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Now, if you will, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 14.

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I'm going to be reading from verse 1 through 6 of John chapter 14 as we continue looking

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at those I am statements of Jesus Christ.

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Those statements give us an idea of who this Jesus Christ is which we have come together

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to worship.

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Tell us about the very character and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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So this morning, let's look at another I am statement.

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Hear God's word.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled.

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You believe in God, believe also in me.

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My Father's house has many rooms.

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If that were not so, would I have not told you that I'm going there to prepare a place

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for you?

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me

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that you also may be where I am.

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You know the way, the place where I am going.

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God has said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

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So how can we know the way?

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

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No one comes to the Father except through me.

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And one more verse.

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If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.

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From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

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Let's pray and ask God to bless what we have just read.

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Holy Spirit, come upon us now so that we can not only treasure the words of Jesus Christ,

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but that we as the people of God will learn to find our way in him.

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May our hearts learn to have confidence in what we believe.

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Hear your people now, amen.

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One of the memories of my younger years was coming back from college every Christmas,

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going to my aunt and uncle's home where I and my mom lived.

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And after a semester of eating very lousy college food, of getting very little sleep,

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constantly tired and rushed, I wanted to go home to rest, to get some good home cooking.

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And all that way home from Tennessee to Virginia, I could tell you every city that we just about went through,

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some of them were big like Knoxville, others like Abomatics Virginia, which was very small.

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I could tell you the favorite places to stop and get something to eat.

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I could tell you about the gas stations.

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I could tell you about the mountains of western Virginia, which they had junkyards,

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which sort of blotted the beauty of those mountains.

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I knew my way home and I wanted to get there.

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And that was my experience.

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But what about you?

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If you ever had a similar experience, maybe you were in the military.

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And after boot camp, you got to go home for a while?

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No more sergeants yelling at you?

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No more waiting in line?

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Or I know one person now who's out in Texas in boot camp and sweltering through PT.

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He is going to be ready to come home to mama's cooking pretty soon.

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Or perhaps you had to go off for work for a while to a construction site and then Friday at 4 or 5 o'clock.

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You get to go back home after being away for a week or weeks living in a hotel motel.

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To go back to your wife and your family.

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There's something nice about finding that way home.

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And for many, you have memorized that way back home.

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Well, as we get over,

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those memories should take on added meaning.

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Because as we get older, this life that we live has started to lose its luster.

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The novelty, we say, has worn off.

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And we have to face so many disappointments, so many trials.

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We really want to get to our heavenly home.

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Be with Jesus.

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And the Bible tells us the way, and it's through Jesus Christ.

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Christ is the way that we're going to get home.

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He's the road, you could say.

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And you remember the Kenny Loggins song,

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Please celebrate me home?

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Well, that's what we want.

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But we've got to take the right way.

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And I want you to think of all the dissatisfactions you've had in your life.

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Those are reminders that we need to be on the right way back home.

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To be with our Savior, to be in the new Jerusalem.

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The heavenly city that's going to come down.

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To be with our Savior forever, a place where we can be secure once and for all.

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And when we look at this passage, I want you to notice here

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that the disciples are troubled.

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Jesus has told them, I'm going to be betrayed.

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I'm going to the cross.

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Their beloved master was leaving them.

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I want you to think about all that they were going through.

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What's going to take place?

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We don't have Jesus anymore.

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He's going to go to the garden.

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And the Romans would come.

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They would arrest him.

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They would take him away.

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The disciples wanted that sense of peace and rest.

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To know that what they had invested in Jesus was not going to be lost.

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And so with this I Am statement, Jesus gives his disciples the comfort that they really need.

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And here is why he gives us that comfort.

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Here is what that comfort is there for.

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He tells us here he has a place for us to go.

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That is why we can have some comfort in our lives.

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Now if you have read through this passage in a number of versions,

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you are probably most familiar with what the King James says.

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It says something along the lines of, in my father's house are many mansions.

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And that has gotten into our mindset from the King James version that somehow there's this mansion we're going to get in heaven.

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It's going to be like Hollywood where the movie stars all have their mansions.

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The problem with that is it's just confusing.

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How can a house have many mansions?

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And if you look down in verse 23, that same Greek word is used again where he tells his disciples this in chapter 14, 23.

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He says, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.

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And my father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.

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And where if you're reading the King James, it says abode, notice the King James had to use multiple definitions for that one word.

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So no, it is not talking about you're going to get a mansion.

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Something better.

