Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Tranquil Words for Troubled Hearts │ Msg 1314 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Tranquil Words for Troubled Hearts │ Msg 1314 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Have you ever noticed that little children cannot hide their feelings.
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Speaker 1: If they're happy, it's just impossible for them to restrain
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Speaker 1: a grin or contain their giggles. And if they're said,
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Speaker 1: tears will flow, no matter how hard they may try
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Speaker 1: to choke them back. Now, we adults, on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: have learned to cover our emotions. We can laugh on
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Speaker 1: the outside while our hearts are breaking within, and no
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Speaker 1: one knows what we're really feeling, well, no one except
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Speaker 1: our heavenly Father. Our fake smiles may fool our friends,
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Speaker 1: but God sees through our thickest defenses.
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Speaker 2: No doubt.
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Speaker 1: The disciples tried to cover their fear the night Jesus
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Speaker 1: spoke about.
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Speaker 2: His eminent death.
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Speaker 1: But Jesus saw right through them, just like he sees
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Speaker 1: right through us when our hearts are heavy and filled
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Speaker 1: with the storms of trouble. In this passage from John fourteen,
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Speaker 1: Jesus quiets his disciples emotional tempest by offering six anchors
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Speaker 1: of truth to stabilize their souls. Allow me to read
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Speaker 1: the text for you as you listen closely to our
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Speaker 1: Savior's calming words. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation,
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Speaker 1: but you follow along. In your Bible at John fourteen
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Speaker 1: one through twenty four. I gave you a moment to
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Speaker 1: turn there if you'd like to read along with me again.
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Speaker 1: This is John fourteen one through twenty four. Jesus is speaking,
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Speaker 1: don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and
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Speaker 1: trust also in me. There is more than enough room
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Speaker 1: in my Father's home. If this were not so, would
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Speaker 1: I have told you that I'm going to prepare a
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Speaker 1: place for you. When everything is ready, I will come
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Speaker 1: and get you so that you will always be with
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Speaker 1: me where I am. And you know the way to
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Speaker 1: where I am going. No, we don't know, Lord Thomas said,
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Speaker 1: we have no idea where you were going. So how
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Speaker 1: can we know the way. Jesus told him, I am
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Speaker 1: the Way, the Truth, and the life. No one can
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Speaker 1: come to the Father except through me. If you had
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Speaker 1: really known me, you would know who my father is.
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Speaker 2: From now on.
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Speaker 1: You do know him and have seen him, Philip said, Lord,
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Speaker 1: show us the Father and we will be satisfied. Jesus replied,
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Speaker 1: have I been with you all this time, Philip, and
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Speaker 1: yet you still don't know who I am. Anyone who
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Speaker 1: has seen me has seen the Father, So why are
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Speaker 1: you asking me to show him to you. Don't you
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Speaker 1: believe that I am in the Father and the Father
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Speaker 1: is in me. The words I speak are not my own,
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Speaker 1: but my Father, who lives in me, does his work
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Speaker 1: through me. Just believe that I am in the Father
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Speaker 1: and the Father is in me, or at least believe
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Speaker 1: because of the work you have seen me. Do I
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Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will
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Speaker 1: do the same works I have done, and even greater
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Speaker 1: works because I am going to be with the Father.
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Speaker 1: You can ask for anything in my name, and I
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Speaker 1: will do it so that the son one can bring
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Speaker 1: glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in
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Speaker 1: my name, and I will do it. If you love me,
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Speaker 1: obey my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and
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Speaker 1: he will give you another advocate who will never leave you.
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Speaker 1: He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.
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Speaker 1: The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for
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Speaker 1: him and doesn't recognize him, but you know him because
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Speaker 1: he lives with you and later will be in you.
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Speaker 2: No, I will not.
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Speaker 1: Abandon you as orphans. I will come to you soon.
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Speaker 1: The world will no longer see me, but you will
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Speaker 1: see me. Since I live, you also will live. When
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Speaker 1: I am raised to life again, you will know that
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Speaker 1: I am in my Father, and you are in me,
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Speaker 1: and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments
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Speaker 1: and obey them are the ones who love me. And
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Speaker 1: because they love me, my Father will love them, and
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Speaker 1: I will love them and reveal myself.
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Speaker 2: To each of them.
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Speaker 1: Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name,
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Speaker 1: said to him, Lord, why are you going to reveal
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Speaker 1: yourself only to us and not to the world at large?
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Speaker 1: Jesus replied, all who love me will do what I say.
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Speaker 1: My Father will love them, and we will come and
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Speaker 1: make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't
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Speaker 1: love me will not obey me. And remember my words
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Speaker 1: are not my own. What I am telling you is
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Speaker 1: from the Father who sent me.
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Speaker 2: The message of the morning is designed for you who
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Speaker 2: have heart trouble, and I don't want you to misunderstand that,
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Speaker 2: so let me clarify it. I'm not referring to the
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Speaker 2: kind of trouble that can be corrected by a glycerin
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Speaker 2: pill under your tongue or a surgical performance, not referring
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Speaker 2: to trouble that affects things like disease on that organ
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Speaker 2: in your chest. I'm referring perhaps to what could be
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Speaker 2: called a troubled heart. There's a difference. You can have
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Speaker 2: a very healthy physical heart, but be in serious trouble
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Speaker 2: in your heart. I have this morning made a careful
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Speaker 2: study of the congregation, at least from another perspective. Bill
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Speaker 2: suggested this morning that we sit on the other side.
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Speaker 2: It's remarkable how when you sit in another seat, how
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Speaker 2: different things are. I want to welcome those of you
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Speaker 2: that haven't been here for these last to nine or
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Speaker 2: ten months that you've been here, but I haven't seen you.
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Speaker 2: Everything has been from this side. You know, I have
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Speaker 2: not seen one person that really looks troubled. That's commendable.
