
But sometime this year the world's supposed to end, according to Mayan calendar, when the Mayans put their calendar together, they had it like 2,000 years ahead, but for some reason it stopped at 2012.
05:10-05:18
I'd also recently read that the Mayan calendar didn't account for leap year, which means that, what, they're like seven years too late already or something?
05:19-05:22
But did you hear about this Mayan calendar business?
05:22-05:23
Did you hear about that?
05:24-05:28
Well, there was also a movie coming, that came out rather.
05:30-05:32
The movie was called 2012.
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Who saw that movie?
05:34-05:35
Oh, a lot of you saw that movie.
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Was it any good?
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No, okay, I see a so-so, and Steve is like, "Thumbs down," okay?
05:43-05:43
Didn't even hesitate.
05:44-05:45
Was there anybody that liked it?
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Anybody?
05:47-05:49
Not after Steve said, "Thumbs down."
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(laughs)
05:51-05:52
I didn't see it.
05:53-05:54
But is it about the end of the world, right?
05:54-05:59
'Cause the movie poster said, "We were warned." And we went through that resurgence.
05:59-06:02
What about-- here's my favorite-- Harold Camping.
06:03-06:09
How many remember Harold Camping and his 15 minutes of fame that he had last year?
06:10-07:55
Advertising on billboards, on bus stop benches, traveling caravans, radio broadcasts, websites, pamphlets passed out on street corners, a message taken from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Little Rock, Arkansas, mission groups throughout Latin America and Africa spreading the news remember May 21st 2011 Harold Camping said the world was going to end and it didn't and then he had like a rain date right like like a makeup date like when a baseball game gets rained out what was the makeup date it was like October 21st or something like that there were a lot of people that bought into that what about New years eve not the last one but the one before you remember the thousands of blackbirds raining down on a small town in Arkansas this was just the first in a series of mass animal deaths that started less than two weeks after a total lunar eclipse hundreds more dead birds descended on Louisiana Tennessee Kentucky. Scores of crow-like birds died in Sweden. Less than a hundred and some thousand fish that washed ashore in Arkansas. All signs of the end of the world, right? Robert Vicino heads a California-based company that saw business increase eightfold after all of these events took place. You know what his business is?
07:56-08:04
He makes fallout shelters. Saw a huge spike in business. Well enough of this nonsense.
08:05-08:13
We, more than anybody, should be a people who are thinking about the end of the world.
08:14-08:20
In fact, 2 Timothy 4.8, in talking about the return of Jesus Christ, says we should love his appearing.
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Let me ask you, how much in the past week, in the past month, have you thought about the truth that Jesus Christ is going to return?
08:31-08:33
That is the next thing on God's calendar.
08:34-08:35
How much have you thought about that?
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He's coming back.
08:40-08:45
How much of you loved his appearing?
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How much of you prayed like John prayed as the Bible closes, "Come Lord Jesus!" Can you pray that?
08:54-09:05
To say, "Jesus, I want you to come back!" Well, we've gone through John's account the last couple of weeks about the crucifixion, about the resurrection.
09:06-09:14
Last week in John chapter 20 we saw the beginning of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ.
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And today, this message is going to be sort of a flashback.
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Last week we were in John 20, next week we're going to be in John 21.
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And as we talk about the return of Jesus, we're going back to John chapter 14.
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So if you take your Bibles and turn there, The question we are going to get words from Christ to answer is what comes after the resurrection and the ascension.
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So turn to John chapter 14.
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You guys turn so quietly, turn louder so I know your Bibles are like, turn really loud.
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This rice paper in your Bibles.
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So quiet.
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Jesus at the Last Supper revealed what comes next.
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Let's get the real story of the end.
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Alright?
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John chapter 14. We're just going to look at the first six verses today.
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Jesus said, now again this is during the Last Supper.
10:31-10:43
Jesus says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me." In my Father's house are many rooms.
10:45-11:43
If it were not so, when I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself that where I am you may be also and you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him Lord we do not know where you are going How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me." So first of all, if you're Jesus Christ's return is a fact.
11:45-11:51
We could spend the next five years doing a study of eschatology.
11:53-11:57
That's the biblical study of things pertaining to the end times.
11:58-12:05
But just for our purposes today, before we get into this text, there's two things you need to know about the return of Jesus Christ.
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The first one is this, the return of Jesus Christ is promised.
12:10-12:10
It's promised.
12:14-12:20
A straightforward reading of the Bible says that He is coming back.