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It is telling us that there is a place in heaven that has been prepared for us.

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It is a place where Jesus is going to be and you will one day go to dwell with him.

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Yes, it is a place.

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I think mansions may be a little drab compared to the glories of heaven.

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But that's what Jesus has in store for us.

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And look at what it says in verses two and three.

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My father's house has many rooms according to the NIV and I think that is a good translation of it.

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But that were not so.

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What I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

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He's telling us that Christ is going to the cross and from there to heaven.

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There is going to be a very spacious place for us when we go to be with him.

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And that should impact your thinking because you know where our true home is.

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It's not up there on Boblitz Avenue.

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It's not where you live.

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It is with Jesus Christ to be with him forever in a much better place.

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It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul says in Philippians this, that our citizenship is in heaven.

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And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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You and I are aliens and strangers in this world and we need to go home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.

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The passage tells us Christ has prepared a place where we as one author says will feel soothed, secure, and we will be seen.

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How many of you in your mind think about your final resting place, your final home we should say, as being with the Lord Jesus Christ forever?

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And why was it so important back then?

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Well, it tells us in verse one their hearts are troubled.

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It tells us again in verse 27 where all these disciples are worried, worried, worried.

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He says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, I do not give you as the world gives.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled.

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Do not be afraid.

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They had an uncertain future, but Jesus says, don't worry, your future home is secure with me.

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I'm going away.

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I'm going to the cross.

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But don't worry, I'm coming back and you will be with me forever in a place that is much more glorious than this.

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Much more glorious.

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So here's what we've got to understand.

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First, we have a place to go.

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Now I want you to think of this for a minute.

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Let's just say you are the type of person who doesn't have a family or they've rejected you.

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Let's just say you get sent to prison and you have nothing.

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When you get out of prison, you have nothing.

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You get a bus ticket someplace and you get to that place.

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Let's just say you have nowhere to go.

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What do you think would be going through a person's mind like that?

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Total loss.

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Scared.

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Wouldn't you?

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Who's going to help you?

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You have no one.

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But Jesus doesn't leave us like that, does He?

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And you may think that your life when it gets close to the end, you're like that person.

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There's not going to be any place for you to go in the future.

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Just the grave.

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It's not what Jesus says here.

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And when do you need to feel this sense of security?

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Any time you get worried about the future.

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Any time when you start to think what's going to happen to my health?

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What's going to happen to my well-being?

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Am I going to have to live out my days in a retirement home where nobody cares about me?

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Are you going to be killing food out of my mouth?

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Is that what you're scared about?

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But Jesus says, one day, one day you will be with me forever.

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And the reason we need to realize that and keep that in the forefront of our thoughts

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is our knowledge about this world is so limited.

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We think we know what's going to happen simply because of what we've seen.

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No, Jesus says.

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I've got something much better for you.

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Just hang on.

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Hang on.

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I'm coming to bring you with me.

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So we do suffer in this world, but he says here, he's coming and he has a place for you to go.

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And not only does he tell us he has a place to go,

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he tells you there is a way to get there and hear one of the most well-known verses of the Bible in verse 6.

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I am the way.

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I am the truth.

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I am the life.

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Jesus is saying I am the way to that heavenly paradise.

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And he says there is only one way.

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Well, here's where the problem comes in, doesn't it?

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We live in this multicultural world and there's all those different religions out there like Islam and Buddhism and Hinduism.

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And we think to ourselves, well, maybe all these are ways to God.

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And of course, we in this 20th century have said, we don't want to be judgmental.

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We don't want to be judgmental about those other religions.

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Maybe there's a grain of truth in them.

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Do you realize that type of thinking has even made it into study Bibles?

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Now, one of the study Bibles I had, I'll admit, it's liberal.

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Every once in a while, I had some pretty good ideas in it.

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But here's what it says about this particular verse that you need to be aware of.

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Contemporary Christians, and I'm quoting here, wrongly interpret as exclusiveness John chapter 4, 14 verse 6.

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It celebrates how Jesus reveals God for those in this particular faith community and is not a statement about the relative worth of world religions.

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Do you see what he's saying there?

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The author of that study Bible and that study note.

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Oh, Christianity is not exclusive.

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It's not.

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It's not.

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

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No one comes to the Father except through me.

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That seems pretty exclusive to me.

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And I want you to notice here that way is qualified.

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I am the way, that way is truthful.

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That is the way that gives you life.

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And it's not just here.

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It's in other verses of the Bible as well.

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For example, in John chapter 3 verse 18, what does Scripture say?