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Speaker 2: It might be a mask that you're wearing. That's okay,
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Speaker 2: we all have to wear them at times. But I
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Speaker 2: commend you for singing and being a part of the
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Speaker 2: congregation that looked as though you were enjoying and listening
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Speaker 2: intently as you are now. But sometime I wish I
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Speaker 2: had the ability of the mild mannered newspaper reporter who
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Speaker 2: named Clark Kent could jump out of a phone booth
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Speaker 2: and suddenly, with great X ray vision see down into souls.
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Speaker 2: I think I might see some heart trouble. Right behind
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Speaker 2: some smiles is a set of teeth. Right and deep
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Speaker 2: within some souls that look very placid and tranquil, are
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Speaker 2: some troubled hearts. Actually, I have really half a message.
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Speaker 2: John fourteen and Exodus fourteen were written together, at least
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Speaker 2: as I see it right now. One gives you the principles,
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Speaker 2: and the other gives you the illustration. One gives you
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Speaker 2: the facts that relate to the whole area of handling
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Speaker 2: troubled hearts. The other gives you a project to work
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Speaker 2: through as the people of Israel cross that red Sea.
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Speaker 2: I've heard of it all through my Christian life, but
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Speaker 2: I've really not seen some things that God has shown me. Now,
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Speaker 2: with that in mind, let's ask ourselves to begin with
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Speaker 2: the question of why our hearts troubled? Why do we
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Speaker 2: have troubled hearts? Turn to John fourteen and put your
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Speaker 2: finger on two verses, because Jesus gives a command that
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Speaker 2: seems identical verse one and verse twenty seven. John fourteen,
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Speaker 2: verse one, verse twenty seven both include commands, and the
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Speaker 2: commands appear to be identical. Let not your heart be troubled.
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Speaker 2: And then verse twenty seven, let not your heart be troubled.
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Speaker 2: That's a command. And if you could read it in
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Speaker 2: the text in which John first wrote it, the Greek text,
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Speaker 2: it would read almost the same let it not be
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Speaker 2: troubled your heart. The difference is you could tell that
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Speaker 2: the you're is plural. Let not y'all's heart be troubled.
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Speaker 2: That's what he's saying. That's as literal as I can
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Speaker 2: make it. If you're from southern Israel, you'd understand that
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Speaker 2: kind of a rendering. Let not y'all's heart be troubled.
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Speaker 2: That's what he's saying to a group of disciples, and
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Speaker 2: to a group of people gathered here today. This is
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Speaker 2: written for you. You don't come to read over the
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Speaker 2: shoulder of some disciple. You come to get something for
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Speaker 2: your life, or you should, And the very first thing
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Speaker 2: you get is a long index finger up against your nose, saying,
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Speaker 2: stop being troubled. If you're like me, you probably would
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Speaker 2: prefer to have a little insight before you take a
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Speaker 2: rebuke like that. Let's get some insight, and before you
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Speaker 2: write anything down, just give me a couple of minutes
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Speaker 2: in chapter thirteen to show you the reasons their hearts
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Speaker 2: were troubled. And then I'll share with you three thoughts
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Speaker 2: that trouble our hearts today. Look at verse thirty three
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Speaker 2: thirteen thirty three, little children, I am with you a
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Speaker 2: little while longer. That was referring to his death. So
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Speaker 2: his disciples, he says this, I'm with you a little
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Speaker 2: while longer, meaning I'm going to die. And then he
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Speaker 2: said said you shall seek me. And as I said
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Speaker 2: to the Jews where I am going, you cannot come now,
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Speaker 2: I say to you also, not only is he going
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Speaker 2: to die, they're going to be deserted. They are not
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Speaker 2: going to be able to go with him. Not only
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Speaker 2: is he going, they're staying. Got it that causes trouble
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Speaker 2: in the heart. He's leaving through death. We're staying. We
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Speaker 2: can't go now. Remember Peter, who heard those words, asked
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Speaker 2: the Lord, look where are you going? And why can't
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Speaker 2: we go? If it's loyalty, I'll lay down my life
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Speaker 2: for you as verse thirty seven. And then Jesus came
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Speaker 2: back and said, look, you lay down your life for
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Speaker 2: me verse thirty eight. I say to you a cockshell,
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Speaker 2: not crow to you deny me Three times watch it, Peter,
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Speaker 2: you're getting a little unrealistic in your zeal there. As
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Speaker 2: a matter of fact, it's only a few hours before
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Speaker 2: you're going to be denying that. You know me, that's disobedience,
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Speaker 2: but that's reality. Now, find in these two verses three
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Speaker 2: thoughts that trouble our hearts today, and they're right here.
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Speaker 2: They're in the context of chapter fourteen. The first thought
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Speaker 2: is this death is near. Now, this is the whole
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Speaker 2: area of disease, sickness, affliction, death, either in ourselves or
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Speaker 2: somebody we love very much. You really love somebody, you
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Speaker 2: cannot be indifferent. If death is haunting their steps, that
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Speaker 2: brings trouble. So first, that causes a troubled heart thoughts
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Speaker 2: of death. Second, and I get it from verse thirty
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Speaker 2: three where they were going to be deserted. Second, daily
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Speaker 2: problems that bring pressure. Their problem of the moment was
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Speaker 2: how are we going to go on? He's going to
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Speaker 2: be gone. We're going to stay. He's been our stability.
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Speaker 2: Now he's leaving and we can't go. Now, your daily
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Speaker 2: problem might be far removed from desertion. It might be
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Speaker 2: that very area. However, people who go through divorce say
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Speaker 2: more than any other pain is the pain of rejection,
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Speaker 2: the pain of desertion, the pain of being not wanted.
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Speaker 2: So maybe that's one of the pressures you're suffering from.