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It's a matter of fact.
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It's not an issue of do I want to believe this, do I think this is true.
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It's true, it's going to happen.
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Jesus Christ is going to return.
12:34-13:05
a couple of verses about that. Acts 111, Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. An angel said to the disciples, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Just as Jesus flew into heaven and and disappeared into the clouds, He's going to be coming back through the clouds.
13:07-13:21
Hebrews 9.28 So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.
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Jesus is coming back, but it's not to deal with sin.
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That's what He dealt with the first time He came.
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The second time is for those who are eagerly waiting for Him. It's the fulfillment of the promise.
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The return of Jesus Christ is promised.
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Secondly, the return of Jesus Christ is imminent.
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When is it going to happen?
13:56-14:57
I'm not really concerned with what the Mayans say or what Harold Camping says or what Fallout shoulder guy says. Listen here's what Jesus said. Matthew 24 verses 27 and then skipping down to verse 36 I have it on your outline. Jesus says for as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Why is that verse important? Because there are some people, some constitutions, Jesus came back and just the world doesn't know about it. It was like this secret second coming thing that happened in the early 1900s. And here Jesus emphatically said, "His return is not like that." Just like lightning over here shines up the entire sky, His return will be like that. Everyone is going to know about it. So what's going to happen?
14:57-16:26
Look at what Jesus said. This is one of the most interesting verses to me. One of the most interesting quotes Jesus made. He says, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven." Isn't that wild? These created beings that are in God's presence there's some information that they don't know that's wild isn't it well he also says nor the son he was saying he didn't have that information he said but the father only like yeah can you explain that to me?" The answer is, "No, I can't. Sorry. I can't. All I can do is look at the Bible and what the Bible says. Jesus said that he didn't know the day or the hour, but the Father does." Okay. That's very important because when you have these people coming along like camping and these others, here's the exact date. How many people remember "88 reasons Jesus will return in 1988. Remember that book? Nobody? I think there was a follow-up. 89 reasons Jesus will return in 1989. The 89th reason being that he didn't return in 1988. But whatever, you can keep that going forever, right?
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Luke 12 40, "You also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you You do not expect.
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You do not expect.
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Actually the comparison in 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, Revelation 16, 15, it's compared to a thief in the night.
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Unexpected.
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The return of Christ is imminent.
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You realize he could be back before this sermon is over.
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I know what you're thinking, "Because you preach forever." That's not funny.
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He could be back before the end of the day.
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He could be back before the end of the... we don't know.
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Jesus says, "Be watching." It could happen at any time.
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Only God the Father knows when that's going to happen.
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But He told us it could be at any time.
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So three things I want you to leave with today concerning the return of Christ.
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Really it's one thing. But we're going to see in this passage, this one thing means everything.
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This morning I want to talk about faith. What is faith? Faith is one of those words that, It's really hard to define, isn't it?
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The best definition of faith actually comes from the Bible.
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Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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That's Hebrews 11.
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But understand with faith, this is God's way.
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Actually he goes on, the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 11, 6 I believe, says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
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Do you realize that?
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There's only one way that you can please God, and that's by believing in what He said and what He's done.
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So as we think about the return of Christ, three things concerning our faith that Jesus was highlighting here.
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First of all, number one, be comforted by faith.
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Be comforted by faith.
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Now isn't it ironic? During this Last Supper, Jesus knew what was ahead.
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He was about to be handed over, beaten within an inch of his life, nailed to a cross, and that wasn't even the worst part.
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Bearing the wrath of God for my sin and for your sin.
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So you would think this is the time the disciples gather around Jesus and try to comfort Him.
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But actually the opposite is what happens. Jesus is comforting them.
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He knew that the impact this would have on them.
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You know, because they've left everything to follow Him and He has been their everything.
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And they were going to see all this take place and they weren't going to understand and they weren't going to be able to make sense of it for a while, we saw last week.
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So here, ironically, Jesus is comforting His disciples.
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Isn't that just awesome?
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That's the thing that's really been sticking out with me this past week when we looked in John chapter 20, Jesus, after he resurrected, took time to comfort a broken-hearted woman.
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Isn't that incredible?