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Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

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Pretty clear.

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You don't believe in Jesus.

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You're condemned because you don't have the way to the heavenly Father.

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What about the preaching in the New Testament?

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What does it say?

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In Acts 4, 12.

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Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which they must be saved.

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Do you know what modern liberal theologians have done?

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They've done the same thing they accuse us of.

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They have read back into the Bible our 21st century sensibilities.

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And that is not what people thought during the New Testament.

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There were other religions at that time, but Jesus had no problem saying I'm the way of the truth in the life.

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Jesus could have said, well, there are multiple ways. Let's just love them all.

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He doesn't say that.

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Jesus here comforts our heart by saying there is one way and that one way has been revealed to you in me.

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I am the one way to heaven.

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It's not a two way street.

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One way.

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One way only.

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Now as Christians, you and I need to feel some confidence about what we believe.

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Not shame, even when we're ridiculed.

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Because let me tell you, here's why I believe that there is one way.

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I'll tell you, first of all, the reason I believe is this.

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Is that Buddha, Mohan, and the Hindu gods did not die from the honor class.

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That's why.

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They didn't die from anybody, but Jesus did.

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It understands the human condition so much better than all the other world religions that we have a sin problem and that we are in need of salvation.

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And there is only one way there.

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Two, look at how the gospel is spread throughout this world.

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It doesn't say all ways are equal, but it says all people, whether they are black, white, yellow, if you believe in me and my ways, I'll accept you.

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Another reason I believe is because what it means to me.

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Christ has comforted my heart by the hope of heaven because I've seen so much death.

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I've seen so much destruction, I've seen so much lying, there has got to be a better place, much better.

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And who needs to hear this this morning, those of you who may be questioning your faith?

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And maybe I'm preaching to people who aren't here this morning, but I'll tell you who really needs to hear it.

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It is those who may be younger and have gone through a school system in which they've had their world history classes or a world religion class, and the professors told them it's all just human experience.

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That's not what this says here.

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

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You can say he's a great teacher, but if you lied about that, he is nothing more than a human liar if he's wrong about it.

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He says Christ comforts our hearts by telling us he's going and preparing a place for us.

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He tells us, look, there's one way to get there. It's through me.

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And he leaves us by saying this. He wants you to trust him.

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Trust him. And that is the focus of our life as Christians.

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And look at what verse one says, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me.

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Continually believe in me. Continue on trusting me continuously.

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And that's going to be the challenge, isn't it?

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You may be challenged from the academic world with what they say. Are they infallible?

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No. It may be from pop culture or what you read on Facebook. Is that infallible?

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No. It could be from your own thinking. Is that infallible?

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No. No, the only thing that is infallible is what Jesus says to us, who is the living God of truth.

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And the focus of your life needs to be on that way. Your faith needs to be in that way. Jesus.

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You got to trust him.

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Now let me tell you a story. Last year, Cooper had his birthday party and he wanted to go play golf.

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So he rented out the golf clubs. Now, they had a golf-fiend birthday cake.

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So here was what we were to do. We were going to each, all the adults would have one or two children with them.

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Now remember, Cooper is like, what, second grade? Second grade? How old are second graders these days?

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Eight. Eight.

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Okay, so we got a bunch of eight and nine year olds. So, I'm in the golf cart. I've got keys to the golf cart.

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I am driving that golf cart. Well, these other little kids get in. So guess what I hear from one little boy?

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I want to drive the golf cart. I want to drive the golf cart. You know what I said to him?

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When you're 18, come and see me then. You're not driving this golf cart. Because I do not trust you.

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I'm not letting you drive me anywhere.

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Now, I also had an uncle. He was a truck driver.

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I remember one time we were over a bridge. I believe it was over the Chesapeake Rays. It was a big bridge.

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Car in front of us stopped. He knew exactly what to do.

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Who do you think I want to drive me around? A little eight year old? Or an uncle who's a truck driver?

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The uncle who's a truck driver. Well, same way with Jesus.

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He wants to be the way. Christ, I would hope, and it is Christ in him that we continually trust for our salvation.

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Let's pray and thank Jesus that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you have shown us the way.

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And we also want to thank you because by your grace we know this. It is not because we are better people than anybody else.

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We should be the humblest of people because you've shown us the way. You did it out of your mercy.

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And now we ask our God that you will continue to comfort our hearts by the faith that comes through Christ Jesus.

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Hear our prayer now, O'er with us, and be with us Jesus. Amen.