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Speaker 2: Some of you were in school. You're facing the deadlines
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Speaker 2: of assign or exam some of your teaching. You're facing
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Speaker 2: the responsibility of the overwhelming task of preparing yourself for
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Speaker 2: that assignment. That's a daily problem. Some of you are
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Speaker 2: under financial duress. Had a young man called me yesterday afternoon.
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Speaker 2: He just didn't know where to go. He'd come to
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Speaker 2: the end financially, and I asked about his parents. He said,
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Speaker 2: you know, my dad, for the last twenty years or
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Speaker 2: so has been in six figures in his annual income.
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Speaker 2: But he said he could hardly make his bills last year.
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Speaker 2: Maybe that's in your business. Your employment is hanging on
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Speaker 2: by a very thin wire. Whatever may be your daily problem,
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Speaker 2: it can create real trouble in the heart. Theirs was desertion,
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Speaker 2: feelings of being left as orphans. Yours may be similar
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Speaker 2: or much different from that, but that can cause trouble.
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Speaker 2: Now there's a third reason. The third reason would be
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Speaker 2: I have disobeyed or I'm sinful. The whole area of disobedience,
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Speaker 2: Peters would be denial. Maybe you've recently denied the Lord.
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Speaker 2: Perhaps you have failed to live according to the biblical standard.
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Speaker 2: You know it, but you haven't produced. Maybe you've gotten
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Speaker 2: mixed up in some nasty moral situation and you're living
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Speaker 2: in the throes of that right now. The way of
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Speaker 2: the transgressor is hard, and you're undergoing the time of trouble.
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Speaker 2: You know what. I've studied those three areas, and I
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Speaker 2: have come to realize that each one produces its own
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Speaker 2: realm of worry. Death produces fear, disease, and the nearness
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Speaker 2: of death creates a fearful condition in the heart. Daily
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Speaker 2: problems produce anxiety, frustration, the inability to cope, and the
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Speaker 2: whole area of disobedience produces guilt. Fear, frustration, guilt, The
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Speaker 2: whole gamut of humanity seems to crush upon us. Now,
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Speaker 2: stop and think about your life. More than likely the
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Speaker 2: thing that you're worried about this very moment falls under
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Speaker 2: one of those three categories. Right now, I want to
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Speaker 2: lift your thoughts. If you will allow the spirit of God,
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Speaker 2: and I mean that genuinely, If you will allow the
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Speaker 2: Spirit of God to take the word of truth and
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Speaker 2: make it real to you. I want to lift you
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Speaker 2: from the horizontal vice, the clamps of horizontal perspective and
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Speaker 2: let you view it from the vertical. To begin with,
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Speaker 2: I want to share with you some of the truths
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Speaker 2: that will quieten your heart. Then I want to close
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Speaker 2: with some techniques that I have begun to apply myself
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Speaker 2: that will strengthen your heart. Especially, do I direct these
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Speaker 2: words to those of you that are given to worry.
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Speaker 2: I've discovered that there are novices and then there are
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Speaker 2: people who've earned their PhD in the realm of worry.
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Speaker 2: If you've really gotten your PhD in it, then you
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Speaker 2: know how to refer to it as concern disturbed. Interested
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Speaker 2: is a very subtle word. I'm interested in and that
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Speaker 2: you know. What you mean is you're eating your heart out,
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Speaker 2: but you're covering up for it. Now, if you've really
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Speaker 2: become a worrier, and a person who's really a worrier
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Speaker 2: is somebody who worries when he doesn't have anything to
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Speaker 2: worry about. That's the ultimate. If you're somewhere between just
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Speaker 2: the basic and that ultimate, I'm speaking with you and
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Speaker 2: mind you need some truths to quieten you. Try verse
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Speaker 2: one on for size. Chapter fourteen, Verse one, Let not
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Speaker 2: your heart be troubled. Two commands. Believe in God, believe
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Speaker 2: in me. Here it is a personal faith, and a
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Speaker 2: personal lord brings personal relief. Jesus told those disciples with
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Speaker 2: their long faces, man and believe in me. You've trusted
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Speaker 2: the Lord for eternal life, trust him for temporal life.
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Speaker 2: You've counted on me for your eternal security. Count on
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Speaker 2: me for your daily needs. Trust in me. Two commands.
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Speaker 2: Believe believe you See the Lord even had John write
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Speaker 2: them in a tense that suggests, keep on believing. I'm leaving.
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Speaker 2: That's reality. You're staying. That's reality. Believe in me. I
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Speaker 2: know what I'm doing. To believe in someone. To believe
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Speaker 2: in something is to rely on that one or that thing.
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Speaker 2: You relied on that pew where you set this morning
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Speaker 2: to hold you up. I didn't notice as I looked
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Speaker 2: out of the glass over here for a couple of seconds,
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Speaker 2: anybody making a deep examination of the pew. You just
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Speaker 2: were so glad to find a spot you plopped right
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Speaker 2: down in it. You just relied on it, didn't you
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Speaker 2: You counted on it to hold you up. You're probably
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Speaker 2: not very anxious that it's going to hold you up
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Speaker 2: through the rest of the service. You probably have every
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Speaker 2: reason in the world to believe it's going to do that.
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Speaker 2: You're relying on it to keep on holding you up.
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Speaker 2: Spiritually speaking, that's what belief is. Lord, I trusted you
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Speaker 2: to save me, and now I'm trusting you right now
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Speaker 2: to deliver me through this. I've come to the red
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Speaker 2: Sea experience, and I'm gonna trust you to get me through.
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Speaker 2: Either you build a bridge or you open the sea,
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Speaker 2: or I'm gonna drown. Now, will you get me through?