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Jesus, knowing the grief he gives us in paradise, he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled." That's a command. Take control. You do not let your heart get troubled. That's the direction it's going to have a tendency to go, you need to grab it and put it back where it needs to be and say, "My heart is not going to be troubled." So what was he doing? Was he like slapping them, saying, "Snap out of it"? No, he gives the way right here. How can we not let our hearts be troubled when he says, "Believe in God, believe also in me." It's trusting God when things seem their worst. You know when we were going through Genesis 3 we saw the curse. We're fallen people, we live in a fallen world, we have relationship conflict, the earth that we're working in is fighting back and we're gonna die. A lot of things to be distressed about. And here Jesus is giving the cure for the curse. Comfort comes from faith. Comfort comes from faith. Let your faith comfort you. Did you ever wonder why faith is the mechanism that God uses? You ever wondered about that? Why faith? If God is so big and God can do anything. Why did he institute this thing called faith? In fact, faith itself is a gift from God. Why doesn't God just show up? Well, the truth is He's going to. But why isn't He doing something in the meantime? You know, He can just crack open the sky right now and thunder his voice to the earth and leave not a shadow without in anybody's mind that he's there can he do that can he do that Psalm 115 verse 3 says our God is in the heavens he does whatever he pleases I believe that God has the power to do whatever he wants so why Why faith? Well listen, God has orchestrated mankind's existence on earth in such a way that if you want to live your entire life ignoring God, Rejecting God, not acknowledging God, you can do that. Is that true?
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Can you live your entire life without any regard towards God? That's true.
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We've seen the last few weeks that God pursues, but God doesn't force himself on anyone.
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So you can live rejecting, ignoring, not regarding Him. But, but if you want to know God, if you want to know God, experience His presence and His grace and His power and His compassion. He's made that an option too. Isn't it amazing the way He's orchestrated all of this? That we can live a life on this earth full of the joy of the Lord in a living relationship and a walk with Him, while the guy that lives in across the street from us can live his life on earth without any regard towards God.
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Why faith? Well, understand this too, faith is not fatalism, as some people just say.
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"Well, I guess you're just going to have faith." Did you ever hear somebody say that? You're What's that even mean?
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Wasn't that like a George Michael song?
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No, faith for the believer is this.
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I trust God because I know who He is and I know what He does.
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And that's what Jesus was driving at here.
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He says, "Believe in God, believe also in Me.
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You know who I am, you know what I'm like, you know what I do." It's the knowledge that God loves you.
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It's the knowledge that God is in control.
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It's the knowledge that God will do what is best.
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That knowledge should change the way you think about everything.
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So let me ask you, what is it in your life right now that is too big for God to handle?
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What is it?
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sitting in church on a Sunday morning we would say nothing's too hard for God to handle. Yep he's powerful he can handle all my problems but the problem is when we walk out of here tonight tomorrow morning all of a sudden we're going to start acting like the world that we're abandoned or on our own our problems are too big. And we do, don't we? We act just like the world. Be comforted by faith. If you've been born again, you've been adopted, you've been adopted by God. Let not your heart be trouble. So when things aren't their worst, it's your knowledge of who He is, what He has done and what He can do. Pop quiz. You ready for this? Draw time your answer. Who needs to depend on God more? The parents with the healthy children or the parents with the Write your answer down. We will be collecting these and checking them.
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Who needs to depend on God more? The parents with the healthy children or the parents with the terminal children?
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Next question. Who needs to depend on God more? The family that is in need of $100 or the family that is in need of $100,000?
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Who needs to depend on God more?
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The single mom or the nuclear family?
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Well, that's a term we haven't used in a while.
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Who needs to depend on God more?
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Do you have your answers down?
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Alright, let's check them.
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Who needs to depend on God more?
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The parents with the healthy children or the parents with the terminally ill children?
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What's the answer? The answer is both. Right? Isn't that true?
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What about the family that needs a hundred more dollars or the family that needs a hundred thousand more dollars? Who needs to depend on God more? Both.
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Right? What about the single mom or the nuclear family? You're like, "Oh, I see a pattern here. Correct! You see a pattern here. We are just as dependent upon God when things are at their best as we are when things are at their worst. So if you're in a difficult circumstance, I got great news for you. You're going to experience a lavish measure of God's grace. Now you experience God's grace when things are at their best, but the problem is sometimes, if you understand what I mean by this, it just doesn't feel like it. Right? It just doesn't feel like it.
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But we are just as dependent on His grace. This is where God likes to work.
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He's going to show Himself glorious. You see, this is where you learn to depend on him and that he is dependable. This is where you learn to trust him and that he is trustworthy.