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna trust you. You know. One of the best
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Speaker 2: examples of trust and belief in all the Bible is
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Speaker 2: in the life of a man who trusted God to
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Speaker 2: give him him and his wife a little baby. That
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Speaker 2: doesn't sound very profound. I trusted God for that, and
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Speaker 2: I've got four or five of those. But you weren't
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Speaker 2: ninety nine and your wife wasn't ninety If you were,
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Speaker 2: you belong in Guinness Book of World Records. Frankly, Abraham
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Speaker 2: was actually he was a hundred, and Sarah was ninety one.
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Speaker 2: The Bible says her womb was dead. That means what
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Speaker 2: it says absolutely unable to reproduce, to hold and carry
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Speaker 2: a child. But she did think of it ninety one
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Speaker 2: years old, expecting your first child. The Bible says in
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Speaker 2: Romans chapter four that Abraham staggered not at the promise
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Speaker 2: of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
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Speaker 2: glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had
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Speaker 2: promised he was able also to perform. You hear that
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Speaker 2: he staggered, not at the promise. What was the promise?
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Speaker 2: You're going to have a baby. Lord, I'm a hundred
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Speaker 2: you're gonna have a baby. Have that it. Lord, I'm
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Speaker 2: gonna trust you for that baby. You know they named
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Speaker 2: that little baby laughter. It's cac isaac means laughter. It
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Speaker 2: was so hilarious to Sarah when she heard it. She
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Speaker 2: just laughed out loud. Lord says, okay, I'm gonna have
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Speaker 2: you name that baby laughter. I think it's the most
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Speaker 2: exciting thing to trust God in impossible circumstances and watch
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Speaker 2: him bridge the gap. Some of you have yet to
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Speaker 2: go through on the bridge of trust given to panic.
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Speaker 2: You just haven't yet said Lord, I'm going to trust you. Well,
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Speaker 2: that's the first principle. Now it will quiet in your
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Speaker 2: troubled heart. It really will. Here's another one, verses two
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Speaker 2: and three. In my father's house are many dwelling places.
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Speaker 2: If it were not so, I would have told you,
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Speaker 2: for I go to prepare a place for you. And
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Speaker 2: if I go and prepare a place for you, I
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Speaker 2: will come again and receive you to myself that where
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Speaker 2: I am there you may be. Also. Look at the
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Speaker 2: verbs I go, I will come again, I will receive
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Speaker 2: you to myself. What's it saying, Well, it's saying that
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Speaker 2: the Lord is going to leave. While he's gone, he's
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Speaker 2: going to be engaged in a construction project, and when
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Speaker 2: he finishes, he's going to come back and take us
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Speaker 2: to be in that new project called heaven. Now, let
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Speaker 2: me give you the principle and then we'll talk about it.
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Speaker 2: Here it is while preparing a place for us, the
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Speaker 2: Lord is preparing us for that place two construction projects.
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Speaker 2: Not only is he building Heaven, he's building you, child
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Speaker 2: of God. And part of the construction project includes affliction, hardship, death, pain,
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Speaker 2: and even failure and crushing. Even then, you see, our
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Speaker 2: Lord has a product in mind in leaving this earth.
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Speaker 2: His product is related to a heavenly abode and his
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Speaker 2: product is related to an earthly person, you child of God.
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Speaker 2: Alan Redpath put it well, the conversion of a soul
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Speaker 2: is the miracle of a moment. But the making of
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Speaker 2: a saint, ah, it's the task of a lifetime. It
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Speaker 2: takes a lifetime to build you converted soul into a
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Speaker 2: prepared saint. It includes pain, includes hardship. By the way,
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Speaker 2: before I go any further, let me have you noticed
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Speaker 2: in verse two, in my father's house not many mansions. Okay,
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Speaker 2: the word doesn't mean mansions. Ladell and Scott, one of
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Speaker 2: the better lexicons in the Greek, prefer to render this apartments.
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Speaker 2: Can you believe that some of you longing to get
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Speaker 2: out of your apartment? You have to look forward to
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Speaker 2: an apartment? It means a place to live. That's what
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Speaker 2: it means. That's all it means. You see, when you
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Speaker 2: really love somebody, you don't care where it is. You
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Speaker 2: live in a cave, you can live in some cardboard dump,
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Speaker 2: and you really are happy with that person. Really, that
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Speaker 2: place doesn't hang is important in your mind. Heaven is
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Speaker 2: not only a place. It's going to a person. It's
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Speaker 2: meeting him face to face, he said, knowing him intimately
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Speaker 2: as you've never known him before, and he says, there'll
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Speaker 2: be room for you there. It's the idea of a room,
28:08
Speaker 2: a place to live. But the real beautiful part of heaven.
28:14
Speaker 1: Is a person.
28:17
Speaker 2: No more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, no
28:20
Speaker 2: more crying, no more death. The former things are passed
28:24
Speaker 2: away as he ushers in this new place unlimited, unconditional worship, praise, adoration.
28:37
Speaker 2: But in the process he's preparing you for that place,
28:41
Speaker 2: and it takes some hardship to get you ready. Now
28:47
Speaker 2: he said to his men, now you know where I'm going.
28:50
Speaker 2: Thomas said, no, we don't. That's verse five. We don't
28:54
Speaker 2: know the way. We don't know where you're going. And
28:57
Speaker 2: how can we know the way? Thomas didn't all and
29:02
Speaker 2: he was honest, Thomas, that wasn't doubting, He was honest.
29:07
Speaker 2: He said, we don't know where you're going. He honestly
29:10
Speaker 2: didn't know. So the Lord said to him that his
29:13
Speaker 2: story statement, I'm the Way, the Truth, and the life.
29:17
Speaker 2: No man comes to the Father but through me. Christianity
29:21
Speaker 2: has often been criticized because it is bigoted and narrow
29:25
Speaker 2: and rigid. No, it's just as Jesus said, it. If
29:29
Speaker 2: a human being on earth wants to go to the
29:32
Speaker 2: Father in heaven, he's got to go one way through
29:35
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Without him, there is no going without the life,
29:40
Speaker 2: there is no living without the truth, there's no knowing.
29:44
Speaker 2: It must be through Jesus Christ. If you're planning on
29:48
Speaker 2: heaven as your returnal abode, there's one way to get there,
29:52
Speaker 2: and that's through the Cross through faith in the Lord
29:57
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Well, this created another question, and in Philip's mind,
30:02
Speaker 2: Philip heard him speak of the Father, and he said, now,
30:04
Speaker 2: how does the Father relate to you in all of
30:07
Speaker 2: this that's down in verse eight. Lord, show us the
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Speaker 2: Father and it'll satisfy us. Philip is just he is
30:17
Speaker 2: so real. I just can't believe him. You know, he's
30:21
Speaker 2: like we are. Lord says, I'll provide this for you. Eight. Lord,
30:25
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. Just give me a little bit
30:27
Speaker 2: of it right now, and I'll believe you for a
30:28
Speaker 2: whole lot later on. Lord, just show us the Father
30:31
Speaker 2: and we won't have any more questions. And then the
30:35
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus, in a muted rebuke, came back to Philip
30:38
Speaker 2: and he said, have I been with you so long?
30:42
Speaker 2: And yet you've not come to know me. Philip. Ah,
30:48
Speaker 2: he who has seen me has seen the Father. How
30:51
Speaker 2: do you say, show us the Father. You're looking at
30:56
Speaker 2: God in the flesh. Now. The principle is in verse
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Speaker 2: Do you not believe that I'm in the Father? And
31:05
Speaker 2: do you not believe the Father is in me? Why
31:07
Speaker 2: the words that I say to you, I don't speak
31:10
Speaker 2: on my own initiative. But the Father abiding in me
31:16
Speaker 2: does his works. Ah. There it is principal number three.
31:23
Speaker 2: The sovereign hand of God is at work in your life.
31:31
Speaker 2: You have a troubled heart mark at least underline in
31:36
Speaker 2: verse ten, the Father abiding in me does his works.
31:42
Speaker 2: What a tremendous thought. Jesus, God in the flesh said,
31:49
Speaker 2: when I speak, it's the Father who's speaking through me.
31:53
Speaker 2: When I do a deed, the Father is doing a
31:56
Speaker 2: deed through me. So the Lord says to us the
32:00
Speaker 2: same thing. The Father abiding in you is doing his works.
32:06
Speaker 2: Have a good friend I called every once in a while,
32:08
Speaker 2: ask him how he's doing. He said, well, sovereignty of God,
32:12
Speaker 2: God's at work. He's taking charge, he's in control. He
32:17
Speaker 2: knows what he's doing. That includes pain, by the way,
32:23
Speaker 2: that will revolutionize periods of pain in your life. The
32:29
Speaker 2: poet knew it. Pain knocked upon my door and said
32:33
Speaker 2: that she had come to stay. And though I wouldn't
32:36
Speaker 2: welcome her, but bade her go away, she entered in,
32:40
Speaker 2: and like my own shade, she followed after me. And
32:45
Speaker 2: from her stabbing, stinging sword, not a moment was I free.
32:51
Speaker 2: And then one day another knocked most gently at my door.
32:55
Speaker 2: I said, no, pain is here. There's not a room
32:58
Speaker 2: for more. Then I heard his tender voice. It'sih, be
33:04
Speaker 2: not afraid. And from the day he entered in, all
33:10
Speaker 2: the difference he has made. Let me say to you
33:15
Speaker 2: that the concept that is stretching across prosperous America these
33:20
Speaker 2: days is that when I have pleasure, God is in it,
33:25
Speaker 2: but when I have pain, he's displeased. Not necessarily. Who
33:33
Speaker 2: are we to think that we deserve constant pleasure? That's
33:39
Speaker 2: one lesson God's begun to teach me these days. Who
33:43
Speaker 2: am I to think that because I'm the child of God,
33:47
Speaker 2: it won't include pain? Job said, God knows the way
33:52
Speaker 2: that I take. When he has tried me, I shall
33:55
Speaker 2: come forth this gold my foot have held his steps
33:58
Speaker 2: his way, Have I clept did not decline. Neither have
34:01
Speaker 2: I gone back from the command of his lips. I
34:04
Speaker 2: have valued the words of his mouth more than my
34:07
Speaker 2: necessary food. And he said that when his body was
34:11
Speaker 2: covered with boils. The Father is at work in you.
34:22
Speaker 2: Last evening, I was in a room in our home
34:24
Speaker 2: and trying to put together some final thoughts. My youngest daughter,
34:30
Speaker 2: who's been sick the last few days, crept in the
34:33
Speaker 2: room and sat down in the corner and stared at me.
34:38
Speaker 2: There's no way that you can study when Colleen stares
34:42
Speaker 2: at you, and in her bottom eye lids were little tears.
34:49
Speaker 2: She is hurting. I said, honey, are you in pain?
34:54
Speaker 2: She said, yes, sir. And I had just gone into
34:57
Speaker 2: some of this passage, and I said to her, Honey,
35:00
Speaker 2: have you thank God in your sickness? She said, no, sir,
35:06
Speaker 2: how can you? I said, well, it really isn't easy.
35:11
Speaker 2: Then I thought, well, I'll try another approach. Honey, do
35:15
Speaker 2: you want to thank God for your sickness? No way,
35:20
Speaker 2: was her answer. Absolutely not. We really encourage reality in
35:24
Speaker 2: our home. We don't cover it all. I thought, as
35:27
Speaker 2: she said that she learned that from her daddy, because
35:32
Speaker 2: that's my concept, that's my weakness. I don't want to hurt.
35:39
Speaker 2: I don't want to be in pain. I tell the
35:42
Speaker 2: Lord he could teach me a whole lot more when
35:44
Speaker 2: things are going well than when things aren't going well.