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This is where you lean on his strength and know that he is strong. This is where you cry out to him and know that he loves you. You see, there's one great thing, the greatest thing about being troubled and that's the experience of God's comfort.
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It's experiencing that aspect of God's grace, that comfort that we don't readily acknowledge when things are going well.
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That's a good thing.
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So let not your heart be troubled. Believe, be comforted by faith.
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Secondly, be hopeful by faith. Be hopeful by faith.
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He says in verses 2 and 3, "My Father's house are many rooms.
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If it were not so, would I have told you that I'd go to prepare a place for you?
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And if I go to prepare a place for you, here it is, I will come again and will take you to myself, but where I am, you may be also." This is reality.
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You know, Jesus didn't come to give us fairy tales.
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Jesus didn't come to say, "No one comes to the Father but through me." And let me tell you the story about Jack and the Beanstalk.
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He didn't mix truth and fairy tale.
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Jesus was all truth.
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And that's why he said, "If it were not so, would I have told you?" Is that my character?
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Have I been just going around giving false hope about things, lying about things, making things up as I go?
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So, if it were not so, what I have told you, Do you know what's going to be awesome about heaven?
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Do you know what's going to be awesome about heaven?
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Here's what I usually hear.
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"I can not wait to go to heaven because I'm going to see grandma." Or, "I can't wait to go to heaven because I'll be done with pain." Or, "I can't wait to go to heaven because I'll be able to play football in the yard." Remember that song?
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I don't even know that song.
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It's a big, big...
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Oh, a lot more people than I thought.
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Well, that's what's going to be great about heaven is we're going to get to play football in God's yard.
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Okay, all those things are good if there's football.
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No, there's not Dallas Cowboys, but that's not the best feature of heaven.
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What is the best feature of heaven? Well, Jesus tells us right here.
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He says it a couple times actually. He said, "I will come again and take you to myself." And here it is again, "that where I am, you may be also." Here's the greatest thing about heaven, Jesus is there. Right? Yeah, it's gonna be great seeing grandma. I got a grandma up there too. I actually got a couple of them up there. It's gonna be great seeing them. I guarantee that's not the first person I'm going to be looking for in heaven.
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Jesus is there. So be hopeful by faith. What is hope? Well, I'd like to remind and hope is not used biblically the way that we use it today.
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The way we use hope today is more of a wishful thinking type word, like we say, I hope it doesn't rain.
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I hope this or I hope that.
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I hope I don't get sick.
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I hope my car doesn't break down on the way to Chicago.
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But biblically, hope is more of a sure thing.
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It's a sure thing.
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Biblically, here's what hope is.
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You know, as I was reserving the hotel rooms for Harvest University, I called and reserved them.
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Well, they emailed me this confirmation number.
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Now, that confirmation number, when I take that next Sunday and we go to the hotel, when I slap that confirmation number down, they're going to say, oh, OK, here are the rooms that you have reserved.
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The hope is sort of like that confirmation number.
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That's the thing that I'm holding on to until I get the real thing.
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Does that make sense?
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That confirmation number is the thing that I hold on to until I experience what that confirmation number promises.
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And that's what hope is.
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Every other religion teaches that we have to earn our way into heaven, we have to claw our way into heaven where Jesus says I urge away I'm coming to get you I'm going to take you there for the past couple of weeks I've been promising my kids with the gym that I go to has a pool and a lot of times when Aaron's working I take the kids swimming you know to have fun with them and to tire them out right well the heater has been out in the pool forever and for the last two weeks I've been promising them when that heater gets fixed I'm going to take you swimming as many of you know my seven-year-old Owen he doesn't talk but there are a couple sentences that he's managed to use very functionally and one of them is "Hey, do you want to go swimming?" How many times has he said that in the last couple weeks? He comes up to me, he gets right in my face, "Hey, do you want to go swimming?" I'm like, "Owen, I promise you, when the heater for the pool gets fixed, I'm going to take you swimming.
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I promise." Now, how certain should my kids have been that when the pool is fixed, I will take them?
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How certain should they have been?
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See that promise is based on my integrity, just as God's promise is based on His.
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I know that I'm going to heaven. I know that I'm saved. I know that I have eternal life.
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Not because of me, but because of God's integrity.
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Well, the heaters are fixed and I took them to the pool yesterday.
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It was the most priceless sight. Owen walks in, swimming trunks.
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He just walked up to the pool and just stared at it in awe.
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Like, he was telling the truth.
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I mean he doesn't talk so I'm kind of like, you know, reading his mind, right?