35:47
Speaker 2: He hasn't heard me yet, but I keep telling him that,
35:49
Speaker 2: and that's not true. I learned a lot better when
35:53
Speaker 2: he denies me of things like the song. Thanks for
35:58
Speaker 2: prayers that thou hast answered. Thanks for what thou dost deny.
36:05
Speaker 2: Thanks for storms that I have withered. Thanks for all
36:10
Speaker 2: thou dost supply. Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure.
36:20
Speaker 2: Thanks for comfort and despair. Thanks for grace that none
36:25
Speaker 2: can measure, and thanks for love beyond compare. Thanks for pain,
36:36
Speaker 2: Thanks for storms, Thanks for those despairing moments. Yeah, because
36:46
Speaker 2: his sovereign hands at work. I want to assure you
36:51
Speaker 2: that in the midst of your trouble, whatever it may be,
36:54
Speaker 2: if you will live in the truth of God's sovereign
36:58
Speaker 2: hand at work, it will literally revolutionize your whole mental
37:06
Speaker 2: attitude toward life. Revolutionize it. And it's not a cop out.
37:12
Speaker 2: Don't be afraid of it. It's designed to be a comfort.
37:17
Speaker 2: He is at work now. This introduced a fourth principle
37:24
Speaker 2: that's review quickly. Personal faith in a personal God brings
37:28
Speaker 2: personal relief while preparing for us a place. He's preparing
37:33
Speaker 2: us for a place. The sovereign hand of God is
37:36
Speaker 2: at work in your life. Fourth verse twelve. Truly, truly,
37:44
Speaker 2: I say to you, he who believes in me, the
37:46
Speaker 2: works that I do, shall he do also? And look
37:50
Speaker 2: at what he adds. Greater works than these shall he do.
37:54
Speaker 2: Because I go to the Father, And whatever you ask
37:59
Speaker 2: in my name, that will I do. That the Father
38:02
Speaker 2: may be glorified in the sun. If you ask me
38:06
Speaker 2: anything in my name, I will do it. Fantastic verses, huh,
38:16
Speaker 2: but we have misread them. You know how we read them.
38:20
Speaker 2: We read these verses to say, whatever you want, I'll
38:25
Speaker 2: give you, just name it. So you walk out of
38:29
Speaker 2: this place, sit down in your nineteen thirty seven pick up.
38:37
Speaker 2: You think, man, it's about time I get a new car.
38:42
Speaker 2: So you say, God, I'd like a Mercedes waiting for
38:46
Speaker 2: me in the driveway when I get home. So you
38:50
Speaker 2: drive home, turn the corner and there's your driveway, not
38:55
Speaker 2: a blessed thing in sight, but concrete. So you wonder,
38:59
Speaker 2: what kind of a God is that? Said? I could
39:01
Speaker 2: ask anything and give it to me. Or you know
39:07
Speaker 2: you're pressed financially, and you think as you walk out
39:10
Speaker 2: the door, Lord, i'd like to have a financial windfall.
39:14
Speaker 2: Just dump it on me anywhere you please. I'll be
39:16
Speaker 2: happy to take it, preferably all at once. And you
39:21
Speaker 2: say to him, I'm ready, I'm asking that and I'm
39:25
Speaker 2: waiting for it. Nothing happens. The first rules around, you
39:29
Speaker 2: don't have your money. The fifteenth times, you still don't
39:35
Speaker 2: see the problem. There are some times we need to
39:39
Speaker 2: get thanks for what we don't get. Years ago, I
39:43
Speaker 2: was dating a girl whose mother was convinced I should
39:47
Speaker 2: marry her daughter. And maybe some of you guys have
39:51
Speaker 2: had that experience. And boy, this mother in law to
39:54
Speaker 2: be was some kind of woman. And she said to me, oh, Charles,
39:58
Speaker 2: I'm just praying that God I will make you my
40:01
Speaker 2: son in law. Every thank God for unanswered prayer. Oh man,
40:08
Speaker 2: I have just so many times been so grateful. God
40:11
Speaker 2: said no to that woman. Oh wow, But you know
40:16
Speaker 2: it's good for a mother in law some god years ago.
40:19
Speaker 2: But today that's another ball of wax. See to the
40:26
Speaker 2: shadow thinking Christian God is sort of the Aladdin's lamp.
40:31
Speaker 2: And when the Christian says, Lord, I want this, and
40:34
Speaker 2: Christ sort of comes out as a genie and just
40:38
Speaker 2: sort of floats around waiting for your beckon call, and
40:41
Speaker 2: you say, go over there, and he give me that,
40:45
Speaker 2: he gives it to you. That's not the way it works.
40:50
Speaker 2: I am convinced. One of the most profound, and I
40:53
Speaker 2: might add subjects of greatest ignorance on our part is prayer.
41:05
Speaker 2: Look at what this verse says. He says you to
41:09
Speaker 2: ask in my name verse thirteen, in my name verse fourteen,
41:18
Speaker 2: verse thirteen, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
41:26
Speaker 2: Now we're ready for the principle here. It is Greater
41:31
Speaker 2: things occur when we pray in Jesus's name for the
41:38
Speaker 2: Father to be glorified. Now there is a prayer worth
41:44
Speaker 2: asking in my name for the glory of the Father.
41:52
Speaker 2: You'll do greater things. Let me add a couple of
41:55
Speaker 2: thoughts along this line. What does it mean to pray
41:58
Speaker 2: in Jesus' name? It's more than just tacking on Lord
42:03
Speaker 2: in your name. In Jesus' name, I asked this. I
42:05
Speaker 2: think that's a good pattern, but it's more than that.
42:08
Speaker 2: When someone goes in someone else's name, they go in
42:12
Speaker 2: their place. When I ask something in the name of Jesus,
42:18
Speaker 2: I'm asking it as if in the place of Jesus,
42:22
Speaker 2: what would he ask? Where was he when he said that,
42:26
Speaker 2: facing the cross, the crumbling of a kingdom, in the
42:31
Speaker 2: minds of the humans around him, the things that we
42:36
Speaker 2: would call a failure, He was facing that, and he said,
42:41
Speaker 2: in my place, willing to say, bring it all down
42:46
Speaker 2: in crumbles, bring it all down in the crushing experience,
42:51
Speaker 2: that the Father may be glorified. I'll tell you, we
42:57
Speaker 2: are to ask anything, but it is to be for
43:01
Speaker 2: the glory of the Father. That'll absolutely change your prayer life.
43:08
Speaker 2: You prayed recently for something, Did you ask for the
43:11
Speaker 2: Father to be glorified? Say? Lord, I want this only
43:16
Speaker 2: if it will glorify the Father. That's my single motive,
43:23
Speaker 2: even if it's the cross. You know what the greater
43:28
Speaker 2: things are? What could be greater than healing the sick,
43:31
Speaker 2: or raising the dead, or giving sight to the blind?
43:34
Speaker 2: I think change is within some of those that were
43:38
Speaker 2: healed and given sight and whatever. When the time of
43:41
Speaker 2: Jesus death came, they weren't to be found. They'd defected already.
43:46
Speaker 2: But greater things occur when they occur within the greater
43:50
Speaker 2: things that you will accomplish in your life, and others
43:52
Speaker 2: are those changes within. Count on the Father to do that.
43:58
Speaker 2: Ask it for the glory of the Father. Now, the
44:02
Speaker 2: fifth principle is you're not alone. You have an inner helper.
44:06
Speaker 2: He's mentioned in verse sixteen. I will ask the Father
44:10
Speaker 2: he will give you another helper, that he may be
44:12
Speaker 2: with you forever. The spirit of truth, whom the world
44:17
Speaker 2: can't receive. He abides with you and will be in you. Okay,
44:23
Speaker 2: that's fifth. You're not alone. You have an inward helper.
44:29
Speaker 2: That's the Holy Spirit. Listen carefully. The most devastating, demoralizing,
44:39
Speaker 2: paralyzing thought you can entertain when your heart is troubled
44:45
Speaker 2: is I'm all alone. Not true. That's the first step
44:58
Speaker 2: toward gross self pity. I'm all alone. And the next
45:03
Speaker 2: step is nobody cares Christian here today. If you were
45:09
Speaker 2: to come to my office for counsel, the very best
45:12
Speaker 2: counsel we can give you when you say I feel
45:15
Speaker 2: all alone is no, you are never alone. You have
45:20
Speaker 2: been given the Holy Spirit. When you came to know Christ,
45:27
Speaker 2: he came to live inside you. The very word helper
45:34
Speaker 2: means one called alongside to help wherever you are, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, whenever, wherever,
45:45
Speaker 2: hospital room, mission, compound, in your home, at this church,
45:51
Speaker 2: with a sick child facing death, standing by a fresh grave,
45:56
Speaker 2: you have an inner helper, and he has been called
46:00
Speaker 2: alongside to do a work of comfort like nobody else
46:04
Speaker 2: can do. He will be in you, it says here
46:10
Speaker 2: and ever since the day of Pentecost in the first century,
46:12
Speaker 2: that's where he's resided. You're not alone, even though you
46:18
Speaker 2: may feel like it sometime. Now there's one more, one
46:23
Speaker 2: more principle that is so helpful. Verse nineteen, Verse twenty.
46:29
Speaker 2: After a little while, the world will behold me no more.
46:34
Speaker 2: That means he's leaving. But you will behold me because
46:38
Speaker 2: I live. You shall live also in that day. Now,
46:44
Speaker 2: in your case, that would be the day of salvation.
46:47
Speaker 2: You shall know that I am in my father, and
46:49
Speaker 2: you and me and I and you to them. It
46:52
Speaker 2: was a reference to the day of Pentecost, when the
46:55
Speaker 2: Spirit of God came in full power and in dwelt
46:59
Speaker 2: every believer recorded there in the Book of Acts, chapter two.
47:04
Speaker 2: Here's the sixth Your life is inseparably linked to the
47:09
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus Christ. Not only do you have double security,
47:15
Speaker 2: you have a double endwellment the Holy Spirit and Jesus
47:21
Speaker 2: Christ himself. Now he's not going to let something happen
47:26
Speaker 2: to him that's insignificant or unimportant. Because he's within you.
47:32
Speaker 2: His reputation is at stake. He's not going to lose it.
47:38
Speaker 2: He's going to keep it. You remember the words of
47:43
Speaker 2: Bill Gather's because he lives, I can face tomorrow. You know.
47:51
Speaker 2: They were taken from verse nineteen. Because I live, said Jesus,
47:57
Speaker 2: you can face tomorrow. You shall live also because he lives.
48:04
Speaker 2: All fear is gone because I know. And he goes
48:10
Speaker 2: right on to describe how God has a purpose, a plan,
48:14
Speaker 2: reason for living. Christian, one of the ways to quiet
48:19
Speaker 2: in your heart is just to realize that Jesus Christ
48:23
Speaker 2: dwells within you, and he is there wherever that trial
48:29
Speaker 2: may take you, and the comforter is there to help you. Now,
48:39
Speaker 2: I think we need a couple of three very simple
48:44
Speaker 2: techniques to put it into operation. If you're like me,
48:48
Speaker 2: you sort of like a step by step process of
48:51
Speaker 2: how to here. They are see in verse twenty one
48:58
Speaker 2: three words he who has he who keeps he who
49:06
Speaker 2: loves has keeps loves. Here are the techniques. Number One,
49:15
Speaker 2: when you really know the truth, fear is removed. Just
49:24
Speaker 2: knowing the truth helps remove fear. The most fearful superstitious
49:32
Speaker 2: people on earth are those that are ignorant. They don't know.