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But he's like, "We're really here. We're really here. Dad was right. Dad was right." And as I'm looking at him yesterday, you know what I was thinking about?
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That's going to be us standing in heaven someday.
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We're going to be like, "We're here. Jesus promised it. Here we are." Just like He promised, He said He was going to bring us here, and He did.
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That's going to be a good day.
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Now, heaven doesn't need repairs.
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Like the pool.
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But it is being worked on, right?
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That's what Jesus is doing right now.
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He's preparing a place for us.
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Just as the kids' hope was in me keeping my word, so it is with us in heaven.
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It's a matter of God keeping His word.
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So be hopeful by faith.
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Last thing, look at verses 4-6.
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Be settled in faith.
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Be settled in faith.
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Jesus is talking about his father's house and all these rooms he's gonna come and we're gonna be with them and then he closes his teaching he says by the way You know how to get there isn't that weird he's like, you know the way where I am going Well Thomas speaks up like yeah question in the back Thomas said to him Lord He just like lays it out, you know, we do not know where you're going Where is this place is it like is it like Cleveland or We do not know where you are going Definitely not near Cleveland. He's how can we know the way?
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That's a fair question Well, Jesus said in verse 6 Jesus said to him. I the Father except through me." Knowing the way is by knowing the person of Jesus Christ. And what have we been saying since October 2nd? Jesus is first, right?
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Jesus is first, and for those of you who are visiting with us, that's our theme for our first year. Jesus is first. We went through the whole book of Colossians verse by verse and what does Paul teach us in Colossians? Jesus is first.
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Colossians 118, "In all things he must have the preeminence or the first place." Too many voices denying this key truth even in churches. But as we close today I want you to be settled in your faith. You know what man's three greatest needs are?
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Here they are, knowing the way, having the truth, and receiving the life.
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Those are our three greatest needs. Without these things we're lost, we're confused, and we're dead. But with these things, we know our destination. That's purpose.
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How do we get there? Jesus said, "I am the way." We know truth in a world of lies, that's discernment.
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And we know the gracious gift of life, that's life.
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How do we know these things?
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How do we know what the way is and how do we know what the truth is?
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and how do we know how we can have life?
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The answer to all of these is in Jesus.
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It's not in a church, it's not in a religion.
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It's in a person.
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it's in one person exclusively, Jesus Christ. John 14 6 should be memorized by everyone. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." With that last statement we have two choices with it.
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Just like we have two choices with everything in God's Word, here it is again either Jesus was telling the truth or he was lying and I believe he was telling the truth Jesus made the boldest claim anyone could make he said no one can have access to God unless they go through me. Period.
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He says he is the way. Notice he didn't say I'm a way. Well God is up on top of a mountain and up this mountain are many roads and I'm just one of the roads that leads to God.
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That's what some people teach. That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said up this mountain there is one road I am the way it's exclusive you know not every road leads to zillion opal did you know that like I'm gonna go zillion opal after church or I don't get there I'm like I'll take any road doesn't matter any road like what like what's for driving 910 or like so yeah any road any road Isn't that ridiculous? There's a way. No, there's the way. Notice also Jesus didn't say I am a truth. He said I am the truth and truth by nature is intolerant. Two plus two equals four every time. Every time. Truth is intolerant. Somebody could come along and say, "Well, I just really feel like, you know, deep in the heart of my heart of hearts, the two plus two could equal five." Truth by its very nature is intolerant. Two plus two is not up for debate. Jesus didn't put this up for debate. He said, "I am the truth." You want truth? It's not found in yourself. Look deep down within. Jesus said, the truth is found in me. And finally he says the life we're all dead and dying only the author of life can give us his life. We live in a world that is alienated from God that is dead that is dying we need life the only one that can give life is God. You can't create it in a laboratory you can't work hard enough enough for it, it has to come from God. So the issue is resolved once and for all.
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Jesus made it clear, be settled in faith. She's coming back. He promised it. It can happen at any time and it is the matter that we rest our faith on. Someday, realize that a day's coming we're not going to need faith.
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Days we're not going to need faith when we're standing before God like the old hymn says the faith shall be sight. We're not going to need faith but until that day it's what we walk in. It's what we live in. It's what we should be comforted by, be hopeful in, and to be settled in.
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Jesus said he's coming back.
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It's the next big event on God's calendar.
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So church, what's life to be like in the meantime?
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Well, that's what we're going to get into next week.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 14:1-6
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.