49:37
Speaker 2: People who fear death are ignorant of death. People who
49:41
Speaker 2: fear God are ignorant of God. People who fear the
49:45
Speaker 2: future are ignorant of prophecy. People who fear their sin
49:50
Speaker 2: are ignorant of forgiveness. When you really know the truth,
49:58
Speaker 2: fear is removed. Here's the second one. When you really
50:02
Speaker 2: apply your knowledge, anxiety is reduced. It's remarkable what it
50:10
Speaker 2: does when print leaves the page and implants itself in
50:14
Speaker 2: the heart. You no longer are studying John fourteen. You're
50:19
Speaker 2: studying life whose truths are written in your heart. It
50:25
Speaker 2: does nothing for you to write down a whole list
50:27
Speaker 2: of things on a piece of paper if that paper
50:29
Speaker 2: is folded up, stuffed in a bible or in a
50:32
Speaker 2: notebook quickly to be forgotten. Truths are written to live,
50:37
Speaker 2: not just to learn. Now. Third, when you really love
50:42
Speaker 2: the Lord, guilt is released. That's what verse twenty three
50:49
Speaker 2: is all about. If anyone loves me, he will keep
50:54
Speaker 2: my word. There we have it. Do you really know
51:02
Speaker 2: the truth? Fear is removed when you really apply your knowledge,
51:07
Speaker 2: Anxiety is reduced. You really love the Lord. Guilt is released.
51:16
Speaker 2: Notice on the back of your chart this morning, I
51:19
Speaker 2: mean the back of your outline. See that chart hasn't
51:23
Speaker 2: got a thing in the world to do with a message.
51:28
Speaker 2: You know why, because God gave a whole different message
51:33
Speaker 2: after I on Monday worked up that chart. Let me
51:38
Speaker 2: tell you the difference. Even preachers go through it sometime.
51:44
Speaker 2: Humanly speaking, this has been the hardest Thanksgiving of my life.
51:50
Speaker 2: On Monday, my oldest boy got sick with a beta
51:54
Speaker 2: strip germ that send his fever up to one hundred
51:56
Speaker 2: and four and a half. On Tuesday, my wife caught
52:01
Speaker 2: it and stayed really in bed for about three days,
52:06
Speaker 2: highest fever I've ever known her to have. On Wednesday,
52:10
Speaker 2: my oldest daughter got it and she and her mom
52:14
Speaker 2: start to barf together through the last couple of three
52:17
Speaker 2: days around the house. And then on Thursday, my youngest
52:20
Speaker 2: daughter got it. Happy Thanksgiving, huh. The only one left
52:25
Speaker 2: around our house were the two honrey ones, Chucky and me,
52:34
Speaker 2: And you know The worst thing is I fixed the turkey,
52:43
Speaker 2: so it just looked like a buzzard, you know when
52:45
Speaker 2: I got that thing in the terrible Well, let me
52:49
Speaker 2: tell you something I have. I have come to realize
52:55
Speaker 2: that God's word is going to become real to me
53:01
Speaker 2: if it takes the loss of health, the loss of
53:04
Speaker 2: what I call the best holiday in the year, if
53:07
Speaker 2: it takes the poor weather. Remember Thursday morning, the whole scene,
53:12
Speaker 2: God was riveting, driving his truth into my life where
53:18
Speaker 2: I was to say, thanks for the pain, thanks for
53:23
Speaker 2: the loss of pleasure, Thanks for the removal of the
53:28
Speaker 2: things I've always considered essential for there to be a
53:31
Speaker 2: good Thanksgiving. Thanks for everything to be reduced to zero,
53:38
Speaker 2: that you might be the focal point of my Thanksgiving.
53:44
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something. For the first time in
53:48
Speaker 2: my life, he was. Nothing else was around to bring
53:55
Speaker 2: pleasure but the Lord. And do you know something, I
54:02
Speaker 2: really believe it was my happiest Thanksgiving. I'm most joyful.
54:12
Speaker 2: One by one, God takes them from us, all the
54:15
Speaker 2: things we value most, till we're empty handed. Every glittering
54:22
Speaker 2: toy is lost, and we walk Earth's highways grieving in
54:28
Speaker 2: our rags and poverty, until we hear his voice inviting
54:36
Speaker 2: lift those empty hands to me. And so I turned
54:41
Speaker 2: my hands toward heaven, and he filled them with a
54:43
Speaker 2: store of his own transcendent riches until they could contain
54:48
Speaker 2: no more. And at last I comprehended, with my stupid
54:54
Speaker 2: mind and dull that God cannot pour his riches into
55:02
Speaker 2: hands already full. Lord, it's so important to us this morning,
55:16
Speaker 2: as your children, not so much to find relief, but
55:24
Speaker 2: to learn the lessons you're trying to teach, not so
55:31
Speaker 2: much to have pleasure as to become living epistles written
55:46
Speaker 2: and known among men. And so I thank you, as
55:54
Speaker 2: perhaps never before in my life, for disease, daily trials,
56:04
Speaker 2: and heartaches. And I thank you that when we are weak,
56:15
Speaker 2: we are then most strong. Thank you for calming our
56:24
Speaker 2: troubled hearts with these great truths, for the glory of
56:30
Speaker 2: the Father, for Jesus sake.
56:37
Speaker 1: The preceding message, Tranquil Words for Troubled Hearts, was copyrighted.
56:41
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy five, nineteen eighty seven, two thousand, and
56:45
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
56:49
Speaker 2: eighteen by Charles R. Swind All Ink. All rights are
56:54
Speaker 2: reserved worldwide.
56:56
Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is Clipper prohibited.